For the women’s RX 15.4, it was an increasing ladder of Handstand Push ups and Cleans at 125 lb. Unless you are a strong mighty quick ninja, most had a complaint either about the handstands or the weight of the clean.
The strength of pushing your own bodyweight off the ground multiple times is very different from picking up 125 lbs to your shoulders. This workout took me by surprise. I underestimated the recovery I needed for the handstand push ups even though the cleans were not a challenge personally. Handstand push ups are definitely a skill that I will work on to improve over this next year and I am sure I will not be the only one.
With energy levels down and motivation struggling as we finished the fourth week of the Open, I asked my friend, Patti Smith, why she CrossFits to get a better perspective of why we torture ourselves.
Patti is a mother of one and does CrossFit a few times a week. She confessed that she does CrossFit, “because all I have to do is show up, the workout is chosen for me already. It has given me confidence in my own strength that I never had before, and the people are awesome and very nice to look at.”
The community of CrossFit and the support of others comes from the team mentality, even for those that are working out just to relieve the daily stress of being a mom. There is bonding over pushing oneself to their own personal limits and continuing to train and becoming better. We all have our own struggles and no one knows it better than your fellow CrossFitter especially during the 5 weeks of the Open when you get to ask yourself, “How badly do I want this?”
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