Crossfit

So I decided to join CrossFit again.  

WHAT IS CROSSFIT you ask? By Official Definition, Crossfit is:
a fitness program focused on maximizing a persons potential in strength, cardiovascular endurance, respiratory endurance, power, speed, stamina, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. In other words, general all-around athleticism. By using constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity, we can improve  the physical fitness, or what we call general physical preparedness, in everyone from elite athletes to sedentary office workers, kids to seniors.
CrossFit is a broad and inclusive program encompassing the standards you would expect; weightlifting, body weight exercises, and traditional cardio. However the magic of CrossFit also calls for  Olympic lifting, climbing, throwing, basic tumbling, and gymnastics. It taxes both the aerobic and the anaerobic energy systems. Isolation movements have no place here, we focus on whole body, functional movement patterns that occur in activities of daily living. Core strength may be a contemporary buzzword but it is a foundation of our program. CrossFit makes us better general athletes and allows us to specialize outside of the gym, be it on the track, the court, or the streets.
 
By My Definition?
CrossFit is voluntary enjoyable torture 😉
 
Circuit training that includes moves that you never thought you’d do like bear crawls, ball slams, jump-squats, pull-ups, and the dreaded burpees. Workouts that leave you so sore that when you attempt to walk it looks like you’ve been beat up and your body isn’t functioning properly…but so much fun at the same time! It’s challenging, it’s competitive (the group classes are highly motivating when you have others to “compete with” for sets or time), and it’s rewarding.
 
I decided to do CrossFit again (I did it 2 years ago) because I was becoming bored with my gym workouts. There’s only so much variety you can do in a gym without an overpaid/underqualified trainer (no offense to all of you trainers out there that ARE actually qualified- but the ones at my gym are usually scoping out chicks while texting and not paying much attention to their clients), and when you’re a part of a large/commercial gym that doesn’t really allow for circuit training because the minute you leave a machine or equipment someone else has snagged it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m keeping my L.A Fitness membership because I do love the cardio machines, the weight machines, the pool, the sauna, the showers, and all of the “regulars” that I have become friends with. But I am also now going to do CrossFit 3 times a week. I’m hoping it will cure my boredom, “trick” my muscles from their same old routine and build muscle, and hopefully I can lose some weight/fat from doing it as well. I even convinced my co-worker Sara to join as well. So starting tomorrow morning, I will have someone to take this journey with me.
 
Saturday and Monday were my first two sessions back. Those 2 sessions combined with the fact that I also had a tennis match Sunday as well as Monday night have left me pretty much immobile today! Lol… But as sick as it might sound, I kind of “enjoy” the pain. Granted, when you have to grimace in pain to sit down to use the bathroom it leaves you wondering why you have done this to yourself, but at the same time- you can feel which muscles you worked out, and you know that it’s working. So right now I’m just trying to convince myself that it WILL get better and that the pain won’t be as bad as my body adjusts and gets used to it and that it will all be worth it. I only hope that I am correct in my assumptions:) For now, I will just keep on popping ibuprofen and remember the phrase “no pain no gain!” .