In the past 10 days I have begun to work out again. Not to have a "I'm better than you" attitude, but I Crossfit, not just work out. Let me put that into a better perspective, first of all, I was never what Crossfit likes to refer to as a fire breather. I'm slow, no matter how hard I work on stamina it just doesn't seem to come to me, and I have been trying to lose that last 15 pounds for two years now. I am still a Crossfitter. Secondly, Crossfit type work outs really do kick some butt!
Three years ago I began this journey. During those three years I have had two, six month stretches of staying out of Crossfit because of my back. One-third of my Crossfit time has been spent not doing Crossfit. Oh how I missed it too. This is coming from someone who never "liked" exercise, but I found my niche with Crossfit. I even went and became a certified Crossfit trainer and Crossfit Kids trainer.
This week it has pained me, literally and figuratively, to get back into the swing of things. Workouts that were somewhat easy before are now difficult at half the weight and 1/3 the reps. My 5 k time, though always pathetic is now 9 minutes slower. I've done two workouts this week with pull-ups. I think my arms and traps are about to fall off. For three days I could barely sit down because my legs hurt so much when I did. Then I had to get back up at some point and that hurt too. This however is not the worse thing to me. It's looking back at what I was able to do before, and having to accept that I may never get back to that point. It may be physically possible, but do I want another 6 months of not being able to do something I really love doing. I even loved the recommended diet that Crossfit recommends for its clients. That's been a struggle to get back into as well, although not quite so painful. Looks like my pride went after the fall.
I am back however. I may never do another workout with a barbell as it is written. I will probably have to drop the weight for most of them. Body weight WOD's will eventually come back to me, maybe not as good as before. One thing I do hope to do better is run. If I can improve in that area, I will be pretty happy. So I may never again deadlift 200 pounds, or "Fran", but it's good to be back!
Lately I have really been focusing less on strength and more on endurance-style workouts, which involve more body-weight exercises. I've realized how much those types of exercises helped me in running, which I REALLY enjoy more than ever. I still add some weight work, but not NEARLY as much (not nearly as much as Laura says I should!). I'm also really focusing on core-strengthening exercises in my warmups... The torso, being the body's center of power, would be more useful if it were built with strength. Not only will it reduce my risk of injury, but I think it really improves my effectiveness in life's everyday activities.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for making your way back, post-injury. Doesn't matter HOW you do it, just that you ARE DOING IT!