Crossfit - Wow!

My kettlebell workout experiment has left me with the profound impression that the balls-to-the-wall full body motions of swings, pull ups, squats and the like really are the most effective way to pound your body into shape fast. I base this conclusion on one workout, which either says something about the workout or about my willingness to jump to conclusions. Probably both.

Anyway, researching more multi-joint exercises and kettlebell training techniques led me to Crossfit, which seems to be the technique of combining all the most punishing full-body exercises you hate to do (burpees, power cleans, kettlebell swings) into one giant, timed sprint of a workout. The crossfit people seem to get it done in record time my doing everything at once.

Picture this: Do 15 power cleans, then 15 pull ups, then 15 dips, then 15 box jumps. Do that three times, as fast as you can, ‘cause the clock starts....NOW! That seems to be Crossfit.

Now mind you, I haven’t actually done a crossfit workout, I’m just basing this off of internet research and videos put up by the nice people at Crossfit.com. The classes seem to be very instructor led, hands-on things, which makes sense for a workout that could really injure you if you do it wrong.

I found a Crossfit gym not too far away, and I’ve gotta try it! I’ll keep you posted!

Update: went to the gym late and did a crossfit-style workout (I think it was a crossfit style workout, anyway). Here’s what I did:

20 dumbbell thrusters
20 dumbbell swings
20 pushups on ball
20 deadlifts w/ bar
20 front squat w/ bar

Repeat 3 times for time. It took me about 28 minutes for the three rounds, which means each round was taking almost 10 minutes (truthfully, I think the last round took quite a bit longer, as I was dead tired by the end of it. WAY TOO SLOW. I figure thats at least twice the time it should take. If I keep doing these style workouts, I’d like to see my time for something like that at about 3-4 minutes a round.