Serious Leg Day

Today was a serious leg day for me, and not just at Crossfit. I started off the day by doing a fitness assessment at the recreational sports center at school, to round out my Bod Pod assessment from last week. Basically, I just wanted to get a baseline measurement of where I'm at fitness-wise right now, and maybe revisit things in April or May.

My assessment included all the regular things that I'm sure we all remember from the Presidential Fitness Tests of our middle school days - push-ups, sit-ups, how far you can reach past your toes, etc. Then we moved on to the chest press and the leg press, supposedly measures of muscular endurance. Based on how many push-ups and sit-ups I was able to do, and my body weight and height (I'm guessing), my trainer was able to guesstimate what my leg press weight would be...she was waaaaaaaaaaaaay off. I think I was supposed to only be able to press about 250 lbs. I ended up maxing out the machine at 404 lbs...and I was able to do it 5 times.

But, I wasn't able to shine as much on the chest press - only 70 lbs. I'm actually ok with that since the legs are supposed to be big powerhouse muscles anyway. But it just goes to show you, too, that these press machines are not the most "logical" (in my mind, at least) way to measure muscular strength. Sure, I can press that much weight, but when would I EVER be sitting with my back straight up against something, with my knees at a 90' angle  and needs to push 400+ lbs away from me? I'll take 100 squats in a minute over that, thanks.

The WOD for tonight was pretty leg heavy, so I guess I'll need to let the rec center know they should get a new leg press machine for my next assessment - maybe one that can go up to 700 lbs? Just kidding :)

For time:
10 Deadlifts (RX'd women = 165#)
25 KB swings (RX'd women = 1.5 pood = 54#)
8 Deadlifts
20 KB swings
6 Deadlifts
15 KB swings
4 Deadlifts
10 KB swings
2 Deadlifts
5 KB swings

This WOD was tough on my back (bad sign) and my legs. I started approaching the barbell every time for the deadlifts SHAKING. I managed to finish in 8:16 with 113# on the deadlift and 45# on the KB swings. I also started dropping the reps on the KB swings because the 45# was killing me, but there weren't any 40# KBs left. I ended up doing 25 / 20 / 12 / 9 / 6 on the KB swings, and it still took me a while! I think my problem was that I could get the KB up in the notch, but gravity just ran its course when the KB started swinging down, at which point I would let it pull me and hunch me over. Need to learn to have more rigid form on the KB swings, especially in my back.

In the warm-up today, I was working with a new female client who just joined and is making great progress. She mentioned she had never done an overhead squat (which is what we were warming up with, along with strict presses), so I was giving her some pointers. Man, was I nervous! I realized that while I may have great form and can think of all the little things that go into a movement when I do them, it's a much different story trying to explain that to someone else. Something to be aware of if this coaching certification works out. Having the label of "coach" appended to your name carries a lot of responsibility, and I'm starting to second guess whether I'm ready for that yet.

I was reminded of the movie CenterStage (yes, I am making this reference, and if you've never been a dancer, you might not get it, but just bear with me). On the first day of the dancers' training at THE American Ballet Academy, the director walks in and makes them raise their hand in response to the question: "Which one of you was the best dancer in the last class he or she took?" Naturally, they all raise their hands because they wouldn't be at the prestigious academy if they weren't the best. He continues, "It's an honor, isn't it. Being the best. Teachers dote on you, other students ask for your help. And then you get accepted to The American Ballet Academy..." He goes on to say that even being at the academy does not guarantee success as a famous dancer.

That's kind of the point I'm at now. I definitely don't think I'm the best, but I do have a passion to become a coach, and I feel like there are some people who look up to me and ask for my advice on movements and such. But is that enough to be a good coach? I think it takes a lot more.

In other great news: I found out a good friend of mine from high school joined Crossfit Central's RunTex program. She had it in her Twitter status and we started chatting about it. Crazy how social networking works like that! I hope she enjoys it and gets as much out of it as I have!