Putting the "Cross" in "Crossfit"

For the past couple years I've been on a continual occasional quest to find another type of exercise to balance the body parts that don't get a workout (or get a very asymmetrical workout) when I'm skating.  Skating is awesome exercise, and I'll put my quads up against those of most other almost-50-year old women (not literally!), but--at least the way I do it--speedskating is rather one-dimensional.  By "the way I do it" I mean, of course, that I suck at doing "the stuff that most skaters do but that I don't do because it's not skating and therefore I don't like it"--stuff like core work, and doing something with my arms besides swinging the right one.

So I've been in fairly casual pursuit of something that would perhaps make my core resemble a bowl of jelly just a bit less, and that would get my arms back to the "I'm stronger than most girls" state that they enjoyed when I was a kid and was frequently schlepping hay bales to the shed to feed my goats (another story for another day!) and drawknifing  logs for my dad's woodworking business.  I did yoga pretty faithfully for the first couple years that TieGuy coached me, and then that faded away.  A couple years ago I took a Pilates class, but that didn't seem like a workout and really didn't hold my attention.  And this spring I had a solid month of doing core workouts with my dryland peeps, but once the cycling season started they abandoned me for the joys of two big wheels and a nice set of brakes...and of course, once I was on my own I promptly quit the core stuff.  So after that I ignored the whole "skating is asymmetrical and only works parts of the body" thing and just merrily went along my counterclockwise way.

This summer, though, my desire to get my poop in a group before I hit the big Five-Oh in October coincided with the realization that not only am I giving my chiropractor plenty to work on, but I've now got something (sore hamstring related to low back issues) that needs physical therapist intervention as well. Time to find a way to work out more of my body, and to balance the unbalanced bits.

Enter Crossfit.

Now, I don't live under a rock, but for someone who spends a lot of time randomly surfing the net I can be remarkably oblivious to trends (just check out my wardrobe if you need proof).  So while I had heard the term "Crossfit," I had no idea what it was.  But then I saw positive references to it in a couple of athlete blogs that I follow, so I decided to check it out.  And with my usual "take one quick glance and then leap" approach that drives the more methodical Hubster nuts, I found a Crossfit place and signed up for a free introductory workout all within about 20 minutes of research (turns out I should have found a place closer to home, but whatever).

The introductory session was fun--a warmup followed by a simple Crossfit workout that was, of course, timed (ooh--data!  I love data!).  The workout featured rowing (boy was I glad I had dug out our rowing machine--donated by my brother in law and never used by us--last spring when rain and snow kept me off my inline skates), and then situps, pushups, and finally pullups assisted by a big rubber band--or in my case, two big rubber bands.  Weak arms and chunkiness are a bad combo for pullups.  Anyway, the workout went well, and I found the whole thing enjoyable enough that I signed up for a month of classes (the "Evolutions" learn-to-Crossfit sessions).

Last night was the first official class.  It was in the evening, and unfortunately I'd had a pretty nasty endurance skating workout that morning (9x2K), but you gotta do what you gotta do.  Besides, the first Crossfit workout hadn't been very leg-intensive, so I had hope that this one would focus more on core and upper body as well.

Not so.  The workout was three rounds of 400 meter run, some barbell thing which I forget the name of, and Ring Rows.  Oh, well--I can run 400 meters, right?

The class consisted of a warmup (which featured some of the things I see other skaters doing when they warmup but which I've never done but which maybe I should start doing, like hip mobilization stuff), and then instruction in the barbell stuff we'd be doing.  And then we were off on the workout.

And despite my somewhat leaden legs, it went well.  I was a bit frustrated by the fact that the class was large enough that I had to wait for the barbell in two of the three rounds (c'mon, people, the clock is ticking!), but it wasn't that big of a deal.  The instructor had me do a modified version of the barbell thing (perhaps he noticed the same lack of coordination that had TieGuy dubbing me a "motor moron" within a few weeks of his starting coaching me) so that went OK.  The only other issue was that the gym (or, apparently, "box," as the Crossfit spaces are called) is un-airconditioned.  Mix a 90 degree humid Minnesota summer day with an indoor space filled with people working out, then add in a middle aged woman who is just beginning to enjoy the world of hot flashes, and you've got an impressively sweaty situation. Good thing my car has seat covers.

But it was fun, and I can still walk and move my arms today, so that's a bonus.  I plan to finish out the Evolutions course at the current "box," then perhaps look for one closer to home if I still like Crossfit by then.

Hopefully, my arms and core and back will thank me.