What is CrossFit anyway? Part 2b - CrossFit in Plain English - the workout

Before I start, a small confession: in the last post I told you about the equipment, but forgot one very key thing - the most important piece of kit is of course your own body. As well as the equipment, you could just as easily do some, or all, elements of a workout using no equipment at all. Just doing a good series of press-ups, sit-ups, squats and lunges is enough to give you a really good workout if you do it all properly. And "properly" is the key - that's why it's best to do these things at the gym so your trainer can make sure you're doing it right. 

And now back to part 2b, which, on second reading, seems more like a list of random musings than anything coherent. Still, enjoy!

When you turn up to a class at CrossFit, you will be doing the same workout as everyone else. This will not be the same as your last workout, nor will it be the same as your next. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life! And personally, I love the anticipation of not knowing what I'll be doing until I get there. Especially at the moment when some of the exercises are so new to me. A couple of weeks ago I did a modified version of a handstand push-up: kneeling on a box, hands on the ground, doing a press-up vertically, head to ground and up again... does that make sense? Hopefully. And wow, they were hard (I made funny faces all the way through) but it was a fun in a sadistic kind of way. 

In general, each training session begins with a gentle warm-up of stretching, and perhaps a short gentle run, followed by some skills training (e.g. working with the broomstick to learn a type of lift), then into the main workout of the day (or "WOD"). Sometimes the skills and WOD are the other way around - not sure why, perhaps just to keep us on our toes. Each WOD is preceded by a more substantial warmup. This might be something like 30 skips, 10 press-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 box jumps- twice through. Usually I feel like I've done a proper workout after the warmup! The WOD can be just about any combination of exercises such as those I mentioned in the previous post. For example, my last workout was as many rounds as possible (or "AMRAP") in 20 minutes, of 15 body rows, 30 press-ups and 45 squats; but a couple of weeks ago I did the hardest ever - a timed 5 rounds of 25 each of 4 different types of exercise - ouch! But generally the workout will be short and intense. There are other types of workout, but more about those in another post. 

There is never an easy workout, by the way. I always leave feeling that I just worked the hardest I can, but worth pointing out that I have also never left feeling that I didn't enjoy it. 

You are not there to target specific areas, you are working on your whole body. Lucky for me I don't really believe in targeting areas of my body. I'd love a smaller waist, but I know that, even in my emaciated teenager days, my waist was still actually pretty thick. CrossFit is about strength and health. All that stuff you want to target can come later when you realise that actually you are looking pretty damn good and all of a sudden your big [insert your own body hang-up here] just isn't such a big deal any more.

Every exercise you do, you will receive proper instruction, especially if you haven't done it before. And every session you attend has some time dedicated to honing your technique. Your trainer is there to make sure your time at the gym is productive and safe. So it's pretty hard (unless you are a real doofus) to get it wrong and hurt yourself.

One more thing. You may hear a CrossFit gym referred to not as a gym, but a 'box'. I still have no idea why, but have reasoned in my own head that it has something to do with the fact that you don't need all sorts of fancy machinery, just 4 walls, some basic equipment, and yourself. And if I have it wrong, I still maintain that my explanation makes sense too ;)

So that's it, in one very large 2 (or 3?) part nutshell. Hope you're still awake! 

Next post I'll tell you all about the "No Junk in my Trunk" challenge. Watch this space..