Hi guys! Do you feel fit? I actually didn’t for quite a while. I had too much work to do and not enough time for sports and fitness. That had to stop. You can imagine that it felt like guidance from above when Vale from CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart reached out to me and asked if I wanted to come over for an introduction. Sure I wanted to! 🙂

For those of you who haven’t heard of CrossFit yet, or only have a vague idea what it might be (as I did before I visited CrossFit Animarium in Stuttgart), here’s a brief definition:

CrossFit focuses on strength and condition alike. The workouts include aspects of weightlifting, gymnastics, running, rowing and more and are based on functional movements. The athletes (yep, as soon as you start practicing CrossFit, you can call yourself proudly an athlete :-)) use gear from various disciplines like barbells, gymnastics rings, jump ropes, kettlebells and such. Intensity is essential and it is measured in work divided by time or by power. What makes CrossFit special for me is the idea of community and training in small groups. You cheer when someone has scored a personal record and your trainer doesn’t only know your name but also all your weak points and he or she coaches you how you can get better every day.

I didn’t know what would await me when I stepped into the CrossFit box (yep, box, not studio :-)) in Stuttgart-Stammheim. A group was already lifting weights and it looked super exhausting to me. I observed them for a minute, then my trainer for the intro, Xavier, came up to me. He explained the concept of CrossFit and what makes it so special and different from a normal workout in a gym. Then it was time to get active. We started with some exercises to get warm (rowing was included, too, but I forgot to get a picture)…

… before it was time to learn some new techniques. Have you ever worked with kettlebells? I haven’t. So you can imagine how strange those things looked to me at first.

Xavier showed us how to swing them properly and we worked on this movement for a while.

It felt strange swinging this heavy ball but I noticed some muscles, I didn’t even know I had. It’s always good to try something new! 🙂

Push-ups were next. I am used to doing “lady-push-ups” where you are on your knees, not on your toes (and I even struggle with them! :-)). But in CrossFit, there is no such thing as lady-whatever.  However, if you can’t do them on the ground, there is a box you can use. It helped a lot!

A usual CrossFit class is one hour long and finishes with a stretching part. As this was an introduction and our trainer Xavier answered all of our questions not only patiently but also passionately, we came to the stretching part after two hours 🙂

The intro class at Crossfit Animarum in Stuttgart was definitely great! Xavier is a knowledgeable instructor and CrossFit is definitely an amazing workout. If you want to try it for yourself, the intro classes take place on Thursdays and Saturdays and are always free. And here comes something for all my female readers : On November 3, CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart organizes a special Ladies’ night: starting at 7:30 pm, an intro class only for women takes place with a goodie bag for all the participants!

Thank you Vale for inviting me to CrossfFit Animarum in Stuttgart-Stammheim and thank you Xavier for the great intro class!

Have you tried CrossFit already? How did you like it? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section 🙂

More information about:

CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart-Stammheim

CrossFit in general

Transparency: CrossFit Animarum invited me to try their box for free. My opinion and the contend of this post were not influencd by that.