Rest Day
Hey everybody, this is my last post before I retire. Over the past year, we've been through a lot--we've talked about what this whole CrossFit thing is, expressed it in terms of functionality, talked about who is elite (me) and who is not, attacked elements of our skills that are weak, I've torn my Achilles, and we've discussed injury and rehab, and had a very good time joking about stupid stuff such as Reebok's lack of creativity in advertisement. I hope I have affected your life in a positive, but very functional way.
It's possible that I may be on the wrong end of lazy--fitness spectrum, but if you've struggled with physical fitness, I hope I've impacted your life by providing you with a solid foundation to motivate and condition yourself towards whatever goals you have in life. Often, I find myself wondering what more can I do to expand my skill set to do what is outside my wildest expectations, and I put down these crazy ideas of things to do. If I could give you all a bundle of joy, I would give you something you all have probably already experienced in some sort of heavy metcon. But you will really get to appreciate if you spent entire workouts just focusing on the adrenaline rush and technicality of this and maybe this is something you will find, like me, to be your favorite thing in the gym--olympic lifting. I think it is absolutely an underated discipline in fitness today, probably because its technical nature makes it very hard to teach, learn, and master. It is, with out a doubt, my favorite skill set, and I've seen the most noticeable increases in my PFT scores by using this lift not only in METCONs, but also in a purely technical capacity.
Of course, I haven't been able to fully enjoy the benefits of powerlifting and olympic lifting over the past two and half months, but that is quickly ending. One of the biggest lessons I learned over the past year, is don't try to be a hero. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A STUD EVERYDAY. Even operators take weekends off during training. On the day that I ruptured my Achilles, I felt really tired because the day before, I had just done a two-a-day, and I felt a little pressured to do work. In hindsight, it was not necessarily the fatigue that contributed directly to the injury, but in my research, it is very evident that the fatigue caused a collapse in my body positioning perhaps causing an inadvertent dorsiflexion of my foot. Here's a big lesson here--form is CRUCIAL!!! I don't care if you are trying to get a record time on Fran or max on deadlift--never compromise your form in the face of fatigue--Do your reps right. For the standard, I know I was definitely hitting the standard because you were allowed to rebound on the box jump, but I know for sure there is more going on biomechanically than the exercise explored. Bottom line--I still see people rebounding or inducing unexpected flexion of the foot which is a first class ticket to snap city.
If you guys are wondering if I will miss writing workouts for you, the answer is an unabashed yes. Here's the world's best kept secret: I am not L1 certified. Yep, I don't agree with a lot of things like paying $800 for a piece of paper for a day-long seminar that says you are a certified instructor, and I hope my programming has proven that you don't need to be converted or evangelize CrossFit. It's the principles of what it is not the branding that makes it a great conditioning program. Nonetheless, I applaud those who are certed because it definitely brings a level of credibility and awareness to the elements to what we are trying to achieve here. Paleo? I see a place for it, but I don't feel like it's the right thing for everybody--especially people like me who are constantly struggling to gain weight.
Alright, you've read my thesis on life. I hope you all enjoy doing what you do for years to come. I know I will continue to work out to be as healthy and happy as I can, as well as trying to surpass my pre-injury conditioning level to try to get back to seeing if I have what it takes to be an ALO. Like me on facebook or find me on the global some day. I wish you all the best in your endeavors, and hope I get to run into you all some day. Until then, don't grow up too fast!
-Wutang
