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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

CrossFit Alvalade

CrossFit Alvalade in Lisbon!

We tried to get a workout in before leaving Lisbon.  We debated on traveling outside of the city a bit to check out CrossFit LX near Queluz.  From the members at CrossFit OPO, we heard that a new CrossFit gym in Lisbon was opening up, but we had no details.  After searching around a bit and to our luck, CrossFit Alvalade had their grand opening the same day, January 2nd, 2014.  CrossFit Alvalade is the first CrossFit gym in Lisbon, Portugal!

We dropped in for the first official class on grand opening day with coach, Bruno Militao.  The class was entirely in Portuguese!  This is what we did:
  • Warm Up: bear crawl, inch worm, crab walk, shoulder/wrist mobility
  • Strength: Front Squat
  • Workout: 20min AMRAP:
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 25 Wall Ball Shots 9kg/6kg to 10'/9'
    • 25 Burpees
 
Some things I really liked here:
  • Location!  They are located across the street from the Campos Grande metro station in the Multidesportivo Building and kind of in the Alvalade stadium.  Take the Green or Yellow line on the metro and get off at Campos Grande.  They are also located near the Lisbon Airport and the Oceanarium.  Cabs are also pretty cheap in Lisbon, so from the center it should be about 10 euros.
  • New equipment!  Everything is new and still smells new!
  • Super clean; also because they just opened.
  • The gym is pretty much open all day. Check out January's schedule.
  • Open Gym, two times a day for 2.5 hours each, and also on Saturday's.
  • Variety of equipment: hammers, tires, sleds, matadors, ropes, sandbags, mats, benches, etc.
  • Clean bathrooms.
  • 15 Euro drop in fee

Some things that could use improvement:
  • Change plates.  The lightest plates they have are 5kg, or ~10#.
  • A website.  I know they just opened but it was really difficult to locate the gym, let alone find the schedule

Some pictures:
2. Outside, just around the stadium is the Multidesportivo Building.


3. Inside.


4. Wall ball targets & rings in 1st half of room


5. new weights along side of 2nd half of room


6. 2nd half of room




7. Pull up structure


8. third part of room & grassy area

9. extra rings and pull up structure


10. various equipment

11. View from very back of the room


12. View of 1st part of room from back


13. Chalkboard

2014 looks like the year for CrossFit in Portugal!  I'm so glad we got to check out CrossFit Alvalade while in Lisbon.  If you're in Lisbon and want to workout without having it suck out most of your day, you should check out CrossFit Alvalade.

Finding the gym was not easy, so I'll tell you exactly how to get there.  They don't have a website yet so Facebook message them to coordinate.  Also, the address on map.crossfit.com is wrong.  The street is correct though.  To get there, take the green or yellow metro line (~15 minutes) and get off at Campos Grande.  The metro comes every 5 minutes so it's quite convenient.  Then walk across the street, past the bus terminals, towards the Alvalade Stadium (less than 1 minute).  Head right around the stadium and the Multidesportivo Building will be on your left.  CrossFit Alvalade is located inside the building.  If you want to cab it, take the cab to Estadio Jose Alvalade and walk around the stadium until you see the Multidesportivo Building.  It might be difficult to ask someone, even if you can speak Portuguese since most people don't know what the Multidesportivo building is.

Congratulations to CrossFit Alvalade on their grand opening and I wish them success in the CrossFit space!