I truly enjoy everything Albany CrossFit has to offer. I’ve been able to travel to a couple different boxes in the New England and Florida areas and from my experiences we are spoiled! From class availability, facilities, coaches, space, equipment, cleanliness, just to name a few… we have a great thing going on here!
We are a great community with people who genuinely care about each other’s wellbeing.
I love CrossFit because it's ridiculously hard, ridiculously intimidating, ridiculously scary, and ridiculously fun! Call me crazy but I love the pain. I love burpees and thrusters. I love that little voice in my head that's screaming at me to “STOP” as I ignore the little bastard! I believe the Marines famously stated "Pain is just fear leaving the body." Pain lets me know I'm alive and that I'm doing something right.
There's no way around it, CrossFit is hard. It’s supposed to be hard and I want to constantly keep finding new walls either physically and/or mentally and blast right thought them. Some days are better than others but after every day I want to be better than when I walked in.
Having done CrossFit for over a year now I can’t believe how far I’ve come and not just in physical gains either. I’ve become more knowledgeable about my nutrition, the importance of rest days, getting a good night’s sleep, listening to my body and how important technique and form are in everything we do. The physical gains are nice too!
Where I’ve seen the biggest improvements is when I take what I’ve learned in CrossFit and apply it to other sports and activities. I find this kind of funny but every time I stand up or sit down I always set my lower back first and think “knees out.” I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my flexibility and strength. I love to play golf and CrossFit has dramatically improved my balance, posture, coordination, and mental toughness.
I’ll never forget my first day of boot camp back in November of 2012. As I walked in a class happened to be mid-wod. There must have been 20-30 people slamming weights, yelling, loud music was playing, people lying on the floor, etc. If I wasn’t terrified enough before walking in, this was just the icing on the cake. I was not confident, very nervous, a little scared, and definitely intimidated. As I watched, I noticed in particular two very different women working out. The first was younger and very much in shape while the other was the opposite. They were both working their asses off! I was so impressed by both of their efforts and as I stood there I thought to myself "I can't do what they're doing!" As the wod went on, the more "in shape" woman finished first… She didn't lie on the ground dead (although she had every right to do so), she didn't stand in the corner waiting for everyone else, she didn’t start putting her equipment away, she didn't grab her stuff and go home… She walked right up the exact same other woman I was watching and started to encourage her. "You can do this! You’re doing great! Its almost over…. Keep pushing!" she said. She was bent over at the waist and could barely catch her own breath but she was trying to be a positive force for this other woman who was struggling. I knew right then and there… THAT is why I want to do CrossFit. These are the type of people I want to surround myself with, to sweat with, to bleed with!