I’m often asked by friends, family, and even random folks I’ve met “do I have to be in shape to start CrossFit?” The answer is a hard no. In fact it may be more beneficial to start CrossFit without any prior exercise knowledge. If you have little to no exercise experience you are starting with a clean slate. There is SO much false and poor information out there about exercise, workout routines, movement patterns, form, etc. There are many culprits to all the misleading information out there but for the purpose of this article lets just acknowledge that it is easier to learn things correctly the FIRST time rather than having to unlearn poor movement patterns or habits.

At Eden Baltimore we welcome all of our new members and guests with our Foundations Program. Foundations is a 5 session curriculum where you will work 1 on 1 directly with a coach to learn all the fundamental movements, patterns, and ideologies we follow in CrossFit. You certainly won’t be a professional crossfitter after you have completed foundations but you will have a solid “Foundation” to build upon. After you have completed foundations you can transition into our group coaching to hone in the new skills you’ve learned, increase strength, dial in your form, and become a well rounded athlete.

Every movement we do at Eden Baltimore is scalable to each person’s abilities and desires. What does that mean? It means that 72 year old grandma and college lacrosse player can do the same workout side by side, just certain movements may be scaled or modified for the individual. For example if a workout consists of handstand push ups and box jumps we wouldn’t expect anyone who is new to exercise to flip upside down and start pressing their hands against the floor to lift their body up. But we can scale that movement with multiple variations such as push ups with your feet on a box, a regular push up on the ground, push up with knees on the floor, push up with your hands on a box, a seated overhead press with dumbbells, a pike position push up. There are tons of options for almost every movement. Additionally we can scale the weight (load), scale the movement itself such as outlined above, scale the frequency or number of reps, etc.

In conclusion CrossFit is for EVERYONE. By design it is a broad and inclusive form of fitness delivered individually or in a group setting. If you have concerns about not being ready to start CrossFit any of our coaches would love to speak with you and see if we are able to help . Feel free to reach out with any questions or schedule a free No Sweat Intro by clicking the link below to come see the gym and chat with a coach. https://msgsndr.com/widget/appointment/eden-harbor-east/no-sweat-intro