Tag Archives: injury

Injuries and Olympics

Posted by beautifullystrong in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , ,

In light of the frustration I’ve been feeling lately about hurting myself over and over in the gym… and of course the Olympics (trust me, this will make sense…)…I’d like to discuss with you my recent brilliant idea… :-p

This past Saturday I came to the 9am class at Innate, like usual, and proceeded to whoop my own butt, like usual! One of the movements in the workout was a standing med ball throw (more like HURL…or CHUCK!) at a wall. My team chose a 14# med ball. Now, while doing the standing med ball throw, Andrew continuously said to me, “check your alignment, Jen. Square your hips!” (We have great coaches at Innate who care about your well-being, AND your spine!) I honestly didn’t know how to do that…I continued rotating MASSIVELY at the waist, and hurling this #14 ball as hard as I could at the wall.

Later that day, which seemed as if “out of nowhere” my back gave out on me. There was nothing directly tied to it to make me associate it with any particular movement. I felt like I was officially in a body cast of pain. The next day I ended up stealing Nick’s massage to try to loosen everything up around my spine so that I could get a better adjustment…and alas the massage and adjustment left me feeling a wee bit better. This all lead to ANOTHER conversation of frustration with Nick (not WITH Nick, the conversation was with him though… :-p) in that I’m SICK of HURTING MYSELF!!! Nick very gently played with my hair and assured me that he understood why I would be so frustrated…that HAS to be super frustrating…(way to validate, baby…way to validate :) ). Where we went from there was this…

…while I maybe (I accent on MAYBE) could be a higher than average athlete compared to the “average American”…out of the pool of athletes…I am (and I quote, this came out of my mouth today…) “the lowest of the low”. Damn girl, why are you so hard on yourself? This is actually a fact. The MAJORITY of athletes who are my age, have been an athlete since they were small. They MOVE like athletes; they have learned how to use their body to access the most strength, power and agility. A seasoned athlete would have done that same standing med-ball throw, and moved THROUGH his/her legs and hips…instead of essentially doing standing med-ball throwing twist spasms…ahem…like me. Nick explained to me that I am unusual in that I was NEVER an athlete, and then I was an athlete in one of the most intense sports out there…I dont’ necessarily know my body yet…which is why I am learning the hard way day after day after day. So, what am I going to do?…

…Nick suggest that I join a sport (other than Crossfit, I know that is a sport…) which will teach me foot work and how to move my body like an athlete. HE suggests tennis…ehhhh…while I want to learn tennis, I don’t get all excited and fired up about it. So here is where the Olympics tie in…

We were watching the Olympics on Sunday night, and the women’s rowing competition came on. Oh mannnnnn, I would be SUCH a good rower! I am long and lean, and I have a pretty decent 500m row time…not bad for a novice…imagine what I could do with a little practice! However, before I could jump into a regatta, I realized that there really is NOTHING available in this area for the average adult, post-collegiate career, to join a team. Ehh! Unless any of you know how I could do that??….

The other thought I had was…da da da DAH!!!…BOXING! Yes…boxing. I think I could be a BAD-ASS BOXER… There are plenty of places in Santa Barbara for me to access some training in that area…so, that may be the thing for me.

In the meantime, I’m working on lengthening my hamstrings, doing some gentle yoga…and trying not to beat myself up for not working out right now. Listening to the Olympians last night, they have rehab on lock-down at this point in their careers..what do all of YOU do for rehab when you hurt yourself? I would LOVE to know!

Much love,

Jen

Big Effing Tire-1: Jen-0

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Let me be clear:

Big effing tire that weighs approximately 275 pounds- 1: Jen-0

This Saturday the workout at Crossfit was: “Pet Rocks”. We were put into teams of two, had to accomplish a list of absurdity, all the while holding your “pet rock”, that of which was a 25# weight for me…. One person works at a time, the other hold their 25# pet rock.

“Pet Rocks”

800m run

150 wallballs

80 pullups

60 pushups

30 burpees

20 handstand pushups

5 rope climbs

3 tire flips

800m run

The gym was counted off into groups of two, and guess who my partner was?! Mr. Araza himself. How we managed that I don’t know…we were no where near each other :)

We took off on our 800m run, and decided to get the burpees out of the way first since they’re pretty friggin’ tiring. 15 burpees each…next!

Handstand pushups, rope climbs…

…then we headed outside for the tire flips.

Now, I’ve never done a tire flip before. It looks pretty fun, I wanted to at least see if I stood a chance. Nick did two flips; made it look way too easy. So, for those of you that know me (or for those of you that do not, I’ll fill you in…) I am a littttle competitive. Being competitive has its pros and plenty of cons for me. When you are in Crossfit, and you work out with a large number of EXTREMELY capable athletes (when I say capable, I mean JACKED…SHREDDED…STRONG AS WHAT!!), and you “lose” repeatedly (this is when Nick would, once again, tell me it’s not a competition, and not to compare myself…but my very point here is that I tend to do that…often), that is when being competitive isn’t so awesome. So anyway…I wanted to AT LEAST TRRRRRRYYYYYY to flip the 275 pound tire….I mean, it’s not like I was push pressing the thing…just flipping it….

So I get down on my knees, into proper position to flip this sucker…

try #1- didn’t even budge

try #2- I think it came about an inch off the ground

try #3- I got it off the ground about a foot, then it slipped and dropped

try #4- same as #3

try #5- Danny decided to help me, and I got it up and over!

HA. HA! Take that huge flippin’ TIRE!!! Then, I go to stand up…ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Not good batman…I felt like one of those cartoons where someone bends over and then tries to stand up and is still stuck in the bent over position….

I straighten up and head inside to do Wallballs and continue down the laundry list of exercises with my partner :) . When we have done all of the reps for all of the exercises, we head out to do our final 800m run. The last 400m I am DEAD TIRED! Nick thinks we should pick it up the last 200m (that is where you make the most gains). We do. When we get to the end, I immediately squat down, head between my knees and start that lip quiver, eyes watering…realllly want to cry. I start to…then realize….suck it up Nadeau. Deep breath, I’m over it. I walk inside.

At this point in the day, or even ten minutes into the awesome free yoga class we had following the workout, I was NOT over it… my back was killing me. I really hurt my back….again.

So here I am again, only a month after the LAST time I hurt my back…BUT, at least I can say I hurt it because I was trying to flip a TRACTOR TIRE!!! haha! Seriously…who AM I? :-p

Once again, I am realllly glad I have a boyfriend who is a chiropractor! I spent the majority of Saturday being adjusted, laying on ice packs, or walking around the block to get some movement into my spine. While I was grumpy about some of this at the time, I am really glad Nick made me do them. Thanks to him, I was able to drive up to Portsmouth, NH on Sunday and walk around town for a few hours with my friend Lauren…that of which I would NOT have been able to do if I had just taken a nap on Saturday like I wanted to. Thank you Chiropractic, and thank you Nick :)