Tour de Crossfit - Stage 1

Began my quest to find a CrossFit gym in DC today. I still plan on doing 75% of my workouts at my gym at work, I'm primarily looking for a gym to train at on the weekends, preferably one with open gym hours where I can work on whatever I want. There are 4-5 gyms in DC/VA that I'm considering, all of which offer free beginners intro classes on the weekends.

Crossfit Balance is in a good location in downtown DC. They have a legit roster of trainers and the members I talked to who were finishing up their WOD loved it. The trainer who led the class was pretty proficient but could have done a much better job of selling the gym to the other people in the intro class. She didn't know how much the different membership levels cost or when the next foundations class began. Prior to visiting I thought this place would be a joke because it's affiliated with a larger LA Fitness-type gym next door with machines, yoga classes, spinng classes, etc. About 5 or 6 girls came into the crossfit gym before the class started thinking it was the main gym where they were having a pole dancing class...and trust me, this intro crossfit class would have done them much better than whatever shit they did in the pole dancing class. The one saving grace of the big box gym is the boxing ring they have inside that looks bad ass and the roof they have where they have some crossfit classes.

The class started with a brief overview of crossfit and why we do the shit we do. Then the trainer went over some basic movements we would be using in the wod. We did a partner burpee ladder warmup (1 person does 1 burpee, then the partner does 1, then the other person does 2, etc). My team dominated, obviously.

WOD:
8 min AMRAP
row 200m
5 push ups
10 squats
15 abmat situps

4 rounds + 130m row
Girlfriend: 3 + 200m row

I highly recommend trying out a beginners class at any gyms you live by even if you have no intention of joining. There are always good cues/pointers the trainers will give you and you may change your mind about joining the gym.