Al Onuthin and I wanted to give you my experience with CrossFit.  I’ve been experimenting with CrossFit for the last 9 months and figuring out how to incorporate or add into my bodybuilding workouts.  For those of you who don’t about CrossFit is I’ll give you a quick and short synopsis.  Basically, the website for CrossFit describes itself as the sport of fitness.  It’s the conditioning and strength program for many police academies, fire academies, tactical operation teams, martial arts, and elite and professional athletes.  The program is geared to optimize physical fitness in 10 recognized fitness categories: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, strength, stamina, power, speed, coordination, balance, flexibility, agility and accuracy.  CrossFit is a total fitness package and to put it bluntly, kicks the living crude out of you.

I started doing CrossFit about 9 months ago and after my first workout I decided it was over-training and is not conducive to keeping or adding muscle.  Sour grapes?  Yes.  It took me four days to fully recover from that first bout.  The cheerleading and screaming was all very lame to me.  I was done with CrossFit.  About two weeks later an employee from the CrossFit gym called me and wanted to know why I didn’t come back.  I told him, “I didn’t think the workout could be maintained at that level for very long and definitely would not get stronger or put any muscle on.”  He simply said, “I’ll give you 5 free workouts and if you still think you aren’t getting stronger or gaining muscle then so be it, it cost you nothing.”  It was free, so I went for it.  The next workout was even more grueling than the first and I was thoroughly convinced this couldn’t be good for anyone at intensity level.  After the second workout it took another four days to recover.  I was not feeling the love for CrossFit, and just wanted to go back to my regular heavy weight, rest 3 minutes, do another set, rest another 3 minutes.  When I started to reflect on my current gym routine it seemed like a vacation compared to CrossFit. (*video below includes fowl language)

There was a paradigm shift after that second bout of CrossFit, maybe not paradigm, but at least a mental shift.  No longer did I consider my typical training of  do a set…rest 3 minutes…do a set, as kick ass as I thought.  So what I got from CrossFit was a reality check.  Things had to change because I had changed.  I had pushed myself further than I had ever been able to on my own.  The competitive nature of CrossFit, the yelling, the sweating, the unbelievable courage, the cheering, the camaraderie, everything, I started to love everything about it.  Now, today, I can’t get enough of it.  I’ve added it into my workouts twice a week with three days of bodybuilding detail work.  I don’t think I can do much more than twice a week.  But I’m continually evaluating and keeping my mind open.  Maybe I can do it three times a week?  The results?  I’ve dropped about 4 pounds, but I’m stronger and leaner than I was before I started CrossFit, and mentally I’ve reached an entirely new threshold for pain.

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