Do you remember when you were a kid how you felt almost invisible. You were always up for a challenge, and nothing ever scared you. We did cartwheels without a second thought, hung from monkey bars behind our knees, jumped down off of something high… and nothing happened to us. Sure we got the occasional scratch or bruise but we always recovered rather quickly. Now some 20 something years later, have you attempted to do any of those things? Maybe for some of you nothing has changed (freak!) but for most of us it has not crossed our minds. Think about it. Would you do a cartwheel right now if you were asked? Would you do a headstand if asked? Would you really? (Liar!) One of the gymnastic movements that you will find in a WOD regularly is a Handstand Pushup (HSPU). If you watched any CrossFit competitions you will most certainly have witnessed this. The first time I went into class with that in a WOD, I remembered shaking my head thinking there was no way I was going to do that. I won't lie, I was scared and intimidated. I'm not afraid of being upside down, I'm more afraid that I would hurt myself. So instead of even trying, I opted for the modified version. The first level is doing a tripod pushup, I mastered that rather quickly and that's basically all I would ever do.
Well last night the HSPU reappeared in a WOD and in my head I pretty much resolved to continuing the same modified version I have been doing. Except I wasn't expecting our coach to go into a little speech about pushing forward and trying something new. Crap! So after setting up my space for our workout I asked Joon how do I begin to learn to do the HSPU. Well the first step was to just be comfortable being upside down. Let's face it, the last time I did anything like that was probably the 4th grade! So he showed me what to do, and I knelt down and attempted it a couple of times. I was so scared. What was I so scared about? I think part of it was fear of hurting myself and part of it looking foolish. But I got much encouragement from my fellow CrossFitters, and so I tried one last time. Only this time I managed to get on my head and feel my butt hit the wall behind me. I did it! Next step was to straighten my legs… did it without hesitation and stayed in that position for a bit. It wasn't so scary being upside down. But the next step was to go into it with my arms locked out. It should look something like this…
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This photo was found on Pinterest.
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My coach and a fellow CrossFitter stood on each side of me, ready to catch my legs and help me up there. I made two attempts but each time I believe I chickened out. Hey, it's ok. I'm just excited that I took the first step in trying. It is something I will most certainly work on. So in the meantime I have upgraded to a new level of modified HSPU, and it looks like this…
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| This photo was found on Pinterest. |
I managed to do these without failure. I'm excited to keep making improvements, and most certainly can't wait until the day I can do a handstand without any fear or assistance!
