2 Week Beginner CrossFit Program - Day 1

7/19/2012 *Sara-Marie* 3 Comments

So I have been researching CrossFit for about a month now and while intrigued, I've been also very intimidated by the athletes that take part. I mean, did you see any of the CrossFit games? These people are beasts!!! Mark has been interested too, but there aren't CrossFit gyms (or I believe they call them "boxes") near us and we already belong to a gym. Which is only a 2 minute drive from home.

I started toying with the idea of checking out the WOD (workout of the day) that gets posted on the website and trying to do it at home, if I could. Yesterday's workout included a bunch of pullups, which I know will be extremely difficult for me. In my search for pullup substitutions, I found two things:

1.) Crossfitmom.com - are you serious? These women are preggo and dominating these workouts! I really have no excuse! I subscribed to this blog just for a constant reminder that anything is possible. These ladies rock.

2.) This 16 Day Beginner CrossFit Program - perfect! All of these exercises look doable - at the gym OR at home.

So after that motivation (and lots of great ideas for help on pullups from my FB friends), I decided to start the 2 week beginner program today.

I like check boxes.

My first thoughts:

1.) I know how to do a burpee, a squat and a situp. This shouldn't be too bad.
2.) I don't see this taking very long - is this really all I have to do?

I like to wear a heartrate monitor while I workout to make sure I'm in the "fat-burning zone" and track how many calories I burn. Well my heart rate shot right up after about 5 burpees. Those things are killer. The squats were fine, but I know I'm going to feel that tomorrow. The situps actually surprised me as being very challenging. I did do an ab workout last night so I'm not sure if my core was just tired, but every time I got to 20 situps, I was really pushing hard for the last 10.

I also have to admit that after my second set of burpees, I started feeling ill. I got light-headed and my ears started ringing really badly. I paused my stopwatch and sat down for a minute while the symptoms subsided. WARNING - TMI AHEAD. And then I puked. Good thing I was trying this from home and I have a bathroom on the first floor.

I started to feel really embarrassed with myself. Like, really? I couldn't do these 3 exercises? I know I'm stronger than that. For what it's worth, I get motion sickness very easily (even the treadmill makes me want to puke), so I'm guessing the quick up and down of the burpees didn't agree with me too well. But I gave myself a minute - and I decided to push through the rest of the workout. AND I COMPLETED IT. Talk about puke and rally.
 Now I'm sure that a trained crossfitter could probably do this whole WOD in like 5 minutes, but I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for doing it in less than 15 minutes and for pushing through despite my body's reaction to it. What seemed very simple, is actually kinda hard. And I know this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for tomorrow!

 Before I let you go, here's another WOD - except this time, it's the WORD of the day ;)

Psalm 51:10