Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Passing the 90 Day Mark at CrossFit Pleasanton, Power Yoga and Open Workout 13.4

Last week, I successfully finished my first 90 days of CrossFit at CrossFit Pleasanton! Its been great - my strength and fitness has come a long way from where I was in December and I've made some awesome friends along the way. I still weigh exactly the same and look about the same, but I also haven't made that many changes to what I eat (meaning that I haven't switched to a Paleo diet). And I still haven't bought any Lulu workout clothes yet, but I did buy myself some Olympic lifting shoes!

with the 8:30 class last Wednesday!
However, I've gone from not being able to do any pull-ups in the On Ramp beginner class to completing 72 kipping pull-ups during a 12 minute workout! I've hit a couple new PRs (personal records) in Olympic lifts that I never did during college such as the snatch, overhead squat, and clean & jerk. I also ripped the skin of my hand open pretty badly during that workout with all the pull-ups, but luckily my friend Sally helped me clean it up with Neo-to-Go and a sweet Princess bandaid.

The disgusting skin tear in my hand and after Sally fixed it up!
Last week, we did the CrossFit Open workout 13.4, which was a couplet of two different movements: the clean and jerk and a gymnastics-like exercise called Toes-To-Bar. Here is the workout:

As many reps as possible in 7 minutes. 
The prescribed weight for women was 95 lbs, and I had never done the clean and jerk during a regular workout before. But what I found was that the weight was actually okay, even though it was heavier than I thought it would be for me. I got through the workout with 27 reps, which isn't a lot but I finished all 9 clean and jerks in the round with just seconds to go and the weight was a little of a challenge for me. Photo credits to CC.

Starting the clean from the floor. 
Push jerk to put the weight overhead. 
The kipping swing. 
Getting my toes up to the bar. 
The past two weeks, we've had active recovery on Wednesdays with a Power Yoga class! Our instructor is Mark Alexander and his classes are grounded in the styles of Ashtanga, Power and Vinyasa flow. We've been focusing on building strength and flexiblity through different poses and even working on our handstands! I've taken a number of different yoga classes before, including the Bikram hot yoga, and this has been different from any of the other classes so far. It has also been challenging for me to maintain my balance right after a regular CrossFit workout, but I love yoga!

Crescent pose. 
Christina in the half moon pose.
Paul and Megan doing the Twisting Crow balance (this is one that I just fell over in).
Megan and I trying to stabilize our handstands - the goal is to get our feet off the wall into a freestanding handstand. 
Christina doing a handstand for the very first time! 
I'm sad to say that this week will be my last week of attending the 8:30 class at CFP, but I'm really excited to be starting work at a new job next week! I'm going to have to commute to/from San Francisco every day, but that just means I'll have to hit up the early morning CrossFit classes... good thing I'm a morning person : )

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