Crossfit

For those of you who have noticed, yes I have been posting a lot more in my blog. It is because I have been in Norcal, home alone with not much to do. Even though nobody I really talk to is back in Fremont, I have not exactly been that bored here.

So I got a one month pass to this gym in Milpitas called Milpitas fitness. It is kind of different from other gyms I've been in. It is a bit more hardcore, doesn't have as many decorations and it's workers are hell of a lot less anal. They pretty much just asked for my name in order to get the month pass, where as 24 hour fitness would ID you, sit you down and talk to you for about 30 minutes. Anyways, there is one section of the gym which is dedicated to Crossfit training. I have briefly heard about Crossfit before but didn't know anything about it. I peeked into the class several times on numerous occasions while I was lifting and really liked what I saw. It seemed like they did a shit load of powerlifting and compound lifts in a very high intensity environment. Everyone that I saw walk out of the class was completely drenched in sweat. They also kept their music blasting at all times. Intrigued, I went over and asked the instructor if I could try the class out. He was extremely nice and gave me his number to schedule a time.

I contacted him and came in the next day. I was under the impression he would be re-teaching me the basics of power lifting (which is what I wanted) but I guess he had something else in mind. When I entered the weight room, everyone immediately introduced themselves to me. Some people seriously formed a line to shake my hand. They were incredibly friendly and I felt very welcomed. Apparently that day they were doing something different. They were doing this workout which I guess was kind of like a competition. It was a circuit of five different exercises which consisted of the push press, rowing, throwing this big ass ball in the air, high pull (I think), and box jumping. Each exercise lasts one minute and you try to do as many reps as you can do in that time and then immediately switch to the next exercise. After you complete all five exercises, you rest for a minute and you do it again. You are finished after three rounds. I am well aware that I have only been training for strength this past year and have not focused much on endurance. Three rounds sounded like a lot to me but I figured the weights were not exactly super heavy and it should be fairly easy for me to complete.

They broke us off into pairs. Your partner is responsible for counting the number of reps you did for each exercise and writing it down. I was paired up with a guy named Reagan. He looked relatively fit. The instructor told him to go first so I could see how everything is done. I counted enthusiastically for every rep Reagan did and tried to give him encouraging comments. Such as... "You can do it!" and "You're almost there!" I tried not to use his name because I wasn't 100% sure it was Reagan. Anyways, in my head I was thinking, "damn this guy is not really listening to me... he seems to be slowing down I wonder why he isn't giving it his all... when it is my turn I will surely do this faster..." Boy, was I wrong. Holy fucking shit, that shit was so fucking tiring.

I started out pretty good... for about the first 30 seconds. Then I realized oh.... shit this is going to be tiring. I began to pace myself and finished the first round with a relatively good score. Don't get me wrong, I still felt like dying and looked like I just took a shower. The second round was not as good. I realized I was nearing my limit and understood why Reagan was ignoring me when he was doing it. You are so tired and concentrated you don't have time to say anything. That shit is a lot easier when you're just watching. Anyways I pushed through the rest of it with Reagan's words of encouragement. In the second round, I scored about 60% of what I scored in the first. While I was sitting there heaving during the sixty second break, Reagan showed me my scores and politely yelled at me, telling me I better not decrease that much in the third round. I then pushed through the third round doing better, slightly improving from my previous score. When the final timer bell rang I had to try my best to not collapse on the floor. Definitely did not want to look like a bitch on my first day. Note, there are a lot of chicks in this class. I would say at least half of the class is made up of girls. Incredibly strong girls.

The instructor came up to me and said I got a pretty good score for my first time. I was not sure if he was just saying that. Either way, I was feeling so great from finishing it. My head was seriously spinning and my vision was a bit blurry but I was all smiles. Everybody in that class was so friendly and the environment was so intense. I was really hooked. I wish I didn't have to go back to Irvine just so I could enroll in the class. I was just sitting there and looking at everyone else who also looked incredibly tired but incredibly happy. I didn't feel the awkwardness you feel when first meeting a group of strangers at all.

I really really liked this Crossfit class. Apparently it is actually a really big thing and they have a lot of classes all over. I plan on signing up for one in Irvine if I get hired for that SAT job I was talking about. I don't think it will really get you that huge, but will definitely increase core strength and endurance. Also it seems like a great way to make friends. If anyone in the Irvine area is also interested in signing up, let me know! (girls can do it too)