Hell Hath Frozen O'er

The headline refers to the fact that I posted twice in a day.

Today's workout was short, but rough. I decided to try some new moves. The WOD called for something called "glute-ham situps," which look really fun, but aren't, combined with back extensions, which always remind me that my back is really weak.

To start, I decided I had enough of running for a few days and I decided to learn how to use the rowing machine. There are about 50 treadmills, 30 elipticals, four stair climbers, and various other nonsensical cardio equipment scattered about-- but only one rowing machine. It is placed dead in the center of the room, almost as if to humiliate those who dare to use it. It looks extremely old, but that could be because it's covered with a layer of dust. I perched on it, trying to look like I knew what I was doing, strapped myself in, and set the timer for 10 minutes. The machine was misleadingly easy to begin, and tons of fun, at first. I was immediately amused by the gliding effect of the seat, which felt that it belonged on an amusement ride rather than a peice of gym equipment. However, after the fourth minute or so, the excitement began to wain and the actual work was getting more and more difficult. The machine seemed to have an instinct that correctly gagued how hard I was pulling and set the difficulty accordingly. So as I pulled harder, it became more difficult. This quickly became a difficult battle to win, so I settled for trying to keep a steady force going. Despite the issues, I would use it again. It burns calories like nothing else and it is more entertaining than running in place.

On to our feature of the day. Glute-ham situps are performed on what I'm going to refer to as a pummel horse with foot anchors. Imagine you are sitting on a pummel horse, both legs on the same side. Your feet are extended straight in front of you, where they are bound by two padded rollers. One roller on top and one on the bottom of each ankle. Now, you lean backward until your back is parallel to the floor, looking strange and worrying that you will fall off the horse because your workout pants are slippery. You then return to a sitting position. But that's not all. Once you have determined that you will not fall off the horse, you are required to bend backward, one arm extended over your head until your head nearly touches the ground. Instead of returning to a sitting position, you use all your force in your glutes, hamstrings and abs to propel you past a sitting position until you are touching your toes. Quite an excrutiating exercise, I assure you.

For a better, more visual description, you can watch the video here: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_GHDSitupElements.wmv

I also decided to try my luck with elevated push-ups off an inflated ball. I'm not the most graceful person in the world, and I misjudged the distance between myself and the ball when I attempted to wedge it under my hips for a sea-saw effect push-up. I ended up bouncing around on the thing, looking positively hilarious, I'm sure, and causing the indian man who was sitting near me to abruptly decide to find another place to stretch, even though the gym was to capacity. It was worth it, I was able to do the push-ups.

Total workout time: 30 minutes. Current mood: exhausted.