Just an update to make sure I’m keeping track of my journey into CrossFit (while staying out of the expensive boxes and on a budget).

Today, even in the middle of the worst season for fitness and junk food imaginable, I gave my first set a try.  This is the same set that I cut in fourths on my first attempt and then in half on the next.  Today, I kept it at half for a total of 50 pushup and 50 squats.

Last time it took me 2:51.

Today’s time was 2:13.

Pretty happy with that.

Apparently, a simple exercise with the harmless name of “air squats” is a fairly core exercise in the CrossFit world.  Having spent a few years actually lifting weights, I know what a squat is, and I’m used to them actually having a bar with some weights resting heavily on your shoulders as you go down and then back up.  Squats that I’ve done in the past not only hurt your legs, but they don’t feel so good on the neck, shoulders, and back, either.

So the idea of equating with air?  Pretty appealing.  And in keeping with my introductory plan of taking many of these excercises  and cutting them in half, I decided to give number 8 on the list a shot.  How long would it take me to do only 50 air squats, and how much could that really hurt.

The good news is it took less than 2 minutes (1:43 to be exact).  The bad news is that my legs burned for about 1:12 of that.

Sure, I’m just dipping my toe in the CrossFit waters, but every time I try one of these workouts (well, half of one of these workouts) I gain more and more respect for the people who are doing this stuff for more than 2 minutes a day.

It’s a decent question.  On the positive side of the “to CrossFit or not to CrossFit” question is the physical conditioning to be gained, the unbelievable spike in self-confidence, and the potential to find the key ingredient that might help me find my peak in running races of both short and endurance distances.

On the negative side is death.

Well, maybe that’s not quite true.  I mean, we are all going to die in some form or fashion, and so while  CrossFitters will look better in the casket, they will, in fact, be in a casket someday.

And so for me, I think it all boils down to one thing: the curiosity of how far I can push myself.

Do I have any desire to prove to anybody that I’m a beast? Nope.

Do I have the desire to try to somehow be a teenager again?  Heck no.

But do I want to do all I can to make sure that I can be around as long as I can so that I can point people to Jesus for as many years as I can?  You better believe it.

And that’s what got me looking around on the web of world-wide hyperlinks for CrossFit exercises that can be done at home without any CrossFit equipment.  My reasoning is that this way no one will see me, and it’ll save me the $120/month that I’m pretty sure I can put to better use, at least right now.  CrossFit membership, food for the kids.  CrossFit membership, gas in the car.  CrossFit membership, a car.

Yeah, that one was a no-brainer.

So I found a couple of sites that listed a butt-load of exercises (mind you, these are toned butt-loads), and this one in particular seemed helpful (you can access it by clicking the word in this sentence with an underline).  As I looked over the list, I decided I could give the first one a shot, since “1” is a number that comes at the beginning and I am a beginner.

Not trying to think too highly of my athletic prowess, I decided to cut the first workout in half.  5 rounds of 5 pushups and 5 air squats for time.  I thought that was reasonable, even though I was pretty sure I could have done the whole thing (10 rounds of 10 each).  After all, I’ve run 4 marathons, 6 half-marathons and had a number of 5, 8 and 10k races sprinkled in with them.  Plus, like every man in ‘Merica, seeing a number as low as 5 in front of pushups makes me think, “Pff! Anyone can do 5 pushups!)”

My time for a round of 5? 1:53. That’s minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes.

And I was tired.  Not “face down sucking air on the ground” tired, but a lot more tired than I thought I’d be after 25 pushups and 25 air squats.

So, if I answer “yes” to the CrossFit question, I am in essence going to feel like I’m dying in order to put off dying. Makes sense to me.  How about you?  Have you done – or are you doing – CrossFit?  Got any tips and suggestions you’d like to share?  Think it’s a horrible idea?  Leave some comments and tell me what you think.