I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend and got the opportunity to get outside and enjoy some of that beautiful sunshine yesterday. It’s hard to believe that we’ve already surpassed a year on our initial shut-down and quarantine, and we’re already coming up on a year of when we were officially allowed to re-open CVCF. To say it’s been a tiring and anxiety ridden time for us is a bit of an understatement, but we’ve thankfully been able to push through, learn, compromise, help and receive help however we can to get through what has certainly been the most difficult time in many of our lives.

With more and more people in our state getting vaccinated every day, and from what I can tell from our community, we seem to have a pretty high vaccination rate, which combined with the high state rate means we’ll hopefully be out of the woods pretty soon. The governor has already declared a date of July 4th for things to fully open with the possibility of that happening even earlier, so we are doing our best to plan around that.

Since we re-opened in June 2020 we have had ZERO updates to our guidance/restrictions, nothing has changed so we are still operating at the same limited capacity we were a year ago. Thankfully because of our larger space and equipment arsenal, we’ve been able to make things work pretty well. As more people get vaccinated, we are also expecting to see a chunk of our membership base, about 10%, finally making there way back into the gym as they were unable to because of living situations, underlying health issues, etc. What this means is we have 20-30 long-time members who will start making their way back into classes over the coming weeks.

With that in mind, we ask that you please be patient with our capacity and classes filling. We know there are a few class times/days that can be tough to get into and those will likely get a little tighter in the coming weeks, so we ask, that any of you who do come to peak class times, and have very flexible schedules, if you do see a class consistently capping out, or it’s consistently filled when you come in, if you can float to a different time because you have more flexibility than others that would be most appreciated so that we can smoothly get through these next 8 weeks and get as many people the opportunity to train/exercise as possible.

Over the last 10 months we’ve had a lot of opportunity to work with our new required structure, and despite what a tough last year it’s been, we’ve learned a lot and come out of this with more ideas and ways to continue to grow and improve at what we do. A couple of weeks ago we made a large investment back into the gym ordering a large quantity of gear to further fill-out our facility and help us make it even better. When I first sought out to open a gym almost 12 years ago, one of my priorities from Day 1, was to always work to make the best training facility around, and while I already believe we have that, there is always an opportunity to get better and do better (and lets be honest, I do really like www.roguefitness.com). Shockingly, gym equipment is even harder to come by now then it was last year, so we are currently waiting on gear with a hopefully ETA of mid-to-late May. Once all of the new gear arrives we will be doing an entire re-design of our main training space as well as modifications to each other space.

Gym Re-Design

As we move forward we’ve decided to truly maximize the space we have for training and exercise. As we re-design and re-build again, CVCF 4.0 will be laid out like so…

• Main Gym – We’ve found that over the last 10 months a lot of our existing clientele and many of our new clients have really enjoyed the training spaces. This is actually a pipe dream I had long time ago of trying to essentially build out a CrossFit gym like a college Strength and Conditioning facility, it just costs a lot of money, but after 10 years of continually re-investing back into the space we’re finally able to make that happen. The Main gym will get re-designed to house 28 athletes instead of the current 19 that we’re able to get in. In re-designing the main space we will be maintaining the station concept and thus will be capping all of our classes at 28 athletes. Every station will be almost identical with every 2-3 spots sporting it’s own shelf of Kettlebell, Dumbbells, Machine etc. like we currently do.
• Back Room – The back room will stay largely un-touched from what it used to be. We will be making some small rig and shelving design changes, but other than that it will largely stay as it once was. This will go back to becoming a permanent Open Gym/Overflow space, the boxes/stations will be removed, however we will be capping the number of athletes in the back room to 12 moving forward so that we ensure all athletes have ample training space. In addition to all of the typical gear there will be 12 dedicated machines to this space, 3 each of Rower, Ski Erg, Bike Erg, and Assault Bike, along with the True Form. All of our specialty gear will continue to be housed in this space, and we will be filling in full range of Kettlebells, Dumbbells, Bumpers etc. This will be a space for people to come in and do their own thing when classes are going on, as a space to do extra work after class, and also as a space to do class in if class is full (basically like it used to be Pre-covid, if there wasn’t space in the main room for class you went to the back room).
• Side Room – The small side space that currently houses 2 training stations where the sink is will be getting gutted and emptied out. This is going to turn into specifically a conditioning area. We’ve always had plenty of athletes that like to work on mono-structural capacity work, take part in the C2 challenges, or are just looking for a little “cardio” work because they’re feeling a little beat-up. This room will house 8 machines, 2 each Row, Ski, Bike Erg, and Assault Bike specifically for people doing conditioning work (there may be some extra Dumbbells and Kettlebells that make there way back there as well). This will give us an additional 8 spots for athletes to train and use.
• Lobby – We will be removing the stations in the lobby and dedicating that space to a Warm-up, Stretch, Mobilize space, instead of a throw a bunch of bags on the floor in a pile space. This space will be outfitted with 2 each Rower and Bike Erg along with all of our mobility gear. This will work as an area for athletes to do any Pre or Post work that doesn’t really require eating up a training spot and also helps keep our training areas free from people just rolling around on the floor while somebody is Snatching next to them.

We are super excited for this re-design. This will help bring our capacity from 30 people, up to 48 which should provide ample room for all of you, all the time, while still maintaining all the good that we picked up during the last year. In addition this helps provide you all with space to really do whatever, want to come in and just hit some bis and tris, great, want to take class, awesome, looking to just get some base work on the bike, thumbs up! We don’t really care so much what you’re doing as long as your working hard, being smart, and being efficient in how you train.

New Staff

We’re also super excited to be adding a new coach to our staff. After losing 50%+ of our coaching staff over the last 2 years because of re-locations and life changes we are working to re-build our coaching staff and hoping to be able to spend more time coaching our coaches to help build the best coaching staff around. We will be continuing to look to grow our coaching staff over the next year to help better support you as athletes as we open back up and continue to grow. Over the last year we’ve also had a handful of athletes join CVCF who either worked in the Fitness industry pre-covid or are currently working in the Fitness industry. As we look to grow our staff please don’t hesitate to reach-out or let us know if you are interested in coaching at CVCF as we will be looking to fill both part-time and full-time coaching positions in the next year.

We are pleased to announce Andrew will be joining our coaching staff. Andrew is a relatively new member to CVCF, but not to CrossFit. He has been a die-hard AM guy where he will be joining in and helping us at the 5:45 and 7:00 AM classes on Monday and Friday. 

He grew up with a love for sports but always struggled with his weight often regarding himself as the “fat kid.” Though sports had given him some sense of exercise, he was not doing the right things off the field to support his body, often eating his daily, after-school snack, a Coke and a PB&J (with a side of chips). He eventually found an exercise and diet regimen that helped him lose a significant amount of weight which ultimately helped him with his athletic goals, even achieving All State Lacrosse honors at Colchester High School. 

In college, Andrew had thought about trying CrossFit but was hesitant to join a gym, mainly out of ignorance and insecurity with himself. Instead, he stuck to his bicep curls in front of the mirror with his fraternity buddies. It helped him feel stronger but didn’t translate to a healthy lifestyle. In the 6 months post college, Andrew gained 50 lbs and reached the heaviest he’d ever been. 

Feeling at a major low point, Andrew basically stumbled into his first CrossFit class with a few of his coworkers. Upon feeling the camaraderie, the athleticism, and the group of people all working together in pursuit of the same goal, to get HEALTHY, he was hooked. In the following year, he lost 60 lbs and hasn’t looked back. Having struggled with weight for most of his life, Andrew loves helping others with the shared experience of getting on the right track toward a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Thank you all so much for your dedication, sweat and hard work the last year. We’re committed to continuing to try and create the best exercise and CrossFit training facility around and we couldn’t do it without all of you. As always if you have any questions, thoughts, etc. please don’t hesitate to reach out. Have an awesome rest of your weekend.

Team CVCF