Crossfit: One month in.

One month of Crossfit workouts under the tutelage of Steve Ashton at Anytime Fitness on Central and MLK in St. Pete. Time to take some stock, evaluate results. Sorry, I don't have before-and-after pictures. I don't because, well, I have some self-respect. But let me start by saying that this program, while very challenging, works. Fast

Crossfit is all based on multiple movements and short, high-intensity workouts. It's essentially the opposite of station-to-station weight-lifting — y'know, three sets of bench, curls, triceps, etc.

I started Crossfit because I wanted to get back in shape (click here for my first Crossfit post) after shoulder surgery (in March) and not go back to the outmoded model of multiple sets on machines and free weights that I had done for years.

The longest workout I've had, and I've only done six proper Crossfit routines, has been just short of 30 minutes. Because there is very little rest involved in the exercise sequences, you get a lot of cardio. Kind of like lifting and getting sprint training at the same time. Man, do I get gassed.

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...