CrossFit Moncton

On October 20th, I made a post about removing the consequences to tardies and no-shows. The decision was based on mutual respect, but it didn’t go as planned. I thought the amount of no-shows and tardies would drop. However…

In 5 weeks, we’ve had 32 no-shows. When there were 50 burpees assigned for no-shows, there was an average of 1 per week. Now, we’re over 5 per week.

So what now? I’m at a loss. In a positive way, how we improve this?

I’m hoping this may shed some light on the situation. This was written by a fellow member who shares their experience about being on the other side of a no-show.

What’s your reason?

• The roads suck.
• I have to work later than I thought.
• By the time I got home, I was too tired and just wasn’t in the mood.
• I’m too sore from yesterday’s WOD
• This WOD looks too hard!

…and so on.

There are a million and one reasons why you can’t make it to the gym. Everyone has them.  If you don’t want to show up, or can’t, that’s up to you and that’s perfectly fine.

So what’s next? Doing the right thing is also up to you.

In ZenPlanner, there is a 2-hour cancellation policy which is to be used to cancel your class if you can’t make it. Please use it. It’s not there simply in case you want to use it to cancel. You should make every reasonable effort to use it. That being said, things happen last minute and sometimes that’s unavoidable. If you’re over the 2-hour cancellation window, no problem, just please take a moment to call the coach and let him know.  He can then contact someone who is one the wait list to get them in.

Maybe when you joined, classes were never full. This is no longer the case. Now, more than ever, with so many members, adhering to the cancellation policy simply makes things easier for everyone.

But we all know that right? Good!

So, systems and policies aside, this article is meant more to address a growing trend whereas some members are disregarding the cancellation policy and simply choosing to opt for a “no show”.

For those, here’s the hard truth:

“Inadvertently causing a fellow CrossFitter to miss out on a class because you can’t be bothered to make the effort to cancel your class is simply not cool. Don’t allow your reason or excuse to deprive another CrossFitter from being able to workout.  You’re better than that.”

Everyone knows how frustrating it is to want to get into a class and not be able to. How stressful is it to only have a small window each week between work, kids, other commitments etc… to squeeze in a few workouts, but are unable to get into the only classes which fit your busy schedule. To be disappointed you’re going to have to wait for “change for change” to do that WOD. Or to be 1 of 5 on the waitlist all day and not moving until you give up or the class has begun.

What’s really frustrating? Finding out that the class was not even full. And also… Finding out you were frustrated, stressed, or disappointed simply because someone did not take the time to cancel.

When you decide (because it is a decision) not to show up, what you’re really doing is disrespecting gym ethics, the coaches and the members.

If you still think being a no show and causing someone to miss a workout is no big deal, then answer this question: “Would you want it done to you?”

So what’s your reason?

Being part of our Crossfit family, where courtesy, respect and honesty is so important, the answer should be obvious.

It takes 20 seconds to make a phone call. Thank you.

-Coaches of CrossFit Moncton

How do you get a goal in hockey? Easy answer, right? You put the puck in the net. What if the puck misses the net? Another easy one – it doesn’t count.

If your chin doesn’t go over the pullup bar, your squat isn’t below parallel, the wall ball doesn’t go above the target, your chest doesn’t hit the floor, your bicep doesn’t touch the ring, etc., it doesn’t count.

As coaches, we will call you out on them. If we see something that doesn’t count, we will tell you ‘no rep’.

But if we’re not watching you, then it’s your turn to call yourself on the ‘no reps’. What you do when no one is looking is called integrity. I would hope that you all have that quality and leave your ego at the door to be able to ‘no rep’ yourself.

It’s hard though, being in the flow of the workout, coming up on your last few reps. You just want the workout to be over. But if it doesn’t count, show some integrity and do it over again. Finish the workout knowing that every single repetition counted, even if that means you were a few seconds slower. Don’t settle for anything less.

The Creeker gets a good rep!

No-Bread Challengers – your food logs are due tomorrow. We should have them back to you by the next day. If you’d like to go over the logs in depth, let me know and we can plan a sit-down to discuss the journals.

Starting tomorrow, we will also be posting a ‘Skill of the Week‘. We hear people say “Oh, I should really work on this” or “Man, I wish I was better at that”. Well, now on days when you finish your warm-up early, or have extra time at the end of the class, you have something to focus on. We are hoping you use this opportunity to focus on some weaknesses and turn them into strengths. If you have any questions, please ask a coach.

We’re also continuing with assigning the racks for the strength portion of the class. It’s worked great for the past couple of weeks. As a reminder, before you begin your warm-up, please let the coach know what lift you are doing and your expected max weight. You will be assigned a rack number and may work with others during your strength routine. If you happen to finish your warm-up early, please use that time to work on the skill of the week (or mobility). This will help the strength component run more efficiently if everyone starts at the same time.

Check out our Trophy Case! It highlights some outstanding achievements by some of our members. If you’re name should be on one of the lists, shoot me an email.

Future events:

November 26 – Miss Movember 5k or 10k Run/Walk

November 27 – Strength Q&A with the Bainbridges (CF Fredericton) – 12pm

December 2 - Swimming WOD at Riverview Aquatic Center – 8:30-9:30pm (5 spots left)

December 9 – No Bread Challenge ends

December 10 – Christmas Social

Need a tire changed? Call a CrossFitter!

Every November, men grow mustaches and collect money to help fight the disease and this year women want to help! Miss Movember will be Atlantic Canada’s first all-women’s running event, where women will choose to run either 5 km or 10 km along Riverview’s waterfront to lend their support to the ongoing fight against prostate cancer. It will be held Saturday November 26th at 10:00am. with all proceeds going to Movember Canada. There are already four ladies from the gym that registered. If interested, please follow this link – Miss Movember.

Rob Brydges has agreed to do 1 burpee for every $2 raised by CF Moncton members. He’ll do the burpees on December 5th. To donate, please visit his link – Rob’s Moustache.

On November 27th at 12pm, Tony and Jodi Bainbridge, will be visiting the gym to discuss ‘strength’. They recently competed in PEI for the Easterns where Tony deadlifted 650# and Jodi pulled 347#. Needless to say, they know their shit.

The Swim Wod was such a good time and we can’t wait to do it again. December 2nd at 8:30PM is the next date. Bring in your $5 to hold your spot.

We have a Christmas social coming up on December 10th. And because of that, the No Bread Challenge will end on the 9th (instead of the 12th). Please sign up on the whiteboard if you and significant other plan on attending.

Tough swimmers!

Thanks to everyone that came out to the Halloween Party! Costumes were amazing!

CrossFit Zombies!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your responses will certainly help improve the gym in many ways. Although I won’t be installing a climbing wall any time soon (Marco).

The winner of the random draw was Dan Phillips! Congrats!

One of the comments I’d like to address today is about equipment. There were 85% of people that were either satisfied or very satisfied with the amount of equipment, but there were 10 comments about getting another rack. If a class is full, that’s 10 people with four racks. With a couple people doing deadlifts or cleans, there’s 2 people per rack.

Quick solution… ask to use a rack with someone. It shouldn’t matter what weight is on it. It takes a couple seconds to unload it. Just to give you an example, CrossFit Fredericton has class sizes of 16 and they have 4 racks. On Monday, every person is doing squats, so that’s 4 people per rack. And they are finished their strength work in 15 minutes.

See the picture below. It’s 4 people with weights ranging from 95-110#. They could all be using the same rack, freeing up the other racks for 6 more people.

I hate seeing people write “didn’t have enough time to finish”. Let’s work together on this to make the strength component run more efficiently.

We're all friends... sharing is the answer

If you don’t have a subscription to the CrossFit Journal, you should get one! It’s only $25 for a year.

Even if you don’t there’s still a ton of free articles that are outstanding. One of them is on the Foundations of CrossFit. If you have a few minutes today, take some time to read through this great article.

Foundations by Greg Glassman

The overhead squat is a foundational movement

If you’re on a wait list for tomorrow, you may still come to the class for the warm-up, stretching/skill work and the workout.

I have two videos for you to watch today.

Did you see that guys back?! I’m sure he’s in a wheelchair today, because his discs must have snapped in half.

But seriously, you know when you see poor form. And that was absolutely terrible. What was he trying to do? Go for max weight and it didn’t matter what it looked like. He broke every rule in the book with regards to the fundamental basics of deadlifting. And for what? So he can tell everyone he lifted X amount.

Now the second video…

Notice there was nothing fancy. He did a muscle-up into an L-sit (VERY basic) and a few crosses (also nothing that spectacular). But his form was flawless. It was the definition of virtuosity – performing the common uncommonly well. It showed complete mastery of the very basics of gymnastics. And it was a thing of beauty.

How does this relate to the gym? Let me explain with a scenario.

You walk into the gym and see people throwing weight over their head in one smooth motion (the snatch). You immediately want to try that (because it looks freakin’ cool). But your overhead squat is sketchy. You have a hard time with a 45# bar. Actually, your air squat is a little rough too. Your knees cave in and you tend to roll forward on your toes.

BUT you want to snatch big weight!

Learn the basics. Practice the basics. Master the basics. If you don’t master the basics, then the next level gets exponentially more difficult. If your air squat is bomb proof, you have a solid overhead squat, the snatch will be easier to grasp.

Does that mean you should never snatch? No. But you need to focus on the fundamentals first. Become masters in the basic movements. Practice virtuosity.