January Crossfit Update

January sucked for my fitness. I knew it'd be tough. I still had to pay for my gym in Sacramento, which meant that I didn't want to immediately sign up for a gym down here. Plus, I was having some issues letting go of my previous gym.

I tried out two gyms down here and they both have their pros and cons. I still have several more to try out and choose from.

My ideal situation is to find a gym that is close to work or between work and home, has later classes (6:30-7ish is ideal), has one or two really good coaches who coach consistently (e.g. not changing coaches every day), has good programming, and is outside (lol there aren't any, my previous one is special).

Bonus points for good friends there like my last gym. But because everyone at my barn and everyone at work is so chatty, I don't really need my gym to be a place where I socialize anymore. I still so miss everyone in Sac though!

TC got his first turnout at the new barn and
made fast friends with this cute horse

CF-A

I went to this one first. Unfortunately it was a workout they use as a benchmark, it was 30 minutes long and had a ridiculous amount of movements/volume. So many that we couldn't warm them all up. No one Rx'd and no one finished. I wasn't super pleased with the workout itself, which made me wonder about the programming. My coach at my previous crossfit is big on efficiency in programming. There's no reason to have these long workouts that no one can do properly. The best workouts for what I want to do (just not breathe so heavily walking up stairs with all my groceries lol) include way more warm up, a strength session to work on form for these highly technical movements, a short workout (12-20 minutes) and then a culture that promotes active recovery (like people sticking around after class to roll out).

I know it's just one workout, but I also follow this box on social media and have seen more 30 minute workouts than my previous coach would have liked to see. I don't like doing movements in the workout that I haven't had proper time to warm up for and practice form on. I also... care so little about my cardio (only enough to eliminate heavy breathing up stairs) where those long cardio-heavy workouts aren't that fun. If I wanted a long cardio-heavy workout, I'd take up running.

BUT. The coach was really good. He called me out on everything my previous coach and my other favorite coach did, as well as adding new stuff. He's also a healthcare professional, so that is nice. AND he teaches most of the classes, I like having a main coach who I can work with primarily.

The box doesn't have great times for me (6:30pm is my ideal time), two classes a week are at 6:30 so I'd do those, then I'd have to take off from work a bit early one day a week to make a third class. That's totally fine though, my job is very flexible.


CF-B

I dropped in at this Crossfit almost two weeks later. I attended one class at my previous gym during those two weeks, but I tell ya, this month was rough, I think I went to the gym maybe five times. I used to go five times a week.

The workout was a strength workout, which the coach was worried I wouldn't like. I love strength workouts, in fact, one of my thoughts is to go join a power lifting/oly gym instead of doing CrossFit. It's cheaper and it'd guarantee me barbell work every day weee. But no cardio, and if no one makes me do cardio, I won't do it. And I fully admit that the strength is great, but that increasing my cardio has probably helped me the most.

The workout was great though. The warm up was very good, we went over how to do the movements (bulgarian split squat and very steep ring rows). The coach wanted us to roll out in between rounds and my previous coach was big on that too.

BUT. The coach was then watching me do my split squat, which I have only done once or twice on my own. I've always been told to ALWAYS hit parallel in all squats. There is no reason not to. The coach told me I was going too low. I said "I thought I was hitting parallel" and she said "you are, you don't have to go that low though" and I said that I had no problem going that low (there was only 45lbs on my back) and she said "well if it's easier to do that way, then do it that way" and it's like... well no it's not easier because I'm going lower but like... isn't hitting parallel better? Educate me, woman.

I texted my previous coach afterward and asked him and he asked me if she gave me any reason why not. I said no, and that I probably should have asked. But he said that the fact that she didn't give a reason was a red flag. So I dunno. They have a different coach every day (which is also a bummer, I like finding a coach or two I like and sticking to them) so I can always avoid her if I find her coaching to not be as good.

The location is perfect and at first glance, they seem to have a ton of 6:30 classes - four days a week! Buuuut one of those days is bodyweight cardio (yeah I can do that for free at home) and two of those days are intro classes. The coach said I could come to the intro classes and just load up the weight, but even when there's just a new person in the regular class, it means I don't get as much coaching. And that's totally fine! Help the person who needs help. But to basically guarantee myself sub-par coaching twice a week? No thanks, I can coach myself at a regular gym just as well.

What is his neck actually made of?

Gyms to look at this month include two in the city between mine and where work is and to look at the oly/power lifting gym that is far from my house but a) cheaper and b) has an amazing reputation. Update: I tried this gym and it's great but probably too much autonomy/not enough community for me, but I'm going to do it twice a week while I look for something that's a better fit since it's cheaper. The coach that is there twice a week is amazing, the others have been kinda meh. It's just not a place where you get a lot of coaching I think. Except that one coach!

I think there's one more near-ish to work that I can try too. There ARE some near my house, but it means leaving work at 5:15 to get to a 6:30 class (traffic, this is why I work late hours), which makes riding and doing Crossfit impossible to do on the same day. But if the perfect gym is around my house, I'll figure it out. I can do one or two longer work days to have one short one so I can go 3x/week.