06/30/08
We have two more people starting their free week - welcome Kevin and Tiffany! We would also like to welcome our newest member, Brennan!
There is a new personal record to announce - last night Jennie did 20 pull-ups! WOO HOO! After spending two long weeks nursing some shredded hands, she's back in the game and ready for more!
Last night we had fun doing 4 rounds for time of: 30 pistols, 20 box jumps and 10 ring dips. Pistols are definitely a challenge! CrossFitters were allowed to hang onto either one of the rings, or an assistance band while they learned the movement. Where was our girl power last night!? LADIES, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE GYM!
06/29/08
First and foremost, I'd like to send out a big WELCOME to Dawn and Sandra. They came yesterday to start their free week of fitness. WELCOME LADIES!
The long awaited, much anticipated record boards were finally hung yesterday! We'll be filling in the boards as we go along with the top 5 ladies and the top 5 men in each category. We'll have all the heroes and girls workouts as well as records for all the Olympic lifts. GET YOUR NAME ON THE BOARD!
Yesterday we did as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 10 sumo deadlift high-pulls and 10 knees to elbows. Sparky is always making sure to clarify that it is NOT knees to armpits, but knees to ELBOWS! Will and Sparky showed us how it was done!
06/28/08
Yesterday was so fun! Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Fest and wore their CrossFit shirts proudly! James, we're sorry you had to leave early due to a head injury. Zach, we're glad you graced us with your presence for 20 minutes. :-( We met a lot of cool people at WaucondaFest, and we're hoping we recruited them to try their free week!
It has become a Friday tradition to do team workouts. Yesterday we had two person teams that had to complete the following: 150 burpee box jumps, 150 wallball. I'll be honest...when Bill told me the workout I thought he was kidding. Burpee box jumps? As if burpees weren't bad enough!? I didn't even realize these were possible. Much to my surprise, not only were they possible, but I found out that you can do about 73 of them before you feel like collapsing. With an odd number of people attending class, Jennie got to join in the fun. GO TEAM RED & BLACK!
06/27/08
The CrossFitters who play together, stay together, right? After our class tonight, a group of CrossFitters are all going to the WaucondaFest together. I think our plan is to wear our CrossFit tshirts to get as many strange looks as possible. If you're interested in meeting up with us, just give either Jennie or Bill a call on their cell phone.
IN OTHER NEWS there are a few PR's to announce. James has set a new pull-up PR of 15! Keri has also increased her pull-up PR to 3! Congrats James and Keri! Bill set 2 new PR's last night. He has worked his way up to 30 kipping pull-ups, and a deadlift of 180kgs! For those of you without a calculator, that's 396lbs! Bill strong like bull! Our records boards are striped and ready to be hung. As soon as they're hung we'll begin filling them in with all of our amazing members records!
06/25/08
We repeated yesterday morning's workout for our evening class, and it was double the fun! After class we all enjoyed some watermelon together...it was so refreshing! Our record boards have finally been striped, and they're waiting patiently to be hung. Maybe one of our gym records could be the most watermelon-eats.
Since we love each and every one of our members, we are going to be starting a food/nutrition blog in the very near future. Bill (our resident nutrition expert) will be taking charge of the nutrition blog so that he can share his vast knowledge with all of you! For today, I think I'd like to let you all in on a secret.....GRAINS ARE NOT GOOD FOR YOU. (GASP! I know! It's scandalous!) Not only do grains cause complete havoc with our insulin levels, our bodies have not evolved to maximize the effectiveness of grain consumption. This is according to our buddy Mark Sisson. He posted "The Definitive Guide to Grains" on his blog...it's a good article! You should all read it...there's going to be a quiz later. :-) READ THE ARTICLE
06/24/08
Who likes waking up early!? WE DO!! This morning was our very first morning class, and we had a GREAT turnout! Thank you to everyone who woke up early and made the commitment to their fitness! I can't imagine a better way to start my day than with as many rounds possible in 4 minutes each of: Press, tabata squats and kettlebell swings!
We would like to send a big WELCOME to our two newest members, Heather and Ariel. These two ladies are absolutely amazing! They push through and give you more even when you think there's nothing left! Congratulations BOTH OF YOU for doing last night's workout as prescribed and finishing strong!
06/23/08
By special request, we did the Filthy Fifty last night. Sparky has been asking for it for over a month, and with our LOVELY wall ball plates finally hung, we had everything we needed. It turned out to be everything he dreamed it would be! Sparky and Pete both did the workout as prescribed, and did a GREAT job! Everyone made it through in one piece, I'm so proud of all of you!
Kat is turning into a pull-up machine! She set a new PR of 10 pull-ups last night. You go girl!
06/21/08
We had two special guests this morning at the Fort. The first is Jayce, he's starting his free week. WELCOME!! The second is Jack. He's officially a CrossFit baby! Look how he works that kettlebell!
A BIG thank you goes out to everyone who helped at the Fort today! The wall ball plates are finally ready for some action, (James will be happy to hear!) and the loft is on its way to becoming a useful space. There were a TON of holes to drill for those wall ball plates, and our boys drilled them for time. It just doesn't get much more CrossFit than that! THANK YOU!
06/19/08
Last night we tried a variation of Fight Gone Bad where you do each exercise for 2 minutes instead of 1 minute. It was an intense 22 minutes of fun, and I hope everyone enjoyed it! I'm so proud of how hard everyone pushed themselves; it was a challenge!
Stacy finished with the highest number of reps - 301! Not only was she the burpee MACHINE, she was also a little bunny on her box jumps, scoring a whopping 64 jumps in the 2nd round! Nice work Stacy!
06/18/08
Much to my surprise, we have another member of the "got pull-ups" club! Kat busted out a secret PR of 4 pull-ups without telling me! Congratulations Kat!
CrossFit Fire would like to send a big welcome to Susie who is starting her free week. Last night was an intimidating night to show up; we were learning the snatch! Our group of 12 was well accomodated thanks to the 4 new bars we received yesterday. We should have about another thousand pounds or so of bumper plates arriving in the next week along with some additional assistance bands. The exciting part is that the same truck delivering the bumper plates to the CrossFit Games will be delivering our plates! Our plates are stopping at the CrossFit Games! Zach pointed out that our bumper plates are like Brad Pitt's Secretary's Cousin.
06/17/08
Today was a great day! At 72 degrees and almost no humidity it was finally a pleasure to be working out! We had 3 new members join today. Welcome Leslie, Stacy and Pete! Another BIG welcome goes out to Ariel and Heather who are starting their free week.
We've had a few college students find our facility, and since we don't require you to sign a contract it's perfect! Spend the summer at home working out with CrossFit Fire so you can go back to school in the fall looking and feeling better than ever!
06/16/08
I hope everyone had a good Father's Day! The lovely Miss Keri was the only one who made it out for our Sunday night class. C'mon people! Get your butts to class! I know it's Father's Day....but bring Dad with! We had a good workout though, and then had some fun taking group pictures.
06/15/08
Yesterday Keri was feeling inspired after her workout, and did her VERY FIRST UNASSISTED PULL UP! It was amazing! Just two short months ago Keri was using a big green assistance band, and now she's a member of the "got pull-ups" club! You go girl!
06/14/08
Last night's workout was a challenge, but totally fun! We had children chasing us on their bikes promising us ice cream if we can run the whole 400meters without stopping. :-) The ice cream man decided to park DIRECTLY in front of our building for about 20 minutes....do you think we looked hungry?
Our workout was great this morning! 100 squats, 20 double unders, 75 squats, 40 double unders, 50 squats, 60 double unders, 25 squats, 80 double unders. Our legs were like jello, but everyone made it through. Matt is doing exceptionally well! His squat technique improves every time we see him! Way to go Matt!
06/13/08
Ok, so several members have mentioned that they are a little sore from the "jacket of pain" workout the other night. This type of soreness is not uncommon for people starting an intense fitness regime, and it's called delayed onset muscle soreness(DOMS). Ice, ibuprofen, gentle stretching, and a gentle set of warm up exercises usually helps alleviate some of the pain. BUT, in case that doesn't help you, we're doing an almost completely armless workout tonight. As Bill put it, "you could bring your armless friends, and they wouldn't feel left out". GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE GYM!! WE'RE COOKING OUT AGAIN!
I have posted my long awaited before & after pictures as a link on our nutrition page, as well as on the CrossFit testimonials discussion board. Much to my surprise, almost 1,500 people have seen my back-fat-exposing pictures. Overall, I'm very glad I posted them publicly, as they seem to be acting as a motivation tool for women who were on the fence about CrossFit. As one of my favorite affiliates always says, "all you have to do to get results is to keep walking through our doors".
06/12/08
It's not very often that one of our members totally blows us away....but last night I was COMPLETELY blown away! We deadlifted last night, 5 sets of 3. One of our newer FEMALE members deadlifted 223lbs last night! Keep in mind that she has only been doing CrossFit for about a month now, and the last time we had to do deadlift in sets of 12, she only did 103lbs. Despite tearing 2 callouses, and bruising both of her legs, she just kept going!
Let me introduce all of you to the lovely, the strong, the bruised, the unstoppable KIM! 
06/11/08
Last night was super fun! We did a workout called "jacket of pain". I think we would all agree that any WOD that actually has the word PAIN in its name is going to be a challenge! Our workout was as follows: 100 push press/run 400m/75 push press/run 400m/50 push press/run 400m/25 push press/run 400m. As you can imagine, we are a sore group of Crossfitters this morning!
06/10/08
Looking for a challenge? Want to support a good cause? Like spending time with your fellow CrossFitters?
Registration for Go Vertical Chicago, the world’s longest indoor stair climb, is now open! Sign up to be one of the daring climbers who will scale the famous Sears Tower on November 9th, 2008. Entry is strictly limited to the first 2250 registrants. When registering, be sure to select the option to "join an existing team". By selecting that, you will be able to search for "CrossFit Fire" and join our team.
Come and join participants of all ages and nationalities to conquer the building’s 2,109 steps, 103 floors and 1,353 vertical feet. At the top, you’ll be welcomed by the best view in Chicago from the Sears Tower Skydeck– a view that is even sweeter when you make it there using your own two feet. And it’s all in support of cutting edge cancer research- by young scientists who dare to try and overcome a disease that will touch one in four Americans.
06/07/08
The first CrossFit Fire cookout was a huge success! We played bags, grilled and enjoyed the nice weather. Thank you to everyone who contributed! We even had an unexpected visitor. We named her Yertle the Turtle....she's officially our CrossFit Fire Turtle. We were going to put her on the rower to see if she was motivated, but she didn't seem up to it. **Please note that no turtles OR HUMANS were harmed in the making of this photo.
This morning we did Fran. We had a small group, but it was a total blast. Jennie set a new PR. Her previous record was set back on 5/7 (6:35), and today she blew it away by finishing in 5:16!
06/06/08
We have a fun night planned tonight! We will be working out at our regularly scheduled time, and after our workout we'll be grilling out! Come for the workout, stay for the food!
One of the many blogs that Bill reads daily is "The IF Life". There was a great article posted back in May titled "Trainer tells all: What I have learned about Health and Fitness". The article attempts to dispel some of the health & fitness myths that all of us have believed for so many years. The author of "The IF Life" has a very unique story and an interesting view on fitness. Mike O'Donnell is the author of "The IF Life" blog, and he offers his views and opinions in a very funny but informative format. One of my favorite quotes from his article is:
"Want a strong 'core'? Lift something heavy over your head and walk around trying to stabilize it...the motivation to not drop it on your head will work wonders."
To read the full article: Click Here
Hope to see everyone at the Fort tonight!
06/05/08
All of this LOVELY humidity has been great, hasn't it? UGH. Thank you to the brave group we had last night. They attacked the workout and gave it everything they had for 30+ minutes! We had fun in Kettlebell hell! (Run 800, 50-40-30 of kettlebell swings, box jumps and weighted walking lunges.....it was really a whole bunch of hellish stuff)
In other news, Tim had his knee surgery yesterday, and he says everything went great. They were repairing a torn ligament and a chipped knee cap. He should be back in the gym in no time. GET BETTER SOON TIM! WE MISS YOU!!
Kettlebell hell looks like fun
The second picture was Saturday morning's class.....It was thruster and double under hell! Look at Sparky go!!
06/04/08
We have been asked by several of our members if we could provide them with a nutritional guideline, and a customized program to help them reach their goals. ABSOLUTELY! If you are interested in having a program started for you, please just ask. We include this service for free with your membership. You can either come early to class, or stay late. We will start you out by taking some basic measurements using our super sophisticated schematics, scales and calipers. Ok, so they're not THAT sophisticated, but it sounds good!
We all had fun celebrating Kat's graduation - Jaime is such a good hostess! Here's our CrossFit Fire group photo from the event:
06/02/08
What a beautiful weekend! We would like to extend a delayed congratulations to Kat and Keri for their graduation from UIC Chicago's Pharmacology program. That's right gentlemen....they're strong AND smart!
We have a few new pullup PR's from this weekend. Jennie's new PR is 15, Bill (not to be shown up by a girl) is now up to 25, and James can do 7!!
