DT is a hero Workout by CrossFit that honors soldiers who have given their lives for this great nation. DT is also known as one of the hardest CrossFit workouts since it involves heavy weights.
CROSSFIT DT HERO WOD:
5 Rounds for time:
12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks
Weight is 155 lb for guys and 105 for the ladies.
I PR’ed this workout (hit a personal record) by 2 minutes — only the 2nd time I’ve been strong enough to do 105 lbs. It was good, but it probably could have been better. I will add this one to my list of tests to do periodically. I like DT because it does challenge me as heavy weights is not my strong suit.
I also got some nice bruises when the hang power cleans got a bit too heavy!
I also did deadlifts for my strength since DT has deadlifts in them. It was a good combination to start off the week!
I recently came across an article about how CrossFit women should be proud of their bodies, have less body issues than other women, and are strong. It was written very definitively about how women who CrossFit love their strong bodies.
I’m here with the counter-argument: CrossFit women have just as many body issues as other women (maybe more so since our bodies do change significantly when you continue with CrossFit). We struggle just as much with nutrition and food choices. We do care what we look like in terms of makeup. Clothes shopping is much harder with a CrossFit body.
There is one difference NOT noted in the article:
CrossFit women have a love/hate relationship with their bodies that other women do not.
WHY CROSSFIT WOMEN LOVE/HATE THEIR BODIES
We are stared at. Usually in a leering way, not in a healthy way. Women either are
CrossFit Box Jumps
jealous or think we look gross. Men look at us like men look at other women — they just stare longer since we DON’T look like other women they see too often.
Clothes don’t fit. I have given up trying to find jeans that will go over my calves and my thighs. I live in yoga pants. I have given up trying to find nice-fitting T-shirts that are small but fit my shoulders. Dresses have to be the right cut or my muscles look horrible in them.
Food is a real struggle. Adhering to a strict diet is a test of mental strength, which after doing a CrossFit WOD which puts us on the floor, is a battle many of us don’t have the strength for. How your body looks is all about food. Period. If you don’t eat right, you won’t look right no matter the hours you throw down at the gym.
We are strong but still want to be delicate flowers. I am strong. I can lift heavy items. But I don’t outside the box. Why? Because I’m a woman who wants a man to lift heavy things for me when the need arises. I don’t want to have to lift MORE heavy items after the gym.
Our changing bodies yield body insecurities. When people first started telling me, “Hey, Jen. You’re ripped!” I didn’t realize how muscular I had become. It was definitely an acceptance process. Now, as I lift heavier, my lats are thicker, my shoulders wider, my legs bigger. It’s an on-going battle women CrossFitters face.
It’s a fact if you lift heavy weights, you’ll gain muscle. Muscle is bulk. You will look different than your average woman. Some women I know quit CrossFit because they don’t like what CrossFit does to their bodies. Anyone who tells you you won’t bulk up is lying to you. This is part of accepting your body as it does gain muscle. And this is part of CrossFit.
CrossFit will Change Your Body
Go into CrossFit with your eyes open. Learn about it. Read and study about lifting weights. Read about the metabolic pathways. Then decide if CrossFit is for you.
You all know I love CrossFit. I love what CrossFit does for me. I love how my body looks. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a struggle to accept how I look, to not be critical, to think I’m fat, etc.
We all have baggage we carry from childhood into adulthood and from society. It’s a mindset we all have to overcome.
At my last competition, the Turkey Challenge, we had a WOD with sandbags. I fell in love — so much so I bought two sandbags from Brute Force for myself for Christmas. One I filled with 35 pounds and one with 62 pounds.
Filling sandbags is not as easy as it sounds. Here are the steps and methods I utilized:
Working out with Sandbags
Buy sand (play sand is recommended) from your local hardware store or superstore
Fill the filler bags accordingly. A less filled bag is more unstable and will tax your grip and balance more. We used a funnel and a measuring cup that had a pour spout. This enabled us to accurately fill the bags with the same amount of sand.
Use a scale. After filling the bags, we would weigh the bags on a scale to make sure they were equal.
These Brute Force bags come with military-grade velcro. Velcro the bags and place them in the outer shell bag, shaking to make even.
You’re ready to begin!
WHY TRAIN WITH SANDBAGS
Sandbag training is utilized for unstable load training which is the ability to unconventionally move or lift an odd object that is unstable or has an uneven load efficiently. This type of training provides a much more dynamic and challenging training experience. You must engage your body’s stabilizer muscles, building coordinated strength and balance throughout your entire body.
Unstable load training is definitely challenging, no doubt about it. And fun. Once I’m healed from my surgery, I can’t wait to get started!
For the third year in a row, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving by doing a CrossFit WOD called
Preparing for Work
Murph. A hero workout named for Lt Michael Murphy, who died in Afghanistan serving our country, it consists of:
1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 air squats
1 mile run
This is one of the most famous CrossFit workouts and is traditionally programmed for Memorial Day around the country. However, I began doing this on Thanksgiving as well three years ago to commemorate the Fallen.
The weather was perfect: 55 degrees and sunny. I invited one friend and it was him and me who performed it. It was fun. It wasn’t my best time, but I wasn’t pushing all out. It was, again, just doing the movement and enjoying life. Thank you to all who have served our country and especially to those who have made the greatest sacrifice and given their lives. Words are not enough.
I never realized the importance of having moves you dominate in CrossFit until my last competition. Called in your wheelhouse, these CrossFit moves are vital to winning workouts and, if you compete, to competitions.
CrossFit Pull Ups
CrossFit moves in your wheelhouse are moves you dominate every time they show up in a workout — moves you are really, really good at. I made up time in my CrossFit competition when one showed up in one workout, and I won the event where both moves were in my wheelhouse.
In CrossFit, advice is often given on how you need to focus on the moves you’re bad at, so you improve those. This is true. However, you need to make sure you don’t forget NOT to practice the moves in your wheelhouse, so you don’t lose those in sacrifice to others.
The fact of the matter is: you will improve those moves you’re not so good at, but they will never be like the ones you’re naturally good at, the ones you like, the ones you dominate.
CrossFit Moves in My Wheelhouse
Assault bike
Double unders
Rope climbs
Running
Thrusters
Burpees
As you can see, I’m not very good at most CrossFit moves. But these ones are popular and when thrown into a CrossFit WOD can make all the difference whether you win or lose.
CrossFit is constantly-varied, functional movements at high-intensity. Every CrossFit workout you do, you’ll get better. Know what you’re good at and add to them if possible — all the while improving all the other CrossFit movements. This is the key to winning at your box, in your heat, in your mind, and at CrossFit competitions. Good luck!
Last night, I went to bed at 6:30 pm. I was physically exhausted — something I am definitely not used to.
After a 2-day CrossFit Competition, and I worked out yesterday morning with no rest day (I squatted and did a workout with a run, hang power snatches, and burpee box jumps), I was dragging all day at work and when I came home, I was tired. I couldn’t even eat dinner. I just went straight to bed.
CrossFit Competitions will wear you out — emotionally and physically. You want to do your best, you’re disappointed when you don’t do your best, you stress over the details like the drive down and when to eat, and then there’s the actual workouts themselves, which are bears to get through.
The Importance of Sleep after a CrossFit Competition
Preparing for CrossFit Workout
All of this equals exhaustion. When this happens, listen to your body and get some rest. Sleep is so important with CrossFit to let your body heal, recover, and rejuvenate. Here’s my advice after a CrossFit competition or some other grueling workout, such as a Tough Mudder or Spartan Race:
Get extra sleep. This will allow vital tissues and muscles to recover and recuperate after what you’ve just put them through.
Drink more than you think you’ll need. I usually lose about 4 pounds every CrossFit competition. Most of this is water weight. At a CrossFit competition, you usually don’t drink much because you don’t want to have to go to the bathroom, you forget, or you’re just too nervous. Afterwards, you need to replenish. Drink extra water and recovery drinks for optimal muscle recovery.
Take rest days. I’m a hypocrite. I don’t do this. I don’t like to get behind on my training. Yet, you usually suffer if you don’t (or you’re so tired you lose a whole night!). Give your body some well-deserved time off.
Take inventory of what you’ve learned. I learned a lot from this last CrossFit competition. I learned once again I’m stronger than I think I am when I flipped a 300 pound tire multiple times. I learned I need to practice on a bar that I can’t touch the ground on. I learned I can still kick ass when the I have to, especially if the moves are in my wheelhouse. I learned I still have the fire to compete that I thought I had lost from burn-out. I learned I’m just as good as others, if not better.
The whole point of CrossFit competitions is to learn from them, push yourself, and be proud of your achievement. You probably won’t win them all. But within each competition, there will be a personal victory — either a move you did you didn’t think you could do or a workout you annihilated.
Keep in mind why you compete in CrossFit, and you’ll just keep getting better and better.
If you’re like me, getting out of bed in the morning can be rough, especially if you’re exhausted, sore, cold, and sleep deprived.
This morning, the absolute last thing I wanted to do was workout. I’m sore still from heavy snatches. My wrist has been hurting for some reason. I just have no motivation, and my mental capacity is not there.
3 Tips for When You Don’t Want to Get Out of Bed
Have a motivating factor. For me, this is coffee and my space heater. I heat up the bathroom and sit in there for a few minutes. Then I drink coffee.
Go over in your mind your day. This helps me get started when I think of all the things I have to do that day, and all the things I just want to be over (like heavy snatches).
Keep in mind the end game. I love it when I’m done for the day, and I just get to sit and do my own thing (like blogging!). Work is part of life but we all live for play — whatever that looks like for you. Get work over with, so you can do what you want to do with the rest of your day.
CrossFit Training
3 Tips for When You Don’t Want to Go to the Gym
Do your own workout at home that caters to your needs. Today, I didn’t want to do anything heavy or any pulling. So I came up with my own workout of the day (WOD): 200 m run, 10 sit ups, 10 push ups, and 10 air squats for AMRAP 20 (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes). It was perfect as an active recovery, and what I needed that day.
If you’re not there mentally, take a rest day. Today there was no way I was going to accomplish any workout cause I needed a mental break. Sometimes you don’t have to push yourself. Rest days are okay.
Go for a walk. I find being outside — no matter what I’m doing — is more exhilarating than a workout sometimes. Take a walk, listen to nature, and ponder the universe. We all need to do this occasionally.
You know yourself better than anyone. Listen to what your body needs, and don’t stress about a change in routine. Your mind and body will thank you!
