From July 12, 2021
I completed Grace today.
No Grace isn’t a specific person (at least to my knowledge). It’s a workout with a human name. Almost like how we give hurricanes people names because Grace is a whirlwind. Grace, Murph, Fran, and Helena are all workouts done once a year. From what I hear and have experienced they are extremely exhausting.
I didn’t even do the suggested weight (135 pounds) and was glad I didn’t. Grace is 30 clean jerks as fast as you can, or as they say in CrossFit, “For time”. It definitely takes a toll after 30 repetitions. I did it at just 65 pounds and was still struggling to get the last four done. Mind you that this is after the workout of the day (WOD) which was 3 sets of front squats and back squats (read more in my last blog post). Coming from a powerlifting background I was a little disappointed in the weight I was doing for my squats. After Grace, I was thankful that I put my ego aside.
Speaking of ego let’s talk about form. In these workouts when you’re doing a bunch of reps of the same movement, you need to make sure that your form is on point. Especially when you do a lot of them your form starts to deteriorate a little. You need to make sure you’re doing it correctly from the start. As I’ve also learned from playing an instrument, the more times you play something wrong the harder it is to correct and the more likely you are going to mess up in the future. The same concept applied to working out because it could lead to an injury from doing something incorrectly. Luckily, when you start lifting light and with a coach in CrossFit, you’re less likely to become prone to injury.
In class today, as in previous classes, the coach really helped me with my form. I’m still getting used to this type of Olympic lift and still have some kinks to work out in the movement. The coach really helped me see what I was doing and how I could improve my mechanics and form. It’s even better that I’m taking it light, and not trying to match the weight of other people in the class. The only person I am competing with is myself and I believe that it’s a good mantra coming into learning something new.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the class and I feel extremely accomplished after Grace. I will be taking a short hiatus from the blog for a couple of weeks. After this one they may get a little repetitive if I keep updating you with every WOD I take. I hope to update you in the future after I have a few more WODs under my belt and some fitness results. I’ve really enjoyed writing these and sharing the start of my CrossFit adventure and look forward to the next leg of my journey.