19th April 2020
Everyone remembers their first workout at a CrossFit box.
My introduction was an AMRAP of clean and jerks, box jumps and wall balls.
The workout starts and I’m hot out the gates on the clean and jerks… Well, as hot out the gates as a complete rookie to barbells can be. I was christened with a 20kg barbell for the workout and I swung the piece of iron awkwardly from my mid shin, before finishing in some form of a lockout over my head. Someone with a great imagination might have called it a clean and jerk.
From there, I blitzed through the box jumps, and after feeling pretty full of myself was greeted with the wall ball…
The wall ball is one of the simpler movements in CrossFit and a walk in the park for most gym goers, however, that 20lb ball may as well have been an atlas stone that I was attempting to squat and press to a target.
About 3 minutes in and after approximately 1 and a bit rounds, my legs were toast.
Beside me, Jenny, 46 and three kids is barely breaking a sweat. There’s a blow to the ego.
I grind through the rest of the AMRAP, trudging over to the wall every time I had to squat and press the diabolical sphere to the target.
After what feels like an eternity, the clock screeches the end of the AMRAP. High fives are distributed, equipment is packed and the class comes to a conclusion.
I am humbled, and yet to find my quads that I lost in the third minute of the workout, but I am also hooked. The workout had awakened a deep drive and determination to better myself, which I had been craving for so long.
Gingerly, I shuffled towards my bag, headed home and faceplanted my pillow. I was fired up for round two.
My enthusiasm didn’t last long however, as to my horror, the whiteboard the following day sported another AMRAP stacked with quad busting wall balls.
Marty beside me had a diabolical glint in his eyes (must’ve been a wheelhouse workout for him), as I turned to him and asked whether there was a mistake with the programming given that we had done, what I believed was an insurmountable number of wallballs the day before. He just smiled. That was a lesson in fitness.
Over time, those wallballs got easier. My clean and jerks started to look somewhat close to the demos on Instagram; minus the abs, and the perfect comb overs.
However, the message here is simple.
We all remember our first workout at a CrossFit box. Whether we got crushed by Fran, threw an irresponsible amount of weight on the bar because the bloke next to us was doing it easy, or left us sweaty star fishing over the gym floor.
But one day, we look back, and realise how far we’ve come.
Our strength, skill, coordination and bodies have changed, but the intention has remained the same. Show up, a little better than yesterday.
We can celebrate the deadlift PR’s, the first bar muscle-ups and handstand walks, but under that remains the same drive and determination that was ignited after our first class.
Now more than ever, we need to remind ourselves of that.
Show up to any workout you do; be it on your living room carpet, your backyard gym or inside the four walls of a CrossFit box; with that same intention you had when you started.
Be a little better than yesterday.
Because, one day you’ll look back on the clean and jerks, box jumps and wallballs and thank yourself for it.
CHANGE IS THE POINT 