CrossFitter

One of the first things I did in the Netherlands was to look for a new CrossFit gym (or box as it has been pointed out to me). My hotel does have a gym which is quite nice and offers a bar for pull-ups and even a box for box jumps. But in both cases you bump your head against the ceiling which is just far too low. Keep in mind that the Dutch are way taller than I am so I don't know who designed this gym... but getting back to topic.
Now I'm a member of the "Powerhouse 040" in Eindhoven and the location is quite nice.

But I had to learn pretty fast that they do CrossFit a bit different over here. I was used to warming up on my own, having some time to work on the technique with a trainer an then having some energy left for the actual workout. My coach in the US mentioned several times that he has been tougher in prior years and that sit ups within a workout are a phase of "active recovery" but I didn't take that too seriously. I should have...
So here everybody does the warm up together. Fine by me. But the "warm up" includes things like 20 "man makers"... just to get started. If you don't know what that is you can watch the video below.



As if that wasn't bad enough the Dutch version of the man maker includes two push ups per repetition and all the 10kg dumbbells where taken so I had to go for 12.5kg (27,5 lbs). I'm quite sure someone is already thinking of it so let me spell it out... "if that is too much for me maybe I'm not the man I want to be". For further puns on me please use the comment function. :)
Another great example was the warm up for the 70.1 workout which includes only "75" burpees. They made us do 30 burpees for warm up... the exercise (I'm quoting) "everybody loves to hate". Everybody except Sven of course. (This time you can watch a women. ;))



After the warm up we get to the part for the technique in which you practice exactly the movements you will need for the workout. That does make sense but they have 1 trainer for up to 20 people so you don't learn much if you don't already know what to do.
Finally, after burning all the energy in the warm up and tiring the muscle groups you will need in a bit the real workout starts... and they are tough. They include fun things like 3 muscle ups. You can't do muscle ups? Well then do 6 chest to bars. Oh... you can't do chest to bars... then replace with 9 pull ups. That was one of the workouts where I hit the time cap. No matter how fast I was on the power cleans and wall balls... you will not see me do 45 pulls ups within 15 minutes. Luckily they have time caps for all work outs so the torture does come with a fixed end. :)