The Erin Experiment

[Erin Davidson]

Originally Posted by Timothy Saint

Good luck with the Crossfitting!

Thanks for checking in, Tim! Hope the no smoking resolution gets off to a good start...

[Kim Dowse]

Originally Posted by Erin Davidson

Been lurking around a bit and am always wishing that more women would post their progress. So...

Pullups: 1? Ugh. I am most interested to see how my pullup develops in the following weeks. More on this later.

Some other random notes: I practice active recovery as much as I can (i.e. take ZMA and mineral baths before bed, and stretch and foam roll). I live in a city so I walk a lot (A LOT). I also hope to apply to medical school in May (take my MCATs in April) so this training schedule should carry me very nicely toward that occupational goal as well.

It's not much but it's a start, eh?

Hi Erin! Welcome! Nice to see another gal posting! My workout log is posted on my blog (see signature) as well as a few times a week in the ten pound challenge thread. There are also several paleo IF'ers who post on that thread (me, Jay, Sarena, Susie and now Cal). Feel free to stop by.

You noted that you are working on your pull-ups. Keep practicing you kip and they will come! It took me several months to get from one to ten in a row.

And I see that you live in Philly...great city. I lived there for four years after college (my parents live outside of Reading). One of my sisters lives in Manayunk. AND for a littel nostaligia - miss those cheesesteaks...can't eat them anymore, yum, but can still gream about them

[Veronica Davis]

Hey Erin... I'll be in Philly this weekend. I don't know if you heard of Ironsport Gym, but my boyfriend and I will be working out there.

[Erin Davidson]

Originally Posted by Veronica Davis

Hey Erin... I'll be in Philly this weekend. I don't know if you heard of Ironsport Gym, but my boyfriend and I will be working out there.

Whoa, Veronica. That place looks intense. Have you been there before? I'd be happy to see it if I can manage to get over there somehow (I'm working some odd jobs this weekend). It'd be nice to get out of my little commercial gym. What day do you think you'll be training there?

[Erin Davidson]

Originally Posted by Kim Dowse

Hi Erin! Welcome! Nice to see another gal posting! My workout log is posted on my blog (see signature) as well as a few times a week in the ten pound challenge thread. There are also several paleo IF'ers who post on that thread (me, Jay, Sarena, Susie and now Cal). Feel free to stop by.

You noted that you are working on your pull-ups. Keep practicing you kip and they will come! It took me several months to get from one to ten in a row.

And I see that you live in Philly...great city. I lived there for four years after college (my parents live outside of Reading). One of my sisters lives in Manayunk. AND for a littel nostaligia - miss those cheesesteaks...can't eat them anymore, yum, but can still gream about them

Hey, Kim. Thanks so much for inviting me over to the Ten Pound Challenge thread. I've been perusing through and it looks like the whole bunch of you are making some amazing progress. It'll be great to keep reading...that and your blog. Heh.

And yeah, I've dreamt about pullups for a while now. It's actually very helpful to hear that it took you several months to get from one to ten. The worst thing about wanting to do them well so badly is that I have no idea when they're going to start working for me.

Oh, and as for the cheesesteaks, there's actually a vendor cart that makes them right outside the gym. Tricky...very tricky. My poor, poor clients...

[Erin Davidson]

Sunday, 1/13/08

Basically spent trying to kip on a bar on a playground, doing a couple negatives here and there, and hammering away at my friend's brick wall in a house he bought that's in shambles. Very sorry not to get into the gym to do pullup challenge. No excuse, really. Delts are pretty sore from dipping.

Monday, 1/14/08: Rest Day

Tuesday, 1/15/08, 10am, fasted 15 hrs: "Filthy Fifty" (My way...)

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box (onto bench, bench was moving, no fun.)
50 Jumping pull-ups (did these after kb swings as it seems I am in a perpetual state of "waiting for a pullup bar".)
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood (subbed 25lb. DB- prob should have used 30).
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows (nixed these tho I know I can do them, gym was crowded for some odd reason).
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions (was going to sub GM but ended up not because I didn't feel great about my form.)
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball (picked a 10ft. target, used a 12lb. medball)
50 Burpees
50 Double unders (subbed tuck jumps, I'm inept at jump roping as of yet)

37 minutes: (Oh man, I want to make this time so much better...)

I was actually very excited for this w/o and had a little bit of trouble sleeping the night before just thinking about how much I wanted to do as much of this as I could, as well as I could.

I'm dissapointed not to be able to do KtE. No really, I am. I just couldn't wait any longer and there are really only 2 stations in my gym that you can actually pull from (both taken).

Also could have done back extensions when I think about it, but the closest machine was up many stairs which, after you've done the burpees and tucks is not as enticing. And yes, burpees were intense. When I do them on their own I can usually manage a 10-at-a-time pace. I could only do 5-at-a-time for this.

So overall, I'm glad I did what I did but I'm going to play around and practice some of these other movements so that I'm unable to make any excuses next time. Can't wait to try this again.

Oh yes, and of course...lots of very strange looks. Sigh.

[Steven Low]

Oh yes, and of course...lots of very strange looks. Sigh.

Embrace it.

Also, if you didn't know APK has forums where you can meet other traceurs/traceuses from your area if you wanted to train with other people. Just throwing that out there since I dunno when you'll get down to Primal in the future.

[Veronica Davis]

Originally Posted by Erin Davidson

Whoa, Veronica. That place looks intense. Have you been there before? I'd be happy to see it if I can manage to get over there somehow (I'm working some odd jobs this weekend). It'd be nice to get out of my little commercial gym. What day do you think you'll be training there?

I've been there twice. The first time I was a little intimidated. My bf and I will be there around 11 AM on Saturday.

[Erin Davidson]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Embrace it.

Also, if you didn't know APK has forums where you can meet other traceurs/traceuses from your area if you wanted to train with other people. Just throwing that out there since I dunno when you'll get down to Primal in the future.

Thanks for the heads up, Steve. Read through some of the forums. I haven't done much in the way of parkour besides mess around on my own and watch a million videos. Overall, I'd like to get my GPP level up, and my pulling strength. I'm hoping to get out to some sessions a Drexel group I'm in is rumored to have...but probably not until the spring. Seems like Primal Fitness is some sort of Mecca for parkour training...

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Erin Davidson

Thanks for the heads up, Steve. Read through some of the forums. I haven't done much in the way of parkour besides mess around on my own and watch a million videos. Overall, I'd like to get my GPP level up, and my pulling strength. I'm hoping to get out to some sessions a Drexel group I'm in is rumored to have...but probably not until the spring. Seems like Primal Fitness is some sort of Mecca for parkour training...

I guess? I mean it's one of the only facilities that has dedicated Parkour training which is nice... but you can just do nearly same things with your surroundings or in a gymnastics gym that has open gyms by yourself. The key, really, is the people and Jesse and Mark are fairly good at teaching.