I've been hearing a lot lately about Crossfit, which from what I can see, is the latest work out craze. I guess it has been around for a while now, and is basically an intense, short workout.
Heather and Erik tried Crossfit but weren't immediately sold. A blog I read regularly, Carrots 'N Cake , LOVES crossfit and goes almost every day with her husband.
So I decided I had to try it out. I always did better with organized sports, where coaches told you what to do at practice everyday and you just did it. Put me in a gym, alone, and I run for 20 minutes, maybe 30 - do some crunches, stretch, get overwhelmed by all the weights and leave. Or, I go to a class which pushes me a bit but not as much as I know I could and should be pushing myself (and that usually only happens when a friend makes me go with her! )
I emailed Yosh, the head guy at Crossfit Somerville and went for an intro class last week. I got stuck in traffic and missed half of it, but went by anyway. While the group was doing 30 clean and jerks I was set up to do a separate workout:
- 10 kettle ball swings
- 10 box jumps
- 10 sit ups
and did that circuit on repeat til everyone was done w/ their clean and jerks. I ended up doing 5 or 6 rounds ( I sort of lost count) and felt my body ask, "What the heck are you doing? We haven't felt like this since 2000!" I worked out harder than I had in way too long.
Last night I went back for a full class. We started with a warm up:
- 5 pull ups (they have bands you can use to get yourself above the bar if you can't do a pull up)
- 10 push ups
- 15 air squats
Then - walking plank stretches across the room.
Next - dead lifts. Instructions on how to do it without hurting ourselves, then 10 lifts [rest]; 15 lifts [rest]; 10 lifts [rest]; 15 lifts [catch your breath and stretch!]
Finally it was time for the workout of the day.
21-15-9
21 back squats w/ weight (I only used the 45lb bar, and it was enough by the end!)
21 box jumps onto a 20" box
15 back squats w/ weight
15 box jumps onto a 20" box
9 back squats w/ weight
9 box jumps onto a 20" box
Man, those last few jumps were HARD. But - I felt satisfied that I got through it, even if I had to psych myself out with the counting. I couldn't go from 1-21, I counted in increments of 5 to make it seem easier.
I think I love Cross fit!
