CrossFit Community Week - Open Workout

Today was interesting.  After getting over my frustration with the lack of response (and sometimes the negative response) from affiliates in the area, I was able to hook up with Christy Phillips and her two friends who were down from CrossFit Center City in Philly.  We had a metcon planned, and were to meet up at the gym Christy primarily works out of: Results, The Gym.

Ok, so, a little back story here.  The first gym I ever trained at was Results.  And while I have a ton of respect for everyone there, it just does not fit for me.  They have some amazing facilities though, I can't deny that.  This one I had never been to before, and it was pretty fancy.  There was even a fish tank welcoming everyone into the locker rooms. 

After a quick, 20-minute squat workout I had earlier (before I client I was able to get 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 315x3 and then miss 350 twice), I headed on over, met the crew and walked through the gym to a back studio space where we would be doing our workout.  Because there really were no good pull up bars there, we resorted to using a TRX attachment bar.  This thing looked like a horizontal, hardcore television or radio antenna you'd see at the top of a tower somewhere.  The bars were thin, and slippery as hell, not the best for the amount of pull ups we were about to do.  We chatted a little, but mostly just got ready and got after it (I had a class to get to in Georgetown, so I was under specific time constraints).

We had, 40/30/20/10 burpees and pull ups.  This means we did 40 burpees, then 40 pull ups, 30 burpees and 30 pull ups, etc.  It was a killer!  I was able to finish in 12:57, a time I was pretty happy with given the bar.  I am sure that with a decent bar that time could have been closer to 11 or so, but, that's what CrossFit is all about!  The unknown and unknowable, be prepared for anything and everything.

A quick cool down of sitting around and talking and we all went our separate ways.  It was quick and so much fun.  And as I drove on to my class, I got to thinking about this whole community topic and how this workout was so perfect for my journey this week.  What this basically was, was a group of people, meeting up (I was meeting two of the three for the first time) just to get a workout in.  It is so common for people to meet up over food and drink, out at a restaurant, at a bar, some place like that, but this is all about something else.  We were able to get together, meet, chat, share jokes, get a damn good workout in, sweat together, talk some more, and head out in our separate directions.  This is what I love about CrossFit.

The other day had this situation come up with two separate friends.  One complained to me that they were having such a hard time dealing with the holidays because they had to attend so many different parties and that lead to eating too much and drinking too much and not sleeping enough.  The price of being properly social I guess.  The other friend told me how they planned on a few different things over the holidays: one was getting a good ski trip in with the family and close friends, one was only going to the parties of the closest friends, and the final was making sure they got to CrossFit on a regular schedule.  When I talked to these friends of mine a couple days ago, deep into the holiday season, I found one of them to be incredibly depressed (you can probably guess which one that was), while the other seemed in perfectly fine spirits, but had a slightly different plan that occurred.  What happened was, after CrossFit class, a group of people inevitably headed off to get some post-workout fuel, and given the tight community of that group, and the holiday spirit, the people stuck together to talk about class, nutrition, health, holidays and anything that came up.

The point being here, is that while communities pop up everywhere, and around everything, and CrossFit is one of these communities, and it is growing fast, and building with such strong character form the people that chose to be involved.  My little workout here reminded me that people can meet, get along, learn new things, and grow a little together outside of your typical "meet-up" setting.  I have always longed for a way to allow myself to be social while feeding my need to constantly be active.  And while CrossFit is not the only answer to this, it truly does promote it very well.

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh