Janna's Crossfit Challenge - The Crossfittening, Part 1

I suppose I could also title this post “An Exercise in Pain”, because, boy oh boy, do I hurt! Because of the possibility that I will have to chase a toddler around some day, and because I’ve been far too lazy for far too long, I have decided to join Crossfit. If you know anything about me, and anything about Crossfit, you might be thinking OMG, WTF? I’ve got to admit, I’m thinking that too! There is a method to my madness, though. You see, Andrew goes to Crossfit (I’d go so far as to call him a Crossfit junkie), and 2 of our close friends also belong to the same “box” (gym). If I’m going to do any sort of proper training, I believe the best thing for me is to have friends doing the same sort of thing so that it encourages me to stick with the program. If I do something by myself, I can pretty much guarantee you that I won’t stick with it.

Here’s a run-down of last night’s class. Keep in mind that there are a couple of classes (workout of the day/ boxing) going on at the same time as our starter class.
- Started at 7pm, talking about Crossfit & the mentality behind it, and what each of us are hoping to get out of it. Apparently, as Mrs Aussie (Andrew is known at the gym as Drew, or Aussie), it was expected that I would join Crossfit & love it. I’m still on the fence about that.
- The first move we learn is squats. There are 5 types of squats I think, but I can’t remember what they are called. My very first squat saw me on my back on the floor (you’re supposed to keep your weight on your heels, and I just kept on tipping backwards. I owned it, though!) Between the 5 different squats, I must have done about 40 squats total. That’s a lot for legs that haven’t done that many squats for the past 39 years combined. By the time we were done my legs were like jelly. Apparently I squat well, which is nice to know. Not sure how I’ll apply it to my daily life, though.
- Next thing we work on is the benchmark workout (well, the elements of it). We start by working on the individual elements of the workout – rowing, squats (again with the squats!), push-ups (which I am absolutely crap at – turns out my butt weighs A LOT & I can’t do a proper sit-up, at least not yet), sit-ups (soles of feet together, you can use your arms to propel yourself forward) & something called “ring rows” (I think). Ring rows are where you have your feet on the ground, your knees at a 90 degree angle, back parallel to the floor, and your hands holding onto rings hanging from the chin-up bar. Then you pull yourself up so your chest is level with your hands. It’s kind of like a pull up from a lying down position. Between all the squats & then this, I’m feeling like a rag-doll, and walking like I’m a puppet on a string.
- We’ve come to the last part of the class – the benchmark workout. It’s meant to be 500m of rowing, 40 squats, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups & 10 ring rows, but the coach cuts it in half for me. I love rowing, so I did that pretty quick. My thighs & knees were pretty much done by that point, so the squats took a bit longer than they would have if I was “fresh”. Sit-ups went well, push-ups were okay (we modified it so I keep my stomach/hips on the ground & push the rest of my body up). Then came the ring rows. I managed to do all 5, but I could only pull myself up 4-5 inches. All up, I took 7min35sec to do half of the benchmark workout.

And, then, just like that, I was done! All in all, I’d say it was a successful first class, but I am SOOO SORE today (knees & thighs, mostly). I find that I grunt when I get up or walk. I do the next class next Monday, so look for The Crossfittening, Part 2, next week!