The Lazy Crossfitter

Kermit's Awesome at Yoga

Today I discovered something very, very sad.  It turns out that I have lazy shoulders.  In fact, I believe I may actually be a lazy crossfitter.  This morning I started off with a yoga class.  I love yoga because it forces me to feel all of those muscles in my body and you really can't ignore them when they scream at you.  Your teacher's like, "hold that pose for three more breaths," and you're like, "holy shit, how long is a breath?"  And your muscles laugh at you and tell you how you've been ignoring them all this time.  You think to yourself, "I am a crossfitter, I am strong and I have large muscles that lift big, heavy things" and your muscles just chuckle.  "Try holding your arm straight above your head," they say.  "Reach down and touch the floor while your back leg is straight and your front leg is in a lunge, keeping it in a 90 degree angle, tough guy."
Normally when this kind of smack talk is bandied about, I ignore it by thinking about what I'm going to have for lunch when I'm done and dreaming about what I'm going to make for dinner.  And what I might have for snack in between.  Today, for some reason, I decided to listen.  And they stopped screaming and started telling me the truth.  They told me that during my crossfit workouts, in order to get through the full thing, I try to conserve energy.  I power through moves using the least amount of effort as possible.  I do this instead of using my full body.  A part of me thought I was being smart, but the truth is I was being kind of a wuss, afraid of it hurting a bit.  The problem is, at some point, you stop getting stronger because those muscles you've been neglecting are important.  I have been stumped on a few maneuvers that I should have been progressing on.  For me, it's over head squats, pushups, hand stand pushups and handstands.  They stump me.  I'm pretty strong, but no progress.
After a quick lesson from the yoga instructor today on how to position my arms for down dog, I noticed there were some muscles that I haven't been engaging to avoid getting tired.  But I realize that had I been doing my best to keep them active from day one, they'd be stronger today, and I would be further along in a couple of moves.  After doing some shoulder and back work, I tried out some overhead squats with those muscles engaged and banged out some sturdy, smooth reps at a normally heavy weight for me.  I made sure to keep my shoulder blades together and it totally changed my ability to hold the weight over my head.
I learned about the muscles in my arms that I need to strengthen and stop ignoring.  I learned that I need to engage my whole body in every move.  I need to be aware of when I should be flexing and when to relax.  And stop being a lazy crossfitter.

Before you get upset, I'm not talking about modifying.  I modify the crap out of a workout to find the right weight, the right reps that will challenge me, make me stronger.  It will make it safer, and will make injury less likely.  Find the right weight then engage your whole body in the workout.  If you're exhausted, try your best to stay engaged.  I'm going to do my best from now on.

What do you think?  Are you guilty of the same?  Do you completely disagree?  Love to hear from you in the comments!

Stress is Strong!

I have been eating really well since the beginning of this challenge.  I've been mostly paleo with some tastes of things here and there to see how I handle it.  (Except for last weekends Hallowine, see the previous post for that story, LOL)  Wednesday night I came home and Nathan was upset about something and we had a small argument and MAN! stress drives me straight to the carbs.  Let's see, I want to remember correctly what I ended up eating.  I had already made a pork roast and small salt potatoes.  The potatoes were for Nathan and they were drowned in butter.  I had a few of those- maybe 3.  Then after dinner I had a slice of the leftover pizza from the weekend.  A thin crust meat lovers from pizza hut.  I saw myself spinning out of control and grabbed some raisins and walnuts and some chocolate.  It's hard to be totally honest about this, I keep wanting to make my eating habits sound better than they are.  Funny!

Anyway, my stomach is quite upset about Wednesdays shenanigans, still.  I feel bloated and gassy.  That's what I get.  Tonight I'm going dancing for Joanna's birthday.  It's a halloween bash through Arthur Murray.  Nathan's going to join me, so we're going to be late.  We're going to miss the pre-game cocktails, but that's okay because I really don't think I want to drink tonight.  I'm interested to know if Nathan's going to want to dance or not once we get there.  Hope so, that would be very cool.
I may try crossfit again in the morning.  I'm interested to know if their open house workout is always the same.  Or maybe yoga?  Don't know yet.  Last week I went to yoga and it was the one day that that particular instructor has ever cancelled.  Figures.  A sign?  Who knows....

Yoga

I'm going to round out this week with a yoga class at the Y.  It's been a while, hopefully I won't embarrass myself too bad.  I am the proud owner of some new t-shirt yoga pants I made last night, though, so it shouldn't be too bad.  I may stop at the Salvation Army afterwards and grab some more XL or XXL t-shirts.  These pants are super comfy and only took me a little while.  I've got to field test them today, then I'll make a few more if they're good for stretching.  I didn't even finish off my edges.  Last night when shopping I picked up a 90% cacao chocolate bar.  I had one square of it and that was perfect.  It's just bitter enough that you don't want to down a whole bar, but it satisfies that craving.  I'm starting to enjoy a lot of my food in much simpler form.  My coffee black, my chocolate more and more cacao and less sugar.  A good rare steak, a burger with a fried egg on top.  Veggies with salt and nothing else.  This year has been an awesome wake up call for me, to pay attention to my food and what exercise I'm doing and WHY.  I've learned to question conventional wisdom in all of it's forms, from what popular doctors say to do or take, to what religious leaders in different religions tell you to do, to what the government tells us to eat, to what exercises are good for you and why.  I've been questioning everything and trying to get to the root of it.  Why is it important?  Do I need all of this excess?  Is there a way I can simplify it and have it be just as awesome/tasty/effective?  Turns out most things in life can be way simpler and just as great.  Okay, on my way to yoga.  Have a great afternoon!

Update: Yoga was cancelled because the instructuor was having a tough day.  She was crying and I can only assume that something happened recently, she thought she could teach the class, but she was crying and couldn't do it.  So, I hiked the pillboxes.  I did the whole thing on my own for the first time, all the way around to the end of the Loop and back to the parking spaces.  The pants were fine except that if you are going to use t-shirt pants for hiking/jogging/running, you will want to add a tie to the waist.  As I got sweatier the pants got a little looser and they started to fall down a little.  Not too much, but enough for me to be hitching them up every once in a while.  The fold of material held my keys well when I rolled them up.  I ended up rolling down the waist band a whole bunch so I could pull them up easy every time they sagged a little.  Good pants, great I'm sure for yoga, some modifications necessary for running/jogging/hiking.

Here's where I got the initial pattern