Accidentally in Love

I didn’t mean to like CrossFit this much. In fact, when I first saw the CrossFit box (i.e., gym), I started thinking I had made a huge mistake committing to four solid weeks of three times per week training. While the training looked intense and very intimidating, the whole CrossFit atmosphere and culture seemed incredibly tacky to me. The veteran CrossFitters (I was there early, and the class before was just wrapping up) looked me up and down and then turned away, without so much as even a smile. The box was so minimalist in nature (as CrossFit is “supposed” to be), and everyone looked exactly.the.same. They all wore tall socks (supposedly, to prevent injury during box jumps and deadlifts), shorts, tanks (girls), and tees (guys), and all the guys were tatted up, and all the girls had their hair up exactly the same way (in a half-ponytail/half-bun) and wore identical headbands (in different colours at least). When people talk about the cult of CrossFit, these die-hards are who they’re referring to. The only thing missing was Vibrams (those creepy looking toe shoes!) and a Paleo food guide (although they did sell coconut water)! The trainers seemed nice and friendly enough, but even the other beginners were dressed just like the experienced CrossFitters. Did I miss the memo or something?

Once we began working out, I started to appreciate that the trainers really focused on form. I’m a huge proponent of training in a full range of motion and usually go through my exercises slowly and in control (even if that means I check my ego at the door and lift lighter weights than I could with poor form). I was actually surprised that I could do the exercises with ease and did not look half as exhausted as most of the other people in class! (I may look fit and have experience lifting, but I’m not the strongest person in the gym, I don’t do cardio, and my flexibility could most definitely be better!) And then came the WOD (Workout Of the Day).

WODs are metabolic conditioning (aka. metcon. These CrossFitters love their acronyms!) workouts that generally take from 7–20 minutes (I think) and usually involve doing AMRAPs (As Many Rounds As Possible) within a given time or timing how long it takes to get through a certain circuit (or many circuits). The WODs seem to all have names of people as well. We did a modified version of Cynthia yesterday (so we did 10 minutes instead of 20), which involved doing as many circuits of 5 pullups (using coloured bands to support us and make pullups in a full range of motion easier), 10 pushups (chest to floor), and 15 squats as possible.

When we went to grab our pullup bands, the trainers forced me to take one of the most difficult bands, while everyone else took the easiest band. They claimed that since the form on my pullups was so exceptional, I could handle the extra challenge. If they said so…

Anyway, we went through the workout, and afterward, they wanted to record how many circuits we were able to get through in 10 minutes (we’ll do the same workout at the end of my four-week course so we can see our improvements). When I told them how many circuits I had completed (10 and change), the guy next to me said he hadn’t been counting, but he’d done 2 fewer than me. This guy had also made a comment about being sore that he had to use an easy band (he thought he was strong enough to use the kind of band I was using) before the WOD, and now even with his easy band, he couldn’t even keep up? I’d never expected CrossFit to be an ego boost, but I left the class feeling not only powerful, but a little bit addicted as well. Even if headbands aren’t really my thing.

Update: I had my fourth CrossFit class yesterday, and I seriously love it more and more each time! Learning new moves is so empowering (like handstand pushups! Hello!), and the coaches are incredibly encouraging! I really love that CrossFit covers so many aspects of fitness (strength, agility, flexibility, and even cardio!), and I’m even embracing the competitive aspect of it! Let this be a lesson to my readers to try something new and venture outside of your comfort zone! You may just find something you LOVE (and maybe even are good at!)!

Rediscovering the Happiness in My Hobby

I know it’s been an eternity since my last blog post, but I’ve just been collecting so many ideas for blog posts that it’s been difficult to organize my thoughts!

If you follow my Facebook page, you’ll know that nationals was a great experience but that I came in completely unprepared as far as posing goes. It is so vastly different from posing in Alberta, and despite asking around, no one told me about these differences! Still, I did the best I could with the knowledge I had, I looked the best I ever had, and now I know what to expect next time! I enjoyed my time on stage and despite placing dead last (well, I tied for last place!), and I have no regrets!

Anyway, the mindset I brought with me to nationals was that I just wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to savour each moment of being there, not just on stage. I travelled to Vancouver for the competition, so I wanted to enjoy the new sights and sounds around me, as well as the experience of being around so many beautiful, fit people. I tried to keep calm, regardless of what was happening (like our 2-hour wait to check in!) and stop and smell the roses (literally, as cheesy as that is!). My husband was able to join me in Vancouver, and I managed to spend some time with an old friend I haven’t seen in far too long! And of all the competitions, this one was by far the most enjoyable.

I made a major mind shift at a photo shoot just the week before. I was telling the photographer about competing, and I had almost started to bring the focus to the negative sides of competing. At that point, I had been meticulous about my diet for months and was more than ready to relax in the offseason. (To be clear, I was NOT starving—I was eating about 1500-1600 calories a day and doing two 20-minute cardio sessions per week—but I just wanted to be able to go a restaurant and not stress about how they cooked their food or whether the nutritional information they listed was accurate.) At that point, the photographer said the words that changed my perspective:

“But you enjoy it, right?”

OK, so they weren’t pearls of wisdom by any stretch. They were just part of a casual conversation, but they shifted my whole approach to competing. Yes, certain aspects of competing are hard (I can’t stand all of the exfoliating that I have to do for weeks leading up to the competition so that the tan goes on evenly, and sometimes, I want to eat an extra bite of chicken breast!), but if I don’t enjoy it, why am I doing it? Competing should be a hobby—in fact, it has to be! Nobody (at least no woman) can make a living solely by competing. Sure, competing can provide a great launchpad for other things, like sponsorship or starting one’s own training business, but competing itself is a hobby. For example, the winner of the bikini division at Olympia (the biggest competition of the year!) earns $40 000. A person can’t survive on that for a year! Especially after paying all that money to compete in the first place!

With that all in mind, I had to ask myself why I was competing. If it wasn’t fun, and if I wasn’t enjoying it, why was I competing? It’s all to easy to focus on the negative (the time I had to spend exfoliating or practising my posing or the restaurant visits I had to decline) without seeing the positive (the great physical shape I’m in and the experience of competing on the national level!). By not taking things too seriously and adopting this relaxed state of mind, this competition was my best yet! It was the most enjoyable from start to finish (for my husband, I think, too!), and I think I not only brought my best physical package to the stage, but my stage presentation improved in leaps and bounds, even from provincials!

This is the attitude I’m bringing with me into the offseason, and I’m taking this calm approach and remembering to enjoy life (and focus on the things that are more important than appearance—like EVERYTHING else in life!). There are so many other things I want to experience, especially with regard to fitness and health. For example, lately, I’ve been doing more yoga to help my back, which has started giving me some grief lately, and I recently began CROSSFIT, which I will blog about soon! I haven’t committed to any more competitions, but as long as it remains FUN and I’m able to do it in a healthy manner, there will be more in my future!