No, seriously. This post is going to be different so bear with me. It’s one of those “ah ha!” type of moments with a fair amount of head hitting the wall following.
About a month ago I was dragged pretty much kicking and screaming by my husband to join him in crossfit. I know I probably just lost a few people saying that word. Many, many tears have been shed in my frustration of being unable to keep up.
I still can’t, but I was also being held back by something: my shoes. I killed my rainbow colored sneakers (this is what happens when you let a then 3 year old pick the color) during the sheer amount of running (walking) this past Saturday and then the nail in the coffin was Monday’s workout. Tuesday I found myself researching shoes and asking horribly newbie questions of random strangers on the internet.
Those funky rainbow colored shoes are lifestyle shoes – they are good for pretty much nothing. At least not anything that has some level of intensity to it. Actually, probably don’t even say the word exercise around them. The others are a cross training shoe.
The difference? I struggled so hard to get into a half-squat with the Sketchers. I stood in the store (very awkwardly) doing full squats in the Nike shoes without issue (except for hoping no one randomly came around the corner and saw me). I grip the floor solidly and the better side-to-side support is instantly noticeable. Now, they aren’t Metcon 3s, but they’re a good start. Trust me, I tried on the Metcon 3s and would love a pair, but that’s out of the budget right now. I’d like to try the Nano 7s, but I can’t find any in my size in the area. Are there other brands/models/etc? Yeah, but hang around on the subreddit a little bit and you’ll start getting the idea of what crossfit people go for.
Changing shoes also heavily reduced the knee and ankle pain I deal with on a regular basis. I could keep going, but this has probably already gotten boring. Needless to say, if issues with footwear ever comes up in my writing, I’ve probably already done a decent amount of research for it.
I held off on this post until after another workout where I could wear my new shoes and of course Thursday’s workout heavily featured some sort of squat in it. I still need to work on it, but now I can start tackling my personal limitations without having to fight my shoes as well. And while I’m still heavily scaled, I didn’t leave feeling completely frustrated and like I was wasting my time even trying.
Now to find some good everyday shoes to wear so I don’t kill these. The rainbow ones are completely gone – they actually hurt to wear. I’m keeping them around a little longer to possibly publicly shame them.
J.C. Jackson 