Teacher Trekker

After the day trip to the Abbey at St. Gall, we headed back to my friend’s apartment to get ready for my first Crossfit session outside of the United States. After grabbing some of my gear and changing, my friend took me to her local Crossfit box at Crossfit Werdenberg which is located in Räfis in the canton of St. Gallen. Once there, I was introduced to Tobias who is the head coach at the box. He was very welcoming and friendly.

The facility is a state of the art Crossfit box that is outfitted with more Rogue Fitness equipment than my brain could handle. The gym is average size, but compared to my home box at Crossfit Ridgewood, it is enormous. The wooden floors are well protected with thick rubber tiles that allow for controlled dropping of weights. If you aren’t careful, the weights might actually bounce too high when you drop your barbell from above your shoulders. In the center of the room is a full rig that can fit 6 people to a side allowing for approximately a dozen people to share the apparatus during workouts. Along the window there are barbells, plates and most of the weight training equipment. Along the opposite wall there is a GHD machine, wooden boxes, Rogue rubber boxes (which I used for deficit handstand pushups), different sized exercise balls and a few other pieces of equipment. There were two ropes that were approximately 20 feet from the floor to the ceiling. The back wall is used for handstand pushups and wall balls.

The gym is very athlete friendly. There are two full locker rooms, one for men and the other for women to change and store belongings. On the opposite side of the gym there is a bathroom with multiple shower stalls and toilets. There is a lounge area with couches to sit and relax before or after your training session. There are a number of different protein shakes, drinks and even non-alcoholic beer in the refrigerator. They also sell a variety of supplements and snacks including protein bars and fruits. Last, they also have gym related products available for sale like wrist wraps, speed ropes and gymnastics hand grips. The availability of these products only enhanced the atmosphere for members.

Finally, as the head coach and instructor at Crossfit Werdenberg, Tobias has instituted a number of fitness challenges for his members to achieve. These challenges come with prizes and serve as a motivational tool. For example, any member who can complete 50 unbroken (without stopping) double unders (two passes of the jump rope under your feet per single jump) with the regular plastic jump rope will earn a speed rope. This is a great motivational tool to push members to more quickly develop specific skills/movements and become better athletes. I would recommend every Crossfit box to do the same thing for their members. This motivated my friend, who recently completed the double under challenge and earned the speed rope. As a result, she can perform this movement better than I can, has beaten my personal record and has been working on the skill for a few months. If only all athletes at every box were motivated by similar challenges, then we would all become much more profficient at skills that many may choose to not practice because of difficulty or lack of interest.

I was glad to be able to train at Crossfit Werdenberg. Everyone I met was extremely friendly and welcoming. Since I was the sole American in the gym, many members had a myriad of questions for me about my box and the workouts we do back home. I learned a number of new stretching routines and exercises that I brought back to my team. At the same time, I was able to pass along some information and ideas about performing different movements and exercises. Crossfit is about forging relationships and building community. Although we may be separated by thousands of miles, the attitudes and mindsets of the members were congruent with those at my box. It’s always a good day when you train hard, learn something, and make new friends along the way. I look forward to going back to Crossfit Werdenberg next time I am in the area.

After a day where I walked over 5 miles wandering around the Abbey of St. Gall and city of St. Gallen (with a total of just over 8 miles counting the entire day), and a full Crossfit class with additional individual training, I returned to my friend’s apartment to end up volunteering to shovel the driveway and clean off a car. While I was taking care of the snow removal, my friend prepared dinner. Over the meal we discussed our road trip to Amsterdam that we were leaving for in less than 12 hours. Since we were planning on departing as early as 6 o’clock in the morning, it was a smart decision that we both went to bed shortly after we ate. I was exhausted and the comfortable bed allowed me to fall asleep almost instantaneously. Too bad it felt like I barely took a nap when the alarm started blaring at 5:45 a.m. to get up and get on the road, but that is a tale for another day. If you would like, check out my Amsterdam Road Trip article.