After I started teaching 11 years ago, I joined a couple of gyms-Club One and Fitness 19, but hated it! First of all, I could never find an accountability partner that was as serious as I was, and they never wanted to keep a regular schedule like I did, so I was always going alone. Second, I knew nothing about weight lifting (I remembered nothing from my swim years) and most gyms I have been in are filled with beefy men, that look at you as if they have never seen a woman in their life (gross), and they hog all the weight machines. Not only that, but I really did not know how to use the machines, so I just kept to the elliptical and would do workouts on machines that I found in magazines. I found a bikini workout in a Shape magazine article once that took me through a series of workouts, explained how to use the machines, so I would go do that. Eventually I just stopped going, and then did yoga while getting my Masters degree.
Around that time, which was 3.5 years ago, my sister started talking about CrossFit. She had some friends that had just opened a box, and I was intrigued. I did not join right away as I lived about 60 minutes from the box, but eventually ended a 9 year long relationship, and moved back into the area. I joined CrossFit and fell in love. I was in my box's first On Ramp program, and quickly made a friend named Chelsae, who was just as dedicated to being fit as I was (and also a former competitive gymnast), and still goes to this day. I was so out of shape when I joined, that I could not run a half mile, nor jump rope longer than 30 seconds without being super out of breath, and needing to stop. What was nice though, is that my coach could care less, told me it was OK, and that I would be in shape in no time. I could barely lift weights beyond just the bar, and was not even close to doing a pull up. The cool thing was that no one ever made me feel dumb, and in fact everyone was just super encouraging. They showed me how to modify, and I slowly learned how to do the moves. I liked how I walked in and was told what to do (no more walking into a gym and feeling awkward), and how to do it. It took a lot of stress off me. I also did not have any weirdos staring at me...to do this day, my box has always brought in super cool people, who have good jobs, and are flat out just good people.
10 months after joining CF, I was doing a birthday WOD for a member turning 25, and in that WOD were snatches. On my second or third snatch, something went very wrong in my back, and I dropped to my knees. It took about 30 seconds before I could move, and I had to crawl out of the way, and to a wall, where I stayed, and eventually stood up and rolled against a ball, but it hurt too much. I was set to hang out with some friends at a festival that day, but had to cancel as I could walk but 5 steps before my back would spazz. I now think this was the first sign I had a bulging disk...something that continues to plague me, and slowed down my fitness progress. It soon healed, and then I threw it out again the following March after a run. I can't remember the distance, but it was either a 5k or an 8k...after the run I got plantar fasciitis in my left foot, and did a WOD the day after the run that involved 16kg KB swings, and deadlifts. After that, my back was smoked and it took several months for me to be able to lift again. So..to make a long story short, my back has been an on going thing, and I also got PFS in my knee, but I have just learned things I need to do to prevent this from happening, I have gotten a lot smarter about my form when CrossFitting, and have just learned more about how to take care of myself.
One thing I know, is that CF is pretty hard on your body. You do so many repetitive movements over and over, and you go heavy and fast, and it's bound to get you one way or another. One thing I have learned about CF too, is that it focuses on functional movements, and your bigger muscles, whereas when you go to the gym and do things like bicep curls and kickbacks, you are working more of the smaller muscles. I have learned that my smaller muscles are weak, and I have been working my larger ones so hard that they have been compensating for my weaker ones, and eventually have caused me to get hurt.I have since had to kind of back things up...I lift lighter, and focus more on form. I have been trying to strengthen my core my glutes, and all the smaller muscles that don't get regularly worked in CrossFit.
More recently, I have started doing some Beachbody programs (and became a coach) to supplement my CF workouts in hope that I can increase those little muscles, especially my core. Beachbody is another excellent fitness community where the people are super supportive, very motivating, and very supportive.I started with Body Beast, but doing an extra hour of working out was very hard for me. Then P90X3 came out, and I am currently in Week 8 of that program. I feel that doing CF has made it easier for me to do this program, but it still gives me a run for my money! I still struggle to do the core workouts, and since I am following the Lean Out schedule, it gives me a lot more cardio than I care for :) which is actually helping me improve my endurance. Another thing that I have proven to myself over & over is that diet, as they say, IS KEY. I will save some of these learning for another post, but I more recently purchased The 21 Day Fix to help with that piece.
Sooo...I know that was super long winded, but I just wanted to introduce myself with a bit of my background so that you know where I am coming from. Thanks for visting my blog, and I hope that if you like what you read, that you will follow me and comment to let me know you stopped by.
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