Friday, 09.03.10: REMINDER WE ARE CLOSED SATURDAY - MONDAY!

Have you met Randi yet? She is one of our four new folks doing the two week trial.  We have enjoyed having you guys around...Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Can you believe Alexis is still in here working hard everyday!  Nice work Alexis.

REMINDER:  THE GYM IS CLOSED SATURDAY - MONDAY FOR LABOR DAY!

More bad news...NO AM CLASSES TUESDAY MORNING...WE RE-OPEN @ 9am Tuesday morning with a regular schedule....VERY SORRY AM'ers.

So what are you doing with your long weekend?  Hopefully something fun and relaxing.  I want to apologize personally for closing the gym Tuesday morning, but we have two trainers out of town and don't have an alternative for Tuesday.  So fill up the rest of the classes.  We know you will be chomping at the bit to get your WOD in. 

Next week, I am going to Calgary, Canada to attend a week of seminars with James Fitzgerald, also known as OPT in the CrossFit world.  I am going to learn how to bring more pain to you in the gym. Seriously though, OPT is a great coach and trainer that has played a big role in the developement of CrossFit and has played a huge role in the way we are programming right now.  I am really looking forward to attending his seminar so I can come back smarter (we all know I need it) and better prepared to help you all reach ALL of your fitness goals.

Have a great long weekend and I will be looking forward to seeing you all next week.  Until then, don't give Danielle, Liz, Billy, Marie, Vas and Chandler too much of a hard time. 

Some great thoughts about Cleans by the infamous Sage

5 of the most important things to ever think about when doing cleans
. . . And by cleans I don’t mean squat cleans ’cause those don’t exist.
Written by Sage Burgener

#1: Think about your chest

I may have mentioned it before (I can never remember anymore), but keeping your chest up is extremely important in the lifts. If your torso comes forward at all, (which it actually will most of the time due to inflexibility, but still try to think about keeping it as tall and proud as possible) that generally will put your weight on your toes making it extremely hard to stand up with the barbell. A tall chest makes for a much more stable position whether it be in a front squat or an overhead squat or even when pulling off the ground.

#2: Think about your elbows

Elbows turn around the same time that the feet hit the ground. I don’t mean turn them around in a T-Rex/reverse curl kind of way. I mean getting the elbows high and outside (which is happening as you pull yourself down. Read on, and this will make sense), and down and around REALLY fracking fast. The faster the elbows, the more comfortable you will feel receiving that barbell. Elbows can be EVERYTHING on a clean. Every time you have slow elbows on a clean, God kills a kitten.

#3: Think about Britney Spears

This is one of those common sense things that definitely doesn’t need any explanation.

#4: Pull yourself under the bar

Do NOT jump and drop under that barbell. Jump up (getting as tall as possible (ATAP)) and when you cannot possibly get any taller, IMMEDIATELY change your hip direction from going up, to going down by physically pulling yourself down and around that barbell. If you try to jump and drop, that bar is going to beat you down EVERY SINGLE TIME (I don’t know why I’m really into using caps lock right now). However, if you pull yourself under the bar (not pull the bar up with your arms), you can guarantee that there will be no crashing of that bar on your chest and you will receive it in a much more comfortable position.  Nobody likes walking around with baseball size bruised clavicles…that I know of.

Which leads me into my last point…

#5: Become one with the barbell

If you pull yourself under the bar, you know where it is in space and you can avoid having that barbell come up really high and smack you right in the throat or nose or forehead (we’ve all had it happen). Not knowing where the barbell is means that you are not in control of it. That bar WANTS to be controlled. It wants you to meet it wherever it is (since when did a barbell start developing personality traits?). So just do it, ok? Be more Zen-like with that barbell

Thursday, 09.02.10: A lot to accomplish in September

Look at what you did in August...time to start filling up the empty board for September!

Sport

by Toby Watson

So why do you CrossFit?  Some of you to get in shape, some to get in shape, some because it's fun and provides a community, some to compete in CrossFit, some so you can drink heavily and eat crap, and some to compete better at other sports. 

I want to address the other sports part.  CrossFit is amazing, but it is designed to help/allow you to play other sports better.  CrossFit increases your athletic ability so you can compete in other sports.  A prime of example of this is Sam C.  He plays a lot of Ultimate Frisbee and uses CrossFit as his training methodology to allow him to keep up on the field.  And sure enough he is reaping the benefits of the training and playing better than he has in a long time.

So why this little article.  Because I want to encourage all of you to go out and PLAY!  If you have a sport you already like great, play it more often, if you have never taken part in other sports give it a whirl and see what happens.  We will be doing a few sports Saturdays here in the near future at CFOTM and we hope you will all come out and play.

Enough rambling on.  If any of you have activities you are involved in and what others to take part in let me know and I will do my best to put them in our events calendar and put them on the blog.  I know a lot of you cycle, play softball and several other activities.  Let us know when and where and you just might get a few extra players!

SCHEDULE:

September 4-6:  THE GYM IS CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY!  TAKE SOME TIME OFF AND HAVE FUN!

September 25th: We are going to close the gym to go to CROSSFIT SMYRNA for FGB V!  The event starts @ 9am and should be done by 12.  It's going to be great.   Click here to Register! Your Team is CFOTM and donate some money to one of these great funds.

September 25th:  CFOTM end of summer pool party.  Bring your family and friends.  The party will start @ 2pm after a good hard days competition.

*There are several competitions coming up between now and February.  We will do our best to keep you posted on them all.  CrossFit Dahlonega has moved their even to November...Look out for details.

Wednesday, 09.01.10: A New Month and a New Year for Laura H! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Laura!

by Toby Watson

I know all of you morning folks and many of you evening folks know Laura.  She has been with CFOTM since we first opened and we were finding our way!  I chose this picture for a reason.  Laura is one of the most dedicated (sometimes a little too much) athletes I have ever met.  Laura has a training plan and she has stuck with it since day one...now that has resulted in a lot of fun things for her like pull-ups without a band, heavy squats, deadlifts, handstands and a number of other things.

Laura has also proven to be extremely mentally and physically tough.  If you look back in our archives you will see photos of Laura bleeding at least once a week.  She didn't seem to have a a good relationship with the boxes, kettlebells or pull-up bars...YES ALL OF THESE HAVE PUT LAURA ON THE FLOOR AT LEAST ONCE. But every single time she gets up and no matter how intimidated she is by something (because it has caused her pain) she always finds a way to conquer it. 

Laura I want to thank you for all the help in and out of the gym (and for helping us understand Jerry).  We hope you have a delightful birthday and an even better year here at CFOTM!

SCHEDULE:

September 4-6:  THE GYM IS CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY!  TAKE SOME TIME OFF AND HAVE FUN!

September 25th: We are going to close the gym to go to CROSSFIT SMYRNA for FGB V!  The event starts @ 9am and should be done by 12.  It's going to be great.   Click here to Register! Your Team is CFOTM and donate some money to one of these great funds.

September 25th:  CFOTM end of summer pool party.  Bring your family and friends.  The party will start @ 2pm after a good hard days competition.

*There are several competitions coming up between now and February.  We will do our best to keep you posted on them all.  CrossFit Dahlonega has moved their even to November...Look out for details.