That's right folks...yesterday was single rep max front squat day. Woo Hoo! We saw a bunch of really amazing PR's. Not surprisingly, Mark Ritchie had our 2nd highest squat of the day. He was 2nd only to Pete. Congrats Pete on squatting 150kg's, and to Mark for 142kg's. You two = strong.

They weren't the only ones that got to ride the PR train....Dad, Heath, Earl, Audra, Kinsy, Morgan, Season, Deb, Bret, Tommy Mo, Shaffer, Charlie, Bethy, Brian A., Heather and Daniel also bought a ticket for the PR train! Great job you guys!

Single rep max day sure is fun, isn't it? Setting that new PR is like Christmas in May to me!

The metcon allowed you the freedom to break up the work however you deemed fit. You had to do 20 reps of shoulder to overhead (60/40kg's) and 40 burpees. If you wanted to get all 20 shoulder to overheads out of the way and then move onto your burpees, that was fine. If you wanted to split it up, you were more than welcome to. This workout actually came from one of the Regional competitions. It's always fun to see how our CrossFitters stack up to the national competition!

We are going to have a different schedule for this coming Monday - Memorial Day. We are going to do this "Team Saturday Style", and have one big, enormous class at 9:00AM. There will still be the 7PM ramp-up in case you're wondering, but all the other normal class times are cancelled. Hope to see everyone at 9:00AM!

Here's another new face! This is Katie - she's Mark M's sister.

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On my birthday I like to eat steak, drink a Sam Adams and treat myself to a piece of carrot cake. It's a day of relaxing and enjoying being alive. Know what Bret likes to do on his birthday? RUN. He likes to friggin' run!

Ok, so I'm being a little dramatic here. Yesterday WAS in fact Bret's birthday, and he asked that we repeat the same workout that he did on his first day back on 10/13/09. Back in October, he scaled to 35 reps each round and finished in just over 17 minutes. Last night he did all 50 reps, and finished in just over 15 minutes. PROGRESS! You mean this CrossFit thing actually works? GASP!

The strength work yesterday was heavy ring dips. It's funny to see how creative people got in terms of where they hold the weights. Sam put the weights in his pocket, and rocked weighted ring dips that way. I'm pretty sure there were small plates in somebody's bra, but that person will remain nameless.

The WOD was as 400m run, 50 squats, 400m run, 50 sit-ups, 400m run, 50 push-ups, 400m run, 50 pull-ups.

It was another hot day, but everyone pushed through the suck and did a great job. We saw some amazingly good ring dips! Pete, Earl, Zachamole, Sam, Kelli, Deb, Jason, Chris T., Garth, Morgan, Daniel, Bethy, Heath, Charlie and Brian S. all set new ring dip PR's. My favorite line of the day was from Charlie:

"I think my eyes were bigger than my triceps."

Sam Rosati...smartest guy at the Fort.

Summer is a beautiful time of year at the Fort. Am I right ladies?

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Yesterday was allllmost hot enough to make Tommy Mo happy. Had we closed the door, and seen triple digits inside the Fort, he would have been ecstatic. In all seriousness though, if it's hot outside, it's going to be hot at the Fort. Please make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids throughout the day to ensure you show up HYDRATED and ready to work out. If you roll out of bed, have 9 cups of coffee and expect to make it through a WOD on a hot day....you're kidding yourself. DRINK. WATER.

The strength work yesterday was hang power snatch. We saw some really cool new PR's. Earl put 90kg's over his head, which is pretty impressive stuff! In addition to Earl, Heather, Hero Mike, Kris, Ivy, Bethy, Steph R., Jessica, KTUCK and StephL. also set new PR's. Great job you guys!

The metcon was double unders and deadlifts. The goal time was 3-5 minutes. Yep, that's right. Only 3-5 minutes is all you'll need. We did NOT allow people to substitute single unders. Aren't we mean? We substituted double unders with attempts. There's really no other way to get better at double unders than to practice. LOTS of people got double unders for the first time yesterday! I know Special J had the world's biggest smile when she finally got that rope to pass under her feet twice.

You'll notice there are about 14 new faces at the Fort this week. Yep - 14! Here's one of the many new faces you'll see!

Everyone, this is Shawn. Shawn, meet EVERYONE

Stacy smiles and catches her breath

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Bill is kind of awesome; am I right? He is quite possibly the most amazing man on the entire planet. I will admit that my opinion is slightly biased, but this is MY BLOG, so  you're forced to see my opinions every day. Yesterday was Bill's 29th birthday. Happy Birthday Wild Bill! In honor of his birthday he put together a Team Saturday of EPIC proportions! We did the following in teams of 9 or 10:

290 wall ball shots
290 burpees
290 sledge hammer hits
290 calories on the rower
290 double unders
One trip around the building flipping the BIG tires.

The movements could be completed in any order, with the exception of the tire flips. Those had to be done once everything else was complete. There were several different team strategies, but it seemed to make the most sense to have someone on the rower at all times. Have you ever tried to row 290 calories? It's a LOT. Sheesh, THAT'LL make you re-think the 290 calorie brownie.

I think it's great that you even planned it perfectly so there were 29 participants in the workout. You guys are so thoughtful!

Winner winner chicken dinner!

If you thought the turnout for the workout was good, you should have seen how many people came for breakfast! Trish was there - she is going to be delivering those twins in a week and a half. Good luck Trish! We miss you! Leslie and Mya also strolled in. Mya has the BEST baby hair in the world. I think I sniffed it 11 times. We got to meet Brandon Harvey's family, and his girls are totally future CrossFitters. They were doing pull-ups! Thanks to everyone for coming and enjoying Bill's birthday breakfast. We plan on scheduling a Paleo Pancake breakfast some time in July. And yes, there will definitely be BACON!

Show us those muscles!

mmm....eggs....

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Was it just me, or was it about 107% humidity yesterday? I was just taking my ramp-up-ers through their movements, and I was totally drenched in sweat. Gross. Tommy Mo thought we should close the door and have "hot CrossFit". He likes it REALLY warm!

The strength work yesterday was Press. Wild Bill put percentages on the board again, did you guys follow them? Despite the fact that every day FEELS like it should be PR day, we are working with a system here. Bill has a plan....a MASTER plan if you will. He's kind of awesome at programming, so make sure you're using the percentages that he puts on the board. We have all those lovely lifesaver plates, so be as exact as possible. If 70% of your single rep max is 63.5, don't just jump to 65. Get out the little plates....they're manly!

The metcon was a doozey, despite the fact that we didn't want it to be a doozey. We rowed, jumped on boxes and did body rows. Boy I tell ya, for being a substitution for pull-ups, body rows sure are hard! Before class started, we went over the form for body rows again. We want your body to be ram-rod straight. Don't let your upper body curl as you come up, and for the love of Mary Kate and Ashley, keep your knees locked out!

Beth and Daniel took a little nap after their workout. Shhh.....don't disturb them!

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Could there have been a more perfect day than yesterday? I mean seriously....there was not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature in my car started with a 7, and ended with a 3. AWESOME.

We worked on snatch balance AGAIN. You guys can protest all you want, but when snatch day comes around and you all PR, you'll owe me an apology. Drop under the bar like you mean it! Don't pop it up and then overhead squat it....that's cheating.

Our metcon was a nice combination of knees to elbows, kettle bell swings, and push-ups. I was surprised to hear that everyone thought the push-ups were the hardest part. I suppose that makes sense though. You can keep swinging a kettle bell, but at some point you're just going to run out of push-ups.

We have 14 people graduating from ramp-up in the next day or two. This is exciting stuff! Our Fort is growing! Congratulations to our ramp-up-ers for completing the program, and bringing an amazing energy to the Fort. I can't remember the last ramp-up that was this large, and you guys were a very fun group! Welcome to the Fort family!

Our newest collection of inspirational posters came in today! The UPS man brought them to my door, and it was an EXCELLENT treat! Make sure you check out all the new posters....but don't just look at the pictures, read the sayings. It sounds corny, but reflect on what they say, and what it means to you and your training. I guarantee that there is at least one poster that will speak directly to what you're experiencing. (that's the way I planned it!)

Zach makes his way through kettle bell alley

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I have one word for you: barrierhopburpees.

Ok, so maybe that's three words, all smooshed together to make one word, but YOU GET THE POINT. In case you thought there was nothing worse in the whole world than burpees, then my friend, I'd like to introduce you to my good friend, Barrier Hop Burpees. That's when you do a burpee, but instead of jumping up and clapping, you hop sideways over a parallete. Joy!

The workout yesterday included about a bajillion double unders, and some barrier hop burpees. Can't do a double under? No problem! We'll let you substitute single unders....but just cuz we love you. Hugo wasn't going to mess around with single unders though. He took yesterday's workout as an opportunity to master the fine art of twirling that jump rope, and he did great! Good work Hugo!

Check out our buddies from CrossFit Chicago! They were featured on Yahoo as one of 7 couples who had amazing transformations. We met Tim and Eileen at both the running certification, and the gymnastics certification we hosted at our gym. They're great people, and GOOD LOOKING!

Don't forget about all the fun stuff we have going on this weekend! Saturday morning we are going to celebrate Bill's birthday with a breakfast cookout. A lot of people have been asking what they can bring. Why don't you bring a package of bacon to cook, or another fun paleo breakfast treat. Mkay?

SUNDAY - we will be saying farewell to our friend Daniel with a going away BBQ at Nippersink Forest Preserve. We're going to do a workout around 1:00PM, but not just any workout. The TOP GUN workout! Bring your aviators, dog tags, and jeans, because there will probably be some sand volleyball played when we're done! We will have some guacamole and some burgers to throw on the grill. If you want something more fancy pants than that, we'll throw it on the grill for you. I'll bring a big cooler, so if you want some cold drinks, I'll be supplying the ice.

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