CrossFit Soda City presents the 2nd annual WOD for HEART on Saturday, August 6th, benefiting the American Heart Association – Midlands, in honor of Member Asha Purohit
(Asha’s story below)
WOD for HEART
Here’s a brief rundown of how WOD for HEART 2016 will work:
-If you would like to register to compete, it will be only a $30 minimum donation with ALL proceeds going to the American Heart Association.
Registration will include access to WOD for HEART and your name on our “HEART Wall”
-There will be 4 WODs done over the course of one hour. The four workouts will have a relevance to CFSC’er Asha P.’s open heart surgery date of 8-28-14.
Here’s a hint of how Asha’s surgery date will play into the workouts:
WOD 1: 8 minutes
WOD 2: 28 Reps
WOD 3: 1
WOD 4: 4 rounds
There will be men’s and women’s RX and Scaled divisions, doable by MOST fitness levels. Top 3 men and women in RX and Scaled will receive a prize pack from our Sponsors! All WODs have been released (see below)
Check out the WOD for HEART Event page on FB HERE
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WOD for HEART Workout 1
8 minute AMRep
1 min of work, 1 minute rest of ascending weight Max Front Squats (from floor)
*scored by total weight
RX
135/85
185/115
205/125
225/135
Scaled
95/65
115/75
135/85
155/95
Standards:
-Workout 1 will start at the call of “3, 2, 1…GO!”, and will begin the hour long 4 Workout Event.
-Athletes will start standing tall, not touching barbell until they’re told to go. They will then move the pre-loaded first weight from the floor into a front rack position and begin their squats
-Athletes may place the bar on the ground as many times as they like during their minute of work, but must pick bar back up before beginning squats
-Stepping off of the mat will be a no-rep
-At the end of each minute of work, Athletes will change their own weights during the 1 minute rest period to the appropriate weight for their division. Clips must be securely on the bar before starting the next round
-Athletes must wait until each call of “3, 2, 1… GO!” during each work period to pick up their bar
-Front squat must reach full depth, crease of the hip below the knee, and must be returned to fully locked out standing position with hips and knees extended
-Athlete’s score will be total combined weight of all successful reps from each of the 4 rounds
Following Workout 1, at the 10 minute mark on a continuous running clock, athletes will begin WOD for HEART Workout 2, reflective of the number 28
WOD for HEART Workout 2
28 Snatches
RX
135/85
Scaled
95/55
Standards
-Time Cap 6 minutes
-At the call of “3, 2, 1… GO!” Athletes will begin their snatches
-The snatch will start from the floor and go overhead in one motion.
-Power or Full snatches will be allowed
-Rep is complete when athlete has the bar overhead with knees, hips, and elbows fully locked out, weight over the heels
-Stepping off of the mat will be a no-rep
-Athlete’s score will be time all 28 reps are completed, or 6 minutes plus one second for every remaining rep
The time cap for Workout 2 will leave athletes at the 16 minute mark on the clock.
Workout 3 will begin at the 25 minute mark.
WOD for HEART Workout 3
RX and Scaled
1 Mile Run
Standards
-Athletes will start, turn and finish at the same points
-Athletes must adhere to the course and not cut through parking lots and such for short cuts
-Athletes may walk as needed
-Time stops once athlete crosses finish line
Workout 4 will begin at the 45 minute mark, giving all athletes 20 minutes to complete and recover from the mile run.
WOD for HEART Workout 4
4 Rounds for Time
RX
8 Bar Facing Burpees (done with a paralette)
28 KB Goblet Lunges 1.5/1
14 Pull-ups
Scaled
8 Bar Facing Burpes (done with a paralette)
28 DB Goblet Lunges 30/20
14 Barbell Rows
Standards
-Time Cap 15 minutes
-At the call of “3, 2, 1… GO!” Athletes will begin their 8 bar facing burpees. The thighs and chest must touch the ground followed by RX jumping over the bar with both feet. SCALED may jump with one foot. Athletes MAY step down/up to/from the ground. The “bar” will be a standard paralette.
-The KB and DB Goblet lunges will have the athlete holding the weight with both hands against the center of the chest. No placing on one shoulder or the other. Grip does not matter. Reps are alternating, lunges can be reverse or forward, but knee MUST touch ground. NO dropping of the KB or DB will be permitted.
-RX Pull-ups will consist of the athlete staring from a fully extended hang, feet off of the floor, and finish with the chin clearly over the bar. Strict, kipping or butterfly are welcome as long as the start and finish positions are met each rep
-SCALED Barbell Rows- prior to the start of the Workout, the judge will place the J-cups at the athlete’s waist. When doing the barbell row, the athlete’s head must face the inside of the rig, their hand width can be any grip on the bar, and athletes arms must stay in line, or in front of the rig. The athlete MAY “kip” by using their hips. The rep begins with the athlete’s butt on the ground, and finishes with the torso making contact with the bar and butt off of the ground. (standards video will demonstrate)
-The workout ends as the athlete finishes their last pull-up and goes back to the start mat. That will conclude that athlete’s WOD for HEART 2016 experience.
-If athlete does no finish under the time cap, the score will be 15:00 + 1 second for every uncompleted rep AND not finishing on the start mat. Example- if athlete had 5 pull-ups remaining as time expires, their time will be 15:06. 15:00 plus 5 reps plus start mat finish.
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WOD for HEART Athletes will be in heats, starting every 20 minutes, and will be assigned heat times based upon how early they register.
(If a special heat time is needed, we will do our best to accommodate you.)
Top 3 RX and Scaled Men and Women will receive prizes from some of our incredible Sponsors.
Three ways to register:
1. Paypal $30 with your name, age as of 8-6-16, M/F and RX/Scaled (you can change any of this information later if needed) to WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com
2. Pay by cash, check or card in person at CrossFit Soda City
3. Email WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com for alternate payment options and questions
WOD for HEART 2016 will begin at 9 a.m. sharp.
-WOD for HEART Shirts will be available for $20 by pre-order only 2016 SHIRT ORDERS ARE CLOSED
2016 WOD for HEART logo
-We are asking for a $10 donation from all WOD for HEART spectators. Spectators can pay at the door on Saturday, August 6th with cash, check or card.
-We will be looking for volunteers to help with set-up, judging and breakdown.
If you do compete, we would love to have you hang around and judge a heat (total time one hour) before or after your slotted time.
If you’re willing to volunteer, please email WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com for details
-If you will be unable to attend/compete at WOD for HEART, but would like to donate any amount, you can be a part simply by emailing WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com, or stopping by CrossFit Soda City anytime.
-Last year we had a WOD for HEART “Heart Wall” displayed at CrossFit Soda City. We will continue that tradition in 2016.
All donations of $20 or more (included in athlete registration) will get a Heart with their name to be posted on the wall.
If you’re willing to donate any amount to support the American Heart Association, please email WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com for details
-Lastly, we are looking for WOD for HEART prize donations.
It could be an item, a service, a gift certificate, etc. Items will go to the “prize packs” of the overall M/F winners.
If you’re interested in donating anything, whatever it may be, please let us know!
Last year we raised right over $3000. In 2016, we want to beat that!
Email WODforHEART@crossfitsodacity.com for more information or to sign-up!
Asha’s Story
“I was born with several congenital defects: a cleft lip, a cleft palate and then, a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) which was actually found by pediatrician when she heard a murmur. Over the first 21 years of my life I had multiple surgeries, around 10, to repair my cleft lip and palate, as well as complications that come with it.
So that meant double jaw surgeries, multiple sinus surgeries, taking bone our of my hip, and many others. All along the way I knew I had a BAV, or what everybody kept calling a “heart murmur” because I had to take these big horse pill antibiotics any time that I had oral/dental work done and, well, that was a lot.
However, as I was growing up I didn’t have a cardiologist that I saw on a regular basis and no health care provider explained that I would need to be followed by a cardiologist.
In the summer of 2013, my mom, who is an RN, was volunteering at a free clinic in North Charleston. In conversation with the cardiologist seeing patients there that evening, she mentioned my BAV.
When the doctor asked her what cardiologist I was seeing, we realized I needed to find one. I was 24, has just finished my first year of the Master of Social Work program at USC and was about to start my Master of Public Health Course work.
Because I’ve always been seent at MUSC; because my father is a neonatologist there and I was in his Neonatal Intensive Care Unit after I was born; because my mother had worked as a nurse in the children’s hospital there for years, I was seen by a cardiodlogist in Charleston even though it was a commute.
At this point I had been doing CrossFIt for 2 years. I saw the cardiologist and was told that my aorta was slightly enlarged, but since we didn’t have a baseline there was no need to change anything, it wasn’t that big, and they’d see me a year later.
So I kept doing what I had been doing, going to CrossFit, trying to move as fast as I could and lift as heavy as I could.
Over the next year I was working on my Masters course work for public health and continuing to train.
I traveled to India for public health school work and kept on trucking.
Less than two weeks after a competition in 2014, I was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm. I was told I had to stop lifting heavy, I had to scale back my activity; no holding my breath when I was lifting; no moving anything that I couldn’t do 20 times easily.
Instead of moving on from this activity I loved, I remembered what I’d learned early on and starting finding this I could do; making up workouts; and scaling as needed.
About a year later, I was having chest pains. I didn’t tell anybody. I was scared. It didn’t make sense, this was supposed to be a-symptomatic.
I started googling symptoms of aortic aneurysm. I was exhausted all the time. I would get dizzy after workouts. After almost a week of chest pains I finally drove myself to the ER and, after screening me for a heart attack, taking blood, doing scans, the doctor ame in and asked me if I was prepared to have CT (cardiothoracic) surgery there at Richland Memorial. No explanation. No description.
I had come in telling the doctors exactly what my condition was, what the size of the aneurysm was when I had been seen 6 weeks prior and after 6+ hours at the ER all I got was, “are you ready for CT surgery.”
I was put in an ambulance and transported to the CT ICU at MUSC that night where my parents met me. That was Sunday night, August 24, 2014.
I spent the good part of the next morning making arrangements with graduate school. I had already started my social work field placement and was to start my final year of coursework that Wednesday.
That Wednesday I skyped into my classes from my hospital bed between appointments with the surgeon, the nurses, the anesthesiologists, and the anointing of the sick from the hospital’s Catholic priest.
Thursday morning I went in to surgery not knowing if I was coming out with a new valve or just a new aorta but for certain knew I was coming out with a zipper…
Sometime Friday they decided it was time for me to move from the ICU to the regular cardiac recovery unit. They had already made me get up and walk at least once so I told them I was going to walk myself over the other unit.
I wasn’t a cute sight. I was carrying 15-20 pounds of fluid from the surgery, my incision was still bandaged, I had a triple IV coming out of my neck, to my arm, a chest tube sitting in the wheelchair…and I walked myself out of the ICU.
Just a couple days later, on Tuesday September 2, I walked myself out of the hospital entirely.
The next day I skyped into week 2 of my classes at 9 am, 1 pm, and 5:30. I was exhausted. I was in pain. My chest had been sawed open and my heart cut into…but I was alive, and I was fighting.
Immediately my parents made me get up on walk a little bit every day. We got special shoes because my feet were still so swollen. I had to carry that heart pillow to brace in case I coughed, but I walked. 100 steps at a time, 1000 steps at a a time…..
3 weeks after surgery I was back with the CrossFit family it started with, CrossFIt Wando, using the stationary bike to move slowly while my mom checked my blood pressure and heart rate.
I lost weight rapidly because I was hypermetabolic and didn’t have a huge appetite. Ice cream was my best friend.
I moved home and my parents took care of me those first few weeks. I couldn’t sit up on my own. I couldn’t sit in the front seat of a car, let alone drive. I couldn’t get down stairs or bathe on my own. I did school work and slept.
By November I was living on my own again in Columbia and by early December 2014 I was back at CrossFit. Back at my social work and public health internship with the Department of Health and Environmental control (DHEC) Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, I had been told to consider applying for a scholarship to the annual Association of Maternal Child Health Programs (AMCHP) conference in DC as a youth leader with special health care needs.
Not expecting anything, I applied.
In January 2015 I had the pleasure of traveling to the conference, attending many educational sessions, speaking with leaders from across the country, and even spoke in front of the whole Conference as I accepted the award.
In early April, with graduation about a month away, I applied to a job at Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, Inc.
Shortly after accepting the position the agency had their annual gala:
Knowing I had a job, I decided to go for my licensure before graduation, and passed.
I received my MPH on 5/7/15 and was awarded the Michael D. Jarrett Scholarship for Leadership potential in public health administration.
The next day, 5/8/15, I received my MSW.
Less than 9 months after surgery….after I’d been told to medically withdraw and come back in a year I had both my Masters, my social work license, and a job lined up.
In July of that summer, I started experiencing chest pains again, and went to the ER and then to see my cardiologist.
I was put on restrictions again – for breathing, for repition, etc.
Through all of that my family at CFSC supported me, and Coach Josh always found a way to modify the workout to fit my needs, respecting when I needed to pull back and pushing me when I needed to be pushed.
I had decided after my surgery that there was nothing that I couldn’t do…
The First annual WOD for HEART was held on August 29, 2015, 1 year + 1 day after my surgery.
We raised well over $3,000 to benefit the AHA of the Midlands.
I continued to follow my doctor’s guidelines, and continued to fight to get stronger and faster not only despite of my heart condition but because of it.”
Since then, Asha has been fully cleared for all activities, and a few weeks later finished 3rd at the Crawfish Challenge back in May!
