Posts Tagged ‘ Fitness ’

Stay Active Even in a Blizzard


Whoa, being snowed in for seven days has been….well, interesting. It is amazing how much my motivation went out the window when you don’t have a car and you can’t leave your house without wadding through 14 inches of snow! And don’t forget people, we live in OKLAHOMA. This much snow is a record for our state. Usually we are lucky if we get 3-4 inches in one sitting here in T-Town, but 14? Sheesh. They were actually calling it The Snowcalypse of 2011! Cars were littered all over the street, buses were stuck blocking entire intersections and most grocery store shelves were completely picked clean.

Fortunately, we were able to get out one day (when the temp was above negative 6 degrees) and have a little fun. As you can see by the 10 foot tall igloo in the picture above…we had a blast. Which brings me to the theme of today. Even when the weather isn’t perfect, or cooperating at all, you are stuck inside due to a blizzard, or any other natural disaster that could be messing up your days there are always ways to stay active and keep your body going.

A few ideas to keep you active in the next Snowcalypse you encounter:

1. Shovel your driveway, and the neighbors (if they deserve it).  If you have a weight vest, even better! Strap that baby on and see how fast you can get it done.

2. Have a massive snow ball fight. It could be with your kids, neighbors, friends, whatever. Nothing gets your heart beating more than running from or chasing someone with an arsenal of snowballs. Talk about a good time.

3. Attempt some new recipes you wouldn’t have time for regularly. I found myself stuck inside with a lot of extra time on my hands, what better way to spend the day then trying that new Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry recipe I have been eyeing (pictures/post to come)

4. Do a few WODs in your house. Not all workouts need weights, you can do a great workout with nothing but your body. Try: 10 rounds – 10 burpees (click here to see how a burpee is done) and 20 sit-ups. Time yourself and see how fast you can get it done.

5. Rocky it up! Pile on the clothes and try for a neighborhood 5K. (make sure you have some nice sweat pants for your attire to really get you in the mood.

So there you have it. 5 fun ways to stay active when the weather tries to keep you in. Check back soon because I will be posting my the results of my Snowy Paleo Muffins!

Cheers!

Stay Active, Stay Healthy, Stay Warm, and smile!

2011
02/07
CATEGORY
Healthy Living
Tulsa
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Elbow…Shmelbow…

Soooo…I’m having some MAJOR elbow issues! I broke my elbow pretty much in half when I was in first grade and had to wear a bright red cast (my favorite color) for months which kept my elbow in a strict right angle for far too long. Unfortunately I remember everything from that day including the weird way my arm was bent…not normal. How did this happen you ask?? Well I may or may not have been double dog dared to do a cherry drop off the monkey bars, and who could turn down a double dog dare?

Not this girl. So up I went….and down I came, hard, popping my elbow and breaking it. Afterwards my elbow healed and with some therapy I was back to full range of motion plus some. When looking at my elbow it seems to actually straighten too much, a lot of hyperextension for ya. Which is great to freak people out at a party but not so

great in the overhead squat area.

So what are the main points of an overhead squat besides tight lumbar curve and weight on the heels…oh yes. Active shoulders. Exactly. The flexibility and shoulder strength come but a person can’t do a good, heavy overhead squat without active shoulders. Which is exactly what I tell myself when I’m setting up for a lift. Now, fast forward into a WOD…AMRAP in 20 of 10 overheads, etc. Round 3 comes into play and suddenly my hyperextended elbow can’t support the weight so it has to bend slightly to take the tension off the hyperextended joint. My elbow is actually straight when I bend it slightly which is great except a bent elbow carries hardly any strength. This therefore doubles the effort to get active shoulders because the strength is focused on keeping the elbow bent instead of pushing the shoulders up into the ears and pressing out. With my left elbow bent, my right has to support all of the weight and yep, you guessed it, there go my active shoulders and my ability to lift anything heavy overhead in a wide overhead grip. Grrr.

So here I sit, wondering how I will be able to fix a problem that stems from my bone structure and not a mobility issue. I am going to work with the overhead squat to see if different grip widths will help, but without a locked elbow and active shoulders I don’t see much heavy overhead squatting in my future.

I am going to work on this and hopefully give some updates in the near future… Anyone else have this problem??

2010
12/14
CATEGORY
Crossfit
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I’m BACK!

Hello World!

Yes, I know… For shame! I am hanging my head right now at my long and sad absence from writing in this blog. It was not without lots and lots of guilt if that makes you feel better. I actually had bookmarked my blog address at the top of my browser and every single day when I would get on the internet I would look up and feel incredibly guilty for not writing. I could claim life, work, and everything else in between has kept me away, but there truly is no excuse for being gone this long.

So, here I am. I am not going to wait for a New Year’s Resolution to get this thing going again. For one, because that hardly ever works and two, because hopefully if I can get back into the swing of things, writing here will be more of a habit and not so much of a chore. So there you have it!

Updates are definitely in order! I am incredibly excited to announce that in September of this year, (my 2 year Crossfit anniversary Yay!) I got certified! Woo Hoo! I am officially a Level 1 Certified Instructor! Since then I have begun teaching at my affiliate and it is probably the most rewarding and fun thing I have ever done and the certification itself was an amazing experience. Besides the fact that we were in the presence of some Crossfit All Stars, we pretty much got a 48 hour non stop Crossfit workout! Who could ask for anything more!  Our Certification was in Allen, TX and our instructors included Miranda Oldroyd, Russel Berger, and Todd Widmann to name a few. They were absolutely amazing teachers and I learned more about Crossfit than I ever thought possible.

Although it was fun and exciting I definitely can’t say it was easy. Besides the fact that we literally had to memorize a 125 page manual before even showing up, at the end of the weekend they make you regurgitate all of the information on a 50 question multiple choice test. So the girls and I spent almost every waking minute of the weekend that we weren’t working out, studying and quizzing each other off of flash cards that we made. I can speak for all of us and say we were absolutely stressed out to the max! None of us wanted to be the one lady out of the group to fail the test and have to come back and face our affiliate, not to mention the awkward 5 hour drive home.

But after much anxiety and many kind words of encouragement from Miranda,

we all passed with flying colors! Hooray! And now we are officially Crossfit Certified!

And I am happily training at Crossfit Jenks. I started teaching the On Ramp class, Monday and Wednesdays at 6:30 pm and Saturday at 11:00 am. So if you are thinking of trying out Crossfit and not quite sure if it is for you, come out and try a free introductory class on Saturday!

Besides being an amazing workout and stress reliever, it is constantly varied and never gets boring. And I promise to be nice the first day 🙂

That is all I have for now. I promise to not be a stranger and keep up with the Paleo tips and Crossfit updates! Until next time! Stay active, stay healthy, and smile!

2010
12/03
CATEGORY
Crossfit
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I’m picking up Good Vibrations

Alright, enough is enough. Time to come out and admit. I am competing at Hell’s Half Acre Regionals for Crossfit. There. I said it. And even as I am typing this my stomach is doing flip-flops. To say I am nervous about the challenge ahead is probably a grandiose understatement. I am terrified. Hell, convincing me to compete in the Oklahoma Sectionals was probably like pulling teeth for many of my friends. Encouragement and kind words were only the beginning. My confidence was not exactly where it should have been for the competition that was in Tulsa on March 13th and 14th. Finally, I reluctantly signed up and then focused on my weaknesses for the months and weeks leading up to Sectionals. I don’t think that my nerves calmed for even a second that entire month and included many sleepless nights of worry.

All in all I am glad I competed. I ended up coming in 8th which I was happy about. I know I could have done a lot better on my first wod but was very happy with my performance on the second and third. I know what I need to improve on and what I excel at. I have found overall the Crossfit is a very humbling yet fulfilling activity. I have been humbled countless times during a workout that I thought I would kill…many a lady’s workout (cough…Isabel) had me frustrated and red-faced on the side of the gym, cursing the high heavens in anger. But then there are other times when I walk into a wod, stomach in knots, and unsure of my abilities only to knock one out of the park. Crossfit keeps me guessing and has mentally pushed me harder than I ever thought was possible in my life.

And now, onward to Regionals. Again I will be tested and hopefully will succeed. Another major reason I started this Paleo Challenge was to see improvements in my performance and training specifically for Regionals. So far I haven’t seen any physical differences which, I’ll admit, being a lady and all makes this whole thing very frustrating. But physical results aside, I have to say that Monday night was the first time I actually thought, “Hey maybe this Paleo eating is helping me become stronger and faster”. We had an affiliate team tryout and because I couldn’t come on Saturday, I had to do all three super secret wods in about two hours that night.

Man, I stressed all day and my motivation was lacking. After I showed up and found out what the wods were my confidence wasn’t any better. The wods included running, thrusters, kettlebells, snatches, rowing, etc. I know I looked like a scared puppy dog as I read the board. Oh lord, what did I get myself into. After brief warm up and stretching we dove into WOD #1. Ok, that wasn’t as bad as I thought. I tried to pace with the boys and ended up finishing first, much to my surprise. Now came a few max lifts. Knowing my abilities on these I wasn’t surprised with my snatch results, but was very excited about how the kettlebells went. Have I ever mentioned how I love kettlebells.  Finally WOD #3 and what looked like the hardest to me. In my head I just kept telling myself that it was the last one and I could push through the pain.

End result: very good. I ended up tying with the leading lady at our affiliate. She is amazing at Crossfit and always pushes me to be better.  I felt strong and was full of energy which was unexpected considering that I had just done three workouts. Now, I just hope this feeling keeps up!

This Paleo challenge has been hard for me and I have definitely hit some speed bumps. But I can truly say that I am stronger than I was yesterday and tomorrow I will be stronger than I am today, and that my friends, is progress.

2010
04/28
CATEGORY
Crossfit
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