What I Thought About Crossfit

It's easy to find out what society thinks about crossfit - just look at the memes...

For some, Crossfit is a way of life, something that motivates them, pushes them, and makes them feel invincible. To some, it's a under-taught, aggressive form of working out that can lead to serious injury. 

My best friend recently discovered it, and I've never seen her so invested in something. So when she asked me and our other friend to join her at one of her personal training sessions, I decided to give it a go (and our other friend did too).

Background - The CF we went too is owned by a friend of ours we have known for years. He has always been an athlete and I'd trust him 2000% to show proper form and scale things so I could do them without injury.

Alright, back to the session. For the first 30 or so minutes, we did a warm up that consisted of squats, kettle swings, deadlifts, and some walking with bands around our knees (no idea what that was called). We spent a lot of time on kettle swings because our other friend and I could NOT get the form right, and he was not moving on until we knew what we were doing wrong. He even recorded us on his phone to show us what part of the form we were missing. So once we went through that, we moved on to the circuit portion of the session. Our circuit consisted of 8 wall ball throws, 4 ring rows, and 2 burpees. We had to do as many times as we could in 10 minutes. He was very patient, showed us some easier ways to do burpees if we struggled with them, and was motivating yet not pushy. I was on my ring rows of my 7th set and had about a minute and a half left, he came in front of me and said "You have a choice now, you can finish this set, or you can finish this set and get one more set in". That little bit of perspective allowed me to get one more set in, for a total of 8 in 10 minutes.

It was a good workout, and here I am, three days later, still feeling sore. I burned a lot of calories and felt pretty strong. But, I don't think it's for me. However, I do have a new respect for it, as long as it is taught properly by coaches who care about your well-being.

What has been your experience with Crossfit?