When being referred to as a "freak" is a fine compliment

Thank you, Lance, from the bottom of my heart. You made my day, my week and likely several weeks as I dig deep for patience while waiting for my sprained wrist to heal.

Lance is one of the night crew at 26.3 Crossfit in Rockledge. A week ago Monday night, I was up there in the middle of the WOD, working out with Larry, when a few of the other guys came in and warmed up.

The WOD:
20 box jumps (20-inch box for men and women, which I don't think it fair. Men should have had to use the 24-inch box, or at least those people-- man or woman -- who are 5-9 and above. I'm 5-5 and a 6-foot person jumping up on the same box has it way easier, in my humble opinion).
15 rope climbs
50 kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood (men's weight)
50 situps
50 hang power cleans with 40-pound dumbbells (men's weight)
800-meter run
50 good mornings

Everyone knows it's frustrating having to scale down or modify exercising while injured. But the great news was that in this workout, I hardly had to modify at all.

Instead of the rope climbs, I did it where you lay on the ground and hold the rope, then pull yourself up to standing position, then lower yourself back down. Many people do this anyway, instead of the actual climb to the ceiling.

First pull hurt the wrist, then I adjusted and all was fine.

Also had to modify the dumbbell cleans. There's no way I can bend the left wrist back yet to catch weight-- either a dumbbell or a bar -- so I did it with the right arm, and just shrugged a matching weight kettlebell with the other.

My biggest fear has been losing strength or power or definition or whatever else I've built up all these years. But I've learned there are ways to scale the workouts to compensate for the injured wrist while still getting so much out of it.

It was while speeding through the good-mornings that Lance called me a "freak." I thought it might because of my flexibility (being able to bend all the way down with knees straight). Or it might have been for the intensity I bring, only resting when absolutely necessary, and pushing through the "for time" workouts, also referred to as "met cons," for metabolic conditioning.

In a gym full of men at the time, all of them in law enforcement, firefighting or military, th.ere was no greater compliment.