Tag: 🧑‍🦯 Blind

I don’t normally do box jumps here in the home gym because we don’t have enough room for me to safely fail in my normal failure modes. The risk with me being legally blind is pretty high to and usually just isn’t worth it to me. Today I did them for the WOD and really did enjoy them. I do love jumping.

Although I do very much enjoy box jumps in spite of my visual handicap I do think they are used wrongly and over used in the program we do. Regardless of that there’s something primal about jumping on an object. It brings me back to being a kid growing up with 3 brothers. Among other things it was one of the things you did, if you saw something you tried to jump on or over it.

Most of this spring so far other than a few days here and there have featured rain at various times of the day. The rain puts a damper on my ability and desire to do running WODS out side. For one I don’t want to track mud through our garage. The other main reason to defer the running WODS is that Crossfit type of shoes tend to be very slippery when they’re wet and that wouldn’t end well with weight or explosive movements like box jumps or the like.

The inevitable happened today. Going through the street parking’s starting strength program I finally failed at deadlifts. Other than bench press these are probably one of the my weakest lifts compared to where it should be. Grip strength has hurt these in the past for me not to mention earlier on I tended to pull with a bit of a rounded back and knew I did so preventing me from being too aggressive with the weight.

I don’t really make it a secret that I’m legally blind and therefore have very poor vision. I also do at least to the best of my ability keep it from being a limiting factor. I do realize and accept that it does cause some reasonable limitations if for any reason due to safety. Box jumps are one of those movements used in Crossfit that always have and always will make me nervous due to the poor depth perception of only having one useful eye and sometimes misjudging the angle or distance I am to the box.

I’m visually impaired and tend to need to use a monocular to see almost anything from items on the shelves in a store to menus in take out places. Basically I use it dozens of times a day every day. Sadly my old go to Vanguard telescopes seem to be no longer being manufactured. It’s a shame since other than the rubber thing that folds up and down around the eye piece wearing out those things have been awesome for me.

I don’t really keep it a secret that I love lifting. Squats are my favorite lift. It’s just me against the weight and gravity. My low vision really isn’t a factor, and I love that I don’t have something uncontrollable holding me back.

I do some strange things, being visually impaired. I cannot see faces to recognize them, so there has been more than one occasion where I thought the person I was talking to was someone entirely different If I’m not super familiar with their voice.

One of the things I enjoy about doing the Street Parking WODS is once in a while they throw in a different movement. A while back it was knee jumps which I had actually done once in a while on my own but it was cool seeing how many people found out they can do a new thing that they thought they couldn’t do. Anyways Today’s WOD included seated box jumps.

I’m legally blind with one eye that sees anything more than light or dark. This really makes my depth perception pretty useless. I used to think I need to just try harder or something but eventually realized that it’s one of those things I cannot change. I just need to figure out ways to work through it. In at the old gym I did box jumps 90% of the time or so.

I was browsing on Amazon and came across these Carson Magnifiers that were cheap. It’s perfect for me.

My old trusty Vanguard DM 8250 telescope wore out. That was a perfect one for me, and sadly, they don’t seem to make them anymore. The hunt begins for something else.

The thing about being visually impaired like I am is magnifying glasses are one thing you can’t have too many of. I’m always on the lookout for new ones to try for a reasonable price. Sure I know they’re not the best quality but for my use that really isn’t all that important. I use them all the time and wind up loosing them or breaking them anyways. One day while searching Amazon I came across the Bausch & Lomb Coddington Magnifier.

I came across the Donegan Magnifiers on Amazon. They seem to be pretty decent quality. The magnification and size are perfect for my needs.

I’ve always thought that handwriting sucks. It’s nearly impossible for me to read anyone’s handwriting, let alone my cursive.

This morning while reading Reddit I saw someone who is legally blind ask for some advice on a computer issue. I saw some suggestions with good intention that really wouldn’t help and some things that were ignorant. I wanted to address some of them here since I see this in real life all the time being legally blind myself. The first suggestion that stands out the suggestion of wearing glasses. That’s a great idea except for the fact that if someone knows they’re legally blind chances are they would already have glasses if they would help.

Today, I’ve been thinking about how I might be willing to give a cornea transplant another shot. It would be great to have better vision.

Last night I read an article about them doing something with stem cells to regrow cornea tissue. This is the sort of thing I might consider trying since the grafts didn’t work out so well for me.

Did you ever lose touch with someone and wish you hadn’t? I am wishing I hadn’t lost track of my old vision teacher’s contact info.

My Nan came up to visit last weekend, and she brought some old report cards of mine that she had found in her house. They were from elementary school. That was when I still liked school. That whole thing reminded me of the time when I stopped liking school. It changed in sixth grade. I didn’t realize my good eye had gotten worse, but the doctor said I should have another cornea transplant, so I put my name on the waiting list.

I keep getting offers to lower my auto insurance rates. The problem is being visually impaired I don’t drive, therefore don’t have auto insurance.