Pushing your boundaries
Have you ever thought to yourself ‘No. I wont ever be able to do that’?
I know I have. Many times.
A situation came up on Tuesday which I thought would give me a good excuse to skip the gym and go home and relax instead. Three words which have worried me more then any others I have seen in the past 2 years of doing CrossFit.
Handstand Pushup Progression.
I don’t know about you but I have a fear of braking my neck and will pretty much avoid situations where there might be the slightest possibility that I might break said neck. So when I rocked up to CrossFit 5th Avenue on Tuesday I was pretty nervous that I would be using my healthcare to get an expensive taxi ride to the nearest hospital.
I rocked it! in fact I have never tried to do a handstand that didn’t involve leaning against a wall or having someone hold my legs. Now I’m not going to bullshit you and told you I was upright on my first, second or even twentieth attempt but I did lean a few things.
Firstly, being outside your comfort zone really does reap rewards. While I was in a headstand with my knees resting on my elbows, I found I was more balanced if I rotated my hips for what almost felt like was too far. This enabled me to bring my knees into my chest to prepare for the kipping motion in the handstand pushup. Once I discovered this, I felt more composed in holding the position for as long as I wanted.
Secondly, Things do really improve when you listen to the advice your coaches give and just go with it. Don’t hold back.
Like I said I never thought I would be able to do a non assisted Handstand but by the end of the session I think I got vertical while having my arms fully locked out - a mere millisecond but I got there.
For our WOD we had some sort of album launch going on so we worked out while listening to something awful but it had a nice little poster.
20 min AMRAP
200 m run
5 squat cleans (135/95)
10 pullups
15 box jumps (24/20)
which was an utter sweatfest and the run was up and down 5th Avenue, dodging the shoppers which was interesting.
I managed 5 rounds and 2 Squat Cleans Rx!
