Two Years on Crossfit

I've been pretty busy writing a paper for a certification I have been working towards and have slacked a bit on my blog posts. I wanted to take a minute to look back on the past two years of training Crossfit and how I stumbled upon it.

I've been an athlete all my life, playing football, baseball, basketball, and even track. I played football at a well known Division II program in western PA (IUP). After football I just did bodybuilding, and did cardio activities here and there. I got frustrated with my weight at 270lbs and decided to do bodybuilding full on and ended up competing (at 185lbs, and then 193lbs a year later). It was fun, and it's amazing what you can do with your body using food to manipulate it. During that time I also did some powerlifting.

After a couple years of competing in bodybuilding, and add one child, then another, I just didn't have the time to do full on bodybuilding. My focus turned to cycling (which I had gotten back into after losing a bunch of weight), and I started getting into it bigtime, riding more and more and mountain biking whenever I had time. Growing up in the country, I really liked being in the woods and riding trails, it reminded me of being at home in Central PA.

I started to change my weight training to movements and routines that would make my core stronger and make me a better mountain biker and cancelled my regular gym membership (moved my training to the corporate gym) and I was really starting to get bored with weight training overall and was looking for something new to do, something to make me a better rider and something to keep me in shape to keep up with a toddler. I was browsing a well known mountain biking forum (MTBR) one day and came across a thread about 'off season' training, where someone mentioned Crossfit. I was immediately intrigued. This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I spent about two months reading documents off the main Crossfit site, and in January of 2008, I did my first workout off the mainsite. I think it was Filthy 50. I thought, what the heck, what am I doing...I LOVE IT.

I've spent the past two years doing Crossfit. I scale where needed, and adjust where needed for any physical limitations I might have, but overall, it's been a long time since I have had this much fun weight training. In addition, the impact on my mountain biking skills has been dramatic. The core strength, balance, and agility speak for themselves..but the impact on my overall aerobic threshold has been eye opening. Granted, time in the saddle makes an impact too, but knowing what I know about my body, I can tell when training is making a difference. I can take my heart rate up, and maintain it at a level where in the past I would have pulled off to rest. It's amazing.

When I am knee deep in a metcon (metabolic conditioning) style workout, I really try and keep moving, it might be slow, but I make an effort to get up on the bar and make it happen. It's almost like it takes me back to my football days, like a flashback where I can hear the coach yelling at me to keep moving.

There's so much to learn with Crossfit. The Crossfit family, the affiliates, people on the forums, and others I have come in to contact with through Crossfit have all been top notch. It took me a while to let go of my bodybulding ways, and now I really enjoy the variety and the challenge that comes with the workouts. I have learned alot about fitness and my capacity over the past two years, it's been outstanding. At 40 years old, I feel like I am in pretty darn good shape and I can thank Crossfit for that, seriously. The programming is killer, and with numerous affiliates that I follow, I can always count on a workout that will challenge me.

Rock on Crossfit.