I have just read a really great
blog about one individuals start on his CrossFit journey.
Joshua Brown lives in New York and after years of getting out of shape decided to join a CrossFit box. These are his experiences so far and just what you can expect from joining a CrossFit community:
Joshuas blog can be read directly here:
http://tinyurl.com/8aubapn
Please visit his site directly but I have reproduced the text about CrossFit below in blue:
This week marks three months since I began the most intense workout
regimen of my entire life, CrossFit.
What led to me beginning CrossFit was a realization that, if left to my
own devices, I would never push myself hard enough to truly make the changes I
needed to in order to get in shape. Occasional jogs and going through the
chest-and-biceps motions of a traditional gym simply weren't going to get it
done. I also knew that there was no shot that I'd be able to stick to a diet if
it didn't coincide with something more offensive, like physical
training of some sort that demanded I take in more nutrients and less garbage.
And so on July 21st, at 258 pounds and sick of seeing my giant moon-face
on TV everyday, I walked into theCrossFit Lighthouse in Wantagh, Long Island and submitted
to a long-overdue comeuppance. I marched my Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man-frame
into a firefight I wasn't truly prepared for. It's 90 days later and I still
have a long way to go to get back to the old me. But I'm happy to report that
for the first time in years I feel like I'm back in control and can see the
light at the end of the tunnel. Every day I get closer.
For those who are thinking about trying CrossFit and rewriting their own
futures, below are the first ten things that will happen.
1. You will find out how truly out of shape you are. It
is likely that your first few sessions at a CrossFit gym will consist of
stretching and basic instruction. You will likely sweat like a pig and require numerous
breaks to catch your breath even during this relatively easy phase. This is
because you are engaging and stretching muscles that have been dormant for
years. You will also be sucking at the air for every molecule of oxygen you can
get. It will be a week or two before your lungs are really open, prepare to
gasp like a newborn taking its very first breath.
2. You will realize how fat you and other regular people are
compared to real athletes. This is because your certified instructors
will have the physiques of comic book superheroes. You will weigh 40% more than
them but they will be somewhere between 50 and 150% stronger than you. It will
make no sense that such "little" guys and girls are that much more
powerful than you; it'll be rather disorienting, especially if you're a big guy
like me who thought he was "strong" walking in. The instructors are
not huge or freakishly jacked like traditional body builders, but I wouldn't
want to bet against them in any contests of strength. The idea is to be able to
lift heavy weights but in as efficient a manner as possible, and then to be
able to run a mile while the old school body builder huffs and puffs behind
you. And you, big guy, are not strong. You are fat and incidentally may be able
to lift some weight up. You will learn about real strength very soon.
3. You will begin learning the lingo and using it
without feeling like a dork:
·
W.O.D (or WOD): Workout of the Day, this is the combination of exercises,
prescribed weights and time allotment that will be the law of the land from the
first class to the last. Typically a WOD will consist of one gymnastic move
(pull-ups, ring rows, sit-ups etc), one aspect of cardio (rowing, running,
jumping rope etc) and one Olympic power-lifting maneuver (back squats, clean
& jerks, dead lifts, push-presses etc).
·
RX: When one does the prescribed amount of weight and reps, one is said
to have RX'd (as in, he or she followed the prescription).
·
Box: CrossFit centers are not called gyms, they're called
"boxes" and many of them resemble just that. Typically they'll be in
warehouse-like spaces with cement walls, exposed rafters criss-crossing the
ceiling and nought but a black mat covering the length of the floors. There are
no smoothie bars or aerobics studios in one's peripheral vision, just the iron
bar you'll hang from, the weights you'll thrust up above your head and the
ground you'll drip your perspiration and occasional tears into until you feel
as though you've become a part of the place. This is your box. There are
thousands of CrossFit boxes across the country, but this one is yours.
4. Your friends and family will start Googling the term CrossFit and
giving you warnings. "Oh, you're doing that Cross thing, I
think I just read something about that..." They will come across
a rare disorder wherein people push themselves past the exhaustion point until
their muscle fibers begin to break down and slip through the bloodstream into
their kidneys. They will also come across stories about injuries and the like
associated with CrossFit search terms. The reality is that these types of
injuries can and do occur with any kind of training if taken too far and under
the wrong type of supervision. You are equally likely to be injured while ice
skating, lifting weights alone, horseback riding, surfing or doing any other
type of strenuous activity if you are engaging recklessly and not taking the
proper precautions. I would also note that there is an ongoing fear-mongering
campaign being waged by the traditional fitness clubs and gyms. They see the
proliferation of the CrossFit movement across the country as a massive threat
to their membership rolls. There is no possible way that a guy doing his usual
leisurely circuit around the same 12 or 15 machines in a gym is ever going to
get the intensity of a workout at a CrossFit box.
5. You will get insanely good at counting. Everything
in CrossFit is about reps. 20 clean & jerks followed by 10 box-jumps topped
off with 30 sit-ups, then repeat five times and compete for time. Think about
the counting, the counting down, the mental division of large quantities of
reps into small, more manageable-seeming blocks. "Okay, let me get five
more then take a breath and then just three more and then only two sets left
until I'm three fifth's of the way through the five rounds." This is the
kind of conversation you're carrying on with yourself in the heat of the W.O.D.
and you'll become very proficient at counting backward as well - "seven
more...six, five more, c'mon, four..." Whatever it takes to get you
through.
6. You'll begin to respect endurance and stamina. When
you're a kid, your idea of strength revolves around how much one can lift, what
someone's arms and chest look like, etc. If you haven't yet grown out of this
idea, you will upon beginning CrossFit. You will begin to be much more amazed
at things like quad strength and lower back strength. You'll be blown away by
the ability of others to do hundreds of airsquats or hold various static
positions (holding one's body in a plank six inches above the ground or
half-squatting with one's back against the wall, with thighs perpendicular to
the ground and a 20-pound medicine ball pressed to one's chest. When you can
barely get through 30 seconds in these positions but you see someone hold them
for 4 to 6 minutes, all of your ideas about what being strong means will be out
the window.
7. You will gain weight at first. The most frustrating
part of my first month at CrossFit was the weight gain. Simply stated, because
you are using muscles that have been out of the game for years, you will be
building those muscles rather rapidly, and muscle weighs more than fat. So
while you will definitely be shedding water weight puffiness and sweating like
you've been on a scavenger hunt in a rainforest, the scale will be ticking up
not down. This will drive you f***ing crazy. And then, all of a sudden, you
will hit that tipping point where the muscle you've been adding is burning
enough calories each night to have you start to drop pounds. Then you'll start
to see your clothes fit better and your face shrink. All downhill from here
provided you keep going.
8. You'll notice an uptick in energy, even when you're dead
sore from CrossFitting. This new-found energy bounce comes from the fact that
you're dragging less fat around with you all day and you're breathing easier.
You're putting less wear and tear on your cardiovascular and pulmonary systems
and the dividend is you can keep up with your kids and accomplish more each day.
The confidence and happiness that comes along with this is self-explanatory.
Wait til you see the little and unexpected ways in which these peripheral
benefits creep into your daily routine at home and at work!
9. You will learn about your mental weakness. My box,
the CrossFit Lighthouse, posts the Workout of the Day on their website each
morning. Three weeks in, once I had learned all the various exercises, I found
myself hitting up the site and deciding based on what the W.O.D. was whether or
not I was going to attend that day. One day I logged on and saw that there were
3 sets of 20 burpees included, which immediately triggered an inner dialog that
went something like this: "I just did burpees on Tuesday and I'm still
sore, maybe tonight will be my rest night and I'll go tomorrow and Friday
instead." I realized that I was picking and choosing the workouts like
they were on an a la carte menu, "I'll do this but I'm skipping that
because my ankle is acting up." Once I realized this about myself, I
stopped going to the site. I learned what a bitch I could be, and then I
learned to deny myself the opportunity going forward. This is one example of
many revelatory moments that have allowed me to get to know myself much better
and make the appropriate adjustments.
10. You will learn a lot about your mental toughness. You
will find that you barely knew yourself at all before beginning this adventure.
That you didn't have a clue about what really made you tick, your own elemental
motivations and desires. In the heat of battle, when your head is soaked in
sweat and there is nothing but the clanging of metal and the grunting of others
around you, you will reach inside of yourself and go to that next level. When
you realize that you are 80% of the way through a particularly punishing
workout, you will dig deep and find what you need to get through to the other
side. It's there, and maybe you haven't had to access it in years -decades -
but when you finally do...my god. There is an apotheosis underway. And on the
other side of an experience like that (or a series of them), you are a lot less
hesitant to step into the breach. You have gained a knowledge (or in some
cases, a remembrance) of yourself and what you're capable of. I pity the
person, in life or in business, who dares to face off against you once this has
taken place. It won't be fair to them in the least.
In my first three months of CrossFit, I came to grips with who I truly
was, how out of shape I had let myself become and what kind of impact a steady
and compounding list of physical achievements could have on my daily life. Now
I find myself fleeing from the city after work each day at top speed just to
make it back in time for a class. I find myself declining virtually every
opportunity to drink at happy hours and eat lavish dinners and the like. Anyone
who knows me will tell you how out of character all of this is.
But I've found a new addiction, something that both takes everything
from me - physically, emotionally and mentally - and then gives me back even
more than I had before. I'm hooked, and now all I want to do is keep getting
better at it.
For more information on how to get involved in one of the fastest growing communities on the planet take a look at our website or give us a call. Our next CrossFit Intro course starts on Monday 29th October.
