Taking badassness to the next level with CrossFit

(Yeah, I know that "badassness" is not really a word, but if Sarah Palin can make words up, so can I.)

After completing at-home fitness programs P90X, P90X +, Insanity, and George St. Pierre's Rushfit, I gained strength, stamina and an unwavering passion for fitness. These excellent programs helped me get in the best shape of my life.

But after about two years of completing these programs and then mixing them up for variety, I became pretty bored of working out at home (or at the park) all by myself. I tried to get my friends to join me, but they weren't up for the challenge. I needed something to make working out fun and exciting again.

Enter CrossFit. I have been reading about CrossFit since I began doing P90X in 2010. I always thought it looked pretty cool. But I decided to continue working out at home.

Good thing I did. CrossFit's free introductory class would have left me crying for my mommy had I not worked on gaining strength and stamina first.

Even with all the strength I had gained, that intro class left me sore for three days. It shocked me that only about 10 minutes of Tabata squats and push ups and a little monkeying around on the parallettes would beat me up so much. (With the Tabata method, you do maximum repetitions for 20 seconds and rest for 10. You repeat that sequence eight times per exercise.)

As John (then also "Cougar") Mellencamp would say, "it hurt so good!!" I was officially hooked on CrossFit.

Today I went to my first Elements (foundations) class at CrossFit. Our coach, Jason, taught us how to perform push ups, sit ups and squats. We also tried our hand at pull ups, but thankfully those weren't part of the Tabata sequence. A few hours later, I'm still not feeling sore, but I know it's coming.

The only downside of CrossFit is that it's really expensive. Here in New York City every "box" (as CrossFitters call their gyms), charges about $300 for two weeks of Elements and two weeks of as many WODs (workouts of the day) as you want to put yourself through. Then, it's either $20 per class or $200 a month.

Someday, when I open my own box, I won't charge so much. Until then, I'll be poor, but badass.