Jessica gave me You Are Your Own Gym but someone forgot to write a book about the uses of a CrossFit gym.
Michelle and I hang together as we run around the building (following Libbie) to warm up then hop up on the deck which is quite elevated. Laurie wanted us to experience the hopping portion of the program.
Lots of people are gifted enough to do things in their sleep or with their eyes closed and Laurie is gifted enough to teach class with a ruptured tendon and leg boot; she heard something go pop before our class last Saturday.
We warm up with PVC pipes again. Do:
Libbie reminds us to pop our butts out while doing squats. I forget to get that butt and hip action going and kill my quads...
At one point while we're practicing, I turn my training bar vertical and stop because I just don't get it and when Laurie checks on me, I say I'm sorry; I don't get it.
Laurie: They're going to be in the workout.
That would be the upcoming benchmark workout. Needless to say, I'm frustrated because I don't want to sit out while other people are lifting. The whole flipping part of the Hang Power Clean just had me stumped.
We get to the end of the class pretty fast. The last item on the agenda.
Three Rounds of
5 Deadlifts
5 Hang Power Cleans
5 Squats
5 Presses
I'm not sure which weights go where. I put a training bar on the weight bench when I should not have. Laurie asks me to come down to the weight bench next to her because I know it and she knows it: I cannot be left to my own devices.
During the deadlifts, I forget to bend my knees. During the squat, I forget what stance I'm supposed to be in. When it comes to Hang Power...time, Laurie is like -- just get it up there and we'll work on technique yadda yadda yadda.
I start to get a small feel for it when Laurie tells me I need you to be more aggressive. She again says how it takes a while to nail the body mechanics etc. etc.
I kind of get one of the Hang Powers right. As I'm exiting, Laurie tells me that because I'm strong, I have a tendency to use my upper body too much. What to say? It was a night with mixed results. After class, I had so much pent-up energy that I had to go for a walk and, during the walk, there was a part of me that wanted to take off and run.
Don't be discouraged - those are difficult lifts and it's pretty amazing for a beginner to be doing them. Anything with a clean is super hard, and I think deadlifts take more concentration than any other lift.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about popping your butt out; it doesn't seem right at first, but after a while you'll feel what a difference it makes.
It's one of the paradoxes of weight-lifting, I think, that you need to start with a light weight so you don't kill yourself, but it's tricky to get the right form with light weights. When you increase the weight you can sort of feel it better, everything makes sense.
gingersnapper,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the perspective; I really appreciate it because session four definitely got under my skin.
I'm going to have to pay more attention to form because I think that I aggravated my knee by relying on my quads so much.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to things making sense.
I don't see why an apology was necessary. If I'm having issues with a technique, and a trainer tells me "they're going to be in the workout" instead of re-explaining things in a useful manner (short words and diagrams, if necessary), then she should be the one apologizing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, expecting someone to master deads AND squats AND hang cleans in a single session is ridiculous. Each of these deserves their own session (or several.)
You are a more patient woman than I.
For squats, see EFS's video series "So You Think You Can Squat". The link goes to the first video of five.
Mich,
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect I felt guilty for, pretty much, putting my training bar down...
Maybe there should be more than five training classes to allow for extra instruction.
Thanks a lot for linking to those videos.