Women Who Have Tried Crossfit?

[MariaG]

I keep seeing and hearing great things about the Crossfit style of workouts. I'm interested in increasing my fitness in ways that are functional and sustainable and it seems like a great solution, but I have some concerns.

There is a local Crossfit affiliate in my area, but the trainers seem to be current/former police/military types. The whole thing seems a bit "macho" for my liking.

Are there any women out there who have tried Crossfit? Does it scale well to your fitness level? - I'm in good shape, but not 25 body-weight pull-ups shape!

How is it interacting with the "boys"? Do you develop a camaraderie because you're all suffering together, or are you a 2nd class citizen because you don't have the brute strength?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by MariaG

I keep seeing and hearing great things about the Crossfit style of workouts. I'm interested in increasing my fitness in ways that are functional and sustainable and it seems like a great solution, but I have some concerns.

There is a local Crossfit affiliate in my area, but the trainers seem to be current/former police/military types. The whole thing seems a bit "macho" for my liking.

Are there any women out there who have tried Crossfit? Does it scale well to your fitness level? - I'm in good shape, but not 25 body-weight pull-ups shape!

How is it interacting with the "boys"? Do you develop a camaraderie because you're all suffering together, or are you a 2nd class citizen because you don't have the brute strength?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

I am not a woman, but I was not close to being in shape when I started doing it seriously about a month and a half ago. I am 3/4 of the way to a dead hang pull-up.

I can seriously say that not only does CrossFit scale well to any level, you are always heftily worked out afterward.

Pretty much everyone at my gym is more fit than I, but they are still very supportive and help me drive myself to be better. There are less egoes in a CrossFit gym because it isnt about bodybuilding, its about core, functional fitness.

I am in better shape than ever, and I cant wait to see what its like at the 6 month mark. I am extremely addicted now, and love doing the workouts. They take very little gear, are always high intensity and since everything is varied, workouts are rarely repeated.

I started not being able to one pull up, and by my 30th birthday (Oct 7th) I plan on being able to do at least one dead hang muscle up with correct form.

Starting CrossFit was one of the best decisions of my life

[Dbarker]

I have to agree with Lucas that is was one of the best things I have done in a while. I don't have a lot of upper body strength but have been doing CrossFit for a little over 2 months now. I went from 0 dead hang pullups to at least 5 yesterday for a warmup. The workouts that call for 100 pullups, I do as many as I can and then do jumping pullups, etc. Each workout can be scaled and still provide an awesome workout. It seems there are quite a few women on the comments board on the website and people are pretty friendly about helping. Give it a shot, I think you'll like it.

[MariaG]

Thanks for the responses. Glad to hear that the community is friendly.

Any ladies out there who'd like to chime in?

[beel]

I think it really varies by location and who you are training with, but for the most part, its all about doing your personal best. I'm a lady and I've done crossfit with two different groups. One of the groups is more hardcore than the other, but both have been equally supportive and there is always a mix of women and men. For the most part, everyone scales their workout to push themselves to their limits, so its a great workout regardless of where you start physically. Hope this helps! Definitely give it a shot, I love CrossFit and have several friends that do it and love it as well.