Pure Awesomeness

I just had to share this.... it is awesome on so many levels...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9RJbcbHkQo

For some reason I can't imbed it.

World Dwarf Games - YES

Giddy!!!

Wow - two updates in two days!

Before I tell you what has made me so damn happy this morning, let me give you a bit more background on myself.

At the beginning of my blog, in the intro, I basically stated that I have never stuck with one form of exercise regularly in my life - I have never been athletic. Let me elaborate a bit on that. Most little girls (in families with sufficient funds) do gymnastics, or ballet, or martial arts, or some other sort of physical activity starting from a VERY young age. Me? I never got into it. I think I was a bit intimidated/timid. (I used to be very shy - who would've thunk?) Doing a simple somersault was scary for me - so forget about doing cart-wheels or hand-stands! Don't get me wrong, I wasn't completely sedentary as a child - I did take swimming class for quite a bit, and did horseback riding long enough to do some small, local competitions. However, when I said I was never athletic of very physically active, I was not exaggerating!

So - when Jerry and Andrea introduced handstands to us as part of the Crossfit program, I was more intimidated than I had ever been of running or pull-ups or overhead squats. I believe they were introduced around 6 months ago - but I'm not sure - anyone remember? I would always dread the days we worked on handstands because even though I knew I had the strength to do it, something about it just wasn't clicking for me!

Can you see where this is going? Today something clicked for me and I GOT MY FIRST HANDSTAND EVER!!!!! At the VERY end of class, and I only held it for a few seconds - but damnit - I GOT IT! I couldn't stop smiling. I'm still grinning! And then, I did it again - with only one failed attempt inbetween.

I don't know WHAT it was that clicked for me - but I think being upside down trying out "skin the cat" helped me lose a bit of fear of being in that position. Speaking of which - I love skin the cat, I hope we do it more often - I'd like to get really good at it. I only fell on my ass once... I swear....

Here's to getting over a fear and accomplishing something you never thought you'd actually do!!!! (Especially after having a very emotionally taxing week!)

Crossfit for life, yo.

(I know, I know - I'm way to white for that last statement)

Cara's Handstand - 26 years in the making!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive....

As per Jerry's request, it's time to update my blog! However, this will probably jump around a bit... you are forewarned.

This past Friday, August 15th, was my 26th birthday. I requested from Jerry that we hit Elizabeth (21-15-9 Hang Squat Cleans/Ring Dips), as I had enjoyed it so much the first time I hit it. Last time, I did 75lbs and was on the pink band for ring dips. This time I did the Rx 85lbs, and was on the floss for the ring dips. My time was 13:57, which was a few minutes slower than the previous time - but lifting 10 extra pounds will do that to a person! Hopefully, next time I hit Elizabeth, I'll be able to go Rx - I'm getting closer to having the strength to do full ring dips!

As a side note, apparently I'm still losing weight. My goal was 150 - and to maintain after I hit that (which I have been doing for a few weeks). Yesterday, I weighed in at 147.5lb. So - I'm wondering what my ideal weight/size really is! I'm going to keep trying to zone and hitting up the Blue Room 4ish times a week, we'll just see where I go!

Two weeks ago I had both a major disappointment and a great surprise as I tried to hit my Week 4 goal: 205lb Deadlift. Although I locked out 195lbs, and had done 200lbs not too long before, I just could not get 205 off the ground. I don't think I can adequately describe how disappointed in myself I was. As Jerry says, I lost core stability/strength. I think I have to find a better balance between warming up and not burning out.

The circuit that followed involved chins, and Jerry encouraged me to try to set a new PR. My previous PR was 13chins. The chins felt great - and I hit 17 before I let go of the bar! This ALMOST made up for missing 205. I think I could've gotten to 18 - not sure why I let go... my grip was starting to give, but I could've gutted it out. Next time. 20 chins, here I come!

Karen

Today I could just NOT get out of bed in time for CFOT. I tried, I really did - but I ended up collapsing for another hour.

I was quite excited when I checked the mainsite and saw that the WOD was Karen, one of the benchmarks that I've been meaning to hit but keep missing opportunities to! Adrienne kindly provided me with Jerry's WOD - Painstorm (I'm sad I missed it!), but I couldn't resist hitting Karen (and didn't have the time to do both!).

I wanted to use a 12lb medicine ball, but had to settle for a 10lb ball - and finished in 10:09. Was feeling pretty sluggish, and was only doing sets of 10 at a time. I managed to avoid hitting myself in the face (these med balls barely have any give!), so all in all I consider it to be a success!

I remember back in the Fall or Winter, Jerry had a "choose your own adventure" sort of work out going for us. We were given a list of 5-6 different workouts, and we had 10-15min to hit each one. I did the Wall Ball with Adrienne - and I remember getting in around 120ish reps. I wish I could remember if it was 10 or 15min though - because that makes a big difference in how much I've improved!

Running: Still the Bane of my Existence, EXCEPT...

Well - today I woke up a bit too late to make it in to the 6:45 class, and seeing how being late to work was not an option, I opted to work out at my office.

Like the last time this happened, I stepped onto the treadmill determined to do a 5K (3.1 miles). Unlike last time, I actually succeeded! It helped that there was a TV in front of me so I could take my mind off of the running. I didn't get winded until the last half a mile or so, which was encouraging.

I finished in 26:16. I have no frame of reference as to how good or not this is, but I'm just glad I finished!

I then went and did a few strict chins. Tomorrow I'm going to be trying to hit 12 (kipping) chins in a row - wish me luck! Don't want to force my team into a funishment!

This is News?

I found this article to be, well, amusing. It's too bad the study didn't get to truly measure the effects of short, high-intensity workouts.

The Myth of Moderate Exercise

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1827342,00.html?cnn=yes

Obesity experts agree that daily exercise is essential for good health, but whether it can successfully lead to long-term weight loss is a question of much debate. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that the conventionally accepted advice — 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week — is probably insufficient to spur any real change in a person's body weight. A study published July 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine adds to the burgeoning scientific consensus: when it comes to exercise for weight loss, more is better. It suggests that obese people would have to exercise at least an hour at a time to see any significant difference in their weight. (or 30min of Crossfit!)

The study, led by John Jakicic at the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, followed nearly 200 overweight or obese women ages 21 to 45 through a two-year weight-loss program. The women were given free treadmills to use at home, regular group meetings and telephone pep talks to help keep them on track. Participants were also asked to restrict their food intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day, and were randomized to one of four physical activity intervention groups based on energy expenditure (either 1,000 calories or 2,000 calories burned per week) and exercise intensity (high vs. moderate). By the end of the 24-month intervention, the women who managed to lose at least 10% of their starting body weight (which was, on average, about 193 lbs.) — and keep it off — were exercising twice as long as health authorities typically recommend and expending more than twice as many calories through exercise as women who had no change in body weight. The biggest weight losers were active a full 68 minutes a day, five days a week (about 55 minutes a day more than they had been before the trial began), burning an extra 1,848 calories a week.

Jakicic and his colleagues originally designed their study to measure whether weight loss could really be achieved and maintained through moderate-intensity exercise, akin to "walking when you're late for a meeting," he says, or whether it was preferable to engage in shorter bursts of more vigorous-intensity activity, "like, when you're late for the bus, chasing it down." The problem was that not enough of the women stuck with their assigned exercise categories for the researchers to gather enough meaningful data. Within a few months, most of the participants had resorted to exercising as much as they chose to. That left researchers with a slightly different data set than they had planned for, but they were still able to associate women's reported physical activity with their weight loss. Indeed, exercise was more strongly associated with weight loss than any other factor, including diet. Overall, the more the women exercised, the more weight they lost.

More than half of the study participants managed to lose at least 10% of their body weight within the first six months. At the half-year mark, however, most of those women relapsed and started gaining the weight back — a discouragingly common phenomenon. "The major outcome of this paper is the maintenance issue," Jakicic says. Once a patient hits her target weight, he says, it's imperative that she stick with her exercise and diet regimen to maintain her new weight.

Still, the underlying question remains: are diet and exercise a reliable cure for obesity? Modern-day obesity researchers are skeptical — achieving thinness, they say, is not simply a matter of willpower. Research suggests that weight may largely be regulated by biology, which helps determine the body's "set point," a weight range of about 10 lbs. to 20 lbs. that the body tries hard to defend. The further you push you weight beyond your set point — either up or down the scale — some researchers say, the more your body struggles to return to it. That might help to explain why none of the women in Jakicic's study managed to lose much more than 10% of their body weight. After two years on a calorie-restricted diet, keeping up more than an hour of physical activity five days a week on average, most were still clinically overweight (though much less so than before). But what Jakicic and other obesity researchers stress is that a 10% reduction in body weight represents a tremendous boon for overall well-being, lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes. For the obese, the end goal should not be thinness, but health and self-acceptance, which are more realistic and beneficial objectives. "The women's health was absolutely improved," Jakicic says.

Jakicic, in fact, seems heartened by his findings. "I think the beauty of this study is that we now have a target" — a better idea of how much exercise is needed for weight maintenance. There is, of course, some variation in how people respond. Some of the study participants fared well with less exercise than the additional 275 minutes per week (about 55 minutes per day, five days a week) that the study's author now recommends for weight maintenance. Others needed more. But the keys to success, according to Jakicic, were embracing the weight-loss program fully, and finding a way around the daily obstacles to exercising — that's something he says many of his participants were able to achieve, regardless of their socioeconomic group. So, if you're aiming to lose weight and keep it off, his message is clear: don't slack off. (No shit!)

What do you all think?

Another Milestone!

Today I did something that I thought I was still quite far away from:

I got my first strict pull-up!! I managed to get two today, actually! I am SO excited! I can actually lift my body-weight! It didn't hurt that I was down to about 148lbs this morning, but yeah.

Next up - a ring dip without assistance! And then, MUSCLE UP!

It's good to have goals - right?

Oh - also - Jerry thought I should make it a goal to do 100KB swings without stopping (I got 65 today on the 36lb KB). So - sure - why not? I'll go for this too. My shoulders and forearms were fried from yesterday, so when I'm feeling less sore I'll go for it.