Today was my first official Workout of the Day, or WOD, as they call it at CrossFit. I went to the 5:30 class and was both looking forward to it and dreading it all day. I wanted to make sure I got there early so I didn’t have to do any penalty burpees. Apparently it’s 20 burpees for every minute you are late. I got there about 10 minutes early and watched the 4:30 class finish up.
Each day on the CrossFit Newmarket Central website they post the WOD and the WOD for the next day as well. This is what was posted today:
The class started with a bunch of exercises to warm up. We did dislocators (moving a PVC pipe from your hips, over your head, and down your back, while keeping your arms straight), 15 burpees, a plank, 30 sit-ups, and a squat hold. Then we did some Frankensteins and walking lunges. After that, it was time for the strength portion of the workout. This was 5 rounds of max reps pull-ups with a 2 minute rest in between. I am not good at pull-ups. I can’t really do one 
I had to use a band to help. With the assistance of the band (a medium band – although it seemed like a pretty thick band to me!) I was able to do 7-6-4-4-3. The last round was pretty pathetic, but I could not pull out anymore…I was trying and pulling as hard as I could, shaking like a leaf, but just could not get my damn chin over the bar. Oh well…I managed to crank out 24 pull-ups, and I think that’s awesome! 3 days ago I would never have even considered doing pull-ups and today I did 24!
After the pull-ups, it was time to get to the main part of the workout. Since it was my first time, Ryan, the coach for the class, wanted me to start without too much weight yet, since I would be feeling it regardless of how much I lifted. So, for the deadlifts, he got me to set up a 15lb bar, with 15 pounds on each side, for 45lbs total weight. I’m pretty sure I could have lifted more, but he was more concerned with me doing the move with correct form rather than lifting heavy right away. He also modified the number of reps that us new kids did (there were 2 guys who were taking their first class as well). While the main class was doing 15/15 for 10 rounds, we would only be doing 10/10 for 10 rounds.
After resetting the main clock, Ryan said there would be a 20 minute hard stop for this workout, gave the 3-2-1 countdown, and the workout started. Ryan wanted me to focus on having perfect form and not to worry too much about how fast I was going. The weight definitely wasn’t too heavy, I’m sure I could have lifted more, but it was good because I could really think about how I was moving through the deadlift and be sure that I was doing it properly.
After 10 deadlifts, it was right into 10 push-ups. I was able to do the first couple of rounds on my toes, modifying with a hand-raise to help take the pressure off a bit. After the 3rd round though, I dropped to my knees for the remaining rounds, and by the 8th round, even those were incredibly challenging.
I kept going, and definitely found the deadlifts to be the easier part of the workout. I have so little upper body strength, as was emphasized during the pull-up phase of the workout, and the push-ups were killer.
There were 13 people in the class today. The regulars were all finishing up while the newbies still plugged along. I started my last round with 2 minutes left. I got through the deadlifts no problem, and then struggled through those last 10 push-ups. Ryan was encouraging me, yelling “push” as I worked through those last 10. Others who had already finished up were also cheering me on. It was awesome! I was shaking and dripping sweat into a puddle on the floor, but I kept going and finally got through the last 10 push-ups, and finished the workout in 19:39. I had 21 seconds to spare! I was thrilled! And I wasn’t the last one done. One of the newbie guys didn’t quite make the 10 rounds…the last set of push-ups did him in.
Everyone at CrossFit has a workout book. It’s for us to keep track of all the details of the WOD that we do. Here’s my first entry. The best part….finishing within the 20 minute cut off!
I’m pretty sure I will be feeling this tomorrow…mostly my arms, since I could barely lift them after the workout to eat my dinner – which was pizza night at my sister’s to celebrate making it through the week. Probably not the kind of dinner they hope you eat after a workout, but hey, that’s life!
I’ve got 12 hours now to rest up and recuperate, since I’m going to another class tomorrow at 11:30am. I’m super excited to try wall balls. People were talking about tomorrow’s workout after tonight’s class, saying they hope they at least finish the double-unders. Hearing this, along with something I saw from Lindsay @ The Lean Green Bean, saying she didn’t get to the muscle ups either, I will not be too upset if I don’t finish the workout. I just hope I can lift my arms tomorrow to throw a medicine ball up a wall 150 times!
So, WOD 1 is in the books. I can’t wait for WOD 2. I think I might like this CrossFit stuff…hopefully I still feel that way when I start to hurt tomorrow!
I just need to remember this…
How was your workout today?
[...] My First WOD Feb [...]