Buttahfly

At this stage in my personal transformation every notion I had about what was impossible for me to achieve is on the table for reconsideration. Save for being a chemical engineer. I think I can put that one officially away.

Yesterday Jen Cardella was awesome enough to host a pull up workshop for our early morning classes. It's impossible to really work on pull ups after a hard workout, so we were all very thankful for the opportunity. Lots was learned, most of us were humbled and I'm sure we can all feel our lats and forearms this morning.

Butterfly pull ups have been on my list to get to, but I thought they were still out of my reach strength-wise. Well, they still are in a sense, but I got up on the bar yesterday and attempted... and I got at least one, so say the ladies watching. It's hard to tell where the bar is, and I have a lot of strength to build in my shoulders so I don't injure myself... But damn, that was fun. Over the course of the last few years with crossfit, I've often looked at advanced moves and imagined how superawesomefunincredible it must feel. Then I get to the advanced move I dreamed of doing and instead of superawesomefunincredible, it's hard as hell and more humbling than I was prepared for. This was the first time my imagination matched the way the move felt in reality. I searched for a video of a woman doing the butterfly pull up, and it's sideways, so forgive me (and the music is terrible, mute is good):



Nice, huh? Jen warned me the progression is slow and not to practice them all the time. She also warned me about my shoulders being sore, which yes, they are. Very. In very different places than I'm used to. After a few attempts my forearms swelled like I had just done a round of Fran and my heart was racing. Metabolic. They. Are. The hardest part will be not doing them all the time and focusing on improving my dead hang pull up. Ugh. Fine. I can be patient...

People, I'm swooning over life right now. The version of myself that existed five months ago is a whisper; her fears aren't around anymore and I feel closer to the person I've always wanted to be: calm, happy, grounded, and really, truly excited about being alive. It kind of sounds like this and it's really fucking awesome: