Sixth class... Grace.

There are many words that you should avoid. Like mealy. What a horrible word. If anyone ever offers you a mealy apple, you say no.  That's bad.
Another word to avoid is pop.  There are many reasons to avoid this word. If someone offers you a pop, they could be suggesting you might like a punch into your chops. Or, they could be from some other part of the country that is not the northwest and might be offering you some soda. The regions these people might be from are shifty-eyed and should not be trusted and soda, in general, isn't very good for you.
Someone could pop your balloon. And that sucks.
I guess there are a couple of positive ways in which the word pop could be used. Someone from an oldy-tyme comic strip could call their father Pop, and that would be okay. A person could pop a muffin into the toaster for you. That might be nice.
Someone from England might pop off and... whatever English people do.
I really prefer the way English people speak. I like their version of what is supposed to be our common language better.
"Chatting someone up" in a bar sound so much nicer than "hitting on them."

But back to pop.

You know what the worst way to use the word "pop" is? In a way to relates to something which just happened to your muscle. That's the worst way.

I made mention of this before, but it continues to be slammed into my face. I am without grace. Not totally, but substantially.
We were doing this exercise which has a name. The names of these exercises will never mean anything to me. They seem to fall into the same category in my mind as proper nouns, so I can't tell you what it's called. You lift a weight in a certain way. That's all you really need to know.
I was able to do this exercise without a great deal of difficulty as it was focused, so I thought, on the upper body which is the only place I have any strength.
While I was doing the motion the coach for that day explained that I needed to get the rest of my body involved in the motion and that I was making it much harder on myself than it needed to be. I tried to explain that it wasn't that hard, but that really wasn't the point.
The point of so many of the exercises in CrossFit is to use all different kinds of your body at the same time. Use momentum and leverage from other parts to achieve the thing you're trying to achieve.
It's why I don't end up with like burning so much in any one body time, but massive full-body exhaustion.
It's just different.
Anywho, he demonstrates the correct motion for the exercise I thought I was doing correctly. And, he might as well have just started moonwalking around the gym floor. I can conceptualize the movement he demonstrated and understand how it would make the thing easier, but I don't know how to make my body do that in that way.

In order to use your whole body like that, you need to be athletic to a degree which I am not. A degree which requires grace.

How much grace do I not have? I'll tell you. I injured myself again. I popped something in my calf and now I cannot walk correctly on my right leg and there is a fairly unpleasant level of pain. When I say popped, I mean one of those horrible moments where you actually feel/hear an actual pop.
And, you may ask, what were you doing to hurt yourself this time, Eric? What ridiculous, over-the-top exercise was it this time?

I was skipping. Skipping. Like you did in first grade. NO!  Wait!  Not like you did in first grade. I was able to actually do the skipping like what you would do in first grade. I need to be fair to myself.

This was EXTREME SKIPPING! Great bounding leap skipping...

But, it was still skipping.


So, you might say, well Eric, I guess this was a nice experiment, but maybe it's time you wrapped it up and moved on to something a little safer for you.
To that I would say, OH! Don't you think for a minute that that hasn't occurred to me. Because it has.
There are a couple of things keeping me from giving up and quitting.
First, everyone is being SO GODDAMN NICE TO ME. I hate it. It would be much easier if they were a bunch of pricks, and maybe, behind my back, they are. But they're doing a good job of being nice and supportive to my face, so, as much as I hate to feel things like this, I wouldn't want to let them down.
That's a minor reason though. If it were only that it wouldn't be enough.
Mostly, I am angry. I hate the fact that I keep getting hurt and I cannot accept that I might not be able to work through it to something more stable.
The other large thing is that, quitting now would feel like a very final step toward a sedentary middle-age followed by an unhealthy, short, old age. This, as well, I am not prepared to accept.

Man but my goddamn calf hurts, though. Jesus.