We had another day over 50 people at the Fort! Woo Hoo! It was incredibly hot and humid, but we still managed to get 52 people through "Jackie".

1000m row
50 thrusters
30 pull-ups

We had a few people go through this rx'd for the first time, and you all did wonderful. This workout is easy to underestimate because the thrusters are with "just the bar". (Ok, raise your  hand if you're guilty of saying "Just the bar" at any point  yesterday) It's great to see so many of our ladies doing their pull-ups without a band! Does it suck, and make things slower? YES. But eventually, you have to give up that security blanket that is the assistance bands. It's ok if you're only getting 2-3 at a time...I promise.

With all the excitement, I didn't even take any pictures yesterday! Sheesh! I'm such a bad CrossFit Mommy. Here's an awesome picture of people doing pull-ups though....this is kind of what Jackie looks like.

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Yesterday was a record breaking day at the Fort! We welcomed 56 of our CrossForters to our group classes, and 2 future CrossForters to ramp-up, bringing our daily workout total to 58 people! I can remember a time not too long ago in a land not too far away when we didn't even have 58 members! With our ever growing class sizes, please make sure you register. Please register. Please register. Please register. Get the picture? Please register.

You might be wondering what kind of amazing workout could draw 58 people. Well, I'll tell ya:

400m run
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of
box jumps
push press
ball slams
and then
400m run

As Brian would say, "yay running!" Our fastest time of the day came from Zachamole. He finished in 8:45, with Garth not too far behind him at 8:50. Great job you guys!

Have you told everyone you know about the FireFighter Challenge?? We have WAY too many open spots still available, and we want to make this as fun as possible. Your mission is to poke every FireFigher you know, and get them to register for the challenge!

The Better Body Challenge III is under way, and it's bigger and badder than the last challenge! I think the total participation count is over 35 people now! Can you do the math on that real fast? That means that each of the winners will take home $700 AND a free month of unlimited membership. WOWZA! With all that money on the line, the competition is really heating up. Sam Rosati has already threatened to have pizzas delivered daily to every participant in the challenge. As an added incentive, Sam and Kinsy brought in their autographed picture of the "Hoff" to watch over us as we WOD. Sam is DYING to win some "cop money", so he and Dad even have a side bet of $100 thrown in there. Let's not get too carried away though. As Dad would say, "It's a marathon, not a sprint!"

We will be hosting Fight Gone Bad 5 this year at our gym. This is open to ANYONE. Bring your friends, family, neighbors, dog groomers and hair dressers. September 25th is the date, and this will replace our regular workouts that Saturday, including the free intro. Remember that the annual FGB event is actually a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Program. This is a fantastic cause, and it deserves our support. If you'd like to donate, you can visit our team fundraising page and make a donation there. You can also help by registering to be part of our FGBV team, and collecting donations. Let's raise some money!

The Hoff watches Charlie box jump.

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Our July group outing to the Sox game was so much fun! We had a small-ish group of 10 people, but there was definitely big fun! A big thank you goes out to Steph for bringing her portable grill. Tailgating wouldn't have been the same if we had to eat our meat raw. Another big thanks goes to Zach for ensuring that we got our daily dose of "handstands in weird places". He did a handstand ON THE BACK OF HIS SEAT! That was scary, and it also got us a talking-to by security. As I saw security walking over I thought they were either coming over to tell us we looked cool, or to tell us "this isn't Wrigley". (And that's a direct quote)

Despite our rally caps, and rally ponytails, the Sox still lost.

Yep, we flexed.

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See this?

It's the loneliest championship belt in the WORLD. After that amazing Team Saturday workout, our winning team didn't stick around long enough to get their victory picture! Sheesh! Granted, one of those people was me, so I'm no better than the rest of you'z.

This was one of the best Team Saturday's we've had in a long time. From the moment I flipped on the lights I could just tell that there was a good vibe in the room. Energy was high, it was a fantastic workout, and we had 24 people participating!

The workout was:

400m team carry (2 barbells, carried overhead, 4 dumbbells carried any way)
200 Push Press (w/barbell)
200 KB swings (2 people working at a time)
200 Goblet squats (all 4 working at a time)
400m team carry (same rules as the first)

Zachamole, Lisa from Windy City, John Bachar and myself were all part of the winning team. Garth tried distracting us so that we couldn't talk strategy, but we ROCKED our equipment hand-offs and counting. The counting becomes EXTREMELY confusing if your team doesn't have a solid plan going into the workout. I think Chris T. told me that his team did an extra 30 goblet squats. Ouch.

Everyone hung around for a long time yesterday, and that's one of my favorite parts of Team Saturday. KTUCK worked her way into 1/2 of a muscle up! She kipped, got to the bottom of the dip, but couldn't quite drive herself out of it. She's close! We also had two people go through our intro workout, Kim and Chris, and they both did phenomenal! Chris stuck around to participate in the shenanigans, and even nailed a 46" box jump! Great job Chris! Hope to see you and Kim at the next ramp-up!

Here's your winning team in action:

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Wow, what a way to wrap up our week! The metcon yesterday was pretty rough, and we were all feeling the aftermath of our lady Grace. The metcon was:

400m run
21 front squats
21 box jumps
400m run
15 front squats
15 box jumps
400m run
9 front squats
9 box jumps

It was funny how jello-y your legs felt after that first set of front squats. Yeesh. We saw some pretty fast times, especially from those weirdos among us who LIKE to run! I'm only teasing, you guys aren't weird.

We had a visitor yesterday, and he has worked out at a few different affiliates. He is currently working out at CrossFit Roselle, and he worked his way into our classes seamlessly! Welcome to the Fort Emmitt! It was a pleasure having you! We've also had the pleasure of working out with Taylor a few times over the last week. We love visitors!

I'm sorry that so many of you missed out on Bill's nutrition discussion last week. I'm pretty sure that about 45 of you got to hear the shpeal, but there's a good number of people who couldn't make it. It was a great way to brush up on your Paleo knowledge, or just get acquainted with it. If you feel like you missed something important, please make sure to get in touch with myself or Bill.  The most common question we have been getting is, "how much should I be eating?" There's a little math involved, and I don't just like to throw the equation out there without explaining it in person. Again, come find us to discuss.

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Our Games team was back in full swing yesterday, and we saw 50 CrossForters work out yesterday! Woo Hoo! It's a record breaking week for attendance at the Fort, and we love you guys for it! With the start of the Better Body Challenge III, we are also seeing a lot of old faces return. Welcome back to Robin, Jamie, Jack and Kathy! HUGS! We've missed you dearly. (Just so you know, the count for the BBC3 is up to 25 people!)

Our metcon was an old favorite - Grace. For those of you who don't know, Grace is 30 clean & jerks for time. That's it. (evil laugh) We saw a lot of new PR's yesterday! Stacy took the top spot for the ladies by finishing in 2:26! Woo Hoo! We also saw PR's from Earl, Tommy Mo, Garth, Brandon H., Katie, Maddy, Mark R., and Ryan Z. I have a feeling there were a lot more, but you guys were all just too exhausted to circle your name on the whiteboard.

Has everyone noticed that Fight Gone Bad 5 magically appeared in the events section? We will be hosting FGB5 at our own facility this year, and we have registered ourselves as an official team. It will be taking the place of the regular Team Saturday workout that day. If you are interested in participating and raising money for our team, please feel free to register.

Here's what it looks like right before Bill says "Go!"

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Our Games team had yesterday off as their day of rest, but the rest of us were hard at work! Our strength was hang power snatches. Great work everyone!

Following our snatches, we did a WOD from Wild Bill's lab!

21-15-9
double unders
burpees
ball slams

Wow. He did it. He combined three of people's LEAST FAVORITE movements into one workout. As Mike K would say, "Are we in trouble?" No, you're not in trouble. It's just that doing stuff that's hard makes you a better person.

Has everyone met Parker yet? He is starting football camp next week, and they'll be practicing twice a day. Or is it really just one LONG practice each day??? EITHER WAY. My bet is that Parker blows away his coaches at practice. While his buddies have been in their parent's basements playing Wii all summer, Parker has been busting his butt at the Fort in the heat and humidity. My guess is that Parker is one of the only kids who don't puke the first day of practice, therefore making him a badass.

Every time you tell yourself how much ball slams suck, remember how far Parker has to make the ball travel!

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