CrossFit…It’s not just for elite athletes!

CrossFit is a program that strengthens & conditions the body with normal functional motions. We’ve turned to gyms, pushed machines, gone home and hurt our backs moving a piece of furniture. Our physical training doesn’t always focus on strengthening us in ways that aid us in everyday life. CrossFit is both, a body & mind challenge that is very rewarding. It is a program for anyone though it is used to train military special operations, elite athletes, police officers & martial art champions.
"The CrossFit program is designed for universal “scalability” making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We “scale” load and intensity: we don’t change programs.” (Taken from CrossFit website @ http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html)

Wow…CrossFit Rocks! That’s all I can say… We’ve been at it since July ’09 and I can’t say enough about CrossFit. When we first started I was in a “lull” with weight training, I was showing up but not making any progress. In July we decided to try something a little different. Dr. Debbi, my wife, had heard about CrossFit through a friend in California. The CrossFit mindset has swept the U.S. & the World. We were surprised to find a CrossFit Gym less than a mile from our office.
Tony is a certified CrossFit Instructor who rents a space in back of an Orthopedic Clinic in Metairie located on Airline Dr. @Transcontinental. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! We showed up to a gym with people but no machines in an open air garage. All I noticed was a few strange looking weights (Kettle Bells), medicine balls, pull-up bars, wooden boxes & barbells.
Tony said he was just going to put us through a 16 minute workout to test our abilities called a “Tabata Drill”. Sixteen minutes didn’t sound so intimidating…It consists of 4 different exercises where you did “as many reps as possible” (AMRAP) of each exercise for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second break then repeating for 4 minutes each exercise then moving on to the next exercise, etc. Well….by the time we got to the last exercise I was whipped! I took a knee to prevent any “further disturbance to my digestive system”… Tony politely mentioned that I could always go back to my health club if CrossFit was too difficult and all I could do was gather my senses as the room continued to spin! You see, the first exercise was pull-ups, something everyone should be able to do, right? Wrong. I did seven pull-ups the first 20 sec. round and felt pretty good about it. Then, the second round I could only get THREE pull-ups! OUCH! I thought I was in pretty good shape, after all, I had been training with weight most of my adult life. I then had to “scale” my pull-ups to doing just a “jump” pull-up. That’s what makes CrossFit a great program for anyone…age, fitness level, injuries, etc. are all accommodated by “scaling” the exercise to fit your personal need. For instance, to scale regular pull-ups Tony showed me how to finish the 4 minutes of pull-ups by scaling it down to a “jump” pull-up, where you literally jump up to a chest level bar and complete it by pulling yourself up all the way to your chest…that was the only way I could have finished the 4 minutes of pull-ups. Tony is a pro at scaling exercises to fit anyone’s ability which makes CrossFit fit any lifestyle. Needless to say, I found CrossFit a great new “fit” for my new fitness goals! I’ll continue later about how CrossFit is really aiding my health. For now check out www.crossfitneworleans.net or the national site of www.crossfit.com for more info or just come try out a workout anytime at CrossFit New Orleans in Metairie. Tony actually won’t let you pay until you know your gonna stay. He wants you to try a couple of classes to see if it’s a good fit for you.
By the way, I’d been at it just over 3 months and was able to do 100 pull-ups in less than 10 minutes… not bad improvement for such a short period of time, huh!?