Why I CrossFit part 2

“But I’m sore” said the voice. I heard this at the box (CrossFit name for gym) yesterday and Coach Justin replied “Crossfitters workout while sore”, which led me to a revelation of some sort. I have done some kind of training most of my life and when I was younger I had some aches and pain, but recovered quickly. These days the aches and pain seem to never go away (Especially the pain in my left knee due to Osteoarthritis). I had assumed it was because of my age, almost 52, and figured it was all part of the process of life. Like I said hearing Coach say that was a revelation. You see the average age at our box, heck the CrossFit community in general, is around 30 years old probably a bit less. I hear the athletes talk about soreness from time to time, but I thought “they are young they will recover by tomorrow.” CrossFit’s prescription for achieving fitness is constantly varied high intensity functional movements which means serious butt kicking workouts, each day. That leads to you will be sore.

Soreness to a certain degree is a good thing because it means you are teaching your body to perform. Our bodies are smart and when we tax ourselves physically we break down muscle, but the body rebuilds so we get stronger to be able to handle the workload. We never know what life will throw at us and is not this perfect little paradise (that comes later). So if we are constantly asking our bodies to perform, we achieve fitness. CrossFit defines fitness as “work capacity across broad time modal domains.” I know what you’re thinking, huh? Give it some thought. Life is physical in all aspects we walk, squat, reach, twist, well you get the idea and even in our sleep the body rejuvenates (works) itself to be ready for the next day. So the greater our “capacity” to “work” (perform), the better our fitness.

From now on I will carry my soreness as a badge of honor and won’t let age be an excuse, though you young folks still recover faster. Life doesn’t take excuses. If a dude with stubs for arms and legs (Kyle Maynard) can CrossFit, in fact he owns a CrossFit box named “No Excuses”, just about anyone can have a go. So lace up the shoes, chalk up your hands and go out and do what your coach tells you regardless of what you think because it won’t be easy. However it will be satisfying and improve your fitness. BTW click on Kyle's name to watch a video about him. There are videos of him competing at the CrossFit games also.

Day 2 started with a lecture on technique which is for safety and performance. Once again the information was great. Then we were hit with an early workout. It was teams of 4 and we did a 12 minute metcon. About a 100 meter run, rest, kettle bell swing, push-ups. We rotated each time the runner came in. It was a good workout. The only problem is we all had to go through the rest of the day all sweaty. After the workout we went into nutrition which was timely as it was before lunch.
Then we did a review and followed up with scaling workouts and programming. Then it was time for “The Test”. I had studied and took notes on all the lectures, but I was very nervous about the test. There were a lot of people that felt the same way. In fact the head trainer found it strange that most were more nervous about the test than the workouts. We had 45 minutes to answer 50 questions. It took me less than 30 minutes to complete. When we were finished we had to go down stairs and wait. It took the trainers additional time to grade our tests and make out the certificates. Finally they brought us back upstairs for a final debriefing. The whole time my stomach was in a knot. He was stalling and said as much. They were not quite ready. You could tell a lot of people were getting restless. Then the trainer told us you will find a file folder out on the table with your name on it. Inside there will be a certificate that says either level 1 trainer or certificate of completion. If it says level 1, you passed. If it says completion, you did not. It was torture!! I felt I did OK, but there was a lot of doubt. I grab my folder, hesitate and then opened it to see Level 1.
I learned a couple of other things this past weekend. One is what a good coach Coach Justin is. More than one trainer at the cert said as much. He trains us well. I also want to thank Justin for his encouragement. I would have never done this without his suggestion. Another thing I learned, or better put reinforced, is the CrossFit community is a tight group. I love the way we all compete against each other then turn around and cheer on the very people you are trying to best. BTW that is Jason the owner of CrossFit Santa Clara, HQ trainer for certifications, and 2008 CrossFit games winner doing a 2:44 "Fran" right after another hard WOD. He apologized for it being slow. Really???

CrossFit Certification Day 1

Ok what an incredible day So far this cert has exceeded all my expectations. The speakers are dynamic, very informative, funny, and serious Bad Asses all of them. The way the information was presented, demonstrated, and applied was excellent. I have learned so much and I have all this info rolling around in my head. Went through the 9 functional movements in the class room and then went outside and practiced what we learned. The 9 movements are squat, front squat, OH squat, straight press, push press, press jerk, dead lift, sumo dead lift high pull, mb clean. We covered “What is CrossFit?” and “what is Fitness?” and once again tons of great information.
And of course as Coach Justin said, we got "Franned". There are 56 of us and it was a crazy new experience working out with so many people at once. We went in three waves so there were about 18 us at a time. I chose to go in the first to get it over with. The scaled version was jumping pull-ups, also a new experience as I usually use the band. My “Fran” time was about 4 minutes faster than my last, but the jumping pull-ups seemed much easier than banded pull-ups.
All and all it was a great day. And though we did a bunch of squats and held most of them and “Fran” I am not too sore, a bit worn out, but not sore. I am sure it is due to Justin’s advice to take the 2 days before off. I am not quite sure what is in store for tomorrow and I can hardly wait. I do know we have a test. Well I need to study some and hit the rack. Tomorrows update will not probably come until Monday. See ya at the box. BTW that is my backside in the picture right before "Fran". Very flattering shot and nice posture!!