About Me

My photo
London, United Kingdom
This is the journey of an average girl trying to lose weight and embarking on a new adventure. Everything you read and see posted from me is real. I wear my heart on my sleeve and make mistakes just like everyone! Everything on this page is just my opinion I do not claim to be an expert I am just giving my account of how I feel!

Monday 23 April 2012

CROSSFIT - 18th & 21st April 2012

CrossFit was brilliant this week, can’t remember if I told you all but the plan for me is to start going twice a week. A few people have asked me how much CrossFit is as some of the Box’s websites don’t share the prices. Now if I told you that it is less than the price of 1-2 personal training sessions would you believe me?  The average price (according to my research) of a personal trainer is between £25-£45 per hour session and what is it that you gain from seeing a personal trainer? In my experience it is motivation and the ability to carry out your exercises correctly. For me CrossFit ticks these boxes plus more as the session is not as long as an hour yet you work just as hard and I get all this for £45 a MONTH!!!! That works out to £5.62 a session, there are higher tariffs if you would like to go more often but twice a week is good for me! You cannot put a price of motivation!

Wednesday 18th April 2012


So Wednesday 18th arrives and again I woke to a gloomy rainy day which makes me feel depressed but the sounds of “Usher” on the radio boosts my mood a little. As the evening draws I must have told at least 30 people that I was “going to CrossFit tonight” I think I do that sometimes to talk myself into going, my stupid brain thinks that if everyone knows I am going and then I don’t go all those people are going to be disappointed in me (I know I am crazy)! It works though, I drive home a quick kiss to Matt and Josh, slip into my gym gear and I am off so fast like someone had just announced a 90% off sale at Gucci!

When I arrive I spy loads of new faces well new to me, they have probably been going since the box opened. It was almost like the first time I attended, you know that uncomfortable feeling of isolation you get when you can’t recognise anyone, it did not last long a few of the regular smile and say ”hi”. I have to say that it really is such a friendly place and it’s not fake either people are generally pleased to see you (they don’t know me well enough yet ha ha). It was a large group, 19 in total, the largest yet. Andy organises us into partners and the WOD is to do as many reps as you can on 5 different exercises/equipment (see pic for example). I was partnered up with a great girl who has bags of enthusiasm and character, I decided to go first to get it “over and done with” and even started on burpees which I hate with a vengeance! After the first minute Andy called to change equipment and the next obstacle was the rower. I used to hate the rower but only because my face would go as red as beetroot after a min, it always use to hurt my back but I believe that was down to me having bad posture (you don’t get a chance to slouch at this class!). Following the rower came the box, I still have not jumped the box but Andy thought it may have something to do with my flexibility so he scaled the exercise down so I stepped up rather than jumped, that way the muscle group you need to jump could be worked on. The push press next followed by the Kettle Bell swing. In total I did 137 reps of everything in 15 minutes – that’s average of 9 reps a minute – sounds ok but I think I was the lowest in the class, now that could put some people off but not me I straight away want to exceed that by at least 30 next time we repeat it. This workout was a benchmark workout so it will be repeated.

Thursday morning arrived and to be honest I was not aching as much as before, I actually felt cheated as previously I could not walk up or down stairs after the sessions. I spoke to soon though by about 6pm Thursday night my legs were stiffer than a stiff person from Stiffsville! Friday came and I moved like an OAP at a disco. I was looking forward to Saturday though as my cousins girlfriend was joining me at CrossFit for the taster session, this is a session they run for anyone who would like to try CrossFit without committing “Try before you buy”. She like me is not shy of a bit of hard work.

Saturday 21st April 2012

When I arose from my pitt the sun was shining! I was waiting for the text from my cousin to say “I can’t make it” but instead I received “on my way” wooo hooo, it is such a nice feeling having someone close to join me on this fitness journey. Matt wishes us luck as we travel to the box, we arrive and immediately bump into Andy and his co-owner Shaun, Andy welcomed my cousin and asked me to give her a little show around. There were two other newbies joining the taster session so she was not alone. As I watched my cousin get put through her paces I wondered whether she was looking at me with “I hate you” eyes or if she was just focusing.

Luckily it was the latter, SHE LOVED IT and is coming back next Saturday for her induction session. I of course are very happy about this as I now have a fitness pal, we already talked about impressing our men with the CrossFit jargon but even coming up with new ones so we can talk in code i.e. HIF (he is fit) or WGB (wow great bum) …. well I am only human!

My session starts with a warm up jog outside the box, I really appreciated one of the guys jogging slow so I was not the last one (unless he was knackered like me). We were put into teams and told to complete the exercises lined up in a long row. The order was (as in pic) air squats (where basically you perform a squat but your bum has to touch the ball) then more air squats, row machine, dead lift, burpees (my favorite – NOT) floor to overhead (lifting a weight to the floor then above your head) and to finish the farmers walk (you carry two kettle bells whilst walking a distance). The amount of time we spent on each exercise depended on the amount of time your team member took on the first exercise. For example, if someone went off and did the farmers walk when he/she came back we moved to the next exercise until we had overall as a team completed 15 minutes on the rower! It was a tough one and when I looked around the room I did not see anyone without a red face or sweat running from them. The thing I am learning more and more about CrossFit is that it is hard for everyone, even the fittest people are challenged (that makes them gods or superhuman in my eyes). Again the challenge was scaled for me i.e. less weight or reps, as Andy will tell you, it is better for me to complete the challenge than to stop half way because of my lack of fitness!

The buzz that you get after CrossFit is amazing, I it is because I am pushing myself hard that my endorphins are so proud of me they paid back by giving me a rush of happiness. The buzz lasted for hours, that afternoon I did 4 loads of washing, organised the garage so Matt can now find all his tools (ok that was well planned as I have jobs lined up for him), went to the supermarket and cooked lunch all this by 2pm. Can’t be bad hey?

No comments:

Post a Comment