Congratulations Ralph B. and Drew P., for completing our Elements Workshop curriculum!
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Last Sunday, we asked four questions about athletic development, and, more specifically, yours. Re-read the post and offer your response there. We will contribute ours soon.
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Also, Christy P. gets the latest CrossFit Journal article.
Rest today.
Conversation I just overheard:
Woman: I think I can do like, one pushup
Man: you should be able to do twenty
Woman: I can’t….I’m a woman.
I will now light myself on fire.
yay Christy! our favorite CrossFit girl!
on another note, oddly enough, i used CrossFit to practice for work this week.
for those of you who don’t know me all that well, i am the tuba player in the National Symphony Orchestra.
we played Mahler’s 1st Symphony- an unbelievably beautiful piece of music that has a crap-ass tuba part (happens all the time, actually)- oceans of boredom and nothingness dotted with little islands of sheer terror. i sit on ass for god-knows-how-long while my tuba turns cold, my mouth goes dry and my lips shrivel up. then, all of a sudden i have to play the most tender, subtle, sensitive and exposed passage ever. my heart races, and i go blind and deaf from anxiety. (all with 2500 people watching and listening)
heart racing? going deaf? going blind? does this sound familiar? sounds like just another effing day at MPH to me.
so, in preparation for my little tuba solo, i would do something that got me all worked up (burpees, squat/squat jumps, a sprint, etc- sorry, no deadlifts- didn’t want to lug a barbell to the Kennedy Center) and then force myself to play my excerpt. it was EXTREMELY uncomfortable- midway through the song, my pulse would go berserk, my legs would twitch and my eyes would bug out from hypoxia. but i would make myself play on. it was like i was holding my breath while being winded. i tried to make myself comfortable with this DIScomfort. i did this several times in the week leading up to our performances.
it worked out well- this particular tuba part has kicked my ass in concerts and auditions (i think it cost me a job with the Philly Orch, actually) before and i have a complex about it. the CrossFit practice i used for it mimicked the physiological conditions of being nervous and enabled me to practice executing while under fire. the first concert was not perfect, but the performances got better each time, the final show being the best one with solid tone, pitch and commitment.
an interesting example of how CrossFit carries over into other aspects of life, making us suck less.
now i’m curious, does anyone else have a story like this?
keep squattin’!
Steve D
ps. Sid, im so sorry you had to hear that. :^/
SteveD,
This is why I love you. You are one of the most unique characters I have ever been blessed to call a friend.
Burpees in your tux must be quite uncomfortable. But I assume you wear spandex underneath.
Yes, I have had similar improvements. I say this as I emerge from the wilds of Idaho where I saw immense gains in my kayaking both in stamina and grace. Perhaps even more relevant is that the access to some of these rivers require a great deal of effort in hiking (with boat) and portaging uphill around unrunnable drops; my bros on this trip noticed that my ability in these endeavors was far greater than in the past As we say in kayaking: “you are not a class 5 boater until you can portage quickly an unrunnable rapid.” I am indeed much quicker and more agile than I was a year ago and at 46 keeping up well with the dudes in their 20’s. No doubt that MPH is to thank.
Next up is my hope for hair growth as a result of increased max 3-rep deadlifts.
I miss you all. Moving west for one more week. Back on the 30th. Keep the lights on for me…..
StuLu-Now experimenting with Hypoxia in honor of SteveD
Christy, we are all so proud of you!
I’m not sure about doing a run in downtown DC starting at 12:00 in July. Sounds HOT. Also, kinda expensive.
I’ve been mulling over the June 13 questions and will try to put together something coherent in response.