NO LIMITS

I have to give credit to Lisbeth Darsh of Crossfit headquarters for this picture which i found so Funny i had to share on my blog!

THE NY TIMES

Yesterday the NY times printed a blog on how women can not do pull ups, what is really disheartening is the blog was written by a woman. A scientific "study" of 17  "fit" women showed how we just don't have the physical strength and too much body fat to do pull ups. SERIOUSLY?  This study is obviously very flawed, 17 test subjects is not enough women to test their theory, and they never considered maybe their exercise programing was at fault not the women's strength? I think this exercise physiologist and the blogger need to visit a Crossfit Box.

 CROSSFIT

What i love about Crossfit is they do not label me or put limits on what i can do. THANK YOU GOD for my Coaches they are Four Men who think I CAN and with their support, encouragement, guidance i have truly  accomplished so much, most of which society tells me is impossible just because of my age let alone my gender. I am 47yrs old never once did they say, oh Elisa you cant do that because your "too old".  I started at 190lbs they never said your "too fat" to do that.  In fact they want to check my driver's license for proof of my age cause they don't think i am 47..how much do i  love them!!! In the past 9 months of Crossfit my Coaches have taught me how to jump a 20inch box  {i am 5"5"  20 inches is almost 1/3 of my height}, I can dead lift 200lbs,  i just started doing "real" push ups , i can power clean 90lbs,  i can jerk 80lbs, push press 85lbs over my head,  power snatch 65lbs, bench press 95lbs, i can swing 1 pood (35lbs) kettle bell  AND I  JUST GRADUATED to  BAND ASSISTED PULL UPS! Shocking i know according to this blog and scientific study i shouldn't be able to do this. In Crossfit the pull up is a "standard" regardless of height, weight, gender, or age. Our Coaches will have us all LEARN to do a pull up BUT there are ways to build up to this movement.  Crossfit has "The Crossfit Games" in which the games athletes compete for the title "Fittest on Earth".  Crossfit women come from all over the WORLD to compete....all different heights, weights, backgrounds, ethnicity and ages....ummmm  someone forgot to tell all these beautiful, strong women that they "cant" do pull ups. There is a specific division for the athletes who are 45 plus called the "Masters" division, i was simply fascinated, awed, and inspired by these men and women who defy the "age" label every day!  Uh yeah, they forgot to tell these women master's athletes they are "too old"  and "too female" to do pull-ups.

WOMEN IN SPORTS

In 1972 women were granted under the Equal education amendment Title IX ,the right to have their own sports teams Any government funded schools and colleges had til 1978  comply or allow women to try out for existing teams. In 1979 i entered my freshman year in high school and i remember during a pep rally that they introduced the boys soccer team and there was one girl who had made the team. We had no existing girls team nor were there any girls who wanted to form a team and play, so under this new amendment she was given the "right " to play sports.  In my junior year of high school my friend approached me to play JV girls soccer, i really wasn't sure i wanted to because i really wasn't that good of a player but she said "if you don't play we don't have enough girls to form a team" I joined. I had no idea that what i was doing was ground breaking until my oldest daughter went to my high school. I remember pulling up in my car  to pick her up,  i was flabbergasted by  the sheer number of girls on the girls teams...soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, track, cross country, softball, tennis, what a HUGE difference from when i was begged to play.  My 2nd Daughter is a senior this year and has been a high school athlete all 4 years, she will go to college in Sept of 2013 on scholarship for athletics, she is doing something i never had the opportunity to do.  She will be starting Crossfit this coming Monday, yeah i will make sure i remember to tell her that she wont be able to do a pull up just like she shouldn't be playing sports either because she is a girl.

DO NOT TELL ME WHAT I CANT DO

Women have been told they didn't have the sensibility to vote, we weren't physically capable of  playing sports,  we shouldn't be educated and go to college, and this female blogger  and the NY TIMES has the audacity to tell us something else we cant do because we are female? 

I have had a lifetime of people tell me what couldn't do. I THANK GOD he made me stubborn and persistent! I had 2 colleges tell me i wouldn't be successful in their Nursing Program...hmmm i am a Registered Nurse for 25yrs now. I had 2 abusive husbands tell me that i wouldn't survive on my own without them...hmmmm gee i am still here and i am happier than i have ever been. I have pushed two 8.5lb babies out of my body and your telling me i don't have the strength to do a pull-up, as my Great-Grandfather would say "Horse sh**".     I am so grateful that Crossfit empowers all of us women, helps us to realize we are capable, we are strong enough, and encourages us to reach our goals. 

MY GOAL

I was just talking to my coach today about competing again and the standards to compete as a crossfitter. He told me the pull up, even in the scaled division is the standard. "OK" i said to him "i just wanted to be sure of what my goals are, i need to work to get pull ups" He smiled at me and said "you'll get them"

Shhhhhh, don't tell him what the  NY Times blog said!

below is the link for the blog post from the NY TIMES

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull-ups/?smid=pl-share