Still trudging along

Friday after work, I packed up my gym bag and drove my fat butt to the YMCA. I was excited to try out the Crossfit workout I had been researching all day. I was pretty sure I knew how to do a sit-up, but after watching this video I was reassured that everything I know about fitness is wrong.

In the interests of making everything 8 billion times more difficult, the Crossfit sit-up is done by sitting on an elevated padded stool, locking down your feet, bending all the way backward until your extended arm hits the floor and coming up again. It reminds me of a Jackie Chan movie where he was forced to do sit-ups while his feet were bound to a pole and he hung upside down. Insane. I decided I would work my way up to those, and I subsituted crunches.

After the sit-ups, you were to do hip and back extensions. Well, I couldn't find a machine to do those on, so I skipped them. You can see the video on how to do them here. I suppose if I had found said machine, I would have been able to do both the sit-ups and back extensions, but I didn't see it.

After my crunches, I found a nearby assisted pull-up machine and tried it out. I was curious to see if I could even do one pull-up, but seeing as I haven't done any strength training in the longest time, I decided it wasn't worth hurting myself over. It's probably a good thing I decided not to, because I ended up pulling my inner elbow anyway, even with 50 lbs of weight "assisted". Taht means I was lifting approximately 100 lbs on my own. I did three sets of 10x, 5x and 10x respectively. By the end, I didn't think I could pick up my water bottle.

Filled with adrenaline and inspired by my pull-ups, I walked down the stairs and into the dreaded free-weights room. Upon entering, I quickly surveyed the area and found no one too threatening. An older man and some punk kids were in the main section, but the area that I wanted to use was primarily empty. Score. I went over to the smith machine (squat/press rack) and found that it was already set up with a stool for your bum to touch when you do squats. I was super excited. Someone else in the gym was trying to do the same things I was! That just gave me more encouragement, so I adjusted the machine to give me an idea of where to keep my arms above and started squatting. It was so difficult at first, but I paid attention to my feet and kept my core muscles tight and it became more natural. I could tell by the time I was finished that I would be sore the next day. And I was.

The best part about it all was that I walked fearlessly into the forbidden section of the gym, confident with the knowledge that I was there to do something right. I wasn't just going to try to see what I could do with some dumbells. When some guys came in while I was doing my squats, I continued what I was doing, feeling like I belonged there as much as they did. I wasn't going to let any of them intimidate me into leaving. I got in about 40 squats before my legs felt like they were on fire, so I decided it was time to go.

I know I haven't been posting foods here lately, but I've been eliminating that laundry list of what I did and what I ate and I'm trying to keep it fresh by tackling other issues, like how these workouts are impacting me, misconceptions I've had about working out and all the information I'm learning. I'd appreciate your feedback, let me know what you'd like to hear about!