Oops. I did it again.

Does this look familiar?  It's the same exact injury I got in December.  And I did it the same way: box jumps.*

The funny(?) thing is, when I woke up this morning and saw that the daily workout at my gym involved box jumps, I knew I was going to fall. 

I don't think I psyched myself out, though.  By the time the workout started, I had forgotten all about my premonition.  Also, I slipped on my 65th jump, with only seven seconds left on the clock out of a 20 minute workout.  If it was psychological, I would have fallen earlier.  Right?  Instead, I'm pretty sure I slipped because I was scrambling to get in a few more reps before time was up.  

I'm told that I'll do better if I look straight ahead and let my feet find the top of the box from muscle memory.  I tend to look where I'm leaping, but I'm willing to give that a shot.  The other thing that would help is a box with sides.  The scraping happens when you miss the top and your leg goes under the box.  This couldn't happen if there were solid sides.  Perhaps I'll buy the gym a present.

I realize this doesn't look like much in the photo.  In the grand scheme of things, it's not a particularly impressive injury.  Still, it's a bruise, and it's right on top of where I bruised last time, so it hurts.  As does my pride.  Poor me.

-Gym Belle-

*Jumping on and off of a box

Pistols

Yesterday's workout at CrossFit Metropolis involved 65 ring dips and 65 ring dips done in sets of 25 each, then 20 each, then 15, 10 and five.   I arrived at the gym early, while the previous group was finishing up.  It was great.  There's nothing like seeing a room full of strong athletes falling on their butts over and over again.  I knew I wouldn't fare much better with the pistols, but it was still pretty entertaining.

A pistol is essentially a one legged squat.  You stick one leg out straight in front of you, and down and up you go. 

When I first tried pistols at CrossFit, I expected to be pretty good at them.  As a little kid figure skating, we did basically the same thing except that you'd glide forward throughout the movement.  The skill was called shoot the duck, and I remembered it being really fun.  I don't know if it's the lack of forward momentum, my age or both, but doing pistols on dry land as a grown up is not exactly "fun."  I can get down, but once I'm there, gravity kicks in and I fall back on my butt.  Every single time.

To make last night's workout doable, I put a medicine ball behind me.  Squatting back towards the ball kept me from going down past where I can't stand up again.  In the past, I've done pistols while holding on to a pole.  I definitely felt like using the ball was a more effective way for me to scale.  When I use the pole, I end up using my arms to pull me up, even when I try not to.  With the ball, that's just not possible. 

It should come as no surprise that I am super sore today.  But maybe next time they come up in a workout, I'll be able to do pistols unassisted.

I'll keep you posted.

-Gym Belle-

A Goal is Born

Last week I had the flu.  I didn't work out.  I didn't do much of anything.  Yesterday, I finally made it back to yoga and today I went to CrossFit.

I did five pullups without leaving the bar.  That was a PR by two pullups, so I was pretty pysched.  (I'm really hoping that it wasn't just because I didn't eat much last week!)

Then we did Fight Gone Bad.  FGB is one of my favorite workouts, but it's a rough one to come back to after being sick.  I did not PR.  In fact, my score dropped by 30 points from 229 to 199.  (Although I did use 45 lbs barbells this time and last time I used 42 lbs barbells, so that probably cost me a few reps.)  Anyway, I wasn't expecting much today so I wasn't too disappointed. 

I did come to a decision, though.  I really want to do this workout as it's prescribed for women.  That means using 55 lb barbells for the sumo deadlift high pulls and push presses, and 14 lbs for the wall balls instead of 10.  I'm going to make this happen in 2011.

I'll keep you posted.

-Gym Belle