On July 25, 2016, Branda and I embarked on a new physical fitness journey by joining a local CrossFit Box. (We still call it a gym, but like many things, CrossFit has it’s own jargon.) If you have known us for any time at all, you already know that health and fitness are important to us and we have a strong competitive streak. Finding something to compete in after high school has been a challenge, especially as my body has betrayed me at different points over the last 30 years.
I have run half marathons and 10K races and for a few years trained for and completed several triathlons. The triathlon phase forced me to learn how to actually swim. Completing an International distance triathlon was my most demanding accomplishment. I was never good at triathlons, but I wasn’t last to finish either. However, the time, equipment and physical demands of training became obstacles to continuing that endeavor. I walked away from triathlons when we moved to a neighborhood that was not conducive to getting to the pool regularly and where cycling from my front door for the 30+ mile rides was way beyond dangerous. Couple those challenges with the nagging shoulder pain I was having and some time off sounded like the best medicine. I did that… Rested….for a YEAR! Here I was in my mid-40’s and I became a “dog walker”. Nothing wrong with walking the dog, the dog kind of liked it. But, when that is your exercise program and you have been “athletic” the majority of your life, it feels like giving up.
So July of 2016 rolls around and I finally made a decision. The nagging shoulder was either going to show itself to be a serious shoulder injury requiring surgery or it was going to get better with strength work. It was not getting better with time. By the way, neither was the stiff back, hip pain, or any of the other ailments I would experience as I entered my later 40’s. Flashback, four years early when I had visited CrossFit 1889 (where we are members) to “check it out”. A friend of mine owns it so I wanted to see what this was all about. After one class I said NO WAY would I ever do that! I would die and be an injured mess! But, I needed a solution. Here’s what I’ve learned since I began:
CrossFit lesson #1 Walk Before You Run
I was warned about all the injuries I would experience and how the Orthopedic Doctor would become a regular line item in my budget with this new found hobby. What I discovered is by learning proper technique AND using weight/resistance that is challenging to me, but not ridiculous, I gained strength and confidence in the movements. As I remained consistent with workouts 5 days per week, my strength and stamina increased and the shoulder pain decreased!
CrossFit lesson #2 Competing with Others can Hurt you
About six months after getting started with CrossFit, everything was going well until I heard about this world-wide event called “The Open”! You may be familiar with the CrossFit Games. Well, the Crossfit Games event is the World Series of CrossFit that starts for every athlete with The Open. The Open is a series of workouts completed one workout per week over 5-6 weeks where your score is compared against other athletes around the world in your age group for a chance to move on to Regional level competitions. These workouts are very demanding and, for a competitive person, a great opportunity to get hurt! So I “competed” in The Open that first year and, upon it’s completion, lost a week of training due to muscle spasms in my back! However, I didn’t learn this lesson fully yet! A few months later this thing called the Festivus Games came up. This was a competition against other athletes live and in living color. While these workouts were built for the novice/beginner, “non-Games” athlete, it was still competition. This was a great test; one that I both passed and failed. I WON my segment of the competition! I brought home a 1st Place medal to prove it. However, one of the events was a maximum weight, one-repetition Power Clean. I set my Personal Record for max weight lifted, but tweaked my knee. Won the prize AND more time off to heal, along with a knee brace, swelling and more modified workouts for over a year. (Still haven’t had the knee checked, but that’s another story.)
Here’s the lesson: As long as I was competing with ME, I was making progress – getting stronger, feeling good and really finding my groove. As soon as my target was to beat somebody else, I ran into a wall. The injury bug has only visited in competition with others. Lesson learned: compete with me, work on me, become a better me. By the way, as I embrace that philosophy I have not only improved, but my “standing” in the Box has improved as well.
CrossFit Lesson #3 Measurable Progress
One of the things I love about CrossFit is that we track our work. After every workout we log our results into an app so we can see progress over time. The app also allows us to see how we stacked up that day with other athletes in our Box, but many of us keep that information private. This is about measuring my progress against me, see lesson #2.
Two of the many “named” workouts in CrossFit are Grace and Nancy. The story goes that these “named” workouts are named after former girlfriends based on how nasty the breakup or relationship experience was deemed to be by the workout creator. My interpretation? None of these girls were nice and all these workouts are hard. Grace is a fast workout of 30 reps of Clean and Jerks at a prescribed weight of 135 pounds. Nancy is a longer workout including 5 rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats at 95 pounds. We call these “benchmark” workouts, as we do them periodically to measure our progress.
It just so happens we did both Grace and Nancy within the first few weeks of our start at CrossFit 1889 and we did them both again within a week of our second anniversary. The details don’t matter to you as a reader, but I will share them anyway. First of all, I have not completed Grace as prescribed (or RX) yet. Two years ago, I used 95 pounds and took 5:49 to complete the 30 reps. This year, I used 115 pounds and cut the time to 4:23. Forward progress is so exciting! If I were competing with anyone but myself, I would be disappointed in what I didn’t do – the RX weight. However, it’s progress! Nancy is a much longer workout which we have done three times over the two year period. August of 2016, I used a 45 pound bar for this workout and completed it in 19:39. January of 2017, I upped the weight to 75 pounds and improved to a time of 17:59. A couple weeks ago, I stayed at 75 pounds, but cut my time to 16:56. As you see, still not RX, but great progress! Did I mention that I will be 49 very soon? Ya, that can be an issue!
The lesson here is to have goals and measure your progress. Only measure YOUR progress, not in comparison to anyone else. They aren’t you, don’t have your challenges and don’t live your life. Be you and be your best.
CrossFit Lesson #4 Consistent and Persistent
This one is for free! Making forward progress will never occur without persistent and consistent effort. Anything less makes your goals into wishes. Branda and I workout 4-5 times a week (5 way more than 4). Though we are encouraged to take rest days, we know that consistency is way more important for us. I also know that progress for me is different than it is for my 27 year old friends at the Box. Whether it is a fitness goal, financial goal, relationship goal, or any other type of goal, it will not come to reality without consistent and persistent effort. Stay the course and keep moving forward!
Where are you making progress? I’d love to hear your story.
Steve