It's never a good sign when your quads start to hurt IN THE MIDDLE of the work out.
The Iron Tribe Nashville franchise has two locations - Belle Meade and Brentwood. I chose to take my pain at Belle Meade location where Maxwell Jones and Eli Martorana are the co-owners.
The Belle Meade location has been open for a little over 2 months and is situated along one of the busiest roads in Nashville - Harding Pike. This is a great location for them and the place seems to be a hit.
I somehow coerced my co-worker and office mate, Megan, into joining the fun with me. I'm still not sure how I accomplished that, but GO MEGAN for going through with it!
I'm not going to lie - it was intimidating during the 10-15 minutes we were waiting for the class to start. I was clearly the biggest person there (guys and girls) and probably had twice the weight on me compared to the other women in the room. Most people already looked in shape and had arm muscles to prove it. More than once we talked about leaving.
But it was so hard to leave because Maxwell and Eli were so welcoming into their community and so we stayed. Can't say we didn't pay for it later.
Yesterday's WOD (or Workout Of the Day) was:
10 Burpees
20 Jump Squats
30 Crunches
100m run with weighted medicine ball (10#)
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)
We were partnered up and went to work. Thankfully, I got a really nice ITF member as my partner (I regret her name escapes me). She was encouraging and didn't seem to get frustrated at how SLOW I was - especially at burpees - OUCH!
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| "Rug" burn and bruising from the burpees |
What I liked:
I loved the community aspect of CrossFit. I don't normally like group fitness situations, but the encouraging atmosphere and friendly competition aspect of ITF motivated me when I wanted to quit 5 minutes into the workout.
I also love that the actual workout was only 15 minutes. Yes, it was 15 minutes of intensity, but it was more mentally doable because I "only had to do it for 15 minutes".
What I didn't like:
The competitive aspect of trying to do "as many rounds or reps as you can" leads me to poor form, and I could see how I could potentially hurt myself.
I didn't feel like we warmed up or cooled down in any real way - and definitely not enough stretching at the end of the class.
All that to say, is if it was an affordable workout option, I would probably more seriously consider joining a CrossFit gym. The workouts seem like exactly what I'm missing (strength training) in my weight loss and fitness routine. However, it's just not in the budget as it stands right now, so maybe it's time to figure out how to incorporate strength training on my own?
Have you ever tried CrossFit? What did you think?
