On Wed eve myself, Leigh, Clouds and a friend you haven’t met yet, Jacki, headed over to The Last Word in Constantia to be introduced to a workout technique called Crossfit by Bar One Manhunt 2 hottie, Lushwill Rossouw.

Yup, that’s him there! Friends just call him Lush. ** I stole this piccie from his Facebook page btw **

For those who didn’t follow the Bar One Manhunt on SABC3, this is what it was about: 25 “tough dude” finalists from around the country were selected to compete against each other over a 10 week period in gruelling challenges which tested both their physical & mental strenght.  The show took them to interesting places including China & Zanzibar and it the end only one man could walk away with the Manhunt title.  Lushwill excelled on all fronts, but most importantly he became known for being the guy with the heart of gold.  I asked him what his toughest challenge was and he said it was definitely the ”leap of faith” they had to do off the Orlando Power Station towers in Soweto.  I’m not a fan of heights, or jumping off crazy things, so I totally feel him on that one.

Lushwill walked away with some seriously impressive prizes.  He won R500 000 in cold hard cash, a Mahindra XUV 500 valued at R 300 000 and a Harley-Davidson V-Rod Muscle 2012.  Some serious street cred earning man toys there…

Other than being the Bar One man, Lushwill is also a personal trainer & CrossFit enthusiast.  On Mon/Wed/Fri you’ll find him at the Virgin Active in Wembley Square and on Tue & Thu he teaches at the Cape CrossFit studio in Roodehek St, Gardens.  But what is CrossFit exactly?  CrossFit aims to get us back to the basics, ensuring we move the way our bodies were designed to and fixing the problems that are brought on by the desk & couch lifestyles we find ourselves stuck in today.  It combines elements of olympic training, functional training as well as gymnastics with the focus on movements which you would encounter in your every day life, i.e. pushing, pulling, squatting (on 1 leg or two), bending to extension & rotation.  There are no machines involved, free weights only, and they encourage healthy competition with group classes of on ave 10 ppl (up to a max of 15).  They typically do sets starting at a certain number and working your way down to 1, with the goal of trying to improve on your time with each training session. 

And with results like these… I’m certainly fast becoming an enthusiast myself!  Enjoy ladies:

As a girl who tends to be a bit of a cardio junkie, I asked him what the best calorie burning forms of cardio are.  He said: 1. Skipping; 2. Rowing and 3. Running.  Instantly my brain was like, right, I’m buying a skipping rope this weekend.

Now let’s get down to our workout session.  The Last Word offered such a beautiful setting for our little “feel the burn” session and they really looked after us with healthy non-alcoholic fruit cocktails and yummy feel good snacks. 

Here’s the gang: Clouds, Leigh, Lushwill, me and Jacki

I’d like to point out on this pic above that Clouds is wearing wedges, yes wedges!  And she actually said “at least I tried to dress down”.  Haha.  Yes this lady arrived with absolutely zero intention of getting her CrossFit on, instead she tried to convince us that we needed an official photographer, right?  Right guys?  And then Leigh is wearing Crocs.  Hmmm.  I’m not even going to go there.

Anyhoo, after a quick warm up, we were off…

And squat… and lunge… and arms up in the air…

And back to those squats, but with meaning this time… burn baby burn…

But wait, wait just a second here… we seem to have lost someone…

Yup, Leigh had deserted us only a short way in.  What was she doing instead?  Well I think this shot explains it all…

Nice… real nice…

Oh and what about Clouds?

Hey official photog! Get off your phone!

So ja, Jacki & I were the two lone warriors, pushing through the pain, sweating blood and all that…

Look at that form, that stamina, that professionalism…

We worked right into the night!

OK OK, I’ll admit – it’s not as bad as it looks. We did arrive just before sunset. hehe.

After a very successful session, we were ready to show off our “guns”:

OK wait I’m not flexing properly in that pic, let me try again, with a close up this time:

Boom!  And after just one session…  But do you think it makes me looks a little too “butch”?

A huge thanks to Lushwill for kick-starting my summer body prep, something I’ve been putting of week, after week, after week.  And then also to Jill from Zebra Square PR for setting this up.  I’m now 100% motivated to get fit again.  No more vegging on the couch!  Or at least a little less vegging on the couch (as a start at least).

Do follow Lushwill on Twitter – @lushwill – he’s a total sweetheart and an all round great guy.  What other reasons do you need?  Also hop on over to And Lollipops because Clouds took a peek into his wardrobe and you can check out all the deets over here.

Let’s all get moving folks – beach time is almost upon us.

xxx

Photo credits:  all workout pics provided by Clouds & topless shots of Lush taken from his Facebook page.  Bicep from some ripped oke on http://getfityou.com.