Brrr....This Southern Gal is getting quite cold!  The best remedy for this - a hot fire and some hotter soup.  The Fort is going to be doing something different this year by introducing the first annual  Bonfire Night and Soup-off!  Garth and Audra Huckabay will be hosting the night at their house this Sunday (12/11).   Bring your favorite paleo soup or stew (cream allowed!)  or an appetizer to share.  Festivities start around 4 p.m. for appetizers, which will give those bringing soups a chance to get them hot again.  There will be two divisions of judging:  meaty stews  and vegetable soups.   

The Huckabays will also have their firepit lit for some outdoor warmth!  At this point,  I would not say 'no' to a hot adult tasty beverage, and  I personally  will bring some Hot Buttered Rum  (no grain,  plenty of butter,  it's sure to have Bill's nutritional seal of approval, right??). So feel free to bring cider,  mulled wine,  hot toddys - whatever!

Also please bring recipe cards so we can: 1) ascertain just how 'paleo' your soup is,  and 2) have some new recipes to take home. I will bring extra index cards so we can get copies of recipes.

Hope to see you there! Please RSVP through the events page so we know how many people to expect!

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Gimpy back champs, gimpy back champs, gimpy back champs.....boy say that 3 times real fast!

Our Team Saturday was another great workout. Long-ish, but totally fun.

So as you can see, it was a long workout. Steph and Neil both have back injuries, so they were officially Team Gimpy! Despite your injuries you two did great! Some would argue that Steph has an unfair advantage when it comes to chest to thighs sit-ups. Ok, sorry Steph. Didn't mean to embarrass you.

Big shout goes out to Jenni! Yesterday was her first Team Saturday ever! I want to tell you guys again that Team Saturday is for everyone. We divide up the teams for you, so there's no being "picked last" like in gym class. These WODS are scalable just like every other WOD at the Fort. Come have fun on the best day of the week at the Fort! (Baby is crying....typing faster....)

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Boy, talk about a hard workout on your legs! Yesterday we started with some strength work that was a little surprising. We did 3 sets of 15 thrusters and rested for :90 seconds. A couple people commented that it was almost like practicing for Fran! Be careful though...say her name too loud and she might rear her ugly head.

After we were all thoroughly exhausted from the strength work, we did this workout:

5 Rounds of
2:00 AMRAP of:
5 Wall Ball Shots (20/14)
5 Burpees
2:00 Rest

There were some pretty impressive stuff going on yesterday. Amie stepped it up and used the 14lb ball for the first time in this WOD. After all, it's only 5 reps at a time, right? Josh got over 20 rounds, with Sammi right behind him at just over 19. Great job you two!

I have to give a shout out to Karen. She just came out of ramp-up and she's doing GREAT! For those of you who know Mariah and Myles, Karen is their Mom. There's really  nothing more exciting than the day you convince your Mom to give CrossFit a shot! Welcome to the Fort Family Mom!

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If there's one thing I'm incredibly proud of, it's how supportive the community at the Fort can be. I've seen it over and over again that people go out of their way to show their support and encouragement for other CrossForters. Another great example of this was yesterday morning. Kelly has been DYING to get a little "RX" next to her name for a workout. As you all know, RX workouts are a big accomplishment! When Kelly saw the WOD on the board, she set her mind to going through and earning her RX!

1000m row
50 box jumps (24/20)
800m run

Kelly has just recently graduated to the 20" box, so having to scale the box 50 times after that mega row is no small task. She was full of self doubt, but Bill and everyone around her kept encouraging her! She ended up stepping down to a 16" box, but she did all 50 reps! In order to keep her spirits up, Kinsy went along with Kelly for her run even though she had already finished the workout. When I ran past you girls on that run, it literally brought tears to my eyes. And NO, I wasn't crying because I was running.....I was just so proud of Kelly for pushing so hard, and proud of Kinsy for being there for Kelly. I love you guys!

Today is the last day to get your orders to me for the "rack" t-shirts. I will not be ordering any extras of these - so if you want one, email me or reply to the comments on that post by TODAY AT 3:00!!

Next week Monday - Thursday is Friends and Family Funtastic Free Week at the Fort. This is your opportunity to come check out the Fort and see what CrossFit is all about! No obligation, no tricky sales pitches, just 4 days of CrossFit fun to show you what you're missing. If you've never worked out with us before come a few minutes early so you can complete a waiver. If you've worked out with us before, then welcome back.

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Yesterday’s WOD was a delivered in fun sized 30 second bursts.

5 Rounds of:
:30 KB Swings (24/16)
:30 Rest
:30 Broad Jumps (6’/5’)
:30 Rest
:30 Double-unders
:30 Rest
*score each movement individually

The evening classes had a blast spinning around as fast as they could to start another broad jump. Those are sneaky hard and kinda dizzying! Way to rock em out as fast as possible guys! I think Drew gets the "spinning the fastest" award though. THAT was talent!

Good Tiffany experienced some ungracefulness during the warm-up and rolled her ankle. But, I need to give her some kudos for still gutting through the WOD and kicking some major butt! Hope that ankle wasn’t too swollen for your super cute outfit you had planned to wear today Tiff.

Our “newbies” have been doing a fantastic job since they’ve completed ramp-up. Matt and Cris were working their way up to a single rep max snatch last night and in just 15:00 their form really started to progress. I was impressed with their determination and coordination. Way to go guys, keep at it!

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I started out writing a testimony about my weight loss and my journey at CrossFit Fire, but I don’t feel like that would do the last 7 months of my life justice. Instead, I would like to take you on a brief journey of finding my self-worth.

I struggled with body image my whole entire life. In February of 2011, I was way overweight, a size 14, was miserable with my life, had no confidence, avoided mirrors, and what’s worse than all of that, is that I was COMFORTABLE living in a miserable existence. I have an outgoing and fun-loving enough personality to mask all of that. When my awesome brother challenged me to fight this miserable existence, I resisted for a while. I finally caved and went on a 2 week “paleo” challenge in which I lost 7 pounds right away. My brother, at that point, pretty much forced me into checking out his class at CrossFit Fire. I went to one class, it looked pretty amazing, and signed up for ramp-up.

I remember walking in the first time thinking this would be a good experience, but that it probably wouldn’t lead to anything. I had so much fun in my Ramp-up that I decided to start going twice a week. Well, as I started getting stronger and loosing weight, I decided that over the summer I wanted to start going MORE! By summer, I was down 30 pounds and had set some lofty goals: unassited pull ups, double unders, RXd WODs, getting down to my goal weight, etc. By the end of summer, I was a size 4, achieved all those goals, and was SO close to my goal weight. I started the Better Body Challenge with the idea of honing in on my diet. Within the first week, I surpassed my goal weight (actually a pound lower)! And now, I think I’ve got another 10 pounds I can get off me. Plus, I’ve got some goals I’m working on to improve myself as an athlete.

When I started at CrossFit Fire, I figured I’d get results, but I didn’t think I’d get these results. I also did not expect to LOVE everyone at The Fort! I seriously look forward to going there and am extremely grateful to be a part of such a wonderful community! ANOTHER thing that happened that I didn’t expect, was the confidence I found in myself! I’ve done things hat I’ve never thought possible. I look in the mirror and how clothes fit and I’m happy! I’ve never felt this good in my life! Not only do I know I look better, but I FEEL better physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I finally feel confident in who I am as a person and can walk with my head a little higher and it feels awesome! I couldn’t have come this far without everyone at Fire! Thanks to everyone for forcing me out of my miserable existence and into a life filled with happiness and hope for a brighter day and better times ahead.

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Our strength work yesterday started with some front squats and ring dips. I got a big laugh when Chris was doing his ring dips and was completely unfazed by the fact that one of his rings was slowly sinking lower and lower! FYI, I took down the ring that "sinks", so if you find yourself searching for a match for a ring, it might be in a time out.

The WOD yesterday was not done for time, which left some people scratching their heads. EJ actually told me that he was calling TIME when he was done. Funny thing is, when he called time I looked at the clock and made a motion towards the board like I was going to write his time down. You got me, EJ.....you got me.

3 rounds NOT for time:
8 front squats
10 burpees
3-5 minute rest

When you finished the front squats, you needed to drop the bar and IMMEDIATELY start doing burpees. For some reason I found myself shouting, "get to those burpees! FIRE FIRE FIRE!" It seems silly now, but at the time it made perfect sense.

One thing that I saw a lot of yesterday was "pulling" up out of your front squats with your chin. Not only can this lead to a neck injury, it actually makes it HARDER to stand up out of your squat. My recommendation is to pretend that you are holding an invisible grapefruit under your chin. Drive up through your bar with your shoulders instead of pulling up with your chin. Buckles the dog is doing a GREAT job holding his imaginary grapefruit.

This Saturday is the voting for the winner of our Better Body Challenge V. All CrossFit Fire members are welcome to come Saturday and cast their vote for our winners!

This Saturday we will once again be having our Little Flames kids class at 10AM. Hope you can make it for the fun! Registration is $75 for 8 sessions, and $60 for any additional siblings.

In case anyone missed the exciting news, Alex has been going through the CFF Coaches development program - he's going to start coaching for us real soon! For now, you'll find him shadowing coaches during normal classes and offering up his coaching tips. The next step for him is that he will be leading classes and a coach will be shadowing him. During this very critical phase any and all feedback is welcome!

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