ex·traor·di·nar·y

1. Very Unusual or remarkable
2. Unusually great

DEFINITION. Maybe it's because I've been in the CrossFit community for so long, but I don't share this individual's definition of extraordinary. I've seen plenty of people finish a 2:00 Fran. I've watched people deadlift over 500lbs. I sat in the stands at the Games and watched the best of the best compete, and yet, it wasn't "extraordinary" to me.

GREAT. I love the expression "unusually great". And I love the greatness that surrounds us at the Fort. Know what I find unusually great? Watching a 62 yr old man do unassisted pull-ups. Cheering for a lady who is 8 months pregnant while she does a whole WOD rx'd. Being there to watch when someone finally works up the courage to jump onto the 20" box. I also find it unusually great when top finishers complete their workout and without hesitation start cheering for those still working.

YOU. You are extraordinary to me. Your courage, strength and persistence is what makes me smile and keep coming back to the Fort. You don't have to move mountains or win marathons to be unusually great in my eyes. You just need to keep being you.

[Read more →]

What if we had a team Saturday, but it WASN'T a team workout? That's exactly what happened yesterday. Much to the surprise of the 9AM class, The WODFather had planned a fun workout that would be performed individually. Actually, it was in teams of 1, kind of like golf.

Nice work everyone! Essentially, you ALL won Team Saturday!

[Read more →]

There was a mandatory 3:00 rest between your strength sets yesterday and as your coaches we used that opportunity to torture you. I mean....to help you! 3:00 of rest is a perfect opportunity to attack any mobility issues you might have. There were people with their butts against the way, people rolling on foam rollers, and people in funny poses. Remember these movements and work on them at home!

The workout was:

5 Rounds for Total Calories:
1:00 Row
3:00 Rest

Garth set the pace for the WOD by getting over 150 calories. Great job Garth! During the 6PM class, Scott Michelau managed to get 34 calories his first round! WOWZA! Nice work!

Reminder - next Sunday at 11:00 is the meatzza off. This is a fun and delicious way to spend your Sunday, so mark your calendars!

[Read more →]

It's not very often that I talk about the strength work on the blog, but something totally amazing happened last night, and I just have to share. Our strength work was:

As you can see, the strength work was meant to be heavy deadlifts and max push-ups. The thing is, that there were 5 sets of 2-3 deadlifts, which leads to about 10-15 reps. If you had to choose a weight for this, what would YOU choose? Gabe chose to do his first 4 sets at his one rep max! If that wasn't impressive enough, for his last set he added an extra 10kg's. BEAST SKILLS! Nice job Gabe!

Thanks to Gabe's amazing strength work, we managed to offset the lack of manliness at Warrior Women Wednesday. Zachary's dance and Gabe's deadlifts just cancelled each other out.

[Read more →]

Our workout yesterday was:

3 rounds of:
10 pull-ups
15 push press (50/35kg)
3:00 rest
3 rounds of:
10 burpees
15 box jumps
3:00 rest
THEN - accumulate 3:00 L-sit holds

Don't know what an L-sit is? Don't worry, you're not alone. If you can picture in your mind the upstairs loft at the Fort, there are lots of little upside down U's scattered about. These are called parralettes. Our old buddy Chris Tucker used to call it "fun with plumbing", and that's exactly what it is! You grab a pair of parralettes, and try to hold your legs suspended, toes pointed. The scaling option was to just tuck and hold your feet off the ground.

The L-sits were definitely the hardest part of the WOD. Three minutes seemed to stretch to infinity! Steve did a great job at the 9AM. He kept chugging away until he got his full 3 minutes! Lori did amazing too. She's starting to get REALLY GOOD at her pull-ups! Great job you two!

Josh, I got to participate in your class yesterday morning and I wanted to take a minute to tell you what a great job you're doing! The warmup was excellent, you got us nice and warmed up for the push-presses. Your coaching cues are spot-on, and your baby holding skills are impressive. Thank you so much for the hard work and dedication you put in at the Fort. We are very lucky to have you.

[Read more →]

All hail the long metcons! The workout yesterday took full advantage of the beautiful weather, and our parking lot.

5 rounds for time:
20 Kettlebell swings (24/16kg)
60 foot suicide ladder
15 Kettlebell swings
60 foot suicide ladder
10 Kettlebell swings
60 foot suicide ladder
3:00 rest

I heard at least 3 times that people came in, looked at the whiteboard and said, "Oh good, there's no running." Uh....there actually is running guys. It's just neatly packaged as "suicide ladders".

I'm so proud of you guys for gutting it out and going prescribed on this workout! Be-rad went RX'd for the whole workout, which is totally amaze-balls. This workout was TOUGH, and you guys did great! We had a lot of people who felt this in their lower backs. The solution to this seemed to be putting your feet up on a box and getting the double ball jammed into your lower back. Dad also did a fantastic job on this workout. Even with his knee feeling iff-y, he still did all the runs and finished strong!

If anyone is looking to participate in the Barbells for Boobs fundraiser, CrossFit Chicago will be hosting an event on 10/22. This is a GREAT cause, and it helps raise money for Mammograms in action. If you're interested in heading down to the city for this event, let's try and arrange some car pools. Bill and I will be unable to attend - it's Katelyn's first swim meet. BUT - our friends down at CFC are super cool, and it's definitely worth you guys making the trip downtown!

[Read more →]

The workout yesterday involved lifting a large truck over your head. Ok, no I'm kidding.

For 15:00, complete 3 thrusters on the minute for max total weight.

The WOD allowed everyone the flexibility to adjust their weights as they went. At the end of the workout, you added up the weight you used for each rep and that was your score. It's kind of cool to add up the total weight you lifted and compare it to other objects. As an example, Drew and Mark both successfully thrustered as much weight as a Ford F250 SuperDuty truck! Nice work gentlemen! You each put over 7,000lbs over your head!

We have some fun events coming up this month. 10/23 is the 3rd annual Meatzza-off, and 10/29 will be the workout and fundraiser at CrossFit Carbon to benefit our buddy Jeremy. Mark your calendars!

[Read more →]