This morning I rose at 515am to travel uptown to a gym to participate in my first CrossFit workout. My friend has been an avid member of these classes and has tried to cajole me to attend with him on multiple occasions. For whatever reason, I never made it up there, although I am well aware of the phenomenon that is CrossFit and we have blogged about it before.
So yesterday I decided it was time for a change in my workout, and off I went this morning. I laughed when my friend told me I had no idea what I was in store for, and I teased him that he would be lucky if he could keep up with me. What’s CrossFit? A couple jumping jacks and push ups? I can do that no problem.
I was wrong. CrossFit is much more then that. I just had the best workout I’ve had in years.
We started off jumping rope, then we did squats with a bar, of which I apparently did entirely wrong, and when I thought I had gone to the number we needed(30) the coach came over to me and said “zero.” I had to start over.
Then we did some pull ups, leg kicks, and snatches. And that was all in the 8 minute warm up.
The real fun began when we started doing circuit training. The circuits were timed(4 minutes) and consisted of wall throws(14 pound ball, squat all the way down and throw up to the wall. Repeat. See how many you can do. Good luck.), push ups(REAL pushups. Chest and chin to ground or Coach comes over and says “zero”), sit ups, and burpees. You get to “rest” for 2 minutes in between.
After we had gone through all of that fun, we were marched out to the stairs and told to start running. We had 8 minutes. We ran up 8 flights of stairs, and these are New York City flights; it’s a long way up. I managed 4. Best in our group was 5. I thought I had this event locked down, I was wrong.
Then after 2 minutes of rest we went back into the gym and did the same circuit workout from above. Keep in mind that the whole time the Coach is walking around and watching to ensure you’re doing proper form, and if you’re not, its back to “zero.”
At the end of every exercise he called out your name to find out the number you were able to do. At the end of the class I could barely see straight, let alone add, so I have no idea who won. It wasn’t me. We were actually in teams and it’s a good thing my partner was able to pick up some of the slack(combined points).
So will I be back? Absolutely.
Check into a CrossFit in your town. They definitely have one. Right now I can barely type; that’s a good feeling.
You want to take your workout to the next level? Then find a CrossFit and be prepared for the workout of your life.
