Red Letter Day…
Today Jenny Atkinson is celebrating a birthday (4-25-09). Common decency prohibits me from revealing a woman’s age outright, but it’s somewhere in this post–hiding like a “Where’s Waldo?” Now, I am very happy for Jenny that it’s her birthday, but this post is actually celebrating another day–last Friday, April 17th. Why?
1. Because birthdays happen every year.
2. As birthdays accumulate, they devalue.
3. Birthdays make people cry.
So with this Post, I choose to celebrate last Friday–an absolute Red Letter Day for Jenny. She came rolling in at 7am, and by the time she left, she had 3 new PR’s. A new Rowing PR. Push-up PR (20). Deadlift PR (185lbs).
Jenny Red Letter Day from KrisFit on Vimeo.
If you’ve read much on this site, or been around our group at all, you know what kind of premium we put on body weight exercises. Yes, we use barbells and kettle-bells and Rings, Ropes, Rowers and Med-Balls, but all of that stuff takes a humble step back from the strength and grace of a controlled body movement.
Push-ups, Pull-ups, air squats: The Holy trinity.
That being said, within the rubric of our community, there are a few feats of strength and athleticism that separate you from the bunch and put you into what I call “Bad***”.
For women, these initial feats are:
1. A single pull-up (intro to B.A.)
2. 20 strict push-ups (Level 1 B.A.)
3. 5 or more strict pull-ups (Level 1 B.A.)
So, if we look at the landscape of last Friday, the second Peak came when I announced that the days workout would focus on heavy Deadlifts. What’s important is, that Peak came during the conversation we had and not the actual pull itself. The result was a personal record that was 30lbs stronger than Jenny’s previous best–even though we had not Deadlifted since that day. What was the difference? Two things:
- A general, systemic increase in strength due to the type of training we’ve been doing.
- Change in perspective.
The second bullet point is what I want to focus on here. I will reference one of my earlier posts- DuBose…crap- where a significant increase in strength resulted from a simple change in perspective.
Friday, Jenny experienced the same type of thing during thirty seconds of conversation when I referenced Melissa Byers–who all of my women know as a prime example of a woman who is both Feminine and Ferocious, surrounded by great trainers, and smart as a whip. I told her that Melissa and her weigh the same. Then I told her that last week Melissa Pulled 215lbs. I explained that I wasn’t giving her this information to put pressure on her, but just the opposite. I wanted her to know what was possible. I had no expectations for Jenny above giving her best, and pushing the limits of her intensity. We would focus on intensity within the strict boundaries of form, and then see what happens. We talked about approaching that bar like it was a slot machine. Do your best and if something great happens, we’ll celebrate like you won the jackpot.
Jackpot.
Congratulations Jenny on 20 push-ups and man-handling 185lbs. Also, Happy Birthday!! We celebrate that just as much, but it wasn’t quite as interesting to write a Post around.
Here’s some Pics from my birthday gift to Jenny.
Happy Bday from Kris
May 7th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Seriously, seriously awesome. Inspiring.
Congrats and happy birthday!