Last May, I bought myself a voucher for six sessions of CrossFit training on Deal Grocer. At about the same time, I got a present in my inbox - another voucher for six sessions of CrossFit from one of my best girlfriends. Great. It said only one voucher per person but that one could purchase unlimited gift coupons for other people. I called the number for CrossFit and inquired about my dilemma. The guy at the other end said it was fine and that they would honor both vouchers.
As I just got back from my raw food detox in Palawan yesterday, my June workout sessions have only just begun. Alternating with kettlebell training (yes, I went to the session yesterday evening) this month is CrossFit. Had my first session this morning.
The gym is near Eastwood but since I didn't know where it was or how difficult it would be to get there, I turned up an hour too early. The gym was locked. Fine, not their fault. I killed a bit of time at Eastwood then came back at around noon. By then, there were people in the gym in various stages of exercise. I was told to look for Karen, my trainer for the day.
Karen had me fill up some forms and, when I was done, she told me to warm up. She pointed to a board: 100 jump ropes, 15 squats, 15 push-ups and 250 m. rows. Hmm... I had seen some of the people inside the gym skipping rope like pros. I CAN'T skip rope. Okay, I can, but I skip rope like "one Mississippi, two Mississippi". She offered no help so I managed as best as I could. I did double jumps - two jumps for every turn of the rope.
Then I got down to do my push-ups. Halfway through, this guy in a light blue shirt started telling me I was doing it wrong. I had no idea who he was but I followed what he was trying to tell me, which was to get all the way down to the floor, release my hands, then push up. Fine. Actually easier for me.
Onto squats. Again, the guy in the light blue shirt interrupted me halfway through and told me I was doing it wrong. By this time, I was getting irritated. First of all, I had no idea who he was and, having worked out in many different establishments, I know that there are different ways of doing squats. Some will have you doing it legs hip-width apart, coming down with knees facing forward. Others will prefer a wider stance, with knees slightly turned out. If they wanted me to do things a certain way at CrossFit, knowing full well that it was my first time there, they should have shown me how they wanted things done off the bat instead of letting me get halfway through the set then tell me I'm not doing it right.
Finally, Karen came back and she introduced me to the guy in the light blue shirt. His name was Ferdie, another trainer, and part-owner of the establishment as I was to find out later. She also introduced me to the other people working out at the gym. Then she called me over to the board where there was a list of about ten exercises to do. She demonstrated each one to me and said I had to do 50 reps of each exercise. Whoa! On the information sheet I filled up, there was a question about whether or not I exercised and, if so, how many times a week, but I didn't indicate what I did and Karen barely looked at my information sheet anyhow and she didn't ask me any questions so she had no idea what level of fitness I was at. I could have walked in without having worked out a day in my life and she expected me to hang from a horizontal bar and lift my knees to my chest 50 times in a row? Right.
The last item on the list was double unders. They're jump ropes but the rope should pass under the feet TWICE for every jump. Groan. Did I mention that I can't jump rope? "Fine," she said, "Do the regular ones but multiply the reps by five." That meant 250 jump ropes. Nooooo... She walked away.
I looked at the first item on the list. Box jumps. So I went to a corner of the room, found the shortest box I could find, and jumped on and off it 50 times. As I was finishing up, Ferdie started shouting for everybody to get ready. Huh? There was a lot of commotion around me but I was facing the wall so I finished my 50 jumps and went back to the list on the board, and went onto the next item.
Karen and Ferdie looked at each other. Then Karen approached me and told me that I had to start at the same time as everyone. Whaaaaat??? I had just jumped on and off a box 50 times and was nearing collapse, there was no way I could do it again. (As it turned out, the various stages of exercise I thought I had seen were various stages of warming up.) "Look, you didn't tell me that and I just did 50 box jumps and cannot do it again so, if you want, I'll just wait here for them to finish." Ferdie walked off. By this time, it was clear that we had gotten off on the wrong foot so Karen told me to just go ahead.
For people who do this for a living and who are trying to attract new business by offering groupon vouchers, they sure suck at customer relations and orientation. If they had been friendlier and made a serious attempt at a proper orientation for a first-timer, these misunderstandings could have been avoided. As it was, I felt like they had turned their noses up at me because I had shown up with a discounted voucher.
Pissed off as I was, I still carried on.
Ferdie yelled at me a couple of times for doing things wrong. For standing on a box to support myself while hanging onto a horizontal bar, and for not squatting low enough during "wall balls". But I wasn't strong enough and had to adapt. So I ignored him and just kept doing what I was doing. It was better than giving up.
With all the yelling (by Ferdie and Karen) and the frenzied activity around (everyone else), I felt like I was in some sort of boot camp. Then Ferdie yelled that the time was up and everyone stopped what they were doing and sat down, exhausted. Karen disappeared again and Ferdie sat down, texting on his phone. I didn't know what was going on, if we were waiting for something else to happen (some stretching perhaps), so I paced around. But when one of the girls announced that she was going to take a shower, I approached Ferdie and asked if that was it. He said yes, so I shook his hand and thanked him and said I'd see him next week.
Sure enough, as I was in a cab on my way to my next appointment, my mobile phone rang. It was Ferdie. He said they could only accept one of my vouchers. He said he discussed it with his other partners and perhaps I could just pay the balance for the rest of the sessions, blah, blah, blah. All I heard was Ferdie and his partners dishonoring their word.
I would think that, when you have a small business like that - it's not like there were hordes of people beating down the door - you do what you can to cultivate good will in your customers. It's not like they'll lose business by honoring the voucher. They've already gotten paid and they have to run the class anyway. As it is, they've left me with the feeling that they are incapable of a simple orientation and are completely unprofessional and aren't good for their word.
Re CrossFit itself, my friend in Switzerland swears by it and claims that it is "the most effective training program [he] has ever done". Bear in mind that he is a bodyguard/ski instructor so he is completely fit. Re my problems with my ability to keep up, he had this to say: "It's all scalable, so it doesn't matter if you are not as fit as you think you need to be. Sometimes trainers can be arseholes at first, [but] do the [sessions anyway]..."
I wouldn't recommend CrossFit to those who are new at working out. Seeing as the workout for the day (WOD) is the same for everyone in the class, regardless of age or fitness level, CrossFit is for serious fitness buffs who want to push themselves to the limit. It's a high-intensity workout which, if it doesn't kill you, will definitely make you stronger and fitter but, yes, there is still that possibility that it might kill you. No wonder I had to sign a waiver.
Here are two good reviews of it that I found on the net:
- from Ace Fitness.
- from The New York Times.
***
CrossFit Checklist:
- Comfortable workout clothes
- Comfortable workout shoes and socks, recommended
- Snug workout gloves, recommended
- Knee bands, recommended - If, like me, you prefer to work out in shorts.
- Filled-up water bottle
- Small towel
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