CrossFit Issaquah

My husband and I were in Seattle on vacation and visiting my son. We have been a part of the CrossFit community for about 12 years. We are from Texas so things are extremely different there. For one, people are nice! We were greeted and told where to put our things and then to do the warm up on our own. There was a 3 minute demo on the lifting complex and then set up to run through that. Equipment was pretty rough and needed to be replaced! The place could use a good cleaning and some tlc! Overall not what CrossFit expects from their affiliates.

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 at this gym.

They've been fantastic. Incredibly supportive trainers and peers no matter if you're starting out or experienced. Would highly recommend.