My gym is different from your gym. Not to say that my gym is better.
Except that it’s better.
Ha ha. OK, fine. I’ll add one tiny prepositional phrase: it’s better for me.
I never thought I would look forward to going to a gym, but I do. I actually look forward to going to my gym. I’ve documented how much I love CrossFit here, here, here, and here. But there are myriad other reasons. For one thing, I love that they tell me what to do and I don’t have to think about it. I dig the fact that there are no mirrors—it’s never about how you look; it’s about what you can do. And I get all giddy about seeing the friends I’ve made there.
In some ways, though, my gym is just a gym. Dudes call each other pussies. “Sweet Cherry Pie” is on heavy rotation. There’s dropping of barbells and grunting.
And, I have to admit, I have surrendered to the siren call of dropping a bar with a bunch of bumper plates on it. First of all, often it’s absolutely necessary—you’re lifting an amount of weight that would be dangerous to lower to the ground. But more importantly, when you’ve just hit a new clean & jerk PR and you drop that heavy-ass barbell, it makes the most satisfying sound when it hits the floor. My friend Steve once wrote to a bunch of us about his emergency medicine internship. He told grisly tales of gunshot wounds to the head and shit, but the image that has stuck with me all these years later was of him and his cohorts standing in line in the cafeteria when a chorus of beepers sang out from their belts. All those white coats dropped their trays in unison and bolted for the ER.
Come on. That is some badass shit.
Dropping a heavy bar two feet in front of me is about the closest I’m ever gonna come to being that much of a BMF.
I always drew the line at grunting though. I mean, I make little runty-pig noises when I do push-ups and stuff, and when I’m trying to crack up my friend Erin, I’ll make this belabored “Eeeeeeeee!” sound
But never during lifts. No this-is-Sparta crap at the top of a front squat.
Well…
See, the WOD today involved a bunch of front squats, wall ball shots (pitching a medicine ball 9′ up a wall with a full squat at the bottom), and kettlebell swings.
One could argue that I sometimes go too light on WOD weights. It’s not that I’m afraid I’ll be last. I’m always last. I’m used to that. It’s that I’m afraid I’ll be so far last that people’s children will be at home sobbing from hunger pangs. Or worse, I’ll have a DNF. I’ve hated a lot of WODs; I’ve cursed a blue streak; I even kinda puked in my mouth once. But I’ve never logged a Did Not Finish.
So sue me, I go a little light on the weight, just to be sure.
Tonight, I was supposed to front squat 75% of my bodyweight. Ha! That’s, like, 130 pounds. My one-rep max is 115. I went for just under 75% of that: 83 pounds.
It was hard. It was so hard. The workout was a 21-15-9, which meant that you did 21 of each movement, followed by 15, then 9. I was breaking up the first round of front squats into 4 to 5 reps at a time. When I came up on about the twelfth rep, my lungs and throat emitted this great “Uhh!”…and I realized why people grunt.
It feels good.
It makes the lift easier too.
But mostly it makes you feel like a mythical beast.
I probably sounded like the squirrel from Ice Age, but I felt like a dragon. Rarrrr!
I love my gym.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this excellent
blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS
feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share this website with my Facebook
group. Chat soon!
Hello! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with
us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely loving the
information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Wonderful blog and great design and style.
I am really thankful to the owner of this web page
who has shared this wonderful post at at this time.
Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after checking through some
of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely glad I found it
and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
Hurrah, that’s what I was seeking for, what a data! present here at this webpage,
thanks admin of this web page.
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say fantastic blog!
When I originally left a comment I appear to have clicked the
-Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time
a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the same
comment. There has to be an easy method you are able to
remove me from that service? Thanks!
Wonderful article! We are linking to this
particularly great content on our website.
Keep up the good writing.
I pay a quick visit day-to-day a few sites and blogs to read articles or reviews, however this weblog offers quality based content.
Hi there, You’ve done a great job. I will certainly digg it and personally suggest
to my friends. I’m confident they will be benefited from this website.
This is my first time pay a visit at here and
i am in fact pleassant to read everthing at alone place.
Peculiar article, just what I wanted to find.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was wondering what all is needed to get setup?
I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100% sure. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kudos
My programmer is trying to convince me to move
to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about
a year and am nervous about switching to another platform.
I have heard fantastic things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress
posts into it? Any help would be really appreciated!
wonderful put up, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of this sector don’t realize this.
You should proceed your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a
great readers’ base already!
Hi! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that
would be ok. I’m definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
I am truly pleased to glance at this website posts which consists of lots of valuable data, thanks for
providing these kinds of information.
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on sites
I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It will always be useful to read through articles from other authors and use a little
something from their web sites.
Hola! I’ve been following your web site for some time now and finally got the bravery to
go ahead and give you a shout out from Kingwood Tx! Just wanted to tell you
keep up the fantastic job!
Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is important and everything.
However think about if you added some great graphics or
videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and videos, this site
could definitely be one of the very best in its field.
Good blog!
Right away I am going to do my breakfast, later than having my breakfast coming again to read additional news.
There is definately a great deal to know about this topic.
I love all of the points you have made.
Your method of telling everything in this piece of writing is actually nice,
all be capable of effortlessly understand it, Thanks a lot.
Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative.
I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate
if you continue this in future. Many people will be benefited from
your writing. Cheers!
My brother suggested I might like this website. He was totally right.
This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how
much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!
You ought to be a part of a contest for one of
the highest quality websites on the net.
I most certainly will recommend this blog!
Great post.
Its such as you read my thoughts! You appear to grasp a lot approximately this,
like you wrote the ebook in it or something. I believe that you just could do with some
percent to power the message home a bit, however instead of that, that
is fantastic blog. An excellent read. I’ll definitely be back.
I just could not leave your site before suggesting that
I really loved the standard information an individual provide
for your visitors? Is gonna be again continuously in order to check up on new
posts
Nice post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I am inspired!
Extremely helpful information particularly
the remaining phase :) I handle such information much.
I was looking for this particular info for a long time.
Thank you and best of luck.
Great delivery. Sound arguments. Keep up the good work.
I’d like to find out more? I’d care to find out more details.
Paragraph writing is also a excitement, if you know after that you can write or
else it is complicated to write.
Hello friends, fastidious piece of writing and nice arguments commented at this place, I am
genuinely enjoying by these.
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the layout of
your website? Its very well written; I love what youve
got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?
This article is really a pleasant one it helps new
the web visitors, who are wishing in favor of blogging.
Hi to all, the contents existing at this web page
are in fact amazing for people knowledge, well, keep up the good work fellows.
My relatives always say that I am killing
my time here at web, however I know I am getting know-how everyday by
reading such fastidious articles or reviews.
If some one wishes to be updated with most recent technologies afterward
he must be pay a quick visit this web site and be up to date all the time.
Highly energetic blog, I enjoyed that bit. Will there be a part 2?
Wonderful beat ! I wish to apprentice at the same time as you amend your web site,
how can i subscribe for a blog web site?
The account aided me a appropriate deal.
I have been tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast provided vivid
transparent idea
Nice blog here! Also your site loads up very fast! What web host are you using?
Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol
It’s fantastic that you are getting thoughts from this article as well as from our dialogue made at this
place.
Link exchange is nothing else however it is just placing the other person’s
website link on your page at suitable place and other person will also do same in favor of you.
It’s really a nice and helpful piece of info. I am satisfied that you just shared this useful information with us.
Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Hello, its good article regarding media print, we all be familiar with media is
a wonderful source of information.
First off I would like to say superb blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind.
I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your mind before writing.
I have had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out.
I truly do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to
15 minutes are generally lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any
suggestions or hints? Thank you!
We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
Your website provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole
community will be grateful to you.
bookmarked!!, I really like your website!
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout
on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a
nice blog like this one these days.