Brian A. is a smart cookie. He came in last night and the 4PM class was finishing their workout. He looked at the workout on the board and said,

"so a pistol is like a one legged body row?"

And you know what? He was right. Pistols, when done rx'd are squats on one leg, with the other leg held out straight in front. For those of us who can't do them as prescribed, we have to hang onto a ring or a ledge in order to maintain our balance. Brain was watching the 4PM'ers finish up, and indeed, they were doing one legged body rows.

Our strength work yesterday was single rep max for heavy pull-ups. I am officially naming June get-your-first-pull-up month. We had a few more people yesterday get their VERY FIRST pull-ups! Season, Hannah and Alyson all rocked their first pull-ups yesterday! GREAT JOB LADIES!

I want to give a BIG thanks to Sam and Kinsy for bringing in the 50lb weight vest; it's AWESOME! Check out Steph R. doing a 50lb weighted pull-up!

The metcon was another 15:00 AMRAP of power cleans, pistols and double unders. Everyone did a great job! Know who came back  yesterday - Kilo! It's always good to see some of our old friends return, even if it's been a while. Once you're a part of the Fort Family,  you are ALWAYS welcome!

Can my Fort Dads arrive on Saturday at 8:30AM with one of their kids? I'd like to do our big Father's Day picture (overhead squatting a child) on Saturday morning so I can post it on Sunday.

Ok - last thing, I promise. I just scheduled our next ramp-up to start 6/28. Tell your friends, family and co-workers about it so we can fill it! As a side note - do I have anyone interested in doing a morning ramp-up? If so, shoot me an email right away!

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Ok, you're not really a jerk. But we saw some HUGE jerk PR's yesterday, and that makes me VERY happy! We saw jerk PR's from Garth, Chris T., Ryan Z., Pete, Deb, Jeanne, Ivy, Dad, Josh T., Steph L., Earl, Hero Mike, Audra, KTUCK, Kinsy, Jelli, Season, Traveling Chris, Tommy Mo, Heath, Mark M., Brian, Jimmy, Mary, Amanda, Bethy, Ivan, Dani, Charlie, Brianna. GREAT job you guys! With these killer jerks, we're going to DOMINATE the Windy City Oly meet!

After all the fun we had with jerks, we did a 15:00 AMRAP workout:

5 dumbbell thrusters
10 box jumps
20 sit-ups

Everyone did a great job with this workout, despite the fact that it was a thousand percent humidity.

We had two traveling CrossFitters visit yesterday! We had Maddy from CrossFit Hollywood...I hear she's a ninja, and we also had Chris from a CrossFit gym down in Florida. Welcome!!

Congratulations to Jimmy for completing ramp-up last night. It only took us about 16 months to convince him to give CrossFit a try, and hopefully he's not regretting his decision.

Another congratulations goes out to Matt Savage and his wife on their beautiful baby boy!

Do you see what Mark's wearing in this picture? It should come as no surprise to you that he set a new jerk PR by 15kg's! His old PR was 100kg's, and yesterday, with the help of the bracelet of power, he rocked 115kg's! GREAT job!

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Yesterday was so much fun! This is going to be a whole week full of "single rep max" work, so get ready for a whole bunch of PR's! We worked our way up to an overhead squat single rep max yesterday, and the numbers people were putting up were AMAZING. There were PR's left and right, and some by as much as 20 or 30 kg's! SHEESH! Pete set a new personal best by overhead squatting 110 kg's! I'll just say that the PR train was full to capacity yesterday. Our CrossForters with new PR's include Ryan Z., Hero Mike, Dad, Josh T., Steph L., Ivy, Jelli, Sam, KTUCK, Kinsy, Leslie, Bethy, Brian A., Chris Sutter, Zachamole, ShaffDog, Ryan P., Mike K, Dani, Hannah, Brianna and Les. WHEW. That's a lot of new PR's!

Congratulations to Les for finishing ramp-up last night! You'll start seeing his face in our regular classes soon, and he's STRONG.

Double congratulations to Steph L., for getting her first unassisted pull-up yesterday. I can honestly say that it was the best "first pull-up moment" I have ever seen. She got her chin over the bar, and actually hung out there for a second and a HUGE smile went across her face. Had it not been for her smiling and laughing, she probably would have done about 2 or 3 pull-ups! ATTA GIRL!

After all that excitement, it's a wonder we got in our workout! The metcon was:

3 rounds of
500m row
12 deadlifts
25 push-ups

I hate to poop in your cereal, but we saw some pretty bad push-ups yesterday. Granted, we also saw some pretty AMAZING push-ups, so it wasn't all bad. What we are starting to see is that people let their hips sag real low, and they lead the movement with their foreheads, and it totally shortens the range of motion. Find the ground with your chest and your chin EVERY TIME. If your chest doesn't hit the floor every single time, you essentially scaled the workout.

Ok, enough of that. Love you guys!

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1. When did you start doing CrossFit? I started going to the fort in October of 2009

2. What is your full time job? I am the Program Director of the AmeriCorps of McHenry County Program. I oversee, and supervise 35 AmeriCorps volunteers who work in after-school programs with "at risk" youth.

3. What is your most embarrassing moment? Not sure if it the most embarrassing, but its recent at least. After having surgery last week to fix an umbilical hernia I had to go back to the ER a couple days later. I was having digestive problems because surgery in the abdomen can put your intestines to sleep for several reasons. I had a pretty cute nurse and as she stood over me as I squirmed around in pain on the table I let out a 12/15 second fart. After that it was pretty much "well, I feel much better thanks, I think I'll go back home now".

4. Do you have any pets? Not at the moment--once I get my own life a little more "together" I will feel better about being responsible for other lives.

5. Which is your least favorite movement we use in class? It would be between thrusters, and SDHPs.

6. Least favorite workout? I don't really have a least favorite in particular. Anything that has thrusters or SDHPs

7. FAVORITE workout? I liked the "filthy 50" quite a bit. I like anything thats long, high rep. and not super heavy.

8. What is your favorite paleo dish? I usually keep it pretty simple--ground beef or steak and raw vegetables.

9. If you could have one super power, what would it be and why? Omnipotency of course. Is that cheating? Maybe something like Aqua Man.

10. What would you do with a million dollars? I would probably move somewhere in Central or South America and just surf and climb forever!

11. Tell us more about the bandanas. When did you start wearing them? I have many bandanas--many patterns and colors. I think I started wearing them when I had long hair. I have a slightly recessed hairline and if I didn't have something on my head my hair would end up floating around like Bill Murray's in "King Pin"

12. How has CrossFit Fire changed your life? Crossfit Fire is really great for me because I am definitely am not a gym guy--never was. In the past I have lived in different places throughout the country and was able to stay in shape doing different things--climbing, backcountry skiing, guiding backpacking trips, working on trail crews, etc. Since I moved back to the midwest these activities are not options regularly, and that SUCKS! Crossfit makes living in the midwest OK for me. And, I can see my abs now, which is pretty cool.

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It was a gloomy morning, but the Team Saturday workout made things ALL better! We partnered up into teams of two, and each team had to complete the following:

100 burpees
400m run
150 KB swings
400m run
200 box jumps
400m run

There were some scaling options on the board, and it definitely kept the playing field pretty level for all of our teams. Well, except for the teams that didn't man-up and use the 24" box....or the team that got tricked into running 800m's on the last run instead of 400m's! Tee hee! I'm only kidding about the man-ing up thing. You two are both TOTALLY manly.

Our winning team was our dynamic Mother/Daughter Duo of Kenzie and Audra! Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen Kenzie as excited as she was after finding out she took the championship belt! Atta girl!

In other news, Zachamole has been seen around the Fort without a shirt a LOT lately, and people are starting to notice how lean he is getting. WHAT'S HIS SECRET!? Really guys? You can't guess? When we were at Regionals, Zachamole spent the better part of the weekend discussing nutrition with Wild Bill. After that weekend, he gave up his low fat, low calorie, high carb ways and started eating MEAT. RED MEAT. Zachamole is no longer leaving the dinner table feeling hungry! He used to eat 6 times a day, and it was truly a chore just to eat.

I think we can all agree that Wild Bill's Paleo plan is a fabulous lifestyle! Granted, one of these pictures is Zachamole standing still, and the other is him swinging a kettle bell....but still. You get the point.

Zachamole...hot stuff before, but even hotter now that he eats red meat

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Yesterday we worked our power snatches in sets of 3. It's quite amazing the amount of weight people are putting overhead! Brian A. didn't realize it until after he finished the lift, but he power snatched 60 kg's for 3 reps! WHOA is he strong overhead!

The metcon was a doozey, and it left a lot of people with a sore grip. Make sure you're stretching out those forearms after your workout!

3 rounds of:
250m row
21 sumo deadlift high pulls
15 pull-ups

We're going to have a few new faces around! Last night Ben and Kirsten both finished their 6th class of ramp-up. Here's one new face you'll start seeing around the Fort - Kirsten! Welcome!

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So....did the whole WORLD decide to take yesterday as a rest day? Was Wild Bill's programming just too much for you kids this week? Talk to me goose!

The workout yesterday started with some heavy back squats. Under Bill's watchful eye, we saw some EXCELLENT squats yesterday. Every now and then, we as coaches learn some fun trick for you kids to try, and the latest squat form drills we have been working on really seem to be helping. I have also started making people take off their shoes while they squat. You see, with squishy shoes, it allows you to "fall off" the side of your shoe, with all the weight on the inside of your foot. Just TRY and do that without your shoes on, buddy!

The metcon was a fun combination of thrusters, push-ups and broad jumps. Lean Jeanne wasn't so sure she could actually jump the prescribed 5 feet, but she was LEAPING 5 feet + every single time! Great job girlfriend!

We are only one short day away from Fortapalooza. I'm SO EXCITED that I can  hardly contain myself! Can everyone do me a huge favor? Please start doing your stay-away-rain dances for me. Thanks. One thing that I'd like to point out about Fortapalooza is the parking arrangements. Please PLEASE don't park on the grass along the driveway. If you would kindly pull all the way up the driveway, and down into one of the horse pastures, that would be best. We have Mr. Z's approval to park in the pastures in order to spare his perfect lawn.

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