Is now officially the “c” word

I bet the first word that popped into your mind when you saw the title of the blog rhymed with runt …

For about 99% of you I’m right on the money.

The other 1% of you take after my own heart and I’m guessing the first word you thought of starting with C was cookie.

Although you then realised that Julz probably isn’t officially a cookie (when you came back to finish reading after getting up to get yourself the aforementioned food item) 😉

I know!  It’s uncanny how well I know my blog peeps .. right?

Anyhoo I am neither a word rhyming with runt (although some peeps may disagree) and I am not a cookie (however I am brown and a little nutty like a peanut brownie).

Today the word I am actually looking for is .. drum roll please.

I know!

Maybe I should have warned you to be sitting down before reading the word of the day.

First of all I guess we should start at the beginning.

It’s no secret that I’m all about the “looks”, I look fit (but I’m not really), I look like I could do a sport (but I really couldn’t) and some people even think I come across as well off (and I’m totally not even close).

When it comes to training I’m also all about the looks.  I like all the fun “trick” kind of stuff, handstands, one arm handstands, handstand pushups, various yoga holds, muscle ups, levers etc etc the stuff that “looks cool”

Well …

At HPU they run gymnastics classes twice a week where they teach all that cool stuff! How cool is that! An entire class designed around learning tricks – exactly my type of class.

The catch?

As it’s a Crossfit HPU specialty class you HAVE to do the crossfit induction before you can do it.

Fair enough – rules are rules .. so I signed on to officially “qualify” as a crossfitter.

The induction course is a three week graduated program (which means you start with the easier stuff) which teaches you the fundamental movements of Crossfit.  Each of the nine sessions is compulsary and you can’t graduate without doing all of the nine sessions.

Also before they let you loose in an open class you need to be able to demonstrate proficiency in the three fundamental modes of exercise which are body weight exercises (squats, pushups, box jumps), Olympic bar movements and the not so fun stuff like running, rowing and skipping (there are actually tests).

The induction classes are kept small so that the trainers can actually make sure that you are doing everything as per “the crossfit standards”.  Our induction class had five people (three girls, two guys) and we had two instructors.   Kat (doing the crazy bar  TGU) and Joe (who was one of the Lulu poster boys when the NZ site went live)

Every class had three components.  There was usually a talk about something (principals of crossfit, nutrition, programming etc) there was a technique section where we were taught the correct way to perform exercises and then we would finish with a wod that included the exercises we learned in that session (and previous sessions).

Even though I’m no where near a beginner in the scheme of things I came away with a tonne of knowledge especially when it came to the Olympic lifts as these are things I never do.   But even when it came to the bodyweight stuff I do practically everyday I came away with some tips to help me become a more proficient athlete.  Apparently an old dog can learn new tricks 🙂

Lessons I came away with ..

Crossfit is HUGELY technique orientated. It’s all about where to place your hands on an olympic bar, where your feet should be positioned, the way your knees should track, how to breathe etc etc.  They are also big on making sure you are completing each rep “as per standards” and yes even in an induction class they call “no reps” (which is an aspect I like – apples vs apples and all that jazz)

Climbing a rope using your hands and feet is not as easy as it looks! I take back all of my previous disdain on the matter.

Mobility is King! (or Queen in my case). The better mobility you have, the more you can lift – roll and stretch. Repeat daily!

Also something that is a HUGE bonus for someone like me who is carrying a tonne of injuries is that because Crossfit uses the same WOD each day for every open class the powers that be can ensure that you don’t overdo certain exercises so for example you wouldn’t do chins every single day (but wait there’s more!) another bonus for us injured people is that you can check what the WOD is online to see if that days session is suitable.

Although the downside of having the WOD posted online is that I did see one of the WOD’s this week was running and some other horrible exercise and thought – meh I wouldn’t do that one and that’s probably just the kind of session I actually need 😉

Anyway today J, Bonny, Karen, Matt and I all passed our final tests (If you saw my Annie time above you will know I only just scrapped in, much work is required in the skipping department) 😉

We are now qualified as a “baby crossfitter” (Which incidentally is lower than beginner crossfitter) but hey it gets me into gymnastics class so I’ll take it.

Bring on the handstands!

Till next time