Student Papers

Last year, as a freshmen at St. Johns prep, Danvers, I enrolled in a class called cross-fit. It offered a good work out, and to get you in shape for any sport. This encouraged me to take the class, since I wanted to get in shape for the wrestling season in the winter. At first, I thought that this class was going to be about simple repetitions of push ups, pull ups, ect. I was soon proven wrong. The class incorporated heavy lifting, running, technique, endurance, and nutrition. With the exercises we increased our muscle mass, lost body fat, and over got more fit. Nutrition serves as the base of our workouts. If we did not eat right, the workouts that we did would not serve any purpose. I did not lead a perfect diet, but I did try my best. We were told to go on a “cave-man” diet, basically meaning not to eat anything that a cave man could of not eaten. Anything that could be picked or naturally grown was okay. This diet works very well, because of the lack of unhealthy sugars. Our lifting involves squats, power cleans and jerks, all of which require some similar muscles, but different forms of power. This helps us build up our strength. Exercises like push ups, pull ups, and burpies not only help us gain strength, but maintain it for a certain amount of time. This leads to another major activity we did: running. Running varies from full force sprints to slow paced semi- long distance runs. The runs helped us with our endurance and small muscles that don't get enough stress due to their size. Overall, I like all the work outs that we have done so far. They may be tiring at some times, but hey, thats why I chose the class. As of November 1st, 2009, I have gained 3 pounds, and lost 3 percent body fat, which I feel is a big difference.