15 12 9

A  meaningless number combination for some,  but for others this number combination invokes extreme feelings such as dread, relief, hate, fear,  happiness,  and or possible thoughts of “Oh, that’s not too bad,”  “ Oh god, I am going to die.”  “I can do it,’  and finally the “That’s easy”  thought.  Now imagine if we added 21 and 3 to the number combo because 21 and 3 are missing.  Even more extreme thoughts and feelings!   Depending on what is written on the board, anyone of these feelings or thoughts could cross your mind as you walk into the gym.   It all It depends on the set of exercises of course.   You see, those numbers represent the amount of repetitions you need to do for each given exercise.  Let’s take sit ups,  upon seeing that written on the board immediate thoughts of “ oh that’s easy” and feelings of joy enter you, but what if you walk in and see you have to lift an extremely heavy barbell  and jump over a box and do burpees,  well, your feelings and thoughts might change drastically.  That’s how the cookie crumbles at a Crossfit gym.  

Spicy and grueling was my word combo for the exercise routine I chose to do this day.   Yes, I chose the workout routine.   Why would anyone choose to do a workout purposely if it is grueling or could be labeled as spicy?  I don’t know actually.  Who knows why I choose to torture myself 5 days a week with insane routines that push my body and mental capacity to their limits.  But I do and so do many other athletes of Crossfit.  

The idea for this routine came to me from my friend @amandajbarnhart.  Ok, so to clarify,  Amanda is really not my friend, but when you follow someone on social media for a while and watch them compete you tend to think you have some type of “friendship”  or relationship with a person, a virtual one anyways.  I happened to see her post on her workout for the day and I thought to myself I want do that,  it looks fun!   But then I thought to myself,  can I do that routine? I doubted myself.  You see,  Amanda is in her 20s and is considered to be an elite athlete who competes in national competitions, while I am almost 49 and struggle to get out of a seated position at times,  so you could see why I might doubt myself.  I consulted with my unofficial trainer/ coach, more about him at a later time, and he immediately said “ We are doing it tomorrow!”  Great! I thought to myself.  Let me mentally prepare!  My mental preparation consists of me thinking about the routine and thinking about if I am capable of doing the exercises within a decent amount of time without dying of course.  I thought to myself I can do it but at a much lighter weight and it will take me like almost an hour to do the routine.  My trainer/coach was like 20 minutes top.  I was like no way dude, your cray cray!

The routine: 

3 sets of 15 12 9 

set 1 

push press

step over box with a heavy ball

set 2

push press

box jumps

set 3

push jerk 

bar facing burpees

the weight:  85 95 105lbs

Today I walked into the gym extremely nervous with the thoughts of “maybe we shouldn’t do this,” but I knew my coach would never allow for this, so I was doomed even though I begged and pleaded and tried to bribe him with some cookies.  It didn’t work.  I had to do the spicy routine.  

Like everyday, I did it.  I survived and I loved it.  Like I said before, who knows why I choose to torture myself on a daily basis.  Maybe it’s to challenge myself and to push myself, to look good,  or to say I did it when I thought I couldn’t.  Perhaps its for the glory of hearing people say “Wow that’s incredible Michelle!” or “You’re crazy!”  as my mom would say or it could be for the simple satisfaction of being able to squat over a public toilet while wearing high heels and not struggle.  What ever the reason, I know one thing for sure, I going to keep doing it.  

Thank you @amandajbarnhart for sharing and being an inspiration and thank you to @michaelyauz for being my number 1 cheerleader.