CrossFit, for those that don't know, is a type of exercise program. It's a high intensity workout that can involve weightlifting, gymnastics, interval training, etc. CrossFit gyms are popping up all over the place. Just google your city and cross fit and I'll bet you'll find at least one or two, or more. My instincts yell at me that this is just the next exercise fad thing, like Tai Bo, or Jazzersize (although the clothing is a lot more comfortable.) and it will fad eventually. Additionally, the workouts are darn crazy - who in their right mind would choose to do 200 push ups and pull ups in one day? I've sworn never to do it.
I know, it should be easy for me to say that I'll never do CrossFit since I'm a runner. What am I going to do in a gym with all these crazy weights? I've never been big on working out inside. I love being outside. I love moving and seeing the trees, the water, the sky. I love the constant changing scenery - and that includes the other runners and bikers that are outdoors. Somehow being inside seems stifling, confining, and claustrophobic. Once, I tried working out at California Family Fitness and I think I stopped after a month. With all of those treadmills and ellipticals lined up, row after row, I felt like a hamster on a wheel. The classes just didn't push me, and weightlifting on machines just seems so boring.
Yet, in the middle of law school, I couldn't run as much as I wanted too but I wanted to keep up some of my strength. I wasn't sure quite what to do since I knew a regular gym wouldn't work for me. I looked, and looked, and looked or I should say, I googled, googled, googled. This is when I first learned about CrossFit and the multitude of CrossFits gyms in Sacramento, but I ended up at another gym that simply focused on strength. It's called midtown strength and conditioning. Yes, It was a ton more expensive than traditional gyms - but you know that old saying "you get what you pay for."? Well, in this case, it was true. The gym was, I think, once a garage - complete with a garage door. The walls are painted with colorful graffiti art and words of encouragement. No one says anything about being easy, simply about making you strong. There are no mirrors, no air conditioning, no heat, no machines. No fuss, no muss, nothing fancy schmachany . Just straight up weights, more weights, and lots of weights. My coaches spent class after class teaching me how to use everything and I could physically see myself getting stronger. I learned how to use kettle bells, dumbbells, and bar bells. I picked up 220 from the ground and pushed 80+ up over my head. I stuck with it for two and a half years, until I left.
One of my goals after moving was to find a gym here - but boy was I having trouble finding one. I thought, now that I knew how to lift weights, maybe one of the cheap gyms would work for me. I've got a years worth of routines written in my notes. But they,(LA fitness and 24 - hour) just didn't have the room and space to do the Olympic Lifting and Power lifting that I had gotten used to. And they don't want you to drop the weights! Which I try not to do. I think putting the weights back down is as important an exercise as picking them up. But sometimes, when you just lift something a tad too heavy - they need to fall.
Those big gyms were out. But the only other gyms that I could find that had Olympic lifting were crossfits and I didn't want that! Why didn't I want crossfit? To be honest, I'm not quite sure. I've always told myself, and others, that I didn't like the intensity and the craziness that comes with the workouts. I'm not intense, I just want to get strong. If I want to spend an entire class working on form, then that is what I want to do - forget the routine.
Of course, I may not like CrossFit because I thought I was better than CrossFit. See, I don't need some silly routine. I don't need to that crazy. I work hard, get a lot of it, and I don't need CrossFit to do it, so thffffffffffffrpt.
Another idea for my dislike of CrossFit is that I might be scared of it. I'm not crazy and there is no way I'd fit in with those other crazy people! I won't be able to do the workouts, I'll embarrass myself, the coaches and other classmates will laugh at me. It will be too hard, I'll look stupid, and I'll hurt myself.
The truth is that I probably don't do CrossFit due to of the above (although I'll only admit to the first one), and possibly others I haven't imagine. I'm not a CrossFitter and I don't want to be. But I decided to suck it up and try a free class at one of they gyms here. All of the CrossFit gyms give free classes, trying to pull people in to their crazy cultish mindset and I couldn't find anything else that trained me like I'm used to.
The place I tried felt like a garage gym, with no mirrors, and colorful walls. It felt like home and, oh my goodness, - I loved it. I'd being doing CrossFit type works outs all along at my old gym, it was just never officially called CrossFit. I squatted and lifted, and by the end of free classes, the coaches were all asking me where I had been training, because it was obvious that I was damn strong, damn capable, and with damn good form. Damn it, I fit in. Damn it, I'm a crazy, insane, intense CrossFitter. Damn
