After writing for Forsyth Magazines for more than five years and working closely with Forsyth Woman Editor Brooke in assisting with the Forsyth Magazines Podcast, I was well aware that she and her husband, Gavin, owned and operated Washington Park CrossFit, but I had never dipped my toes into CrossFit waters myself. On the tail end of a tumultuous spring due to a bad breakup, I think Brooke’s “spidey senses” must have been tingling because her invitation for me to join WPC’s Hot Girl Hour last July came at an opportune time. I jumped at the chance for healthy social interaction and a few good workouts. Additionally, anyone who knows Brooke can attest to the fact that she is nothing short of a role model to women, so I concluded that anything she endorsed had to be worth looking into.
Prior to Hot Girl Hour, I had experience in bodybuilder-style lifting with heavier weights throughout my 20s, then transitioned into lifting lighter weights in an interval-style approach in my 30s in order to slash time and combine cardio and resistance training because – well, let’s face it – I no longer had the attention span or desire to use the Stairmaster for 20 to 30 minutes to then follow that grueling cardio workout up with 30 minutes of repetitive weightlifting. If I’m being completely honest, I was always a bit wary of CrossFit because I was afraid of injuring myself, but CrossFit has taken athletes by storm over the last decade, and I was excited to see what the hype was about.
As it turns out, my interval style workouts served as a great baseline for the high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts that ended each night of the program. After a warmup (which was just the right level of challenging), followed by a lesson on various Olympic lifting techniques like deadlifts, cleans and front squats, my fellow ladies and I were sweating by the end of the session when the workout of the day (WOD) was over. Sessions ran twice per week for six weeks, which was the sweet spot between effectiveness and avoiding overwhelm and fatigue for those inexperienced in resistance training.
The coaches at Washington Park CrossFit are diligent in making sure each participant’s form is up to par in order to prevent injury and to ensure that everyone is gaining the maximum benefit from each movement performed. As someone who struggles with social anxiety, working out in a group environment was initially intimidating and sometimes made it difficult for me to follow instructions on how to perform certain movements out of fear of embarrassment. Fortunately, the WPC coaches were patient and attentive and did their best to explain each movement until my thick skull calmed down and absorbed the information.
Aside from breaking a sweat and gaining an insight into what joining a CrossFit gym would entail, Hot Girl Hour served its purpose socially for me in a time where I desperately needed a bit of light in my life. The ladies in the class were warm, friendly and worked well together. I even made a friend whom I would have loved to keep in touch with more often had I not been moving to Wilmington within a couple of weeks of the six-week program ending. After completing the program, it became apparent why the WPC community is so tight knit and supportive of each other. Hot Girl Hour was a brief window into the high quality coaching, camaraderie and calorie burn that a Washington Park Crossfit membership reaps. In fact, I still utilize a few of the techniques I learned from the program into my private workouts. Prior to Hot Girl Hour, I never did burpees; however, the program illuminated just how quickly burpees elevate my heart rate and add intensity to many of my interval workouts that are starting to plateau.
Washington Park CrossFit is always accepting new members. You can find more information on Hot Girl Hour by checking out WPC’s Instagram page at @washingtonparkcrossfit. Read more about the gym and sign up for Hot Girl Hour this July by visiting washingtonparkcrossfit.com.
