College girls try Crossfit for the first time

Let me set the story up.
There is a lot of buzz in the fitness world about Crossfit recently. Crossfit work outs include intervals of high intensity plyometrics, olympic weight lifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, calisthenics, and girevoy sport. It is commonly associated with people who are very muscular and athletic, but is becoming more and more "average person" friendly. Crossfit truly is it's own culture. People who stick with Crossfit and join a Crossfit gym become like a close proud family almost.
As someone who studies athletics and fitness as a major in school (I am a Kinesiology major) I have shied away from the topic of Crossfit because many fitness professionals are skeptical of it. Many are against it because the high intensity can lead to a much higher risk of injury. If you are not properly trained on the equipment you have an even higher risk of injury. Some say Crossfit does not promote a healthy mindset to apply to long-term physical activity, especially later in life. But there are some fitness professionals out there that do condone Crossfit as a great way to get in shape if you do it under the right conditions. Crossfit is very popular among college aged people. I hear about it on campus quite frequently. I was excited to try it for myself and apply what I am learning about fitness to the experience!

It was a friday afternoon and a group of my friends and I were excited to try a free womens only crossfit class offered by my school's recreation facility. None of us are "athletes" but we all are normal active young people in our 20s.
The room was a large dark windowless gym in the basement of an old building on campus. Full of weights, dumbbells, and many other weightlifting and gymnastic equipment pieces. This atmosphere heightened my fear I had and built the anticipation I had been feeling leading up to the work out. We did high intensity intervals of burpees, crunches, dead lifts, and kettle bell swings. Honestly, I walked out of that gym feeling good, feeling the burn of a good work out. It was a hard work out, but like any exercise, I could see it getting easier if you stuck with it for a long time. I walked out of there just fine. Maybe Crossfit wasn't so bad after all…

It was the next 48 hours after that changed my mind. We were all sore after that, as anyone is after performing tasks their muscles aren't used to doing. But my lower back was in pain. It has been for the last 4 days since doing Crossfit. My friends's legs can barely move 4 days out from the work out. In retrospect it seems to me we were not properly trained on the form and techniques of dead-lifts or kettle bell raises. And when lifting weights are involved you need to be very well prepped and monitored on form so that you don't injure yourself. So it's no wonder I'm experiencing a minor back injury! We were very much thrown into the intense exercises with little training.

In my opinion doing those intense intervals for years would result in toned muscles, yes. But would also result in irreversible wear and tear on the body and probably injuries to numerous places. I believe I could tone the same muscles in a traditional gym setting if I wanted to, save myself hundreds of dollars, and prevent overuse injuries while I was at it. There truly were no exercises we did there that I couldn't have done on my own (after I was PROPERLY trained on technique). Seems like you would have to be into Crossfit more for the atmosphere, the prestige that comes with it, and the community aspect than the work out itself.

Things I wish I could tell my freshman self

There are a lot of things about my freshman year that I would not change for the world. For the most part I think I killed it my freshman year of college! I found the love of my life, an extraordinary community, solidified my major and career path, and had a blast while doing it. But I had my share of insecure moments, thoughts that I wasn't doing something right. Moments where I felt lost or overwhelmed even if I was playing it off cool, like I'm sure every college freshman has felt.
So here are a few things that I would go back and tell my freshman self if I could that aren't typically told to freshman, in no particular order. These obviously don't pertain to every college freshman out there. I hope these pertain to at least one other person out there and maybe even helps some girls who are shy college freshman right now!

-You don't have to have your career path all planned out. Nor do you have to explain your career ideas to anyone when they ask, and lots of people will ask. It's ok to explore your options. It's ok to know what you want to do and not know how to get there.

-Say "yes" way more often than you say "no". Go on adventures.

-Take it easy on the coffee, I know it's good, I know it keeps you awake. But at the rate you are going by the summer you will have caffeine headaches before 11 am if you don't have coffee right away. Pace yourself.

-Stay on campus on 3-day weekends. They are the some of the most relaxing and enjoyable days of the school year. Campus is quiet and you can just do chill activities or catch up on a lot of sleep.

-Don't be so afraid to ask friends with cars for rides to places like the grocery store. Chances are they need to go or are planning on going soon anyway.

-Spend more time reading your bible.

-There is no such thing as being too organized with school work. All your folders and binders are a good thing. Get better at time management.

-Showering in the dorms will never be very pleasant. Relish in the nice showers you take when you visit home and just power through while you are at school.

-Go to more sports games and things that make you have school spirit. It makes the environment more enjoyable and chances are you will get a free shirt or something.

-Lots of places off campus give student discounts but don't advertise it. Utilize all the savings you can get! Just ask when you are paying or check online before.

Thats all the ideas I have for now! Feel free to comment things you wish you could tell your college freshman self!

Life Lessons from Winnie the Pooh

If you don’t already know this about me, I love Winnie the Pooh. I grew up on the silly-old-bear. Practically was raised in the hundred acre woods with Christopher Robin and all his friends. I’ve been thinking lately about how complicated life can seem sometimes. But for a Winnie the Pooh life was simple and life was pleasant. I think he was up to something… So I present to you proof Winnie the Pooh really has life all figured out.

With friends anything is possible
Being a good, loyal, and available friend is what Pooh and his gang are all about! Pooh is always available to help Eeyore find his tail, protect piglet from his fears, “help” Rabbit tend his garden (though Pooh always knows he is getting hunny in return, so sometimes his motives are flawed), he will always go on an adventure with Tigger, and will always be there to listen to Owl droll on about the impossibly boring history of his ancestry. 
Take time to think things through
Pooh has a thoughtful spot right outside his house. He sits on his log, and says “think, think, think” when he is trying to figure out a problem. He is in no rush to figure out the solution, he wants to process his thoughts first! We should all slow down, we should take a second and just think it through….
Spelling doesn’t have to be perfect

He doesn’t have the most grammatically correct vocabulary. I don’t believe he or anyone else in the Hundred Acre Woods could pass a 1^st grade spelling test if they tried. Which makes someone like me, who is not good at spelling, feel a lot better about myself! You can still lead a perfectly satisfactory life without knowing how to spell everything perfectly!
Seeking help is a good thing

When Pooh Bear needs help with something, or wants to accomplish a task, he immediately looks to his friends for help. He is not afraid to admit he doesn’t know how to do something, or to admit one of his friends might know better than he does. Especially his main pal Christopher Robin. Pooh often depends on him for guidance and advise. We should all take a page form Pooh’s book here to put away our pride, and admit sometimes we need help, that there might be someone who knows better than we do.
You always go home to your hunny ;)

Be it a pot of golden gooyness, or that special someone who you hold dear in your heart, it’s always the one that makes you the happiest to come home to. 

These things and many others prove that this silly-old-bear teaches you all the important things in life. Winnie the Pooh will always have a special place in my life, I will never stop learning the simple things in life from him!

I'm being robbed...

If a robber walked into your house and started taking all the precious pieces of your home, one would not just sit there and let it happen right? You would stop them and the injustice that is being done to you, call the police, grab a weapon, any means necessary to prevent it from happening while you are right there in plain sight, right!?

Well, I’m letting myself be robbed. I’m straight-up letting a thief into my life to take the things he wants at his will. This thief knows me well, he knows what he wants and how to get it from me, and I realize I am doing nothing to stop him.

The thief has a name, it is Comparison, and he is continually taking my joy, my self-worth, the little victories, and life milestones from me. 

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt.

If you are a Pinterest person chances are you probably have this quote in some decorative hipster font pinned to your “inspirational quotes” board cause you thought it was neat one night while laying in bed scrolling through Pinterest. I’ll be the first to admit that I fall under that category of human being. But I started to really think about it today for whatever reason. In too many areas of my life I am letting comparison rob me of the full joy I could be getting out of life. Comparing my relationship to other relationships around me, does nothing but rob me of the energy I could put towards loving my man even better, and places it in the hands of the thief, who uses that energy negatively. Comparing my grades to those around me robs me of my self-worth. I’m not and never have been the top of my class, school is something I have to work hard at to maintain average achievements. So when I compare myself to my friends who have an easy time academically I am instantly invalidated. Whatever my little accomplishments were became for-not because theirs are “better.” I often find myself thinking “ I can not compare to her in this subject so why even try?” Comparing where I am at in life to where older friends are or where older relatives are robs me of the here and now, takes away from whatever stage of life I’m in at the moment because I’m constantly looking at the totally different place in life they are in and saying “life won’t be good until I get there.” Then I miss out on all the great things that come with the here and now.

This world is built on comparison, the empire of contest based reality shows. Are you a better singer, builder, painter, ect. than the person next to you. Don’t even get me started on the blatant comparison game played in politics. In athletics, who can run the fastest, kick the farthest, jump the highest. Comparing one player to another, they have entire news shows dedicated to people comparing players to each other.

Because it is so woven into the fabric of our society I can’t promise to “never let comparison effect me again from this point forward” as much as I would like to. But I am going to take steps to stop this robbery in action. I’m going to get my weapon ready and call on the best cop I know of. My weapon is the Bible and my cop is Jesus. When I start to compare my life to those around me I am going to remind myself God has made me perfectly in his image the way I am suppose to be. The bible says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

So if you are being robbed by this thief too, I encourage you to take this tiny step with me and see if we can prevent ourselves from being robbed of some of life’s little joys.