It’s official. I am sipping the CrossFit Kool Aid. And it tastes miiiighty fine.
I really hit a groove this week, and decided that I am thoroughly enjoying this new way of working out that is challenging me and kicking my ass. I’m learning something new every time I walk in the door. All of the coaches are super knowledgeable, but I find myself wanting to record Austin every time he’s leading the WOD. He spends the first 10 minutes walking you through everything, explaining why you’re doing certain movements, what muscles are working together, what the benefits are, how to scale the movements back, how to check your form. It’s fascinating and really makes you appreciate the sport of CrossFit more. Sidenote- since I’m such a newbie, I didn’t realize what a big deal Austin is in the CrossFit world. He’s sort of a beast, and I feel really lucky to be learning from him.
So the WODs. I went Thursday morning. I checked the WOD the night before and saw that it was box jumps and muscle ups. I had no idea what a muscle up was, but I like box jumps, so that was exciting. So then I tried to do a muscle up. And THAT was pretty hysterical. Holy balls. HOW do people do those things?! Olympic athletes make it look so easy!
Oh ya know, just hangin’ out. (source)
Anyways, the WOD was as follows:
Warm Up
Team Sled/Plate Pushes
Skill
Muscle-ups And High Box Jumps
WOD
10-8-6-4-2 Rep For Time:
Muscle-up
Box Jump (40″/30″ Box)
After Bash
Max Distance Med Ball Throws
I ended up using a 24″ box. We did a few practice rounds on the 30″ one, and I failed half of the times, and really did not want to risk f*cking up my legs and face planting into a box. Not a good look. The 24″ was really challenging anyways. The muscle ups were another story. I did “transitions” which are basically doing the motion of a muscle up, but on the ground, and then jumping up at the end. I’m not explaining that correctly, because it was a lot harder than it sounds! I was SOO sore this morning, but I liked it. I was happy that my abs were sore, because Austin kept saying “use your midline” and I wanted to cry because everything else was hurting minus my abs. My favorite part of the workout was the end- and not for the obvious reasons of me practically dying. There were a couple of guys, absolute beasts, who were doing the full muscle ups and 40″ box jumps. Naturally, it took them a little bit longer than the rest of us plebs. But we all gathered around the last two guys who were giving it their all to finish. They would each do 1 muscle up, then fail on the second one. It happened a few times. You could tell how hard they were trying, how hard they were pushing themselves. We were all cheering, clapping, urging them on. Motley Crue was blasting. They both ended up finishing. It was so inspiring and motivating. I love the team mentality that comes with CrossFit. Goosebumps.
Enough emotions. I’ve been so emotional this week! WTF? Moving on. Hot pink and black. The bane of my existence. Reebok sent me one of their new tops, the Poly Play Dry tank, and I was pleased to see that it went perfectly with the rest of my Workout Barbie look. I was pleasantly surprised by this tank- I’m used to working out in skin tight spandex when I’m spinning (sorry for the mental image) and this one had a looser fit, which I wasn’t used to. But I loved it. It was really light weight and airy. I sort of forgot I was wearing a shirt after awhile, which means that it wasn’t clingy or super sweaty. And did I mention it was hot pink? Win.
I dragged my sore ass out of bed this morning to catch a beautiful sunrise and another killer WOD:
“Tabata This!”
Tabata Row
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Squat
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Pull-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Push-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Sit-up
The Tabata Interval is 20 Seconds of Work Followed By 10 Seconds of Rest For 8 Intervals.
Tabata Score Is The Least Number of Reps Performed in Any of The Eight Intervals. Unit For The Row Is “Calories”.
Oh man. This was actually one of my favorite workouts so far. I was drenched in sweat, and I like to be constantly moving. I did well with the squats, sit ups, and the rowing, but the pull ups and push ups were a struggle. I’ve never been able to do a full pull up in my life, so I used a resistance band, but even that was hard. And we did chest to floor to full extension on the pushups, something I’ve never done before, and holy balls. I was shaking like a crazy person the whole time. Clearly, I need to work on my chest and build up some strength there. Setting goals, people. Setting goals
The 6:30AM crew. Love working out with these guys and girls, such a strong group of people. Missed that “wear all black” memo though.. womp womp. Image via Reebok CrossFit One.
CrossFitters- what’s your favorite movement/WOD to do? Any tips for attempting to do a pull up?! How’s everyone getting after it this weekend? I’m teaching tomorrow morning, then am having myself a big ass rest day on Sunday. CAN’T WAIT. 🙂
-Emily
* I received this gear at no cost from Reebok as part of a campaign with FitFluential LLC. I am not getting paid or reimbursed to give positive feedback, all opinions are my own.
Sleep, Eat, Gym, Repeat. 
