In The Princess Bride, there is a fight scene, the first time that the Spaniard and the Dread Pirate Roberts meet. At the start of the duel, both men are fencing with their left hands. Partway through, when it seems the Spaniard is overmatched, he reveals that he is not left handed and switches. The switch allows him to prevail until Roberts, nearly defeated, reveals he is not left handed either.
I am not left handed. My left hand is weaker than my right hand. It can write, but the words are quite less than legible. I suppose if I were to practice writing with it, I could improve, but it’s not something that I’m interested in. But as I continue to work on pull ups and Crossfit, I want to bring more equality to the strengths of my hands and my arms.
To that end, I have cultivated a couple strange habits. First, when I’m working with weights, I try to use my left hand to work the squeeze collars. It’s harder. I fumble them at times, and now and then I have to use my right hand on a particularly stubborn one. Second, I try to carry the plates with my left hand as much as I can – if I have a 10 pound plate and a 15 pound plate to put away, then I’ll carry the 15 in my left and the 10 in my right.
Someday, someone at Crossfit will notice that I’m using my left hand all the time for the collars and the heavier weights. And on that day, as long as my brain isn’t too fried from whatever insane workout we’ve just completed, I will put on my best Inigo Montoya accent and proclaim, “I am not left handed!”