CrossFit

“How’s CrossFit going?” people ask….. Well, remember my first chipper back in march? 14ish minutes to complete? Yesterday we revisited that workout and I completed it TWICE, the first time in 7:14ish and the second in 7:04!!!!! Holy crap. I LOVE CrossFit.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/25/2008
• Time: 08:00:00

My father had pretty serious back troubles when I was younger. I don’t remember him ‘throwing it out’ often (perhaps he did and I just don’t remember) but I do remember that it all came to a head sometime around my Jr. year of high school that involved ruptured discs, a hospital stay with 7 days in traction followed by surgery and several weeks of him working out of a home office that consisted of a rug on our living room floor that he would lie face down with papers spread about. I remember that getting in and out of the car was difficult, and that sitting in the car and driving was nearly impossible for a period of time. I remember his back stretches. I remember that it did get better.

Whether hereditary or not I too have had my share of back issues over the years mostly down to being out of shape and/or straining things too hard with yard work, marathon training, or other random stuff. This week what seemed like another in a “no big deal” string of inflammations delivered (via an MRI yesterday) the upsetting news that my back looks like one of an “aerobics instructor” in terms of the number of and the degree to which my discs are herniated. I’ll get more details today but basically it’s nearly all the discs from cervical on down with the worst being L4-5. Those little babies are bulging or whatever they do and are touching the nerve – likely causing lot of my pain. Yesterday was my first in what is meant to be a series of 3 cortisone shots – step number 1 to reducing inflammation to the point where I can move and sleep (would be nice) and then figure out what to do from here.

I can safely say that getting a shot in my spinal cord was the most scary thing I’ve had to experience so far in this life. The staff was wonderful and really did a great job keeping me calm and making me feel better but HOLY CRAP what they call “you’ll feel some pressure” has a whole different level of meaning when it’s pressure on your OH, spinal cord. Super duper mega thanks to colleague Stacia for driving my panicked ass to and from the loooooong appointment.

And a note: Yes, thank you, those who have said “you’ll wreck your body” about one of my crazy fitness exploits (marathon training, CrossFit, etc). I know you’re saying it out of love and you may well be totally and completely right. However, I LOVE doing those things and while they MIGHT have contributed to this back thing they have also made me much healthier in many other ways such as weight, flexibility, and most importantly mentally. There’s every possibility that this would be exactly the same had I never run a mile in my life.

My first Chipper! Friday found me getting my first “chipper” workout at CrossFit – with a bunch of movements all setup to be done in sequence without any rest/recovery. The memory is fuzzy and I have no idea what order I did it in but it looked something like this

25 Back Extensions

25 Squats?

400m Row

25 Wall Balls

25 Lunges

25 Jumping Pull ups

25 Jump to Support on the rings

25 box jumps

25 med ball 3x situps (med ball up to one knee cross , down, med ball up to other knee cross, down, throw med ball to trainer when sitting up, repeat x25)

25 dumbbell clean and press

I did it all in 14 or something minutes and it was massively difficult. It’s a great example of what I love about going to CrossFit, though, there’s NO way to be counting the minutes or waiting for the “prescribed time” to elapse when doing that workout like you might while on a treadmill at the gym cause you’re busy just trying to KEEP GOING and not puke on your shoes.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/28/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

I’ve been wanting to workout with kettlebells for a few years, and today I got to start! After doing Tanata squats (baseline = 11)Michael started me off with Kettlebell swings, then tried to move on to the deadlift/snatch sort of thing but my wrists aren’t quite strong enough so we backed it down to a clean and then some sort of flip. Can’t remember what it was called but I have plenty of bruises on my biceps to help remind me to learn to ‘absorb’ the bell as it flips around next time

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/26/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Tweaked my SI joint again (ergh) after the long trail run this weekend so was a little tight/tender for CrossFit this morning. Michael’s got mad skills, though, so he led me on a whole hour of med ball movement with some super cool new ab drills as well as a ton of walking/twisting throws. Feeling better already and will try to get off to see PT asap – going to try a new place in the hopes of finally working this persistent issue out. Running is definitely the thing that sets it off so it’s key that I get it worked out before the season really kicks off.