Can I do CrossFit if I'm Overweight?
The question for today is, Can I do CrossFit if I'm overweight? And the answer is simply, absolutely yes. We've got athletes of all ages, of all heights, of all body types, from underweight to regular weight (whatever regular weight is) to overweight. There are lots of different body types that can do CrossFit. In fact, everybody can do CrossFit.
As I've said in the past and other videos here, our needs in CrossFit vary by degree, not by kind, which means just because we're doing overhead squats for example (that's actually the plan for tomorrow), a pretty complicated movement that requires a lot of mobility as well as strength and coordination, doesn't mean that you're just going to sit out and you're not going to do the class. Absolutely we're going to have you doing a form of an overhead squat even if that's just sitting on a box. That is a squat. Every movement that we do in CrossFit, no matter how complicated, breaks down to very fundamental elements, and this is some of the stuff that we explained to you in your first five personal training sessions, which is how we get you started off with your fitness journey here at Sequoia CrossFit.
You're going to take five, 30-minute personal training sessions with one of our coaches so that you understand these concepts and understand how to modify the movements for your needs. Now, whether we're working around an injury, whether you're simply deconditioned, whether you're carrying around too much body fat - we coach clients with all sorts of athletic backgrounds from total couch potatoes to high level collegiate athletes and everything in between. We have athletes who are over 500 pounds and trying to lose that first hundred and we've got athletes who are under a hundred pounds and trying to put on some healthy weight. We even had athletes who've had strokes and can't move half of their body. They can still participate in class and so can you.
No matter what you've got going on from your athletic background or lack of athletic background, our coaches can show you the fundamentals of what we're going to be doing in classes and how to modify things to best suit your physical needs. And those needs will change over time. You will get better, you will get more mobility and more strength and balance and coordination and speed and power and endurance, and you are going to lose that excess body fat that holds you back, usually on things like body weight movements (getting up and down on boxes, pull-ups, ring movements, rope movements, basically gymnastics). All those body weight-only movements are going to get easier and easier as you lose that excess body fat, but there's also a point of diminishing returns there. We don't want you to be so skinny and so lean that you don't have endurance. Your body does need some body fat in order to work for a long period of time and we're going to talk to you about that balance of what is healthy, what's not healthy and how we're going to best suit your physical needs, not just today, not just to crush today's workout, but so that you live a long, happy and healthy life for many, many years to come.
But you've got to come in to find out for sure. Click this link to book your No-Sweat Intro. That's your opportunity to come in here, talk to one of the coaches between classes when it's nice and quiet, just like right now, and we're going to talk to you about exactly what it is you need in order to be successful here at Sequoia CrossFit and for years to come.
We can't wait to meet you.