Why I chose a CrossFit gym when I moved back to NZ...

I’ve heard it all over the years… Girls shouldn’t lift / should lift, what if you bulk up, CrossFit is a cult and the list goes on…

So, why do I always go back to CrossFit? It’s simple… Community, and that I get to turn up and the coach outlines the next hour - a great thing when for the other 23 hours of the day I’m making decisions for myself.

I’m sitting here trying to think back to what year I first joined a CrossFit Box… I know it was in Christchurch so pre 2011, and it was there I realised this was my style of gym. I’ve found I don’t suit ‘normal gyms’ and I have always found myself drawn to coaches and gyms that will work with me, understand my needs and listen to what I know about my body.

I do remember at the time in Christchurch there was the choice of two gyms… the Franks Brothers or the CrossFit Box I joined and I didn’t think I was cut out to hang out with some All Blacks… I loved my time at that Box, they made us do all sorts of crazy things from gymnastics to lifting, from moving gear from one end of the gym and back, to hitting new PBs.

From there the first thing I did when I moved to Melbourne was… find my nearest CrossFit gym and one that was the right fit for me, and that was CrossFit Richmond (a quick Google assures me they are still there and the same owners!), again a perfect fit in terms of how they coached, which is really important to me.

I then left for Sydney and this is where due to travel I was in and out of the gym but initially, I was at a cool CrossFit Box down the road from home and then around 2016 I ended up at 98 Riley Street. This time working with a PT to get me up and walking so I could hike the Kokoda track.

Fast forward to now and moving to Invercargill, once our lockdown had finished and life was ‘semi-normal’ I started my investigation. That lead me to CrossFit WildSouth and talking with the owner, Stacy, and I haven’t looked back…

Why you ask…

First of all, before I could even get into a class I had to do 8 1:1 sessions with one of the coaches (I got Stacy), to see how I moved (aka what ailments I have), what I could and couldn’t do (again ailments…), what I needed to work on and for me to refresh my brain and body on the movements and their names. I loved this so much that I did a second set of 8… we might as well call that 8 PT sessions, and then just kept going with one PT a week, plus 3-2 classes.

Now, call me a perfectionist, but I don’t like lifting incorrectly it’s the fastest way to injury, that and you can’t keep getting better if you don’t get your technique right (I think this is why I can’t do a ‘normal’ gym… watching people scares me!), and I love how all the coaches will watch, correct, encourage and help you find your limits in that session.

One of the first goals I’ve set myself is ‘to get back to my 32-year-old self’ when I was at CrossFit Richmond and had 1RM of 100kg Backsquat, 125kg Deadlift, and 50 ish kg bench, last year I got close with 105kg Deadlift and 40kg ish Bench, but my Backsquat had to go on hold thanks to my body.

Turns out, that along with working out again, moving, and lifting soon tell you where your weaknesses are. For me, this is my lower back, hips, and knee. Now I’ve always known my lower back is an issue, heck I can flare it just turning too fast, or like in 2019 learning to Burlesque dance rotating hips whilst going into a squat (fun explaining that to my chiro… thankfully she just laughed), but last year my knee soon became an issue and that lead up into my hip.

This leads me to another reason why I like working out in a community, and a team, is that the team know others to put into your corner - enter Renee for massage, and Craig for physio (happy dance as he uses dry needling!!!), and what’s better is they all talk to each other so I don’t have to remember as the exercises just get added into my sessions, or movements removed out so I keep improving.

Aka for the moment… “Anna doesn’t box jump, skip, run, or split jerk…” as I’ve learned over the years that these movements and I just don’t get on, and yes I know I get stubborn over them, as when I’ve been made to do them I’ve always ended up injured, and I can’t afford to be injured, as there are mountains to climb, adventures to be had, and injuries severely hinder one’s ability to get out and hike.

I have also noticed benefits in that my endurance from hiking helps me in the gym, and the lifting and cardio in the gym helps me hiking… the holistic approach is always best, after all, if we forget leg day that won’t help when you’re climbing a mountain with 15kg extra on your back…

So I’m back on the CrossFit journey, meeting new people in town, setting goals, working towards PBs, growing in confidence as consistency pays off, be that turning up 3-4x a week or knowing when to take a break and listen to my body. This is something I do have to do often as my body likes to work against me. Having an autoimmune disease/disorder, whatever we want to call it, means that if I don’t monitor my energy, stress, rest, and more, then my body will just say no - the last two Monday mornings this has happened, and all I can do is go back to bed, sleep and be kind to myself.

But enough rambling, we all have our own journey and our own reason for what we choose, where we go, and what works for us. The important thing to remember is to find what lights us up, challenges, empowers, connects, and more, whatever reason we are exercising, whatever type of exercise we are doing, if we love it then it’s perfect for us.

If you’re curious about what a CrossFit community might look like… Click below and check out why I chose this community.

A snap from the 2021 Southern Crusade!