Monday 3.3.13

To RX or not to RX?

Saturday after class, I had a very humbling experience. I almost cried during a workout. It's the the first time it's happened, and it certainly won't be the last. It wasn't crying like that sniveling-sobbing-crying, ok. It wasn't even crying like the, "I am in so much pain!" crying that happens when you twist your ankle or something. It was a few tears rolling down my cheek, fighting back that lump in my throat, because I was so unbelievably frustrated and just trying not to give up. See, Phil found this workout for me to try that was on CrossFit.com a while back that involved dumbell squat snatches. As the name suggests, it involves putting a dumbell over your head in one hand, but catching it the bottom of a full squat. If you've never tried these before, get to the gym about 15 seconds early tomorrow and tell me what you think. UGH. 

Anyway, the demo video for this workout was done by Kristen Clever (2010 CrossFit Games champion and 2011 runner up) who is sort of a 5'3" ninja and she used the 35# prescribed dumbell....but overhead squats and snatch are two things in my wheelhouse, so we figured I'd give it a whirl with the 35 pounder. The right side was ok. But the left side was a completely different story. The amount of hip flexibility required for this movement just wasn't in me that morning. My hips were tight from WODs earlier that week, not to mention the other movements in the WOD that were taxing them anways....and I was missing reps. A lot of them. I tried probably 6 or 7 in a row that didn't count, and that's when I started to get choked up. I was completely frustrated that I just couldn't make my body do this thing that my mind felt like I should be able to do. So it was about halfway through the first round when I decided that I had to scale back. I could have tried to stick it out with the 35#, but I knew I wasn't getting deep enough on the squat, I knew that my form was deteriorating, and I knew that on that day my body wasn't ready for it....and especially right before the CrossFit Open, it was more important for me, mentally, to finish the workout than have to quit halfway through.

I tell you all of this to say, that it's ok to scale. Some days you will have to. Maybe MOST days you'll have to. Remember, that the goal of us busting our butts in the gym each day is to get stronger, faster and healthier over the long term - not get RX written on the board for the day's workout. For more thoughts on this, check out this article.

Skill/Strength
1-7 ladder up and down: dips 

WOD
1 min AMRAP: airsquats
5 min AMRAP: 10 up downs w/dumbells + full gasser
1 min AMRAP: airsquats