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And So It Begins...

Hello there! I suppose I should begin with a brief synopsis of who I am, what I'm about, and most importantly why I've decided that the world needs one more blog. Also I'll give a quick overview of what CrossFit/HyperFit is, and why I've decided to do it.

I have just recently signed up for HyperFit in Ann Arbor, MI. As I understand it, HyperFit uses muscle confusion and functional strength techniques to train people to become absolute machines. I am hoping that they can also train me to ignore pain like Rambo.

I'm guessing that most people reading this know me pretty well, but on the off chance that I get ripped as hell and become a fitness model I figure it's a good move to let the millions (and millons) of fans I will one day acquire read about me back when I was just some dude.

Who I Am: My name is John, I am a 26 year old male who lives and works in Ann Arbor, MI. I grew up right outside of Detroit (Bloomfield Hill for those of you who know a thing or two about a thing or two). I enjoy Tigers baseball, winning at everything, solving problems, and ballin out.

What I'm About: I played sports all through high school, and played baseball and golf in college. I have always thought of myself as a pretty decent athlete, although I am pretty sporadic about my workout habits. Basically, I will work out hard for a few weeks or months, get to a point where I'm satisfied with how I look and feel, and I'll just kind of fall into not doing it anymore. I will then get in worse and worse shape until I have a "lightbulb" moment when I realize that I need to get my shit together. I recently had one of those.

Why I've decided to write this blog: I have been told that I have a way with words, and I like to think I can turn a phrase, but that's not why I've decided to write this. No, there are basically two reason for me to update the world on my workout plan.

1. Accountability. It'd be really easy for me to start something like this, not tell anyone, then quit whenever it gets hard. I'm hoping that making the fact that I'm trying this out public will keep me honest, and will also shame me into not taking any days off.

2. Transparency. It seems like CrossFit and HyperFit are becoming more and more popular, and I'd imagine some of you have heard of it but don't really know what it is. Honestly, all I know about it is what I've seen one time on TV (ladies with huge shoulders and ripped thigh muscles doing hundreds of pull-ups while sweating profusely) and what I've heard from friends. It sounds really hard, really intense, but you get in really good shape and feel great. I plan to be completely honest in this, so if something is really hard and I quit, or if I struggle I'll be sure to let you all know...as you may or may not know I am pretty open to poking fun at myself, so you can look forward to that.

So now that we've got all of that out of the way...

MY WAKE UP CALL MOMENT

Last weekend I went on a family vacation with my parents and sister to Hilton Head, SC. I was very excited to see them and to get away from the hustle and bustle of the working world for a few days. My sister is a yoga fanatic and is in crazy good shape, and my dad is a 60 year old with the eating habits of a 15 year old girl getting ready to fit into her prom dress. He also does a lot of yoga and weights and is unbelievable shape for someone of any age, let alone 60. As noted before I am pretty into sports and fancy myself a high performance athletic machine, but I am nowhere near on their level.

Basically, my sister and father wanted to work out every day and do a variety of grueling exercises that I was in no way ready to take on. I was at first hesitant, but after a day of lounging by the pool and staring at my dads sixty year old six pack, I decided that I needed to get in the gym as quickly as possible. Due to my other worldly athleticism (brushes shoulder off) and extreme competitiveness I had never had a problem hanging with them. However, unfortunately for me, my sister's boyfriend has recently taken up CrossFit. 

  My sister was all excited about how great it was, and showed me a quick workout. I think it was 20 push-ups, 30 free weight squats, and 30 sit ups repeated 5 times. On paper it didn't sound all that hard, so I decided to try it out. She cruised along through the exercise like it was a warm-up and barely broke a sweat. I was another story. I barely made it through my first 30 squats, and only managed to make it to 30 sit ups because I did a modified version that basically involved me nodding my head back and forth and grunting every once in a while. I did OK on the pushup section the first time, but then quickly realized that I would need to do 4 more sets of everything. I kind of blacked out after that and I don't really remember how I made it through. I do know I had to stop and get water a few times, and I needed to break some of my sets up into 3 groups of 10 in order to finish. Needless to say it was not my finest hour. So after the workout, with my tail between my legs and man points leaking out of every pore, I decided I needed to make a change.

I went back to the hotel room, did a search for CrossFit Ann Arbor, and signed up for an intro session. I think part of the reason I signed up was because the 12 year old inside of me couldn't stand his sister being better than him at something. More than that, though, I think that my competitive personality and drive to succeed will be a good fit for this program. Please note that I was sore for about 3 days after my pathetic first attempt at CrossFit, and that was basically doing everything half-assed and taking long breaks. This could be interesting.