To cheat or not to cheat.

I recenly came across and read this blog post by CrossFit Anarchy, “CrossFfit and Cheating” http://www.crossfitanarchy.com.au/wod-blog/crossfit-and-cheating and decided to throw my two cents in on the topic of cheating.

I cheated in school one time. It was in college and it was for a history paper. I had a very busy schedule at the time - lots of drinking SoCo and Coke, sleeping and being in love with my then fiance. I couldn’t find a topic I cared enough to write about and my fiance was a history major at another school. I simply changed the cover page. I didn’t even read the paper, if that teacher had asked me one question about the paper I would have been so busted. I didn’t even really understand the title. I got an A on the paper.

That paper taught me something really important. Cheating is easy, especially in the middle of a long work out like Karen (150 Wall Balls or time). When you are 100 reps in it gives you the prime opportunity to cheat. Is anyone going to really know if you skip rep 101 and go straight to 102?

Heck yes, someone knows! You know, ding dong. You know you did it just as much as you know you didn’t go below parallel on your squat or just as much as you know you want to throw that damn medicine ball so hard you never have to see it again.

That paper was the only time I cheated in school. And I remember every bit of how I felt; that sinking feeling in my stomach telling me it wasn’t right. I remember sweating like a whore in church on turn-in day thinking for sure the teacher was going to know I had copied the paper. I remember lying to a friend in class about how long it took me to write it and the burning I could feel in my cheeks as I lied. I remember sitting there thinking, if my dad knew I had copied a paper he would probably stop paying for school and I’d have to go home. I remember everything, well except what the paper was about. I seriously have no clue. For all of the worrying I was doing, I could have just written a paper. It’s not even like it was a term paper. It was a stupid 3-5 page thing. It would have taken me max a couple of hours. And it would have been done and over with, whereas, now, 15 years later I still think about and feel guilty about cheating on that paper.

I definitely feel that when you cheat you are cheating yourself. But really, it just pisses me off, particularly during a WOD. I mean, I’m dying over here, coming in last ALL THE TIME and you’re going to cheat a couple of reps, why? I think that’s the most important question. Why do people cheat in sports?

In a 2007 NY Times article by Drake Bennit he concluded that the main reason people cheat is “a desire for fairness.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/opinion/04iht-edbadsport.1.7751929.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) He said that decision making scholars learned that when people have a perceived notion that an opponent will cheat, they cheat to preempt a loss. Sometimes the bad decision making comes from pressure from coaches and fellow athletes to win or for financial gains, but mostly it was because people wanted a fair playing ground.

It seems in CrossFit though, there should be less cheating because the playing field is already level - all things are equal in an RX workout. The only variable is the athlete themselves. So, when a CrossFit athlete cheats during a WOD by rep shaving and then claims their score as RX, the only way they can cheat is by making a conscious decision to do so. So for the athlete that cheats - how does rep shaving make a more level playing field? Do they feel that everyone else must also be cheating?

Keep in mind, I’m not talking about those long complicated “math centric” work outs that take a rocket scientist to keep up with. I know I’ve lost count more than once and guessed which number I was on. I’m talking about the people that consistently cheat and pretend that no one notices.

And that’s the thing - if you are a perpetual cheater, someone notices. Just because no one says anything to your face, doesn’t mean they don’t notice. And if you are willing to cheat in the gym - where else are you willing to cheat? Is that really the person you want to be in life?  

(I personally am about to die during the workouts so the only thing I’m paying attention to is breath-in/breath-out/don’t die/don’t lose count. So I really have no idea if someone is cheating or not.)

On the other hand, I have a friend who I work out with regularly and she cheats all the time. You know what, she openly admits to cheating. She knows she does it and she doesn’t try to hide it and I’m totally OK with that (but trust me, she doesn’t care about my opinion at all). She doesn’t write her time or reps on the board unless a coach asks her. She works her ass off and she is totally happy with her progressions and workouts and she doesn’t pretend to be something she is not.

In the end, that’s what we should all strive for isn’t it? To be happy and to work as hard as we possibly can that day. When it comes down to it, it shouldn’t matter what we did yesterday or what we are going to do tomorrow. When we walk in that door to workout - whether it be SPIN class, Yoga or CrossFit, the goal is to clear our minds of all of life’s distractions and do the best we can do in that moment.

Cheating serves no purpose. It’s not making you faster and it’s not making you better than anyone else because you aren’t doing the same work. In a competition you can’t cheat anyway because a judge is counting your reps, so you’re setting yourself up or failure there. Are those three seconds of self gratification really worth it?

For me - the one that still feels guilty about the three page paper 15 years ago, cheating is just too much work.

At noticing when things change.

Have you missed me? I missed you!!

I've been here and there for the past couple of weeks. I got to go see all of my BFFs from Ohio to South Carolina and then came home and had to get caught up on everything I've been putting off lately.

The big thing, the bathroom remodels. I can say, as of right now, the project is about 95% finished. Which is huge - this process was started in May back when I thought I was a drywall person and I made Donald think he was a plumber. It started out probably as most DIY-ers gone wrong start; with a couple of Saturday morning HGTV shows that make it all look so easy one feels empowered to try this crap on their own. I mean, how hard can it be to rip out some drywall and then screw it back into the studs, right?

We knew we had to rip out our 1960's Master Bath not because it was horribly ugly but because some how it was leaking into the basement bathroom below. We had two plumbers come out and look at the pipes through the drop ceiling below and tell us that it was not a plumbing issue. So, we determined it must be a tile issue - somehow the water was getting behind the tile and dripping. It all started out so easy. I'd spend an hour or so uninstalling the fixtures and Donald would haul them out to the street where we'd break them up and hide them in with the rest of our trash on trash day. Then came the fun part - I started with a hammer and went to town on the tile floor! Only it wasn't so fun - the tiles were attached to the floor using some ancient means of concrete and steel mesh. As I started pulling up the mesh, it fell apart. It was so rusted, it was literally crumbling. Not to mention the tile was breaking into a million pieces and the concrete was turning to dust as I pulled it apart. It took a couple of weeks to get it all out of there, which included paying Hank $20 to get in and bag up the trash - totally worth it. After it was all up, you could see where the toilet had been leaking, presumably for years. Luckily the sub-floor didn't need to be replaced.

Next came the shower stall. As much fun as it was to go at the gross harvest gold tiles and watch them fall away, we were horrified by what was behind them.

It turns out that whoever built our house used drywall behind the tile in both bathrooms. Note the breakdown of that word drywall, "dry" "wall" as in it's supposed to be used on a wall that won't get wet. Another fun fact - tiles and grout are porous, therefor you need something behind them that can get wet. Otherwise guess what happens? Yep - the drywall gets wet then molds then falls apart then starts leaking into your bathroom below it.

Once we opened the walls up not only did we see mold in the master bathroom, but we could see straight to the wall behind the hall bath and it was covered in mold. Oh and, the exterior wall in the master bath was just randomly missing some of the asphalt siding - so basically the layers went as follows: tile, drywall, insulation, plastic siding, outside. No wonder it was covered in mold!

That's the hall bathroom drywall behind tile...ugh...

At this point we called uncle. Well actually we called lots of people - a plumber, a tile person, a drywall guy, another plumber and another painter. Thank goodness we have a friend in the business! Six months later our little 4' x 6' master bathroom remodel turned major renovation is finally (almost - the sink still needs to be installed and the hall tub re-glazed) over with and I am loving the results!! We installed the toilet in our bathroom last night and it is so lovely to sit on my own toilet again. The toilet's actually a little too big (I forgot to take into account the depth of the bowl) but I don't freakin' care. I'm just happy I don't have to share a toilet with Hank anymore.

The toilet is actually so tall, that my feet dangle when I sit down. I'm sure this will eventually lead me to need one of these Squatty Potties,

but it's so pretty I'm not going to worry about it. I figure I get enough squatting at CrossFit that I should be good to go, literally. Which leads me to the fitness part of this post. Squatting.

As our fearless leader recently posted on social media..

And it so true! About a year after I started CF Donald started to actually notice a difference in that area and that made me notice. Well that and when I would bend over to get something my butt started to bump into things (which is an issue no one ever talks about but really does happen - it's like your pregnancy belly; all of sudden there's this extension to your body that keeps getting in the way but you are really proud of it). This being a family blog, I won't go into other details but I will say this, doing all of those squats and thrusters in the gym come in handy at home, just sayin'.

Some people fear the squat because of "knee issues" or "back pain" They feel that doing squats will hurt an already aching body. What they are not considering is that squatting wrong is leading to some of those "issues." Let's think about how many times a day you are already squatting (and probably doing so wrong which is leading to the issues).

1. Getting up and getting into bed.
2. Every time you sit down on the toilet - you squat down (unless you have a too tall one like me) and then get back up. When you sit down - do you just let your butt fall on the toilet? Or do you lower yourself? And for most women - you're "squatting" on public toilets already.
3. Getting up and down from the couch or dining room chairs.
4. Getting in and out of your car - assuming it's not a truck or something.
5. Sitting and getting up from your desk chair at work.
6. Getting down on the ground with your kids.
7. Bending down to pick up things you drop or to pick up dog poop.
8. Bending over to pick up your kids or gym bag or your groceries.

the list goes on and on..

See what I mean? You're already doing a thousand squats a day, so why not start doing them right? Let's talk about the proper mechanics of a squat and some things you can think about next time you're bending over to pick up the socks your son can't seem to remember go in the laundry basket and not the living room floor.

This picture from Tina at CrossFit Resurgence shows all of the key points to a squat. Children instinctively squat perfectly, they have not developed any biomechanical deficiencies like adults who have been sitting on chairs for years.

The CrossFit Training Guide has TWENTY-TWO, yes 22, steps to preforming a biomechanically sound squat.

How to Squat

Here are some valuable cues to a sound squat. 

Many encourage identical behaviors.

1. Start with the feet about shoulder width apart and slightly toed out.

2. Keep your head up looking slightly above parallel. 

3. Don’t look down at all; ground is in peripheral vision only.

4. Accentuate the normal arch of the lumbar curve and then pull the excess arch out with the abs.

5. Keep the midsection very tight.

6. Send your butt back and down.

7. Your knees track over the line of the foot. 

8. Don’t let the knees roll inside the foot. Keep as much pressure on the heels as possible.

9. Stay off of the balls of the feet. 

10. Delay the knees forward travel as much as possible.

11. Lift your arms out and up as you descend.

12. Keep your torso elongated. 

13. Send hands as far away from your butt as possible.

14. In profile, the ear does not move forward during the squat, it travels straight down. 

15. Don’t let the squat just sink, but pull yourself down with your hip flexors.

16. Don’t let the lumbar curve surrender as you settle in to the bottom.

17. Stop when the fold of the hip is below the knee – break parallel with the thigh.

18. Squeeze glutes and hamstrings and rise without  any leaning forward or shifting of balance.

19. Return on the exact same path as you descended. 

20. Use every bit of musculature you can; there is no part of the body uninvolved.

21. On rising, without moving the feet, exert pressure to the outside of your feet as though you were 

trying to separate the ground beneath you. 

22. At the top of the stroke stand as tall as you possibly can.

(http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Seminars_TrainingGuide_012013-SDy.pdf page 35)

Now, I know you are not seriously going to think about all of this the next time you bend down to pick up your keys, but, when you bend down to pick them up and "tweak" your back - it's probably because you weren't thinking about any of them.

So, keep squatting people! If not for the sake of not hurting yourself, then do it for your sex life! (Husbands, your welcome.)

(Don't worry ladies, I didn't forget about you.)

The lowdown from the Throwdown

From the perspective of last place

First and fore most we had a great time!

We had both kids and Bella with us so we decided to get a room at the Sheraton for Friday and Saturday night which was totally the right call...it was hard enough getting everyone up and motivated when we only had a 2 minute drive, I can't even imagine an hour drive. We got there and our friends from Baydog Crossfit and our teammates from CrossFit South River were already there getting tents set up.

SouthPaw Tent City

DAY 1 - WOD 1: "Partner This, Synchronized That"
All 4 members 18 min. TIME CAP For Time:

Building Run all 4 Partners Sandbag Carry

Male/Female Partners 1
30 BB Thrusters Scaled (75/55) *Synchronized
40 T2B (combined)
50 Double Unders each

Male/Female Partners 2
30 BB Thrusters Scaled (75/55) *Synchronized
40 T2B (combined)
50 Double Unders each

Building Run (w/out sandbags)

We weren't too far behind on the first run, so Donald and I set in with our thrusters, and that's when shit got real. We had a plan going in and thank God! We decided we would do 5 at a time. That 5th one just got harder and harder. I got a few toes to bar, but Donald totally carried us there. Then it was time for double unders. Now let's be clear - going in I thought that we had to get 50 combined, like Donald could do 49 and I could do 1. That was not the case.. we each had to do 50. So, Donald busted his out and then it was me, doing sometimes 1 at at time. A few times I even tripped up just doing the singles trying to get to the doubles. But then a crazy thing happened.. I just kept trying and I started getting some in a row. Not strung together, but you know, single single double single single double etc. It was so cool!! I could hear Dave, Donald and Patty screaming for me and it was so exciting. There was a moment when I had about 10 left and I just stopped. I bent over and took a deep breath. I was trying to get my focus together so that I could finish this crap but I think everyone thought I was giving up. I almost laughed out loud, but thank goodness I didn't, people would have thought I was crazy.

I finished my last one and we only a few minutes left so Patty and Dave jumped right into their thrusters. They pumped them out really quick and had time to get in some toes to bar. They made us jump to this middle bar for the T2B that was really high, most of the girls couldn't reach it so the men had to hoist us up. Dave and Patty had planned on Patty starting them so Dave would need to help Patty up. When the time came though, I think his brain was too tired to remember. Patty was standing under the bar, arms reaching for the bar, focused and ready to go, she just needed a boost from Dave. Dave was standing like a deer in headlights catching his breath, we all started yelling at him from the sidelines to lift her up. He couldn't hear what we were saying just that we were yelling at him so he jumps up on the bar and strung together a bunch of T2B. It was awesome. The time ran out before we could finish. We all had a good laugh, thankful that WOD 1 was finished. 

During the break, we all fueled up and stretched out. We met the team from CrossFit Annapolis. They hadn't brought a tent and we had an extra so we set it up for them and shared our shade. It turns out we both knew a lot of the same people, Annapolis is a pretty small town. Next up were the tire flips.

Erin M and Bella getting some snuggle time.

WOD 2/3/4: “Flip the Script”
45sec. of work / 15sec. transition
Tire Stations:
Station 1 : Tire 1 (380#) = 1pt per flip
Station 2: Tire 2 (465#) = 3pts per flip
Station 3: Tire 3 (650#) = 6pts per flip
Station 4: Tire 4 (1000#) = 12pts per flip
Station 5: Max Cal Row (1 partner per rower): 1 calorie = 1 point
WOD 2: Mens Total Score
WOD 3: Womens Total Score
WOD 4: Total Combined Score (Men & Women)  

To be clear - the heaviest tire any of us has ever flipped is about 250 pounds, so we really had no idea what to expect. The men went through first and made it all look pretty easy. Donald and Dave got the 1000 pound tire 4 times. Patty and I didn't really have a plan - just get under it and flip it until we couldn't flip any more. We were doing pretty good until we got to the 650 pound tire.. we got it up off the ground and were holding it fine. Our judge, and everyone close by, just kept saying "Get under it, get under it!" At one point, I turned and yelled back - "How are we supposed to do that?!?" I didn't get an answer. When it was our turn for the 1000 pound one, we just sorta looked at it and laughed. Since we had 45 seconds to stare at it we figured we might as well try, we got down in position, placed our hands close together and started pushing through our heals and you know what?! Nothing happened, that thing didn't budge an inch. Oh well, we did OK on our row. For this event, we didn't come in last!!! But only because another team dropped the tire and it landed on her foot resulting in a trip to the hospital... so ... yeah. Our friends from CrossFit Annapolis did get the 1000 # tire flipped, check out the video! It was so cool.

Watch the Video Here

The last event of Day 1 was the Human Rack. The weights weren't that bad, it was just the sheer number of reps that was a killer. I mean, 70 front squats?! When have you ever done that many in a row!? 

DAY 1 - WOD 5: “Human Rack”
15 min. TIME CAP
Women perform WOD / Men act as rack
70 Front Squats 55
60 Hang Power Cleans 75
50 Shoulder to Overhead 95
Then Men perform WOD / Women act as rack
70 Front Squats 95
60 Hang Power cleans 115
50 S2OH 135

The 70 was split between Patty and I, so we didn't do 70 in a row either. We had planned to do 5-10 at a time and just get through them. They went slow but we got them all done, then it was Hang Power Cleans. We were super efficient at changing the weights but it wasn't nearly enough. We were falling behind. At one point Patty looked back over her shoulder to see the other teams, when she looked back at me she had this look of panic. I stared right at her and said "Don't look at them, this is about you and me, keep going." After that, neither of us looked back down the line, we just kept going. We were doing OK until the Shoulder to Overheads. The weight was only 20 # less than our PRs which shouldn't seem like a lot - maybe if you're only doing 1 or 2, but 50! We got down to doing 1 or 2 at a time and just kept going until the time ran out. Our guys were great holding the bar for us and encouraging us. Thank goodness it was them, they never once told us to "hurry up" or "come on, just do 3 this time," They let us work at our pace and just do what we could. It was a bummer to not finish again and our guys didn't even get to work. But we were all glad it was beer thirty.

Day 2 - Comfortably in last place.

The dreaded Snatch Complex... I totally screwed this one up. I just got all confused about the weights and stressed about the time.

Day 2 - WOD 6/7/8
“Snatch This Complex” Time Cap: 6 minutes
WOD 6 Male partners
Score: Total combined weight
WOD: 
Build to a heavy single complex:
1 Full Snatch + 1 Hang Squat Snatch + 1 Over Head Squat

WOD 7: Female partners
Score: Total combined weight
WOD:
Build to a heavy single complex:
1 Full Snatch + 1 Hang Squat Snatch + 1 Over Head Squat

WOD 8:
Snatch This Combined Weight Score

The main problems I had with this one was that a) you have 6 minutes, 1 bar and limited weights and b) you only get three attempts. Outside I had done 75 pounds so Patty and I decided to start with 55 pounds and make sure we got one in the books. Then I was going to go up to 75 so I would have two tries to make sure I got it. On the first pull of the 75 I just didn't have it though. So, I only had one more try. We dropped the weight to 70 and I got the Snatch, but then paused on the way down of the Hang Snatch. Bam. Done. With a score of 55. I was so mad at myself. Maybe if I had done 65 I would have gotten that. Ugh.. but oh well.. The boys did much better and tied for 15th.

It was definitely inspirational to watch the RX women snatching more than 100 pounds, and making it look easy! 

WOD 9: "Off The Grid" - Time Cap: 12 minutes
50’ Overhead Plate Lunge (45#)
80 KB Swing (53/35)
60 Goblet squat (53/35)
40 Chest-to-Bar Pull Ups
20 G2OH (135/95)
50’ Overhead Plate Lunge

It was finally time for the last WOD, well last for us seeing as we were nestled in last place, there was no chance we'd be doing any sort of final WOD. "Off The Grid" looked fun from the start. Lots of opportunities for everyone to work based on their strengths. Donald was bummed that Scaled didn't get to do Handstand Walks - so we he took matters into his own hands..

  #iwanttowalkonmyhands

We went into this WOD with a plan and it looked something like this:
50' lunge - Dave
80 KB Swings - We'd each do 20
60 Goblet Squats - Me (20) Dave (20) Patty (20)
40 Chest to Bar - Donald (10) Patty (0) Dave (5) Garrett (0) repeat until finished
--- Our plan fell apart here. After Donald had done all those Toes to Bar the day before, his hands were already on the brink of ripping. After his second round here, they tore wide open. He couldn't keep a grip. Dave stepped up to the plate though and finished them off for us, stringing together 5 in a row. 

By this point we only had about 2 minutes. I ran up to the bar to start the Ground to Overheads, and dag it was heavy! I only got a few in before I tagged Dave back in to finish. Only he was winded from the Chest to Bars so it wasn't long before I was back at the bar. We did that a couple of times and then we only had about 20 seconds left. I ran to the bar and and was all "I got this, I'm just gonna bust them out until the time runs out" except when I picked up the bar it was freaking heavy!! 

By this point we were the only team still on the floor. I figured I'd get two in and be done. The first one was a struggle but I could hear my team mates yelling at me to get it up. I still had 10 seconds so I got the second one up and locked out. When I let go of the bar, I realized I could hear everyone screaming. I didn't have enough time to run back and tag Dave but it was too long to just stand there. So, my only option was to pick it up. 

Two days of WODs, way too many squats, shoulders on fire and damn near tears all came down to these three seconds. In terms of our score, It didn't matter if I picked up that bar or not. One extra Ground to Overhead was not going to suddenly jump us up to 19 instead of 20 out of 20. So, why was everyone in that gym screaming and encouraging me? Why did all of the judges care if I got one more?

Why? Because at the end of the day that's what CrossFit is about. Those three seconds at the end of a workout, when you are so sure your body can not possibly put out one more ounce of effort. You find yourself digging down deep inside to places you didn't even know existed. You hear the other athletes yelling and cheering as if they are in a tunnel far away. You close your eyes, take in a deep breath and you just know. You just know that you are going to get that bar up or get those last double unders or get your toes to the bar. You know. And so you do it and you finish. 

When I turned around I saw everyone smiling and clapping. I was proud of myself for finishing, for getting that bar up and I was proud of my team for showing up and giving it all they had to give. 

During the Capital Throwdown my team literally came in last. But we finished and we finished with our heads held high and we all agreed we would do it again in a heartbeat.