crossfitlugano | WOD Kills

February 28, 2014

How CrossFit changed my life in 150 days

Life changing events are rare. Finding your soul mate, the birth of your child, the loss of a loved one. We believe that some thing just “happens”, but sometimes is very easy to make them happen.

When I started CrossFit I was really skeptical. I never found the right motivations to play a sport and I neither felt the need of doing so. But during a warm and sunny afternoon everything changed. CrossFit got me and is not planning to let me go. The show is just at the beginning: and here is how my life really changed in just 150 days.

I do things i never thought i could do.

neo2598

Really now. Snatches? Handstand? “I’ll never do such things”. “Are just not for me”, a little voice inside my head was saying. But once again I was under evaluating the impact CrossFit was going to have on my life.

The baggage of knowledge, experiences and motivations that my trainers gave me in just five months is huge. I played many sports in my life, but it never happened to me to learn so many things – and improve so much in doing them – like in the last five months.

CrossFit ass-kicked me and brought me outside my comfort zone – sometimes really far – and I understood that just in this way we learn, improve, and grow.

Are you scared that you’re not the kind of person that can lift a barbell? Do you think you’re to heavy to lift yourself up on the rings? You’re sure you can’t run a half marathon? Just step in a CrossFit box and give your trainers time enough to prove you wrong.

I learned to find motivations.

13-07-13-central-manchester-games-6050

It doesn’t take long to understand that CrossFit is more than just physical strength and power. Motivations and the ability of remaining focused on goals are an essential part of this great sport.

My personal experience said that once I started finding motivations for my workouts – and trust me when I say that I really needed them more than once – it became even easier to find motivations for my everyday tasks. Reading a boring business report? Going to the Post office? Fixing that shelf your wife is talking about since weeks? CrossFit really is a great training system for commitment and consistency.

I started eating well.

I never dieted in my life. I’m lucky and I’ve a metabolism that allowed me any kind of junk-food and carbo-horror-show without punishing me with a levitating belly or fluffy love-handles.

But I wasn’t expecting to find a direct correlation between the quality and the amount of food eaten and the quality of my workouts. Our bodies are great machines and they need high-quality fuel, in the right amount and at the right time to deliver the best. Nevertheless, starting eating only quality foods and cutting out the rest I started having a general healthy feeling all day long. Plus, my last blood exams were great!

I made friends and i learned to accept their help.

neo3515

You probably heard a lot about CrossFit Community. And yes, everything you hear is true.

I’m an Italian expatriate living in Switzerland and one of the hardest things I experienced after my relocation was making new friends in the town where I now live with my wife and my daughter. Tight working schedule and general routines left us no time and opportunities to build a new social life.

Everything changed after I joined my CrossFit box. There I found motivated athletes – students, workers, housewives and businessmen of all ages – with whom I share goals, passions and values. I bonded with most of them and some of these people are becoming real and solid friends.

Furthermore, I learned to accept help in time of need – we all like that little push when we are fighting against our limits – and to appreciate the Spirit of Community. I’m generally a not sociable person, but the real deal of CrossFit is sharing our experiences with others who genuinely believe in what we believe. It might sound superficial. But when we are sweating at the box we’re not just training: we’re bonding with other human beings who are fighting for our same goals. Something that nowadays we rarely have the opportunity to do, and will make us better and more complete persons.

This article was originally published by BoxRox – We Are Europe.
You can read my articles on BoxRox following this link.

September 24, 2013

What I learned from CrossFit (until now)

Me and my friends after a really intense WOD (crossfitlugano.com)

When I joined the CrossFit community, I never thought I could have learned something. I soon realized I was going to workout hard and I was going to give my best, but it took me a while to understand that the experience I’m living is actually more than just fitness. We’re not talking about skills and techniques. What I learned, and I’m learning day by day, WOD by WOD, is something that I think is making me a better, and more complete, person.

CrossFit is a lesson of humility

CrossFit boxes usually have a really heterogeneous customers base. Students, lawyers, traders, workers, sport professionals and more. What I learned, is that doesn’t matter who you are and what you do outside the box: in there you are just like all the other folks. You will give your best, you will sweat and you will suffer. And perhaps, you will find your name at the bottom of the times whiteboard. This way, I’m learning to never give up and to keep challenging myself. Leaving my ego at the door.

I can learn something from everybody

When I first moved my steps in the CrossFit world, there very little I knew about. Of course, my trainers are the first source of knowledge and information. But I’m trying to keep looking at all the people around me. In CrossFit no one is the best in class. And, with humility, I’m sure I can learn something from everybody in there.

I started eating well

I spend about 12 hours a day out of home, in car and at my office. And I’m sure most of you are in my same conditions. Eating well, eating healthy, is difficult. And, to be honest, was never my concern. But joining CrossFit is not just about sport and getting active. It’s more like lifestyles that will make you feel better and more conscious about your body. Soon I started being pickier on my lunches and dinners, trying to choose the best nutrients I could get. Such a change is quite difficult, and requires determination and patience. Most of the time, while eating at self-services or restaurants, is almost impossible to find what your body really need. Nevertheless, I quickly found out that my performances during the workouts and my general feelings during the day were much better while I managed to eat the right amount (and from the right sources) of carbs, proteins and fats.

Less is more!

All my life I looked for fancy fitness clubs with modern machines and cutting edge interior design. That stuff cost me a lot and, guess what? It never worked. We think that being member of a nice gym will give us better chances to go often, but at the end, this rarely works. The ugly truth is that most of us don’t need all that stuff. Less is more: CrossFit boxes are essentials and offers just what you need. You will learn to workout with floor exercises, jump boxes, PVC bars, ropes and few other (heavy) objects. Nevertheless, the rugged look of the box will give you other motivations to work you ass off. No women with fancy gym pants and make up, no guys with expensive watches. Everybody will be sweating and moaning, and you will not be embarrassed to do the same.

4 Comments

September 12, 2013

Feelings of a beginner

And so it seems that I arrived at the end of my On-Ramp training.

When I decided to join the CrossFit community, pushed by a friend, I didn’t know what I was going to face exactly. Surely I knew that my physical condition wasn’t great, and I had to do something about.

As I often say talking with my new friends at the Box, I’m usually the best customer for regular fitness centres. I pay a full year subscription, driven by an irrational enthusiasm, and I never go. That happened more than once in my life: I could never stand staying closed in a gym, lifting heavy stuff and running like a hamster in its wheel.

I was scared this time I was going to have the same feelings. Especially because my expectations about the CrossFit training philosophy and its community where not great. Or better: I was sure I couldn’t fit in there with ultra-fit people lifting barbells, hanging on bars, running, rowing and shit. I’m a tall and skinny guy, 185cm tall (6’1” fts) for 69Kg (149.6 lbs) and I never liked any kind of strength training. All the time I felt embarrassed in gyms, next to huge guys growling and panting while fighting with bench presses or huge dumbbells. And I think, this may be a common feeling for people like me. For these reasons, before applying for my On-Ramp training, I decided to attend a Free Trial offered by my local Box, trying to understand what was really happening during a CrossFit WOD. And that warm Saturday, everything changed.

Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try.

What I will remember for a long time is the deep sense of fatigue after the 15-20 minutes of the trial workout. I realised that I never had such intensity of physical activity before. While resting on the floor, trying to slow down my heart, getting my breath back, and control a strange nausea, the only thing in my mind thinking was: “I’m not made for this stuff”.

Once back home, after a refreshing shower, something started to change in my mind. And that little voice saying: “Hey, be reasonable, you’re not made for working out…” shut up. And suddenly I was attracted by that intensity, that sense of fatigue, those sore muscles. I started considering the chance to apply for the On-Ramp training.

I wasn’t convinced until the Monday after. That morning I woke up early as usual. Checking my emails while having breakfast, something caught my attention. An email from Rolando, the Box manager, saying that there was a free place for the On-Ramp training starting that same day. In that moment a bell rang. I took my phone and I made the call: my adventure started that evening.

A lot has been written in blogs and fitness related websites about CrossFit and the On-Ramp program. What really impressed me is the level of attention and preparation of the trainers I found. I immediately felt comfortable with the situation as I never felt in any of the gyms I went (or at least tried to go). I started learning movements and skills that I thought I could never perform and get. And, for the first time, I started being confident about my potentialities.

I read a lot about the “CrossFit Community” and I thought was just a bunch of nice motivational words, part of a clever marketing operation. Well, I had to change my mind. What really helped me was being with other people, each one of them giving its best to learn something that was new for all of us, with our ego out of the Box. That sense of embarrassment I had in other gyms totally disappeared: I was for the first time happy to be working out with a group of people I barely knew.

And yes, I started seeing (or better: feeling) results. Of course each person starting a new physical activity does it for two main reasons: feeling better and looking better.

The “looking better” part is hard to achieve and requires a long, long (longer) time. The “feeling better” part is almost sudden and really satisfying. And yesterday during our last On-Ramp lesson, I had a clear confirmation of this. We repeated the same WOD we had during our first On-Ramp lesson.

400m run

21-15-9
Squat
Push-up
Jumping Pull-up

400m run

And these, are my registered times:

19/08/2013: 14’11”

11/09/2013: 9’14”

The improvement, for all of us, was great. And at least for me, unexpected.

The bottom line: no matter how fit you are CrossFit will change your life. You will improve your weaknesses, and will teach you keep motivations high. Your pals and your trainers will help you to not give up. And this last thing is the one I feel the most important. Learning the feeling to have all the instruments to achieve ambitious results. During your workouts, and especially, in your life out there.

My special thanks:

My friend Gianandrea, for having pushed me in this adventure.

My wife Adriana, for the patience she paid for my late dinners.

My trainers Niccolò, Filippo and Rolando for the motivations they gave me, their professionalism and capacity to transmit skills and concepts.

My On-Ramp classmates, for the time spent together sweating and learning.

All the other CrossFit Lugano members I had the chance to talk with, for their advices and moral support.

CrossFit Lugano on-Ramp 001. I’m the guy with the yellow t-shirt. Picture courtesy of CrossFit Lugano