On Friday, I spent the day at Reebok headquarters in Massachusetts! I was there with some fellow Fitfluential Ambassadors for an event which included not one but two awesome workouts, new product presentations (lots of cool stuff in the pipeline for next year!), and some focus groups to provide our recommendations for where to take the product in the future. It was a great day. I love working with Reebok – great employees and so much passion for fitness and healthy lifestyles! They really do practice what they preach.
After welcoming us to the campus, we headed right over to their employee CrossFit gym: Reebok CrossFit ONE!
Nerd bombing/ready to rock! (via my Instagram – username fANNEtasticfood)
It was time for a workout! 60% of their 1,100 employees belong to this gym. Cool, huh? It’s MASSIVE. I was here in May, too, and was happy to get the chance to come back!
When we arrived, Austin Malleolo, head coach at Reebok CrossFit ONE and 8th place overall finisher in the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games, explained the WOD (workout of the day).
We were all excited (and a little nervous) when we heard that our teams of three would all include one elite CrossFit athlete/Reebok fitness professional! How cool to get the chance to work out alongside such stellar athletes. You already know Julie Foucher from my video; the other girl in the picture below is Christy Phillips, who finished 11th overall in the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games. She’s also apparently a nursing student! I wish I’d had the chance to ask her her tips for balancing fitness and school, too!
In addition to them, we also worked out alongside someone else who was very inspirational – in the picture below on the far right is Annemarie McKay, who is 74 years old and has worked for Reebok since 1981. She’s Reebok CrossFit ONE’s oldest member and works out there frequently. How hardcore is that?!
She did the whole workout with us and was seriously the cutest ever. Just goes to show how adaptable CrossFit is to different ability levels! Next time you say you can’t do a workout – think of Annemarie, okay? And then ask the coach to help you figure out a way to participate at your own level. 🙂
After warming up and making sure we all knew how to do the basic moves safely and correctly (form is everything in CrossFit – if coaches aren’t actively checking your form, they aren’t good ones), they split us up into three person teams and it was time for the workout!
Here’s my team – we selected the name “Sparkling Champions” 🙂 Lala, Jared, and me! Jared is a Reebok Crossfit ONE coach and finished 22nd in the 2011 Crossfit Games.
I know, his abs are ridiculous.
Before starting, we all practiced the moves with our team to make sure everyone knew what they were doing. This was also when we determined how much weight/what form everyone would use for each move, etc. Jared was a great coach getting us all set up!
As a team, we had to complete the following, in order:
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One 200m run each
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150 dumbbell thrusters total between all of us
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100 pull ups total between all of us (or ring rows, if you couldn’t do pull ups)
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50 box jumps total between all of us (30 inch height for guys, 24 inch height for girls)
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One 200m run each
One person would be doing one of the above moves, one person would be resting, and one person had to hold a barbell up off the floor.
Girls held it in a deadlift position like so. Guys (and the really strong girls) had the option to hold it up in a clean position or overhead if they wanted, and also usually used a heavier weight. The one LaLa and I held weighed 85 pounds total. This was so hard! Probably even harder than the actual moves!
When everyone was situated, we got moving! First up – the run.
Then rotating people through dumbbell thrusters! You did as many as you could then had someone else take over. I used 20 lb weights for the first two rounds then switched to 15 lbs.
My turn to hold the weight in a deadlift! Harder than it looks, trust me.
Ring rows!
And finally box jumps!
Weeee!
Finish it out with the run:
Go team! What a great workout. It was so cool to get to work out alongside the pros!
Apparently I missed the purple/gray memo
Have you ever gotten the chance to work out with elite athletes? My only other experience is when I went running with Bart Yasso! 🙂
