It’s hard to believe we have been in our new location for almost 4 months!! Seems like just yesterday we were moving mats and equipment. The new space has been amazing and we are beyond blessed to have each and every one of you as members.
We wanted to take a minute to talk about some things that are important to us, and to you, as we continue to work toward making your time with us a treasured part of your day.
GROWING
Growth…let’s talk about that. Since moving to the new location, we are up almost 35 members. WOW. We love having more and more people experience the health benefits of CrossFit and we are honored to be the gym of choice for that journey to a healthy lifestyle. Having said that, the growth has presented us with welcomed challenges in all aspects. Challenges we are prepared to handle and things we planned from the day we opened the door. A couple things to remember: 1) We have all been new to a gym at some point. There is an expectation that anyone new to our gym is only new the first time. It is incumbent on all of us to welcome them with open arms. 2) Veterans are leaders. As veteran of CrossFit970 you know a lot of our cultural values. Values like nobody puts their stuff away until the last person is done. And…the post WOD fist bump just to name a couple. You can also spot a movement flaw in a new person. Offer a lending hand. It will make them feel better and you will feel the value yourself.
PROGRAMMING
What goes into “the best hour of your day” takes careful consideration of every component that goes in to that hour. Before ANY WOD is posted on the website, thought goes into the space and equipment needed, average time to complete the WOD, scaling options (up or down), proper warm up, and overall fit within the programming structure. Programming needs to be broad and inclusive in all three modalities (gymnastics, weightlifting, and mono-structural). While we don’t need to get into the weeds here regarding programming, just understand that each day presents an opportunity to take the next step in your fitness journey and each WOD presents a unique set of challenges; mentally and physically. In any case, you get out it what you put into it and part of our job is to push you (in a safe manner) out of your comfort zone. That’s where growth happens. We also need to uphold movement standards so the intent of the movements are achieved. There is always room for improvement.
We believe in the method of CrossFit and the history behind it. A lot has changed over the years with technology offering us the ability to use data to determine the effectiveness of our programming. But…the one thing that remains constant is you can pick almost any combination of movements, set a rep scheme, a time or task structure, and create a great workout. FOR ANYONE.
KEEPING IT CLEAN
This is a BIG space and there are a lot of people coming and going throughout the day. We pride ourselves on doing the best we can to keep the space clean and as free of clutter as possible. At the end of the day…it’s a gym…but it doesn’t need to be a dirty one. We Zamboni the floors mid week and the whole gym gets cleaned on Sunday. What we ask is on a daily basis you clean up after yourself. This is ‘our home’ so we just ask that you treat it that way. A good rule is if you make a mess, clean it. If you have kids that are in the mezzanine level and they make a mess, clean it. Or better yet, make THEM clean it. To our knowledge, no parent has ever said, “I really wish I had NEVER taught my kids to clean up!” Not exactly rocket science here, but worth the mention.
RESPECTING THE WHITEBOARD TIME
To put it in church terms, this is the “CrossFit sermon.” This is the time we have to go over your reason for being there and what we would like you to focus on that day. During that time we also try to give relevant announcements about other things not specific to the WOD. Our “sermon” lasts about 3-5 minutes on any given day and you don’t even need to sing before it!! BUT YOU DO NEED TO BE ON TIME TO HEAR IT. Bottom line is this: during that brief time we ask that you focus on the Coach and what they are saying. If you are in a class that just finished the WOD, please keep it down while the next class is at the whiteboard. If you have kids upstairs, please remind them they need to be quite during that time. A good rule of thumb for the little ones (and adults) is if they CAN’T hear the music, we CAN hear them. We want this time at the Whiteboard to be a time for each person to determine what their “why” is for that day. The fewer distractions we have for that, the better.
THE FUTURE
We are incredibly excited about the future at CrossFit970. We are getting some things off the ground (yoga, nutrition) and have some great things in the works to enhance your experience. In the near future we are going to put a system in place for you to track your workouts, PRs, and benchmark WODS. The daily WOD will be fed to your mobile device so logging is easy. This system will also provide a “gym leaderboard” for each day just so you can see on your mobile device (and TV in the gym) how your morning or afternoon class pals did that day. What we are most excited about is the analytics we, and you, will get from recording your daily WODS. Here is a link to check it out. https://beyondthewhiteboard.com/
CLOSING REMARKS
We are biased, but we think we have a pretty good thing going on at CrossFit970. We acknowledge that without you, there is no US. We thank you for trusting us and for your commitment to yourself, your family, and our gym. You can count on us to continue to run a responsible business ensuring we are here for the long term. We will count on you to show up and put in the effort. Thank you for all you do.
-Brandon, Chris, & Steve