Even little boys need to take care of their hands!

As a CrossFit mom and I am very proud to say that my 3 boys CrossFit with me. My oldest son is not as into it as my other two boys, but for a kid with High Functioning Autism, I think he does really well! My youngest son, Jordan, went to CrossFit with me everyday this summer and everyday he would go straight to the bars or the rings. Needless to say, he can now do chin ups, dead hang pullups, skin the cats, toes to bar, ect. (Yes, I am soooo proud of him!) Over the past three weeks or so, he decided he wanted to learn how to kip. He would ask me to tape his hands and then he hit the bar. This video is from the other night. He doesn't have them strung together yet, but I am convinced you are looking at a future Rich Froning Jr.!
Right after this video was taken, we taped up his hands and I begin my strength WOD and he continued playing on the bars. A few minutes later, he walks up to me holding out both hands, "Mommy, I need a band-aid." It was about this time that the air hit his hands where he had ripped the callouses off both palms. "Honey, where is the tape that we just put on your hands?" I asked.
He starts jumping up and down now, fanning his hands and I take him to the bathroom to wash them. My heart is breaking for him because I know this water is really going to hurt! He was trying his very best not to cry as we cleaned hands. Again I asked, "What happened to the tape?" He said, "I took it off because it was slipping. Now I can't do anything!" he cried.
I said, "Jordan, the tape is for a purpose, not to make you look cool."
"Oh", he said.
So, he learned a valuable lesson. I have seen a lot of CrossFitters posting pictures of bloody hands and ripped callouses and I am guilty of it, too. But, I began to really think about it one day. Wouldn't we be wiser to ask ourselves the question, "Does this make me fitter or will this set me back?" I know for me, when I have ripped my hands, just taking a shower is a painful adventure. Fixing my hair? A nightmare! Going back the next day to do pullups...not good.
The first time an athlete at our box rips their first callous, I'll admit, we high five, take a picture and congratulate the "rite of passage" because, as any CrossFitter knows, it shows that persons determination not to quit. To fight through to the end of the WOD. BUT after this celebration is over, we then immediately discuss how to protect their hands from this point on. Why don't we discuss this before? We do. But until that person actually rips their hands, most of the time they feel it is too much trouble to tape up. And for some it is. There are several guys at our box that have never used tape and have never ripped their hands. I wish I knew how to do that!
So, we discuss hand care, from there it is up to them how they take care of their hands, but I know the last thing I want in our box is an open, bleeding wound. Can you say "staff infection?". My 11-year old had a staff infection last year from a small mosquito bite on his leg and it was very scary. Am I over cautious? Yep! Sorry.

Message today? TAPE YOUR HANDS!

Alright, today was supposed to be my 2-a-day, but I promised my kids that we would visit some friends this afternoon, (family first, always!) To make up for it, I did a double WOD this morning.
WOD1-Baseline: 500 meter row, 40 squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups, 10 pullups. time: 4:54. Not my best time, which is 4:15, but I had to break up the squats today. My legs are just smoked from this week.
WOD2 - 7 minute AMRAP. As many Ground to Overhead for total pounds. Choose your weight. I wanted this to be a strength WOD, so I went heavy...for me. I did 110lbs x 15reps. I realize this isn't heavy to most CrossFitters, which is exactly why I am working on strength. I just PR'd my 1 rep max on a clean and jerk last week at 133lbs, which is my bodyweight...110lbs is heavy for me at 15 reps. If you want to do this one but would like it to be more of a metcon, just use a lighter load. My friend Sherry did this WOD with 63lbs x 31reps.


Now, how about eating?
Well the Sugar Demon was held at bay today until I met my best friend to take the kids for Snow Biz. She is such a bad influence! :) I had 5 bites of butterbeer flavored ice. Yummy!
Breakfast: hardboiled eggs, 1 slice Canadian bacon
Post WOD: Progenex Recovery Drink
Lunch: left over Cabbage stir fry and half a hamburger patty
Snack: Lara Bar. Starbucks unsweetend Tazo Tea (mmmm)
Dinner: Stuffed Peppers (sub chopped spinach for the rice), dessert is an apple with almond butter and dried blueberries.
Until tomorrow, happy WODing. :)