Forging Elite Fitness – Discovering Crossfit

I confess, I’ve got myself into Crossfit.

I’ve been reading and learning about it for a while now, keen to try but no idea where to start. I found a local box, but no one would come with me to try out a taster session. I promised myself that I would pluck up the courage to try it eventually. I was ready to take my fitness to the next level.

Then something awesome happened.

A member of staff from my current gym left, and set up his own Crossfit gym nearby. Lot’s of my current workout friends were attending taster sessions and joining up, the time to try Crossfit had arrived.

I’ve never been a fan of a lot of group workout classes, which is ironic given I now teach them. But during a group bootcamp or circuit training session I always felt the workout was very “bitty” with lots of waiting around for other people to finish their 20 sit-ups so we can all move onto the next exercise.

Crossfit seems somehow different. Although completely different methodology than an Insanity workout, it has one thing similar about it, and it’s why I’ve taken to it so easily. Both workouts allow you to do exercises are a pace, strength and speed that challenges YOU. You’re not trying to beat the person next to you, or lift heavier than the guy at the back of the room. You’re attempting to push YOURSELF to your own limits, and PROGRESS.

So far the workouts in Crossfit have really pushed me. They’ve also hugely improve my technique and form.

The way Crossfit works is by setting a WOD ( Workout of the Day ) that both improves your skill and challenges you to work beyond your percieved capabilities. Workouts are either AMRAP ( as many rounds as possible ) or a set amount of rounds with the aim of improving the speed in which you complete them over time.

Either way, the clock plays a big part in pushing you to work harder with every exercise.

Take today’s workout ” Helen ” – ( all WOD’s are given a girls name )

It looks fairly easy on paper ;

400m run
21 Kettlebell swings
12 Pull Ups

x 3

Easy it is not!!! But as the clock ticks away, you push yourself harder and harder, the sweat dripping off you by the bucket load, adrenaline pumping and proud of what you are doing.

When the workout is complete, whether it took you 10 minutes or 1 hr 10 minutes, everyone congratulates each other. Everyone celebrates the success, the progression, the dedication and sweat that powered us through to finish the workout.

Crossfit is more than just a style of workout, it’s a community.

We might be a little crazy, pushing ourselves to the limit day in day out on workouts so hard that sometimes you’d gladly be hit by a bus than face the next round. But we’re all in it together.

Working hard to overcome our own challenges, to progress, and to complete our own goals. Whether that be completing a single chin up, or competing in the Crossfit games.

It’s often said that when attending a Crossfit Box you must “leave your ego at the door” and it’s something I’ve found to be great advice.

Regardless of your size, shape, ability or fitness level, Crossfit welcomes you into it’s community with open arms.

All it asks is that you give 100% effort in the workouts. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Living happily ever active….

Looking back over the last 18 months it’s hard to believe just how much my life has changed. That self conscious, depressed, overweight girl has disappeared, and with her, her whole life.

Not only do I have a completely different body, and a completely different man in my life, but yesterday I was offered a new job.

Hoooraaaaahhh!

I’ve had my current job for over 4 years, since I left full time education. At first I loved being self employed, spending my days getting muddy with my four legged friend always by my side, but as time went on and the wage, nor weather improved I began to crave something different, something with prospects.

I’ve been hunting for a while now with no luck, but this week finally got invited for an interview, and for a job I really wanted.

You are now looking at a membership sales consultant for one of the Uk’s biggest gyms. I’ll be spending my days trying to inspire people to get active, lead a healthier lifestyle, and join the local branch of the gym.

All those years I spent as a fat girl I never imagined myself working within a gym, but now it’s my dream work environment and I can’t wait to start.

Whilst it’s bittersweet to finally put my business to sleep, and I’ll be heartbroken to say goodbye to the dogs I’ve spent the last four years watching grow up, it really marks the end of the old Hazel.

 

I have a new body I feel confident in.  A new man who I can picture a fun future with, and a chance at a new exciting career.

My life will soon in no way resemble that of my former fat self, and it’s a scary and exciting future that lies ahead.

This is my celebration pose!!!

Bad Hazel….

Apologies I’ve been very quiet lately. Some days the ideas for posts just don’t come, and some days life just seems to happen so quickly and weeks go by without me realising.

But don’t worry, i’ve not fallen off the wagon. In fact i recently weighed myself for the first time in a bout a month ( in which I just ate normally, no calorie counting etc ) and I had lost 1 lb. Bravo.

I’m still eating mostly healthy healthy food, and I usually spend head to the gym 5 days a week, but it’s good to know that my weight doesn’t fluctuate hugely if I stop obsessing over my food intake. My body seems to like being at this weight. It’s comfortable.

So what’s been happening in the last few weeks?

A lot of training in the gym. I’ve started a 10 week training plan for my 10k obstacle race in November. It involves tabata sprints twice a week, weight training 3 times a week, and mostly trying to build my upper body strength. My biggest challenge is to be able to climb across a set of monkey bars. As a kid I spent hours doing this effortlessly, now I can barely hold onto one bar for more than a seconds.

However, I can see progress already. 3 weeks ago I used a step for added height, held onto the bar, and managed to hold on for about 3 seconds. This week, I jumped from the floor onto the bar, held on and made it across to the next bar with both hands. Small progress, but progress non the less. I even did a little victory dance in the middle of the gym.

I still have a long way to go until my race, and I’m still not 100% I can complete it, but the important thing is I’m trying. Everyday I push myself a little bit further towards my goal, and if I fail first time, I’ll just keep trying until I succeed.

I’ve also been a little bit busy dating…. there is a new man in my life, so at least I’m getting plenty of cardio, but i’ll save that for another post.

And I’ll write it soon….I promise.

 

Working out with the big boys…

I’ve been going to the gym for quite a while now.

I started exercising properly, about last September, and have been a regular at my gym for at least 4 months. I am no longer the girl who spends £40 a month to belong to a club she never uses.

My gym is actually a really great gym. It’s a small family run business, with only 3 local branches, and whilst it has no pool, sauna,  or other exercise dodging equipment, and it’s pretty cheap, what it does have is very friendly staff, and even friendlier clients. 90% of the people say hello or smile at you as you pass by their piece of equipment. whether it’s the ridiculously hot girl in her crop top, or the fifty year old man with bulging muscles and a shaved head. Everyone is friendly.

I’ve never really been a fan of cardio. I have got into running a little this past 6 months, but sweating buckets on a cross trainer never really appealed to me. My thing at the gym has always been body weight exercises. Sit ups, push ups, mountain climbers, star jumps. They’re fast, they’re fun, and they’ve produced results consistently for me over the years.

But now the weight is off and my fitness is improving, my goals are changing, and I want to develop more muscle, more tone, and importantly, more strength. I’ve signed up to complete a Men’s Health magazine, 10k obstacle course called Survival of the Fittest in November. My gym have put together a small team and we’re all going to run together.

Basically it’s a 10k run, outdoors, with 10 obstacles such as cargo nets through mud, monkey bars, 10 feet walls to climb over, etc interspersed into the course. It sounds torture. It sounds like so much fun.

I want to start running a few of these over the next year, but in order to do so I must first improve my strength. I’ve always been the weak girl, never able to open a jam jar, or lift the 30kg dog food bags out of the car boot. I refuse to be her any more. Being slim isn’t enough anymore. I want to fit. I want to toned. I want to be strong.

So with my training for these events in mind my gym routine has had to change a little. Whilst the star jumps and burpees are great for fitness and general core strength, they’re not going to help me carry my own body weight across a rack of handlebars.

That meant time to venture to the big boys side of the gym. Or as I like to call it, Muscle Beach.

The men that frequent the region are good looking, athletic, muscular and frankly, to me, terrifying. Sure they smile as me as they walk past me doing squat jumps, but stick them in a large group and add heavy weights and I’m like a little lost puppy looking for it’s owner to carry it safely home.

Whilst I can’t afford a Personal Trainer ( which i would love ) I’m fortunate enough to have a friend whose an excellent PT and specialises in Strength. He’s been trying to guide me a little in the right direction. Which is right next to those muscly men.

I’ve swapped my star jumps for kettle bell swings, my spinning classes for weighted squats, and my burpees for bicep curls. In an attempt to get ready for the course I’m doing a run 3 times a week, and a strength session 3-4 times a week.

It’s a huge learning curve, but seeing the progress makes it worth every second of pain in the gym.

Today I did an actual sit up. Not a “crunch”, but real sit ups. 20 of them to be exact.

I also learned that it’s key to have a professional teach you the ropes when starting out in a new exercise regime. I’ve been trying to get to grips with a barbell, and decided to up the weight on my squats. 20kg seemed pretty low, so I lined up, lifted the barbell over my head, rested behind my head on my shoulders, and managed my 10 squats, feeling pleased with myself.

The trouble came when I wanted to put the barbell back on the floor. I couldn’t lift it back above my head and lower it back to the ground. I tried, got a few inches above my shoulders and lowered it, waiting a few moments and trying again. Nope. it wasn’t gonna happen.

I stood there for a few minutes, unsure of how I was going to get out of my situation, realising I clearly had so much more to learn.

When I finally managed to get free one of the gym staff showed me a squat rack and how using it would stop this very problem. Whoops!

Whilst I didn’t manage to actually do any exercises in the big boys section tonight, at least I now know how…

Here’s to the next session…

I’ll be looking like this in no time…

Gym Phobia…

A while ago a fellow blogger wrote a post titled Dear New Fat Girl at the Gym and I related to it a lot.

I’m no longer the new fat girl at the gym. But the gym still terrifies me to my very core. 

I’ve been a member of my current gym since November. I won’t lie I’ve not been very often, probably under ten times since I joined. But you see the gym scares me. The empty space, the alien like machines, the group of guys huddled around with muscles as wide as my thighs. 

I feel like everyone is watching me. Judging me. From the moment I walk in the door. 

They’re wondering what I’m doing here, debating whether or not I am lost. 

The self torture doesn’t end once i begin a workout. It only trebles. The woman next to me is jogging faster than I am. The women behind me can see my bottom jiggling as I jog, my belly bouncing up and down. 

If I can’t meet my own mini goals, like jog for three minutes, then I think everyone in the gym knows that “I’ve failed”, that I am useless, unworthy, and should stop making a fool of myself by even attempting to be a part of this dynamic. 

I’ve tried using the ladies only sections, my gym has a mini one at the back of the cardio section. Sound proof, no windows, no scary muscle building equipment. Yet, what is inside the room is even more terrifying. 

Women. Girls. My own age. My own shape. With insecurities and judgements just like my own. I know they’re wondering why I’m wearing such a cheap label trainer, or laughing at me when I’m out of breathe after 10 minutes on the cross trainer. 

I can’t concentrate on me, because I’m too worried about what everyone else is thinking about me. Too paranoid. 

For some reason other women terrify me. Like they’re all part of a club I don’t belong to. As if I’ll always be the outsider, trying to work my way inside the group when I’m not wanted. 

I here a lot about women feeling like a fraud. Apparently it’s a recognised thing now, although it mostly happens re career and I’m unlucky enough to not really have one of these. 

But in my new slim frame I often feel like a fraud. Always afraid I will be exposed to the world as the real fat girl that I am, wondering if I’ll be asked to leave the gym, or the health food aisle of the supermarket because I don’t belong there. 

I wonder when, if I ever will, begin to feel like a normal person within society. Someone who deserves to be here, who belongs, who isn’t an outsider trying to get a glimpse of the exciting lives that everyone except me is a part of. 

I hope that day comes. 

if not….let’s start a club of former fat girls in need. 

I like to move it move it…

Except I really don’t.

This week has been my first week as a member of a local gym. I’d say it’s been a mild success so far.

• Day 1 – postponed ( my EXCUSE was lady cramps )
• Day 2 – 45 minutes of cardio
• Day 3 (Saturday morning) 45 minutes of cardio ( half arsed effort ) 10 minutes of weights, leg raises etc…

Not bad for a first attempt, but also nowhere near ideal. The problem is not my motivation, I’m super motivated to actually get up off my arse and go to the gym, I just can’t seem to push myself to work hard whilst I’m there. Sat on a bicycle that goes nowhere peddling for 15 minutes bores me, even with Jeremy Kyle on mute on the tv screens and the dance music blasted around the gym speakers. I’m not going anywhere, my view stays the same.

The X trainer is my arch nemesis. I know it’s a really good work and something I should spend quality time with, but after 10 minutes my arms and legs feel like jelly and I’m counting down the seconds until the torture comes to an end.

Not suprisingly, the machine I have the most success with is the treadmill. After all, I walk 5 hours a day for work so my legs are used to the activity ( which probably means it’s a bad work out to do because my body is used to it ) but I enjoy walking at a fast pace, and I really get a kick out of running even if it is only for a few minutes before I slow down and catch my breath.

A few years ago I had a personal trainer. He was fabulous. Mostly, because he was a hunk of meat that lay on top of me holding my leg above my head and pulsing to stretch my thighs, but he also pushed me harder and harder with every workout we did. He didn’t have me running, or cycling away like a machine, we did mat exercises, in groups of 30 that varied every session. For instance, we’d do 30 sit ups, then lunges, then squats, then leg raises, etc etc… If I only I could remember the exact routine I would do it again. I remember at the time I’d go to watch my then boyfriend play sports, and I would do my mat workout in the player dressing rooms while they were on the ice. I actually enjoyed the workout. It was killer, but it was fun.

I’d love to get a personal trainer again, but it doesn’t come cheap, and with the added cost of rent, more counselling, and a much needed holiday coming up there is no way I can afford it.

Without a friend to hold your hand or a trainer to push you towards running that little bit faster how do you stay motivated to exercise?