Jury Duty continues to disrupt my workout schedule and my diet. I have had no noon-time workouts during the past 5 work days. I won't get one in today either. Worse still, I had Burger King for lunch yesterday. It was among the worst meals I ever ate. It made my stomach hurt, and I haven't had that kind of discomfort in several months now.
The good news is that I have hit 3 consecutive days of CrossFit workouts, starting last Sunday. The Halloween workout was particularly brutal. Coach figured only the most hardcore yahoos would show up for a CrossFit workout instead of going to a Halloween party. He naturally tried to kill us with a cardio workout that would take-out a triathlete.
The big news is that I am adapting to the stress of the CrossFit workout really well. When I first started doing CrossFit, I was sore in all kinds of places I hadn't felt in 20 years. My right knee and my right foot were sore and swollen as hell. I am told this is all perfectly normal. Whenever anyone starts doing CrossFit, said individual usually goes through these types of adjustment problems. I am getting the pain and the soreness under control now.
Just how do you control the pain and the soreness of the CrossFit workout? This is how I have done it:
- You have to take the warm-up exercises super-seriously. Go all-out during warm-ups.
- You have to do cool-down stretches.
- During cool-down, the foam roller is your best friend. You must roll-out your hamstrings and calf muscles. Your calves will be shot to pieces by the jump rope. Your hamstrings will be shot to pieces from over-head squats, thrusters, and wall-ball. If you don't roll them out immediately after the workout, you will be sore the next day. The foam roller works wonders.
- You must take a recovery drink immediately after the cool down. That recovery drink must contain carbohydrate. Further, it must contain more carbohydrate than protein. It cannot be a pure protein drink. Iso-Pure 50 won't get it done. If you don't restore your muscle glycogen, you will be sore the next day.
- I head down the street immediately after the CrossFit work-out and spend 30 minutes in the saunas at 24 Hour Fitness. I spend 15 minutes in the Steam Sauna and 15 minutes in the Dry Sauna. I shower-off with the coldest water possible between Saunas. Alternating heat and cold helps flush lactic acid out of the muscles.
If you will do all of this, you will be tired the next day, but you won't walk like a crippled man. You will be okay and ready to do it again 24 hours later.
