CrossFit: Double Winning

So I have two foodie loves to share with you today before I crack into what happened in my last two CrossFit classes – plus a WOD you can try for yourself at home.

First up, my beloved Total 0% yoghurt. Ok it might not be new but I made something pretty out of it the other day and wanted to show off.

I give you…

… A strawberry and greek yoghurt rose. I know, little things please little minds. This cheered me up a silly amount!

The second is actually a new love, so a little more exciting. Remember how I talked about doing a health food shop on Saturday? I picked up some sesame snaps with yoghurt..

.. and they are incredible. Seriously good. You have to try! I’m trying to save the chocolate ones for my sister as she loves them but it is hard!

Anyway, enough about my latest food obsession and on to CrossFit. Last time I posted about my class I was a little down about how much effort I’d put in and I wasn’t rocking that ‘top of the world’ feeling a class usually gives me.

I’m pleased to report my last two classes were much better! Here’s what happened:

Saturday

After a quick and sweaty warm up, it was time to crack on with the WOD. We had a new instructor and she was completely brilliant. I felt she really took the time to look at how I was performing each exercise and how my body was responding.

Our warm up was:

- 400m run

- 5 air squats

- 5 push ups

- 5 burpees

The first part of the WOD was the back squat, increasing the weight each time. We performed each weight three times before adding more and trying three more for a total of five times. I managed 22.5kg. I feel like I could have gone a little heavier but it was more important to me to get the technique bang on and do each squat as accurately as possible.

After the back squats, it was time to practise the second part of the WOD. Clean and jerks – and I’m pleased to report I got them bang on!! That’s something I love about CrossFit, the improvements are so clear in just a little time.

And then handstand wall walks. These are where you walk your legs up a wall at the same time as your hands are moving along the floor – so you start in a push up position and end up almost flat against the wall. If that sounds a little odd, here’s a video:

Anyway, I managed two halfs (only getting my legs half way up the wall) in the practise and thought I would be ok when the clock started for the WOD.

Then we were off! The clean and jerks felt great and I felt confident as I ran towards the wall to do my modified version. I got myself into push up, tried to kick up and.. I simply couldn’t. I tried again and again and my legs could not reach up. I’ll be honest and say hot angry tears welled up as everyone else was speeding off to do their next round of clean and jerks.

The instructor couldn’t have been nicer. She tried to show me how to do a handstand but that wasn’t going to work either so we settled for 15 second planks instead.

We ended the WOD after 20 minutes and I was just two planks off completion. But I was so proud that I’d done the cleans well and that I held that many planks – that’s like nine minutes worth. My abs were killing after, I can tell you. In fact, they’ve only just stopped complaining.

Here’s how I matched up to the others:

After the workout I chatted to the instructor about my upper body strength. For ages I’ve been saying that I can’t properly do a push up and feel really weak in my shoulders. Well she completely agreed and said it was something that runners can have.

What I really liked was that she focused on my good points – apparently I’m very flexible (who knew!) and will be able to do well in running WODs and warm ups.

She then gave me a few ideas for at home WODs I can do to boost my strength – here’s one you can try!

A nice way to get sweaty and experience the buzz of racing against the clock – let me know if you give it a try!

Wednesday

We warmed up with a 400m run and some burpees before practising the moves. I was fine with the pull ups and used my usual band for a little assistance.

As you can probably imagine, I was feeling pretty nervous about the handstands because of my complete failure last session. The instructor said we could do them assisted, which is basically with someone helping you to throw your legs up to the wall. Guess what? I could do it!

The WOD started and the pull ups began. What a way to get sweaty! It was hard but I managed 15 in a row before my arms said no, which was good.

Then it was time for the handstand. I got up with the help of my partner (we did the WOD in pairs) and she was so sweet and encouraging. I felt like a kid again, could not believe I was doing handstands and my body felt strong.

After that it was weights time. I struggled with the mechanics of the lift but had it correct after a little help. We were told to add up our scores for each lift (we did four snatches and four cleans). My top snatch was 22.5 and I managed 25 on the clean. Not too shabby!

Here’s how I measured up:

Why yes I did manage 46 seconds on my handstand!!

I was so chuffed that I danced out of the box and phoned James straight away. I actually said: “Hey James, guess what your girlfriend can do? Hold a handstand for 46 seconds. 46 seconds!”. Modesty is one of my attributes, honest!

Can’t wait to get back to the box and try something new, I love how every workout is different – and of course the 400m warm ups help too

 

* What is your last work out achievement? When was the last time you did a handstand? Were you better at cartwheels or handstands when you were younger?

I was always more of a cartwheel girl.. and according to my friends I was still trying to impress people with them in 2009!

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