A Deck o' WOD

Today, I went to CrossFit to do some WODing with the lovely CRCF owners, Erik and Melissa.  For a long time, I had wanted to try a WOD I had seen on Mark's Daily Apple, which he dubbed Primal Poker.  The premise: take a deck of cards and assign each suit an exercise.  Then, pick a card and complete the number of reps on the card (as determined by the suit).  Grab a new card and repeat until the deck is finished.

After debating what exercises to do, we settled on kettlebell swings, wall ball shots, box jumps, and push ups.  We even convinced (or coerced, depending on your perspective) Grant, a junior CrossFitter, to join us.

Then we realized that no one had a deck of cards.  No problem: Melissa googled "deck of cards";

printed them out, and we made our own!

Blurry, but it's our bag o' cards.

Next, we had to figure out the "terms" of the workout.  What suit should each exercise be?  What rep number do you assign to an Ace? Jack? Queen? King? We finally settled on:

Hearts: Kettlebell Swings (1 pood for myself and Melissa, which is 16 kg, or 35 pounds; I didn't pay attention to what the boys did, but 1.5 pood is always a good standard)

Spades: Wall Ball Shots (14 pound wall ball for the ladies, 20 pound wall ball for the guys)

Clubs: Box Jumps (20 inch for the ladies, 24 inch for the guys)

Diamonds: Push Ups

Ace counted for one, Jacks for 12, Queens for 14, and Kings for 16.

So, if we pulled a 6 of hearts, we did six kettlebell swings.

Then, we set up:

My 20 inch box and my kettlebell;

Wall balls, ready to rock and roll!

We also set up a system: unused cards went in the blue plastic cup, used cards into the translucent cup, aptly labeled "DONE."

This system was brilliant -- it was a fool proof way to keep track of progress and not get used and unused cards confused.  Next to the cups was our cheat sheet of the exercises each suit was assigned to, as well as the card values for non-numbered cards.  Without that piece of paper, this workout would have never happened.

Goodness, this work out was a killer, but so worth it.  The first card pulled was the King of Hearts, so we started off the WOD with 16 kettlebell swings.  It was great to get some of the hardest cards out of the way.  But, since this workout is so randomized, the first half of the workout seemed to be dominated by box jumps and wall balls, and the second by the kettlebell swings and push ups.  Often, we'd get the same suit a few times in a row, which was especially a pain for the push ups.  We also made it a rule that if you finished the set of reps first, you pulled the next card.  And we didn't start the next set of reps until everyone was finished.  I liked that it was spontaneous, varied, and surprisingly quick-paced.  Luckily, we were pretty much on the same pace for most of the reps, and finished just short of 30 minutes, at 29:58.  I wanted to quit a few times, but working out with everyone gave much needed momentum to keep going.   I'm so lucky to have such a great CrossFit family.

And just in case you were wondering, we did each exercise 97 times, for a total of 388 reps.  

The beauty of this workout is that you can change it as you see fit.  Can't do a wall ball?  Do squats instead!  No access to kettlebells? Do sit ups or burpees.  Try double unders or regular jump ropes (just triple the value on the card).  Let your imagination run wild here!  I think this is definitely worthy of being a once-a-month WOD.

My post-WOD celebration?  A KIND bar and a pedicure!

I bought these two at Starbucks today, and ate the Cranberry Almond -- it was very tasty! I definitely recommend them (although the $1.95 price tag is a bit steep, so I may start ordering them online).  

Have you tried something new this week?  Or had a new exercise experience?

Work out like... a girl?

Back in December, I purchased an incredibly cheap groupon for a local gym (20 uses for $30).  I thought it was a great bargain, and since the gym is less than 10 minutes from my house, it would be convenient for a quickie workout if I wasn't feeling up for CrossFit, or couldn't make any of the CrossFit times.

When I bought the groupon, I didn't realize that it was for an all women's gym.

When I think of female gyms, these are the mental images I have:

Hours of cardio, tiny weights that barely get the muscles moving.  I mean, honestly, those itty bitty weights are insulting.  In real life, are six pounds the most that we women are supposed to lift?  Are we just trained to let men do all the heavy lifting?  Shouldn't I want to and be prepared to lift more than that?

I digress.  When I got to the gym, I entered through the salon, where I was greeted by the receptionist and told to walk into the locker room.  From there, I meandered into the gym area.  There were two women on their respective treadmills.  It was 5 o'clock on Saturday.  No one was working at the gym.

I asked one woman about it.  She informed me that it was now 24-hour gym, so it was rare to find a manager there, and that I would probably have to call or e-mail to join.  But hey, since you were able to get in the building, you might as well work out!

I walked around the gym, which consisted of two small rooms.  In the larger room, there were plenty of cardio machines, a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, a few kettlebells ranging from a measly 4 kg to 10 kg, some jump ropes, some free weights, a couple weighted bars that went up to about 50 pounds of weight, and a carafe of lemon water.  (Why lemon water?  Apparently, the anti-oxidants in lemon are good for you, so this gym has declared if you want to stay hydrated, you're stuck with lemon flavored.  Bleh).  The second room, which was smaller, was all weight machines.

It was underwhelming and depressing.  How would I foam roll?  How could I do kettlebell swings?  What about deadlifts?  The weights were certainly not heavy enough for me.  Even when I started working out this summer, I was uses a 14kg kettlebell for kettlebell swings, and 50 pounds for deadlifting.  I can now deadlift my body weight!  If I had been working out at this "all women's gym," I never would have come close to that!  So, like the pictures above, was I expected to truck away at the treadmill for an hour or two, and then do a handful of five pound bicep curls while chatting about celebrity gossip with the woman next to me?  How could I ever unleash my physical potential?

It was truly my biggest nightmare, and I left the gym near tears.  It certainly got me thinking.  This gym certainly would never provide the community I needed to be successful, and the message I got was "you are not capable of being strong and pushing yourself harder."  Why do women endorse these "female" gyms?  Do we really think we're getting a workout?  Why are we afraid of stepping off the treadmill and picking up some weights?

Yes, I once was the girl who was afraid of "bulking up." I hated watching men heaving weights into the air, in part because I was intimidated.  But I always despised cardio, and the weight machines seemed unnecessary and cumbersome, so in a way, it was much more natural for me to adapt to CrossFit.  But why do we think that workouts like Curves will do that much for our bodies?  Why do we let men intimidate us at the gym?  Is the rationale of "girl power" and comfort of a female gym really helpful or worth it?

Even the Women's Only CrossFit stresses that the workout includes lots of cardio and not to worry about the weightlifting part.  (I'm sure they have great workouts, but clearly, they are trying to appeal to their clientele).

My question is: why are women afraid of stepping off the treadmill and picking up some weights?  How can I encourage women to push outside their comfort zone and make a serious commitment to fitness by embracing weight training?


My photo evidence for why everyone should weight train and CrossFit:

Pre CrossFit (June 2010):

January 2011:

I know which photos I like better!

WOD

Alright, I've noticed that my WOD have the similar theme of running 400 meters.  I'm not a huge runner, but I'm trying to vary up my workouts, and somehow have gotten on this kick of running laps in between sets.  (You can always hop on the rowing machine or bike instead).

On Friday, I arrived at the gym, completely unmotivated and unwillingly to do anything.  So, I did one of the most painful exercises I could think to do: row 500 meters.  (Note:  the most I've ever rowed was a 5K, in 26 minutes and change, and it was the most torturous experiences of my life.  I'll have to do another one soon.  I'm masochistic like that.  Surviving a row makes me feel like a stronger person).
I also had left my ipod at home, so I had nothing to distract me during my row.  It was just me and the machine, baby.
I pushed through to row 500m in 1:56 -- my fastest row ever! (My last record was 1:59 in December, and my first 500m row was 2:12 in July.  I think).
Victory!
After hopping down to the front desk to grab a pen to record my victorious moment, and spending far too long catching my breath and gabbing to the girl at the front desk, I grabbed my WOD record book, and flipped through it to find ideas for the rest of my workout.  It has a list of suggested CrossFit workouts, most of which intimidate me:

I love my CRCF WOD book, and I try to record my workouts whenever I remember.  Why?  To make sure I'm mixing up my exercise routines, and to record any new records I've set, and to track my overall progress.

I settled on the Claudia:
20 kettlebell swings (I used a 20 kg kettlebell, which is about 45 pounds)
400 meter run
x 5

Man, this workout killed me.  I have no idea why.  I took far too many breaks between the KB swings and the laps but I finished in 23 minutes.  It was definitely worth it.

What really helped me was seeing Paul, someone I've gotten to know at the gym because we always work out at the same time.  Paul is retired, incredibly supportive, and thinks I'm a rockstar athlete because I can sprint on the rowing machine and do burpees.  As I struggled to make my last KB swings and laps, he came over to give me a big thumbs up.  It's what I needed to finish a tough work out.

A supportive network has truly made the biggest difference in my life.  I have gotten to know lots of clients and trainers at my gym, and we all motivate one another to keep on going.  Part of the reason I cannot wait to start at CRCF on Wednesday is to have that strong community -- but more on the importance of community later.  Happy Sunday!

Let me know if you try any of my WODs or if you have a WOD of your own!  I'd love to try it!