Houston we have... progress?

Over the past few weeks, I've somehow managed to stick to my WOD's at the box, and I've nailed down a few solid PR's. It's great because it's showing me that despite everything that's going on, I can still hang in there and do good things. I'm making some pretty good progress. I've had a lot of people comment to me about the OHS and even on the snatch that I did too, and while their comments were well intentioned it made me feel, well for lack of a better word, a little squirmy.

I posted about this awhile back, but felt, especially after this week, that now would be a great time to post a little bit on the idea of heavy weights and progress. When I started with CF almost two years ago now, I was, well, rough around the edges. I couldn't do the metcons quickly at all, I couldn't lift heavy weights, I couldn't do HALF of the movements correctly... I was basically a blank canvas, an unsanded piece of wood if you will.

It took time, but gradually things got better. It never gets EASIER, CF will always smoke you, always hurt, because as soon as you've got the movements, then it's time for RX'd rounds. Once you have that, then RX'd weight. It's always something. But keep in mind that developing all these movements and all these muscles that you need for these movements takes time. 3 weeks? 6 weeks? 3 months? It all depends on your fitness level before you came to CF and it will be different for everyone. Keep track of your own progress but don't base your WOD or your weight on someone else. Don't think you suck because of what someone else does. You don't know their background, their history. Be diligent, but be patient. It will come. We don't lift ALL the time. If we did, we'd never have form faults because it would be second nature, but we rotate the movements intentionally so that our WOD's are varied, so unless you spend a lot of time doing extra skill work, it's going to take you awhile to develop some of the more complex and complicated skills like snatches and cleans.

Last week I had more than one person say to me that they can NEVER lift as much as me, and they can't possibly do the WOD's like me. DON'T do that to yourself. I'm not you. I have a long background in swimming which gives me wickedly strong shoulders. Do you swim? Competitively for 15 years? Then your fitness path won't mirror or mimic mine. Do you have shoulder problems? Previous injuries? Then you path isn't the same as mine. Your fitness path is just that. YOURS. Regardless of your weights, your rounds, your reps, your times, it's all about YOU. Keep a log or blog or journal of your WOD's. Chart YOUR progress and F everyone else. Chances are you joined CF because there was something you wanted to change about yourself or something you wanted to do for yourself. Don't lose sight of that just because you started staring at a white board.

To be honest, sometimes I don't record my times because just finishing the WOD is an accomplishment for me. Sometimes, we all need to do that. Turn off the competition mode. It's all about you. Don't compare yourself to me, or to anyone else for that matter. I know it's hard to look at everyone else and not be where they are, but part of CF is learning about yourself. Your strengths, your weaknesses, your limits. Some days I still want to be as strong as other people, but I have to remember that I'm me. I don't have the same background as those people, and I need to work on my strengths and my weaknesses, like RUNNING. :P Don't get discouraged by where you aren't, be proud of where you are. Not everyone even has the strength to walk into the box, so keep gettin' in there and gettin' some! That's progress!a

Before this....



There was this....