Fitness Solution

Since I moved back to the bay, I've been struggling to find a fitness solution that works for me. When I was living up north, going to Crossfit every day was no problem because I didn't teach during the week and had a VERY set schedule with work because I couldn't work from home. Also I lived at the barn, so riding was easy in the mornings before work. Everything was predictable. My Crossfit friends were all around my age or a little younger, many of them PhD students at the local university or recent graduates.

Miss this place

We formed a group and would all attend the same classes, a lot of the time staying late after class to hang out. It was a huge bummer moving away from them, although I think a lot of people split in the following months. We still have a group chat, but it's mostly quiet.

When I moved back, I tried several crossfits (three in total, plus a powerlifting gym) and none of them stuck. Either the times weren't great, the programming wasn't my fave, or I didn't like the coaching. Then I got mono and was forced to stop anyway. And when I recovered from mono, I doubled my business load and then basically stopped going to the gym.

Since then I've struggled to figure this out. I love the group classes and weightlifting that Crossfit offers, but I can't make specific times. I don't have a set schedule because of teaching, I need flexibility in when I can hit the gym. Most of the gyms in this area don't have enough classes at random times to help me out there.

Ugh I should have gotten lifters
much sooner, my OHS and general
squat form is way better now

Then my brother and I went bouldering together in September kind of randomly, I went a couple more times with him and once with my boyfriend after that and then it kind of petered out, but I did like it. Boyfriend and I started looking around in the area where we are and couldn't find a single gym that wasn't just completely packed after work (which is the easiest time for us to go together, although he has a gym at work he can go to and he's also a cyclist).

But I went bouldering again recently with my brother (before he had a kid) and was reminded how much I love bouldering and how sparse the gym is in comparison to other gyms. So I decided to join!

They have group classes in the after work hours (TRX, yoga, a core class) and if I can't make one of those, the weight room is always scarce because most people are there to climb. The climbing is great! I can boulder by myself or with my brother (when he is back to normal life... eventually) and when my hands get tired, I can go squat or row or deadlift or something. It's also way less expensive than crossfit, which is good. And I get a free guest pass every month! My brother goes 1-2x per week and I plan on trying to go with him (again, eventually, can you tell I wrote this post before my niece decided to come into the world two weeks early?), plus once or twice more to do some weights. If I can't figure out what to do, I can look back at my old workouts (I have a huge amount of workouts just sitting in a saved folder from doing Crossfit all of 2018) and do those.

We don't have tons of hobbies in common, paddle boarding is
one of them (which we don't do enough, this summer for sure!)

Also hiking! This is from Lassen in 2018

Fingers crossed it will work out! I just want to go a few hours a week and keep myself active beyond just riding. And being able to share something with my brother is great. Yes he now has a kid, but he says that he and my SIL want to keep doing their physical activities (she does barre), so hopefully he can come with me once a week once they settle in with the kiddo.