Back to Basics – 30 Day Challenge: Days 12 – 14 (Day 13, Spa Day!)

Woot woot, two weeks in!!!!!! Love it. Cheated a bit yesterday though and had a spa day instead of a workout, but I feel like that works seeing as it is good for the body, mind and soul!! 😉

My stats today are kinda disappointing – squats and push-ups down to day 3 & 5. Hey ho, I guess that’s what happens sometimes and what a day at the spa does for you! I am having real trouble with my half push-ups because of the weakness and spasticity (which shows itself in drop foot) in my left leg.

I would love to find out ways to modify that. If you have any suggestions please fire away. (Currently I am doing half push-ups so knees are bent, but my left leg doesn’t want to bend nor have weight put on it…).

(assisted)          (half)                     (assisted)
Squats             Push-Ups            Sit-Ups

Day 14:     54                  29                         43

Day 13:                             SPA DAY…

Day 12:      60                  21 (pull ups)         32 (unassisted)

Day 11:      61                  34 (ring dips)        34 (unassisted)

Day 10:      60                  30 (ring dips)        33 (unassisted)

Day 9:                               DAY OFF….

Day 8:        60                  40                         35

Day 7:        62                  33                         41

Day 6:        60                  31                         41

Day 5:        58                  27                         35

Day 4:        60                  25                         33

Day 3:        51                  21                         28

Day 2:        40                  18                         22

Day 1:        42                  23                         23

Back to Basics: Day 11 and an important video

Today’s post is short, but important. I came across a very raw and beautiful video portrait of a woman from Derbyshire, England called Nicola Smith. It is under 7 minutes long and for me, demonstrates almost exactly what it is like to live with MS.

Please watch and share. Thank you xo

Nicola Smith & her son, Finley

Today I began and ended my workout with gentle yoga.

Here are my stats:

(assisted)        (half)                (assisted)
Squats         Push-Ups        Sit-Ups

Day 11:     61                34 (ring dips)     34 (unassisted)

Day 10:     60                30 (ring dips)      33 (unassisted)

Day 9:                           DAY OFF….

Day 8:       60                 40                      35

Day 7:       62                 33                      41

Day 6:       60                 31                      41

Day 5:       58                 27                      35

Day 4:       60                 25                      33

Day 3:       51                 21                      28

Day 2:       40                18                       22

Day 1:       42                23                       23

Back to Basics – 30 Day Challenge: Day 3

JANE – Day 3, still trucking’. Woke up even more sore than yesterday, but raring to go, and more determined than ever to beat my last two days of numbers.

I did half push-ups today instead of pull-ups. Half push-ups are with knees on the ground.

Here’s how I did:

Air Squats: 51 (Day 2: 40, Day 1: 42)

Push-ups: 21 (Day 2: 18, Day 1: 23)

Sit-ups: 28 (Day 2: 22, Day 1: 23)
Before each workout, I do a few minutes of warming-up. This is usually a few stretches, and finishing with a couple of minutes on the mini-trampoline. Here is a video of me on the trampoline, showing the lack of movement and spasticity in my left leg. This is vastly better at the moment than it has been. I have chosen to show it on here so people without the disease can get a better understanding of what it’s about.

Back to Basics – 30 Day Challenge: Day 2

JANE – Oh my gosh, after yesterday’s sweet little work-out, I woke up this morning and was aching everywhere! My quads, my arms, all over, but it was that nice, healthy ache rather than a painful one. The place I felt it most was when I tried bending down at my knees. Anyway, I went into this morning’s challenge happy and excited – for myself and also for everyone who has committed to do it with me!! Let’s do this friends.

I wanted to make sure to write that the movements I am doing at the moment are modified. Although I can walk without a cane, I am still limping and a little unbalanced. I am hopeful that will improve. Here is what my current workout looks like with modifications:

1. Air squats: I squat over a large wooden box which has an ab-mat on it. My goal is to touch the ab-mat as that means my thighs are at 90 degrees.
2. Pull-ups: I stand on the large wooden box and jump and pull-up from there.
3. Sit-ups: Tavis holds my feet and today he helped me with the last few inches by holding onto my hands.

2 min max effort and 1 min break between each exercise

Air squats (40)

Pull-ups (18)

Sit-ups (22)

I actually did a few less reps than yesterday (42, 23, 23) but felt good, so shall watch and see if it improves 🙂

If you would care to share how you are getting on, that would be AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

Jane stretching out before her workout. She’s using a pvc pole to help her balance.

 

“Fran”: the rumors are true, she is as bad as they say; Teaching – a WOD on it’s own

TAVIS: After Jane started teaching a few weeks ago and seeing the level of stress she was dealing with I told her that we need to commit to her getting in a few workouts a week and she agreed. In fact as soon as she worked out after work one evening she said “okay, we have to do this as much as possible!” So the past 2 weeks we have gotten in workouts, but blogging about them has proved to be more challenging because Jane is prepping for her next day’s classes as well as grading papers. Needless to say there is not much free time left over for blogging. Regardless we are going to keep things going and in a month or two we will have a routine going.

Tonight we did a repeat workout that Jane did on Day 55 and she did an amazing job. It is so incredible to think back to the first week and how mad she was at me for asking her try to do a burpee. She was so angry, that I wasn’t sure if CrossFit was going to work for her. She kept saying how stupid she thought it was and that she would never do a movement like this. Let’s just say it was a very hard sell to get her to try to understand it was a functional movement that could help her in other ways, if nothing else just simply getting herself off the ground if she fell.

Watching her tonight was a complete change in her ability level and mentality on what she can and can’t do. She was powering so hard through this workout that when she was doing her burpees she lost her balance, fell to her left side, with all her weight on her left arm/wrist and for a moment I thought she broke her left wrist. I think she thought she did as well. We put things on hold for a moment to make sure she was okay and I reminded her that we need to be safety first, have good hand placement and be deliberate with her movements. She completely understood and jumped back into the work out with strong form in her movements.

She made a big improvement on this WOD by improving by one full round plus 3, she did an incredible job. On the previous workout she used the 10 Kettle-bell for the step ups and this time she used the 15lb Kettle-bell for the whole thing. Great job babe!

WOD “Snow Cone Repeated”

10 min AMRAP        (original 3 +15 rounds, today 4 +18 reps)

15 KB Swings

10 Step ups with Kettlebell

10 Burpees

JANE – As Tavis said, I have been a bit busy with my new teaching job. It’s a tough environment and is much like new teacher bootcamp. I love it though and an amazing experience. After a week or two of not working out, I felt my body begin to get weak and a few symptoms arose (without going into too much detail, think incontinence). So when Tavis suggested that I do some workouts in the garage, I knew it was the right thing to do. Doing the workouts have been really helpful in getting me to release stress and have reminded me how if I can get through them, I can get through anything.

Having been immersed in the yoga world for many years and someone who likes to think, I love finding deeper meanings to everything in life, and am finding the benefits of CrossFit invaluable.

LAST WEEK WORKOUT

TAVIS- I had Jane trying one of the most classic CrossFit workouts of all time, it’s called Fran. The workout is 21 Thrusters, 21 pullups, 15 Thrusters, 15 Pullups, 9 Thrusters, and 9 Pullups. It really doesn’t look that hard but the combination of thrusters and pull ups completely kicks your ass, it’s a very tough workout. So when I asked Jane if she wanted to give it a try and she said yes I was excited to she how she would do.

We did a very scaled version by just using a 15 lbs bar and pullups were banded (giant elastic band). This was the first workout where Jane has done Thrusters using a bar vs. other workouts I had her using 10 lb kettle-bells.so she didn’t know what to expect.

She had to break up the Thrusters but was able to do the banded pullups unbroken. When she finished the workout she couldn’t believe how out of breath she was. She had only done less than 6 minutes of work and couldn’t catch her breathe. I explained to her that Fran is notorious for giving CrossFitters burning lunges or a cough after they finish the workout. Again, she did a great job on this workout and powered through it. Once again another solid performance by Janey G! Looks like Thrusters are on the menu again.

Strength- Deadlift  (80lbs PR)

3-3-2-2-1-1

“Fran”      5:37 min

(15lbs bar, banded pullups)

21 Thrusters

21 Pullups

15 Thrusters

15 Pullups

9 Thrusters

9 Thrusters

One of the Pro’s, Taylana Fortunato doing “Fran” in 2:42!

38 Days closer to 38 Degrees North!

Day 38

Routine Stretch

Warmup- 2 rounds 10 ring rows and 5 Airsquats

Strength- Push Press Revisited

WOD               (6 rounds + 15 = 49 pullups, 62 KB’s, 72 situps)

12 min AMRAP

7 Pullups

9 KB Swings

12 Situps

TAVIS-  This morning I had Jane do her second 12 min AMRAP which is a big deal because most of her workouts have been between 5 to 8 minutes in length. She did this work out a few weeks ago, but I increased the rep count. This was the Daisy WOD she had done, but I changed the rep count from 5-7-9 to 7-9-12.  Jane increased her reps by 15 this time and really grinded through this work out, she did a great job.

In a few weeks I will have her do the original workout at the 5-7-9 rep count so we can get a strong comparison of how she is improving.

Strength– This morning Jane was insistent on tackling the Push Press again so we gave it another shot. She came into it with much more confidence this time and was able to work her way up to 2 reps at 35lbs.

JANE- I was completely determined to work on the push press again today, so we tackled a few again. I lifted with a little more confidence and am dying to learn how to do them!!

I’ve been watching YouTube videos to get a better understanding, and also got some great tips from friends on FB, including this, which I loved: “From a lifters point of view, use the fear to get angry, control the anger and power that weight. I just got back on to using 50kg dumbells, the feeling after you own a weight and get those reps…Awesome!” It’s so interesting to me how much lifting heavy weights brings stuff up, another friend wrote this: “As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been at CrossFit for three years and I love it. Better than crack. Anyhow, I lift weight over my head, and it scares the shit out of me every time. Honestly I think it would be weird to NOT find it a bit scary to put oneself below the barbell.”

The WOD was awesome, and I am really enjoying feeling stronger and seeing myself be able to do more sit-ups unassisted or more pull-ups. An annoying thing that happens during jumping pull-ups is that my legs get wobbly in-between, now I’m wondering if that’s normal or if it’s an MS thing?

After today’s WOD, I needed a nap – one of those, have-to-nap-or-I’ll-pass-out naps, but I felt good after and happy that I’d achieved a good workout at the beginning of the day.

 

Day 37- Facing Fear

Day 37

Stretch Routine

Warmup- 2 rounds, 10 Air squats, 10 Pushups

Strength- Push Press 3-3-3-3

WOD   (5 + 14)

8 min AMRAP

5 Knee’s to Bar

5 Dumbell Pushpress

5 Burpees

TAVIS- Today was a good day though it did come with a few complications or I should say frustrations on Jane’s part. During the strength I had Jane working on the Push Press again. We started off with just the bar and slowly increased weight. We added, 5lbs, 10 lbs and 20lbs. Jane did fine with the 5 and the 10, but once we went up from there I could tell something was wrong. She did one rep with the added 20lbs and sat down to take a break. I could tell from the look on her face that something was up but she wouldn’t say. After a minute or two of me telling her everything was fine and getting only one rep is letting us know what she is capable of. Finally she told me that she gets really nervous with lifting weight over her head because of the numbness in her right arm. Most days her right arm is at about 80 to 90% feeling, so when doing the Push Press she got worried that she might accidentally just drop the bar. I reassured her that we all have that fear of dropping the bar on our heads. That’s completely normal but more importantly we want things to be safe for her so that doesn’t happen. We will stick with a lower weight until she really has confidence in her strength and I have some idea’s we can also use  to adapt the movement a bit.

WOD- I took today’s WOD from Week 3 (Day 19) but increased the rep count from 3 to 5. I also added a minute to the workout making it an 8 min AMRAP. Even though she had some confidence issue’s on the strength portion, she got herself back in the game and pushed through the WOD.

On Week 3 she got 7 rounds 3 reps (59 reps total) and today she got 5 rounds + 14 reps (89 reps total). Basically she was able to do 2 more rounds with that extra minute. Great progress once again!!!

JANE- I love how CrossFit is so much more than just a workout – it is a mental challenge which is bringing tons of stuff up. I know it’s the same for everyone, it’s just that everyone is going through their own stuff.

Today, Tavis had me working with the bar doing Push Presses. On a good day I have between about 80-90% feeling in my right arm, sometimes it feels more and others less (on a hot summer’s day, by the evening the feeling goes down to about 30-40% – this is due to heat playing havoc with the lesions in my brain, neck & spine, which then prevents signals being sent via my Central Nervous System to my arm and hand.) I have mentioned before that doing handstands in yoga has always been out of the question for me, not necessarily because I don’t have the strength, but because of a fear that my arm will go numb at any time and leave me in a tricky situation. It is weird, but it does do that. Sometimes I’ll be standing holding a drink and feel my hand go numb, so quickly need to put the drink down. Once when my daughter was little and still crawling, while hanging out with a bunch of mummies and their babies, I dropped a cup of hot tea for no reason at all, except I lost feeling in my hand for some reason. and though no one was hurt it completely freaked me out and was one of the things that got me to seek medical help, and soon after I received the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.

That said, I came head-to-head with that fear again today, when Tavis asked me to lift 35lbs – I could easily lift (power clean) it up to my chest, but getting it over my head was terrifying. I just shut down and put the bar down! It’s funny to me how the slightly smaller weights felt okay – that is why I know this is a mental challenge rather than a strength challenge. Tavis assures me I’ll get through this, and I am sure I will, just as I’ve already got through so much on this short journey.

The rest of the workout was good. The WOD went well and I like seeing myself improve with repetitions and time like I did today.

Side note: I noticed today, that I’m walking slightly better than I have for ages! I have to walk a few hundred meters from my car into my school. I am usually stiff and have trouble walking. Today I noticed that my right leg (it’s my left leg that I have most trouble with) was moving better than usual and felt more grounded. Awesome feeling 🙂

 

 

Day 29 “Turn the Page”

Day 29

Stretch Routine

Warm up- 2 rounds 10 Ring Rows and 10 Flutterkicks

WOD- “Turn the Page”

For time (4:58)

Rep count of 12, 10, 8, 6

Pull ups

Kettlebell Swings (She used a 15lbs KB for the first 12)

 

 

Warm up– I had Jane do Ring Rows and flutter kicks. I have been doing a lot of reading/research on pullups for women and exercises that will help them gain the upper body strength to be able to do them. Below I posted a link one of our female CrossFit 38 Degrees North athletes posted as well as one the I found earlier in the week with some great advice.

 Good article on improving your pull ups using the Ring Row

Pull up tips from women in the Marine Corps

Strength- Push Press 3-3-3-3

We had done some Push Press work during previous strength training with dumbbells and PVC pipes, so today was Jane’s first day trying it with an actual bar. She is still getting used to a lot of the movements which is challenging for anyone starting out and takes some time to get used to. The big thing is she is eager to learn the movements and technique so that she can do them properly.

TAVIS- Temperature is everything when it comes to dealing with MS and today was a good reminder of that. Many people with MS are very sensitive to heat which brings on their major symptoms and can cause a flair up. Read about it here: MS and Heat Temperature Sensitivity.

Here in Northern California we have been having some beautiful spring days, it’s not real hot yet but the temps are rising. Up until today, all of Jane’s workouts have been in the morning when the temperature is still cool, but today we started around 12pm. Jane had issues right away with her legs being shaky while doing the jumping pullups. This of course made her hesitant to trust her arm strength and she had to stop a few times.

I was there to give her reassurance and she pushed through the workout. She started out with the 15lbs kettlebell and after the first set she switched to the 10 pounder. I commend her for giving the heavier Kettlebell a try for one round and then going with one she felt more confident doing. Again it’s stepping out of your comfort zone a little and seeing how it goes and that’s what she did. Maybe next time she does 2 rounds at a heavier weight or maybe it’s still a few weeks off. More importantly its always testing your own ability levels to see what you can and can’t do.

JANE– As Tavis mentioned, today we began the workout later around noon. My relaxing morning was lovely, but unfortunately working out when the day had warmed-up didn’t turn out that great. I was super wobbly and had a really hard time doing much of the movements in the WOD due to numbness. My legs were very shaky which made landing from the jumping pullups really hard, and also pushing off my legs tricky too. Likewise, my arms and hands were numb, which meant pulling up was really challenging. It’s very disheartening to experience incidents like this, but it was a good reminder to work out earlier in the day, and we are also going to buy some cooling bands and a vest which I haven’t used before, but are supposed to work really well.

Here is one from Rogue Fitness, a well-known CrossFit store, and there are lots of other versions made for MS available on-line.

 

Day 27- Google First Page and Thank You!

Day 27– Thank you to everyone that is reading our blog; liking our facebook posts; and for your supportive comments. These past 4 weeks have meant more to Jane and I than we could have ever imagined.

The first day we posted the blog we received 277 views, and we couldn’t believe it! We have been averaging 60 views a post, up to 117. Our blog has just been placed on google’s first page for Multiple Sclerosis and CrossFit. The support we have received from all of you has been incredible and we couldn’t be more thankful.

As I have said in our About Us page, a month ago I was thinking that within a year Jane would be in a wheel chair if her health continued to decline at the rate it was going. Everyday it was getting harder and harder for her to get around the house, and she had stopped going outside other than to the car and store.

I was in complete disbelief as I watched the love of my life slowly lose her ability to walk. Watching her try to come to grips with what we thought her future was going to be, is one of the hardest things I have had to deal with. Seeing her so frustrated and upset because of her limited ability to walk broke my heart. I tried my best to be strong for her because I knew if she saw me get emotional it would make the situation even worse.

I couldn’t accept it and none of it made sense to me. I knew Jane could be physically strong, I just didn’t know how. I had seen how strong she was when she was a full-time yoga teacher four years ago, Jane Gould Yoga, before her health began declining and she had two miscarriages. The problem after was that taking one-and-a-half-hour yoga classes exhausted her. Half way through the class she needed to stop and rest for the rest of class, and with each class, because of the fatigue, she did less and because she did less, she slowly lost confidence, as well as physical strength. But not only physical strength, lesions in her brain had caused her to lose balance, feeling, given her ‘drop-foot’ and a host of other symptoms. The MS had taken it’s grip.

And then somehow, it came to me that CrossFit might help her. It had been right in front of my face for the past year and I just didn’t see it.  So I began to research CrossFit and MS. I talked to Mike founder of 38 Degrees North, Petaluma, and we came up with a program for Jane…Next the blog came and here we are…

It is amazing to witness Jane’s small miracles. The workouts are short in duration, and although she fatigues once her core warms up, she is able to do the exercises if we modify them. The benefits we have seen in just 4 weeks have been incredible. Jane has more flexibility in her hips, has more energy every day, and last Saturday she got around the entire day with out fatiguing or struggling to walk. As each week passes, her confidence is growing and she is becoming mentally stronger.

We started this blog as a way to chronicle our experience battling Multiple Sclerosis; to hopefully show Jane’s progress; to show how we’re mapping out the exercises and adapting them; and to give hope to others that might be in a similar situation.

If you know anyone who might benefit from reading our blog please pass it on, and keep the comments and likes coming, it will continue to move us up the Google ranks and hopefully help others. We can’t tell  you enough how much we appreciate it.

Thank you so much!

Tavis & Jane

 

Day 5

Warm-ups- Stretching

Tabata (5 rounds)

15 sec for max Pushups

10 sec rest

15 sec for max Leg raises

MS WOD 3

6min AMRAP   (3 round + 10 sec handstand+ 7 box jumps)

10 Second handstand hold

8 Box Jumps to 10-12 inches

8 OHS with PVC

Jane: Let’s get straight into the WOD. Blimey.

Handstand: The handstand is a classical yoga pose. It has numerous physical, medicinal, emotional and spiritual benefits. Physically being inverted decompresses the spine, improves circulation, boosts the metabolism and endocrine systmes. Medicinally it calms the central nervous system by reversing blood flow to the heart and bringing fresh, oxgenated blood to the brain. Emotionally it is a challenging pose that empowers the practitioner demonstrating they are strong enough to overcome challenges. Spiritually it brings a fresh and new perspective on life – from seeing things upside down.

I have never been able to do traditional handstand, and am excited to work my way up to it now. When I was first diagnosed with MS I had lost the feeling in my right arm and use of my right hand/fingers completely. The intravenous steroid treatment I did resulted in me regaining about 90% sensation in that area, unless I overheat and then I have about 70% feeling. As a result, even though my arms are strong, I have a lot of fear around them being able to hold me up, hence handstands not being something I have ever been able to practice.

In the past when I was practicing yoga regularly I practiced half-handstands – arms and torso in handstand, legs at a 90 degree angle against the wall. I tried that today, but it wasn’t available to me, so I modified further and used the bench for my legs. My form isn’t great here, but it’s a start.

Box Jumps: We used a little foot stool as my ‘box’ and Tavis held one of my hands to help me get up and down. There was not much ‘jumping’ going on. For now I’m going to rename this exercise: Stool Steps…I managed fine, but as I got increasingly tired I felt my left hip get weaker and weaker to the extent I needed to lead with my right foot. However, I want to strengthen that leg and hip, so I made sure to balance the movement between each leg equally.

Overhead Squats: We modified these by giving me a bench to sit onto. I have very little core or leg strength at the moment, so having the bench there for me to plop onto and push up from is a great aid. It helped a lot.

I managed to complete three rounds in six minutes.

TAVIS: The start of the morning was pretty challenging and also a break through morning, I am trying to figure out exactly which exercises Jane is capable of doing. I had her try a few Hollow Rocks this morning and she really struggled and got frustrated. My approach is that I don’t quite know all that she is capable of so we need to try things out and but she wasn’t looking at it like that. She was looking at it like I was trying to get her to do things that she is not capable of doing, basically setting her up to fail. We both got so frustrated with one another that we both almost gave up on the whole thing.

I completely understand Jane’s concerns and I had to reassure her that I would not ever put her in a position or situation where she could get hurt or injured. More importantly we decided that we will discuss each WOD or movement the night before. I will ask her what she thinks and if she thinks she is capable of doing it. She will give it a few test runs to see if she is capable or we need to scale/adjust the movement. This is what I was thinking in my head I just wasn’t communicating it the right way and this morning forced me to communicate clearer with her.

Tabata – I had Jane do max pushups for 15 secs and then instead of “Hollow Rocks” I had her lay on her back with her legs straight up in the air, I had her lower her legs half way to where I held my arm out, once she touched my arm with her legs she would raise them again.she did max reps for 15 secs with a 10 sec rest before going back to pushups, all in all she did 5 rounds.

MS WOD 3– So the break through was not only us figuring out the best way to communicate but more importantly that Jane only thought she would get through 1 round of the actual WOD and she got through 3+ rounds 🙂

Handstand Holds– She tried to do them first by walking her feet up the wall, that was her idea, but she found it a bit too difficult and then we used the bench which worked much better.

Box Jumps– We used a 10 to 12 inch step stool and the big thing here I tried to get Jane to focus on was once she stepped up on the box that she opened her hips up for the full movement.

OHSquat– As she improves her leg strength, mobility and balance we will start to get her into an even lower position. This was the first time she has tried an Overhead Squat with the use of a bench and with no assistance from me.

All in all a successful morning after a rocky start!