AT YOUR SERVICE: PITCH A FIT

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400m

30 OH Squats

400m

15 Burpees

15 Sit-ups

400m

30 OH Squat

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AT YOUR SERVICE: PITCH A FIT

It’s sweeping Philly. But can CrossFit really become the workout for people who hate working out?

by Michael Callahan, www.phillymag.com/health

CrossFit — the new fitness craze now offered at 15 area gyms — basically works this way: You do super-intense workouts in very short bursts (some workouts last as little as seven minutes), and your body snaps into shape. It’s designed to get people like me, who are hardly exercise lovers, back into the gym on a regular basis. I was skeptical. But Dan Kramli, the owner of New Hope Fitness, told me that if I gave him 30 days, I’d become a convert. Here goes.

Day 1: Most of the workouts are named after women (don’t ask), and my first is Fran: 21 “thrusters” (thrusting a 35-pound weight bar above my head) and 21 pull-ups, followed by rounds of 15 and 9, respectively, which you’re supposed to do as quickly as you can. My hands are bleeding from the pull-ups, of which I can only do two before needing a green band to assist me getting over the bar. Memories of Ms. Whitman, my drill sergeant gym teacher at Woodrow Wilson Junior High, flood my brain. I end up with a final time of 28 minutes.

Day 2: I am assigned 150 “wall balls,” squatting and then throwing a 8-pound medicine ball above my head, against a wall, 150 times. I group them in spurts of 15, but by the halfway point my arms and shoulders are starting to scream. Time: 16:16. It feels like 16 days.

Day 3: I have to do as many sets as possible of 5 squats, 10 push-ups, and 15 sit-ups in 10 minutes. How can 10 minutes today feel longer than the 16 minutes I did yesterday? I manage 4 rounds before crumpling in a sweaty heap. Saying to myself, “Screw it, I deserve it,” that night I treat myself to a vanilla milkshake. A vision of Dan as an evil genie floats above me.

Day 4: No workout. Thank God.

Click HERE to read Day 5: