Anyway, I kind of laughed.
"I was in Reston all day Saturday and Sunday in training for this Crossfit certification."
True life, I spent about 16 hours this weekend learning, listening, laughing, and yes, working out, with ~60 other athletes (and potential Crossfit trainers). Two of them were friends from the gym, which made the experience more fun and engaging, and last from the moment we set out in the morning to when we pulled back in to the CFSA parking lot at 6 p.m. I lost "my weekend", but I gained a whole lot more.
Highlights of the weekend included Mike G, who was the "head" of our seminar and de facto emcee, psyching everybody out about doing Fran at 9 am on the first day; actually doing Fran on the first day with 40 other athletes cheering you on (PR!); watching our seminar staff do 13.1; the monk running by (twice) while we were practicing snatch technique with PVC; and playing with the muscle-up progression (and learning you do not have to be close to having a muscle-up to do this).
This experience will undoubtedly have dramatic, lasting effects on my performance as an athlete, competitor, and as a member of the CFSA community. Pretty sure once you start developing a coach's eye you can't turn that off. That said, it's not on every athlete's agenda to go for a Level 1 -- and I wanted to draw out and share a few points that everybody can learn from.
1) The very basic breakdown of what we do: Crossfit: constantly varied functional movement executed at a high intensity.
I'm going to throw some words from my notes at you. The movement we do is inherently safe because it is functional movement -- essential movement. When you can't do things like squat or lift something overhead any more, you lose the ability to move independently. Everybody can do Crossfit because it is based on the way we move and the things we need to do in every day life.
That said, just because it's inherently natural and safe does not mean that you don't need to BE safe -- a child bending down to pick up a toy off the ground is a natural movement; me throwing an additional 200 pounds on my shoulders then lowering myself to the ground requires a lot more thought and (developed) strength. It improves those functional movements -- it makes me a better human -- but functional movements will not be safe if you're an idiot about them. Educate yourself, listen to your trainer, train (and practice), and don't do stupid shit. It'll be great.
2) PVC work is hard, and you can never do enough of it.
I've been Crossfitting for about a year, so you wouldn't think I would need any help on a freaking air squat, right? Pretty sure I did those doing some Jillian Michaels workout DVD in high school. I can bust those things out all day, my squat can't possibly have any immaturity! Wrong. And you hang out in a deadlift position or overhead squat for long enough, even with a PVC pipe, and things start to tingle and twitch and hurt. More of us intermediate-ish athletes -- not new, not beginners, but not advanced or experienced (yeah, 1 year doesn't count me as "experienced) -- probably need it than we even know. Don't be complacent. Be actively working to perfect your movement, on your best lifts alongside your weakest. It will never, ever hurt you as an athlete to take it back to basics and improve your motor patterns, adjust your positioning, work your range of motion.
3) You will naturally click with some coaches better than others.
All of our trainers were incredibly experienced and talented. We would break up in to small groups to cover each movement and the progression of the 9 fundamental movements, as well as how to coach them (practicing on each other). It was interesting to see the different coaching styles at play -- and there were many of them. My favorite, if I had to pick, was Hollis. He was a wealth of knowledge, but also had humor about it and knew how to explain and teach concepts clearly. As an athlete, you will find coaches you do better with than others (CFSA has great coaches, and they all have something to teach you). Just remember that a coach doesn't need to be that coach you "click" with to be able to learn from them. But make the time and the effort to work with and reach out to those coaches that you do -- this experience is what you make it.
4) You can't out train your diet.
Training and diet will both move you towards wellness. However, there is only so far they can take you independently. I'm a big believer in Whole30, but the seminar talked a lot about Zone. But you don't have to be paleo or zone to fuel your body properly as an athlete. Nobody is going to be healthy eating freezer pizza and McDonald's. Put clean, good stuff in and get results out.
5) Crossfit is, and is supposed to be, fun.
Whether you are laughing together, working out together, making jokes... it is about the Crossfit community. It's not about seminar staff, it's not about me... it's about you! Collectively. CFSA has the best community, don't cheat yourself out of the experience. I came back from a day of learning and Fran-ing on Saturday night and still took a shower and went out to celebrate Madi's birthday for a little bit. Yeah, I was finishing a nutrition program and couldn't drink and that may have slightly made me want to punch somebody in the face, but it wasn't about having a bourbon - it was about being with friends. And that's the greatest. Share your passion with the people around you.
Bonus: Somebody asked about the switch grip, and this has come up in some CFSA programming guidance as well. What we were told: don't switch your grip until you are deadlifting a weight that you never want to clean. I thought that was really interesting. I can currently pull around 225 on a deadlift, and though that feels insanely heavy to me, I remember that current American record holder for what will be my weight class clean and jerked 282.5. Just some food for thought.
The Level 1 Course is great -- it really, really is. A year later, it just reaffirms that Crossfit is what I love and where I am meant to be. If you can find the means, you should do it. You won't regret it for a second. Part of me wonders what a community of athletes where everybody could go through that kind of intensive training and learning experience would be like. Some would probably just call that initiation ;)
What's more important than going to a Level 1 is to continue to educate yourself. It is easy to become complacent as an athlete -- my air squat is "pretty good", my front rack is "okay". There are tons of free resources, or for an incredibly nominal fee ($25, which is probably half of what you spend on coffee on a monthly basis) the Crossfit Journal, that will teach you everything you need to know and more. Heck, the Level 1 Training Guide is FREE. Crowd source. Community source. There is something to learn around every corner, on every page, from every athlete if you are willing to look for it and ask for it.
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