Fitness 6: Classes

I neglected to blog last week after my final private session on Wednesday, and my first group class on Thursday (31 July).

It appears that the basic class structure at CrossFit is this:

- Warmup. This can take many forms. For example, our warmup on Thursday began with the two class members (myself and another girl), our trainer (Fran), and two other trainers moving about 500-700 lb worth of dumbbell weights from the middle of the floor back to the side of the floor. The gym owner (Dave) had been vacuuming and we needed to "reset" the gym. Warmups then proceeded to sets of squats, ab-work, more squats.

- Going through the exercises for the day's circuit individually. Thursday's exercises were rowing on the rowing machines, jumping and lifting a dumbbell (10 or 15 lb) with one arm over the head and locking the arm out (some sort of "clean" move), jumping (or stepping, in my case) onto a 18" tall box, and the piece de resistance: throwing a 12-15 lb medicine ball from a deep squat about 12-15' up the wall, catching the ball, and immediately going and re-setting yourself into another squat.

- A quick water break.

- Doing the circuit. For us, it was one minute of each: rowing, dumbbell cleans, jumping (stepping), and "wall-ball"-ing. The first circuit was where I started wheezing. I was just not used to working that hard for so long (30-ish min?) Fran, the trainer, heard me wheezing and told me to take a break. I actually didn't feel faint or sick or anything, I just couldn't breathe and I wanted some water badly. She told me to slow it down, and the funny thing is that since I was concentrating on form rather than repetitions, I actually burned more calories on the rowing machine the next couple of times through, and I wasn't too far behind the other girl.

- Then...you're done. We spent about 16-20 minutes actually doing the circuits (figure 4 min / circuit, we did it four times... )

Another hour-long painfest is complete! :)