Thursday 29 May 2014

Cutting Weight for Olympic Weightlifting VS Wrestling

First, let me qualify what I mean by cutting weight. I am not referring slowly losing weight responsibly over a long period of time, I'm talking about deliberately losing weight over a short time in an effort to make a particular weight class for competition. Cutting weight isn't really a healthy habit to get into and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone! But to be honest, I have cut a number of pounds during my time as a competitive wrestler.

Running the Tough Mudder 2012
It appears as though I am attracted to sports with weight classes. When I retired from wrestling, I swore that I would never cut weight again, yet here I am - cutting weight for an Olympic lifting competition. As a result, I have become reacquainted with LSD. What is LSD you ask? ... Of course I am referring to "Long Slow Distance" runs, something that I (and many former wrestlers) absolutely hate.

I am definitely not a runner. At just under 5'6 and sitting at approximately 170 lbs, I do not have the physique of a long distance athlete. In fact, I have the swagger of Stay Puff marshmallow man! My running is not efficient and I never feel comfortable regardless of the distance. Yet, I do it anyway (and complain for most of the way!).

I have begrudgingly run many, many miles for the purpose of weight cutting. In wrestling, you cut weight in an attempt to gain an advantage by being the largest competitor in a weight class. Wrestlers often cut water weight through dehydration and then weigh in on an empty stomach to officially weigh JUST under the maximum for the weight class. Additionally, wrestlers weigh in the night prior to the competition and therefore have a minimum of 12 hours (sometimes 17 hours) to refuel, rehydrate and regain your strength prior to competition.

Blizzard Beatdown Crossfit Competition

In weightlifting on the other hand, you actually want to be the lightest athlete in the weight class. If 2 competitors lift the same amount of weight during a competition, the athlete who weighed the least during the official weigh in is crowned the winner. Additionally, weigh ins for weightlifting competitions occur only 2 hours in advance of the   start time. ONLY 2 hours from weigh ins to competition time! As a result, I realized that my standard go-to of cutting all my water weight in the sauna is no longer an option.

When I decided to begin competing in weightlifting, I didn't want to cut weight. I feel much more comfortable with oly shoes on my feet and a barbell in hand rather than trotting along with runners. My first weightlifting competition was in December of 2012 where I competed in the heavyweight division (75+ kg). I hadn't checked my weight once prior to the day of competition and then I arrived and weighed in at 75.6 kg. If only I had known my weight, I could have cut that 0.6 kg and competed in a lower weight class! As a result, I lost to a competitor in my division who weighed in at 96 kg (as there is no maximum weight in the heavy weight class)!

This time around, I wanted to be more prepared and that included cutting weight. Since I registered for the 2014 Toronto Pro Show, I have been watching my diet and hitting the LSD runs 3 times a week. Now that I am a few days out from weigh ins, I have cut out all of my normal starchy carbs and as result, I am beginning to get a little grumpy. If all works out as planned, I will be weighing in at something LESS than 75 kg (165 lbs) on Sunday morning. Toronto Pro Show, here we come!  

Thursday 15 May 2014

Injuries and Getting Older

INJURIES. They suck. Really.

I was competing at CrossFit Saint John's Maritime Spring Fling Competition when I had a disappointing lift. For weeks, I had been looking forward to this competition because I was excited for WOD#2 which was a 1RM Snatch and 1RM Clean. My partner and I had decided that I would perform the snatch and he would perform the clean. Snatches are my favourite.

Just 7 days previous to the Maritime Spring Fling, I had tested my 1RM in preparation for my next weightlifting competition. In weightlifting, you have 3 lifts to reach a 1RM. I began with an opening lift of 125 lbs. I then hit my 2nd lift at 135 lbs. My current PR is 140 lbs, so I attempted 145 lbs for my 3rd and final lift. I managed to get under the 145, but lost my balance and dropped the weight. Disappointing yes, but it was only a training session and I was confident that I would achieve that 145 lb lift at the CrossFit competition in Saint John.

However, I did not achieve my new PR lift at the Maritime Spring Fling. I hit my opening lift at 125 lbs easily. I set up for my next lift at 135 lb and .... a miss. WTF?! I set up for 135 again and missed again. Frustrated, I set up one more time. I pulled off the floor, hipped in and moved the bar towards the overhead position. Only instead of catching the bar solidly, one shoulder rotated forward and my body began to twist to the left. As I struggled to try and stabilize my core and save the lift, I felt pulling and popping in my right elbow. My first thought was "FUCK!" (of course) as I dropped the bar and told my partner that I was done. My second thought was "Oh no, now I'm going to end up with a blown ligament like Adrian!"

I'm still not clear on why I failed my lift. I'm not certain if I put too much pressure on myself to hit a new PR or if I was too self conscious about performing well in front of my CrossFit PEI family. Either way, I didn't preform as expected and ended up with what could have been a debilitating injury.

As soon as I walked off the platform, there was a big bag of ice ready for me thanks to my roommate and our team manager.  And thankfully, one of our CrossFit PEI team members is a physiotherapist. So after some ice and an assessment from the boss-lady, I went to buy some compression sleeves from one of the vendor booths. For the rest of the weekend, I stressed about the possible severity of this injury and kept the compression sleeve on (even slept with the damn thing!). I even emailed my athletic therapist from the tournament to schedule an appointment for Monday afternoon after I returned to Guelph.

During my discussion with my athletic therapist, I described how I had treated the injury with ice, rest, compression and elevation. During this conversation, I was reminded of my earlier days as a competitive wrestler. In my late teens and early 20's I suffered a number of injuries on the mat. I sprained a ligament in knee, I hyperextended my elbow, dislocated my thumb, maybe e a concussion or two ... (that explains a lot, right?). At that time, I never would have treated an injury. "Walk it off" was my motto. I remember shoving a dislocated digit back into joint during a break in a match and going back out to finish wrestling. Ice? Pffffft - didn't need it. Rest? hahaha - for the weak!

Now here I am some 10+ years later and I'm terrified of injuries. My 20 year old self would call me a huge baby. I just watched a friend suffer a knee injury and struggle through 4 or 5 months of reduced activity while waiting for an MRI. Another friend blew the ligament in his elbow attempting a 215 lb snatch. He had to wait for an MRI, surgery and is still undergoing rehab to get back to lifting. After watching these incidents and others, I now treat my injuries with respect. I pay more attention to how my body feels and I take rest when I feel like I need it.  Because I'm fearful of sustaining some kind of injury that will prevent me from training.

Thankfully, my injury was not as severe as I originally suspected. I was concerned that I may have torn or strained a ligament but in fact, I only tore some muscle fibers. A few sessions with my athletic therapist (Basic Motion, baby!!) and I am back to normal. I even hit a 135 lb snatch in training this week to prove to myself that my elbow can handle the weight.

With a solid elbow after treatment and 2 more weeks of training ahead of me, I look forward to competing at the Toronto weightlifting championships! And this time, the snatch PR is definitely happening!    
 

Saturday 3 May 2014

Using my "Snatch" to make new friends

Just a bit of fair warning, the title of this blog might have lead you astray. Trust me, this is not THAT kind of blog ;) The motivation for the Snatch Monologue is based on my love of the lift.  So if that statement confuses you, or you are just not interested in Olympic lifting, CrossFit or athletics in general, then this blog is not for you. You might just want to mosey on. If you are interested, then great - stay! Read on, hopefully you will have a laugh and maybe even leave me a comment.

If you are a female reader, then you will understand where this post is coming from. I'm sure that even a fairly in-tune male reader has noticed the somewhat territorial and occasionally caddy behaviour which can exhibited by females in various environments. The formation of groups and the slight fear of newcomers happens, and as a new member of any group, you just have to find a way in.

Enter the CrossFit gym environment. CrossFit is all about community, friendship and inclusiveness. Many of the friends I have made at CrossFit gyms are some of my absolute favourite people to spend time with. But I can understand the daunting experience it is to walk into a new place, where you do not know anyone and try to do something new.

Although I was introduced to CrossFit in 2007, I did not become a member of a CrossFit gym until I moved to Guelph, Ontario. At the time, it was a relatively new gym with a very limited membership base. Therefore, I was one of the few members and did not experience the "exclusivity" of female gym members. I left Guelph over a year ago and moved to PEI for work where I joined CrossFit PEI in Charlottetown. When I entered this new-to-me gym, I found that it was a very established business with a large client list. During my first class on that fateful Saturday morning, I counted 40 participants, 40!! But being the East coast which is the most friendly and welcoming part of the country I have seen, these CrossFit PEI members welcomed me into the fold without hesitation. During my tenure there, I made some wonderful friends with whom I had some great laughs and good training.

Fast forward to the present - April of 2014. Due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding the lack of employment in PEI for my husband, I decided to move back to Guelph so that we wouldn't have to be keeping separate residences (in different provinces!). For me, one of the most important things I had to figure out upon returning to Guelph was joining a CrossFit gym. Luckily, while I was gone a few of my friends banded together and decided to open their own CrossFit affiliate. Even better was that they were offering Olympic lifting classes in addition to CrossFit. I was sold!

So although I knew the gym owners, I did not know any of the gym members and was going to have to try my luck at breaking into this group. I should mention that when I was home visiting the previous December, I encountered a little bit of this "exclusivity phenomenon" from a few of the female members, so I already had evidence to suggest that I was going to be facing some challenges.

On my first day in the new gym I walked in and found "SNATCH 3x3" written on the white board. Of course, this made me smile as not only do I love Olympic weightlifting, but the snatch is my favourite lift. So I pulled out my bar and got down to business. After a warm up, I started my ascending progression starting with 95, then 105 and ended with 115 lbs. Considering none of the other female members in attendance were lifting more than 85 lbs that day, 115 x 3 was apparently decent. I finished lifting and we moved on to the workout of the day (WOD) and at the end of it all, I left feeling like I was going to like this new gym.

Since that day, I have had a number of women in the gym approach me and ask about by background and if I would offer some pointers on their lifts. In fact, one hilarious interaction went a little like this:

"Hey, are you Marcy?" "OMG, I've heard so much about your snatch!"

So from this experience I have learned 2 things. (1) Apparently, there is nothing like a solid snatch to get some immediate gym credibility and break down the walls of the female exclusivity group and (2) CrossFit gyms are the only place where you can say: "I've heard a lot about your snatch" and not have it taken in a dirty way.

Stay tuned for more adventures in lifting & CrossFit!