February 20^th 2012 Catching Up

The month of February is almost over, and I have yet to drop a pound from the end of the Paleo Challenge 10 days ago.  I had one meal where I cheated and ate three or four bites of a desert, and taste of a roll.  I felt like complete shit the next day, but was able to work the badness with a Crossfit WoD.

For the most part since the end of the challenge I have been battling a reoccurring sickness, that I can’t tell if it’s a cold, the flu, or just general fatigue.  I wake up with a void of energy and my workouts have been less than awe inspiring.  I felt like a good deal of the time I was just going through the motions.  I haven’t had a day since the week before the challenge were I felt in control of my workout.

With all that being said I felt good enough to go workout on Sunday, and even if I didn’t fell good enough to workout taking two days off is enough for my brain to say get back to work bitch!

Yesterday I went to the 9:30 AM class and did Helen.  I was able to shave 55 seconds off of the last time I did Helen, with less assistance from bands.  I by no means am anywhere close to doing pull ups without assistance but I am reducing the width of the second band, hoping to one day just have to use one band. 

For the uninitiated “Helen” is a named CrossFit Workout of the Day which involves 3 rounds of doing a 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings with a 53 lbs kettlebell, and 12 pull-ups.  I’m sure the difference in time was made up on the kettlebell swings, because my pull-ups require constant breaks, I do 3-4 at a time, as I lack the muscular strength to pull my fat body up.  It’s too bad hanging on the bar isn’t a part of CrossFit, that maybe the only way I can do these types of workouts as prescribed. 

During the runs I felt like poop, I tried to run faster, I didn’t have “it”, the energy or strength to push harder on the run.  In fact during the second round of work I was coming around the building about start my second 200 meter lap, when Mollie darted out of the door in front of me, she is in great shape, and has a killer body, at which point the monkey part of my brain said, “ooooh, chase Jane”.  Somehow my mind was no longer thinking about how much I hated running, but how I had to keep up with Mollie, its strange how paradigm of the male mind can shift so quickly with a little stimulus.

This plan did not workout well…

Trying to use Mollie as my visual pace car, would be like a hippo trying to keep up with a gazelle.  At some point the hippo would realize how much bouncing sucks, and find a bit pit of mud to slosh around in like he was the offspring of Shrek.

I finished in 11 minutes, so if you look at the progression of my Helen times, it looks like this:

• August 2011 (1 WoD a week with Liz)
  • 14:51 –Macgyver (which apparently is no longer a good reference because most of the people you talk to don’t have any idea what you are talking about (I’m old)) version of Helen, dumbbell swings 50 lbs, running on a treadmill, and doing heavy seated lat-pull downs.
• January 2012 (3 on 1 off for three months)
  • 11:55 with Black and Green Band, all else Rx
• Feburary 2012 (3 on 1 off for 4 months)
  • 11:00 with Black and Purple Band, all else Rx

At the end of the WoD I felt tight; I did some Recon Ron work with push-ups, and worked on my hip mobility.  As the day progressed the feeling in my hip got worse, and I ultimately decided not to do the Monday WoD.

I need some extra rest this week, and my appointment with Ingrid isn’t until Thursday which means I have to somehow get through this week before I start feeling better.  I also need to see Doctor Moses again so he can help me get fixed.  The last time I went to see him, the “shock” stimulation I got made me feel a lot better. 

The Crossfit Games start this week with the “open” which is “open” to everyone.  I want to be at my best for this, just to see how I stack up against other average people.

My Hip

Being an obese fucker has many benefits, paying a premium for clothes at fit because it requires extra material, being forced to buy two plane tickets, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and oh yes utter total humiliation in public.

As you lose the weight things get better in many areas, but the damage done to your body while at an obese weight leaves their mark, especially when you want to be physically active.  I am finding that the more I get immersed into CrossFit, the more my body has to undue the damage from carrying too much weight.  I have serious issues of mobility in my lower back, shoulders, and hips. 

The lower back and shoulders are not as bad as the hip.  I have a hard time getting my arms into the “racked” position, I can get into a rack for purposes of a front squat because I can release my hands from the bar, but when it comes to holding the position for push presses, jerks, or thrusters I am not in a safe position. 

My hip is a different scenario.  I am really tight in my hips.  I was so tight before that I learned to squat in a position which basically has my feet underneath my body directly, I had maybe 6 inches of separation between my feet, after Shady fixed the position of my feet, I’ve been working on relearning how to squat.  When I learn a physical action I tend to use reference points, or relationships of where body parts should be at any given time, so change the position of my feet as drastically changed the reference points of how I squat. 

This change has altered in fact just about every power motion in Olympic lifting, including the snatches, and cleans.  It is also causing constant pain. 

As much as I’ve worked on the mobility, the constant wear via CrossFit is causing me to live in pain.  I don’t know what the answer is, or how to make it better.  The only thing I can do is to work on mobility, visit the Chiropractor, and get massages. 

My theory on why my hips are so tight is a result of carrying 200 extra lbs.  All of that weight, and fat I'm sure caused inward and downward pressure on my hips, and legs.  In fact I find myself trying to learn to walk with my legs apart, I’ll catch myself in the middle of the day walking like a fat guy, and then consciously working to walk normal. 

I may have also just reached that point of burnout, where my head is just not in the game, and the pain that I’ve dealing with seems worse than it is because I want to rest.  It gets exhausting thinking about your weight, and physical state of being all the time.