Yep, that’s Megan. She is a total rockstar!
Editor’s note: Hi folks — while I’m out of town for work, Megan has so graciously agreed to share her CrossFit experience with you all! Enjoy and thanks Megs 🙂
 Hi everybody! Although I’m not a blogger, I’m an avid blog-reader and CrossFitter, so Courtney asked me to keep you company with this post while she’s out of town. To give you a little background on my pre-CrossFit life, I was a cheerleader in high school, but really started to enjoy working out in college and law school. My routine basically revolved around aerobics classes and the occasional short run. I dabbled with weight training but was always a little overwhelmed.
When I moved to Atlanta for my first big girl job, I realized that long hours in an office are far from conducive to maintaining the figure I want. Deciding that I had to get back in better shape, I tried small personal training classes (super expensive and not as effective as I hoped), a membership at LA Fitness (too easy to slack), and P90X (too boring alone in my living room). Don’t get me wrong — all of those are fantastic options, but they weren’t getting me the results I wanted. Running helped, and I loved running my first half marathon, but I didn’t feel like I was as fit as I could be. A friend of mine in the Army had mentioned he did CrossFit briefly and thought I’d like it, so when I saw a trial month membership come up on Groupon, I figured it was worth a try. I’ve never looked back.
CrossFit is a combination of Olympic weightlifting, conditioning, and gymnastics. The key phrase you’ll hear is “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.” It incorporates everything from bodyweight movements (pullups, pushups, situps, air squats) to things like handstand pushups and snatches (the most technical of the Olympic lifts). It’s also infinitely scalable, meaning anyone from grandmas with weak knees to the genetic wonders you see on the worldwide televised CrossFit Games can participate.
Within that first month, I was hooked on the adrenaline rush, the competition, the camaraderie, and especially on feeling like a bad-@$$ when I toss a barbell over my head. It is by far the most challenging workout/sport in which I have participated, and while there are days that I want to throw things across a room (it might have happened once with a jump rope… dang double-unders), I love it. I am in the best shape of my life, and have totally changed my body image and views of beauty – it’s much more important to me to feel strong than skinny. Note: it’s gotten to the point where I don’t want people describing me as “skinny” at all. In the past two and a half years, I’ve gone from barely getting through workouts to competing on back-to-back days as an individual and a team member.  I work out with some crazy good athletes at CrossFit Atlanta who motivate me every single day. I’ve even earned my CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Certificate and am looking forward forward to training others in the future. CrossFit has been my stress relief, a huge source of accomplishment, and the place where I’ve met some of my closest friends. I can’t imagine my life without it.
Have you ever tried CrossFit? What did you think?Â
Megan – that is a great bad ass photo! I’d love to be able to do a one handed hand stand! Maybe I should sign up for cross fit, it’s one of those things that I’ve been tossing around in the back of my mind. But as I go see a personal trainer instead who’s a body builder himself, it’s not really an option at the moment.
It’s actually interesting that Cross Fit was the topic of the blog today – have you heard of DH Kiefer? How much influence does he have on the Cross Fit regiment? I’ve never done Cross Fit myself but Kiefer wrote an article that I as an avid female/runner abhor (and by avid I mean slightly obsessed :)). I reviewed it on my blog yesterday (runningforbostonmass.com). The premise of Kiefer’s article was interesting and he made some very good points, but he just went about it the wrong way.
Emily – this is Courtney. I just read your blog post and I’m in agreement with you. I don’t even want to read his original article and give it traffic and press. Ugh. I’m just going to choose to ignore him because it’s absolutely ridiculous! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Emily – thanks for the response! A personal trainer sounds great, and you could incorporate a lot of the CrossFit elements on your own or with him if you wanted. I’ve seen a lot of trainers do similar workouts without calling it CrossFit.
To answer your first question, I don’t think Kiefer has any bearing on the CrossFit programming. I hadn’t ever heard of him before. I actually did a quick internet search to verify that, and another article of his is a similarly harsh criticism of CrossFit for its lack of specialization.
I had read Kiefer’s article recently and thought it was an interesting premise, but I agree with most of the rebuttal points in your post. If his main idea was that it is not optimal for people (and women specifically) to do nothing but run endlessly at one pace as their sole form of exercise, then I completely agree. It’s the essence of the “skinny fat” debate. I think where Kiefer went wrong was in making sweeping generalizations based on that concept, even insinuating that fundraising organizations trick women into participating in marathons to the detriment of the women. Most of the runners I know who actually train for races mix up their training on a regular basis, so this article wouldn’t even apply. Good luck with your road to Boston 2015!
Thanks so much for taking the time to give a thoughtful response. I asked about DH Kiefer’s link to Cross Fit as someone who commented on my post inferred a strong connection between Kiefer and Cross Fit.
Hmm… The article I had found was from December 2010. Like Court, I didn’t want to add to his traffic so I didn’t do a whole lot of searching. Maybe he has changed his stance since then.
GREAT POST! I’ve been dying to try CrossFit but am afraid that where I am compared to others that I won’t “fit in” and able to compete. What do you think? Worth trying it anyways?
I think my other issue is finding someone who would do it with me. I don’t really like to do these things alone. Moral support is always a great motivator and can keep me honest.
Amy, this is Courtney — I think you should ABSOLUTELY try it. Megan will chime in later, I’m sure, but I think that the format is such that its easy to start up no matter where you are on the fitness scale 🙂
Amy – I would definitely say try it if you’re interested! CrossFit has affiliates rather than franchisees, so the atmosphere can vary among them. Most CF boxes (what we call gyms) will let you observe a class so you can see if it seems like something you’d like. Also, most of the boxes I’ve seen have an on-ramp program of some sort to teach the movements and CrossFit methods. In choosing a gym, I’d make sure they have an adequate introduction program so you’re comfortable before joining the group classes. After that, there will almost always be a range of abilities in any given class.
Moral support is definitely important to me too! I’m sure it varies by box or by class, but as a general rule, I think CrossFitters are fantastic about motivating and cheering for each other. I’ve been a member of 3 affiliates and visited a few others at times I was out of town, and have always had a great experience with that. I also know if I miss a few days in a row, one of the coaches will ask me where I’ve been… so I try to avoid that 🙂