Lessons Learned

I am now almost a month into regular classes at CrossFit Lion's Pride. Some days are easier than others but each day I leave the box feeling satisfied and completely drained. I'm not the fastest or the strongest, but I'm putting forth my best effort and that is all that really matters to me. Some things I've learned in the last few weeks: 1. I love group exercise! And I'm not talking about that crazy zumba crap, where they jump around and scream for an hour. CrossFit is hard and working out with a group of people (some of who are the same every day) gives you an opportunity to learn each others strengths and weaknesses and cheer each other on through both. We're not allowed to put up our equipment until the last person finishes. It gives you a sense of community; that we are all in it together. 2. A good jump rope is necessary. The speed ropes at the box are too fast for a beginner trying to learn double unders. They are also one size and for a shorty like me, you have to adjust the rope which leaves a one foot long piece swinging around smacking you in the arm. By the time you are done, you have huge welts and look like you have taken 50 lashes from a really skinny belt. It's a $50 investment...worth it. 3. Coordination is needed for everything. Double unders, kipping, thrusters, even wall balls, to name a few. If you lack coordination, these things will be exorbitantly more difficult to master. Practice may not make it perfect but it's gotta help, right?! 4. It hurts when you rip your hand. Enough said! 5. Hang power cleans leave giant bruises on my thighs. My shoulders would always hurt after doing cleans. Come to find out it was because I was doing some weird rotation of my shoulders to get bar down from the front rack back to the hang. The fix was basically to drop my arms straight down with the bar into my legs causing fairly significant bruising with heavy weight. However, I will take bruises over shoulder pain any day! 6. Some WOD's, when complete, cause me to cough uncontrollably. No amount of water is helpful to make it stop. After one WOD, I literally coughed for 3 hours and had a sore throat the next day. 7. I'm stronger than I think I am...and the group dynamic certainly helps to bring it out. 3 months ago I struggled to bench press 45#. I'm now at 65# and while its still difficult, it is an improvement. I am certainly getting stronger and I'm excited to see where another 6 or even 3 months will take me! I wouldn't consider myself to have been "out of shape" coming into CrossFit. However, after one month I've seen improvement in my strength and mobility. I've got a long way to go, but improvement is improvement! I've also seen improvement in my mental strength, which is a hard thing for many people to overcome. I still struggle with it (like when I'm wheezing to catch my breath on my 3rd 200m run in a WOD of 7 rounds). But I push through and each day I make myself a little better than I was the day before.