Getting started with Crossfit seemed somewhat intimidating to me and I'm a someone who has been an active my whole life. I've played sports as a child and have been working out in some form since I was a teenager. With that said I couldn't even imagine the anxiety felt starting Crossfit by someone who is out of shape. Couple that with the relatively high price and you could see people would be hesitant to sign up.
But Crossfit is growing at an amazing pace. At least doubling every year from 2005-2012. And Jumping from about 5,000 affiliates in 2012 to over 10,000 today.
What makes this even more impressive is the relative growth to other popular gym chains across the country.
So how is Crossfit growing so rapidly? It starts with clever marketing and ends with results. Not to leave out the group setting that has a community...dare I see cult like feel.
This brings me to my first Crossfit experience. I had been exposed to "The Crossfit Games" on ESPN and the youtube videos of crazy workouts with hundreds of thousands of views. Being a competitor I said to myself "I could do that stuff." I would continuously put off joining because I didn't know what gym to join, the price and the relative unknown. Unknown of how to properly perform the exercises and how I would do them.
Lucky enough I came across a Groupon for a discounted rate of $59 for a month of unlimited visits at Crossfit Centereach. That's over a 50% discount of the $125 going rate. A monthly gym membership at your run of the mill gym most likely costs $30-$60 with amenities varying. Despite paying $30 monthly for my regular membership I couldn't resist.
I immediately headed to the website and read the gym rules and what I should bring. There I found the holy grail of for Crosfitters. The "WOD Blog" and it might as well have been written in ancient hieroglyphics. The WOD aka the workout of the day is the entire workout performed by the class. This includes a warm-up, strength workout, and metabolic conditioning workout that is performed with no rest, usually timed.
The anxiety I felt when going to bed that night knowing I would wake up and head to this new gym was comparable to the jitters of starting a new job combined with the adrenaline boosting anticipation before a big game I was performing in. How'd it turn out? Well I'm wrote this post today didn't I?
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