September 2024
From the Desk of the Gorilla:
Getting it right, every time. We don’t just aim to get it right, Fam—it is non-negotiable. I think of this often. Hell, I think about it 24/7 and so does the rest of the staff. Weekly calls to flush out the next week’s training, constant dialogue and chat throughout the day(s) looking for trouble…. Your coaches are dialed in, day in and day out, to make sure every single Athlete gets the best experience possible.
Safety comes first, every time. We talk through the entire workout before you ever touch the barbell. Movements, risks, modifications—we’ve covered it all before you even warm up. And we don’t just watch from the sidelines. Our coaches hit the workouts too, either with the class or beforehand. We sweat, we grind, and we get a first-hand look at where the pain points might be. If we see something we don’t like (thank you sunrise savages) we pivot and adjust fire to make sure we are on target for the remainder of the day, week, month, and year.
You don’t see all the behind-the-scenes work, but trust me—it’s happening. Our goal is for you to show up, get after it, and walk out better than you walked in, from now until Ragnarok. We are in the lab, cooking, constantly evaluating, assessing, working on the perfect formula for your long term fitness.
We are all in this together, this grand experiment that I like the call “the longitudinal study of health and wellness” for the best group of people this side of the Ocean. (There’s some Kick ass people in Nepal, but that’s another story).
Keep pushing.
-Steve
The Iron Pen
I get so fired up on Mondays when I see you savages rowing dumbbells that look like farm tools! One of my greatest joys is seeing a huge class of people–of all ages, abilities, and walks of life—strength training together and really getting after it. It’s something that you don’t see outside niche gyms like ours. I recently saw a video where a man was absolutely elated that someone else in the gym stopped their workout to cheer him on during a heavy deadlift. This man was so surprised by this behavior that he created a video about it. And guys, the behavior he was celebrating, while awesome, was not 10% of what you would see at our gym in the least energetic class of the year. We have such an incredible training environment, it’s easy to forget how incredible it is. I’m thankful for it every day, and I think you should be too. It not only makes us stronger, but damn is it fun.
The rest of September we will finish our bench press cycle. In addition to bench on Mondays you will continue to see a heavy squat once a week and a dose of deadlift every other week. One of my goals is to get us doing squat snatches regularly. Not every week—but about every other week. The squat snatch builds strength, mobility, and coordination like nothing else. It is fast to learn and then it takes a lifetime to master. I am going to prepare us with a brief cycle of overhead squats and then transition into a cycle of squat snatches. This will hit in October and November. We will focus on the classic squat snatch movement without any complexes, in sets of 3 reps and fewer. I encourage you to forget about whatever load you *think* you should be able to squat snatch and give yourself the gift of removing your expectations and focusing on what you can do with full depth and great technique. If that is the empty bar, then I am thrilled you are improving.
The first full week of November is going to be fun! That’s the 15th anniversary of CrossFit Impulse! We are going to celebrate with one week of throwback programming. I dug into the archives and found the very first week of programming we ever did at the gym in November 2009! I looked at it and said “Oh…Oh no…God no…” And I threw that in the shitcan. Then I broadened my search and went through the first two months of programming from 2009 and picked out 6 of our “greatest hits” that are all fun and manageable and great examples of old school CrossFit. You’re going to love it.
-Jeff