As some of you know, my midwife has given me some STRICT workout guidelines. I'm allowed to do anything except...BOUNCING. Pretty harsh guidelines for a woman in my delicate condition, don't you think?

It's a good thing I was taking a rest day yesterday, because lateral hops DEFINITELY look like bouncing. Some of the classes did high box jumps, but the later classes hopped laterally over a paralette. Your WODFather wanted you to challenge yourself, so the idea was to choose height that was nice and tall.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
push-ups
sit-ups

At the beginning of each set, do 2 lateral hops over your paralette. Be careful on the way down though, as those paralettes can be sneaky. Sometimes they put themselves directly under your feet when you're  not looking. We had to lay to rest 3 of our beloved pieces of PVC after some unfortunately landings. Rest in peace.

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Does everyone know that Heather offers massage therapy at the Fort? It's real easy to get a fantastic massage. Just set up a time to meet with Heather, and she'll bring everything she needs to the upstairs office at the Fort. What could be more relaxing than getting a massage to the soothing sounds of people working out??

The workout yesterday was DT, which is a HEAVY workout.

5 rounds of:
12 deadlifts (70/50kg)
9 hang power cleans
6 jerks

As many of you now know, this workout is a grip stealer. You'll fly through your first three rounds with the greatest of ease, but somewhere in the middle of your 4th round your hands won't want to hang onto the bar anymore. OUCH. Poor Heather had a massage scheduled after her morning workout. Can you imagine her aching forearms?!

We saw some new additions to our men's record board. Ryan Z was SO CLOSE to taking the top spot with his amazing time of 8:27. Charlie knocked Zachamole off the board with his time of 10:02. Great job you guys! Some of our ladies set HUGE PR's on this workout! Kirsten went through at 30kg's (which is 5kg's heavier than last time) and she beat her old time by 2:00. Hannah went through this workout at 40kg's and finished WAY faster than her old time too! The best part was that right as she was finishing she had the bar on her shoulders and she says, "LAST ONE!" so I was ready for her to call time.

If you're lucky, maybe some day we'll capture the "Brian's here" dance on film. It's quite amazing.

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We have had a TON of visitors to the Fort this week, and it has been so much fun! We welcomed back our friend Maddie. She even dragged along her brother and her friend Heidi to the workout. Poor Heidi didn't know what CrossFit was, or even that it was going to be a group setting, but she did AMAZING! Maddie holds the top spot on our record board for longest handstand, so it should be no surprise that she did free-standing handstands for yesterday's workout.

5 rounds for max reps on sumo deadlift high pulls:

:30 handstand hold
:30 sumo deadlift high pulls (50/35kg)
1:00 rest

Yep, you read that right. These were some HEAVY sumos. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many of you just man handling that weight too! Props to Gabe for his amazing sumos. He made 50 kg's look like it was NOTHING!

Our strength work this week for the general programming has included some single rep max stuff, and it's amazing how much progress everyone has made! Yesterday was push press, and we saw PR's from Tom P., Alex, Mom, Tara, Strong Julie, Sophie, April, Andrea, Andy, Chris Sutter, John M., Jessica, Kris, Bethy, Amie, Alicia, and Kim. Great work you guys!

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Recently I had the immeasurable pleasure of spending three days in Phoenix with Coach Glassman. Not only is he the pioneer of the little thing we all know as CrossFit, but he's also an incredibly inspiring person. Yes, I realized that CrossFit was world wide and that it was kind of a big deal....but it wasn't until this trip that I realized that we are all part of something  much bigger.

While the CrossFit headquarters team was enjoying some downtime in the hotel lobby bar, our group was approached by two timid young ladies. They wanted to know if we were the "CrossFit people", and if any one of us was Greg Glassman. Once we identified Coach, these two ladies shared their CrossFit stories with us. They gushed over how hard the workouts are, and how it had completely changed their lives.

Then they did something I wasn't expecting. They asked if they could get a picture with Coach.

Whoa.

It was at that moment that I realized that our little Fort is part of something huge. Our Fort is part of a fitness movement that is changing people's lives every single day, on every continent in the world. IN THE WORLD! Our little CrossFit gym is changing lives, and the same thing is happening in 3,000 other CrossFit gyms at the exact same time.

Take pride in the fact that you are among the brave people who found CrossFit. Your hard work is what will drive people to try CrossFit for years to come! Your sweat, tears, PR's, and torn hands are laying the groundwork for this little thing called CrossFit to become something EPIC.

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Bill and I want to wish all of you and your families a very Merry Christmas. We would also like to thank all of you for our amazing Christmas present! Thanks to our amazing CrossForters for the 5 beautiful 60lb Rogue sandbags! They should make WODs fun and amazing!

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Poor Mark. He's visiting us from the far away land of Tucson. Not only does he have to endure this amazing weather while he's here, he also has to be tricked into going REALLY heavy on his hang power cleans. He couldn't figure out why 155lbs felt so heavy....well, that's because unfortunately it wasn't 155, it was 176.

I heard a rumor that this workout made your legs feel like jello? Is this true?

5 rounds for time:

5 cleans (60/40kg)
15 ball slams

We had a few ball slam newbies, but you all did a wonderful job! Several people finished ramp-up yesterday including Jeremy, John, Sophia and Casey. Welcome to the Fort family you guys!

I'd like to congratulate Kirsten on being the first Fort member to get BOTH of her parents through ramp-up and into regular classes! The Glaw family is FIERCE!

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Everything is great when it's doubled, right? Double cheeseburger, double rainbow, double guacamole, double coupons. It makes everything magical. A workout that's a double workout is ALSO magical.

4:00 AMRAP
15 pull-ups
15 ring dips

2:00 rest

4:00AMRAP
15 deadlifts (40/30kg)
15 push presses (40/30kg)

See? A double workout! The workout was so fun that it brought Taryn and Leslie back to the Fort. It was great to see both of you.

Nicole shared some amazing news with me yesterday. It's truly one of the things that makes my job the best in the whole world. Nicole shared that she has lost 55 pounds! Her comment to me was, "turns out you and Bill know what you're talking about." Yep.....every once in a while we get lucky and someone's life gets changed.

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