Boy time seems to be slipping by quickly lately. Maybe it’s because it’s December and yesterday is was 50 degrees, I feel like it’s still fall, not winter. I wish that this was winter, we could keep running then J November was another awesome month, so many athletes have been walking in the door, pushing hard, and doing everything they can to put themselves in the best physical shape possible. You’ve all been working diligently and I’m so thankful to be able to work with all of you. A handful of things below from last month, for this month, and for the future.
Billing
Below is the same piece from the last newsletter, but I wanted to remind you all of this.
Starting January 1st, 2012 I will be making some alterations to our membership and billing. Rest assured we aren’t changing prices on you guys, just changing some options and requirements.
In an effort to save myself, and others at the gym time, as well as keep our financials as accurate as possible I will be moving all billing to an auto withdrawal. Checks and Cash will still be fine if you’re paying for more than a month at a time or for a punch card but otherwise everything will be auto withdrawal. If you have a monthly membership at Champlain Valley CrossFit you will have to setup a monthly billing option. I understand that everyone has different bills on different days of the month, so you will be able to setup your billing for any day of the month, we will not have a strict day that your membership has to process on.
With auto billing you will have the option to freeze your account/membership if you are gone for 7 or more days. The only catch is that you need to tell me before the dates…e-mail is probably the best option. If you happen to not come to the gym for a week and then want us to extend your membership for a week that is a no go. If you let me know you will be out of town for 9 days before you leave that will be perfectly fine. Keep in mind if a membership is frozen it will change your billing date. The monthly CrossFit memberships starting January 1st, 2012 will be the following…
Unlimited Classes/month $150
9 Classes/month $100 (roughly 2 classes/week)
For those who have been using punch cards, our punch cards will be changing a bit as well. Starting January 1st, 2012 CVCF will only be offering the 30 class punch card, with a 6 month time line (about 1 class/week). We’ve had a lot of people come in and out, buying a 10 class card and never coming again. We want our members to understand that CrossFit is an investment, an investment in their health. With the On-ramp now costing $200 we are having a much better commitment to the program because our athletes are putting a little more thought into whether or not they really want to be doing this. In addition I want people to be here consistently, so they can get a good handle on the training and learn the movements. Honestly CrossFit as a program is not designed to be a once a week thing. Coming for a couple of weeks and then disappearing for a couple months makes it very difficult for folks to really get a handle on the program. We don’t like to see people coming in that fashion, and usually you all don’t like the feeling either when you disappear for weeks and then come back. Price will remain the same at $300 for 30 classes, with a 6-month expiration date, but of course you could use it as quickly as you like. If for whatever reason you leave for an extended period of time or injure yourself, you will be able to freeze your punch card as well for as long as you need.
The options for 6 months or 1 year will still be available and those will not have to have any sort of auto billing setup. They will still be setup as an upfront payment. I will likely be adding a 3-month option as well with a slight discount.
Last but not least. If you are buying a membership with a spouse, or you have the whole family coming, and you want to make use of the discounted family memberships they need to be paid in one payment. It’s been a bit hectic receiving different payments from different people all working towards paying for one membership. If you want a family membership, awesome, but it needs to be paid by one person not by 2 or 3 different payments. These will also be setup as automatic billing so this should ease the collection process.
It’s important for you all to remember you still are not dealing with any sort of contract. You are not obligated to pay or come to Champlain Valley CrossFit for any period of time. Obviously if you purchase the punch card, or pay for a 6 month membership we’d hope you use it, but if you’re setup for your membership to bill monthly you can cancel it at anytime, whether that be after 3 months or 3 years.
If anybody has questions or concerns regarding this please come talk to me. Please remember I am doing this to help streamline business procedures to allow more time spent on training, programming, events, etc. for all of you.
New Space
So myself, probably more than anybody has been talking about moving to a new space. At this point I am 99% sure that Champlain Valley CrossFit will be moving to the former “Close to Home” space on the corner of Marshall Avenue and Leroy Road, right next to “Bond Auto Parts.”
Fit-up has been negotiated and agreed upon, at this point I’m just waiting for a lease which I’m hoping to have this week. Unfortunately I can’t give you a definite date on when we will be moving but it will be in the very near future, hopefully next month.
The new space will be considerably larger, moving from just under 2,500 square feet, to 6,000 square feet. There will be a Men’s and Women’s changing room, 3 showers, 2 bathrooms, 1 massage room, and our gym floor space will be moving from roughly 1,500 square feet, to 4,000 square feet.
Many of you have already voiced you’re desire to help move which is greatly appreciated and definitely needed. We will have a good bit of work to do, some construction and then a lot of painting and moving and setting up equipment. So when the time comes, any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Invest in CVCF, your health, and your community
First I have to say that I’m so proud, amazed, and thankful to have such and awesome community of people here at Champlain Valley CrossFit. So many of you have come together and now are good friends after not evening knowing each other 6 months or a year ago. This is the best community in the world and it will continue to be. The gym has been on a rampage growing, taking on 75+ new clients since September with almost every one of them still here. We are continuing to grow and thrive, and continuing to build our awesome community. I firmly believe that all of you will help make this the best strength and conditioning facility around and allow it to continue to grow to something bigger and even more amazing.
With that said I’m super excited to move in the near future. While we are completely ready to move financially there is a laundry list of new toys that I’d like to purchase to really outfit the gym to create the best facility possible for you all. Unfortunately the gym is not in a position to drop that kind of money all at once.
I have no idea whether anyone is in a position to do this or has interest in doing this but I’m going to put it out on the table. I’m going to offer a limited number of lifetime memberships to the gym. For an individual it will be $5,000, for a couple it will be $7,500. For an individual that’s less than 3 years of membership, and for a couple it is 2 ½ years of membership. If you have any interest in doing this, please come talk to me. I believe we have an amazing community and a facility, business, and community that is going to continue to grow and flourish and be around for a long time, so while you are certainly getting something for your money in terms of a membership, you can also think about the investment you are making in your health and happiness through physical exercise and the mental health of being active and being with such an awesome group of people. If you’ve recently purchase some sort of extended membership I will be more than happy to roll this into that as well.
The CrossFit Open
The CrossFit Open is fast approaching, scheduled to start in the middle of February. Some of you are already training hard getting ready for it. At this point I’m thinking that most likely Friday nights there will be no class and the gym will be hosting the Open WOD for that week. I strongly encourage all of you to come in and “compete.” The Open is a virtual competition where you do the workout in the gym, submit a score and the gym then validates it. Sign-up is online and is $20. Last year 26,000 people competed and this year I’m sure it will only grow. It’s a great way to get a little competitive, see the quality of your movement, and compare yourself to the rest of the world. In addition it is also the qualifying process for the Regionals. As a gym we will be making a strong push to qualify a team for Regionals and if possible maybe push on to the Games. While I have an idea of who will fill some of the spots on the team, some of them are also wide open. For those of you who are very serious about being on the team and are willing to put the time into training I will be sending out programming for everybody to follow. If you are interested in being a part of the team and want to dive a little farther into your training please let me know. I will likely start this in the next couple of weeks.
CrossFit Kids Program
The kids program has been going great and continues to grow. I want to remind you all that there will be a class this Saturday, the 10th, and next Saturday, the 17th, both at 10:30 AM. The kids are all doing an amazing job and really getting hooked…maybe we’ll see CrossFit become a high school or college sport. The drop-in fee for the class will be $15.
Mindbody
Just a reminder if for whatever reason you don’t have a scan card please ask me for one, and with that please make sure you scan into class as it is giving me some great data to help make our move to the new space a reality.
All Pro Science Supplements
A lot of you know this already as we’ve had it for a while, but I’m now selling some very basic supplements out of the gym. I’m currently stocking chocolate whey protein, and an orange-pineapple 3:1 recovery drink. I’ve used a tub of each and it’s good stuff and a number of folks are already using it. For those of you who are super Paleo heads the protein is derived from 100% Grass Fed Cows, and it is Collegiate Compliant, so it is a good clean protein. Let me know if you want to pick either one up.
Whey Protein – $40
3:1 Recovery – $30
My recommendation is to take 1 scoop of each as soon as humanly possible after working out.
Paleo Challenge – January 2nd
We will be doing our big annual Paleo Challenge to start the New Year in about a month. This time around though we will be going for 60 days, 60 days to get leaner, meaner, stronger, faster, and feeling damn amazing. If you haven’t hopped on before I encourage you to do so. This is a great opportunity to get eating clean as you will likely be doing it with 40 or 50 other people. Cost is the same as always, $20, and 90% of the money goes right back to you guys.
Kettlebell Class
I’ve thrown it up on our website and on the schedule, but we will be running a kettlebell class starting December 6th at 7:00 PM. Come in to tune up your kettlebell skills, or learn something new.
Olympic Lifting Class
We had to cancel the Olympic Lifting class because with Coach P’s coaching schedule for the winter he couldn’t make it in on Tuesday nights. He can however make it in Friday nights at 7:00 PM. I know this is obviously not an ideal time, but if you would attend and are interested please shoot an e-mail back letting us know.
Articles
This is from Joann one of our members who also works as a personal trainer.
Hi all! I discovered this gem of an article on back pain and that I have to share with everyone!  You may be managing a chronic problem yourself, or have one that visits you from time to time, and if you remain “back pain free” your entire life, you’re one of a few! I encourage you to read through the article, paying attention to the following:
·         If you notice that you have tightness or poor range of motion or pain in any of the muscles under the title “Spinal muscles and their roles” start spending more time on improving the quality of those tissues to either help heal your back, or as a prevention strategy. Think more flexibility work, to include self myofascial release (via foam rolling or massage), dynamic movement patterns, and regular post exercise static stretching.  Most of us should pay attention to iliopsoas, gluteus, quadratus lumborum and soleus). “Most of us” because most of us sit, or have sat over the course of our lifetime, too much. 
·         Anytime you come across Stuart McGill in the article, tune in! He’s my favorite back biomechanist and I use his training protocols in my practice, and when you shop for a trainer you might consider finding out if he or she encourages a similar approach in exercise design and core training. (See “Get moving” and the Core values-preventing back pain link in the article).
·         Under “Stabilizing the cervical spine” Feel free to add the Neck isometric exercises to your daily care routine.  If you’ve felt pain in the neck from pull ups (chins, horizontal, bodyweight rows), curl ups, bridges, etc. these isometrics are for you!
·         A few notes about the exercises under “Mobility warm up”
o   Cat/cow is great, but avoid end range of motion, this shouldn’t be a hard stretch on the spine)
o   The T push up is advanced
o   Squat to stand with reach: only if you have a very comfortable deep squat with good form. There are other ways to get that thoracic reach.
·         A few notes about the exercises under “Finishing with spinal health movements”
o   Stir the pot: awesome exercise, but this clip is an advanced version. Start with just a plank on the ball (if you have a solid floor plank!), then add forward movement of the ball, about 1” to start.
o   TRX back saver: advanced
·         Take a look at Dr. McGill’s Core values-preventing back pain link under “Further Resources”
·         And last but not least, for further reading, I recommend reading through Eric Cressey’s Low Back Savers part 1-3 under the references.
Here’s the link. Enjoy the information and let me know if you have any questions!
Willpower – It’s In Your Head
Free to Be Fat
Purpose
Human Error is a Part of Sport
So just a few things for you guys to read, sorry it’s light, if you ever have anything you want to include please it e-mail it to me.
Thanks to all of you for coming to Champlain Valley CrossFit and being such awesome athletes, people, friends, etc. If you have questions about anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.