Fight Gone Bad

I'm in Toronto this weekend for a CrossFit certification seminar. I hope to have some photos up tomorrow. For those of you new to me and/or this blog, CrossFit is the fitness program I follow. It involves, "constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity," (IIRC from today's class). Basically very intense workouts. I plan to keep this up through chemo. Of course, I won't be doing it at the same level of intensity that I am now, but that's the beauty of CF. As Coach Glassman says, "The needs of our grandmothers and Olympic athletes differ by degree, not kind." In other words, functional fitness is just as important for the elderly as it is for a firefighter. If you doubt this, take a tour through a retirement home sometime.

So I said to the Coach today, "Thanks for inventing CrossFit, it's changed my life. And about a year from now, I'll come up to you again and tell you that CrossFit SAVED my life."

I've been reading a book called Cancer Fitness, by Anna Schwartz. I've learned that exercising through chemo or radiation helps reduce fatigue, decrease bone density loss and functional ability loss, alleviate anxiety and depression, and improve sleep, self-esteem, and body image. This is true whether you are a fitness buff like me or whether you've never exercised before. Some people have called me inspirational for committing to maintaining some sort of fitness program through my illness. I think the true inspiration would be the person who BEGINS a fitness program (even if that is "only" walking around the hospital for 10 minutes a day).

Anyway, today's workout at the seminar was Fight Gone Bad:

3 rounds for points:
1 minute 12# 10' wall ball shots
1 minute 75# sumo deadlift high pull
1 minute 24" box jumps
1 minute 75# push press
1 minute on Concept II rower
1 minute rest

Count one point per repetion, except in the rower, where you count calories burned. My score was 254.