WiNK
by: Evan Bourgeault
Crossfit Bethel
After a year of resting my muscles since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my mom and I decided to go back to Bethel CrossFit, a high intensity hour long workout which involves all parts of the body including, but not limited to, legs, shoulders, arms and core. This is my second week of CrossFit, and this is how the past two weeks back at CrossFit went after a year off.
My first day back was leg day. I got to the gym at 6:15 in the morning, my body was still waking up and all I wanted to do was fall back asleep. Only 16 people are allowed in the gym per workout session. My mom's friends Debbie, Liam, Jimmy and Steve were there hyping us up. The CrossFit gym is so welcoming and an amazing community. Halfway through the workout I started to feel extremely nauseous and ended up throwing up in the bathroom in the middle of the workout. My body wasn't prepared for this intense workout.
The second day I went was focused on arms. We did a bunch of different workouts including ring rows, dips, deadlifts and kettlebell swings etc. My legs were still very sore from leg day. However once I was warmed up and started working out my legs felt better. My gym has two different workouts everyday. One is Health/Fitness which is more cardio based, aka less crazy of a workout. Performance is the other workout which includes lifting your max weight, handstand pushups, toe to bar and plenty of other exercises.
After having the weekend off the last thing I wanted to do was get up at 5:45am to go to the gym. This day in particular, the workout was mostly exercises for shoulders. We did kettlebell thrusters, bench press, pushups, ring rows etc. On my fourth day we ran 200m, squats, pushups, backwards lunges with a bar and plates. This workout was easier for me because there was more resting time in between exercises.
In conclusion, when going back to CrossFit for the past two weeks I reconnected with old friends and the welcoming gym community. CrossFit is very competitive and intense, which is also very helpful for losing weight and gaining muscle. Crossfit may be high intensity workouts, but they can be scaled to anyone's ability even if your muscles have been in hibernation for a year. The whole group cheers each other on which makes me excited to go even if I have to wake up before 6 AM.