So, what is crossfit? I had no blinking idea what it was, until I overheard a couple of my Year 12 students talking about it in class (when they should have been writing responses to the texts we had studied the previous week). All I knew was that it involved something they referred to as 'functional movements' and was very painful. Well, that was all I had gathered from the conversation. I was so annoyed at these two students for wasting time in class talking about this 'crossfit' that I decided then and there that crossfit was 'bad'. Just hearing the term 'crossfit' made me cross and ready to have a fit.
It wasn't until I saw some ads in the local papers and on Facebook about a new Crossfit gym opening in Porirua that I became interested. I did what any other person on the planet would do and googled it. What I saw and read was inspiring and left me with a clear message. It was damn hard; it looked absolutely painful and most of all, it was definitely NOT for me. Why? Let me introduce myself and you'll see why. I am the kid in primary school who preferred to sit under a shady tree to read a book during lunchtime instead of running around, playing games with the other one thousand students who attended my school. I am the kid in intermediate who got classmates with fancy handwriting to forge notes so that I didn't have to do Physical Education. When I couldn't get someone to forge notes for me (because my parents would never give me a note unless I was really sick), I hid in classrooms from teachers and prefects looking for P.E avoiders on Friday afternoons when the entire school had tabloid sports. When my 'cloak of invisibility' failed me and I had to join in a sport (which was usually Samoan cricket or kilikiti, I was the ONLY kid in the entire school who ran away from the ball instead of towards it. To cut a long story short, I hated sport with a passion. I hated it more than I hated wild dogs chasing me over 500 meters in my village, I hated it more than being bitten by a hundred pesky mosquitoes all day long in our plantation, I even hated it more than getting my hands cut to pieces gathering pandanus used to weave mats. All I knew was that sports caused injuries and made you feel pain. End of story.
So, I looked at the Youtube clips of these Crossfit people flipping tyres, climbing ropes, lifting weights as if they were in training for the Olympics (all with rock hard abs that could deflect bullets, amazingly toned physiques) and thought, "Oh, it's for people who LOVE sports and pain! Good on you people! I will NEVER be able to do what you do" and logged off happy to forget all about it but glad that at least I knew what Crossfit was all about.
That was until I tried out a free introductory class at WOF Crossfit. The reason behind my signing was this - I thought to myself, I'm going to be forty and I am willing to try anything at least once. I'll just go and see how bad it is so that I can tick this off my bucket list. So, I booked the class and turned up on a Tuesday at 6.30pm for a newbies class. The first thing I saw as I approached the box (Crossfit term for 'gym') were all these fit, toned and very athletic looking people doing pull ups on bars. Yep, that confirmed it for me that Crossfit was for the super fit and athletic only. I felt so out of place being the only person who was so NOT fit, toned or athletic combined with a sub-zero level of fitness in there. Anyway, I just gritted my teeth and told myself - I will do this and never come back. First instruction was to run 400 meters. Excuse me, did she just say RUN? The last time I had run was when my now 8 year old was a toddler and had run down the middle of our street. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I was so scared that he would be bitten by a stray dog or run over by a reversing car that I ran so fast I truly believe that I would have given Usain Bolt a bit of competition if he happened to be running down a street in Porirua that morning.
Well, I ran (okay, I jogged slowly) and I even had to stop at least three times sucking wind badly before getting back to join the other four members of the class. Last one in the class - no surprises there! People were doing burpees. For those who don't know what a burpee is, it is basically a form of cruel and unusual punishment which looks like a cross between a pushup and a star jump or maybe it's a combination of the two. I did the modified (a.k.a easier) version. We did weights - clean and press (felt like thirty of those) and then 20 burpees and 20 box jumps (I did 'step ups' because there was no way that I could have made even one jump carrying all this excess weight on my body!). We had to do 20 walk lunges carrying a weight over your head (another form of torture that made my arms feel like concrete posts) and then 10 pull ups on the bar ( I used these rubber bands to help me do them) I was really shaky doing mine. My upper body strength was at an all time low. I finished off doing more burpees and box step ups. I was shattered but felt amazingly good! I couldn't believe that I actually enjoyed this torture!! Well, it was more my poor, out of shape and hardly ever exercised body that enjoyed the workout not me. Maree, the trainer was amazingly patient and very encouraging. She was good at showing me the modifications for each exercise without making me feel like an idiot. I'm a member at another gym right now and my experience in that gym is that unless you pay the trainers for personal training sessions, they don't even acknowledge you let alone offer any assistance when you're in there working on your own. That's why I don't go there often. That and the fact that I find typical gym workouts to be repetitive and unbearably boring.
My experience at WOF Crossfit was enough to get me to sign up so now I am going to commit to doing 3 classes every week from now till December this year. I am looking forward to this journey into the world of fitness through Crossfit. Thanks to Ana, Sam, Maree and the WOF Crossfit team for making this place a welcoming and inclusive place for all. My personal goals are to lose weight, tone up and to get fitter, faster and be stronger. Follow me as I strive to make this year an unforgettable one with Crossfit!
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