Saturday, March 3, 2012

Work hard, play hard


                                     Hiking Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock, AR

I love to exercise. Yes, that's right: love. It's been wired in me since my years as a gymnast growing up. But, during high school, college, and medical school, it became a chore. I had to log "x" minutes on the cardio machines and complete my required weight lifting sets. Spending 2+ hours in the gym 4-6 times/week was overwhelming and exhausting. During medical school, I will say that this time was my saving grace. It was my ultimate stress reliever and my only "me" time. I was fortunate to discover Turbo Kickbox, a class I attended with my friends at our local globo-gym, and this started to make working out fun again. After moving to Little Rock for residency, I was unable to find local Turbokick classes....not to mention, I was now extremely short on time (often working >80 hours/week).

Enter: CrossFit. At the encouragement of my husband, I started following along on the crossfit website. It took me a few months to complete the transition, because I was scared....I was saying goodbye to those 2 hours/day in the gym and all of those cardio and weight lifting machines. What I was getting in return was a high intensity workout, or "WOD" which often take <10 minutes. CrossFit is high intensity, varied, functional movement. It relies on skills in metabolic conditioning, olympic weightlifting, and gymnastics. A few of my favorite references:

The transition to CrossFit was frustrating at first, but now I could not imagine ever returning to those boring, monotonous, stagnant workouts. Working out is now fun, challenging, and dynamic. Don't get me wrong, I feel more challenged than ever before, but the reward is oh so sweet!

I plan to post my Workouts of the Day (WODs) on a weekly basis, as adapted from the main CrossFit site. I complete these before work 5-6 days per week in our garage gym, but most can be adapted to commercial gym settings. Many of the crossfit affiliate websites also offer a variety of workouts online which can be completed at home. With CrossFit, it is extremely important to listen to your body. If I am too sore to exercise that day, I take a rest day or do a lighter activity. Although the workouts are short, they are designed for efficiency. Pushing your body in this way will prepare you for any physical activity. With this in mind, I try to put maximum effort into the workout every single day, and then revel in that glorious feeling the rest of the day!


Our garage gym, complete with homemade pullup bar (thanks, Tom!), squat rack, barbell, and whiteboard to track our daily workouts.

 

  
Olympic bumper plate set (you can drop them and they bounce!), kettlebells, and homemade 14lb medicine ball.


4 comments:

  1. Oorah! Gotta love the Marine Corps Flag in the background and the play on words with the silent "T" in Tkaczuk! Tkaczuk Tkrossfit (Kah-check Crossfit)

    Muscle-ups anyone?

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  2. Can't wait to hear more and see some pix of you guys working out! You WILL be an inspiration to many!!

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  3. Love. Absolutely love. It's about time you started a blog! Love and miss you.

    Megan

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  4. YAY!!! Love that you are doing this! Love you! MJ

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