Today's strength element consisted of overhead squats for sets of 3 reps. Several people set new PRs and all of you are improving your technique. Remember though, when it comes to maturing your squat, consistency is the key. You must utilize our squat therapy drills on a daily basis, whether you are at the Fort or not. It only takes a few minutes and the results will really shine through after a couple of weeks. Here are a couple of our ladies showing us what they can do:

Jennie shows us her 'PR Face'

Beth gets low on OHS

After working on our overhead squats, Bill had an encounter with Karen scheduled for us.

Ah Karen...good to see you again. It's always a pleasure getting destroyed by your simplicity. Repetition is beauty, and you are our queen.

150 wall ball shots for time (20/14lb)

Doesn't sound so bad, right? In general, this workout isn't "hard". What I mean is that it isn't complicated or confusing. Just throw the ball at the target 150 times. You can't screw that up, right?!

Our good buddy Brittany demonstrated her complete and unwaivering trust in me last night, and I am deeply touched. I was yelling at her, pacing her to finish in under 9:00, and at one point she thought I yelled "you're at 120!" when in fact what I probably yelled was, "you're doing good honey!" Even though Brittany thought she was about 2 reps away from finishing, she did another 30 reps because she trusted that I had been counting. 30 EXTRA REPS. For those of you who did Karen yesterday, you know that the last 30 reps are at least a bajillion times harder than the first 120 reps. Brittany was crazy enough to suggest that she was going to do the workout AGAIN with the 7PM class just to see if her time was faster by stopping at 150 reps.

Everyone did absolutely amazing! Jessica did this workout AS PRESCRIBED. It was a very special night for her, as this was Jessica's first prescribed named workout! ATTA GIRL! We also have some ladies reeeeeally close to getting their first unassisted pull-ups. I can't stress enough that if you are cranking out 10 pull-ups on the blue band, you need to start working unassisted pull-ups every time you're at the Fort. Jump up on the bar, practice your kipping swings. You'll jump up there about 2 dozen times without any success; nobody just gets off the blue band and magically gets pull-ups. You gotta WANT IT. You gotta practice it. Eventually you'll jump up there one day, and KAZAAM KAZOW you got pull-ups.

CrossFit Fire Ladies tackle Karen

While everyone else was tackling Karen, Bill had Bender complete a similar WOD, but one that didn't involve the use of his left arm. You see, Mikey's left shoulder and wrist have been giving him problems lately so we want to let it rest and hopefully heal. As I have mentioned in the past, just because a body part is sore or even injured does not mean you have to, or should, stop working out completely. Give Bill or I a heads up and we will modify any workout so that you can still participate in class.

Now for the good stuff

Stacy Severson has been kind enough to organize a day of relaxation for the good people of the Fort. She has been coordinating with ZaZa's Salon in Vernon Hills to get us a 20% discount on their services, and free run of their salon. We'll have access to their services on Sunday, September 27th from about 11:00 - 2:00 or 3:00. Please email her if you are interested in pampering yourself. She will coordinate with the spa owner to get your services scheduled. Check out their website....they have an 85 minute pedicure! Are you ready for all this pampering!?

Also, our Mayor has suggested that we organize a Paleo Thanksgiving, and I think this is a splendid idea. I would like to gauge interest at this point. If we did a CrossFit Fire Paleo Thanksgiving Extravaganza the Saturday after Thanksgiving, would you be interested? The place will be determined based on the response, and time will likely be early evening. Bill and I would provide the free range turkeys, and we'd leave it up to the old pot-luck system to provide all the sides. Who's in!?

[Read more →]

Yesterday's workout evolved as the day went on. It started out in the morning class as 4 rounds of 500m row and max rep Pull-ups, and changed with every single class we had. And you know what? THAT'S OK. Every now and then a workout looks AMAZING on paper, and it's an EPIC FAIL when performed in the gym. Even the great Coach Glassman isn't exempt from these workout brain farts. I believe the famous Coach Glassman brain fart relates to a workout in which you did a mile of walking lunges with 65lbs over your head....it took HOURS.

So here are the variations of the workout as the day went on:

Morning:
4 rounds of
500m row
Max Rep Pull-ups

Early Evening:
4 rounds of
500m row
AMrAP pull-ups
*Do as many pull-ups as you can in the same time period as it took you to row 500m.

Late Evening:
Partner workout.
2 rounds of:
AMrAP pull-ups
500m row
*Do as many pull-ups as you can while partner/opponent rows. You stop doing pull-ups when your partner/opponent is done rowing 500m. He who gets the most pull-ups between their two sets WINS.

I'm sure you all enjoyed the workout, regardless of which version you did. Great job you guys!

The competition is really heating up for our 60 Days to a Better Body Challenge. Have you been visiting the blogs of our participants? We have some pretty dramatic weight loss over the first week of the competition. Robin is down 4lbs, Heath is down 5....Beth is down so much I can hardly keep track! We have some extremely motivated people here, which is going to make the pressure to stay "clean" even harder. Is it worth having those 2 beers? Do you know what the impact of eating that cake will be on your progress? IT'S ONLY 60 DAYS, AND THERE'S HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS AT STAKE!! It's still anybody's game. I am hoping that in the next week or so we can get some updated pictures so you can see everyone's progress so far. For those of you not competing, make sure you're visiting people's blogs and seeing the sacrifices they're making. We all have room for improvement, and the participants are inspiring! Maybe they thought of a cool lunch idea that you hadn't thought of before.....or maybe they found a secret to curbing hunger cravings!

[Read more →]

Sometimes the little things slip my mind. One of the things I ALWAYS intend to tell people when they first start is how important hand care is. We use our hands all day, and at the Fort they take a beating. For the brave few who have found that they really like gloves, hand care is a no-brainer. (sissies) But for those of us who chalk profusely and grind our hands against rugged steel knurling, hand care becomes essential in order for us to keep training. Know why? Because it's VERY hard to train with torn callouses. Here are my 3 tips for good hand care:

1. MOISTURIZE - find a good thick hand cream and goop it on before bed
2. LOOFAH - I recommend using a "Feet first buffing pad" on your callouses in the shower every morning (or however frequently you find yourself in the shower)
3. FILE - If you end up with rough spots on your callouses, grab an emery board when your hands are dry, and file them gently

Tears happen because there are rough, raised spots on our hands that catch; it usually happens during pull-ups. You want your callouses to be hard, but they should be flat and smooth, not huge raised masses of hard skin. I know a lot of people glamorize torn hands, but it's nothing to be proud of. A tear is an injury and an opening for infection....not to mention your DNA gets all over our bars.

[Read more →]

Yesterday was a Team Saturday that didn't disappoint. The workout was:

In teams of two:
200m buddy carry
and then 3 rounds of:
2:00 muscle ups
2:00 power cleans (bw)
2:00 air squats
and then:
200m buddy carry

*break up the buddy carries any way you want
*buddy carries were timed separately from the rest of the workout
*only one team member could be working on muscle ups and power cleans at a time
*both worked on air squats simultaneously

Your final score was your total reps of muscle ups, power cleans and air squats minus the seconds it took you to complete both buddy runs.

Clear as mud?

One might think a good strategy would be to pick the smallest person in the room, and take off down the street with them on your shoulder. Sadly, both team members were required to use the same weight for power cleans, so you would have crushed your tiny partner with your heavy bar.

Each team had a slightly different strategy, but clearly the team that destroyed the air squats was our winner! Stacy and I owned the buddy runs, but Tom and Garth were unstoppable on their million air squats. Great job you two!

[Read more →]

Yesterday was Trish's birthday. I knew I could count on her for a workout that didn't require running, and true to form she chose "helen, choose your vessel" for her birthday. In this version of Helen, we let you choose to either run or row.

3 rounds for time:
run 400 meters (OR row 500m)
21 KB swings (24/16kg)
12 pull-ups

There is a lot of smack talking around the Fort when it comes to this workout. I think it's because this is one of the foundation workouts of CrossFit. Just about every CrossFitter on the planet can tell you several things off the top of their head:

1. Their Fran time
2. Their Helen time
3. What the WOD was the first time they met pukie

Everyone did an amazing job on this workout. Brittany set the new women's record for the workout in the morning class. She finished in a blazing fast 11:18! Atta girl! Our top men's spots on the record board are within a few seconds of each other. Garth stole the crown for the men's side of the board by finishing in 9:22. I am so proud of you guys!

[Read more →]

Now, guys....you should know better than to look at the white board and say "that's it?" We received a formal apology email from Super Dave for his "that's it" comment yesterday. The workout was Bill's way of honoring 9/9/09:

9 rounds for time
9 body rows
9 push-ups

Most everyone finished this workout in under 10:00. I am happy to report that our range of motion police were able to stay quiet about the push-ups. Tom Mohr actually KISSED the floor with each push-up to ensure he wouldn't be called out. Again. I could hear him making a little "hup" noise with each rep, and I thought to myself, "is he really going that fast?" He had our fastest time of the day!

Score:
Old guys: 2
Young Whipper Snappers: 1
Hot chicks in tall socks: 1

In other news, our latest ramp-up class is winding down. Have you seen all the new faces? One of the new faces is Garth & Audra's oldest daughter, McKenzie. Today I owe McKenzie an apology for almost KILLING HER trying to get her upside down in the handstand push-up bands. Good Lord...I'm so sorry girl!

The 60 days to a better body challenge is in full swing, and I think the competition is going to be FIERCE. With 11 paid participants, the kitty is at $440! There are several more people who have committed to paying, so the kitty will only continue to grow. Remember the golden rule of thumb: You can't out-exercise what you eat. If you want to really be serious about this challenge, you have to evaluate what you're eating. And it's not only about the quantity of food either...it's about the quality. We're looking at hormonal responses to food more than we're looking at how much you're eating. I can't stress to you enough that you should be blogging about what you're eating. If you need help, you can email any of the CrossFit Fire coaches, or even Super Dave. Super Dave has been a model of nutrition discipline for many months now, and he has seen some spectacular results. Dave volunteered to be a mentor for this challenge, so thanks Dave! We're here as a resource, so if you have specific questions, or just want a "what do you think", shoot us an email.

[Read more →]

Yes, I used the word "porn" on our blog. I've made reference to "food porn" in the past, so this shouldn't be too surprising. Here, I'll say it again: PORN. We had a huge ladies only class last night, and it was absolutely a blast. We listened to our girly sound tracks, Brittany put on her tall socks, Leslie donned her gloves, and away we went!

The strength work was:

Snatch 3-2-1-1-1

Followed by a metcon:

5 rounds for time
15 dead lifts (50% of your SRM)
30 double unders

Let me just say that my ladies class DOMINATED this workout. Not just because they looked so darn cute doing it, but because...well....THEY LOOKED DARN CUTE DOING IT! Nothing gets me more excited than feeling the good girl vibes flowing through the Fort. It got me day dreaming about a world where ALL women lifted weights, and CrossFit was a female dominated sport. Can you imagine? What if things were reversed, and 99% of all CrossFitters were women. Would men be hesitant to participate? Would they be worried that lifting weights and doing all those burpees would give them boobs?

EAT  YOUR HEART OUT BOYS! Here's 13 beautiful women WITH BARBELLS.

Girl Power

Yeah boys....they're ready to deadlift!

Take a look at these two photos. You'll notice that no two of our ladies are the same. They're as unique and beautiful as snow flakes, and that's what makes this such a great program. It's not just for uber athletes, or workout fanatics; it's for stay at home moms, teachers, police officers, medical assistants, sales women, nursing moms, and beyond.

***Attention***

Get your FGB IV t-shirt order to Bill by the end of the day TODAY (Wednesday)!

[Read more →]