I went to my first strongman training class yesterday and learned two things:
1) Imma Little Fish in this pond
2) I think I might’ve found my pond
This is Brittany.
Brittany is taking her warm up chain yoke walk at the 270# that was my max walk. This is just after her 30 minute atlas stone workout, where I watched her warming up with the 175# atlas stone, and she was just tossing it up like it was only a medicine ball. We chatted while she waiting for her turn at the yoke and I discovered she failed at the 245# stone. Wow!
Here’s Brittany at her final lap walking 370# as smoothly as she did the 270#
I am not ashamed to say I have a straight up school girl like crush on Brittany; she has to be the strongest woman I have personally met.
I think that a person would have to be a freaking robot to watch strong solid Brittany do her thang and not say; “Holy Bat Shit!”
In fact watching her do her thing yesterday inspired within me an even clearer vision of where I should be heading on this athletic path I’ve been stumbling around on these past number of years.
Oh, three things:
3) Usually the heaviest most difficult weight you’ll ever have to struggle with in any worthwhile workout is…
…the push-pull event that happens before training (pushing open your car door and pulling open the gym one).
And the 10 pound weight between your shoulders. Sometimes they can feel heavier than any of these atlas stones.
Actually I knew that already.
But no matter how much you improve at those first two events, you’ll have days that will make you feel like running. I even tried that for a second yesterday; I was eight minutes late and sitting in the parking lot listening to my demons rage inside me, I had my hand on the shifter ready to put it into reverse gear.
I wasn’t completely in my body at the moment so don’t ask what stopped me…3,2,1, GO…maybe?
Then it was like this:
Push.
Walk.
Breath.
Smile.
Pull.
Oh! Fuck! It was a room full of beasts. What the hell did I get myself into?!
Nobodys seen you, turn around now!
“Oh Hi! Come on in!”
Doh, idiot!
“Start warming up a lift 3×5.”
In reality it was only moments but it felt an eternity before I was able to recall that I actually knew what to do with a barbell. So I just moved slowly and thoughtfully around the gym breathing and reminding myself I knew what this stuff was and how to use it. After I did my first set of deadlifts I came back into my body and my demons took a back seat.
And things just got better.
We set up the chain yoke with 175# to start, that is more than I have ever squatted. I stepped up to the bar, pressed my traps into it, wrapped my arms around it and just stood up. No problem. I felt the weight settle into my shoulders and back and I knew just how to do what needed to be done. My confidence grew with each step because this felt natural for my body in a way that most physical sports and activity does not.
Yes, I am truly a novice, I have some work to get my strength up to a competitive level for even my small little pond, but everything in me tells me its only a matter of time. That is an unusual feeling for me to have, to feel that I have the innate talents already in me and that I only need the time to develop them.
But I still need Crossfit though. I love the simultaneously subtle yet right there in your face element that Crossfit brings to the table. It’s like functional poetry!
No Comments