CrossFit One World WOD

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles

WOD: The Bear
One cycle of "The Bear" is a power clean to a front squat to overhead to a back squat to overhead. Complete seven cycles to finish one round. Once the weight is picked up off the floor, it can only tap the floor between cycles. (Touch and go.) Rest with the bar on your shoulders, overhead, or tucked into your hip. Complete five rounds for max weight in the last round.

Joanne's weight:
Round 1: 35#
Round 2: 45#
Round 3: 50#
Round 4: 55#
Round 5: 70# (for three cycles) 65# (for four cycles)

Before I give my notes about this WOD, here are video clips of JD's last round where he did a 185# round. The other clip is Cheryl hitting a 105# round. Great job, folks! This is such a killer WOD!




Notes (to myself) about this workout:
Since there was a trainer's meeting, I didn't get to the gym til past 8pm. I was actually happy because I finally got to watch the presidential debates live! (I missed the first one but saw the re-caps and analysis; I missed the VP debates and am sure that the SNL version was way more entertaining; I completely missed the second presidential debates, though I downloaded it on my ipod, I still haven't seen them.) Um, it doesn't take a genius to figure out who I'm Barack-ing the vote for. Anyway...

This was a really tough WOD and I want to give special thanks to Eric and Imran who coached me through this late-night WOD (we didn't leave the gym til 10pm!). Admittedly, I was afraid of lifting too much weight because I really wanted to complete all seven cycles and all five rounds. Eric and Imran have different opinions on the matter and I tend to lean towards Eric's way of thinking where you push the weight to your max, but don't aim to fail. Imran says it's okay for the weight to fail because you're still pushing your max (okay, you have to get weightlifting speak to understand this). Between the two, they agreed that I wasn't lifting enough weight, which is why my last round jumped so much. In retrospect, I think I could have lifted the 70# for the whole cycle. I just let the weight intimidate me. I failed on the first movement because I forgot to remind myself to shrug into the power clean. When Eric lessened the weight, I kept saying "shrug" before the first movement and it helped me make it through the rest of the cycles.

Yes, I could have and next time will push more because I wasn't exactly dying at round 4 and 5 like you're supposed to. I didn't hunch over like you see in the above videos, which means I had more in me. I just need to get out of my head and into the movement. Plain and simple.

Here's my take on women and oly weightlifting....
I'm not a weightlifter and have no interest in doing the uber-heavy lifting that Eric is known for at the studio. But I will say that I actually like olympic (oly) weightlifting and wish I did more of it. In fact, when the half marathon madness is over, I'm planning on taking Jason's Sunday morning weightlifting classes just for knowledge.

I know a lot of women are afraid of oly weightlifting because they fear bulking up. My response to that is look at Jolie:
She's very lean but lifts a good amount of weight. Bulking up happens if you follow a particular diet and you mean to bulk up. But if you want to be lean and strong, oly weightlifting is actually a great thing to have under your belt. Personally, I like oly lifting because it requires an awareness and discipline of my body that I've never known. Also, if you're doing it right, it gives you a strong core (for me, the bonus is less useless crunches to lean out the mid-section). Whenever I do a good oly lifting session, I can feel my upper body get significantly stronger and can feel actual muscles in my arms!

I also think women are better suited for the oly lifting because we tend to have better flexibility and grace for these types of lifts. For me, I have weird legs. Eric thinks perhaps one leg is longer than the other, which is why my standard stance is so screwy. Other than that, Eric and Imran agree that I naturally have good form and am consistent. This is a huge surprise for me because I assume that I'm bad at all things athletic. Lesson learned ladies and gents... you never know what you're good at unless you actually try!

I remember when I first started doing cardio kickboxing about ten years ago (OMG, it's been that long!). I thought I would be a total klutz, but I found that I took to the movement pretty naturally. I was a good student and picked up the details pretty quickly. It wasn't long before I went from cardio kickboxing to actual bag and focus mitt work. All this started at Macomber Karate in Goleta after I graduated from college. After I moved out of Santa Barbara, I let about six months pass by before I signed up for another studio. I settled on the Self Defense Institute in Fremont because I really liked the vibe there and was interested in something more practical. Krav Maga (which I first heard of in Santa Barbara) suited me and that's how I started taking martial arts semi-seriously. I did tae kwon do and krav and have green belts in both disciplines. When things at SDI started to fizzle, I followed my favorite instructors to my new home at One World and have been there ever since. At One World, I've done krav, fit-to-fight and am now just a CrossFitter. I'm sure I'll pick up the other stuff at some point. But to balance that with the yoga, dance and running I do, now is just not the time.

Geneology aside, I would have never thought to pick up these activities if I honestly believed that I didn't have something inside me. I'm not the most athletic person in the world. In fact, I'm always the one who finishes last. But I give it my all every time I'm in the gym and for me, that's what matters the most. So the point of the story is, do what intimidates you the most. You never know, because you just might be good at it.

And that's why I think more women should do oly lifting!