Since I've had a cold, I've missed 11 days of  CrossfitRx WODs *gasp* Not only has working out taken a back seat, my cello practicing has ceased as well.

I went to cello choir practice and couldn't believe how out of shape I was with thumb position, heck, even first position (an "easy" position) felt foreign! How did I get this sloppy in my sound, bow hold, vibrato, etc.? Everything felt unfamiliar! For starters, after my head congestion cleared I could actually hear myself instead of my ears generating muffled noises. I plan on having practice sessions like this:

Day 1-Two Hour Practice Session-

30 minutes of 4 Octave Scales (C,G,D,E Major and A, E, Bminor) and 3 Octave Shifts with all 4 strings and pitches from 1st-3rd position.

Break-10min

30-40 minutes of Thumb Scales, 3 Popper Etudes with thumb position work (with breaks whenever I need them but I will accumulate 30-40 of practice)

Break-20 minutes

20 minutes of Bach Work: slow note-by-note work of approx. 30 measures

What will I expect when I go back to Crossfit?

Sloppy form on olympic lifts? A slow down in my MetCon performance? Like my cello choir rehearsal, I'm headed for some bad workouts however if I approach my workouts like I would cello I'll remember to expect a difficult road ahead. 

Exercising with Weights

Nothing can prepare you for a new place because everything happening in that new space is well, new.  This is move No. 3 for my kids actually, 2 if you’re only counting what moves they can remember. With each move came a barrel of changes and anxiety all rolled into the excitement of a new house. The only anxiety I had about the move was the physical moving portion. How do you prepare yourself for lifting heavy boxes and furniture? How do you muster up the energy to fill a 24-foot U-haul with only two other people, grab furniture, pack furniture, and unload the furniture? I have no absolute answer but I can tell you what worked for me and it was exercising with weights.

         Weights seem to be something most women don’t want to factor into their workouts. Some women (me included) would rather slave away on a stationary bike, treadmill, or elliptical for endless hours a week; probably log in an average of an hour and a half a day. Nothing is wrong with logging in cardio time but what about combining cardio and weights, ladies?  Five years ago, I used to log in a workout that looked like this:

Cardio: 45 minutes for miles on a bike, treadmill, elliptical or trail run.

Weights: 30-40 minutes focusing on a body region e.g. lower body, upper body, back, etc.

Cool Down: 10-15 minute light walk or yoga stretching

That’s a total of a little over an hour and a half spent at the gym. Don’t get me wrong, I saw results, lost weight, gained a little muscle definition (somewhere) on my body. After two months I saw the results but you would think I would have been pleased but the opposite happened. I was getting bored with my gym routine. I tried adding other things like hiking, pick up sports, or pool aerobics. Everything I added was great cardio but I still had to log an hour or more to see results. I just didn’t have the time to spend 2 hours of my day being that active. Let’s face it, American jobs don’t exactly lend themselves to sliding in two or more hours for gym workouts, unless you don’t want to eat and go to the gym during lunch, who would skip their lunch?!

How could I get a workout that combined weights and cardio that took less than an hour to complete? Well, CrossfitRx, has been the perfect solution to my problem.  Each Workout of the Day (WOD) is done in 25 minutes or less, yes you read that correctly, less than 25 minutes! I’ve even done some workouts that have kicked my butt in 15 minutes. Each WOD requires you to get as many rounds in as possible of some intense ass kicking movement and heavy lifting.

            I started Crossfit in May 2011 and have seen results of lost inches, higher stamina in my days, and most importantly, the move put my strength to the test. I might have had some nice dark purple bruises afterward moving but I looked at them like battle wounds. Those “wounds” were impressions of a day’s worth of hard work made easier by Crossfit.   

Quality vs. Quantity

How do you workout? Do you involve weights? Do you have constant repetitive movements? 

All of these questions could be asked about your cello practice sessions. At CrossfitRx, as clients, we can choose from a list of different session times to do our W.O.D. (Workout Of the Day). You arrive on time to do some "warm-up" movements to prevent injury in the W.O.D. e.g., air squats, row 500 meters, and/or sit-ups. After the warm-up the group is gathered and instructed on how to properly perform the W.O.D. with a significant stress on how form should be your constant concern not on how many weight plates you can stack or how big your kettlebell is compared to someone else's kettlebell. 

How do you practice your instrument? Do you repeat a section multiple times? Do you just play the dots on the page and ignore dynamics?

There's a "cello posture" form that must be carried in practice sessions or orchestra rehearsal sessions. Form is more important than how many notes you play or how quickly you play them. Strive for quality over quantity. 

If you're getting all the dots or all the dynamics on the page but you're struggling with vibrato due to poor left hand posture/form, were the notes worth your pain? What if your lower back is hurting from orchestra rehearsal because you wanted to look more like you were "feeling the music" than your other cello section members and you moved and pulled a back muscle? None of those moments are worth your pain. Like some of my CrossfitRx coaches say, "Don't be a hero."  Think about it, would you want a "hero"to rescue you with a bad back and sore arms?  Practice or workout properly so something doesn't turn into months of pain.