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Hey there! I'm Holly. A 40+ year old insurance-nerd wife, mom, beauty lover, and about a million other things in between.
This is the place where I share about our lives, what I'm currently loving, books I'm reading, plus-size style, beauty recommendations, health + fitness endeavors and anything else I'm finding interesting at the moment.
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Category Archives: Fitness
The Week In Workouts
After a little hiatus, I’m back to talk about my workouts. I’ve been switching up my fitness, so I thought I’d pop in on Sundays and share what my workouts have looked like each week. I’m on a mission to find a balance of things I love, that make me healthier, and that overall just feel right.
Here’s what happened last week:
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Sunday
On Sunday I was at a CrossFit competition spectating. That totally counts as a workout, right? 🙂
Monday
Because it was Labor Day and I had the day off work I slept in. Unfortunately I missed my window of opportunity to hit up my gym, my yoga studio was closed and so I just took the day completely off and got a metric ton of things done around the house. WORTH IT.
Tuesday
Today I decided to quit pussyfooting around and actually get my ass into the gym. The workout was as follows:
LIFT
Every Minute On The Minute (EMOTM) for 15 minutes – 1 Back Squat at 85% of your 1 Rep Max
I went lighter than I should have at 165lbs (which I didn’t realize until I was finished) but it still got tougher towards the end.
METCON
AMRAP in 15 minutes:
10 sit ups
10 push ups
10 pull ups
10 burpees
10 air squats
I forget how many reps I did, but I almost completed 5 full rounds.
Wednesday
SKILL
Spend 15 minutes working on Pistols
*I actually was not looking forward to this because I can’t do pistols or really even any progression of pistols AT ALL so I thought it would be a waste of time. But I learned a new progression that was actually pretty challenging but still manageable so I practiced that and used that progression in the workout as well.
METCON
3 rounds*
10m sprints
db push press (45/35)
pistols
double unders
*1 minute at each station with 15 seconds of transition time. Score is total reps and sprints.
That workout was actually pretty gnarly, and I only used 30lb dumbbells because the 35lb ones felt HEAVY.
Thursday
My legs were pretty sore when I woke up this morning but the workout was full of a bunch of my favorite things so I couldn’t skip it!
LIFT
EMOTM for 10 minutes:
2 power cleans + 1 jerk @ 85% of 1 RM
When I did the math on 85% of my Clean + Jerk 1 Rep Max it looked REAL HEAVY for 10 reps, so I scaled it and lifted 125lbs. That ended up being a good decision because on round 8 I had to drop it down to 115!
METCON
AMRAP in 12 minutes:
25 back squats (95 lbs)
25 KB swings (53 lbs)
20 front squats
20 KB swings
15 OH squats
15 KB swings
*no racks for any of the squats, all weights will come from the ground
I kept 95 lbs on the bar through 2 Overhead Squats but then I realized I would only be able to do 1 rep at a time and at that point my shoulders were so smoked that it was too mentally exhausting to think about cleaning/re-racking for ever single rep, so I dropped down to 75lbs and finished the OHSs in sets of 5. This whole day was super hard, but also awesome!
Friday
Rest!
Could. Not. Move. My. Legs. Or. Shoulders.
No workout!
Saturday
I fully intended to workout today except that instead I went to 900 grocery stores and by the time I was done shopping, unloading, cooking and cleaning up after myself I just wanted to watch some bad television. SO I DID! 🙂
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Any PRs or exciting workouts for you this week? Do tell….
Suprising Book Recommendation: Jorge Cruise’s The Belly Fat Cure: Fast Track
A few weeks (crap, maybe months. OY!) a blog reader sent me an email after I posted about needing to get my weight loss jump started again. She recommended Jorge Cruise’s The Belly Fat Cure: Fast Track and mentioned that she emailed me the recommendation because she didn’t want to write about it in the comments and risk people being critical.
Wait a minute, people being anonymously critical on the internet? THAT NEVER HAPPENS! 🙂
Well, luckily it doesn’t happen too much around here (LOVE YOU GUYS FOR THAT) but I knew where she was coming from. Especially because my first thought was “UGH. Jorge Cruise? Isn’t he the 8 Minute workout dude? I don’t know about this.”
I am kind of over Info-tainment health people, you know? Nutritionists on Good Morning America, Doctors hosting TV Shows, Celebrity Trainers — OH MAN, don’t even get me started on Dr. Oz. I am 100% NOT a fan, but that is a conversation for another day. Maybe never. Dang, it gets me riled just thinking about it. Anyway, all of that to say: I was a skeptic. But I also love blog-reader recommendations (Seriously. Email me anytime) and so I immediately put it on my Library Hold List like the good little book nerd that I am. No harm, no foul — if I hated it, I would just return it to the library. Win-win.
When I picked it up I was pleased to see that it looked fun: square and spiral bound — almost a mini-binder instead of a book — but it still had Jorge Cruise’s giant picture on it exclaiming we could all lose 14 lbs in 14 days. I mean, listen — I lost 30 lbs in a month when I first started eating Paleo, so I know it can happen, but when a diet-book puts that on it’s cover I am EVEN MORE skeptical. But I began flipping through the glossy pages…
The first thing I found was the foreward was by Christiane Northrup — who I LOVE LOVE LOVE. She’s a doctor who talks about chakras! Rock and roll! Such an awesome combination of women’s health/hippie healing and I love a good advocate like that. I have a bookshelf stocked with her books that have changed my understanding of my own body and I have to admit I was a little surprised to see her addressing what I thought was going to be a gimmicky diet book.
Next, the book delves right into the causes of weight gain and how to avoid it. I expected to read a mix of recommendations encompassing the Eat Less, Move More mentality, but lo and behold the entire first chapter explains simply and succintly that if you want to lose weight, you need to understand how insulin works in your body. Period. He immediately calls out sugar (and even more insidiously) hidden sugars as enemy number one. He doesn’t demonize carboyhdrates, but he does break down how they work in your body, and how they relate to weight gain. I was starting to get on board.
But this is also the chapter where he discusses the concept of “Losing 14 lbs in 14 days” and whether or not it is healthy, and I still wasn’t sure I’d be down with that. Right from the start though, he owns the fact that losing 14 lbs of fat in 14 days is NOT healthy or desirable (or frankly even possible, really.) But he talks about the idea that there are many things involved in weight gain, not only just fat. In this chapter he introduces a concept called “Hidden Belly Fat” that I can totally identified with and understood. He goes on to explain that “Hidden Belly Fat” isn’t really fat but it sure looks like it. (You may know it too — that soft spare tire layer that springs up out of nowhere after a few weeks of eating garbage.) In reality it is a sign of that metabollic disconnect that happens to a lot of people (myself included!) when they don’t keep the insulin/hormone situation in their body in check, and I have to applaud Jorge Cruise for discussing some of the consequences of Metabollic Derangement in such easy to understand terms. I think this is one of the most revolutionary concepts in his book and I was happy to think about it with new analogies. (Sidebar: Stacy from Paleo Parents wrote a great blog post on this exact topic of hidden belly fat, although from a different perspective, that I think is a really worthwhile read.)
The next section is pages and pages of testimonials and pictures of people who have completed the program (he has yet to outline it at this point, but of course all of the results pictures are pretty impressive) and then he finally gets on to outlining what the Fast Track program is based on. I was really intersted to see — would it be an elimination diet, would it be about timing your food intake, would it be more of this “eat 5 small meals a day by properly combining foods” crapola — WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE??? I was very curious at that point. Curious and surprised. Surprised that I was enjoying his voice and that so far all I had done was nod my head at his information and his references.
Speaking of references, each chapter begins with a quote — and when he gets into the section about what to eat — guess what person he choses to quote?
I was floored. Was Jorge Cruise about to espouse eating Paleo? I read on…
Turns out Jorge Cruise is all about an Ancestral Diet. Who knew? (I sure didn’t, clearly.) He leans more towards a Primal approach (including dairy and wine…woo hoo!) but his book outlines very well researched (the appendix at the end is large) nutrition advice that is not only completely sane and unscary or restrictive sounding, but the book also includes meal plans and recipes at the end that look really delicious. And he even talks a little bit about fat burners and why it is such a more effective replacement for chronic cardio, so obviously he got some points for that!
The Belly Fat Cure: Fast Track is smart, easy to understand, and is a new interpretation of Paleo that isn’t so tied to food politics and nutrient density. It’s mostly just a functional weight loss book that doesn’t really espouse any food philosophy, so I think it might appeal to people who are scared off by the words Paleo or Primal but want an easy guide on how to lose weight that also explains how your body works. I’m obviously very pro-Paleo, so I don’t really mind that label, but not everyone is down for that so I think this book could have good mass appeal. I was so happy that I read it and really, really surprised I liked it. Maybe you know someone who might too?
The Week In Workouts
I’ve been switching up my fitness, so I thought I’d pop in on Sundays and share what my workouts have looked like each week. I’m on a mission to find a balance of things I love, that make me healthier, and that overall just feel right.
Here’s what happened last week:
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Sunday
So this Sunday/4:30 Bikram class is really becoming my jam, I’ll tell ya. The people are cool and un-douchey and it’s just a great wind down in the afternoon. I couldn’t wait to get there because I had been farting around my house working on my standing head to knee situation and I finally made some progress. It’s so much harder to do when you’re sweaty. 🙂
Monday
Had the day off on Monday and woke up planning to go to CrossFit but I didn’t because I didn’t love what was programmed. It was a bunch of skill work for skills that I am terrible at (strict pull ups, handstand push ups and toes to bar.) I know that seems like a cop out, right? But here’s how I’m feeling lately — I’m not trying to be The Best CrossFitter Ever, I’m trying to get a good workout. So when I see a class that is going to be me standing around for 30 minutes flailing doing things I’m terrible at…well, I’d rather do something else that will be 30 minutes of work and call it a day. So I went to a Bikram class that morning. 90 minutes of sweat-tastic-ness. Good times. Also around lunch Buster and I met up with Garrett and took a long walk around the Capitol.
Tuesday
Holy crap, here’s where I’m going to tell you I did 3 days in a row of yoga. WHO AM I? Haha. Don’t worry, I got back into the box on Wednesday.
Wednesday
Today’s wod was perfection! Challenging, but things I enjoy, and a super good workout.
LIFT
5×3 behind the neck, snatch grip shoulder press (45-50-55-60-65)
Seriously, that is SO FREAKING HARD!
METCON
Every 2 minutes for 20 minutes:
250m sprint row
4 Hang Cleans (95 lbs)
2 Split Jerks (95lbs)
The idea was to try and keep the row sub 1:00 so it was an all out sprint. This workout was difficult and felt really long, but I really loved it!
Thursday
REST DAY!
Friday
Oh Friday. On Friday I did my first ever Vinyasa Flow class and it was….uh….different. Like, when they started playing Rihanna I thought it was a joke. I’m not sure if it was just that I had no idea what to expect that made it seem so jarring, but it was just not my thing. A good workout, for sure, but just…I don’t know. I’m gonna give it another try for sure now that I know people will be like, chanting and shit. 🙂
Saturday
REST DAY!
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All in all, a good week but I definitely missed the barbell. More of that this coming week I hope!
Oh! I also took the plunge and ordered a FitBit One this week. I’ve been TERRIBLE at getting away from my desk at work lately and when I read my friend Amy’s ringing endorsement I thought the idea of being able to set up some daily goals around walking that I could actually track might be helpful towards getting me to prioritize getting some fresh air during my workday. (Hooray for data gathering and de-stressing!) I’m also REALLY interested in the sleep tracking. Regardless, I’ll let you know how I like it!
Any exciting PRs for your this week?
Fitness Journeys and Destinations
Last year I was very diligent about tracking my progress on monthly goals. It fed my brain to think about all the things that I had accomplished the previous month and gave me great pleasure to carve out a (mostly) manageable list of things I wanted to accomplish that following month. For the most part, I loved the entire process. I don’t know if it was amazing blog fodder, but since I do use this space for personal reflection I kept it up all year long.
At the beginning of this year I purposefully decided to stop doing that. The part of my brain that enjoyed that itch being scratched was a little bit afraid about quitting that regular check in. How would I get anything done? But I had come to realize, at the end of last year, that the process had become less brain scratching, and more ego feeding. It wasn’t that I was puffing myself up with accomplishments and patting myself on the back, but rather the act of making plans and then checking things off lists all month was a crutch that I used to help me feel in control. And my ego reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally wanted to be in control. If I had a list and I used it, all would be ok.
The problem was that despite the process being the same, the results were mixed. Sometimes my brilliant little plans worked and I felt that all was right in the world. Other times I would put forth the same amount of planning and effort and things wouldn’t come to fruition. Over time it would wear on me — the Trying Hard but Not Achieving. If I wanted to wrap this up in a neat little bow, I’d say that focused too much on the destination and not enough of the journey. I decided this year that I wanted to focus on being flexible and being less attached to “My Plans.” I figured I’d ease into that shift, but practically the second I made the decision, The Universe showed up with this new professional opportunity that seemed to be The Flexibility Fast Lane. How’s that for manifesting? 🙂
I’ve been struggling with this situation for months, but now that I can see it through the lens of — Hey, I asked for this — I actually feel a little bit grateful that my hand was forced, or I may still be “easing in.” One of the major shifts for me — me, being a proudly obsessive list-maker (the “proud” part should have been the first tip off that this was an ego-feeding situation, ha!) — has been to stop setting specific goals. OMG THE HORROR! This goes against every piece of goal advice you’ll ever here, but I’ve found it more conducive to flexibility to just focus on an idea or theme. I’m looking at the root of a situation that I want to change, instead of trying to micromanage all of the outcomes.
For your routines I recommend you to read this Rootine’s article on best liquid vitamin to obtain better results in your workout.
For example I used to set a goal to workout a certain number of days per week. If I set it for 5 and only worked out 4, it was very easy for me to feel like I had missed the mark instead of just saying “Rock and Roll — 4 days was all you could give this week.” So I tried something a bit different in July:
I started the month with a blank calendar and the intention to switch up my fitness routine. I didn’t want to give myself a numeric goal, I wanted to workout because it would help me feel better, which I though called for different fitness options on different days. My hypothesis was that if I focused on a few varied options, instead of just trying to get into the CrossFit box on an arbitrary number of days, I would have more overall success and enjoyment.
Because I do still like to track data (I just don’t want to have preconceived notions of what that data should look like) I started to write down each day what I did for physical activity — and I purposely gave “Rest” it’s own label and color because I wanted to look at rest as a choice and not as “being lazy.” I also I added a weekly tracking roundup on the blog because I wanted to be conscious of what I was getting out of each workout. I knew if I had to itemize it in writing later, it would help me be more “In the Moment” while I was doing it, rather than just checking off a line item.
So far it has worked swimmingly, and last night when I counted everything up I realized that I had worked out a ton:
*CrossFit: 9 Days
*Spin/Miscellaneous: 4 Days
*Yoga: 8 Days
*Rest: 7 Days
And all of that included 4 days on the road, which I didn’t really count at all since it was so willy nilly.
If I wanted to puff my chest out about accomplishments, it would be warranted! This is a good looking month! But what I feel more excited about was that these results came specifically from focusing on the journey portion or fitness, rather than the preconceived destinations. And I feel really excited about that! I think that I am a data oriented person, so I do enjoy being able to quantify — but there is a difference between understanding the overall vibe of what you eat and counting calories, right? And this, for me, has been my way of giving the finger to that calorie counting type ideology that I seemed to have let overtake many areas of my life. And I’m surprised to say that letting go and being a bit more flexible actually feels really good.
Baby Steps?
The Week In Workouts
I’ve been switching up my fitness, so I thought I’d pop in on Sundays and share what my workouts have looked like each week. I’m on a mission to find a balance of things I love, that make me healthier, and that overall just feel right.
Here’s what happened last week:
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Sunday
Started off on Sunday with a super sweaty 90 minutes of Bikram. I knew this may be my only super intense workout for some time with my travel schedule so I really put in 110%. Oddly enough my calves were so sore for the next few days. Weird. I don’t think of any of those 26 poses particularly crazy on the calves, but that was the story.
Monday
Monday was a long one — I was up at 3:45 to catch an early flight to Columbus, Ohio. I got into town about 5:30 EST so it sort of felt like I had been going for a full day by then but I busted out my Tabata Timer and did some Tabata Squats and Tabata Push Ups. Not particularly crazy and very short, but at least I felt like I was doing *something.* I figured I’d get in a workout the next day.
Tuesday
I didn’t end up going to bed until after midnight (darn time change!) on Monday and woke up about 6 on Tuesday morning and really wasn’t feeling heading down to the hotel gym. After working a full day I still wasn’t feeling like hotel-gym-ing it so instead I opted to go on a long walk and play tourist. It was much more fun! I headed out for about 2 hours by myself and got to know some new places. Super relaxing until I got caught in a total downpour without an umbrella. 🙂
Wednesday
Wednesday was more of the same. I was out late that night meeting up with blog reader Meg (HEY GIRL!) and playing a riveting game of music trivia at a local bar, so I was um…not in bed early. I don’t know why, but I found the time change particularly difficult this trip. For some reason when I fly somewhere that is 2 hours ahead it is pretty easy to adjust, but 3 hours ahead just wrecks my ability to be asleep before midnight. No workout on Wednesday.
Thursday
Thursday morning I woke up at 6am and my first thought was “Holy hell I’m going to be up for the next 21 hours.” It wasn’t super Fitness Motivating…you know what I mean? I decided I was going to do 100 Burpees for time. I got to about 40 and was like SCREW IT. 🙂
Friday
I got home about midnight on Friday morning and then was up for the day when Garrett’s alarm went off at 5:30. My plan was to go to yoga at 9am but at 8:30 it seemed very difficult to think about changing my clothes. “I’ll just go at noon,” I thought. Though at 11:30 I felt the very same way. I ate some mashed potatoes and watched a marathon of Real Housewives episodes while occasionally putting away some clothes or throwing things from the washer to the dryer. The 4pm yoga class came and went, as did 6pm CrossFit. I just WAS. NOT. INTO. IT.
Saturday
My friend Kari asked me if I wanted to go to spin at 8:30 and I declined, thinking that this would seem very early on Saturday morning. This was a good call, as I didn’t even get out of bed until 10. You guys! It’s like I caught “The Lazy” when I went to Ohio. Apparently I needed a little more time to get back into the swing of things.
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I’m glad I front loaded my July workouts because last week was kind of a wash. I’m looking forward to next week since it will be back to business as usual. I’m trying to listen to my body and this week it has been telling me to chill the heck out, it is tired! Can’t wait to see what it says next week.
How were your workouts this week? Any PRs? Big accomplishments? Do tell….
A Week of Travel WOD Ideas
On the road but still want to get in 4-5 workouts? I know the feeling. While I’m out of town this week I thought I’d leave you with some links to seriously awesome travel workout inspiration.
In case I can’t find time to get to a CrossFit box on the road I want to be armed with some ideas for how to squeeze my fitness in. While I definitely enjoy a relaxing vacation at Phoenix resorts with no workouts at all, when I am traveling for work (as I am this week) I like to kind of keep my routine in place. I would also like to share this amazing duffle bag I have that I can use to go to the gym and to travel. If you are similar, I hope this helps!
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1. Rise and Shine (via Carrots + Cake)
Air Squats and Burpees and Hand Release Pushups, OH MY!
2. 100 Travel CrossFit Wods (via CrossFit Steele Creek)
Whatever exercises you do or don’t feel like doing (WHAT? You’re traveling, you are at liberty to cherry pick, I think!) there is probably a workout that includes them on this list.
3. Road Wods (via New Species CrossFit)
New Species CrossFit has a list of WODs that even utilize things like your suitcase! Love that. (Uh, except my suitcase weighs like FIFTY POUNDS! hahaha)
4. Home WOD (via WOD Daily)
I can see doing this in the hotel gym with the treadmill.
5. Have you seen this CrossFit Travel App?
DOWNLOADING IMMEDIATELY!
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How do you keep up when you are on the road? Do you have a favorite travel wod? Hotel gym circuit?
The Week In Workouts
I’ve been switching up my fitness, so I thought I’d pop in on Sundays and share what my workouts have looked like each week. I’m on a mission to find a balance of things I love, that make me healthier, and that overall just feel right.
Here’s what happened last week:
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Sunday
I did a 75 minute Bikram class on Sunday and I was sort of surprised that all weekend I really looked forward to going to that particular yoga class. I’ve been doing a class at 4:30 on Sunday afternoons and it has been a nice transition from Weekend Mode to Back to Work Mode. By the time I’m done, home, showered, and eating dinner I’ve kind of been winding down for a few hours and thinking about what I want the next week to look like. I’m generally not dying to start any projects or tasks so I just come home and relax. It’s been calming and it has been helping me start my week a little more intentionally. That probably sounds silly, but it’s true and I’m liking it. I anticipate continuing it.
Monday
Do you know what today’s workout had in store? My FAVORITE — Bear Complex! Plus some other crazy stuff.
Garrett sent me this picture right before we worked out and it made me laugh. I hadn’t done Bear Complex since February, and instead of using the same weight for all 5 rounds, we increased weight each round which was tough! Bear Complex is a 5 lift complex that starts with a Power Clean, a Front Squat, a Push Press, a Back Squat and another Push Press. That is one rep. You Do 7 Reps each round. You complete 5 rounds. So yep, if you do the math it’s 35 reps per round, 5 times through. SHEEEEEESH.
If that made no sense, here is a video of the adorable Jen Sinkler demonstrating it. PS — are you reading her site? Because it is awesome! Serious girl crush. Increasing weight each time was RIDICULOUS. I started at 65lbs, then did 75lbs, 80 lbs (where shit starting getting HEAVY), 85 lbs, and then 90 lbs. 90 lbs was ugly. Real, real ugly. You are also not supposed to put the bar down and rest throughout each round of 35 reps, so at the end my grip strength was BLOWN. Also, on my last rep at 90 lbs I may have missed the shoulder press and bonked my head with the barbell. LAME 🙂
After the Bear Complex we did a 400m Zercher Sandbag carry. You essentially make a little forklift out of your arms and place the sandbag right there in the crook of your elbows. I don’t remember how much the sandbag weighed, but it felt heavy walking a quarter of a mile with it. It was a good core stabilizing exercise and was a total upper body workout! Harder than I anticipated, for sure. After that, we did a 200m walk holding a 65lb barbell overhead with a wide snatch grip. YIKES. My shoulders no-likey. But in the end it was a really great day of work!
Tuesday
On Tuesday I set my alarm early to hit up a 5:30am yoga class. When my alarm went off I was SUPER CRAZY tired and so dehydrated that it felt like I had spent my Monday night out drinking on the town. (Uh, spoiler alert: I didn’t.) So I went back to bed! I KNOW. Crazy. Except not really, because I’m trying to be a little nicer to myself and sometimes that means sleeping in until 6:30 and letting dry shampoo save your work day. REST DAY, for the win!
The combo of hot weather, CrossFit and hot yoga has made me pay a lot of attention to my levels of hydration lately. A couple of weeks ago I picked up this coconut water/electrolyte mix and I’m kind of obsessed with it.
Read more about it here if you are intersted.
Wednesday
Wednesday was just about THE WORST day at work — I needed a “Mental Health Day” when I got home and the CrossFit WOD on tap involved eight 400m sprints. I just wasn’t feeling it. I was kind of bummed because deadlifts were also on the menu, but I just could not muster up any desire to run after such a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
I ended up going to a Bikram class and it was great. Just what the doctor ordered. Also: sweaty. But that’s a given, I guess.
Thursday
Woke up bright and early and met my friend Heather (hi Heather!) at the box. We’ve been trying to squeeze in at least one 6am workout per week together and it is so fun to have an accountability buddy. Of course, when I read that the workout was going to involve Bar Facing Burpees (Top 3 on the list of exercises I hate) I may have given her the side eye. 🙂
The first 15 minutes was set aside for working on Bar Muscle Ups which HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, NO. No I can not do those even a little bit. So I worked on my kip, which I so rarely work on. Funny, because it totally hasn’t gotten any better with all of that NOT working on it. Weird. 🙂 (It was a lot of work like this. Bonus video of my boyfriend Jason Khalipa. :)) I guess I should do that more often.
Anyway, after that the workout was as follows:
6 Minute AMRAP of:
5 Full Squat Snatches at 85lbs
30 Double Unders
Rest 2 Minutes
6 Minute AMRAP of:
5 Shoulder to Overhead (I did a push press) at 85lbs
10 Bar Facing Burpees (I look silly and uncoordinated doing these)
I managed to eek out 3 rounds + 1 rep on the first AMRAP and 3 rounds + 5 reps on the second. I actually really enjoyed this workout because it was hard and short. Those snatches felt heavier than I thought they would, but the bar facing burpees felt easier than I thought they would. So…win? I don’t know. It was nice and I had tons of energy all day at work!
Friday
Friday I had the day off from work and I was so excited to just do what I wanted! Turns out, what I wanted was to start the day with a 90 minute Bikram class. Ah, to just be able to get up leisurely and go to yoga at 9am. WHY AM I NOT A LADY OF LEISURE? It was a great class because I feel like I’m seeing so much progress every time. Gotta love that when you are doing something new, right?
It was a great workout session and then I went home and showered and Buster and I met up with Garrett on his lunch break and we took a 40 minute walk around the Capitol. It was gorgeous and felt like such a leisurely treat in the middle of the day.
I relaxed for a bit after that and watched Orange is the New Black on Netflix. Have you watched it? So good! (Though not surprising considering how much I LOVED the book.) Good thing I got in some relaxing because Garrett + I ended up going to a 6pm CrossFit class together when he got off work.
The wod was as follows and I have to admit, I kind of phoned it in after all that activity already:
LIFT
Front Squat: 5-5-3-3-1-1 (95lbs, 115, 135, 145, 155, 165)
METCON
15-12-9:
Hang Power Cleans (I scaled to 75lbs bc I was tiiiiiired)
Ring Dips (I scaled to doing dips on a box because no chance in hell I can do ring dips)
Saturday
Saturday morning I was up bright and early and headed out to a Spin Class with my friend Kari. The class was called “Music Video Saturdays” and I was curious as to what the hell all of that meant. It ended up being an hour of super fun interval mixes set to specific music videos. I little Pitbull, Britney and Rhianna can really make an hour of intense bike riding go by fast. I’m still learning how intense to go when I spin and there are so many things to monitor with respect to watts, rpms, blah blah blah — so it is fun, but definitely not something I feel I’m a pro at. Great way to start the morning though.
*****
I feel pretty good about this week’s workouts as well as the month so far. In 20 days I have managed to fit in a workout on 16 of those days — and I’m definitely getting in full, non-active rest days as well while trying to balancing the intensity with CrossFit and Yoga.
I purposely front loaded some activity this month because as I mentioned I am off to Columbus next week and I am still unsure what the workout situation is going to be there. It’s pretty long work days and hotels and well, many reasons to NOT workout you know? We’ll see how it shakes out.
Any PRs for you this week? Awesome workouts? Do tell….
Practicing Tolerance
There is a pose we do in my yoga class called Supta Vajrasana that, for me, is basically next to impossible. If you look at that picture the woman’s ASS IS ON THE FLOOR. That was maybe something I could do when I was a child, but as an adult? Well, it’ll take some work.
But that’s why I’m liking this infusion of fresh skills in my workout routine. Challenge is kind of exciting! And what I’m loving with my online yoga classes, as I do with CrossFit, is that it is a constant reminder that we all have different bodies and different capabilities.
Last night as we got into this particular pose the instructor nonchalantly mentioned that this was a healing pose. For those of us who can’t do it, or need to modify, you generally just stay sitting up on our knees and breathe while staring at yourself in the mirror. YEEEEESH! That’s a whole lot of looking at myself and at first it was a bit uncomfortable. But as I continued to stare at myself, she went on to say that while you may feel like you are doing nothing by just sitting and staring, you are practicing tolerance of your physical body and its limitations.
Practicing tolerance of your physical body and its limitations. It was like a lightbulb. And all of a sudden I understood why this was indeed a healing pose.
Rap Free Long Run Mix
I am the first to admit I enjoy a good playlist packed full of rap! I mean you already know I’m practically 2Pac’s biggest fan. Something about the words and the beats of a rap heavy mix keep my feet pounding the pavement in a very unique way.
But other times I just want to get out and clear my head underneath the big ol’ bright blue sky and something about seeing where the wind will take me calls for a different type of soundtrack. The bulk of this playlist is what I listened to for all three of my legs when I ran The Relay. At first I was disappointed when I realized that I all my run mixes lacked rap. But I will tell you that the bulk of the reason I survived that words and vibes of some of these songs.
Obviously I had to share.
Playlist can be found on Spotify here.
CrossFit Advice For Newbies
I am long overdue on answering some emails on CrossFit advice for beginners, so I thought I would finally get my act together and put my thoughts all in one post. You can find a lot of advice on the internet, but I wanted to speak from my perspective specifically.
I was SCARED TO DEATH to head into a CrossFit gym when I started in 2010. I was more than 100lbs overweight, not in the best shape of my life, and wasn’t sure it would even be right for me based on the crazy videos I had seen on You Tube. But I also knew what I had been doing wasn’t getting me to my goals and I wanted to try something new.
I really had to work up the courage to set foot in the gym, and I really regret all that time lost hemming and hawing about whether or not I should go. If I could give advice to anyone considering checking out a CrossFit gym, here is what I would say:
1. Don’t Wait Until You Get Yourself in “Better Shape”
I wish I had a dollar for every person who has told me that they are going to wait until they are more fit to try CrossFit — I’d be blogging from a giant pile of money right now! No matter what shape you are in, you can do the workouts effectively. CrossFit is based on functional movements done at high intensity. What is high intensity for YOU may differ from high intensity for the person next to you. This doesn’t mean you should wait until you are in better shape.
Everyone is at various different phases in their fitness and the workouts are scaled according to your level of fitness. The workout isn’t meant to be easy for anyone! I waited almost 2 years to start and worked on “getting in shape” by myself that whole time and I still couldn’t run 200 meters comfortable on my first day. Two months of CrossFit later, not only could I run a 5k comfortably but I was 30 lbs lighter.
2. Remember Everyone In Your Gym Had a “Day One”
The most intimidating part of starting CrossFit is that you will talk yourself into believing that everyone inside that gym is awesome, and the record is going to skip when you walk in. But keep in mind — everyone in there had to start at their beginning. We all had to show up and put one foot in front of the other and learn the ropes. Everyone you’ll see had to learn the foundational movements. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has workouts they are good at and workouts that just leave their ego crushed.
Remember that we are all there there to work towards becoming our best selves, and it is both a mental and a physical task. Walking in there on that first day is that first courageous step toward saying “I believe in myself and my ability to get better.” No one is going to watch you take that step and be unsupportive.
3. Just Say No to You Tube Videos
If you are looking for how to lose hip fat without exercise on YouTube, do not do that. Checking out CrossFit workouts on YouTube is like looking at a celebrity’s Instagram feed to see what they look like right when they wake up in the morning. It’s not reality, and when you are brand new I think it can be intimidating and make you feel like you aren’t good enough to do the workouts. CrossFit is universally scalable, which means a good coach will help you modify ANY exercise so that the version you do gives you a GREAT workout. Stay away from the exhibitionists grunting on You Tube when you start out and just lean on your coaches to explain any movements you’ve never heard of.
Of course, once you start, if you want to watch the silly CrossFit videos – be my guest!
4. Start By Building Skill, Then Strength
Most gyms will make you complete an introductory course that teaches you the foundational movements of CrossFit before you can just dive in and complete a workout. If your gym doesn’t do that, personally, I’d run the other direction. This isn’t to make you feel like a goober, it’s to make sure you have a chance to be exposed to many of the skills you will use in everyday workouts. Take as much time as you need to build skill!
There are a lot of the movements you’ve probably heard of and done in the past (sit ups, pushups, running, rowing) but some things will be new and require technical skill like the olympic and power lifting as well as some of the gymnastic skills. Read an honest review of the best barbell set here. It’s important to build a foundation before you try and test the limits of your strength. You will learn a lot about how your body works, how to increase mobility, and your beginning months will be where you develop a lot of muscle memory, so make sure you are doing it correctly. It will take time, so don’t feel the need to rush it. In the long run, it will be so much better than just carelessly throwing some weight over your head or flailing to get up and over a bar.
5. Focus on Responsible Recovery
Speaking of learning about your body, if you take anything from this post, let it be this: Rest and recovery are just as important to your body as showing up to work out. Early on in my training I read a random rule that I have followed pretty religiously since I started CrossFit. That rule is: if you don’t sleep 6 hours the night before, you don’t earn a workout.
You can’t increase the intensity of your workouts and not take some time to think about how you will recover from that intensity. Sleeping and good nutrition are something you will hear a ton about, and while I don’t think you need to be overwhelmed by all of it on your first day, keep it in the back of your head. If you are making all these efforts while you are at the gym, don’t throw it away by acting nutty outside of the gym.
Also, make sure you are continually working on your mobility — it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes! Your body needs TLC so don’t just beat it up in the gym, help it out! If you have a few minutes before class, take time to foam roll or stretch.
6. Track Your Progress (And Cheer On The Progress of Others)
The whole point of CrossFit is to help YOU make YOURSELF better, not to keep up with the person next to you. But how will you know if you are getting better? You gotta keep track! There are a lot of helpful Benchmark Workouts that you will do over time, so making sure you write down your times/weights for those. You will probably also have lots of opportunities to find One Rep Maxes for the different lifts, which can be another fun thing to track.
But I also like to look at random things like:
*500m/100m row times
*400m sprint times
*1 mile run times
*Consecutive Double Unders
*What pull up bands I use in workouts
*Moving from scaled versions of movements to prescribed versions (like pushups, etc)
Tracking your daily workouts, performance, and how you feel may seem tedious; however, over time it can really enlighten you to all of the things you have gotten better at — and that will be SUPER MOTIVATING.
You know what else is super motivating? Seeing other people, day in and day out, put in their best efforts to to reach their goals — so make sure to encourage others. And then of course, once you feel settled in your gym and you see a new person walk in for the first time, don’t forget to introduce yourself and say hi. We all remember what Day One felt like, right? But everybody has to muster up the courage to do it at one point.
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Ok, fellow CrossFitters — what advice would YOU give to someone considering trying CrossFit for the first time?
