Does She Crossfit?

This may not be the first question that runs through your head when/if you see me on the street. Unless, of course, I'm wearing my awesome SoxBox socks and gym clothes. But, the answer is "Yes!" I'm a CrossFit convert. Husband and I tried out some free classes at the local gym, CrossFit Cochise and we were immediately hooked.

Friday marked my 14th Workout at CrossFit. I'm still loving it. I've seen improvement in skills in just 3 weeks. I'm stronger and probably faster than when I started. We work in three basic areas: gymnastics skills, weight lifting, and cardio programs. Each day we have a WOD (workout of the day) that usually consists of one of these skills or a combination. The great part of doing CrossFit at the gym is that they take the time to teach us the fundamentals and work with us on form. The coaches are great, they have quickly identified our strengths and weaknesses and push us where we need it.

Gymnastics:
The skills we work on are things like handstand push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, and box jumps (jumping up on a 24# wooden box.)

Weight Lifting:
My favorite part of CrossFit by far. I really enjoy lifting weights and take great pride in lifting more weight than others. (I know this sounds prideful and wrong, but we are all a little bit competitive.) Things we work on here are deadlifts, bench press, cleans, push press, squats, etc.

Cardio/Metcons:
This is probably the most challenging part of CrossFit. Its a combination of gymnastics and weight lifting and its done for time. Sometimes its also involves jump rope, rowing on the machine, and/or running. A lot of these workouts are given girls' names. Some of the most popular are Fran, Isabel, and Linda.

Here are some of my beginning stats:
Fran: 21-15-9 (number of reps per set) of Thursters and then Pull-ups. I did this with 45# weights and jumping pullups in 7:25.
Linda: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of Bench Press, Deadlifts, and Cleans. I did this in 42:49 with 145# deadlifts, 85# cleans and 75# bench press.

Stay tuned for more information on CrossFit and my progress over the next few weeks. I'm really excited about getting stronger and faster!