We’ve heard time and time again that people look at our site, do research on CrossFit, and decide they want to try it — and then wait weeks, even months, before actually picking up the phone and making the call.  Some of them are intimidated by the workouts, some are nervous about sweating in front of strangers, but all of the people that do come say that they just didn’t know what to expect, and that if they had, they would have joined sooner.  So, I’ve asked a person who recently became a member to describe his first day for you.

I’m one of the people who waited months before coming in.  Actually, almost a year.  I knew about CrossFit, a friend of mine did it and told me all about it, but I was honestly just afraid of showing up and not being able to do it and people wondering why I even bothered.

My first day I arrived for my appointment and met Tom the tall guy with the shaved head and glasses, and he was really friendly and showed me around.  There will probably be people working out, or recovering from working out, and they will be friendly too.  There’s a mix of ages, men and women, and people of all sizes.  There were one or two new people who joined the same week as me and I think they were scared too, but as far as I know they’re all still doing it and everybody’s gotten a lot better.

Tom talked about rhabdomyolysis, or “rhabdo,” a problem with your kidneys that can result from doing too much too quickly.  This is one reason that all people start slowly, no matter how fit they are before they come.  I will admit that it was frustrating to feel like I wasn’t working as hard as everyone else at first, but everyone’s gone through the first weeks, and anyway, they have their own workout to worry about!

As there are a lot of specialized movements in the workouts, he showed me how to do these using a length of plastic pipe instead of a barbell.  Trust me — having that practice has definitely made the lifts a lot less intimidating.  I did a short workout with some jumping jacks and push-ups and these lifts with the plastic pipe, and I have to admit, I was breathing hard and was a little sore the next day.  I watched the people doing the full workouts and was frankly terrified — I couldn’t have done them with a gun to my head.  Seven weeks later, I’m doing nearly all the workouts with no modifications and am honestly so frustrated that I waited this long to try CrossFit.

Oh, and what to wear — you should wear basically what you would wear to play company softball, if that makes any sense.  I wear basketball shorts and a t-shirt and either my tennis shoes or an old pair of Sambas that are a size too big for some reason.  Some people wear weightlifting shoes, I think I’ve spotted some wrestling shoes, and one guy wears those Five Fingers.  I think Tom works out barefoot.  Nobody really cares what you are wearing, but running shoes make it harder to do some of the weightlifting because of the thick heel.  You will sweat through whatever it is you wear, so those dri-fit clothes don’t really do much.

I think that’s it, but if you have any questions you can definitely ask Tom.  He’s so nice that I don’t even hate him after all the pullups and pushups and box jumps and squats he’s made me do.  That’s saying a lot.