I thought I had a little bit of fitness in me. I was a casual but regular runner, and I worked out on a Bowflex machine a couple of times a week at least. But I did go into my first Crossfit fundamentals class not really knowing how or even if that would help me. I had plenty of experience with hard training from my Karate days and from running half marathons and competing in sprint triathlons, but I was warned that crossfit is more ambitious than that. It doesn’t really have a specialty – it the sport of “anything and everything.” But it does have some specific foundational skills that prepare you for that – and that was the purpose of the “fundamentals” boarding program.
For me, fundamentals was a good thing. I needed to learn that basics. For one thing, while I had gym memberships many times over the years, but I don’t recall ever once attempting any kind of Olympic lifts. Plus I had just turned 40. Not that I see it as a milestone exactly, but I recognize that things don’t heal the way they used to and things get sore more than they used to. So I wanted to be sure I didn’t do anything too strange right out of the gate. Shane took the fundamentals class at a good pace – enough time to pick things up and talk about the most important aspects of the movement, and then work on each for a bit before moving on.
