CrossFit Weekend

It's official...I am now a CrossFit Level 1 Certified Trainer.  I spent this entire past weekend holed up in our local CrossFit gym, which they refer to as a "box."  I am not kidding you, it was truly a box...no heat...brrr.  I heard lecture upon lecture, learned progression after progression for each exercise and lift, and was forced to try my hand at some insanely difficult uber-high intensity workouts.  I left feeling inspired...and actually a bit under-qualified to help anybody do CrossFit!=)  I still have a lot of "learning by doing" left to do, I think.

I trained my Monday evening crew at my home gym last night, and I applied all sorts of new techniques and exercises into our workout that I'd learned from the CrossFit trainers over the weekend.  Looks like it's already paying off.  Example: When performing a squat, turn your toes just slightly out (somewhat duck-footed), so as to ensure that your knees naturally track right over your toes (it also allows you to get deeper into your squat).

Below is the CrossFit workout, called "Fran," that they had us do at the very end of day of our training.  Yikes!

FRAN: Done for time (no rest)

*21 Thrusters (65 lb. barbell racked under chin; full squat to an immediate overhead press)
*21 Pull-ups (yes, 21 full chin-ups!!)

*15 Thrusters
*15 Pull-ups

*9 Thrusters
*9 Pull-ups

I was a nervous wreck before trying this, as I've NEVER before thrown such high weight overhead.  They'd prepared me all day long, so I knew how to do it safely, but still I was a wreck.  I chose a lighter bar (55 lb., instead of 56 lb.), and I ended up completing Fran in 5 min. and 27 sec. (or something close to that in that 5 min. range).  I'm not really looking forward to ever having to do this one again=)...it's a BEAST!