Wednesday, February 17, 2010

today vs. age 7

Today was a rest day. I went on a walk around my neighborhood to stretch out after work. I wanted to check out a nearby park (Brentwood) to see what kind of playground equipment they have that might be fun to play around on. It turns out they had lots, including a section for grown up kids to do workouts on: pullup bars, balance beams, parallel bars, upright ladder, monkey bars.

There were lots of parents and little kids there playing. The kids started copying me. When I got on the swings, a 2 year old boy came over looking at me with a big smile and wanted to get on. His mom put him on her lap on the swing next to me. When I was hanging on the bars, a different toddler came over to watch and then grabbed onto a bar and started swinging, and laughing. He had his eye on me the whole time and told his mom that I am big like her.

It's been so long since I've played like that. I wanted to test my body now compared to when I was a kid. Well, it turns out I weigh a lot more, am not as comfortable with body weight exercises, have a weaker grip, am not as flexible, and have a lot more fear. Fear... mostly fear of injury but also fear of what I think I can't do. Crossfit is helping me break that down. Parcours inspires me to get creative. Thinking about being a kid reminds me to play.

Where am I today versus when I was 7?
  • Cartwheels - scared to try, lack of hamstring flexibility might make them kinda ugly
  • Handstands - scared, not strong enough yet
  • Backbends - omg that would hurt.
  • Swing across monkey bars - Yay! I did this today. The grip was hard but I've been working on that. I went down and back with about 8 steps each way.
  • Hang upside down from monkey bars- Yay! I did this too. It was scary because I thought I might fall on my head, but it felt great.
  • Hang upside down from bar and back flip off - I used to do this all the time, but today, um no.
  • Stand on parallel bars and walk across - I got up and stood on top, but was scared to move my feet
  • Pushups on top of parallel bars - did it today. kids don't care about pushups.

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