I can't say enough good things about these guys and The Shop. This was my first experience with CrossFit, and after a month of consistent 4-5 sessions a week, I have already experienced significant improvements in strength, mobility and overall fitness. My background is as a marathon runner, but I have spent very, very little time in the gym in the last 15-20 years, with just a couple brief periods of perhaps six months at a time where I was consistently lifting any weights at all.
Drew and Cody are great instructors and very approachable, coaching to the class in general and still providing specific instruction and attention to individuals. They do a standout job of pushing you to do your best, while at the same time not jeopardizing your safety. They each have great eye for detail when it comes to individuals performing the exercises properly. If I was performing the exercises with less than optimal form, they would suggest backing down to a lighter weight and nailing the movement properly before lifting something heavier. The workouts posted on the blog may look impossible to a newbie, like they did to me, but every single workout was scaleable to meet individual needs.
I was impressed with how well rounded the program is, in term of the individual workouts as well as the flow of workouts over the course of a week. There is a healthy emphasis on warm-up and mobility prior to every workout, and before the heart of the workout they devote time to instructing us in the lifts/movements with very light weights or no weight at all in order for us to really learn the movements and reduce risk of injury, offering specific feedback along the way.
I had suffered a knee injury while training for a marathon about a month prior to joining, but this posed no problems for me over the course of this last month. In fact, my knee has continued to feel even better as I have been attending the workouts. I think this is testament to these guys coaching me in performing the exercises correctly and creatively adjusting the workouts accordingly in the early stages of my injury recovery.
If you're considering joining but think you may need to get in shape before doing so, just go ahead and go to a workout! The first week is free anyway! It's really the best way, and it's the easiest really. Like I mentioned above, I've seen them scale every workout to meet you where you are, just like in my own experience.