Win of the Week: Rope Climb

Made it more than halfway! Photo from my friend Aly (who climbed all the way to the top!)

Only on my second day back at CrossFit Greenhills (after a month-long hiatus,) and I conquered the rope! I tried this once late last year, and couldn't understand the footwork; but took a mental note to pursue it as a new goal. Earlier today, with my Morning Crew, and with the help of "unusually-perky" Coach Stephen, I managed a few squat breaks (will double check this term) and almost made it to the top! I probably could've done it, but I belatedly realized that it was a bad day to wear shorts. 🔥 I got rope burn on my thighs! 

As with many skills, this can't be done by anyone at just any point in time; but it can be done after some training. I'm proof of that, and that's why I love CrossFit so much: I always win at something after I put in the work. 

Wanna try the rope climb? Here are some of my tips as a newbie climber.

1) Wear pants!

2) Put the rope between your legs, and twist it around one leg once (refer to picture.)

3) Clamp the lower end of the rope with the other foot.

4) Position your hands slightly higher than your head and engage your arms for a pull. (The boys said they engaged their lats.)

5) Scooch your legs up closer to your butt, like a reverse squat (or a ballet plié!) without losing your feet's clamp on the rope.

6) Stand up from the squatting position to hoist yourself upward.

7) Repeat from #4.

That's it for my Win of the Week (I should launch this as recurring theme.) Off to work! Happy Tuesday!

P.S. It's my first time to post from my iPad, and there aren't many formatting options!

Accepting the "Athlete"

When I think of the word "athlete," images of Olympic contenders would come to mind: lean, muscular, strong, and determined. I used to love watching all kinds of sports on TV, especially gymnastics, ice skating, tennis, and the NBA. My parents never pushed us girls toward sports, which had always been odd to me, considering how many basketball and tennis trophies my dad brought home and added to his collections stored in cabinets and displayed on our piano. It's a shame, because I was always full of energy, enjoying physical activities that not many girls in my school could relate to. 

I was the typical 90s kid who biked and rollerbladed around the village with my neighbourhood friends. I even had a street hockey phase, after The Mighty Ducks was released. I loved arm wrestling, and became embarrassingly infamous for the game called, "Mercy!" In grade school, my classmates would set up challenges for me, like pushing rows of lockers across the hall. While many dreaded PE class, I looked forward to playing Filipino games like patintero, and later on basketball, softball, and table tennis. Despite all that, I was a fat kid; and I don't mean chubby, I was obese. 

That was me at 136 lbs, and with a rat?! on my lapel

On my freshman year of high school, I was 5 feet tall and weighed 136 pounds. I used to eat plates full of rice at every meal, and snarled when told to eat less. How I eventually lost all the weight is a different story for another time, but I wanted to give a short background on why I'm so incredulous to be the "Featured Athlete" on my CrossFit gym's website this month. I never thought I'd ever be considered an athlete in this lifetime; but by definition, I guess I could credit myself with this title by the way I've been living the past year. I've been working out by lifting and doing some gymnastics at least 3 times a week, and I have a more conscious effort to eat better every day (but I have to admit, this continues to be the struggle!) I even joined a competition to experience CrossFit as a sport, which I mentioned briefly here. So while it may seem shallow to some, I'm more than tickled by this recognition. I'm proud of how actively I've reversed my health and fitness by the choices I've been making, and plan on continuing to make the right choices as I get older.

Definition from Google: proficient in (...) physical exercise

"Kaye, our morning crew resident, CrossFit choreo pioneer, and a CFGH athlete in the recent Manila Throwdown Team Qualifier scaled edition has come a long way here at CrossFit Greenhills. She’s a Speech-Language Pathologist, a performer with the Ryan Cayabyab Singers, a freelance writer, and an event host by profession. Talking about #NoExcuses with her hectic career and busy life, she’s managed to put in consistent work here at the box for over a year now! She’s definitely much stronger and fitter now than the day she first started."

Read more of my feature here.  

To anyone who is still fighting fat, I encourage you to keep on going. Start with small changes, like eating less carbs and brisk walking for 30 minutes, and you will feel the benefits of a healthier body. I'm positive you will surprise yourself, just as my own capabilities continue to surprise me!


CrossFit Greenhills 

Address: 4th Floor Intrawest Centre,
33 Annapolis, San Juan, 1504,
Metro Manila, Philippines

Landline: (02) 7289730

Mobile: (+63) 9178218848

Quit the "Versus:" Fitness is Personal

I just read something that left me feeling sore. The head of a particular gym compared his fitness program with CrossFit, in the guise of clarifying certain points on what makes the two different. He might have written this with good intentions; he even peppered his article with apologetic disclaimers, but unfortunately this came off slightly patronizing instead of sincere. While the author tried to be careful with his phrasing, he did not avoid making negative implications regarding the "competing brand."

I'm not against making comparisons, but before anyone does it and posts it on an official website, I think their opinion had better be substantiated. He kept repeating the noncommittal statement, "there are good boxes, and there are bad boxes;" but the way I read it is he made all his comparisons based on the best features of his advocated program against the most ill-rumored features of CrossFit. How can you compare something with a bad version of another? If he really meant to differentiate the two, he would've been better off presenting the definition of CrossFit and have made an easy, objective point without defaulting to his biased views.

If we're going to compare fitness programs to find out which will be better suited to our interests and goals, then by all means break down the components and find the advantages of each. Comparing fitness programs to one-up another, or to attract clientele by posting uninformed claims about the other, is not a classy move. It's definitely not befitting of the motivational community he is professing to belong to. 

The fact of the matter is we should support all sorts of fitness, if it gets more people living more active, healthier lifestyles. Fitness is personal, and something that each individual should be able to incorporate into their day-to-day. In effect, there is no hard ranking of what is better than the other, nor should that be the focus. Whether people choose boxing over HIIT, long distance running over tennis, or circuit over CrossFit -- if they love it and do it regularly, that is already better than doing nothing. 

September Surprises

Those last weeks of September just flew by, and I was kept busy by the remaining workouts of the Manila Throwdown, trying out Mystery Manila for the first time, and spending time with family and friends. Some of my best friends' birthdays are in September, as well as my dad's. For my dad's birthday, we hosted a small dinner at home for his high school buddies. Mom, Yaya V, Yaya Rose, and I started cooking as soon as I woke up. On the menu, we had steak, eggplant parmigiana, sardine puttanesca, sweet and sour butterflied tilapia, and mom and I experimented on deep fried apple pies. I was so excited for dessert that night, and was happy to hear that Macy enjoyed it! It went really well with this Silverlake Riesling that my mom brought home from Washington. 

I'm actually not a big fan of apple pie, but this fried apple pie one with kesong puti ice cream was sooo good! 😍 pic.twitter.com/RNmB2d0U8v

— Macy Alcaraz (@macysfields) September 27, 2015

My friend, Anna, had been so busy with her multiple jobs, that her husband wanted to get us involved in planning an early birthday surprise for her. Her post below sums up how it went, and seeing how happy that made her was more than I could ask for.

I HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND AND FRIENDS EVER!!! 😭💕🎉😍 Was feeling bummed that I wouldn't be able to watch the Maroon 5 concert because of work, but then I come home to this amazing surprise that Chris planned with my best friends! I was in tears!!! IT WAS AWESOME AND CRAZY AND BEAUTIFUL AND JUST SUPER SUPER LOVE!!! BEST EARLY BIRTHDAY SURPRISE EVER!! I have the sweetest husband and friends ever. I love you guys so much ❤️ Thank you Chris, my girlies, Ryan, Chuck and Marty for the memorable night! Thank you for capturing the whole thing on video, Marty! Watch the full video and read the full story on my Facebook. I mean, just if you want to. Hahaha! The complete video is super sweet!!

A video posted by Anna Graham (@missusgraham) on Sep 18, 2015 at 3:54am PDT

On her actually birthday salubong, she wanted to host a Mexican night. Chris, her husband, said that Anna had wanted a piñata, and was wondering where he could get an inexpensive one. I volunteered to attempt one,... and got a little ambitious with a macaron peg for Mrs. Graham. 

The finished product: a macaron piñata in the colors of her Salted Caramel flavour

Mini-piñatas for each of my Girlies, represented by their favorite colors. 

Strung on a doorway, with Anna's Mexican table setting in the background.

I made the mini-piñatas with cups, based off a sample I saw on this Brit + Co article. As for the macaron, I had to wing it! If you want to see how I did it, keep reading below, and I uploaded photos, too. Unfortunately, I might've made them too sturdily (for fear of it not holding up) that when we started hitting and pulling them respectively, they didn't break! Overall, it was all such good fun, with very little help from the spiked punch and Bacardi. Anna served chili con carne, quesadillas, tacos, this new Jalapeño-flavored Nova (I love Nova!) with Anapet's salsa. So grateful for these friends of mine.

Bars and Bell Peppers

Manila Throwdown started today, as they posted the first team WOD (Workout of the Day) at 12:00 am this morning. I was a reluctant participant, and I'm still not that hot about competing, but I can see what they mean about this being a great opportunity to learn things about myself. Admittedly, it really was fun trying to achieve something with buddies.

My team, Children of the Morn, finally got together today for the first time to record our video. 

Shoulder to Overhead

I managed a 105# squat clean, but failed at 110#

In the afternoon, I did another food styling gig with Belle and Chef's Classics. Every time is a challenge, the kind that can help me improve for next time. 

Only my hands, and occasionally my "apron," are in the shot

Food styling entails doing some tricks to enhance the shot. For this one, it was increasing the volume of food ;) 

Personal Best

I used to dread Mondays: from being the start of a school week, to the first day of the work week, it was the day that forced me to abruptly shake off the comforts of the weekend. This changed since I started doing CrossFit at CrossFit Greenhills last year, and I've actually been looking forward to Mondays, itching to get back in the box (what we call our gym) to workout. I've mandated Saturdays and Sundays for muscle recovery, so I've noticed that I generally perform better at the start of another week. 

Today was one such Monday, and I beat several personal records (PR,) with the help of tips from my coach and community!

Handstand Happiness

I actually achieved my first two handstands last week, but I wasn't sure if they were lucky attempts because they looked and felt wonky. My friend Ara, who used to be a gymnast, told me to look at my hands when springing up, instead of straight back. It diminished my uncertainty and really helped with my balance. I did several successful ones this morning.

Squat cleaned 111# today! I didn't calculate how much weight I was adding to avoid psyching myself out, and I had to remember the points of proper form (like dropping fast and turning over.) This is 16# heavier than my previous PR just last week!

After a year and a month of #CrossFit at @cfgreenhills, I finally did my first (not one, but six!) pull-ups! 😭 Tears of joy! I will now be able to save myself should I ever be dangling from the edge of a cliff! 😋

A video posted by Katherine (@kaichypoo) on Sep 6, 2015 at 8:26pm PDT

My favourite achievement of the day is my first (six) pull-ups! Not entirely sure how I went from none to six, but again, Ara's tip about lifting the hip up made a difference.

Thank you, Monday!