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| In the foyer at Graham CrossFit - love it! |
Many fitness fanatics (Team Matson included) tend a little towards overtraining. Rest days can be few and far between and things that start out as restoration - yoga, for example - can turn into yet another opportunity to push limits and challenge our bodies.
We can feel like it's lazy to take a day off, or fear that in just 24 hours all our hard work will be undone and our body fat percentage will suddenly skyrocket. Or, if you've struggled with exercise addiction, like I have, missing a workout (planned or unplanned) can send you into a downward spiral of panic and sheer emotional ugly.
I've learned over the years to take at least two rest days a week, where I'm not allowed any intense exercise. Sometimes I keep it to walking home from the bus stop and some PT exercises...and sometimes I don't do anything at all.
It's really awesome to workout at a box that emphasizes the importance of rest and recovery in a workout cycle. Mercer Island CrossFit designated all of last week as a Recovery Week!
From Coach Corey on the MICF blog: "We are going to use this week as a de-loading week. Its been 3 months and 3 weeks since our last recovery week and its time to let our bodies heal up and recoup while we spent extra time on mobility."
Monday was a day off for me...I spent August working out pretty hard core 5 days a week, RXing a lot of WODs, and doing the Paleo challenge. My body was ready for a break, so for most of September I ratcheted down to 4 workouts a week.
Tuesday was my overhead press strength work day, along with the CrossFit WOD: Row 3k.
Apparently I forgot to snap a photo of the results...thank heaven I use WODHub since you are obviously dying to know my time. 14:37. It was really fun to have a strictly cardio workout, and I love rowing even though I'm still not very good at it. I've gotten good tips on form from our coaches (explosive pull, slower return) which is helping.
Wednesday was actually another trip to Graham CrossFit! We had visited Graham the week before, and since an appointment was taking us south and our box was closed due to a Jewish holiday, we ask Diana if she'd mind having us for a return visit. She was totally gracious as always and said they'd love to have us back.
Jared stuck with his Invictus programming, and I joined the 10am class! I got to see my new WOD buddy Elizabeth as she finished up the 9am, which was a nice surprise.
I thought the warmup was really fun - I'd never heard of "junkyard dog" before. It totally made me think of something I would do as a kid...jumping over your partner's arms or crawling under a "bridge." I love that CrossFit incorporates a lot of fun movements and keeps things from being too serious.
I wasn't sure what to use for my hang clean, so I went with 70% of my recent squat clean max...70# even. They felt actually really easy...although apparently I was catching the bar with my collarbone instead of my shoulders and ended up with a bruise. Oops. The WOD was really hard but really fun. I scaled down the weight for both exercises...recovery week! And it was still killer linking all the reps.
Nothing better after a fall workout than a pumpkin protein smoothie made by the hubby!
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| Smoothie |
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| Smoothie maker! |
I was stoked to get my hands on a GCF tank top on this trip. It's a few sizes up from what I'd normally get, but they were almost out and I wanted the blue!
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| Hiding in my new bag... |
Item #1: New red dress from H&M!
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| Looks like a skirt here, but you get the idea |
Item #2: lululemon Daily Gym Bag!
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| Dun dun dun |
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| It's like a gym bag/purse - it holds a ton and looks adorable |
Sorry...new stuff is distracting!!!
Thursday was another day off. (Great trend!)
Friday my mom joined me for the 4pm WOD after we got off work. I was stoked to be wearing my new tank top.
I apparently never did my first test...so I just did my best and ended up with 27 calories.
Can't get enough mobility - I love it when it's programmed into class!
"Death by" WODs are crazy. You start by doing 1 rep of the movement, then you rest the remainder of the first minute. Next, you do 2 reps and rest the remainder of the minute. You "die" when you can't complete the number of reps within the minute. Everyone was going all out by the end! I made it through the 15th round of the 10 meter sprint but "died" on the 16th...couldn't finish in time. Jessie set a record for the Mercer Island ladies, which was awesome!
Afterwards I played a few games of racquetball with my dad. One of the CrossFit principles is to "try new sports." Racquetball isn't new to me anymore, but it is really cool to see how CrossFit helps me improve my game!
Saturday was Olympic lifting and a "Girl." Usually the Girls are really heavy and tough, so I wasn't sure how that fit with the recovery week...
The snatch movement was pretty complicated for me, so I was glad to be going light and focusing on form. We worked for about 40 minutes, all told.
The Girl turned out to be Annie!
I was excited to try to RX since I can finally do a few double-unders now. Coach Jared said he'd be capping the workout at 15 minutes. It ended up REALLY motivating me to hustle since it was slow going for me, but I kicked it into gear and finished just in time!
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| Hard work! |
Great recovery week - thanks, Coach Corey for having it on the agenda! Feeling good and looking forward to kicking it up a notch in October.
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