CrossFit is defined as ‘constantly varied, functional movement done at a high intensity’.
Huh? That is what I thought, too. I then scoured youtube videos of people doing CrossFit and didn’t really feel like I was any smarter about what it was. It took doing it to gain a real understanding of how hard it is what it is all about.
Putting it in lay terms CrossFit combines body weight movements (pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats, and everyone’s favorite burpees) with Olympic weight lifting (deadlifts, front/back/overhead, squats, cleans, jerks, the snatch and the globo-gym favorite, the bench press). It is always changing and it is always challenging. CrossFit specializes in not specializing.
“3, 2, 1,…GO!” and everyone starts their workout together and nobody leaves until the last person is finished. The Workout of the Day (WOD) is the same for every class for the entire day.
A typical CrossFit workout could like something like this:
3 rounds (for time) of:
- 500 m row
- 7 deadlifts
- 11 pull ups
- 9 burpees
Once you complete your workout you gather any remaining breath and strength you have left and yell: ‘time!’ The coach will then tell you your time and write your results on the board. There is a competitive element to CrossFit if you want it, but mostly your results are for you to be able to track your progress. Tangible results and data allow you, and us, to know that we are moving in the right direction.
You can’t do a pull up and you don’t know what a dead-lift or a burpee is? No worries. Before you enter a regular class setting we will take you through an extensive training program which will give you the knowledge that you need to assimilate into any class.
Your fitness level is where it is at and it only matters to us that we get moving forward. We have the ability to scale every exercise and workout to your ability as well as challenge the ‘firebreathers’ all within the same class setting. We want everyone to push themselves beyond their limits, but we will never put you in a situation that is beyond what you can handle.
Will you want to quit at times? Oh yeah? Will you be sore? It diminishes. Will you be nervous before your workouts? Most likely, but I can guarantee that you will leave your class feeling like you have really accomplished something, and be surprised and proud of how much you are capable of doing.
