Think you got what it takes to compete at the 2010 CrossFit Games? Well then bring your butt to the Fort on Saturday, March 27th for tryouts!

We are looking for 3 men, and 3 women to represent CrossFit Fire at the Regional qualifiers in Denver, CO. Our qualifying team will compete April 30th - May 2nd to try and earn one of 8 available team positions for the Games. Should our team earn a spot at the games, we will then host a SECOND tryout for our team that will be heading to the Games. This is to ensure that if our individual competitors don't advance beyond regionals, they will still be able to represent CFF as part of our affiliate team. Make sense?

Whenever we host a qualifying event like this I always get asked, "do you think I should try out?" My answer is ALWAYS going to be, "of course, what does it hurt to try!" The workouts have not yet been designed, so there's no telling what's in store for our team hopefuls!

If you are interested in throwing your hat in the ring for the team, just reply to this post and let us know! In addition to competitors, we will also be looking for people to help serve as judges for this day. If you are available to judge, please let me know. Thanks so much!

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After this weekend, Pete has decided to start offering his amazing Greek blood to other members of the Fort. There will be a sign up sheet at the Fort on the whiteboard. Get in line behind ME though.

It is my great honor as a coach to announce that we had two individuals qualify at sectionals this past weekend for regionals out in Denver, CO. Pete qualified FIRST OVERALL for the men, and Stacy qualified in 10th place overall for the ladies. Congratulations you two!

I have to say that yesterday was one of my most proud moments as a coach and trainer. Watching Stacy and Pete get called up as qualifying competitors brought tears to my eyes. Actually, strike that. I was CRYING. I mean, we all know Stacy and Pete are fantastic athletes, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine Pete qualifying first, and Stacy in the top ten for the women. I can't say enough how hard these two worked to accomplish this amazing task.

With only 8 weeks until regionals, we'll have to do our best as their Fort Family to push them to become the best athletes they can be. The Mayor said it best when he said, "It takes an entire gym to make athletes like the ones we have...they don't just happen on their own." That being said, you all had a small part in helping mold these two into the athletes that we know them to be, so pat yourself on the back!

In addition to our qualifying athletes, we had a few others who attended, and put in an amazing amount of effort. Matt Lohmann finished in 6th place on the third workout, despite being slightly distracted by the chalk bucket. Garth took home a gold medal in Abs, Brittany tied Stacy for 12th place in the third workout, and Tommy Mo was complimented by his judge on the clean & jerk workout saying he had the best form of the day, and that EVERYONE should do their clean & jerks like Tom.

Amazing, amazing weekend! Thank you to everyone who followed us on facebook, came down and cheered, and sent your good thoughts our way! Next stop is regionals out in Denver, CO April 30th - May 2nd.

There are several videos on the CrossFit Games page from this past weekend, and several of our athletes can be seen in them. Make sure you watch the video the Midwest Sectionals on the CrossFit Games page.

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The workouts for sectionals were announced, and our Games hopefuls needed some inspiration, so ALL OF YOU had to do their first workout yesterday. The workout is a doozey, so we went through a very thorough warm-up before getting started. Due to the lengthy warm-up, we didn't work on a strength movement yesterday.

"Airforce WOD"

20 thrusters (40/30kg)
20 sumo dead lift high pulls
20 push jerks
20 overhead squats
20 front squats

Every minute, on the minute, you must stop and do 4 burpees. Doesn't that make the workout more fun?! The only other thing that could have made this more fun is if we had to do it on a raft being circled by hungry sharks. Carrie Z finished this workout and just said, "My head is hot....real hot".

I think this picture of Steph L just about sums up the workout. I've heard rumors that some of the top female competitors will finish this workout in just under 7:00, and some of the men will  be sub 6:00. Let's hope that our Games hopefuls learned something by watching us go through this workout. I think the best strategy is to just grab the bar, and not go slow.

This is a reminder that the Fort is CLOSED tomorrow. We will resume our regular schedule on Monday morning. Check out or Facebook CrossFit Fire page for updates on Sectionals!

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Special J gave me a fantastic nugget yesterday. As we were getting set up for ring dips she looked over at everyone holding their bands and asked, "Does anyone do these without the bands?" Zach's response was perfect. He said

"No. Only in the movies."

And it's true. Only in the movies do people do THAT MANY RING DIPS without a band.

Our strength work yesterday was dead lift 3-3-3+. We are going to be cracking down on form BIG TIME when it comes to dead lifts. I know that when the weights get heavy that we can expect to see slight breakdowns in form, but it's happening too often. We're going to start cutting off reps when we see ANY rounding in the back.

The other thing that I'm seeing too often is an abrupt JERKING of the bar off the floor. The bar should be squeeeezed off the floor in a slow and controlled manner with a tight back. If the weight is too heavy, we don't sacrifice form...the weight simply won't come off the floor.

The metcon was 5 rounds of:

15 box jumps (24/20")
15 body rows
15 ring dips

We had a few brave souls go through this rx'd, and it was rough. The shoulders definitely took a beating with all those ring dips

Look what I found! I SWEET picture of Garth from "back in the day". It was about 1 year ago that this picture was taken. My how he's changed!

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What did you guys think of Snowpocalypse 2010? We got a measly 12 inches of snow yesterday. Psh. Our attendance was definitely impacted by the bad weather, but I was glad to see we had a few brave souls in the bunch!

Strength work yesterday was thrusters 1-1-1+. I got to watch Carrie set a new PR! She did it just in time for her birthday too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE!

Our metcon came from Wild Bill's laboratory:

12-9-6-9-12
cleans (40/30kg)
pull-ups

At first glance it didn't seem that bad, but let me tell ya...once you got done with the 6's and had to work your way back through the 9's and 12's again it was rough. In case you're wondering, YES, these were full squat cleans.

We are going to have a special Thursday edition of Guns 'n' Hoses at 9AM tomorrow. Please feel free to join us!

NOTE - the Fort will be closed Friday and Saturday due to CrossFit sectionals. Please wish all of our individual competitors good luck! The workouts were released yesterday by CrossFit TNT, and I think our group is going to do wonderful. Cross your fingers and toes for us as we journey to St. Louis!

New CrossFit Fire Gear has arrived! We now have fleece ear warmers, skull caps (in brown AND black), booty shorts, new t-shirts, and even a sherpa lined zip-up. Make sure to check out our store and get your new gear!

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Who likes to be upside down? WE DO! Yesterday we started off with some press work: 5-5-5+ at 65-75-85% of your single rep max. The idea is that on your last set you should get as many reps as possible. It was great to see people getting 7-10 reps on their last set! You kids are so strong.

After the press work, we got to the upside down part.

Diane
21-15-9
Dead lifts (100/70kg)
Handstand Push-ups

Hooray for handstand push-ups! There are very few things at the Fort that people will flat out refuse to do, and these are one of them. Box jumps are the other.

There's no need to fear the handstand push-up! For those of you who are still using assistance bands for regular push-ups, there's absolutely no reason you'll need to be working on HSPU's yet. Just keep working on getting regular push-ups, and then we can discuss doing HSPU's. Mkay? Good.

For some people, RX'd isn't heavy enough. Without even knowing it, your brain makes you load the bar to 120kg's instead of 100kg's because YOU'RE JUST THAT STRONG. It's Pete's Greek blood. He just can't help it.

We had two travelling CrossFitters join our Guns 'n' Hoses class, and it was great to have you! Jeremiah and Stacey are from California, and they are looking to move out this way. Like any dedicated CrossFitters, they are scoping out the boxes in the area to see which one they like best. (Pick Me! Pick Me!) Jeremiah was eye-balling the record board, and thinks he's going to take a few of Pete's gold medals on the strength side of the board. OH SNAP! It's ON.

Due to the CrossFit sectionals this weekend, we have a change in our class schedule for Friday and Saturday. If you click on our schedule page you will see the class availability. This is a good time to get in the habit of registering for classes through Mind Body Online. Not only will this give coaches an idea of how many people to prepare for, it will also alert you guys to any changes in our schedule. We are not making it a requirement yet, but let's start making it a habit NOW before it's required.

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It's absolutely wonderful to see our Better Body Challenge II participants really kicking the Paleo diet into full gear. Giving up grains is a big adjustment, and our participants are like...grain giving up Rock Stars! I have heard reports of people losing anywhere from 5-11 pounds in the last week alone.

FANTASTIC!

My only question is, why did it take so long for you guys to make the switch to Paleo? We've been talking about it FOREVER. Some of the participants in the challenge have been members of the Fort for over a year, and have never felt compelled to make the switch to Paleo.

WHY IS THAT?

My question is, what could we as trainers have done differently that would have compelled you to switch to Paleo sooner? How can we make Paleo "new and shiny" all the time, not just when there's cash on the line?

Fogo de Chao was AMAZINGLY FUN on Saturday night! Thank you to everyone who came out and helped us celebrate 2 years of CrossFitty goodness!

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