Crossfit and Last Night's Workout

     In an effort to get ready for the challenge, I joined a crossfit gym: Friendship Crossfit.  There are a ton of crossfitters completing this challenge, and I went to a free intro class near my home.  I'm only in the second week of my membership, but I am hooked.  This gym is exposing me to a ton of exercises I have not done before, and the trainers get me to push much harder than I would on my own.  It's a very positive environment.  I can't say enough.

     Many of the exercises done in crossfit require a little practice to complete.  Last night, one of the trainers introduced us to kipping pull-ups.  It is a modified pull-up that is more acrobatic and aerobic than what I consider a normal, muscle-up pull-up.  Here is an example of a guy doing kipping pull-ups (if you aren't interested in seeing him over head squat twice his body weight, start at 1:40).

     Unfortunately, I was not able to do this exercise due to past shoulder injuries.  I have partially dislocated (subluxated) my shoulder twice in the past year and a half.  The injury stretches the ligaments in your shoulder, and that is causing my right shoulder to feel "loose" when trying a kipping pull-up.  In order to protect my shoulder, I constantly engage my arms, and that prevents me from doing the exercise effectively. 
    
     I need to increase my shoulder stability before I can take this on.  Fortunately for me, there is the Turkish Get Up.  The trainer prescribed daily repetitions of this exercise with some slight modifications to focus on the shoulder.  In his words, we have to "attack weakness."  Everyone has their kinks, and I guess this is mine.  I will attack this head on, and it will just make that first set of kipping pull-ups all the more satisfying.

Update: I tried the modified TGU at lunch, and it felt great.  My shoulder definitely felt solid after doing some sets of these.

     After hitting this speed bump last night, we moved on to using gymnastics rings.  I really like these, and I’m excited to do more work with them.  I thinks it’s going to be a lot of fun attempting some of these exercises up off of the ground.  Take a look.

I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us tonight.

What I am doing and why I'm blogging about it

What I am doing. 

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the GoRuck Challenge.  For those that don’t already know what that is, here is its description from the poster I printed off of the challenge’s website.

                        15-20 MILES. 8-10 HOURS. LED BY GREEN BERETS.

                        AN EPIC ADVENTURE. THE BEST OF EVERY CITY.

                        Details are not forthcoming and this challenge is not for                                                              everybody.

My challenge starts on November 19th at 1:00 a.m. To complete the challenge, each person wears a GoRuck pack that contains bricks (the number of which is determined by your weight) and whatever provisions you want to have during the challenge.  Each team is responsible for bringing a “coupon,” which is an item that must weigh 25 lbs.  I assume that the team members will take turns carrying it. 

I am also training for my first marathon, which I will run in the middle of October.

Why I am blogging about this.

I want to have something to look back on.  I have always heard that it’s the journey not the destination.  Well, I’m pretty excited about the destination, and I want to be able to revisit this journey.  Whatever else I do in life; this is going to be my first time training for something like this.  It will never be my first time again. 

Since I began to follow the GoRuck Challenge, I regularly check the challenge’s training page for reviews and training tips.  I have devoured everything that I can find, and in looking around, I find myself in pretty extraordinary company.  There are some exceptional people completing this challenge.  But I kind of feel like a regular guy trying to do something out of the ordinary.  Maybe someone else that is in a similar position (or even a different one) will get some value from this. 

Besides, the challenge seems a ways off, and writing and reading about it makes it seem closer.  I want to wring every bit of experience out of this I can.

So, here it goes.

Relevant Links:

GoRuck Challenge