Saturday 10-18-08 CrossFit Level One Cert - Day 1

Well, I'm back! Steve Esqueda is now CrossFit Level One certified!!! Which means I'm now recognized by CrossFit as an Instructor/Trainer of the CrossFit method. The weekend was awesome! Some of the instructors have been with CF since the beginning. They are amazing people, not just because they're tremendous athletes, but the way they teach and engage all of their students. I feel I was very fortunate to have had such people training me. I did really well in my opinion. The first day started with lecture and learning the 9 fundamental movements of CrossFit and elite functional fitness. We would break out into groups for movement, and then back to the classroom for more lecture. At the end of the day there was a group workout. "Fran" 21-15-9 reps of Thrusters and Pull-ups, rx'd weight for men is 95lbs. and 65lbs. for women. A good finish time for "Fran" is around 5 min. I did "Fran" with 75 lbs. in August and it took me 17 minutes. On the Tuesday before the cert I did it with 65 lbs. and finished in 9.34. Not bad, 8min. faster @ 10lbs. less. They capped our workout @ 10 min. I finished w/65 lbs. in 7.02!!! 2.32 faster! I think this was due to trainers yelling at me the whole time and not letting me rest. I really learned this weekend what "Intensity" is. Sunday was the ass-kicker though. We went through movement in the morning and in my group I was picked as an example for medicine ball cleans w/ a 16lb. ball. After about 120 of those we went back inside for lecture and then a workout. It was 7 rounds for time of 10 med ball cleans and 10 burpees. Sounds easy enough...yeah right!!! They capped this one @ 12min. and I didn't finish. I got through 6 and a half rounds and ran out of time. My legs were done from the cleans earlier. Then we had more lecture and 5 exercise stations in the afternoon, Snatch, Glute Ham Developer, Kipping pull-ups, Muscle-ups, and Rowing. I was used for an example again for the kipping pull-ups. My arms were toast. I got out Sunday (with my certificate!) and drove home. I was beat down. I'm still walking funny today!!! And living in a place w/ stairs is not making it fun. All in all I'm very glad that I did it. I now have such a better understanding of why we do what we do and how to teach it properly. It was not an inexpensive endevor, but the experience and knowledge gained about CrossFit and myself were worth every penny. And they will continue to be as my journey into this goes further...

"Fran"

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

See comments for scaling.

Post time to comments.