I had never done them before, and thought they would be fairly easy, but I was wrong! As with everything in CrossFit, what looks so easy on paper ends up being a killer workout. We did these in conjunction with wall balls and omg--so hard! I think what made made them so difficult was that you basically are doing two squats for each rep. My thighs and quads were screaming at the end of this workout. I used a 10 pound med ball which added to the pain I think because it's much smaller then the 14 pounder and I had to squat lower to touch the ground with it. This ball is similar to the 10 pounders at my box:
It's hard like a basketball, but a little smaller. The 14 and 20 pound balls are cushier and similar to the ball used in the video above.
I'll post an update tomorrow and let you know how my legs feel. This is a simple, but seemingly very effective inner thigh and booty workout.
When I first started CrossFit, I only went twice a week. My neighbors and I would tell each other that we didn't want to get hurt, and we were too sore and we really needed to ease into this crazy, intense exercise program. I was very sore--boy, was I sore. My first CrossFit coach, Josh, would always encourage me to attend more frequently because CrossFit is programmed to be 3 days on, 1 day off. Because I only was going twice a week I missed a lot and didn't progress very much. I had a hard time remembering how to do the Oly lifts, and every wod was difficult.
Due to Josh's encouragement I started going 3 times a week--he insisted that I would never make any gains going just twice a week. I did notice an improvement in my ability to complete the workouts. I became more fit and my body started to change, but I was still very sore after most workouts. Josh started encouraging me to come 4 times a week, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice the time. I was attending a 9:30 am class and it would really eat up my whole morning. When the gym was bought out by the crazy owner, 3 times a week was my max. I was so exhausted by the intense workouts that there was no way I could add another day. There were many days I could hardly function because I was so wiped and sore from my workout.
Fast forward to today and I am now going to CrossFit 4 times a week and I am rarely very sore. Sure, there are some workouts that can still make my muscles scream (overhead plate lunges, anyone?), but for the most part, I feel really good. I've found that the best schedule for me is to workout Monday, Tuesday--take Wednesday off, workout Thursday, Friday, and take the weekend off (unless the coach is having a seminar or special wod on a Saturday). I truly believe that I am less sore because I am working out more--sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? My current box owner/coach is very tuned in to preventing injury so he programs very carefully. If we have a couple of days with high intensity/high weight wods, he'll throw in a mobility day with some light lifting or gymnastics to make sure we don't overtrain. All of the mobility we do helps a lot with soreness. We do a lot of foam rolling which is really important--the foam roller helps to massage your tissues and tendons--I'm not going to lie--it hurts! But it helps to prevent injury, increases mobility and makes you feel better and less sore when you're finished. This is similar to what we use in the box.
What I''m not sure about is whether the reduced soreness is from working out an extra day a week, or the mobility work--it's probably a combination of both. Since I have belonged to other boxes, I know I am very lucky to have found a coach who emphasizes mobility and is very mindful with his programming. I would highly encourage anyone--especially us older folk--looking for a box to make sure the programming includes a lot of mobility work--and also to look for careful programming that has more to it than just the difficulty factor. Just because a coach can reduce you to a sweating mess at the end of a wod, doesn't mean he always should.
Today's workout was a doozy. The wod was 'Nancy'--she's one of 'The Girls' in CrossFit. Greg Glassman, CrossFit's founder, jokes that he gave these killer workouts girls' names because "any workout that leaves you flat on your back, staring up at the sky, wondering what the hell happened, deserves a girl’s name.”
And that is pretty much what these workouts do. 'Nancy' is 5 rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats (Rx 95 lbs for men/65 lbs for women) for time, with a 22 minute cap. It looks very simple on paper as do most of the CrossFit wods, but it totally wears you down in practice. Since the overhead squat:
is my weakest lift, and since the wod called for 60 overhead squats, I decided to only lift 25 pounds.
I was also kind of wishing that I had some CrossFit shoes--I think they would help my lifting--My running shoes push me forwards somewhat and throw off my balance--especially on overhead lifts. I've had my eye on these:
They are very nice looking and a couple of the women at my box have them and love them. Only problem is the price! I'm hoping it will go down in a few months--especially if they come out with a Metcon 3. If I do get them, I'll definitely let you know if I like them, and if they make a difference in my workouts.
The wod started with the run--I was the oldest in the group by at least 20 years, and was thinking that I would definitely be pulling up the rear on this workout, while hoping that I wasn't minutes behind the last person to finish, and also hoping that I could beat the cap. That's why I generally don't like the 'for time' wods. It's the absolute worst when everyone's finished and I'm still grinding. That used to always happen at my old box and it stunk--even though everyone was always super encouraging and would cheer me on until I finished, it was still somewhat humiliating. --As expected, most of my box mates took off on the run, although there was one guy who held back with me--I am always strategizing these workouts and knowing that I had five rounds of this, I didn't want to wear myself out on the very first 400.
I came in last from the first run and was a little winded, steeling myself to the fact that I was destined to bring up the rear in this wod especially since the only other female, a 20 something, was using the training bar without any plates (15 lbs) for the overhead squat since she has ankle mobility issues. I picked up my bar, snatched it overhead, and started in on my squats. The 25lbs didn't feel too heavy and I was able to string together all 15 squats pretty easily. I have good hip and ankle mobility, but bad shoulder mobility so the overhead squat is a bit of a conundrum for me. I am so afraid of hurting my shoulders that I don't want to strain them by lifting heavier weight, even though I am sure I could. My one rep max is 35 lbs, but that's because I haven't tried to lift heavier. My shoulders are always a little dinged up after doing the wide grip overhead work and increasing my weight is just not worth it to me. A couple of the guys were Rx'ing the workout and they had to split up their overhead squats since they were so heavy, so I was able to catch up from being last on the run and finished my squats around the same time as most everyone else and started in on the second run.
I came in for my second round of squats winded, but picked up my bar and started grinding. I was able to string all 15 together again--my bar was definitely too light, but in retrospect, considering how my shoulders feel now, using 25 lbs was the right call. Everyone else was starting to slow down, even the young woman who was only using the training bar, and on some rounds, the PVC pipe--she must have been having a hard time with her squats. So I finished the second round before everyone and started on my round 3 run. The middle rounds are always the hardest--I do a lot of talking to myself, especially on the runs--telling myself to just keep moving--a lot of the mental toughness I've written about has to kick in on these rounds. I was happy to not be the last one, lol, but also wishing I had someone else running near me for motivation.
The last few rounds went the same way--I was able to do all 15 squats unbroken and finished the wod first--lol--I was surprised, but the overhead squats were the separator and the guys lifting heavy were really slowed down by their weights. One of the guys couldn't finish--he had gone too heavy, I think, and was just fried. My final time was 15:46. Not too shabby for an old lady--however, in the class before, the women killed it--lifting heavier than me, and finishing minutes before me. But at least I was able to keep moving and finished in a respectable time.
I had never done 'Nancy' before and was happy to get a time for her under my belt. I look forward to tackling the rest of the girls in the future--although maybe not the very near future!
I have seen so many positive changes in myself this year from CrossFit.
As I've mentioned previously, I was 'skinny fat' before starting CrossFit. I was also very out of shape. I would get winded when walking the dog up the hill in our neighborhood. I was pretty weak too. I've told the story of my first day of foundations when I couldn't even push press...
...35 pounds above my head more than a few times. The weight felt so heavy--I really thought there was no way I would ever be able to lift that kind of weight, lol.
The first actual CrossFit class I went to involved goblet squats:
and ab mat:
sit ups. If I recall correctly, we were supposed to alternate between 25 goblet squats and 50 sit ups for 2-3 rounds. Sounds pretty easy, right? Except I couldn't even make it through the sit ups. By the second round I was really struggling and probably only ended up doing about 25 in the second and third round. That was really a wake up call--I was weak and I was terribly out of shape cardiovascularly.
Does CrossFit require a lot of gear? Not really, but there are a few things that I think are worth spending your money on to make some of the movements a little easier. As I mentioned previously, I don't have the CrossFit shoes. I've been thinking more about purchasing a pair, but I'm not there yet.
These are similar to the ones I have. They are really simple--Just a nylon fabric strip that you wrap around your wrists and secure with the strap. You can tighten or loosen them by twisting the wrap to the left or right. They're comfortable and they fit any size wrist. I use them to give my wrists more support when we do any overhead lifts--mainly the overhead squat, the snatch, the jerk, and the press.
Here are some from Amazon that have great reviews:
