2014: 3…2…1… GO!

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2014 is here!  In the world of CrossFit,  the new year means a few different things:

  1. The holidays are over.  Time to put on those brand new wrist wraps and Nanos, wipe the peanut brittle dust off your face, sober up, and get back in the gym consistently.  Have you considered a month-long detox?  If weight loss is your New Year’s Resolution, there’s a clinic for that.
  2. Reflection.  What did you accomplish in 2013?  What would you like to do differently?  Take stock of your shortfalls and victories, and then…
  3. Make some new goals.  Keep the list short.  Make your goals specific, quantifiable, and realistic.  Write them down somewhere you will see them every day.  Ask a coach how you can start chipping away at your list today!  Take that plan, and stick to it.
  4. The 2014 CrossFit Games Open is just a few short weeks away!  This gives you a reason to come out of the gate strong in January–and keep it up!  Registration opens January 15, with the first workout (14-1) to be released on February 27.  At CrossFit9, we encourage everyone to enter the Open.

We hope that daring to set the bar high at in 2014 will inspire you do so in your life outside the box, too.  We’re wishing you the healthiest, happiest year yet!  3… 2… 1… GO!

The Open is Coming!

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CrossFit is not a sport with an “offseason”, so to speak.  Every day you come to the box, we prepare for challenges known and unknown.  After all, you never know when you will need to pick up 25 bags of dog food, or carry someone out of a burning building. That said, CrossFit does have an “in season”.  It’s known as the CrossFit Open, and we are just mere weeks away from the start of the 2014 season!

For CF9 athletes, the CrossFit Open works like this:

  • Anyone in the world can register for the CrossFit Open.  At CrossFit9, we encourage everyone to do so.   (Don’t think twice– do it now.)
  • Each Thursday evening, starting February 27, CrossFit Headquarters will announce the WOD.   (The WOD names correspond to the year and week of the Open.  For example, the Feb. 27 announcement will be for 14.1, the following week is 14.2, and so on…)  The announcement is livestreamed online, and then some of the biggest names in CrossFit go head-to-head in their first shot at the WOD.  This is a really exciting event, and bet your spandex you will be watching it weekly!
  • At CrossFit9, Saturdays will be our “game day”.  Instead of regularly scheduled Saturday morning WODs, athletes will show up at 10 a.m., ready to go.  You will be assigned a verified judge and complete the WOD in heats.  It’s a great feeling to tackle the WOD with your fellow 9ers cheering you on.  Can’t make it?  Arrange for a judged session with one of your trusty coaches.
  • At the end of the WOD, the judge will give you your score.  You must take this score and enter it on the Open website by that Sunday evening, 8 p.m. EST.  This is extremely important.  If you miss deadline, your score won’t be counted.  And if you miss one week, you are disqualified from the rest of the competition.
  • By Monday, you will find your name on a massive leaderboard ranking you amongst every person in your division in the world
  • Rinse and repeat for the next 4 weeks!
  • At the conclusion of the CrossFit Open, the top 48 in each division and region will advance to Regionals.  (Ours is May 9-11 in Jacksonville.)
  • From there, the top 3 in each division and region advance to the CrossFit Games.  Yes, those ones that you see on ESPN.

The Takeaway

You’re likely wondering why we want everyone to compete, regardless of skill level.  As your coaches, we do not care if you oust Rich Froning as the World’s Fittest Man in 2014.  We do not care if you set your sights on Regionals.  We care if you complete the Open in 2015, look back at your results from 2014, and see a marked improvement in your fitness.  We care if you leave the Open having learned valuable lessons about your strengths and weaknesses, about your mental toughness, and notes about what skills you want to work on over the next 47 weeks of the year.  We believe the Open is the perfect opportunity to see what you can do when you approach a competition with a You vs. You mindset.

This is an exciting opportunity.  Rarely as adults to we get the opportunity to compete just for the thrill of it.  You might feel excited, scared, or like you might throw up.  Likely all of those things at once.  Buckle up, enjoy the ride, and most importantly– have fun!

Resources

P.S.  We count on your questions!  Leave them in the comments.

Open Season

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This is it… the CrossFit Open is here!

Each week, the Open workouts will be announced on Thursday evenings at 8 p.m. via livecast at the Official CrossFit Games site.  We’ll also have the announcements streaming at CrossFit9, so come in for the weekly watch party!

Saturday Mornings are CrossFit Open Day at CF9!

Here’s how it will work…

  • Regularly scheduled classes are at 7:30 and 9 a.m. This is when everyone will show up, whether they are competing, participating, dropping in, or just getting their regular Saturday morning WOD.  Please make your best effort to come in at these times.  Arrive early, begin an extended warm-up, and mobilize ahead of class start time.  If you must miss Saturday morning, please make arrangements with a coach to come in and be judged at another time.
  • Each class will run in two heats.  You will be partnered up, and in the first heat you will judge your partner, and vice versa in the second heat.
  • Judging?  Show up to either class session, or both!  We’ll make sure you get a chance to compete or work out.
  • Competing Rx for an official score?  We will partner you with a verified judge for your WOD.  If you plan to record video of your WOD, you will be responsible for bringing and setting up your recording device ahead of the WOD start time.
  • Unaffiliated athlete or a drop-in from another box?   We welcome you to come at either one of our times Saturday morning, and we will partner you with a verified judge.   ($30)
  • Just here for your regular Saturday morning workout?  That’s cool too! You will still do that week’s Open WOD, scaled as you please.  Get your sweat on!

Scoring

  • Official score:  At the end of your workout, both you and your judge will sign the official score sheet.  You will get a stub off of that sheet on which your official score is written (plus any tiebreaker times).
  • You are responsible for submitting your scores online by the deadline each week.  It is due by Monday at 8 p.m. EST.  Log in to your athlete profile at games.crossfit.com, or use the iOS app, and submit the score written on your stub.  (Set a reminder for yourself– if you forget to submit a score, you are automatically disqualified from further official participation in the CrossFit Open.)
  • We will verify those scores to make sure they were correctly entered.

And so the next five weeks of the CrossFit Open will go!  Keep your eyes on this page for any updates.  May the WODs be in your favor, 9ers!

INFOGRAPHIC: World Class Fitness in 100 Words

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Disclaimer: This is not new information.

Disclaimer: This has been shared, re-shared, tweeted, and posted many times over.  And with good reason.

Disclaimer: This information, if followed properly, will change your life.

“Eat meats,vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics:pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstands, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. ROUTINE IS THE ENEMY. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports!”

-Greg Glassman, Founder of CrossFit

Remember that fitness is not complicated, and more importantly, completely within your grasp!

CrossFit9 New Year Challenge

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LOOK BETTER. FEEL BETTER. PERFORM BETTER.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight, gain lean muscle, or PR your lifts, this is for you! The CrossFit9 New Year Challenge will focus on establishing healthy habits to carry with you throughout 2015.

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Questions? Let us know.

NEW CrossFit9 Classes

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We couldn’t think of a better way to kick off 2015 than to bring you TWO new CrossFit classes, including Yoga!

Yoga for CrossFitters

  • 10–11am Sundays in the CrossFit9 West Room
  • Donation based (Suggested: $5)
  • Yoga speak: Restorative vinyasa flow integrated with yin
  • CrossFit speak: Healing active recovery to address your existing aches and pains and prevent new injuries.
  • Bring: A yoga mat, sweat towel, and water bottle. (If you don’t yet have a yoga mat, a towel will do for now, or borrow one of our black tri-fold mats. We suggest picking up yoga mats from TJ Maxx on the cheap!) If you already have blocks, straps, or other yoga mobility toys, bring ’em!

9:30 AM Weekday WOD

  • If you’ve been fantasizing about a mid-morning WOD time, listen up! We now have small group training very M, T, Th, F at 9:30am! (Wednesday Rest Days will still apply.) Questions about WOD times? Shoot us an email or check out our schedule here.

Rebecca’s CrossFit9 Story

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“I was told to go ‘grab a 400’ with the other foundations students. After I found out what that meant and with my Olivia Newton John sneakers tied tightly, I started out the door running with everyone. I got to about 50 meters when I stopped for some air. I walked the rest of the way to the stop sign (the halfway mark). A coach by the name of Zack ran to meet me and encouraged me to jog back to the box. I cried. I couldn’t. I was embarrassed and I could barely breathe. Zack stayed with me the entire time.

“I promised my wife I would give this CrossFit thing six weeks. Then, I could quit. Yay. That is how Kelly got me to go. I was totally going to quit after six weeks. I came home every night and cried because I did not want to be there, but I knew I only had to give it five more weeks. What a wimp I was!

“Thank goodness for the six week promise.

“Week two got a little better, week three, not so bad, week four…was I actually beginning to tolerate this? I was feeling a little stronger. I liked my new CrossFit9 family. Everyone was so nice and supportive. They made it EASY for me to keep going.

“A year and a half and thirty pounds ago I could not even jog 100 meters. This past weekend I completed a six mile, twenty-five obstacle “Savage Race” with my wife and CrossFit9 team.

“CrossFit9 works, cares, supports, lives and loves.”

Rebecca Meyer
Age 50

Chris Goodwin’s CrossFit9 Story

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“I never heard of CrossFit. I heard of cross training and crossdressing, but not CrossFit. That was approximately three years ago. From high school, to the military, to becoming a police officer, I always strived to stay in good shape. I grew up in the era of big muscle mags like Flex and Muscle & (nothing to do with) Fitness; mottos like ‘go big or go home’, ‘no pain, no gain’, ‘cardio is Spanish for no muscle’, and ‘a big muscle is a strong muscle’! It worked well in my younger days, but eventually it caught up, but I still felt I was doing alright. I was team leader on SWAT, had a 465# 1 rep max on bench, and the SWAT obstacle course posed no problem to complete.

“I was invited by chance to the CrossFit9 Open House at the old downtown location on MLK. The WOD was “Cindy”: a 20 minute AMRAP of 5 pull-ups, 10 push ups and 15 ‘sissy squats’ (as we called them at Gold’s Gym, brah!). I thought to myself after it was explained, piece of cake… I can do that while eating a sandwich. I did it. I sucked. Only six freaking rounds. I was tight and sore for over a flipping week, but I loved it and I wanted more! I was humbled. I stood a besmirched, humbled meathead.

“I did not return for several months. I eventually decided that I would, but first I wanted to get in shape before I joined. Funny/strange/weird. I wanted to train to get in shape… to train to get in shape! WTF. A few months later, I walked into the brand new location of CrossFit9, and I haven’t looked back. After a year I cancelled my meathead gym membership and drank the Kool-Aid. I still have a ways to go, but I’m enjoying the trip. My mobility has improved by leaps and bounds. My cardiovascular conditioning is ten times better than it was.

“However, the best asset at the ‘9’ is the people — trainers and members. I have met some of the coolest, funniest, and supportive people ever. I truly feel lucky and blessed. I’ve spread the word throughout the Saint Petersburg Police Department and some have even drank the Kool-Aid! I get asked about CrossFit9 at the department often. It’s truly a feeling of family when even my grandson can enter the box and instantly be in comfort mode.

“And yes… I will give him some of the Kool-Aid in his sippy cup! 🙂

“Love it here!”

Chris Goodwin

Age 49

Will Schantz’s CrossFit9 Story

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“I was a pretty fit guy until I quit playing college tennis. That’s when my focus strayed from health and fitness. Most of my 20s were a mix of partying and minimal studying. CrossFitters would say I “scaled” my college experience… to just shy of a decade.

“My fiancee Rachael and I both graduated, and we looked for opportunities outside of Columbus, Ohio. In the meantime, we joined up at a Planet Fitness. I went some, ate some Tootsie Rolls, and really wasn’t doing much for myself in the way of fitness.

“When our opportunity to move to St. Pete came along, we jumped on it. Rachael started up at CrossFit9 before me, and I am super thankful she brought me into the box. My first WOD was a Saturday partner workout, and Lindsay invited me to join the class. It was my first real workout in quite a while, and afterwards I signed up for Foundations. The next few days were rough, as I hadn’t felt such soreness for a very long time.

“I am extremely grateful for the experience I have bad since coming to CrossFit9. It’s been almost a year since I started and I have already achieved things I couldn’t earlier in life. From here I only see CrossFit9 becoming an even bigger part of my life.

“All of us have a different backstory that brought us to CrossFit9, but it’s so inspiring to be in it together. For that I am eternally grateful and thankful.”

Will Schantz