Pull-Ups Can Suck-It

Tonight was our last night of On-Ramp classes at Rugged Fitness - CrossFit Findlay and it was a tough one for sure.  We got there and there was a girl there doing her second On-Ramp class, so Jon worked with her and Scott worked with H, myself, and another girl who is only in her second week of CrossFit--so we were all pretty new and low-skill together.  We rowed for our warm-up (um, I totally want my own rowing machine!) and stretched, and then we worked on pull-ups as our skill...awesome.  Note:  last word is to be read sarcastically.  As sarcastic as possible.

Fact:  I hate pull-ups.
Fact:  I have basically no upperbody strength, a key component to pull-ups.
Fact:  Pull-ups are freaking hard to do (even with a band) and are the bane of my existance.

So Scott started us off using bands to do strict pull-ups. 

Even using the band, I could only do like 2 full extension ones and then only like 2 or 3 more partial ones.  H totally kicked butt with it (he's such a stud!) and the other girl (Tina) did pretty well with it--she's totally my hero right now!  They were really hard to do, and at one point I just wanted to cry (psht, this is becoming a normal feeling in my CrossFit workouts) but I'm not giving up.  I really need to improve my upperbody strength, and this is totally going to be the way to do it.  Also, it's building on my calluses, and you know how much I'm loving that!!  :)

We learned kipping pull-ups, too, but I absolutely suck at those.  We did those without the band, and I could barely do anything but swing--thankfully, that's what Scott wanted us to do.  But kipping pull-ups are no walk in the park, and are going to make me angry--I can tell already.  It doesn't help that I can't really pull my own body weight up right now, and that every time I tried I got a stabbing pain in my left shoulder.  Here's what a good kipping pull-up should look like:

Yeah.  I definitely can't do that.  I look like a fool even trying...I guess that just means I have room to grow.  (This is my attempt to stay positive at pull-ups and not get angry at the stupid pull-up bar every time I look at it)

The WOD today was a Tabata of kettlebell swings, sit-ups, and squats.  Tabata is when you do one activity for 20 seconds, then rest 10, then repeat that setup for 8 sets (so 4 minutes of that activity), then do it all over again for the other 2 activities.  This totals 12 minutes of work.  Sounds like it shouldn't be that hard, right?  WRONG.  Here's a guy doing the Tabata for squats only.  

 

 

 So go ahead, do that.  Then do it all over again for kettlebell swings.  And then again for sit-ups.  Ready to throw up yet?  Cause I was.  I told Scott that every time he leads the WOD I feel like I need to workout--he laughed and told me that's his goal!  But hey, a good workout is one that pushes you, and Scott definitely pushes me!  So after the Tabata was over, I had done 163 reps total--not bad for my first one!

Our On-Ramps are now over and we can officially become part of the CrossFit gym.  I wasn't sure at first, before going to the On-Ramps, if this was something I could do or would even want to do, but now that I'm into it, I'm seriously obsessed.  It's hard, and it's challenging, and it really does make me feel like throwing up/crying some days (okay, most days) but it's helping me do things I never thought I could do and the feeling I have after I leave is one of the best feelings around!  Plus, it's all scalable (meaning they start you at levels/weights that you can manage and increase as your ability increases) so it's completely doable!  I recommend if you're looking for a great way to get in shape and to really build muscle, look into CrossFit.  Most CrossFit gyms let you do a few beginner classes for free, too, so you can try it out and go from there.  But seriously, look into it.

It's intense (but not like camping, because H makes fun of me for using that pun too much)

xoxo, M