Day 2: Who cheats in Crossfit??

Getting up early has been much easier than expected, especially since I have been sleeping a lot earlier. I’m going to keep this up once the class ends, and maybe try the 7 am workouts. 

We had a different instructor today, and prior to class he made it a point to identify who was there for the on-ramp class and instruct us on where we would get started. That was enough to make it feel more welcoming to me than the previous day. 

We also had a new participant, Joan*, who had decided to switch from her 6:30 pm on-ramp class. I was a little surprised since the web site states that you need to stick to one time slot and location for the whole class, but rules are meant to be broken, right? 

Today’s instruction involved the press, push press, and push jerk. We started practicing with PVC pipes and the guys moved to 45 pound bars. I love that the instructor (same as yesterday) explained and demonstrated every aspect of each movement.  

We finished with a circuit of 21-15-9 push press/ball slams, which means:

1. 21 push presses, 21 ball slams
2. 15 push presses, 15 ball slams
3. 9 push presses, 9 ball slams

No rest in between (“you rest at the end,” the instructor told me). 

Halfway through the first set of push presses, I noticed that Joan was going through them really quickly…so quickly, in fact, that it seemed to me she was doing way less repetitions than prescribed. In the end she finished in about half the time I took, which seemed absurdly fast even though she was only using a PVC pipe instead of a 45-pound bar.

I don’t know why it bugged me so much, but I felt compelled to gently confront her about it afterwards.

Me: So….did you do all the push presses and ball slams? Like, ALL OF THEM?

Her: Yeah, 21 push presses, 15 ball slams, 9 push presses.

Me: No, that’s NOT all of them. You’re supposed to do 21 of each, 15 of each, and 9 of each.

Her: Yeah, that’s what I did. 

Me: I see. <skeptical look, pause> Okay then. 

I will allow for the possibility that I was wrong (or crazy) or misheard her, and she actually did the correct number of reps for each movement, but ultimately I just wish that the instructor was paying enough attention to notice. I don’t blame him, though – after all, who would deliberately cheat at counting reps in Crossfit?? You might as well stay home and sleep if you were going to do that.

Tomorrow, though, I’ll be counting…watch out Joan. 

* not her real name