Crossfit Intro Recap : Getting Strong Part 1

What is Crossfit?

"CrossFit uses a blend of gymnastic elements, Olympic weightlifting movements, kettle bell exercises and other real world activities to improve the ten components of fitness: strength, power, speed, stamina, cardio-respiratory endurance, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy and flexibility." Source

I've been umming and ah-ing about starting Crossfit for months - if you haven't heard of it before even a quick Google will highlight some of the negative and controversial issues which were holding me back. From people becoming obsessed/joining a cult, to seriously injuring yourself (the first video in this article is scary!), pushing yourself till you vomit, being useless, slow, weak and hating it, not to mention the price, the ultra-competitiveness etc...

However, on the flip side I've also read hundreds and hundreds of articles and blogs from people who love it and swear its the best thing they've ever done, not only because of increased strength, amazing body shape changes and general fitness, but also for the community and team spirit, the one-on-one coaching and the challenge and satisfaction of pushing yourself to achieve something new every session.

With some opposing opinions, I decided it was time for me to give it a go myself and make up my own mind! Mark kindly offered to fund my Foundations course and Elements sessions (3months) as my birthday present this year - (a big thank you as it's not cheap! <3) and after completing my two 10ks I decided now would be the perfect time to be able to give it my full attention. The membership I've signed up for requires you to commit to three sessions a week, so I'm hoping after  three months I will see some significant changes!

NB: Crossfit Vauxhall are currently offering the Foundations Course (3 x 1hr sessions to cover the basics) for FREE if you sign up for a 3month membership, therefore saving you £155 so check it out if you're interested! (they also have a Crossfit Central London box (gym) near Southwark)

Doing wall-balls outside the Crossfit Vauxhall box

This post will cover the Foundations Course which took place over three 1 hour sessions.

It taught the basics of the 9 foundational movements of Crossfit, progressing from a plastic pipe to a weighted barbell, allowing us to learn how to execute Olympic lifts safely. We also went over some basic gymnastic exercises that are used in Crossfit workouts.

Lots of weights, kettlebells and medicine balls!

There were 10 people in my group, with 2 or 3 coaches depending on the session. The overall emphasis was on technique, breaking everything down and not worrying about inflexibility or lack of coordination at this stage which was nice!

The main coach (Bryan) demonstrated the moves, breaking them down into the key points for us to remember. The first point was always to make sure your core is engaged, abs and glutes tight to create a neutral spine and strong base for all other movement, in order to prevent injury - it reminded me of Pilates a bit!

Some of the moves felt pretty unnatural and alien at first, and it was quite a lot to take in. It was a lot more in depth than say, a Body Pump class, where you only get minor cues and no personal correction of technique. You have to get used to people staring at you and offering constructive criticism!

This is a list of all the moves we covered - I don't want to go into too much detail as I'll hopefully be covering these again throughout the Elements classes so can focus in on certain exercises in more detail.

Intro A

• Squat
• Front squat
• Overhead squat
• Shoulder press
• Push press
• Push jerk

Intro B

• Deadlift
• Sumo deadlift - with wide legs, narrow hands
• Sumo deadlift high pull

9 Foundational Movements of Crossfit

In Intro Session B we also did a short introduction to Olympic lifting covering:

• Clean
• Hang Clean
• Split Jerk

The rig for doing ring-dips, muscle-ups etc...

Intro C - Gymnastics!

This was definitely my favourite session 🙂

• Pushups - to scale put your knees down
• Handstands - start just putting knees onto elbows, then progress to walking feet up the wall, then to proper handstands

Practising handstands by walking your feet up with wall

Handstand pushups - kneel on a bench/box and put hands on the floor to scale

Pull-ups

Ring dips

Ring row

Muscle ups

Writing all this terminology down sounds very impressive but I must stress I wasn't doing the full progression of any of the gymnastic moves, no one was! Like lifting can be scaled by reducing the weight, other exercises could also be scaled down to my weakling level 🙂 This means that everybody has a progression of each move, so you can still do it, and still participate, just with an easier version. I loved that! I must admit, one of my fears was not being able to do anything so it was great to find out I could.

Elastic bands can be used to make exercises like ring dips, pullups, muscle-ups easier by placing a foot, knee or sitting in them to add a bit of extra bounce to assist! They come in different thicknesses, so you can start with the thickest (easiest) and decrease as you improve.

Scaling a pull-up with an elastic band

After just 3 sessions I also must say I loved the supportive atmosphere, with the coaches giving genuine cheers when you achieved something no matter how small. We worked in pairs a little too, which was fun and helped to get to know people - hopefully I'll see some of them again in the Elements classes. I can see why people say they love the Crossfit community if my first week is anything to go by 🙂

The Vauxhall box

My only negative note at the moment is the facilities (or lack of) at the Vauxhall box (gym). It's a relatively new extension of the main Crossfit Central London box, so at the moment has only 1 toilet, no showers and basic changing behind a wooden partition with curtain. They are meant to be extending/improving etc over the next few months, but it does make things a little tricky if you want to go out after a workout session but you're all sweaty and smelly!

Who else has tried Crossfit or wants to give it a go? Any questions or tips to offer? 🙂

Beki x