My Crossfit Weekend by Martin King

On Saturday morning I drove up to what can but be described as an old warehouse, with one difference – a big, rather flashy sign that read Crossfit. I was early so spent some time looking through my revision notes waiting, anticipating what was to come.

A few months before, I was in the gym at Racquets Fitness Centre doing some tough isolation, sprint work as most other gym goers do, working on the chest, shoulders, arms …… when a chap from ‘the states’ came in and started doing a Thruster, a cross between a shoulder press and a squat. He then jumped from that to the rower for a brief blast, and then on to 12 handstand push ups. Then he started over again –  The AMRAP. This continued for about 20 minutes. When he eventually finished, he paused and then dropped to the floor to catch his breath. This I later found out was a WOD, a Workout Of the Day, dictated to him by an online community known as Crossfit. This Style of workout looked intense and above all different. This guy was in shape; he was fit – not Marathon runner fit or Weightlifter fit – but an amalgamation of both!

I later found out that Crossfit is to be fit for the unknown, to train for whatever life may throw at you, to have a balance of strength, power, speed, stamina, accuracy, agility, coordination, balance and  cardio-respiratory endurance. Crossfit is, in the words of Greg Glassman the founder: “… a constantly varied, high intensity, functional strength and conditioning program. I was hooked.

The following months then took me into the Crossfit world learning moves such as the Muscle up, kipping, the Snatch and the importance of total flexibility and a solid squat. I read from the Crossfit journal, the trainers guide, watched Youtube videos, read The supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett, stumbled across a chap called Rich Froning – ‘The fittest man on earth’, watched the Crossfit games and read some material that was at times confusing and contradictory to what I had previously been taught. However, I absorbed and filtered some interesting information. After a few weeks I realised how big Crossfit was. It had taken the US by storm and now it was making an impact in the UK. Crossfit is here to stay.

Around Christmas time I decided that to fully master Crossfit, I needed to become a trainer, so I booked myself onto a level one trainer course in Reading.

The course was great, full of highly energetic people from all over the Uk. We looked at Nutrition, the foundational movements of Crossfit and looked at what health is, what fitness is, how to guide people safely through Crossfit, its moves and its foreign terminology.

What I Love about Crossfit is that it makes fitness into a sport. It encourages the sharing of results, support for each other and to universally drive each other forward in the pursuit of total fitness. This is something that’s lacking in most gyms, but an attribute we hold dear at Racquets.  We’re independent and fully supportive of all our clients that push themselves forward in the pursuit of fitness.

At Racquets we’ve started to implement some of the Crossfit methods into the club and hopefully one day we’ll be affiliated as a Crossfit Box.

I now have to wait seven days for my results.  Did I make the cut? In all fairness I’m not worried; I found the course interesting, I gained some valuable information and I met some awesome people.

Did I master Crossfit?  No, Do i understand it more?  Yes.

Crossfit is a lifestyle, a journey to better ones self, to train weaknesses &  strengths, to face every day challenges with drive without self-doubt. Crossfit is now apart of how i train it’s another string to the bow an additional means of helping clients reach their goals of fitness, wellness and health

One thing’s for sure, tomorrow as today I’ll be training in the pursuit of total fitness.

Martin King

Level 4 Personal trainer

& possibly a Crossfit level 1 trainer 😉