CrossFit Issaquah — Local services in Issaquah

After 5+ yrs of CrossFit exprience, and 12+yrs in group fitness spaces, this was sadly and unnecessarily the worst experience to date. This is much more akin to body building programming rather than Crossfit, but kindly asking questions to figure out the thought behind it was met with great defensiveness and getting shut down.

CFI "fundamentally disagrees" with being constantly varied. But there is no plan for targeting muscles differently or staving off boredom and monotony. Making your own modifications in a non-disruptive manner is also met with great resistance even if modifying for medical reasons.

There is no ongoing integration of gymnastics skills or olympic weightlifting techniques as found in CF programming. Those are reserved for certain times of the year, so if you want to train skills or technique regularly you can pay extra for special sessions, or wait another year until they hit that phase for a few weeks.

There is no warm up in the class time. You are supposed to know to come early and warm up on your own. However, the suggested warm up is not movement specific to the workout. Even with doing the posted warm up ahead of class, and doing the first "evo" of the class, you may suddenly jump into 120 toes to bar without having done anything to care for your shoulders. In an ongoing basis this is completely irresponsible for the level of weight and skills suggested. This gym was also the only place in 12yrs of barbell experience where I couldn't escape from a lift and had a 215# barbell land on the back of my head.

Membership pays for access to the Wodify app. The gym, however, refuses to sync the programming to allow members to track their performance or weights used for the day. The suggested work-around is to track in your notes app. You'll notice I don't churn my own butter either because it is an insufficient solution for technology that is easily available and helpful toward personal progress.

Over and over again, by every staff member, at the gym you will hear "trust the programming" even when there are serious holes and blindspots. CFI expects you to give an entire year of your life to see the whole picture. As a one-off you can get a decent workout and feel sore. As a week over week, month over month experience, I was bored to tears and held back.

When addressing my concerns or trying to get a better understanding of how the gym worked (because I thought it would be a CrossFit, according to the name it carries) I was told by Mike that the gym was "never going to change" (or improve), he hoped I could "get on the same page as him or find a different gym," and Stacia suggested I use the monotony of the workouts to "build mental toughness." This is an absolutely bs response for anyone who has consistency and longevity in their fitness regimen and is an endurance athlete. The problem belongs to the poor programming, not my mental toughness.

The members of the gym were sweet, and ultimately I was really sad this was such an unwelcoming environment. Despite being told to find a different gym 10days into my 6mo membership, I was only refunded 5mo. This meant I paid for 2 gym memberships when it was clear this was not a place I should be and needed to find a different business to take care of my fitness for the remaining 21days of the month.

It didn't have to be this way and these scenarios could have had very different and beneficial outcomes. As it stands, it is clear these coaching dynamics are toxic and push out...

I had a free trial session this morning. The instructor was kind enough to let me in early and give me a tour as well as go over some of the movements from today's WOD. I had explained that I have not worked out in any serious way in most of my life and had no idea where to start. I was trying CrossFit based on recommendations and a little bit of research. During the warm ups I essentially stood around because I had no idea what any of them were. The coach chatted with a few of the ladies in the class and I ended up finally asking him how to do scissor kicks, but missed most of the other warmups for lack of instruction or guidance. He did explain the WOD at length, demonstrating each and was helpful throughout with making sure I was doing the movements correctly. I ended up tapping out before the last workout because I almost fell from my legs being so weak. This was the first time I had worked out in a decade and the first actual structured workout of my life. Overall, I am a fan of the workouts themselves but I do not think I will be returning to this box as there are others that offer fundamentals courses with one on one sessions with coaches to familiarize you with the movements before throwing you into a class. I had thought that was what I was getting when i signed up for the trial, but expectation is the enemy of happiness. If you're an experienced CrossFit athlete, I would recommend this gym but for the layman such as I, I would suggest a more beginner-friendly experience.

Update to response: this gym say they do not have an "on-ramp" program. I don't see this as any reason not to be careful with new people and pay more attention to whether or not they might be hurting themselves. Fitness coaching of any kind is a RESPONSIBILITY and to say that a layman did not get proper direction because you dont offer beginner courses is simply an attempt to shirk that responsibility. Sure, we sign waivers, but does that allow for disregard of safety? No. Also, from a business standpoint, not treating beginners or new clients as such and throwing them into the class with everyone else with only minor explanation of movements, hurts your chances of building new and lasting clients. Every box I have spoken with has agreed that it was irresponsible and that such experiences are why CrossFit does not gain more athletes more often. I have reduced the score on my review to one star for the insincere response and frankly insulting attempt to justify the poor coaching that...

The coaches here are extremely knowledgable and the people are friendly. I have to emphasize the coaches are EXTREMELY knowledgable- most gyms you might have some that are extremely knowledgeable and others mediocre and some just wrong. I've added 1 star for the coaching. The workouts are the "same" for the most part on a weekly basis (variety being weights, reps, or time on a particular exercise). There is value to this since you become very good at certain things, and certain muscles do get stronger.

I've taken 2 stars off due the equipment (rig/ pull up bars) is not accessible for people under 5' 5" without using a box or 25#-35# plate. There are 2 bars that can mostly accommodate shorter people, BUT it usually gets jammed up because most of the women, teens and shorter men are waiting to use it. I'm 5'3" and I can barely jump high enough to grab and hang off this shorter bar, and in most cases need a 25# -35# plate. In a WOD, it can be chaotic. If you are over 5'10 pretty much 80% of the pull bars will fit you. If you are shorter you will experience exclusion by design. Because workouts are repetitive, this is a recurring problem. I've mentioned this issue a few times, and at one point it was indicated that people would hit their head on the pull bar when doing squats which logically doesn't make sense because not all bars on the rig can accommodate J-hooks (or they would have to be extremely tall for it to be a problem).

I'm taking 1 star off because I was literally boxed out during a workout due to the accessibility problem; full class 15 people, around 5-6 people can be on the rig to do burpee pull ups. They had 2 heats. No room on the rig to actually do the workout due to the limited amount of shorter bars relative to people needing to use it. Exclusion by design at play.

The programming is repetitive, leaning heavily on dumbbells and kettlebells (not barbells). The typical Crossfit WODs or skill building won't be found here. The upside is that this is softer on the joints since there are no DUs, BJ or other jumping with weights on a regular basis. This gym has more condition (cardio) than most other Crossfit gyms. Classes are 45 minutes. Warm ups are not included in the class or class time; programming is provided but I'm not sure it ties in with the workout- imho with decades of consistent workout experience.

I hope they can fix the accessibility issue as the coaching really shines...