chalk.

We use chalk in Cross Fit.  At least I do anyway.  Some of the more experienced have moved on to gloves when doing the workouts where really all we do is hang from a bar and pull up.  Knees to elbows.  Feet to hands. Pull Ups.  I didn't even think feet-to-hands was possible until I tried it - folding your body into a V while hanging from that silly bar.  Pull ups, kipping, swinging and 'flying' up over the bar. Sure wish I could do 'em like some of the people with whom I exercise. 

Chalk.  When I chalk-up my hands I have some odd distant memory of an enormous man, from the Olympics or something, getting ready to pick-up an equally enormous amount of weight.  I think my Dad would stop the channel on those scenes.  And we would together watch the belted neck-less men chalk themselves then strain under the load.  Seems like the crowd, or coaches I suppose, would crescendo in loud encouragement as the bar rose.  Then the red faced giants would drop the bar to the ground, taped fingers and wrists work completed, then scream a little or grunt satisfactorily.

Cross Fit is nothing like that in the least.  Most of us have very nice proportional necks. But it's still a little grueling, and I like it.  The point:  if you have to 'chalk-up' to do something it's fairly serious.   Guess I do feel a little like the neck-less power lifters from my childhood memories.









Get ready!  Here I come: