First On-Ramp Class #crossfit

(I am mostly doing these posts to document my own experiences with crossfit, so I can go back and see how I've progressed.)

Saturday was an open-class, but today was my scheduled On-Ramp class. These classes are designed to help newbies become accustomed to the different moves in crossfit classes. They are small, or one-on-one, like mine was today.

This is what we did:
You'll have to excuse me because I do not know the names of all these exercises.

For a warm-up, I started with a 400 meter row, keeping the numbers on the screen at or below 2:20 (not sure what this is called).

Afterwards, I did two rounds of 10 walking lunges with my arms stretched high above my head, followed by 10 jumping squats.

Next, we worked with the rope. I believe it was called tsunami-something.
Essentially, they have this long, heavy rope that is folded in half. I am at the open side with the two pieces of rope in each hand, while the trainer is position on the other side with the curved piece of the rope.

This is just a random photo on google images, but it looks similar to this

I would then take each rope in my hands and while squatting down, slam the rope into the ground, really lifting it up and down and then slamming. We did this for 30 seconds, then rest 30 seconds. Following this, same idea, but one arm at a time as fast as possible. 30 seconds on, rest 30 seconds. Then it was jumping jacks with the rope in each arm. So difficult for me! And finally, I don't remember the name at all, but essentially, grabbing the rope close together and then moving from side to side, kind of like a boxer would to duck. I know these explanations are terrible, but all I can say is that they were rough!

I swear that sometimes just the warm-up in crossfit is enough exercise for my entire day!

After warming up (I was still out of breath), he took me through the proper way to do a deadlift, which is different than how we learned in the gym group-exercise classes because of the smaller weights used there. We really focused on getting our butt down and chest up, facing the wall. I used 85 lbs and we did quite a few, maybe a couple rounds of 10 once I got the form correct. I know it sounds dumb since obviously I lift heavy objects all the time (hello, pulling people up in bed, 300+ pounds, rolling, etc<--life of an ICU nurse), but to lift 85 lbs seemed like a huge accomplishment for me since at the gym, we only ever used under 20 lb hand weights! Oh, and I now understand the reason why I always see pictures of crossfitters wearing super long, high socks..

photo source

Because when you're really starting to lift the heavier weights, you're going to be as close to your shins as possible to really get it up there!

Next were "cleans," which I really sucked at. I need lots of practice. He said he would be beating me into submission on Wednesday by adding more and more weights to really get me to understand the proper way!  ha!

At this point, the 9am class was coming in the door, so he made me do a quick, modified version of their WOD.
The WOD was this:

• 400 meter run
• 10 burpee pull-ups
• 12 thrusters 95/65lbs.
• 15 overhead plate lunges 45/35 lbs. plates
• rest one minute between rounds.

Instructions for the WOD.

If you do not possess an unassisted pull up it will be hard to complete a burpee pull up.  The substitution for this will be 5 burpees and 5 pull ups.  For those of you that are able to do this exercise Rx, you must pick a bar height that you must have to jump at least 8 to 12 inches to reach the bar.  For the lunges you must tap the trailing knee to the ground for the lunge step to count unless this is part of the scale down.  At the end of each round it is up to each athlete to monitor the timer to take exactly one minute rest period, no more and definately no less.  At the end of the WOD you will subtract the two minutes of rest from total time.

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Being short on time, he had me do 400 meter run, 10 burpees, and 15 overhead plate lunges with a 25lb plate x 2. It took me 11:11!

I am seriously loving crossfit.
My favorite part of crossfit thus far is the functionality of all movements. The trainer says you will never see us doing bicep curls or triceps because they are simply non-functional in terms of everyday life. When will you need to do those in everyday life? You won't. You'll be doing movements that are basic motor patterns; they aren't single joint, but multi-joint because that is how the human body moves in real life. For instance, we will carry awkwardly shaped, and heavy objects...it just makes more sense. You carry it however you can because your body was made to do all of these awesome, crazy movements. We aren't made to just stand in one spot and move our arm up and down consecutively...what function does that serve?