Eileen

There’s a line I like from the 1985 brat-pack movie “The Breakfast Club.”
“I’m not fat.” Molly Ringwald’s character tells Judd Nelson. “Well, not at present,” he replies, “but I can see you’re really pushing maximum density.”
That pretty much sums up my state of fitness about eight months ago. At 48 I’d stopped running and, as I’d done throughout much of my life, ate pretty much what I wanted. I wasn’t strictly overweight, but I was certainly pushing maximum density. I was teetering on the edge of fat.
I was matronly, and sitting on a beach in Rhode Island one day, I decided I didn’t want to look or feel matronly anymore. It wasn’t all the lithe young women cavorting on the beach that made me feel that way. I used to be one of them and I’m not looking to recapture my youth. Too many people fritter away the life they have pining for one they can never recapture.
I just decided I didn’t want to carry around 20 extra pounds. It made me tired. It made me cranky. And it made me hate clothes shopping. Part of my epiphany was a magazine article I was reading on the beach about diet myths. Basically, it said what we all know already but can’t seem to get through our skulls: Stop eating crap, but don’t become a food Nazi. Do what all our grandmothers told us and eat everything in moderation, but eat lots more vegetables and fruit. Get some exercise. You know the drill. It also gave a very simple formula for how to figure out how many calories you should eat each day to maintain your weight and how many to cut to lose weight, sensibly. I’ve never counted calories but I thought maybe, judging by the size of my now nonexistent waistline, that it was time to do so. And, the article advised, keep a food diary. I started doing that and I started running again.
To make a long story short, within about five months I’d shed about 20 pounds and had dropped from nearly a size 16 to a 12. I was perfectly happy at that smaller size, considering it’s what I’d been most of my adult life, but something was perturbing me. Here I was, eating sensibly, running about 10 miles a week, and my body and weight seemed firmly stuck at this plateau. When I was in my late 20s and early 30s I ran a lot, roughly 35 miles-40 a week, and found the same thing happened. No matter how much I ran my weight and body dimensions never changed. It’s not that I’m shooting for some magic size or number on a scale, but I couldn’t understand how I could run so much and not look like a bean pole.
I was griping about it at work one day when a colleague mentioned Crossfit Playground. I was on the prowl for a new workout routine to augment running so I decided to check them out.
I’ve never been much of a workout girl. I hate gyms and all the macho posturing that goes on there, by both men and women. I knew I needed to start lifting weights to avoid problems with osteoporosis as I age. For me, Crossfit has offered that perfect balance of lifting weights, working out and getting a good dose of cardio exercise. I lift a lot of weights now. Not very heavy ones, mind you, but I’m getting stronger. And in three months I’ve dropped another whole pant size, down to a 10, and I’m starting to flirt with a size 8. Let me just emphasize that the last time I was a size 8 is when I was in college and went through a bout of anorexia in my sophomore year.
And here’s the really funny thing about all of this. While my body has changed significantly since working out with Will and Cindy Malz at their Crossfit Playground, and while I’ve dropped nearly two sizes, I haven’t lost a pound in those three months. That may sound discouraging to those of you who want to be 115 pounds or whatever your magic number is, but it’s not. I’m not concerned about a number on a scale, no one who’s physically fit should be. But I’ve swapped fat for toned muscles. My arms, particularly my upper arms, are so much more toned. I have muscles in my legs and abdomen that I never knew existed. I sat up in bed one morning and realized, seconds after I did so, that I had lifted myself straight up from my abdomen. I didn’t brace a hand against the bed in deference to a sore or tired back or roll to my side and push up. I just Sat. Straight. Up. My core has become so much stronger in three months.
Here’s an added bonus of all this which I hadn’t even considered when I started working out at Crossfit Playground: I feel so much better throughout the day. I have more energy and I’m so much more focused. I used to be so tired by day’s end every day. Now I’m actually alert and can do workouts after being in the office all day. I don’t yawn anymore during the day. My running has also improved. Before I started to Crossfit I was having trouble tackling serious hills in my run, but I’m beating them now. There’s one or two that still slow me to a walk, but not much of a walk.
The beauty of Crossfit is that it doesn’t specialize. Not only do the workouts change daily, but the tempo and tenor of them shift as well. One day you’ll do the Snatch, and curse the demon who created a workout like that. The next day you’ll maybe just do reps of dead lifts to find your maximum weight. The day after that, maybe it’ll be a 3k run. But no matter what you’re doing, once you’ve finished you’ll marvel that you could do it. And you’ll also know that come tomorrow you’ll do something totally different.
As I said earlier, while I’ve logged a lot of miles over the years running, I’ve never done much else in terms of working out, like weight lifting. As a result, while my lower legs are strong, everything else, especially my upper body, was pretty weak. So I was a bit worried about the whole weight-lifting part of this. But that’s the other benefit of Crossfit, all the workouts can be scaled. What that means for me is that while the prescribed WOD may call for women to press 65 pounds, Cindy and Will figure out what I can press and encourage me to improve from there.
After starting Crossfit my eldest daughter, Bailey, started coming with me and decided to join. My husband joined a week or two later. Tom’s a water-skier and started skiing again this past week. He said the difference the Crossfit workouts have made in his skiing is incredible. He’s so much stronger, he said, and his endurance has improved markedly. Bailey’s also made impressive progress and her body is in the process of being re-molded into one that’s sleaker and stronger. Now our youngest daughter, who’s 14, is starting to work out with us.

Pam

As a lifelong exerciser and cardio queen, I was skeptical about this new exercise regimen called “crossfit”. Always up for a challenge, I decided to give it a shot. What I have found is nothing less than the best fitness regimen I have ever been involved in.

There are so many benefits to CrossFit, and in particular, CrossFit playground. There is the efficiency of the workout – what I used to take 2 hours and sometimes more to do, I now can do in 20-40 minutes, with greater results than I ever previously achieved. As a mother of two young children, time is precious and often hard to come by. The ability to intensely workout in a short duration with incredible results is particularly appealing to me.

The results themselves are nothing short of spectacular. The transformation of my body has literally been before my eyes. My core strength has greatly increased, my muscle tone and density exceptional. I have gone from a runner with the typical soft muscle tone to a toned and fit athletic warrior. I haven’t felt, or looked this good, in years.

But probably the most important aspect of crossfit playground is the fact that I have a trainer working with me with each workout. Cindy and Will are incredible. They have put forth the time and effort in themselves to become certified trainers, and I get to take advantage of that every day. They work closely with me (they affectionately call me “cupcake”), guiding, teaching and encouraging me continuously with each and every workout. It is a benefit that is hard to describe or get the full appreciation of until you actually try CrossFit Playground.

I have been a “gym rat” for many years. I have spent countless hours and dollars to stay fit – only to find that I spend less time and less money with crossfit playground – and I get a personal trainer with every workout, with greater results than I ever could have imagined.

Whether you are a beginning or experienced exerciser , and whether you are looking to lose a few pounds or finely tune your athletic skills, crossfit playground is the ideal option. Their tailored programs are unparalleled, and the cooperative and supportive membership is impossible to beat.

I am grateful for everything Will, Cindy and the entire crossfit playground have done for me.