Hook Grip Lessons

The hook grip is a method of holding a barbell. Instead of just holding the bar in your hands, you put your thumbs under your pointer and middle fingers and this creates a stronger, more effective grip. The hook grip is hard at first. It doesn't feel natural. It can hurt. I kept hearing that once you got used to the hook grip, you'd never go back, but it didn't feel right to me. My thumbs didn't feel long enough. I couldn't clean the weight I was used to.

I keep gym equipment stock photos on my computer for this very reason.
This is an old one from CrossFit Central LI.

Planning My Macros

It's January so everyone's on a diet. At least four people have told me they're going to lose 20 lbs by cutting calories and doing lots of cardio. I cringe. You can totally drop a lot of pounds off the scale if you eat nothing and run your little heart out, because I've done it like 9 times, and I'm not going to tell you not to do that if that's the plan you choose. I just thought you might want to know my plan of attack for 2015.

Things I know to be true:

1. I need a plan if I am going to be successful.
2. I need a tracker if I am going to be successful.
3. I won't cook vegetables that don't come out of microwavable bags.
4. High quality ingredients are expensive and then you have to cook them yourself anyway.
5. Carbs are the devil. I need to eat a certain amount of protein and fat every day to meet my goals.

I know how to eat clean. I know how to read labels. I'm pretty damn knowledgeable and yet I don't have the body I want so I've decided to make some changes. My goals are to give my body the nutrition it needs to train at high intensity multiple times a week and to change my body composition. I was looking at photos from old Weight Loss Wednesdays where I weigh the same as I do now, and I look much different, (read worse), because I had a lot more fat and a lot less muscle. I want to lose body fat while maintaining the muscle I have now AND hopefully add some more. This means that my weight in pounds doesn't matter to me but the percentage of my weight that is fat does.

Progress

Yesterday I got to ring the PR bell at CrossFit. It's kind of a big deal because it means you set a new personal record. When you first start CrossFit, you PR practically every day. Now that it's been a year and a half, I might not PR as often but I know that I am making progress. For the first time ever, I completed the workout Nicole Rx. Feel free to clap.

You might be wondering how I got such a flattering angle for this photo. My friend Sam is 6'7" or 6'8" and this is the photo he took by just standing a few feet away from me. Where was Sam when we needed him for all of sorority formal photo shoots??

Death by Burpees

Ryan has been in Atlanta since Saturday and we had a great time celebrating Bonus Christmas with his family on Sunday. Sunday evening he told me he'd like to go to CrossFit with me on Monday as long as there weren't wallballs. I was all, oooh, lemme check the website and then I just started to laugh. The metcon was called Little Ham Sandwich and it was 50 wallballs, 25 deadlifts (225/155), 50 wallballs PLUS 5 burpees every minute on the minute.

I thought Ryan was going to bail out but he wanted to go. The strength portion was work up to a heavy single deadlift. Ryan lifted 500# last Friday and did it again Monday night. He's super strong, nbd. I got my deadlift up to 245#, a PR of 20#. My 225# deadlift was a one time thing that looked extremely ugly last February during the blizzard. I was hungover, stuffed with sushi, and had only gone to work because I woke up somewhere in midtown and realized I had left my snowboots under my desk. Obviously the clear next step was to hit up CrossFit. Since then, my max has been 205# so I am super proud of myself.

Little Ham Sandwich was a mind fuck. Anna Marie recommended getting six wallballs each round. Sometimes I barely got four. I finished in16:46 Rx.

The Fitbit Challenge

I'm in this Workweek Hustle Fitbit Challenge with some coworkers in offices across the country that starts on Mondays and ends on Fridays. Now we already know that Fitbit hates on CrossFit and I hate to lose. All the other people in this challenge must be running fiends because their numbers are over 10,000 on a daily basis. So in order to compete, poor Frank has been going on a lot of walks.

This morning we went on a run in matching outfits. This is the only picture I got with him looking into the mirror so pardon its blurriness. Frank kind of sucks walking on a leash, but he's turned into a pretty spectacular running partner.

Want to start your own challenge? Check out the instructions from Help at Fitbit.com

• Tap the Challenges tab.
• Tap the challenge you would like to start.
• Tap Start Your Own.
• Tap the friends whom you would like to invite to the challenge, then tap Start in the top right corner. You're not required to invite friends, meaning you can run a challenge with yourself as the only participant.

Friendship and the CrossFit Community

Brian and me representing CFHK at CFID.

Years of therapy resulted in a profound and extremely overpriced revelation - I have trouble making friends. For various reasons, I just never learned how to make actual friends and I didn't have a clue how to meet new ones once I stopped going to school. And then I found CrossFit.

The CrossFit Community is my favorite thing about CrossFit. There are thousands (millions?) of CrossFitters around the globe and I love the feeling that I get from being a part of a community that is positive, welcoming, and up for a good time. I don't think I would have had the guts to get into my car and move to Atlanta without CrossFit. I knew I would find friends and a family at my new box and I am so thankful to call CrossFit Identity home.

My friend Brian from CrossFit Hell's Kitchen is back down south. He's been working in Mississippi and his wife lives and works here in Atlanta. Now that they're about to become parents (!!), Brian is going to be working remotely from Atlanta. Hopefully we can WOD together often.

Tire Flipping

I think many people associate with CrossFit with huge ass tires. I know I thought that everyone flipped tires at CrossFit before I started CrossFit. And I regularly saw big tires at CrossFits around the country. But after more than a year at CrossFit, I had never gotten to flip a tire. I somehow always missed the days they were programmed.

But then Saturday happened.

Teams of 4
3k row
50 tire flips
200 burpees
50 tire flips
3k row

Sweatin' to the Oldies

Today's post is in honor of my bestest friend Kristen because today is her birthday. Yesterday I made a photo collage out of pictures I took at a recent work conference during a morning session called Sweatin' to the Oldies. I swear I can't make this shit up. Since I was told I couldn't go to CrossFit because I needed to be available at 7 AM, my options were going to this or sitting in a meeting. The Richard Simmons video was not easy, especially if you were a bit hungover like I was.

As I was employing my awesome picmonkey skills, I remembered that many years ago, as in 2011, Kristen went to a Richard Simmons class. Read this epic interview that I've somehow let linger in my inbox for more than three years.

200# Back Squat

It hasn't hurt to shower this much since the 14.4 Open Workout. Last night's METCON fucked my hands. Damn toes to bar. But before I completed 18-15-12 65# back squats and TTB bookended by 400m runs, I got my 200# back squat.

Yum, Crickets

The guys from Exo Protein came to CFHK last March to share samples and sell their protein bars made of cricket flour. I tried one and got entirely freaked out that I was chewing through a bug skeleton. But I was freaking out for no reason; the exoskeletons are ground into flour. Turns out those bits I was chewing on were just nuts...

I bought a case of assorted flavors back when they only made three flavors: Cashew Ginger, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Cacao Nut. The Cashew Ginger and Cacao Nut are paleo. They've since dropped the Cashew Ginger and introduced Blueberry Vanilla and Apple Cinnamon. This sucks because Cashew Ginger was my favorite.