Good to be Back

I returned from my trip late Sunday night. I miss the traveling, but I'm happy to be home. I've never been so excited to eat cottage cheese and strawberries for breakfast. I don't want to see dumplings or any other sort of rice product for a very long time. I tried updating my blog while overseas, but the blog site was blocked (especially around the 20th anniversary of Tianamen Square). I'm back and I'll post up some fun pictures and video of my trip over the next week or so.

I have a few fun things to share about exercising in China. I was actually able to find a group of Crossfitters to work out with. They had a different understanding of what made a "Crossfit workout," but it made me sweaty and sore. I never turn my back on that! Here's most of the group. The guys up front at the table were the people I worked out with. This is not so much a workout, but the sushi restaurant we went to post-workout. The guy on the right in the front was the leader of the whole thing. He put together about an hour long WOD. It was made up entirely of isometric holds. It started at a minute for the first round and then worked up to about 2 minutes by round 5.

We did:

pullup hold

side plank (right and left)

V-sit hold

pushup hold

Handstand hold

squat hold

I suggested adding an L-sit hold to the mix. They "loved" that.

After the workout I challenged them to a round of Tabata Box Jumps. Only one person took me up on the challenge. I got 11. He got 15. Jerk!

When I wasn't working out with those guys, I was usually running around Nanjing. By the way, running in Nanjing is far from pleasant. The combination of thick smog and thick traffic congestion makes it slow going and really trying on your lungs. Now I understand why the Chinese spit so much. When I got tired of running on the street, I hit this track which was on the Nanjing University campus. It was a solid setup. I loved that there were always people flying kites or doing thai chi in the grass in the middle of the track.

I definitely freaked some people out when I jumped up on the pullup bar. Usually, the bars are used for stretching. You don't see many muscle building exercisers in the country. The focus is generally on flexibility and agility. They thought it was a little bizarre seeing someone doing pullups (let alone a girl doing pullups). I didn't mind. We all know I'm an exhibitionist.

I usually did a "Cindy" like workout with pullups, pushups and squats. I would also add some running in here and there. I think the Chinese were impressed. I even caught a few people doing kipping pullups! What can I say? Passing along the good work of Crossfit. It's WORLDWIDE!!!