When I got there, I had to fill out a form that asked very sensitive questions like 'what size are you?' and 'how much did you weigh five years ago?', followed by 'when were you in the best shape of your life?'. Luckily, I had no problems answering any of those questions because I weigh even less than I did in high school and am in the best shape of my life. How many people can say that when they're about to turn 32?
Then, we learned how to use foam rollers to stretch out muscles. It. felt. so. good. Especially the glutes. I want one at home.
Then the real action began. We started with a 'warmup' that included fun activities with equally fun names like inchworms, bear crawls, and crab walks. But those were followed by the infamous BURPEES:
I had heard about burpees from Fitbomb's blog (for a really good description of CrossFit, click here) and they were even worse than I thought they were going to be. We had to do them all the way across the room, which means that the farther you jump the less you have to do. Well, I learned last night that I am not good at jumping. I finished so far behind the others that they had already caught their breath by the time I got to the end.
For our workout (remember, that was only a warmup), we did a 'Chelsea 0.5'. A Chelsea workout is 5 pullups, 10 pushups, and 15 air squats per minute for 30 minutes. A Chelsea 0.5 is half, for 15 minutes. Well, I could barely do five pullups with an elastic band assist in the first minute. Forget about the pushups. The air squats, on the other hand, were cake when and if I could get to them.
So, will I go back? You bet! Although it was the most difficult workout I've ever done, it was strangely addicting. Maybe it's because I love a challenge or know what great results it produces (like the 50 year old man, who was obviously a nerd in high school, with a glistening 8-pack).
In other news, I just found out that our proposal for a panel on 'Reclaiming Ancestral Health in Latino Communities' was accepted for the Ancestral Health Symposium at Harvard in August!!! This will be my 'coming out' to the Ancestral Health community, so I'm a little nervous. But I'm more excited about all the people that I'll get to meet and what will come out of it.
One of the people I hope to meet in person is Gary Taubes. He wrote Good Calories, Bad Calories, which was probably the most important book I have ever read in my life. I admire the work that he is currently doing to shift the nutrition paradigm in the US. In fact, he's come out with some really exciting developments recently. For example, one thing that he details in his book is the comparative lack of funding for research on carbohydrate-restricted diets compared to high-carbohydrate, low fat diets. So, he is collaborating on the Ancestral Weight Loss Registry to provide that data by collecting information directly from individuals who have lost weight on a paleo/carbohydrate restricted diet. If you have ever tried one of these diets, please help and register.
Stay tuned for a future post on AHS!
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