More exciting than the championship belt, is watching you guys work together as a team to get through some ROUGH WODs. Yesterday looked like fun, and there was definitely some slick strategizing going on!

In teams of 4:
4,000m row
250 ring dips
250 Knees to elbows

Your team was allowed to divide the work however you wanted, but you only got 1 rower, and 1 section of pull-up bar. Your section of pull-up bar included 2 sets of rings. If you could squeeze 3 people in at a time, go for it. Each team was also given a barbell loaded to 120kg's. Each deadlift counted as 1 second off your final score. Deadlifts could be performed tandem style if you liked.

Our winning team ended up being total champions on the rower. Plus, I heard a rumor that Josh Tran is a ring dip robot!  Great job you guys!

Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated the 3 year anniversary of our gym. It was a great evening...I couldn't have asked for anything more! What could have been better than a school bus ride, unlimited meat with 50 GREAT CrossForters, a bar that smelled a little like pee, and then BIG JENGA!? I won't go into all the details, but let's just say that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for every minute of the evening. Nobody got kicked out of anywhere or injured, and that's always a successful event in my book.

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I think it's pretty safe to say that Bill is the world's most amazing workout-comer-up-wither. Hence, the nickname, The WODFather. Even though I didn't get to experience yesterday's workout in all its' glory, I could tell by watching that it was a doozy. Not only was it a doozy to perform, but also to coach. You'll see why in a second...

As many reps as possible in 5 rounds of:

:45 pvc jumps (24/20")
:15 rest
:30 push press (35/25kg)
:30 rest
:15 pull-ups
:45 rest

Putting one group through this workout wouldn't have been too bad, but Bill  managed to coach classes all day where he had two groups going simultaneously, each perfectly timed and executed. Ridiculous. Jamie even commented that she wasn't sure how he did it all off the top of his head. I think he just does stuff like this to give himself job security.

In addition to Bill's nearly impossible to coach WOD, our strength work yesterday was 5-3-1-1-1 for front squat. We saw some pretty impressive numbers put up throughout the day! It was a nice surprise that Mark R even showed up to an evening class specifically because he didn't want to miss a chance at a new PR. The PR's yesterday included Pete (115kg), Kilo and Mike R (105kg), Ryan Z (137kg), Hero Mike and Mark M (125kg), Sam (90kg), Heather (68kg), Ryan the Lion (95.6kg), Taryn (64kg), Stacey and Kristina (37kg), Catherine (43kg), Kinsy (76.5kg), Jose (85kg), Drew (126kg), Tom P (80kg), Steph (82.5kg), Alex (92kg), Jamie M and Shauna (47kg), Hannah (85kg), Tommy (140kg), Xavier and Be-rad (100kg), KTUCK (57kg), Andy (95kg), Brad (110kg), Amie (51kg), Brianna (57kg), Sophie (50kg), John G  and Kirsten (65kg), Shaffer (113kg), Mark R (145kg), Mom (45kg) and Kim (58kg). Some of these PR's are over 17kg's higher than the last time! GREAT WORK!

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Our strength work yesterday was floor press, and we worked out way up to new one-rep-max-land. We had a lot of people CRUSH their old PR's! You guys are SO STRONG on your backs, it's not even funny.

The metcon yesterday was

12:00 AMRAP
21 kettlebell swings (24/16kg)
14 burpees
7 body rows

A couple people asked what the scaling option was....but with an AMRAP it's kind of self scaling. You just get as much work done in the 12:00 as you possibly can. We had a bunch of people step up to the next size larger kettlebell, and I am so proud of you guys! I would compare this step to switching to a smaller band for your pull-ups. Yes, the workouts will be a little harder for a while, but eventually you'll adjust. The goal here is to make linear progress with your strength, so eventually you'll be lovingly encouraged (or forced, however you want to look at it) to make the big leap. Might as well make it on your own terms.

Bill has the nutrition forum up and running for those of you participating in the BBCIV. What's cool about the forums this time around, is that you will be able to read, update and reply to threads from your iPhone or Android. Bill started a thread on the forum to help you download the app and get rolling. Please remember that if you are new to the forum, you will need to create a login for yourself. MAKE SURE IT INCLUDES YOUR NAME. We get 15-20 spam login requests a day, and it's hard to know who's who if you don't use your real name. If you create a login and call yourself "sassypants98" that's just no good. Not only will your login request get denied, nobody on the forum will know who you are when you reply to their posts. K?

Reminder: Fogo De Chao is TOMORROW EVENING. The bus will be leaving the Fort by 4PM. If you are running late, please make sure you call my cell phone, or there's a good chance we'll leave without you. The reservation is for 6:00PM, and believe it or not, we have a party of 50 people! Woo Hoo! Gonna be fun times! You kids start thinking of places within walking distance of Fogo for the after party, ok?

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For DAYS the weatherman has been telling us that we were about to be buried up to our elbows in snow. They warned us to stay home, don't drive, prepare for the worst...but how many of you actually believed all the hype about the storm? I know that personally, I read those emergency email alerts and think, "those alerts must be for OTHER people....they couldn't possibly be talking about where I live." It's this weird phenomenon where we all think we're being lied to. Maybe us CrossForters are bitter because someone told us a long time ago to eat 4-6 servings a day of whole grains...

Anyways, the storm HIT. And it was epic. We managed to dig ourselves out and make it to the Fort for our 4PM class. I know we had only been inside for about 20 hours, but for some reason it just felt good to get out of the house.

The workout yesterday was:

5 rounds
30 sit-ups
20 box jumps (24/20")
10 clapping push-ups

Thank you to everyone who came out and played! Amie, I have to say you were CRUSHING those box jumps! It was ridiculous! And Courtney, it was great to see you again. Hopefully you won't be such a stranger. AND hopefully those of you who stayed home got in plenty of snow shoveling, fort building, and snowman building, which are all approved functional fitness workout movements.

REMINDER! If you would like to participate in the Better Body Challenge IV, you'll need to get your pictures snapped between now and Saturday, and give your $40 cash to Bill. I lose things like that.

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Instead of seeing how "low you can go", yesterday we wanted to see how HIGH you could go! We started our classes off yesterday with some max height box jumps, which always make me cringe. We ended up with a couple shin bruises this time, but otherwise we all survived! HUGE props to Pete for his 53-1/2 inch attempts. You'll get it next time! You were SO close!

Box Jump Pete from Jennie Yundt on Vimeo.

For those of you who braved the winter weather yesterday, you were treated with a named workout called "Grace".

Grace
30 clean & jerks (60/40kg)

The goal of this workout? Move heavy weight as fast as you can. We saw some people go through rx'd for the first time, and others just destroying their old PR's. I think Mark mentioned that he beat his old time by 40 seconds. When he told me that, he shrugged a little....but then I pointed out that a 40 second PR is HUGE for a 3 minute workout! Congrats to Steph, Ryan Z, Hero Mike, and Mark for their stellar record board performances, and to Zach for NOT smashing himself in the face with his barbell.

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Just a quick update, the Fort will be open tonight for the 4PM class only. See you guys there!

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Yesterday was the day everyone has been counting down to for about 6 months. It was the day we all got to see just how strong all this CrossFitting has made us. It was....(dramatic pause)....CrossFit Total Day!!!

The CrossFit total is the sum of your one rep max on back squat, press and deadlift. It takes a while to get through these movements in a class setting, so there was no metcon in yesterday's classes. Just a solid hour of lifting weights, grunting and encouraging each other!

The PR's are honestly too numerous to mention. Just take a look at this picture of the whiteboard. All the numbers to the right of people's names that have circles around them are PR's!! It was absolute insanity. I went home feeling exhausted just from cheering and encouraging people for 4 hours.

I got a phone call from one of our new CrossForters while I was doing "panic grocery shopping" yesterday. Nick called me to ask a quick question, but then let me know that yesterday was the coolest thing he has ever been a part of at a gym. Ever. He was blown away by all the love, encouragement and support that people were giving each other during their attempts. To someone who is new, this is a shock. To all of us at the Fort, we know that's just how we roll.

Better Body Challenge!!!! Now is the time to get signed up for the BBCIV! And by "signed up", I mean give us your $40 in cash, and get your pictures taken between Thursday and Saturday of this week. We already have a bunch of people signed up, so I'm hoping for the best challenge yet! Bill is working to establish the new thread on the nutrition forum so you can start logging your food for all the world to see. Don't miss out on this opportunity for a little extra motivation!

Hey guys, there's going to be some snow today and tomorrow. So far, we have only cancelled the 5:30AM class tomorrow. Everything else is being played by ear. Stay tuned to the website or Facebook for information about other class cancellations.

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