Bridge Ups saved my back.

Please don’t misconstrue the following as me being an ungrateful human. I truly AM thankful for the opportunity to spend 3 months traveling all across the United States doing cool things like hiking Mailbox Peak and camping the California coastline. BUT (!) do you know what sitting in a car for hours of driving does to the body??! My illiopsoas was screaming and at one point I’m pretty sure I was unable to sit up straight in the seat without complaining, “UGH. My back!”

And this is the part where Mobility WOD and Gymnastics WOD save my day.  Before taking off on this road trip, we had the foresight to bring gymnast rings. There is a whole slew of bodyweight workouts you can do while on vacation – throw in a set of rings and you’ve now got, like, double that. (I’m just guessing.) So, after un-tightening the hip flexors and other parts with the help of a lacrosse ball, we’d knock out a GWod on rings hung on a tree branch. One particularly helpful Gymnastics WOD was the “Skin the Cat and Bridge Ups” WOD. The skin-the-cat maneuver just really helped my upper back and shoulders while bridge ups just stretched everything out. I kid you not, I felt like I had a new bod.

On my way to the bottom of a Skin The Cat in a half tuck position.

But, of course I can’t just hang rings at my campsite and NOT have fun with it. Who DOESN’T love just hanging upside down?? My oh-so-French camp neighbors kept staring like, “Those crazy Americans thinking they’re Nadia Comaneci!” I tried NOT to stare like “Whoa! Those crazy French!” when one of the guys, wearing nothing but his underoos, proceeded to change said underoo outside of his tent. I did, however, lose my grip on those rings… for no reason in particular. So while Mobility WOD and Gymnastics WOD can save your back from the rigors of car-riding, they can’t save you from the unintentional glimpse of French nuts.