FML Instagram Ideas

One of the people I follow on Instagram (@hungryfitness) had this great? idea to do 10,000 kettlebell swings in 10 days. This is the kind of bad-assery that appeals greatly to me. I think she found a few other people to join her as well (@petitefi), and well, if you see the pictures of these ladies on Instagram, you will see why it probably isn't hard for them to get followers to do as they do. This is something I'd really like to work up to, so that is where I got the idea for my bonus PM workout during my 60 days to a pull-up. Today is day 58 btw- going strong!!! Lol.

Since I already have a pretty set workout schedule (CrossFit beating at noon), and I know that 1,000 kettlebell swings would probably take me upwards of an hour, rip my hands apart, and make me immobile, I figured should just scale it back a little. Hence my 101 swings the other night. Funny thing about life...our workout at the gym today involves 300 Kb swings!!! I'll be doing an additional 100 tonight, so who knows, maybe someday I could participate in a 1,000 Kb swings/day challenge.

Eitherway, I'm excited to see what adding 100 Kb swings/day (or similar) for 60 days does for me. Will I have a noticeable increase in strength/stamina/grip strength? Will I get my pull-up? Well, of course I'm going to get my pull-up. But, still curious to see what happens.

Yesterday, inspired by the CrossFit Games I'm sure, we did yoke walks. Oh, what's that? You've never heard of the CrossFit Games (games.crossfit.com)? Its basically the Olympics of CrossFit. There are individual male and female winners, and also a team component. For 4 days, athletes perform crazy workouts, battling it out for the title of "Fittest Person on Earth." Kinda cheesy, and also, I do want to point out that there are all sorts of different ways to measure fitness, not just CrossFit. CrossFit is unique in that there is no specializing in one event, so the theory is one is more prepared for the unknown, and hence "most fit." Anyway you look at it, there are amazing feats of strength and stamina going on. However, are the winners more fit than Michael Phelps or Serena Williams? That is to be debated.

The cool thing about the CrossFit games is that anyone is welcome to try out to get to the games. The "open competition" began in February with hundreds of thousands of people from around the world throwing their name into the ring. Workouts were announced each week, and then people had a few days to perform the workout and submit their verified scores to the website for ranking. The top 60 men, women, and teams went to the respective Regionals for their territory. One of the trainers (the girl trainer) at my gym was on a team that made it to the Northwest Regionals here in Washington. It was so bad ass to watch her perform, and get text message updates on how she was doing. The top 3 male, female, and teams from each Region get to go to the games. Her team placed 4th by ONE point. ONE point. Even with being that close, she and her team had the best attitude and were excited to have performed that well. Two weeks before the CrossFit Games, her team got a call saying that the 3rd place team at Regionals failed their drug test, and that her team would be going to the GAMES. HOLY CRAP. My trainer, going to the CrossFit Olympics!!!!

One of the events at the games this year was a yoke walk. You load up a rack with ridiculous weight step under it like you would a back squat, and carry the thing as far as you can. Yesterday, we loaded up bars, set them on our backs, and hurriedly walked to the other side of the gym where we could set them down. The idea was to figure out the maximum amount of weight you could carry one length of the gym (20m?). I got up to 265#, and was pretty happy with that. It was my little slice of the games. Ha. I do hope to compete in the open this coming year, especially if I have my pull-ups dialed in by then. The team my trainer was on placed 20th out of 40ish teams. Pretty awesome, but if you know her, its not surprising.