My/your first WOD

     Ah, today's post is going to take me back. Yep, I'm going to share with you the intimate details of my introduction into CrossFit. The year was 2008, only years away from the flying car and soon we will have meals in pill form... ok, so maybe I'm a bit wrong on that. Let's just call it the "Post-WOD haze"



Forging Elite Frosh


     Well, I can't remember the exact date, time, or the meal I ate that day. It was roughly July of 2008-ish... and I read an article in the Navy Times, while I was living in Virginia, about the fitness craze of none other than CrossFit. So I figured I wasn't in too horrible of shape, so I figured I could give it a try. So I checked out the good ol' CrossFit.com. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, so I looked around till I find what I though was a do-able WOD... Yes, I cherry picked the hell out of WOD #1. I ended up finding this little number:

21-18-15-12-9 reps of:
95 pound deadlift
95 pound hang power clean
95 pound front squat
95 pound push jerk

     At first glace, for some odd reason, I thought this would be manageable... cut to half an hour later, and 3 dry heaves at the trash can, I was thoroughly destroyed! However, this was not the Cinderella story of "I fell in love right away and never looked back". No, unfortunately I couldn't get my head wrapped around the idea of workouts that made me feel like death and hungover at the same time.

     Cut to a few month later, the command I was stationed at adopted CrossFit as our official PT. Now the kool-aid was starting to taste better. We didn't have the "fancy" equipment. We were armed with can filled with 40 pounds of sand, large-ass-tires, sledge hammers, heavy medicine balls and ropes. I was enjoying the daily competition more and more each day. However, it was time to find a new place to live... hello Illinois!

     Once I moved to Illinois I was really looking for a great fitness program. I decided to start following CrossFit.com as best I could, and it was getting better all the time. But the base gym and meager apartment "fitness center" were just not cutting it... I wanted to find an affiliate to call home!

     After looking around at the St. Louis affiliate gyms in the area I decided to dive head first into CrossFit St. Louis... all I can say was good choice! I survived the Elements Session and started taking classes. The first WOD I had during a class was Helen (I remember that vividly)... unfortunately, about 3 days later I spent a month in Haiti, but even managed to CrossFit while I was there!


Kettlebell Swing... the devil's exercise


     So now, skip ahead some more... I've got my Level-1 certification, I went from athlete to trainer at this humble gym, and now I will be attending the CrossFit Movement & Mobility cert today! It's been quite the journey, one that I am still continuing to travel... but it sure is fun along the way.

     So I want to hear what you have to say. Do you remember your first WOD? What got you into CrossFit? Why are you at the gym you're at now? Speak up everyone!


NC/SC CrossFit Sectionals from Boomer Alred on Vimeo.


3,2,1 GO!