I hope this e-mail finds you all well, and enjoying a peaceful relaxing day. Before diving into this I just want to make a couple of quick notes. First, I’m not a grammatical expert, so apologies for any typos or grammar mistakes…I know we have at least a couple of English teachers in the gym so I’ve done my best without reading and re-reading this novel too many times. Second, Dani and I were recently discussing traits of our personalities, and we discussed when I get in my own head, and she referred to it as getting lost in a Corn Maze. So, below is days, months, years of thoughts, ideas, experiences, of which I’ve done my best to layout somewhat coherently and not get you all lost in my Corn Maze.

     Hard to believe that we are already at the end of the year. As we chug along through our 10th year of business Dani and myself have been spending more and more time looking at the past, the current, and focusing on planning for the future of CVCF. Over the last almost 10 years we’ve spent a lot of time coaching classes, working 1-on-1 with athletes, we’ve had the opportunity to meet, train, and learn from numerous well respected coaches in the industry, we’ve read books and articles, listened to many podcasts, and stored away hundreds, maybe thousands of ideas from social media and Youtube. We’ve had the opportunity to work with athletes who were completely sedentary when they walked in the door and 100lbs overweight, and athletes who were, in some cases elites in their sports. We’ve seen what a healthy dose of CrossFit does for someone young, and for our seniors, and we’ve seen what it looks like to train for a couple months, a couple of years, even an entire decade. With CrossFit HQ changing much about their business/practices, with the growth of “functional fitness” gyms as a whole, and increased interest in Power Lifting, Olympic Lifting, the Sport of CrossFit, and just general health, it has felt like a fitting time to re-evaluate what, why, and how we do things.

     If you were to look at our programming 9 years ago, 5 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago, you’d probably see small and drastic changes to how we train athletes at CVCF. Like most things in life, there is no one right way to do things. There isn’t a handbook of how to run a CrossFit gym, how to program workouts, etc. etc. It’s trial and error. A constant process of looking at what does and doesn’t work, looking at what our athlete population is after, bringing in our personal thoughts, beliefs, and experiences, all to try and craft what we believe to be the best option for attaining well rounded fitness abilities.

      To make things even tougher is to try and make all athletes comfortable, regardless of their level, as well as to be able to provide a program that works well for someone who is here 5 days/week or 1 day/week. In an ideal world every person would train 3-6 days/week and would have a program written just for them, to address their specific needs, wants, desires, personal time commitment, and to work within the natural abilities and hurdles that each individual has. However, for 99% of people this just isn’t an option from a financial standpoint, and I know we certainly could not provide this for 300 people.

What Are You Training For?

I think to dive into this and as we start a new year and decade I’d like all of you reading this to think about what you are training for? Some people argue that most people who go to the gym are exercising, but at least within our community I like to think we are all training. My guess is each and every person at CVCF has some sort of goal, you might want to get stronger or leaner, get more able for other sports, keeping up with your grand-kids, etc. In my eyes, that means you are training, you are doing something with specific intent. To me exercise means doing something just to do, often just for enjoyment with no other purpose which is fine and for many people this is how they approach their activities.

     When I started doing CrossFit I had a specific reason. For one I had already been in the gym for a few years following a more traditional bodybuilding/powerlifting model and was just looking for something different. I was already an “outcast” in the gym because I was Deadlifting, Squatting, performing Power Cleans, all things that were so foreign for the general gym population 15 years ago. I was also looking for something specifically to improve my capacities in my most beloved sport Downhill Mountain Bike Racing as well as my other current hobby and passion which was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. As I dove into CrossFit I did so because I believed it would help me in these capacities, and I was also super interested in learning many of these new-to-me movements like a Muscle-up, Snatch, Toes-to-bar, etc. I had found a program that for one interested me and two that I believed (and it certainly did) help with my capacities on the bike and on the mat.

     As we roll into the New Year, whether you’ve been at CVCF for a month, or almost 10 years I encourage you to look in the mirror, sit on the couch, or go out for a walk in the snow, something where you can truly reflect, even if it’s only for 5 or 10 minutes and think about what you actually want out of your time in the gym. Are you looking to just be a bit healthier than the average person so on the weekend you go for hikes with your friends and get some baseline strength in your body. Are you looking to truly become more capable, stronger, leaner for everyday life. Are you a CrossFit enthusiast that enjoys the grind and pursuit of learning, trying, failing, and succeeding at an incredibly wide variety of movements and capacities. Or are you a competitor.

     As we live in Vermont and it’s currently snowing I think it’s fitting to correlate this to the ski slopes. Plenty of people ski and stick to Green Circles and Blue Squares, they are there to get a little exercise, get outside, and treat it primarily as a social event. Next you might have the people that are a little more adventurous, willing to put a little more time into learning and understanding the mountain, possibly venturing into hitting some small jumps and skiing some Diamonds. Next would be the ski enthusiast, this is their sport and where a lot of their time and money may go in the winter months. They’re looking to develop the skills and capacities to ski the entire mountain and then some, engaging in pieces of the sport that have a higher risk, but undoubtedly show a higher level of skill and fitness, they likely engage in other activities, like the gym for instance to help them with their performance on the mountain. Lastly you’d have the competitor, might be a free-skier, or a racer, but they’ll likely train for a specific discipline, with most of their life and activities likely revolving around the pursuit of getting better at their sport.

So, what are you training for?

Risk vs. Danger

I think this is a super important discussion, and falls in line with pretty much any activity we may partake in, in life. CrossFit in the public eye is widely, and unfortunately recognized as being dangerous or too hard for the average person. I can’t even fathom the number of people we have had not sign-up at CVCF because it’s scary and dangerous. In the 10 years we’ve been open I sustained my first solid injury personally last year throwing out my back although doing so with no idea how it happened and not being able to point to a specific event that caused it. I can honestly say that I’ve never sustained any actual injury from lifting heavy, and have probably suffered more pain, strains, bumps and bruises in the last 10 years from things like slipping on the ice, dropping lumber on my foot, slamming my head into something because I wasn’t paying attention, the list goes on. CrossFit is only dangerous if you make it dangerous.

    So Risk vs. Danger. If I put you in a car driving down a straight road at 10mph and asked you if that was dangerous you would all say no. If that speed then changed to 20mph, then 30mph, and 40mph, every person would probably say that it was not dangerous and I would agree. However with each of those increases in speed there is an increased level of risk. Not because driving faster is necessarily more risky, but because if something does go wrong the danger or risk involved with an accident becomes higher because of the increased speed. Add a blindfold, some ice on the road, and a mindset that you’re a great driver regardless of whether you are or not and now that risk level has gone through the roof and the activity is sure to end up dangerous.

     I think of CrossFit as a whole like this. It isn’t dangerous for the right person, the person that comes in opened minded, willing to learn, willing to understand that they don’t actually know what they’re doing in the gym, has genetically decent flexibility/mobility. Now the opposite happens, someone walks in, “knows” what they’re doing, has poor flexibility that they’re not willing to work on, and tries to jump right to the most technically demanding movements performed in the gym without becoming proficient in the basics, then CrossFit becomes dangerous. Now you’re the person driving down the road, blind folded, on an icy road, with lots of turns. Generally it’s not a matter of if, but when something bad will happen.

     Remember any of you who are skiers, you didn’t go from Green Circle to Double Diamond and skip building the tools and capacities in between, yet this is a common occurrence in the Fitness industry as a whole, not just CrossFit. How about the person that goes from running once a week to deciding their going to train for a marathon with zero progression in between, it generally ends in overuse injury or just overall failure, because even running you need to learn how to do, and need to progress your body into the volume you want to give it, it’s not just a flip of a switch.

     Does CrossFit have a higher level of risk versus doing the 12 station machine rotation at Planet Fitness, absolutely. You’re performing movements that require anywhere from low to high skill versus something that requires literally zero skill, coordination, or understanding for how your body moves and works, but the results and benefits don’t even compare. From general health, to physical strength, coordination, mental fortitude, and a much sharper mind-body connection, the movements we regularly perform, even at the most basic level far surpass what the everyday gym goer does in their effectiveness.

     Does a Snatch have a higher level of risk than a Push-up, for sure, but if the proper steps and progressions are made, mobility is addressed, etc. there is no reason anyone should ever get hurt performing any of these movements. But with that said, just like slipping on the ice in your driveway and taking a digger, sometimes shit happens and it’s just out of control.

     I’ve already asked you all to think about what you go to the gym for, what your wants/desires/goals are with your time there, now the question to ask is what level of time are you willing to put into learning how to perform movements properly and what kind of time are you willing to put in outside of class to address flexibility/mobility restrictions you have that you need to safely perform certain movements. The truth is that we are all different, each of our genetic codes looks a little different, our bone structures are all slightly different, hip socket depth, etc. etc. and what this means is that some people can walk in the door and be perfectly able and competent at Snatching within a few weeks (I use the Snatch as an example a lot through the course of this because it is arguably the most demanding movement we regularly perform from a skill level as well as flexibility/mobility), while others might need years of practice and hours upon hours of mobility work because they aren’t as naturally gifted, just to be able to Snatch and empty bar properly. If you don’t naturally have it and aren’t willing to put the time in either, or aren’t willing to spend months with an empty barbell, you should consider is it in your best interest to be doing this movement for instance, and does doing this movement even line-up with your goals, because you absolutely DO NOT need to Snatch to be a fit, strong, capable, healthy human being.

     So this is where we circle back around to risk and danger. Is Snatching dangerous, no, does it have a higher level of risk, I’d say yes. While I’ve never hurt myself performing a Snatch of any sort, the simple reality is that it is an incredibly complicated movement requiring speed, strength, flexibility and an extremely high level of precision when done at heavier weights. I’m completely self taught in my lifting, I’ve never had more than a few minutes of coaching here and there, yet I’ve never had any real issues with Snatching or any other movement for two reasons. I’m reasonably athletic, am naturally a flexible person, and have good body awareness, these are all things that are “in” my genes. The other reason is because I took my time. Aside from the years I spent learning how to Deadlift and Squat before I ever even started doing CrossFit, I feel like it took me about 5 years to learn how to properly Snatch. I’m not saying I worked with an Empty Barbell for 5 years, but I spent a lot of time, doing a lot of reps at light weights so that I could at least perform the movement safely, and then spent a few more years getting to the point where I actually felt like I knew what I was doing, and I still have work to do on the movement 12 years later.

Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going

Looking back at the almost 12 years I’ve personally been training with some sort of CrossFit methodology I can truly say, I think CrossFit is the best bang for your buck/time in creating a broad, high performance level of fitness and physical abilities. I truly believe CrossFit is a program any and everyone can succeed at assuming they’ve got their head on straight. What does that mean, it means really that CrossFit is not for everyone, most notably those who aren’t patient and believe they know what they’re doing, regardless of whether they really do or not. 

     This is a trait probably most common in the United States, too often, people want/believe/feel everything has to happen immediately, delayed gratification is something we see many, many people struggle with. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of athletes for instance we’ve told that they shouldn’t be Snatching more than an empty bar until they can truly get it right…9 out 10 times, athletes are putting weight within a week or two even though they still aren’t capable of performing the lift properly with a PVC pipe. 

     We are definitely a society of instant gratification, and we see this play out routinely at CVCF and we are generally not shy to tell someone to take weight of the bar, tell them it’s not in their best interest to perform the movement, etc. Does it mean something bad is going to happen, no, but it likely means, in this example, that you’ll likely never learn how to actually Snatch properly, or you’ll find that because you rushed things, a couple years down the road you’re still in the same place and need to go back to the drawing board to re-learn how to perform a movement because you weren’t willing to wait a little longer in the beginning. As someone who has been entirely self taught in everything to do with CrossFit, I’ve personally had to do this on more than one occasion. It’s important to remember that training, fitness, health, it’s not a sprint, but a marathon. If it takes you a couple of years to truly learn how to do something properly what’s wrong with that, you’ve been given something that you truly have to work for, which means it’s that much more rewarding when it’s achieved, and at least in the gym, taking the time to learn things right will just lead to that much more success in everything in the gym over the long term and likely in many parts of daily life. I know I plan to still be moving some weights, jumping, running, hanging from rings in 30 years and that won’t be possible if I don’t move properly.

     As the old saying goes, “you can lead a horse water, but you can’t make it drink.” As coaches we can only guide, tell, and coach an athlete so much, a lot of it has to be up to you. Have you been told you’re not squatting deep enough 100’s of times even though you can, have you been told to watch your back over and over when you’re completely capable of keeping your back flat but you just choose to let it slide because it might slow you down or be a little harder in the moment. This happens more often than I’d like to admit, and is unfortunately where the stigma of CrossFit is dangerous comes from. CrossFit is dangerous if you make it dangerous, just like driving a car, brushing your teeth, or hitting the slopes. Anything can be dangerous, however usually it’s up to the individual to make that happen by adding unneeded risk to the situation, and while sometimes this is what people are after, generally I’d say this isn’t the case for 99% of the people and their daily activities.

     As our community and experiences have grown over the last 10 years we’ve continued to adjust programming, change how things are structured and make an effort to keep things new. Some of this it to help keep people interested, while other times it’s because we believe we’ve found a better, more effective way to do something.

     My desire when CVCF was originally opened was to show people what I felt and still feel to be an incredibly effective fitness program, and an incredibly interesting one with the goal of helping to change people’s lives and make them healthier, more capable human beings. CrossFit challenges people in so many different ways it’s impossible to not find it interesting and intriguing because you can always be better and there’s always something new to work on.

     What does all my rambling above lead us to? It’s brings us to a Revamp in our programming, some changes to what and how we do things, and a desire and goal to help provide another decade of refining, growing, learning, and understanding how to create the best, most efficient fitness program and facility around. We believe to do this we have to continue to evolve and change, and in this case start to ever so slightly move away from what people think of as a traditional CrossFit program/gym.

What is CrossFit?

I think an important thing to layout first, is, what is CrossFit? In CrossFit HQ’s definition, it’s constantly varied, functional movement, performed at high intensity, but in my eyes what CrossFit is, and has really brought to the table, is the Mixed Modality Met-con. In competitions, this is what most of the events embody, and when the everyday person thinks about CrossFit, they think about this, your classic Run/Pull-up/Thruster, or any of the millions of combinations of 1, 2, 3, 4, or more movements thrown into some myriad of reps, rounds, and time, which creates a high-effort, slap in the face, drop on the floor when your done, conditioning effort.

     When we look at the CrossFit HQ definition of “What is CrossFit” we see three different pieces. Constantly Varied this is a piece I’m all for, while not everything we do is constantly varied, a lot of it is, and I believe for the everyday person this is one of the avenues that helps create such an effective fitness program and also and interesting one. I think it’s also important to remember that some time variance means doing the same thing back-to-back days. If you flip a coin a 100 times, there are going to be a myriad of patterns and variances, some of which might have that coin flip landing heads many times in a row. So while variance is keeping things constantly different, it also means keeping things very similar at times, for instance running two days in a row, or maybe performing Front Squats one day and Thrusters the next, this is still variance. Functional Movement is next in line, which we totally stand behind as well, but it’s not 100% of what we do. In fact what we generally see is that Functional Movements are more effective for the novice/everyday athlete, however the more advanced you get, often the more non-functional movement you need to blast through plateaus and make that next jump to increase your capacity. In addition non-functional movements can be incredibly effective at shoring up in-balances for anyone from Beginner to Elite athlete. Lastly comes High Intensity this is arguably what has really driven a lot of CrossFit’s success as a fitness program. We all like the feeling after we’ve just crushed a Met-con, lying on the floor, breathing heavily, sweating, feeling extremely accomplished. I would go as far to say as this type of exercise is a drug, especially for those who are “Fitness Addicts.” However both science and anecdotal evidence shows this isn’t the best/smartest way to train long term, especially if you’re someone who is in the gym 5-6 days/week. 

     Think about you car, when you drive it you’re normally working within the 40-70% ranges of your vehicles capacity, you aren’t at redline all the time. Think about how long your car would last if you drove it at redline all the time. This is no different when it comes to training, if you are constantly at peak efforts, whether it be hitting heavy squats, or hammering yourself in a conditioning piece. If you do this day in and day out, year in and year out you’re bound to crash and burn. Everyone is different, we have different stressors in our lives, nutrition, sleep, and our basic genetic abilities/limitations. Some may be able to sustain this for years, while others just a few months. This is what makes programming for 300+ people one of the hardest things. We want to make sure that our athletes who are in here 5-6 days week aren’t over-doing it, while we also want to make sure that the person who only comes 1-2 days/week is getting that high-effort conditioning piece that they thrive off of so much. In the last couple of years you’ve heard us in classes often talk about intensity of a given workout, intensities based on whether you are here 5 days a week versus 2, and we’ve slowly been creeping in more low intensity and accessory work. One of the most important things to understand when it comes to training and fitness is that for the avid gym goer, after your first year or two, often the days that are the most beneficial are the ones when you leave the gym feeling like you didn’t do that much or work very hard.

The Future

So where does this leave us? As Dani and I have thought about all of these above items and ideas more and more the last couple of years it leaves us in a place where we believe we can evolve to become better than ever at what we do. We believe we can provide you all with an even better path to optimal fitness and physical abilities, all while offering more options based on what you, the athlete are truly interested in and after. For 2020 we will be rolling out a 4th tier of programming and making some adjustments to the programming structure as a whole at CVCF. As we come into the New Year and you look to possibly get back on track with your Fitness after the Holidays we encourage you to really think about where you are as an athlete, what you strengths and limitations currently are, and what you are truly after. All of the programming will still have that traditional CrossFit theme and structure as we do now, but we will be changing to what we would call bias programming. 

     Each one of the programs will at its heart be CrossFit, but within each program there will be a bias or theme of what that program is. What you will see is that with each program the pre-requisite amount of skill and mobility will increase, which leads me to encourage you all to ask yourself, what am I willing to put into my training. Are you the person who comes into class every day right when it starts, and exits immediately, doing zero self care, mobilizing, accessory work, etc. or are you the person that is typically at the gym for 2 hours, mobilizing and warming-up for 30 minutes prior, and working on some skill accessory work afterwards. 

     Remember CrossFit isn’t dangerous unless you make it. Snatching isn’t dangerous, I’ve never hurt myself Snatching, however if you’ve spent 30 years working at a desk, have very limited thoracic spine mobility, shoulders are internally rotated, ankles are tight, and you do nothing about it and think that just Snatching is going to magically fix all of that, than you are likely putting yourself in a position for some sort of strain or injury down the road (it’s also important to note that if it’s taken 30 years of sitting at a desk to get you where you are, you’re not just going to magically reverse it in a few months). Our bodies are all currently in the physical state they’re in for a number of reasons, activity level, occupation, genetics, etc. All of these factors play into your ability to do any given movement we perform in here, and for many people, for the more advanced movements it means spending time outside of class working to develop the tools needed to perform movements properly and safely. Again we can give you the tools, suggestions, and advice to get there, but if you don’t actually do it then you can’t expect too much. I strongly believe for instance that Olympic Weight-Lifting IS for the majority, and for some that might mean just a couple months of skill work because they naturally have the mobility and body awareness, for many others it might mean 2-3 years of skill work and even more mobility work. As we come into the New Year, take a quick step back, think about what your desires are within the gym, do you want to Snatch because you really think it’s cool and are interested in it, or just because your buddy Snatches. Do what’s right for you, what’s right for your level of personal commitment to your body, and what’s right for your goals.

New Programming

For 2020 (programming will start the week of the 6th) we will be rolling out the following programs…

  • Move – This program will be designed just as the title says with the purpose of getting people to move. Getting them to understand basic movement patterns and start creating some baseline strength with CrossFit a theme. There will be little to no Barbell work, focus will be on Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Sleds, Medballs, etc. Movements will be basic (remember this doesn’t mean physically easy) requiring limited skill/gym knowledge and will be designed as a foundation for the other tiers of programming. This will be a program designed for our newer athletes, for those heavily lacking in the mobility/flexibility department with a heavy emphasis on unilateral work, and will have an emphasis on higher rep sets/workouts with lower loading to work on developing some baseline strength and muscular endurance and ingraining proper movement patterns. Athletes will find the Met-cons programmed similar to the Fitness programming now, in some cases possibly scaled back a little farther. As whole this program will lean towards developing low-to-moderate strength levels and have a slight bias towards conditioning given the overall higher volume of work with lighter loads. We believe this will provide a great avenue for many of our athletes to de-load into after extended periods of time in the other programs, or as seasonal supplementation to outdoor activities for those whose attendance within the gym varies drastically from season to season, and of course this will be our foundation where we would recommend all new athletes to start.
  • Power – This program will emphasize development on the basic barbell movements which make-up the sport of Power Lifting. This means developing capacity and comfort in these movements with an emphasis on mid-to-heavy loading and developing raw strength in basic movement patterns of upper and lower body push/pull. To be clear this isn’t a Power Lifting program, but a CrossFit program with a bias/emphasis towards developing raw strength and capacity on basic barbell movements. Athletes will find the Met-cons in the program to be somewhere in between Fitness and Sport, or right around Sport in terms of capacities and loading. This program will follow a similar format to what we have been doing with an emphasis on developed moderate to high levels of strength and getting a good conditioning base.
  • Sport – This will remain pretty similar to where our Sport programming is now. I like to think about this program being for the CrossFit enthusiast, someone that is possibly a “weekend warrior” hitting a competition maybe once or twice a year, takes part in the Open, and is interested in developing the broad range of movements in the sport of CrossFit. With almost 10 years under our belt at CVCF a number of people have developed themselves into pretty accomplished athletes. For the new Sport programming you’ll see a slight uptick in the capacities required. We will be going back to including movements like Muscle-ups, Pistols, Handstand Push-ups, and occasionally an extra heavy Barbell (all things we’re faced with if you partake in the Open, and all things that are part of the Sport of CrossFit). With more and more people capable of performing these movements in our gym, we feel like we’re doing a dis-service to these athletes by only including these movements in the Competition programming which they don’t follow because they stick to training with our classes. This program will have an Olympic Lifting emphasis in terms of the barbell work, with less work in your traditional basic Barbell movements.
  • Competition – As has always been this program will be written for the upper level competitive CrossFit athlete. It’s important to remember this program isn’t written with the focus of taking an intermediate athlete and helping them obtain the skills needed to be competitive (that’s what the other 3 programs are for, building blocks) this program is written for the athlete who already has the capacities of a high level CrossFitter and is looking to train to compete. As has been, this program is designed for the person who lives and breathes CrossFit with a desire to compete. Someone who prioritizes sleep and nutrition over social events, who is willing to spend 2-5 hours in the gym/day, spends appropriate time warming up and cooling down, mobilizes daily, basically does everything they can to be a competitive CrossFitter and keep their body in tip top shape. The program will be much more seasonal and will not be designed as a broad and general exercise program, but one with specific peaks and timelines based on competitions that we will be prioritizing around. Don’t like working on gymnastics for months on end, don’t like hitting running workouts 4-5 days/week, this is all stuff that will happen, if that’s not what you’re after than this isn’t the program for you. This is the program to develop the best CrossFit athlete possible, not the program for someone who cherry picks and follows when the movements and workouts fit what they like.

 

As you come to classes the week of January 6th, we strongly encourage that if you don’t look at the programming ahead of time to start doing so, it’ll only help you when you show-up for class. In addition please bare with us as we get this rolling as adding another tier of programming also means trying to organize and help keep everyone on track.

Final Thoughts

When this e-mail goes out it will go out to some of you who have been at CVCF barely a month as well as going out to others who have trained with us since we opened. For those of you new to the gym I can’t emphasize enough the idea of the journey. Being fit, strong, healthy, isn’t something you should want for a year or two, nor does it get developed that quickly, it’s something you should want for life, so that you can be around for your family, kids, friends, and partake in as many activities as possible and not have to sit on the “sidelines” because you’re not physically capable. I’m sure being in your 30’s and unable to keep up with you 3 year old because you’ve let your body go is not a good feeling and I know I never want to personally be in that position. 

     Training at CVCF for many is about honing your skills, getting stronger, and learning new movements, but it should also be about developing as much, or the very least enough capacity to do the things you want in life, and maybe not just do them, but excel at them. If you’ve just joined as a CrossFit/Gym newbie, jump into the Move Programming for a couple of months or more. Get started there, perfect and understand what it means to hold a weight overhead properly, to get into a good squat, and to pick something up from the floor in a safe and powerful position. For those who have dedicated so much of their time, energy, and life to the gym, and specifically CVCF the last 10 years, who have been charging hard for a long time, don’t be afraid to take a step back. I can first hand tell you that your capacities won’t just disappear, and in fact very well might improve by going back to the basics for a while. In fact for the long time CrossFitter, I would strongly encourage you to look at rotating through the 3 base tiers in 2-6 month blocks. I think this will provide an amazing avenue to keeping your body on it toes, learning some new things and maybe re-learning some old ones, all while pushing you to an even higher level of Fitness.

     While this is sure to be in my eyes our most important endeavor for this year there will also be some other things going on that we want to make you aware of. More details will come in the future, but just a few notes for now…

 

  • Rebranding – We are starting the process of re-branding the gym. We will continue to maintain and be a CrossFit Affiliate, but we feel for a number of reasons it’s time to further separate ourselves from the pack of local gyms with what we’re doing and thus will be making some changes. As this starts to happen please bare with us, it shouldn’t cause much disturbance, but we will be doing some renovations in the gym, some painting, getting some new furniture, along with changing the gym name and working on our new brand.
  • Thursday’s – There will be no more Burn on Thursday’s. After discussions with a number of our members and working to piece together a programming format that is smart, intuitive, and productive for people who come to the gym 5-6 days/week we will be changing Thursday permanently to Concept Cardio. We will be alternating each week between a Concept Cardio class that is entirely on the machines, with the opposing week being a mix of machine and bodyweight movements. We feel that this caters to our entire gym population in the best manner by providing a class that the 5-6 day/week people can come in and treat more as an active recovery/restorative training session all while giving people who aren’t in the gym as often ample opportunity to push themselves as hard as they possibly want given the machines have no stopping point in terms of effort.
  • Programming Login – We are hoping to have this up by next Monday, and are doing our best to get this situated, but after years of posting all of our programming for free we’ve decided to go “dark” and “remove” it from the website. Don’t worry, as a CVCF member you’ll still be able to see it. We are looking at a couple of different options, either a direct login to our website, or using a secondary app/program that will lay out all programming, including Burn and Concept Cardio that you will all have access to as paying members. After 10 years of putting hundreds, more likely thousands of hours into programming we’ve decided to pull it after having local and regional gyms poach and copy, sometimes exactly what we do. We will keep you up-to-date on this as we roll this out and get everyone setup with login credentials for whatever platform we go with.
  • Events/Seminars – We have nothing set in stone right this moment but are continuing to work on scheduling some gym events as well as looking into some seminars that we might think you all would find valuable and interesting to attend. If you have any specific ideas, thoughts, recommendations, please don’t hesitate to send them over to us.
  • Free Intro Class – With the introduction of our new programming tiers we feel pretty confident in having new athletes hop right into trying a class. We will be getting rid of the 3-Free Burn Classes, and going to a single Free Intro Class to be used at any of our classes. So if you have someone who’s been interested please feel free to invite them to join a class.
  • Billing – ACH – Push Press has finally integrated ACH into their system which we used to have on Mindbody. This is so we can bill directly to a checking account instead of a credit card. This poses two great opportunities for us as a business. One, we don’t have to constantly chase people down for new credit cards as they seem to be hacked or changed so often these days. Two, we have the potential to cut out $10,000 worth of credit card processing fees as the ACH system costs a fraction of the amount to use. We will be sending a specific e-mail out regarding this, but we would greatly appreciate as many people as possible switching over to this. We will be entering everyone who does into a raffle for a free month of membership and some other goodies, and will be using all of the saved money to invest back into the business.

Thank You

I hope I didn’t lose you all in the Corn Maze. As we roll into 2020, into our 11th calendar year of business and 2nd decade I’m still in awe a bit when I sit down and really think about what the community at CVCF has created. From filling my old beat-up Jeep with 800lbs of Dumbbells, with the suspension bottomed out and driving them up to Dorest Park to workout with some people in a field in April of 2010 to seeing people lose 50lbs, earning likely more homegrown CrossFit Games invitations than almost any other gym on the planet, watching people meet their spouses and then seeing them bring new life to the world, watching other lives leave our world, watching people laugh, cry, bleed, succeed, fail, learn and grow, it’s truly been a decade filled with experiences that wouldn’t be what they are without each and everyone of you playing your role in the community that has been created at CVCF. From the bottom of my heart thank you all so much for helping create what we have today. We have all helped shape and teach each other in more ways than most of us probably realize and Dani and I both, forever owe our gratitude to each and everyone of you for creating the business and environment that we all get to go to every day.

     Happy New Year, I hope it’s a great one, and we look forward to continuing to learn and evolve to create the best fitness environment we can for the next decade.

 

– Jade