Pain today…

Last Updated on October 11, 2012 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP-C

345 days until Ultra Beast redemption…

One of the things I regret about my formal education is that we hardly ever had “hands on” experience in the gym.  Now, to give credit where credit is due, probably 95% of my graduating class had intentions of going on to further their education in the medical field,  physical therapy, cardiac therapy, or athletic training, and NOT personal training, so hands on experience in the weight room wasn’t really necessary as far as most of our curriculum was concerned.  Don’t get me wrong….we had plenty of hands on experience elsewhere, in things like VO2 max testing, body composition measurements, and taking blood pressures on a test subject that is running on a treadmill (which is exactly as difficult as it sounds).   I fully understand biomechanics of the moves I’m attempting, and I can tell you exactly what is happening on the electron transport chain during oxidative phosphorylation of the Krebs cycle during a concentric contraction of a dumbbell curl. 

But for the life of me I can’t figure out why my squat form sucks so much. 

Now, for those of you reading this who I may have trained in the past: have no fear. I’m spot on correcting OTHER people’s form. I’m just horrible with my own.

Geoff and I have been killing it at the gym/in the box (have I mentioned how stoked I am to have BOTH in the same building?).  I’ve been neglecting my cardio other than the occasional plyo, but have been willingly following him around with a relatively intense lifting repertoire.  And it’s fun, and I’m learning new things.  Like how I’ve gone 30 years with never doing a clean and jerk (and if you aren’t sure what that is, watch this video. Yeah that chick is 14, and totally showing me…well probably all of us…up).

One thing I love about crossfit is that it absolutely pushes me out of my comfort zone.

One thing I hate about crossfit is that I’m not instinctively good at it.

I’m almost always in “beast mode” at the gym.box, and so it’s hard to take a step back and sacrifice my ego for form and safety. I can spring and box jump like a champ, but I suck at deadlifts, squats, and the aforementioned clean and jerk. It’s very hard to have to drop down to an itty bitty 15 lb barbell, with no weights on it, to practice, when everyone around you is lifting heavy.   Now, I’ve lucked out in the boyfriend department for oh so many reasons, but one of them is most certainly that he knows his stuff in the gym.  And he has the patience to teach me said “stuff” when I get ridiculously frustrated that my biomechanics don’t seem to work the same as everyone elses.

Running has always come easily to me.  Granted I’m not the fastest or most efficient runner, but from the start almost 6 years ago, I’ve certainly been able to hold my own in the middle to better than average category without above average training or effort.  So facing and attempting moves and exercises in the gym that do not feel like second nature has proven to be slightly frustrating. 

OK more than slightly.

But I suppose this is half the fun of pushing yourself in the gym/box/on the road.  Sure, there is the health aspect, of which I am a HUGE advocate of.  But then there is the other side.  The side that pushes to you to be stronger than you were the day before.  To push yourself outside of your comfort zone.  To try new things, to conquer new things, and to move on to something bigger and more difficult.    There was a time this summer when I dreaded the rope climb at all of the Spartan races, and now I climb the rope at the gym with ease every single day.  One day the clean and jerk will be old news too.

Everyday.  Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.

What is an exercise or sport that you struggle with?  Or , is there something you struggled to overcome in the gym that you are now proficient in?