I don’t mean to scare you, but the Holidays are coming. They are looming in the distance like….well…..like something that looms ominously in the distance. What do the holidays mean to you? Will you be running around like a crazy person buying, wrapping and delivering presents? Do you have that one Uncle who always drinks too much and gets a little too hands-ey? Does this mean that your kids will be home on winter break BEGGING you to take them through the McDonald’s drive thru every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Are you filled with dread every time you think about having to watch Grandpa show all the kids how he takes out his teeth AGAIN? Is your family tradition to eat as much pie, cookies, cakes, and rich foods as possible?

Whatever images are conjured up in your mind when you think about the Holidays, make this year the year that you DON’T forget to make time for your health and fitness. Make this the year you DON’T gain 8 pounds between today and New Year’s Day. Make this year the year you stay committed to what you’ve worked so hard for all year. Make this the FIRST YEAR that you don't hit the "undo" button on all your training and paleo eating.

Remember that we don’t CrossFit so that we can eat shitty. (Sorry to use bad language, but it’s the most concise way to describe how people usually eat this time of year.)  We CrossFit because it will help us live a longer, healthier life.  Oh, and maybe somewhere along the way you’ll get a sexy beach body too.

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Bill says yesterday was a good recovery day. What do you guys think? Do you feel like Chuck Liddell punched you in the middle of each butt cheek? Or do you feel relaxed, well recovered and ready for another fun workout?

25-20-15-10-5
Walking lunges
push-ups
sit-ups

Bill suggested that the morning class do their walking lunges HOLDING their ab mat so that wherever they finished their lunges they could drop down and start doing their push-ups and sit-ups. The only problem with that was that holding your ab mat makes you think of NOTHING but doing sit-ups. Most everyone finished their lunges and went right into sit-ups. FAIL.

Did everyone notice the mysterious blue bin that has appeared in the lobby of the Fort? That's for the food drive. Go ahead, it's time. Clean out your pantry and bring in all your rice-a-roni and unopened mostaccoli. You don't need that stuff anymore cuz you're PALEO.

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Yesterday's workout had an eerie similarity to Fight Gone Bad.

3 rounds of:
1:00 row (calories)
1:00 wall ball (20/14lb)
1:00 box jumps (20")
1:00 rest

See? It's like FGB, but not. It's kind of mean to put the row first. That DEFINITELY changed things. My advice to people all day was to try and pace this like it was FGB. Don't kill yourself on the rower, and save your energy for those wall ball shots and box jumps. We saw some pretty amazing scores! Our top ladies score of the day was Hannamal, she got 196, and our top men's score of the day was Ryan Z, and he got 262. WOWZA! Great job you two!

Even more impressive than you two badasses CRUSHING the workout was the number of ladies who made the jump from a 16" box to a 20" box. I know for sure Alicia, Amie and Kim all used a 20" box yesterday and did AMAZING! It's scary to increase to a bigger box, and I'm proud of you ladies for taking that leap!

Thanks Chris, for looking DIRECTLY at the camera during your box jumps

I want to send out a BIG congratulations to Tom and Cara Mohr on the arrival of their son, Carson! 7lbs, 13oz of beautiful baby boy arrived safe and sound. Mom, Dad and Carson are all doing amazing. Just so you all realize Tommy Mo's level of dedication, here is a video of him doing a couple of the day 87 burpee challenge in the hospital room. Yep. He went there.

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Ah, the Wednesday lull. Many of you choose to take hump day as your rest day, and that's more than ok. Rest and recovery is just as much a part of your "workout" as your trip to the gym.

The workout yesterday was every minute for 10:00,

5 hang power cleans (60/40kg)
5 front squats
5 push jerks

Our WODFather set the RX'd weights pretty high for this workout. When I asked him why so high, he replied, "think about how fast someone like Rob Orlando or Dave Lipson could get through that". Um......Bill, neither of those men are members of the Fort, nor do they follow our programming.

We're glad to finally have Kirsten back in the swing of things after her abdominal injury. Hooray for having Kirsten back!

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Yesterday was a double dose of AMRAP with a creamy "rest filling" in between.

3:00 AMRAP of:
15 burpees
25 KB swings (24/16kg)
3:00 rest
3:00 AMRAP of:
15 pull-ups
25 ball slams

Don't underestimate this little doozey from our WODFather. It's harder than it looks! The Pete Formerly Known as New Pete almost knocked out two full rounds during each AMRAP, but otherwise most of us had to settle for a little over 1 round. And you know what? That's OK. Bill's a smart guy, and he just wanted to keep you guys moving as fast as possible for 3:00 at a time.

The general strength work yesterday was to set a new single rep max on deadlift. We saw some FANTASTIC new PR's from Dr. Kathy, Tara, Carrie, Andrea, Alicia, Charlie, Kim,  Melissa, Amanda, Lori, April, Mike VDB, Brad, John M., Jack, and George. If I missed your PR, please post to comments and let me know. By the way, you have to CIRCLE your PR weight on the board so I know it was a PR.

In addition to some fantastic deadlifting, we also saw Amie get her first unassisted pull-up! ATTA GIRL! The best part was the triumphant warrior cry she let out as she finally got her chin over the bar. Congrats you tough chick!

By the way, who is competing this weekend in the Windy City CrossFit Oly meet?? I want to get a little list going, so if you could post to comments and let me know that would be GREAT.

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That's right, there was CLAPPING in our workout yesterday - clapping push-ups!

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
clapping push-ups
body rows
box jumps

Gentlemen, you always do a great job with these clapping push-ups. The Mayor even demonstrated how he can clap behind his back! (Hercules, Hercules!) Yesterday though, it was the ladies who were the real superstars! We had a lot of our ladies go through this RX'd with REAL claps! As KTUCK pointed out, by the time you're done with the workout, you'll have clapped 55 times.

I never like to see people get in over their heads. It hurts my soul to see someone struggling under their bar, or dangling helplessly from the pull-up bar for 7:00 after everyone else is done. It hurts. A lot. Therefore, if I increase the weight you're using, or give you a bigger box, it's probably because you're ACTUALLY READY for it. With limited 16" boxes, our 18 person 6PM class was forced to get creative. Both Special J and Coral were told to use the 20" box, and they whined just a liiiiitle bit. Would you believe in the workout they completely OWNED those 20" boxes!? Great job ladies!

Thanks to Mark Ritchie, we are going to be organizing a food drive at the Fort to collect food for Advent Conspiracy.org! There will be a blue rubbermaid bin at the Fort for the collection. This is a great opportunity to clean out all the non-paleo foods that are haunting your pantry. Get rid of it without the guilt!

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When was the last time you set up for a new single rep max on one of your lifts, and you WEREN'T concentrating? Is there ever a time when you feel like you can just let your mind wander...not focusing on the task at hand? Of course not. That being said, let's all be a little more mindful of each other's "concentration cones". I would consider there to be a bubble around anybody setting up for a heavy lift, and the bubble extends about 5' on all sides. Nicole H would tell you that this is just her personal space, but it's actually her "concentration cone".

Think of it like bowling. Would you DARE bowl at the exact same time as the person on the lane next to you? Would you walk in front of them as they're eye-ing the pins and getting ready to take that first step? No, of course you wouldn't. The same is true at the Fort. Let's all be mindful of each other's "concentration cones". If you're done lifting, that's fantastic. But there's no huge rush to put your weights away. If you see another athlete setting up for a heavy lift, allow them to finish before you cross in front of them to put your stuff away.

Unless the building is on fire, there's no reason to walk past someone, directly in their line of sight during strength work. By allowing the lifter to finish, you are respecting their need to concentrate, and the mental prep work that goes into moving seriously heavy weights. Just ask KTUCK. Before every snatch, she plays out a series of mental cues to keep her focused:

"No douche-bag shoulders, ninja kitty. No douche-bag shoulders, ninja kitty......."

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