one on one: day thirty-seven

I'm back!!!! Today was my first session with Joon since November 18th! It has really been that long, between his schedule, my schedule, life, holidays, etc etc. we just couldn't make anything work. But today, we got back on it and you know what? I HURT! I'm still sore from Friday, Saturday, and Monday's WODs, than I add his session into the mix and every muscle in my body hates me and him. Oh and I have lovely bruises forming, it's been a while since that happened. Thanks Joon! Alright, so this is what he had in store for me today:

Warm-up-ish:
800m SkiErg
200m Row
600m SkiErg
400m Row
400m SkiErg
600m Row
200m SkiErg
800m Row

KB Complex 2 minutes:
1 Swing + 1 Clean + 1 High Pull + 1 Snatch
2x

Mission Test 5 minutes:
2 Cleans + 1 Press + 3 Front Squats

Ok, that warm up part was sheer torture as I hadn't done anything with the SkiErg in a long time. During the 800 and 600m sessions, I must've stopped a time or two trying to catch my breathe and shake my already sore body out. What a rude awakening that was for me. The KB work was fun and challenging. My hands have been bothering me lately, I have been trying to work on my grip work on the bar and trying to get my kipping movement down. So holding the KB today was a real pain, I had to chalk the hell out of the KB and my hands just to get through it. After a while the hands became the last thing on my mind as I could feel my muscles scream at me. A few times I hit myself with the KB and knew I'd be feeling that later, well I am. Bruises are forming and I am sensitive to the touch.

This evening I had Coach Tony check my body fat, that is the other thing I am getting back into. I am really disappointed that I gained all that I lost the last time plus some. I could blame the holidays all I want but no one forced the crappy shit down my throat. Thankfully I am back on track and will fix this situation, fast!

All in all, it feels good to be back. I will also be posting more often again and keeping everyone up to date with what is happening. Thank you again for all the positive feedback! <3

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

one on one: day twenty-nine (day of boo boo)

Well todays been a painful day, and not painful in a sore from a WOD sense. But painful in a box tried to eat me for lunch sense. After CrossFitting for almost a year and a half, today I had my very first run in with a box. Not with one leg, but both legs. I was literally only two jumps away from being finished and BAM! Not a pleasant experience. My left leg took the brunt of the damage but both hit the box. Thankfully it didn't go deep to the bone but enough to expose the fascia (white meat). At first, besides the pain, there were no visual indicators that I hit. After a few minutes of trying to walk around and hold back in yelling from the pain, Tony had me lift my tights again and blood began to show up. The pain only escalated from there and it only took a minute or two for both spots to get bright purple. By this point Joon said I was done for the day and that we needed to clean my legs up. Walking for the first few hours after was rough, any jarring movement sucked. It's beginning to feel better to walk but touching the skin around the areas is exceptionally sensitive and hurts like hell, regardless of how light I touch. I hope that by Monday I will be back to WODing with no issues. Here is what I did manage to do today before my boo boo:

Warm-up:
10 min Row

5 x 10 Back Squats 100#
5 x 5 Box Jumps

This little incident will NOT stop me from doing box jumps in the future, but I am seriously considering on getting some sleeves for my lower legs. This way next time I have a mishap, besides bruised sore shins, there will be no breaking of the skin!

The photo was taken from Pinterest.

a healing knee

I am going to play catch up today and get some posts done of thoughts that have been lingering in my head for some time now. If you recall I have been struggling with my knees for a while, especially the right one. It's been an off and on thing and only became worse when I began doing CrossFit. Now before you naysayers crack a smile and think I am blaming CrossFit for this, keep reading to see that I am not. If anything, CrossFit opened my issues to the underlying issues that I have either not noticed or ignored. When I picked up running in 2009 I had noticed some discomfort in my right knee almost immediately. I shrugged it off as the result of being overweight and that it will go away on its own after a while. And though my knee never experienced actual pain, it never really went away. And with most things that become constant, you become numb to it and forget that it is even bothering you. Fast forward to May of 2013, I start doing CrossFit. That nagging discomfort reared it's ugly head almost immediately. In the beginning everything I did was either modified or light, I wasn't pushing my body to it's limits yet. At first air squats were easy and manageable. I learned to do them wide legged so that I could actually do them. Then when I began doing thrusters, overhead squats, front squats, and especially heavy back squats, everything began to change. That discomfort turned into pain and there would be times I couldn't even do an air squat without my knee feeling like it would explode!

I feel very fortunate to have found the CrossFit box that I did. The coaches there are fantastic and have been very helpful with helping me figure out the causes of my pain and helping me come up with a mobility routine to help rectify the problem. It all came down to my squat. The question was, why wasn't I squatting correctly? Remember, it is not the squat that caused the pain, I had been dealing with knee issues long before I found CrossFit. It all came down to my mobility and flexibility. You'd be amazed how having tight hips and ankles can affect so many things in your life. So almost on a daily basis I go through a routine of stretching and mobility work on my ankles, calves, adductors, knees, hamstrings, quads, glutes, and hips. I don't ignore other areas of my body either, but I do spend a significant amount of time on my lower half. I've been at for 4 or so months now and let me tell you is hasn't been easy. If you've ever been injured at any capacity you know the healing roller coaster, where you begin to feel good for several days and then suddenly you feel like you took a million steps back. Too many people give up and not continue to push forward with their healing because they expect immediate results. Nothing heals over night.

I am happy to say that things have really begun to improve. My squat is looking AND feeling great. I have started to add some light weight on my squats and so far have been successful. I don't expect this to be the end of my knee issues but it is certainly gotten closer to the end. During this journey I have definitely learned some things and am continuously amazed with the human bodies capabilities. If you are having any issues with your squat, or just squatting in general, or maybe you know you have tight hips, check out the 30/30 Squat Challenge on Facebook. I'm not kidding, it will do wonders for you!

This photo was taken from Pinterest.