CrossFit

I have zero athletic skills, no exposure to sports, no balance and very little coordination. As a child, I was surrounded by others who excelled in sports and I was intimidated and discouraged because I wasn't like everyone else. In the last twenty years, I have done aerobics, step aerobics, spinning, kick boxing, basically every program your run-of-the-mill gym offers. I have run off and on including 5k's, 10k's and half-marathons. My fitness level had plateaued and I did not think I could go beyond that - until I found CrossFit.

CrossFit Delaware Valley is my fitness community.  We focus on a combination of track, gymnastics and Oly lifts.  Fitness is measured by improving physical skills such as power, speed, stamina, strength, flexibility, endurance, agility, coordination, balance and accuracy. Go here for a great article on What is Fitness?

Nutrition is also key to the CF concept.  I try to eat a diet based on Zone principles and mostly Paleo. In the Zone you balance your carbohydrates, protein and fat so you end up eating less carbs and more protein and fat.  The Paleo Diet mimics the way our ancestors, hunter-gatherers, used to eat with some modifications. Lean meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. My challenge is ingesting enough protein so my performance does not suffer.

Olympic Lifting

Last weekend, I attended a CrossFit Oly Lifting certificate run by Coach Mike Burgener. This was the first time I had done something like this. I am not a fitness professional, I don't think of myself as a fitness buff and I have never been interested in weight lifting. Olympic lifting is very different from power lifting. In Olympic lifting, you have to be standing and you use your entire body. The movements are very athletic. You don't keep building one muscle, such as your biceps, no, you use your entire body.

Coach Burgener is a kind of a star in the world of Oly lifts. I had never heard of him so I Googled him at the end of the first day and found that he is quite famous. I was first introduced to Oly lifts at CrossFit. I find the entire movement rather complicated and hard to master. You have to be strong, you have to flexible, you have to be precise and fast and you have to pull yourself under the bar. This type of movement does not come naturally to me. Working on them is frustrating. However, Coach B and his staff were really wonderful and at the end of the two days, I felt that I was finally getting it. I began to see nuances and pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. It also became clear to me that the only way I will ever be able to execute Oly lifts properly will by doing them again and again. Breaking the movements down into drills and keeping on at it until the movements become etched in my neuromuscular memory.