THE SAGA OF THE TRAINING BAR

So, this morning was my third CrossFit workout. Before I left the house I looked on the calendar to see what the workout was going to be. One of the things we were going to be doing was box jumps and I felt like I could handle that, but the other thing, something called a hang power clean made me a little nervous. I didn’t even know what it was but I had a bad feeling. Like we do with anything we don’t know about nowadays I googled it. I watched a couple of videos and it was confirmed to me that this was going to be a difficult move for me to get right. Fortunately, I had confidence in the patience and knowledge of the coach that would be overseeing the class and I headed out the door. I made sure to arrive a few minutes early so that I could watch folks in the earlier class in the hopes that maybe I could grasp at least part of the move. Sadly, this did not work in my favor and I headed into the class with a lump in my stomach, feeling very nervous. I wish I could tell you that some miracle happened and it suddenly became perfectly clear and my body did exactly what I needed it to do, but that was definitely not the case. I ended up having to do a modified version with just the training bar. This was OK with me though, because it’s more important for me to use proper form and learn how to do the moves correctly then it is for me to lift a lot of weight or do a lot of reps. Anyway, I was moving through the work out at my own speed when suddenly a voice from behind me said, “At least I’m not using the training bar!” Immediately, I turned to this person and said “Hey! I’m using a training bar!” I got no response and tried to go on with my workout. Unfortunately I let this person’s words get in my head, which surprised me because I am usually a bit thicker skinned. They probably weren’t even referring to me and just weren’t thinking about what they were saying, but the words cut just the same. I struggled even harder with the rest of the work out and found myself close to tears by the time it was over. When I walked out of the CrossFit area I had almost convinced myself that CrossFit wasn’t for me. ALMOST. You see, when I signed up at Halo I made a commitment to myself. I committed to doing CrossFit three days a week for a month before I even thought about trying something different. I have tried a lot of things to help improve my running and some of them have worked, but I knew I needed something more to help me achieve the goals I have set for myself and I believe CrossFit could be just what I have been looking for. So, for now, I may be the only one in the class doing the modified version of an exercise and possibly the only one using the training bar without weight, but that’s okay, as long as I keep coming back.