kettlebellguy

Crossfit was a blast this morning. I got to learn two new things. First we worked on Assisted Handstand Push Ups. We actually all got into the handstand position and no one kissed the floor with their nose. Below are some pictures I found at Crossfit Edna Valley that show the set up of the bands and how you should actually look when doing this. Our little group is not quite at this level yet but it was fun trying.

(Click on any of the pictures to get more details on this setup)

Here is Jerry helping out Kelly. Click on the picture for more action shots.

I am finding that the opportunity to learn new skills is one of the things I like most about Crossfitlegacy. It may take me forever to master all the skills but it is exciting to always have something new and different to work on.

For the workout of the day I was not last! Actually I came in second. We had six stations set up. We did each station for 1 minute, keeping track of reps. We did 3 sets.

A revealing thing about this workout to me was how the numbers came out. I excelled in the Push Press (and I had good form). That is a direct result of my kettlebell workouts where I do a lot of work with weigh over my head. I have found that if the only body part being used is my upper body I usually do well. Once we start with a more complex movement the involve my legs, for example squats, my endurance goes down quick. I also do really well with setups. I do a full movement from prone to a full setup with my arms extended forward. Not everyone does them like that. I am not super fast but I have endurance for the setups. I remember with my first fitness evaluation with Dave about two years ago that I could not even do one setup.

I sucked at the burpees and the sumo lifts. Again, movements that involve my lower body slow me down. On the burpees I focus on throwing myself down to the floor. I did get a “good sprawl” from Jerry. I throw myself down to get use to falling…and surviving. Someday if I actually do trip and fall this might keep me from being injured. The getting up and the jump are what slow me down.

The workout was brutal and I was ready to give up near the end but I kept going. Love it!

I have found that I get sick to my stomach at exactly the same point on every Crossfit workout. When we do our warm up we do 20 air squats, 20 overhead shoulder movements with the PVC pipe and then 20 squats with the PVC pipe. Every time we get to the 20 overhead shoulder movements I get a really sick feeling that lasts for maybe 20 seconds. If I just keep pushing it goes away and I am fine. Because I know I will be OK if I just keep going this is not really a problem, just something of interest to me about how my body reacts.

Interesting dream last night. I was back in time to 1986 when I was a public telephone coin collector. I was the guy that would go around and replace the full money collection boxes with an empty box in public pay phones. I lasted in that job for a year. It was really interesting in the beginning. You were on your own in your van with your map, finding the pay phones that needed service on your route. I traveled all over Akron/Canton/Youngstown. I got into a lot of places I would have never otherwise seen. I really liked the factories. I always enjoy seeing how things are made. I have to admit that after a year the novelty wore off. Once I had learned where all the phones were the challenge was gone. At that point I started make changes and ended up with another job.

Anyway, back to the dream. I was trying to change two boxes out and I got myself in a loop of changing them over and over and over. I often have dreams like that where I get caught in a loop, never being able to make any progress. That can really be frustrating.

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