Welcome to your first CrossFit® class!

You might be nervous starting CrossFit®, and that’s normal. You will see excercises you may have never done before, people doing many different variations of a workout, and lots of friendly faced and fist bumps at the end.

But this is just the start of your exciting CrossFit® journey. You will meet a new community of people all rooting for you to achieve your fitness goals, and with time, you will start to see just how strong your body can be.

So, before you jump into your first CrossFit® class, here is everything you should expect and how to prepare.

The friendly faces at Shapesmiths

What to Bring

All you need to bring to your first CrossFit® class is a water bottle, comfortable workout clothes, and relatively flat gym shoes. All other equipment you may need for the workout will be provided for you at the gym.

When are our classes? & how to book.

We have ~190 classes throughout the week ranging from early in the morning (6AM starts) to the evening (last class 730PM) and you have a spot waiting in one of them if you’re keen to explore joining our community.  We even have an extra early 545AM class on Tuesdays (?) if you need to be at your desk nice and early!

Monday to Friday we have classes available every 15-minutes at peak times morning and evening. Then every hour throughout the daytime. To reserve your spot message us via our business WhatsApp [insert link]

We will get you booked in at a time that works for you, we can slot into your daily routine – seamlessly.  Our classes have cap of 12 to ensure your coach can give individualised attention to everyone in the class, so it’s important you reserve your spot before you arrive.

Show Up Early

Show up 10-minutes early so we can introduce you to our facility, there’s over 14,000 sq ft of space and we want you to feel right at home. We will show you where to put your belongings, where the restrooms are and where the you’ll be working out.

Find Your Coach

Before class starts, introduce yourself to your coach and let them know this is your first CrossFit® class or first class at Shapesmiths. They will walk you through everything throughout the class and answer any questions you may have.

If you have any injuries, make sure to let them know so they can scale your workout appropriately.

Coaches are here to guide you!

What Does your first CrossFit® Class Look Like?

A CrossFit® class is a one-hour group session led by a coach. A typical class looks like:

  1. Workout brief — At the start of class, the group will gather around or TV screen. The coach will talk through the workout, the movements within it, the intended stimulus — the purpose of the workout and what level of intensity it’s designed to elicit — and ideas for scaling. You’ll also get insight into key events and announcements. 

Don’t worry if you don’t understand the movements listed on the board. The coach will walk you through the movements after the workout brief. Your first class will focus on learning the movement technique, using a PVC pipe or very light barbell for any barbell movements and scaling other movements to your current fitness level and ability.

  1. Next you will warm up, prepare all components of the workout and get chance to clarify any questions at the Workout Rebrief, back around the TV screen. 
  1. Finally at the end of class, you will gather at the TV screen again for a Workout debrief, instructions on how to record your score and most importantly celebrating any mini-wins. These little wins each class will add up to BIG progress!

Remember CrossFit® training is measurable, observable, and repeatable. We use scores to track our fitness over time, so the next time you do the same workout you can see your progress.

This is your first class, so don’t worry about comparing your score to other members. This is your starting point!

Introduce Yourself to Your Classmates

Say hello, with a hug!

A big part of CrossFit is the community. Introduce yourself to your fellow classmates. They all remember the first time they walked into a CrossFit® gym and can help you acclimatise to class.

This is also your time to trial our gym’s community to see if it’s the right fit for you. You’ll be made to feel at home, quickly at Shapesmiths.

Keep an Open Mind

CrossFit® is not easy, but ANYONE can learn. A little bit like with driving lessons you don’t need to know how to drive to start, it’s the same here. You don’t need to know how to do all the exercises to start. You will soon be able to do things you never thought you could do before. You will be able to flip onto your hands into a handstand, lift barbells and kettlebells safely, climb a rope, or even get your first pull-up one day.

But it doesn’t happen overnight.

Use your first class to get a taste of CrossFit®, learn more about our CrossFit® affiliate, and have fun. You will learn more with time.

Next steps

Post trial class, it’s time to ask as as many questions as you like to one of our team and get started by signing up for one of our memberships! We can help you find the right membership for you, there’s lots of options for any budget!  FYI we operate with a monthly rolling contract and there are no joining fees. So you can get stuck in and really immerse yourself to experience one of the best CrossFit® communities in the world!

Just a small percentage of our members gather for a workout!

See you soon!

REPEATING OPEN WORKOUTS.

This is an article I (Lee) wrote in 2019, drawing on personal experience and from what I’ve read along the way since starting CrossFit® in 2011! A lot if it still holds true today. I will clean the article up at some stage, but here goes:

First off, full disclosure: it doesn’t ‘ruin’ progress if someone does a workout twice in a few days.

Our programming at Shapesmiths should be robust enough (AND not so overwhelming) that folks can get away with a ‘random’ week where they do the same workout two times! 

However, using ‘the repeat’ as a strategy to get maximal scores in the Open (and doing it multiple weeks) is not entirely the correct philosophy. 

I will be the first to admit that I have on occasions been silly enough to repeat open workouts 3 & 4 times circa 2012/3, but I am hoping that I have made the mistakes so you guys and girls don’t have to. 

There are more than a few potential pitfalls  if people make repeating a habit, or core strategy, of doing the workouts more than once per week in the Open. Below I will go through the following points in hope of educating a little and setting the scene. 

  1. You will not push yourself as hard the first time.
  2. Things to think about when it comes to strategy.
  3. There are no ‘second chances’ in other competitions.
  4. You are more likely to pick up niggles. 
  5. It puts your actual training and development progress on hold
  6. It is bad for your ‘mental game’.
  7. There ARE times when repeats make sense (see below)

You will not push yourself as hard the first time

If you are planning on doing it more than once, you are almost guaranteed to ease back and not give it full, all in, effort.

Avoid the possibility of that little voice in your head saying, “its okay, I’ll try harder next time” or ‘i’m just feeling this one out to get a hang of how it feels.’ 

Think about your strategy for the workout to get the most out of it and then lock in and give it your best effort. There are 40 days left before the first CrossFit Open WOD 19.1. There are multiple competition days left in the Shapesmiths programming. This is the time to practice competing. 

Top Tip: You must be mentally prepared to ‘burn the bridges’ so you make your attempt the best. 

‘Don’t save anything for the swim back’: https://youtu.be/hZKZSiCmXLQ

Things to think about when it comes to strategy. 

Think about breaking the workout into blocks. For example if we take a workout such as 10 rounds of 10 C2B Pull Ups, 10 Thrusters @42.5 + 20 Cal Row. We can break this into 10 blocks. 

Ideally you want the last block (10) to be the fastest part of the WOD, the 1st block to be the second fastest and from 2-9 to be the third fastest part.  As an estimate the hardest part of most workouts is 3/4 of the way through. Breaking down the workout into parts can help you predict this and mentally prepare for them.

Identify what matters generally about the workout. Is going an extra 100 cals per hour on the rower going to impact another movement negatively for example.

Then identify what matters specifically for you (specific movements you are good at, ones you will have to manage, a particular rep scheme effect on the workout etc). 

Identify what can be decided beforehand. This could be the way you warm up and prepare. It could be that you are certain of your ability to crank out 50 WBs at the start of the WOD without it hurting the rest of your workout.

Identify what will need to be decided or adjusted as you go. For example, your rep schemes as the metabolic insult of the workout reduces your ability to ‘do work’

Stick to your game plan. 

There are no ‘second chances’ in other competitions

As far as ‘The Sport of Fitness’ and similar competitions go, you aren’t allowed to ‘try again’ if you mess up the first time. You should become adept at planning your workout (pacing, resting, technique, etc.) so that you get your best score right out of the gate. 

Giving yourself the option to repeat will prevent you from learning how to ‘knock it out of the park’ on your first try. 

Most top level athletes that sit near the top of the open rankings know themselves and the movements so well they can execute a plan 9 times out of 10. Every so often they may repeat a workout if they took a gamble on the first, or there are ‘weird’ rules about a lift immediately after or achieving a certain number of reps before a certain time to move on.

You are more likely to pick up niggles. 

There is a reason why good programs usually don’t have folks doing hundreds of reps of the same movement a few days apart, unless it has a clear rationale. 

It puts your actual training progress on hold

When people are hyper focused on the Open their progress stalls for 5-6 weeks. 

When you are planning on doing the workouts 2 or 3 times, you are NOT making overall gains. You are resting the day before their first attempt, then resting between attempts, then resting the day after, all while hammering movement that won’t be coming up in later weeks.

That only leaves a couple days to try and get some training in before the next announcement! 

It can be mentally draining. 

It can sometimes be intense to place a lot of emotional energy doing these workouts. 

By planning on doing the workout one time, you are giving yourself the permission to move on. Once your workout is complete, it’s happy days. You can move on.

You can focus on getting back to your training. You can focus on the movements that are likely to come out in the next workouts and/or getting ready for the next competition (whether that is Regionals, a local competition, or the next Open).

Some notes about when a ‘repeat’ might be a good idea

There are times when a repeat might be a good idea below. However, they should all be discussed with your coach. 

  • If you really ‘botched’ the first attempt (because of a super bad strategy, pacing, a rule misunderstanding, etc.).
  • If there are unconventional formats or rules. Things like having to do a max effort lift immediately after a metcon, having to do a certain number of reps to ‘break through’ to another round, etc.
  • If you failed at a movement that you were really close to getting. Almost getting that muscle up, or snatching that next barbell load come to mind.
  • If you are ‘on the cusp’ of qualifying for the next level. Age Group Qualifiers are the only one here unless you have a chance of going to the games by coming 1st in the country or top 20 in the world.

One last thing…

The CrossFit Open is a TON of extra work for the team. We have quite a few tasks that include:

  • Ensuring everyone who is signed up gets a chance to perform the WOD.
  • Organizing Heats.
  • Setting up the gym layout.
  • Judging
  • Approving scores
  • Coaching during the heats
  • Consoling people who aren’t happy
  • And more!

Even if you have determined that a repeat is something that you absolutely need to do, reach out to a coach or [email protected]

The best way it to ask politely if there is a possibility of doing it again, and what would be the best day and time for you to do it. Any time you are repeating a workout, the coaches (who have to be there to open the gym), and the judge, are doing you a HUGE FAVOR. You are going to have to be the one with a flexible schedule (do not ask them to come in around your schedule). Offer to pay an extra drop in fee if, and definitely give them a ‘thank you’ gift (a note, gift card, coffee, etc.).

Keep in mind that if you are asking to do a repeat, so probably are others. And if they let ‘some’ people do it, then everyone gets the chance. This adds significantly to the workload, and you have to remember that all of this extra work is on top of the regular day to day operations of the gym! Some gyms have a ‘1 repeat’ or ‘2 repeats’ max to help limit the amount of extra work, and to limit the ‘repeat mania’ that some folks get into. You should consider holding yourself to something similar. Your coaches will love you for it!

I hope this helps you understand some of the strategies behind doing repeat workouts, and how it all fits into the bigger picture.

Remember that it isn’t about where you finish this year. It is about how this year made you better!