I will be the first to admit it, when a friend of mine asked me to do CrossFit, I laughed. You think I can do a pull-up? You think I want to throw some heavy ropes around and tear up my hands? That just doesn’t sound like my style of exercise. Then I thought about it a little more, I have been going to the gym regularly for years. Nothing is changing, so maybe it’s time for me to change. Let me tell you why CrossFit SpearHead has become my latest obsession.
I am a roller coaster dieter. I will go from one diet to the next, dropping weight like crazy and gaining it back faster than I lost it. It was finally time to change things up and not stay on that dangerous path forever. I wanted to be healthy for my children and family so that I could be the best father and husband they all deserve. Because I wanted this healthier life I decided that I had to make a few sacrifices:
- Get up at 4:30 am everyday so that I don’t miss time away from all them. My wife has been with the kids all day while I am at work, the last thing I need to do is leave her again when I get home to workout.
- No more sweets and Dirty Diet Coke. Okay, by no more I mean I have told myself I can have it one day a week (Thursday).
- Making lunches for work and taking snacks. I don’t need to be going out everyday. I can make healthy options and pack delicious snacks that keep me full during the workday.
I knew that if I was going to be making healthier changes I needed to make changes in my workout as well. I was going to the gym Monday-Saturday doing cardio and found a weight training program that I had really liked. I had done the program (a three month program) once and was half way through it again when I noticed that I wasn’t seeing any improvements. I knew there was something more and maybe I needed to just change it up. My body was getting too used to this prescribed workout and knew exactly what I was going to be doing every single day.
A friend of mine had been going to CrossFit SpearHead for a while and kept telling me that he felt it was right up my alley because I love structure and being told what workout to do, but also am super competitive and love pushing myself a little bit every time. I just had it stuck in my head that CrossFit is for nut jobs and crazy people. I mean, have you watched people in CrossFit? They are crazy throwing weights all over the place, doing the weirdest pull-ups and they ALL wear CrossFit branded clothes. I just always had stuck in my head that it wasn’t for me. Then I decided what’s it going to hurt if I just give it a try?
They have this thing called the CrossFit Games, which I don’t know exactly what it is, but the workouts are out of control. People compete to be the best CrossFitters in the world by doing these workouts and of course I went in on a day that they were doing one. Let me just tell you what I was expected to do:
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 20 minutes of:
25-ft. overhead walking lunge
8 burpees
25-ft. overhead walking lunge
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Men lunge 95 lb.
Women lunge 65 lb.
What in the world? Who thinks these things up? Since I didn’t know what I was doing, they modified the workout for me so that I knew I could do one round. Since I had never done overhead walking lunges, and they didn’t want me to hurt myself, they just had me do 25-ft of lunges. This was still a lot for me because who actually likes doing lunges? Not this guy. But I did it. I went through this workout and felt like I was going to pass out and die once I was finished. All that being said though, I loved it. I was doing this workout for 20 minutes and felt like I had worked harder in that time than I had in the five days of workouts that I had done before.
When you go to the gym by yourself, how often are you really pushing yourself to do things you didn’t think you could accomplish? Personally, I never did that. I went to the gym, did everything the workout plan told me to do, but wasn’t really pushing myself. I go to SpearHead and suddenly I have a person right there with me, not pushing me to lift more or do anything that would hurt me, but pushing me to do one more pull-up, one more lunge, one more burpee. The second you’re done, they are right there next to you telling you how great you did and give you nothing but support no matter what your output was on the workout.
Not only were the trainers supportive, but so were all the other members. Every time I would go I was welcomed and after only 30 days of being there I already feel like I am part of a group, which is way more than the crazy people at the gym that I make fun of to my wife. When I would go to the gym before I would always come home with a different story for her about how crazy people are. Now, I come home saying how strong and supportive people are. I love it!
I know, the hardest part is just giving it a try yourself. Well, if you come to SpearHead on Saturdays the 8:00 am & 9:00 am classes are FREE and this gives you a chance to try it out for yourselves. You won’t regret it and what’s it going to hurt just giving it a try? Also, when you go in there, be sure to tell them that you heard about them from The Modern Dad. Now you have no excuses but to jump in the car and try it out. Believe me, you’ll love it and will crave more.
