Dead set!

Of all the things we do with a barbell, the deadlift seems to be my weakest movement. I'm never really sure of myself when it comes to deadlifts and I am always terrified of pulling out my back or doing something really nasty to myself. So, needless to say, anytime deads come up, I kind of bow my head and go to the box just because I know I need to to them.

I didn't really feel good, like, WOW! I feel awesome pulling today! But I felt ok. I felt like I was doing a better job of keeping my back flat then before, and so I felt like I was doing a better job. I pulled all the way up through 245 pretty easily, and for this being my weakness, I felt like that was pretty awesome. I pulled 255 with a little bit of an "eh" factor. You know, where there's a slight round but not enough to be concerned. So, I decided to go for a 265 pull. I got it up, but there was no denying the round. I watch the video and cringe. I really need to work more on driving out of my heels on the set up. In every video of my, my butt shoots up first, and then I pull. This of course greatly decreases your ability to pull. It feels awful because I never get to that leg shakey, giving out point. That's how I know it's a max, but I never get there. I always have a form fault before I can ever find out how high I can go. It's somewhat frustrating. But, having said that, I will continue to work on it. Perhaps next time we do a dl day, I will stay low and focus on driving off of my heels. I guess that should be my focus instead of all the heavy weight. With the better form, heavier weight will come. If you build it, they will come.... ;)

Strict Press X 1

After coming back on Monday to a wod with ring dips, I wasn't feeling super duper stoked about seeing strict presses. I am a wuss, and I was totally sore. But, soreness be darned! I was going to the box on Tuesday. I felt tight while warming up, but as I lifted more, I loosened up quite a bit. I don't honestly remember what all my jumps were, but I was taking my good old sweet time.

I have always honestly thought that strict press is a whole other ball of wax. Smaller jumps, IMHO, are always better because it's all on your shoulders. In a push press or a jerk, you're using hips to help you lift that bar. With strict press you are relying purely on your shoulder strength. Unlike the push press or jerk etc., you can't rely on your hips to help you lift that weight. The difference between 96 and 97 lbs can be HUGE when you're JUST using your shoulders. I know people probably think I'm weird because it takes me 20 minutes just to warm up, but I honestly feel like I need that. It works for me, but maybe not for everybody.

Regardless, once I loosened up, I felt pretty solid and put 95 up for 1. Unless I'm mistaken (and I might be because god knows I can't trust my brain right now...it's way overloaded) that is a new strict press PR. Woot! I heart PR's.... and it seems like I hit a skid so hitting a PR helps me feel like I'm back on track. So, here's to PR's and gettin' back on track! :)

Clean up on aisle 9!

Being sick all last week kept me from getting to the box. I was running a low grade fever until Friday of last week. It was a miserable two week run to say the least, but I'm feeling better. Not terrific, but better these days. So, I decided Monday was the day. I needed to get back to the box. So, I did, and boy what a doozy to come back to!

4 RFT
9 MU's (sub 9 dips/9 chins)
9 Squat cleans (100lb)
400 M run

Time- 30:23

Wow. This was a total thrashing. We haven't squat cleaned in a good long while, and wow man did that 100lbs feel super heavy. Just wow. Not to mention, my metcon has gone in the crapper thanks to the schedule that I've been working and being out cause I was sick. Poopy poopy metcon. But, regardless, it was good to be back in the box and back to CF. I was hoping to bring this in under 25:00 but it was not to be today. I'm glad I got back though. The people in the box are so supportive of me, and just in general great people to be around. When I'm not in the box, I miss them. Even if some of them do make fun of me all the time. SONI! :P Hopefully I will not contract the bubonic plague again and I won't miss anymore time in the box!

Are we afraid of commitment?

I want you to take a moment and think about your life and all the things in it that you've committed to. No seriously, think about it. Most of us have car payments that we've taken for 3-5 years, mortgages for 20-30 years, marriages, fiances, jobs, student loan debt until we're dead, credit card debts until we get around to paying them off, and let's not forget our contracts with our cell phones, computers, pda's, and all the other fun toys that we've financed all so that we can be technologically savvy. Looking at this list, it would seem that we are pretty deep into our commitments and that we're not scared of it at all.

But I want you to stop and think a moment about another aspect of your life. I want you to stop and think about your health and fitness. We're all just fine signing away years of our lives for new houses and new toys, but when it comes to what really matters, when it comes to our health, our well being, it doesn't quite seem to measure up.

You can't turn on the tv these days it seems without somehow landing on an informercial for the latest workout craze which can have you lean and amazing in less than 20 minutes a day 3 times a week, or in as little as 6 minutes a day! There are constantly diet ads, new pills, and a variety of assorted gizmos and gadgets designed to help you get fit with you actually doing very little work. Isn't the idea of being fit and healthy all about doing work and well, getting in shape? To me, the pieces of this puzzle just don't seem to quite fit.

I've had friends and other aquaintances who have decided not to join a gym because they felt a year was too long of a commitment to make. But yet these are some of the very same people who will turn right around and go sign a two year contract with Verizon so they can get the newest Blackberry on the market. It just doesn't seem to add up to me. In reality, which is more important? Your health or your Blackberry?

If your Blackberry is good enough for a two year commitment why isn't your health? I get frustrated because it seems to happen so often with people. People walk through the door of the box, and not just ours, but any box, and don't understand why they can't automatically do things, why they can't just throw massive weights over their heads. Being fit and getting back in shape is a commitment, it's like your car, and I don't understand why when it boils right down to it some people are absolutely commitmentphobic. It's going to take you five years to pay off that car. Why do you automatically expect that in 3 weeks you'll be able to snatch and jerk like a pro? You were willing to dig in and work your hiney off for that HD tv you bought, why aren't you willing to give that same time frame for your body to progress?

I've had people who've been around CF for just a short while tell me that they're never going to be able to lift like me, and that makes me very uncomfortable. Not only am I really horrible at taking compliments and the like, I feel like they're selling themselves short. I almost feel like it's like that loan car loan, only, they're trying to stop paying on the loan before the term is up. You can't just jump in and assume that CF will be a quick fix. CF will produce results, but you have to commit to giving it time. And not 1 month, or even 2, but sometimes it may take a year or more. You have to remember that the work you are putting in is undoing MONTHS and YEARS of destructive behavior. Not only with regards to your eating, but also in terms of exercise. Bad habits are learned AND unlearned over a period of time.

Look, if you had told me two years ago that I'd be lifting 175 lbs over my head in a few years, I'd probably have laughed at you. I was ready to put in the work and get busy at CFOT, but in my wildest dreams I never thought this sort of stuff was possible for me. But the bottom line is though, that I stuck with it, and all my really awesome great success stuff that everybody likes to ooh and ah over, has really only happened in about the last 7 months or so. It takes time. Stop trying to duck your car payment and get busy with it already. You know, the more you put in, the faster it gets paid off. So dude, hit the box already. Ditch the prepackaged dinners, the diet plans, and don't sell yourself short. Commitment is great dude, not scarey. So hell, let's get some tin cans and a cake and get 'er done already!! ;)

Thank you to my athletic supporters who make Team Katie possible...

Over the past few weeks, I've not been quite myself. I've been a little on the down side and not to mention very busy. I've not been able to keep up with all my blogger friends out in blogger land and that makes me sad. I like reading all about what everyone else is up to, and it bothers me that I haven't been able to do that. But regardless of what I've been able to do, I've had some VERY loyal followers who have been around to celebrate my successes and be there for me when I've gotten down no matter what. They've been right there to give me support and leave comments and send emails to get me back on my feet again. Guys, I'm so sorry that I'm not able to keep up with all of you, but I love you all and thank you so much for being a part of Team Katie. It is so wonderful to find comments and emails from you offering your support not only for me when I'm having success, but also when I've strayed from the path. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by an absolutely AMAZING bunch of friends and supporters, and it's really them that make Team Katie possible. Without them, Katie just really wouldn't be in any shape to have a team! So, to all my supporters in bloggerland, facebook land, and at the box... a million and one thank yous!!!! (Oh and PS if you haven't friended me on FB why the crap not?!?!?! Get on it!) :)

Don't call it a comeback...

Despite another low grade fever I couldn't stay out of the box today. It was jerks X 1. Did you really think I'd be able to stay away? Don't call it a comeback from being sick. Despite it not feeling good 175 went overhead for 1. Just call this a good lifting day. It felt good to be back in the box even if the lifting didn't feel good. I'd be interested to see where I am now, I mean, healthy that is. Maybe in another month or two when this has faded we'll really see. I'm excited to be getting so close to that 200lb mark. Maybe by Christmas? We'll see... it just might happen... it might. :) That could be my Christmas present to myself..... :)

I heart Jon Gilson

Since Justa sent it to me... I decided to post it today... Jon Gilson has a reminder for all the ladies out there... it was just what I needed today! Thanks a million Justa... well and Jon for writing it. ;)

If I were feeling a little more lawless, I’d gather all the copies of Cosmo and Seventeen, douse them in kerosene, and strike a match. I’d throw in reams of print ads from Calvin Klein and watch with delight as Kate Moss’ stick-thin image was reduced to carbon. I’d add copies of Shape and Runner’s World until the flames reached toward the heavens, and then I’d crank call the editorial desk at Muscle and Fitness until they stopped publishing pictures of women on steroids.

I’d get the master tapes of America’s Next Top Model and dub over them with “Nasty Girls”, broadcasting the results on every television station in America. I’d skywrite “CrossFit.com” across the Boston skyline, and gently admonish the hoards of long distance runners trotting along the Charles River—with a bullhorn.

I’d take every woman with mass media-induced ideals of beauty, and I’d show them what it really means to be beautiful.

Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads.

They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.

Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope.

They spend their weekends in sport, climbing walls, winning races, and running rivers. They laugh as they sprint circles around the unschooled, turning the image-obsessed into benchwarmers. Beautiful women don’t care if they’re soaked in sweat and covered in dirt, if their nails are chipped or their hair out of place. They care only about quality of life.

Beautiful women are happy, healthy, and strong, and they’re right there beside me, tossing conventional beauty on the ever-growing flames of what used to be.

Be beautiful.

You can visit Jon's original post here