So, this week marks the last week of the whole CrossFit bootcamp thing that I’ve been doing. Today’s class had us working rather hard. After the usual bootcamp warm up (though the row was extended to 500m today) we learned how to do the deadlift. At this stage more focus is being put on good form rather than lifting heavily. All the same I was pretty happy that we actually had some plates on the sucker. Once the coach was convinced we had good form we lowered the weight back to something more manageable before we were introduced to our evening’s workout. In this case we had to do 3 rounds of 500m row, 12 deadlifts, 21 box jumps. I was getting good at my box jumps so the coach changed my box to something about 4″ higher. Oh hell, that extra height made a difference. In the few test jumps I felt like I really had to work hard to jump up there. With all of that we started.
Rowing is pretty tiring. There’s a lot of technique involved to make it efficient. I had to keep reminding myself about my positioning to make sure I wasn’t sabotaging myself. My deadlifting technique got better as the reps passed. Back on Friday we learned the movements for the clean and jerk. The clean and jerk involves a lot of the same positions as the deadlift. On that day coach was really getting on my case for not having good positions. My biggest problem that day was that I was rounding my back instead of having my butt out with a tight back. Having a rounded back is apparently dangerous. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the weekend to figure out what I was doing wrong. That actually helped. My improved technique definitely helped me with the deadlifts. For the box jumps, I was obviously well adjusted to the shorter box. For this taller box, I felt like I got winded fairly quickly. Each round I had to break up the 21 box jumps into chunks just to make it through. In the end, I made it through in a decent time for a beginner like me (so says I). I was pretty much wiped out and I needed a minute or two to recover and be able to just breathe normally again. I felt proud to have accomplished something that seems somewhat hardcore. That’s a lot of movement for one workout, you know?
Back when I started out I knew that the program involved a fair bit of weightlifting and interesting movements. I didn’t really realize that things like deadlifts and power cleans would somehow enter my day-to-day life. As I continue to work hard I can tell that I’m getting stronger. I know that I’m really making progress. My weight hasn’t really moved, but I’m feeling the tiniest bit meatier.
Eh…don’t mind this picture. Somehow my black hard hat was the closest hat to me at the time and I was just curious what a vain flexing picture would look like. Anyway.
With all of this positive change, I want to continue with CrossFit beyond the foundations class. I’m raring to join the rest of the people that show up. As long as I continue to work hard I know that things will pay off. I’m willing to put in the work.
This post is kind of meant to give a little bit of insight as to what it’s like in baking class. In today’s baking class we tackled a recipe for soft rolls. Putting it together was fairly simple. There wasn’t anything terribly out of the ordinary in the ingredient list. We got to use the big mixing machines with the big dough hooks to bring it all together. After forming a big ball of dough we covered it in plastic and covered that with a big bowl to let it rise. From there we all gathered back to the front of the class to watch chef demonstrate how to knot the bread. He was very deft in tying the dough. For some of the knots he did it so fast that it was almost a case of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speeds.
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