This past Wednesday at CrossFit Rohkeus we did a killer workout that most of our members seemed to both love and hate. Here’s what it was:

It was a grinder, but it gave all of us a tremendous sense of accomplishment after completion!

The funny story here is how this came to be our Wednesday WOD. One of our members, Jennifer Wolf-Beaster, was on vacation in Florida the week before. She was going to drop into a local box and saw that they had posted this workout (with an outdoor run too – not so great for Wisconsin in January!) so she elected to skip it. She shared this workout with our “CrossFit Rohkeus Closed Group” on Facebook as a joke – kind of like “check out this brutal workout”. Well, several members and coaches who know Jennifer well commented that this seemed like her kind of workout (she normally LOVES these grinders and CRUSHES them!) but she said “not while I’m on vacation”, so there were some jokes about programming it AFTER her vacation. This joke turned into a reality in our Wednesday WOD. (Thanks Jennifer!!!)

Many Rohkees were a little scared, but mostly excited, coming in for class on Wednesday. All that leg work back-to-back-to-back and then burpees right after push-ups – what kind of sadist programs this? We were wondering if this was even possible for mere mortals. Luckily, we’re not mere mortals . . . we’re rockstar Rohkees! We crushed it! I think we all had sore quads and glutes (and traps and lats and . . .) for the next few days, but we earned it! A lot of us were probably cursing Jennifer too, but it was meant with love.

Here’s what the Beaster’s namesake, had to say after the workout: “Now that I have finally done the workout named in my honor (Gee thanks!) it’s not as dreadful as it looks. Take everything one rep at a time, keep chipping away and before you know it, it’s over! Then euphoria sets in! Glad that’s over!”

And here’s what Coach Ben had to say after all the classes on Wednesday: “We had 60 Rohkees come through and tackle the Beaster today! And it was an amazing day to be a coach!!! From the 5am class all the way through the 5:30pm class, we had people helping finish the WOD and a room full of counting and cheers!!! What an awesome day!”

So what are the lessons learned here?

  1. Even a truly daunting workout like this one is doable, just chip away at it a little at a time and before you know it, it’s over!
  2. Don’t share brutal workout ideas with our coaches unless you want to find them in our programming! (Jennifer!!!)
  3. Our CrossFit Rohkeus family is THE BEST – so much support and encouragement for everyone to do their best and crush it! We’re so damn proud of everyone!