Working into Crossfit Shape

Last night I did half of the workout pictured above, but mixed in some presses (95 lb) when I could no longer breath from the burpee pullups. I would recommend using gloves as I tore up my hands a bit. (Also, there's some questionable language in the last 15 sec of the video-please stop before then if you have kids around)

In the quest to build power with endurance, and to become a better athlete, with a more well-rounded approach to health - and also to make me a better, faster triathlete - and because it's just cool to crush yourself in workouts, I've decided to work towards being crossfit.

The reasons:

1) Crossfit's simplified approach: Their definition of Fitness and Health in 100 words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

2) It is undeniable that pushing oneself to the limits increases fitness in a way that walking from machine to machine, doing a slow regimented workout does not. It changes the mind, and has the ability to alter one's composition in a way far more strongly than does the big box gym method.

3) I enjoy pushing my limits.

4) Look around the crossfit site. Watch some of the videos. This is an ethically viable system which doesn't require failing your customers in order to gain a profit.

5) They have cool shirts. One even says "Smoke you like cheap crack" on the back. Gotta love it.

Crossfit

After a lot of reading and approximately a month of thought, I'm convinced that Crossfit is an excellent way to stay in shape, especially if done consistently.

Braggin': An Ode to Trainers & Encouragers

Ever seen that television commercial for Celebrity (I think) Cruise Lines? The one where the viewer sees a 50+ lady step out onto a raised platform in front of a theatre curtain, thanking all her supporters - her personal trainer and husband for helping her get where she is....and then a waiter with a loaded serving tray slips past her to wait on the diners in the cruise ship dining room? That's me. I want to brag on myself and my EXCELLENT trainers and thank my encouragers.

The plan was to weigh in and measure my body at the one year mark of my weight and cardio training, but a visit to the doctor for my yearly GYN exam prompted us to move the assessment forward by a month. Somehow I had missed the 6 and 9 month assessments, and I hadn't been weighing myself because I had gained, not lost weight in the first four months. I knew I was building muscle and gaining endurance and I'd dropped a dress size by the 9 month mark, so I wasn't all that worried about the weight - I thought it would come down eventually if I stayed consistent in my training and made moderate adjustments in my already relatively healthy eating habits.

So after a year here's the data:

• I've lost 18 pounds! (those highly discouraging menopausal pounds)



• My blood pressure has gone from 120/80 to 100/68



• My body fat percentage has dropped from 37.5% to 30%!



• Inches lost:



• Shoulders: 3



• Chest: 2.5



• Waist: 7.5



• Hips: 5.5



• Upper Thigh: .5



• Calf : .5



• Arm: .5

So Thank you, Julie (pictured below) for getting me started with your bouncy hair and personality, your inspiringly fit booty- oops- body, your creative, just-hard-enough workouts that were perfect for my overweight, out-of-shape body and psyche, your positive outlook and counsel and your continuing encouragement.

THANK YOU, LYNN! (pictured at the top with me and on her fitness modeling comp card below). You pack a LOT of power to propel others to fitness in your incredibly strong, albeit, tiny body. Your workouts for me (coupled with my panting and groans) have been hard enough to elicit frequent sympathy comments from other women working out, hard enough to keep me dreading (just a little!) the planks or medicine ball sprints or squatting chest rows (or whatever exercise set is the current hardest) and and hard enough to make me look forward to the incredible sense of achievement and empowerment I know I will feel at the end of the workout.

You have proven to me, that even though the workouts you design for me are hard, they are always just within my reach. They have enough creativity and variety to keep me guessing about what I'll be doing and looking forward to what I'll be learning for use in workouts I do on my own. Thank you for your friendship, your consistently excellent training, your nutrition counsel and your continual commendation and encouragement - comments you've made have fueled me for weeks!

I'm hoping you guys are still with me after seeing these pictures of Julie and Lynn because I have two more thank yous. Thank you, Sam for inspiring me with your life and your encouragement and thank you, David, for continuing, throughout 32 years of marriage (even my 185 lb. pregnancy and my "don't mess with me, buster" menopausal personality) to grab my butt, make all those silly invitations to love-making, and to make me - no other thing or person - your turn-on. Here's to many more years of choosing life together.