My first Cross fit.

Heeeeeey y’all! How’s your weekend going so far? Too fast?? Ya, mine too. 2 days for a “weekend” is just NOT enough. Maybe we should write a proposal for our leaders and vote on it…or something.

Anyway, let’s back up a couple days…Friday. It was my “rest day” since we had to go out of town. The Hus’ oldest son had his high school graduation, and the kids live a good 3 hours away from us. To say it was a “late night” is an understatement. We didn’t get home until a little after 3am. 😉 And no, in case you were trying to put 2 and 2 together, neither one of us is really old enough to have kids that old…start havin’ em young, your young when they graduate. 😉

Saturday. Since I knew I would never be up early enough to make it to the 8 am run club run, I figured it was a good day to try a cross fit class since they have an 11 am “community class” where, if your a newbie, you can try your first class for free. 🙂 I’m actually kinda proud of myself for going. I mean, I know I’ve been trying some new classes/gyms lately, but with cross fit, you read so many different opinions about it, that I was kinda scared of it! Mostly, I was scared of breaking my kneecap in half and not being able to start marathon training on the 15th…priorities. But I made it there. I’m just busting through some of these New Years Resolutions this year. 😉

I went to Crossfit Polaris, and they were really great there. When I got there, I found 2 of the trainers, Keith and Chris, and got the run-down of how the workout goes. There were probably about 30-40 people there for the community workout. We started with a warm-up – a little jog across the parking lot, and then some exercises going back and forth in…”the box”…high knees, butt kicks, inch worms, spider crawl, lunges, etc…After that, we got paired up with another person for the “Workout of the Day” (WOD). A girl, Tina, grabbed me since I didn’t know anyone and didn’t have a partner. Which, I’m SO glad she was my partner because she said up front, “I’m not fast. I don’t care if we’re the last team finished. I don’t want to get injured, and I haven’t been doing this as long as some of the others, so I go slow.” Super. Because I don’t even know what a “snatch” or a “hang clean” is, so I’ll probably be asking you every. single. round.

The WOD:

 

For this WOD, you each did the 7 exercises, 7 reps, 7 rounds. Awesome! 7 is my favorite number! Anyway, for example: I started with 7 dead lifts, she did 7 snatches, I did 7 S2OH, she did 7 hang cleans…When I got to the first round of pull ups, I’m like, “yaaaaaa, I’ll be lucky if I can get my TOES off the box…” Her advice, just grab the bar and jump to pull yourself up. Good advice. It worked and I got my feet off the box. No, my head was nowhere close to being above the bar, but my feet were not touching, so that’s progress! haha. Goal: to be able to at least do ONE pull up without the box. 😉 (And yes, I am aware of the whole debate over “real pull ups vs. crossfit ‘kipping’ pull ups”. Honestly, who cares?! They are both “pull ups”, and, well, are obviously giving people physical results…and strength. So who the heck cares if the “cross fit pull up” isn’t “correct”. You do your workout, let cross fitters do theirs, and let’s just all “sweat it out” in our own workout of choice, shall we?) (Obviously, I have become “that person” that gets frustrated with all the subject debates. Why do we all have to always fight about what we believe?! WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG ALREADY AND JUST ACCEPT PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY ARE EVEN IF WE DON’T AGREE ON SOMETHING?! Wow. Side tangent. Moving on.)

Chris, the trainer for the day, had me do a couple rounds with just a piece of PVC pipe so that I could get comfortable with the moves and make sure I was doing them correctly before using weight. Which was a good idea because I was ALL wrong at first! (And P.S. I quickly realized how important it is to make sure you go to a “box” that has good coaches who will be watching you and making sure you are doing things properly!)

Also, in the beginning, he had asked me if I had any injuries, so I made sure to tell him about some left knee pain. (#2 example of a good cross fit trainer.) So I’m glad he had me start with the PVC, then just a bar with NO weights, for my first day. He did comment, “I know you’ll probably want to be adding the weights and just ‘jump right in’, but trust me, you will feel this tomorrow, so just stay with the empty bar.” Good advice, Chris. I feel it today!! My hamstrings are hurtin’! AND my back! Although I just had some flashbacks of the upper body strength class workout from Thursday, so I guess I’m just lucky that I was able to get outta bed this morning! haha.

After the class, and waking up the following morning with a “cross fit hangover”, here are MY thoughts on the workout that the whole world argues over:

I can see where people equate cross fit with injuries, but honestly, after doing cross fit, I don’t think it’s any more prone to injury than running or normal lifting in the gym or Olympic snowboarding. They show you how to do the exercises in the proper form (if you go to a gym that has GOOD trainers!), and if you are using proper form, and doing “your level” of fitness at that moment, I don’t see how you would be getting seriously injured. Just like running…if you’re using proper shoes and running at the level of fitness your body can handle, your not going to get seriously injured either. It’s when you start adding things that you aren’t really ready for yet, or your exhausted from pushing yourself so you start to lose form, etc..but with any exercise/class/workout, you are – or should be! – starting where you are, and gradually moving up as you are getting stronger, fitter, faster, etc…I also understand that the point of cross fit, as you get better, is to be able to do as many reps as possible. And of course, that can cause injury because you could lose form as you go faster. But I think it’s safe to say running could do the same harm when you start working on speed…So to say that cross fit is MORE injury prone than anything else? I’m disagreeing on that statement. And after doing cross fit yesterday, having NO pain ANYWHERE during the workout, and THEN going for a 5 mile run, my run didn’t start with sore knees like it usually does…I think cross fit might have been a good little “warm-up” for my run! 🙂 AND! After realizing how much your hips matter – although I don’t have the “violent hips”- I think doing some cross fit could help with alleviating some running injuries…just my 2 cents though when I put 2 and 2 together and knowing that you need strength for running… 😉

Also, I’ve heard people say that cross fit is a “cult”. Umm, ok. Well, we could probably say that running is a “cult” then too. Once you start running and get a taste of that “runner’s high”, your done. You’ve joined the running “cult”. But as I type that, I cringe. “Cults” tend to be more negative – dangerous, extreme, “rituals”. 1. I guess I don’t like the term “cult” because it has a negative feeling to me, and “getting fit and healthy” is NOT negative! 2. I guess we could say that running and all runners are in a “cult” too…I mean, we each have our little “rituals”, we may or may not be a little extreme…

 

 

And what is this I hear about races that are like, 50 and even 100 miles?!?!?! I think THAT’S a little extreme… 😉 And we are probably pretty dangerous if we DON’T run! ;). Plus, running on the roads can be pretty dangerous too…just sayin’.

At the end of the day, I’m pretty sold on cross fit benefits. Now I’m just trying to work another gym membership into my budget… 😦

So. I’m sure I missed some some of the arguments with cross fit, and I know there are always haters (there are running haters too if you can believe that!). And this post wasn’t really about debating the arguments of cross fit, but just what my personal cross fit experience was; and my simple, novice thoughts on the sport. 😉

What are your thoughts on cross fit? Have you tried it??