Do you ever get to the gym and think holy cow this is boring? I mean, on the rare occasion you actually get your ass to the gym.

As a competitive athlete during my school years, I relied on the practices and team workouts to keep in shape. I was lucky enough to be blessed with a semi-reasonable metabolism so I never really had to worry about my food intake because it balanced out with my activity level. I assumed that since I was always athletic, I would be fine after college. Boy was I wrong.

Caught up in my new life, new job, new boyfriend, new schedule, and a lack of someone dragging me to a gym, I found myself 20 lbs heavier in no time at all. A harsh harsh reality for someone who had always been in shape.

I finally made the decision to sign up for 24 HR, I occasionally went with the BF, and a couple times with co-workers, but that probably lasted about 3-4 weeks. I had 5 “free” private training sessions from signing up, which were going well until I my trainer who was a girl my age went out with my friends and me and started buying shots. Obviously her power in the gym was no longer.

Five free sessions gone and no motivation left, I had nothing. Then something interesting…

Quit my job, quit my boyfriend, freed up my schedule, planned a trip to a tropical location. Can we say bikini?!?

Here I was, overweight and having to be in a bathing suit in front of the general public… now to me, that was enough. My entire family needed to lose a little around the mid section, if ya know what I mean, but here was the motivation.

After a few weeks, I had finally convinced them to do something. We all ended up with personal trainers. WHOA EXPENSIVE!!!!!

After a few months, we found an even better, more affordable option.

Ever heard of CrossFit?? No? Maybe? Yes? However you answered doesn’t really matter. You may end up thinking I’m crazy (I am, so I’m ok with that assumption), you may be curious, or my may already be “one of us.” Yes, drink the Crossfit Koo-laid!

CrossFit is the new workout craze that is taking over the world. People are slowly learning the benefits of this type of gym and workout. In reality, it has been around for years, but it has seen slow but steady growth, due in large part to its local nature.

CrossFit gyms are no 24 Hour Fitness. You will not find rows or treadmills or stationary bikes, in fact, some won’t even have any. What you will find are pull up bars, rowing machines, kettlebells, boxes, free weights and GHD machines (which I affectionately refer to as the torture machine). I have read that CrossFit is a combination of Boot Camp, Gymnastics and Cardio. I am not sure how that is supposed to describe that to someone, but there it is.

You may get frustrated with me right now, because I am not going to be able to explain the true benefits nor the real feel of this type of workout to you. It is something that you need to experience for yourself. And while we are on the subject, you have to promise me that you will give it a full month before you make your final decision. You will hurt like hell the first few weeks, and I am sure you will want to quit on a couple of occasions. But think about this… CrossFiters have noticed an improvement in their personal and professional lives outside of the gym. Apparently a lot of people have gotten promotions and better sex drives…? Is it weird that those two things stuck in my head? Yeah, I thought so.

What it will offer you and who should try it

If you want to lose weight, tone up, have energy, be able to keep up with your friends or kids, get in shape for ANY sport, become a personal trainer, extend your life, or just have fun, CrossFit is for YOU!

CrossFits are like a little family. The family that yells at you when you miss a day, yells at you when you try to cheat (you’re really only cheating yourself you know) during a workout, but supports you unconditionally when you feel like you are about to die.

I have a love hate relationship with CrossFit as does everyone. I laugh more during my workouts than anywhere else. My closest friends are CrossFitters. My body is in better shape and I feel more physically capable than when I was in sports. But man does it hurt sometimes. I don’t even know what it feels like to not have at least one body part be sore.

You will get a whole body, cardio heavy workout in a matter of minutes. In fact, some of the workouts are only 5 minutes long. Some are an hour. You never know, and the benefit is that your body never gets used to it. You have to leave it and you guessing.

Don’t worry ladies, you won’t bulk up if you do CrossFit! You will just have a much more toned and proportional body!

Oh and PS, many CrossFitters adopt the Zone diet to help maintain your energy levels, but let’s take it one step at a time shall we?

Categories: Current Events, Exercise, News, food, health, nutrition

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Current Events, Exercise, News, food, health, nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.