Why do I do CrossFit?

Good question!

When my husband Derek gave me a fundamentals course for CrossFit as a Christmas present back in 2018 I thought it was the worst present ever. Derek had been training regularly at a local CrossFit gym but I just used to laugh at him going to “special club” and coming home looking like he’d been dragged through a bush sideways. I just didn’t think it was for me.

Reluctantly I started my CrossFit journey a few months later, (mainly because I didn’t want the money to be wasted). Driving away after my first session I was convinced I was about to have a cardiac arrest, my second session I thought i was going to have a stroke. But I didn’t (turns out I was just pretty unfit) and before I knew it I was getting stuck in and slowly starting to enjoy it.

Fast forward 3 years and CrossFit is now pretty instrumental to my life.

“I love the way it makes me focus so hard that I almost forget that I’m exercising and fitness kind of becomes a surprising byproduct.”

I like the progress element to it, learning gymnastic skills (I’m working on pull-ups at the moment) and weightlifting techniques is really fun and engaging. I like that the focus is not on looks or weight loss but on sustainable progress, hard work and fun (and a shed load of rep counting). Also the gym class structure means you have a shared experience with others that makes it fun and motivating. There’s a real community feel to it which also helps with accountability. This is ultimately what keeps me turning up to classes as on my own I really struggle to motivate myself to do any exercise, which is also why “normal gyms” have never worked for me in the long term. I just find it so boring and aimless.

I did CrossFit throughout my 3rd pregnancy which might seem a bit over the top, but because everything is scaleable and you are guided by a coach every session, this is probably one of the safest ways to train. Recovery post birth was way quicker than my other pregnancies even though I had a 6 months break from exercise after giving birth.

Also going in to my mid 30's I’ve grown determined to not just let myself decompose and surrender to more and more aches and pains as I get older, but to put up a fight really invest into strength and fitness.

“Now I can jump higher, run further and lift heavier than I’ve ever done, and for me, a year and a bit after having my 3rd child that feels like a really good personal achievement.”

CrossFit being CrossFit there are still lots of things I can’t do (like the annoyingly simple looking double unders that are actually really hard!) but that’s ok and part of the fun of it is that you’re always learning.

So it turns out what I thought was the worst present ever was probably the best.

Lotte