Kirsten Captures

I have been waiting to post this for weeks! If you follow me on Instagram (@kchmiele) you have probably noticed that right now I am all about Crossfit. It all started with curiosity, patience, and a little luck. Let me share it with you now.

Saturday, October 20th 

Before I moved to China I had heard a lot about Crossfit. It is high-intensity, functional fitness with a background in gymnastics and olympic lifting. Now those are two things I love: gymnastics and heavy lifting. Amen! As soon as I moved to Shanghai I looked up Crossfit gyms. Turns out the very first Crossfit gym just opened in Shanghai just this September at Eternity Fitness in downtown central Jing An. Once we returned from the cruise I immediately signed up for an introductory class offered the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month at 2pm.

Giving ourselves 2 hours to spare, Peter and I made our way to the gym around noon using a combo of metro line 7 and walking. It took about an hour to get there which meant we were ridiculously early (for once). I was so excited and yet so nervous. I hadn’t worked out seriously in almost a month and had lost a good amount of strength. I also wanted to impress the trainer with my form and knowledge since I am a personal trainer myself!

There ended being 4 people in the class total, two newbies and another expat personal trainer! She was very nice but I knew we would end up competing in the end (no shame).

To start, our very nice and knowledgable trainer Mark guided us through the philosophy and principles behind Crossfit. Then he took us through a little warmup and then went over the basic lifting movements. We reviewed the squat, dead lift, overhead squat, push press, clean and jerk, and more with a PCB pipe. I’ve always been interested in olympic weightlifting so this was very informative and fun!

WOD from another day

Then it was time for the WOD! We did this Baseline Workout:

10 Pull-ups (underhand kipping)

20 Burpees

30 Pushups (on knees)

40 Sit-ups

50 Air Squats

500m Run

1RFT (1 round for time)

It was tough! My lungs felt like they were bursting out of my chest and I really struggled with the push-ups (where did you go upper-body strength?). As much as I wanted to beat the other PT, my fitness level was just not there. I came in second with a time of 11.18.

And you know what? I loved it. I loved the rush of a timed workout, I loved feeling the burn of my muscles, I loved pushing my body to the limits, and I loved the fact that I was having a blast working out! Oh and I also loved kipping pull-ups. My inner-gymnast was giddy with excitement.

Still on a Crossfit high, I signed up on the spot for a one month unlimited pass. I wanted to join the cult and have fun getting back in shape. Honestly I was not surprised that I would love Crossfit as much as I did.

So be prepared for a ton of Crossfit posts in the next few weeks! I know I’m excited 🙂