Anyone my age and female?!

[Ariel DeNoto]

Hey I'm always searching the message board for good advice on everything, which I find always. But sometimes the information and advice I find is for mainly adults and men..I would love to know if there are any teenagers that are doing crossfit. More specifically girls Guys are welcome to respond too, any response is great. I just am curious to see how your training is going and what works specifically for teens and stuff

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

What are you goals?

[Ariel DeNoto]

Get my weights up, and start actually doing some impressive work. (Better all around pretty much..better times, heavier weights..)
I would just like to compare my training and times and weights and such to those of my age group..I think I could get a more accurate view of where I am right now.
Mainly building strength and muscle are my goals.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

I don't think she posts here, but you might do a search for Kallista Pappas. She's a fairly well-known teenage Crossfit firebreather. You might also wander over to the Crossfit Kids site: their main audience is younger, but "graduates" to mainstream Crossfit as they get older.

Katherine

[Ariel DeNoto]

Yeah I've seen Kallista and she's amazing..just haven't found much on her.

[Katie "KD" Davenport]

Hey Ariel--

I can't say that I've seen a ton of teenage girls posting on the blogs--internet message boarding tends to be a male-dominated sport--but I don't think that means that most of the advice only applies to boys and men. The strategies for improving your training seem to be pretty similar for everyone, and as you know you'll find a wealth of information here.

As far as comparing yourself with others your age...why bother? In another thread, many grown men confessed that your overhead squat was better than theirs. Seems like you're doing awesome, by any measure. But you want to get better--so you're in the right place.

My advice would be not to compare yourself to ANYONE in particular--although it goes against all human nature. It took me a year and a half of training to get a pull-up--my brother hadn't worked out in years, walked in the gym, and knocked out a couple. Infuriating. (And that probably is a boy/girl difference--I believe pull-ups are easier for guys in general since they tend to have stronger upper bodies). But the point is I improved relative to ME--and I'll never be better than my brother unless I get better than myself first.

If you do have any questions that you think are female-specific, I would be interested to hear them, because I have not heard much about differences between male and female training--almost everything I've read assumes that girls and boys should do basically the same things to get strong and fast. So get to it!!

[Tamara Cohen]

Ariel, Alec Kellish is a high school student who has been around for a while and posts here regularly. I'll send him to this thread!

[Jordan Derksen]

One of my favorite things that I've heard a lot of the games athletes like Blair Morrison and Khalipa say is that the reason Crossfit is such a camaraderie driven sport where we're all encouraging each other to do our best is that a lot of people think of it in terms of, "it's me versus the workout, not me versus anyone else". And it's funny cause even though competition is high no one ever tries to sabotage anyone else and no one speaks badly about anyone else. In one video I saw where Khalipa was going against Spealler the camera guy asked Khalipa if he was worried Spealler would beat his time and Jason replied that he hoped Spealler would beat his time. That's what makes this sport so great and so different. It breaks down all the stupid walls between people and lets old people, guys, girls, kids, fat, skinny, short, and tall all workout together without everyone having to judge each other.
I'm a 22 year old guy, but to me I don't really care about if I have other 22 year old dudes to crossfit with. I'd just as soon do a workout with you or with my grandma cause it's just as fun.

[Joseph Nichols]

Hey - I'm a teenage guy, if that helps. I just started crossfit about a month ago, and I can't get enough of it.

I'm 6', 175#, and 18 yrs. old. I play soccer like it's my religion. I've found that I treat my workouts like soccer games: all-out, 100% of the time.

This is what runs through my mind, halfway through each workout: "Why the hell am I here, doing this, right now?!" I've found that if I'm not asking myself that question, I'm not getting the best results from my workout.

[Jordan Riley McClintock]

I just turned 16 and have followed CF Football since December.
If you are looking to get stronger check it out, it is unreal. I messed around with vegetarianism for a few years, and it held me back, but I am making big gains now that I eat meat again. I find CF has been fantastic for me as far as athletics!
Do you play any sports?