The Room isn’t the only thing that’s New

head on over to

http://www.crossfitlancaster.com

All future posts will be on the brandi-new fancy schmancy web site!

Our New Home

As many of you know, our lease is up in this current location this summer, and we’ve been trying to find a new location for some time now. There have been moves that looked promising, that seemed great at first, but for some reason or another, just didn’t quite work out.  The criteria I was looking for were (in no particular order)

1. Flat floors
2. Large
3. Affordable
4. Centrally Located
5. Kick @ss.

I am proud, excited, overwhelmed and generally head over heels excited to announce that we have found that place!

First of all, the floors are flat! No more huge hump in the middle, no more barbells rolling away from you or into you. No more trying to find the sweet spot in front of the platform.  No more crooked squats. Just. Flat. Floors.

Not only are the floors flat, there’s a lot of floor. I mean, like, a crazy amount of open gym space!  The total area is 9,000 sq. feet.  When you walk in the front door (which opens out to our own parking lot, btw. No more parking complaints!) you’ll find yourself in our welcome/reception area. The coach’s office will be most likely in the front right corner, and the children’s area will be to your left. We’ll also have a seating/lounge/hangoutbeforeandafterthewod area there as well.  There will be two sections of 4′ tall walls on the right and the left, with a large section open in the center. There will be a place for you to drop off your stuff, hang your coats, change your shoes, put your gym bags, etc… against those half-walls.  Once you cross that threshold, you are on the gym floor.  The over 7000 sq. ft. gym floor.  The 130′ long by 60′ wide gym floor.  Yeah, it’s really that big.  Along the right side by the windows will be platforms. Most of the heavy lifting will be done in that general area.  There are large posts in the floor which we will be running our pull-up bars through, so no more kicking each other against the wall, we’ll have at least one really long run of bars for all your kipping needs.

“Affordable” and “Centrally Located” go hand in hand here. The new home is centrally located, the address is 533 Janet Ave, Lancaster. That’s near Lancaster Catholic High School, just past where the stockyards used to be.  From our current location to the new place takes about 12 minutes.  I realize that this is not exactly our neighborhood, and that this may be a bit longer drive for some of you.  Believe me when I tell you that I struggled and fought and banged my head against several walls to find a suitable place closer to where we are now. The problem was zoning. In our township, all the warehouses are zoned “industrial” and according to the regulations, a gym of any kind except for something the size of the Nook is not allowed, and the zoning board would not even consider granting an exception.  When I spoke to them, they told me flat out that “I could apply for a zoning variance, but we’d just take your $600.00 and still say no.”  So, I’m glad they were honest at least, but it left me with only retail spaces to choose from, and those are between twice and three times as much per square foot. Long story short, to stay in this neighborhood, we’d have to spend about twice as much in rent for about 2/3 of the space. Considering how packed we are, especially in the evenings, that seemed like a losing proposition.  That means, though, that I had to cast our net a little further to find the appropriate place.  Is it a bit out of our current town? Yes.  Is it going to be so worth the extra 3 or 4 minutes it might take you to get there? Absolutely!

Truly, the pictures do not do the location justice. You need to see it to fully appreciate how bright, large, open and incredible this place is.  It is by any definition of the word, “Kick@ss”.  We will be able to set up a time to come check it out before we move in, so if you’d like to look at the inside, you’ll be able to.

As things stand now, we’ll be able to move into the new location by the end of May. We’ll keep posting pictures of the build out as it progresses.

And finally, absolutely none of this is possible without YOU. This new home is an incredible celebration of everything that YOU have accomplished over the last 4 years. We have come a long, LONG way, and our new home is nothing but a magnification of all that we’ve done!  So, as a celebration of the new location (and if we’re being totally honest here, to help fill the spot with some sweet stuff…) we’ll be offering some incentives for membership. New and existing Month to month memberships will remain the same for new memberships for now, however if you’d be interested in making a 3, 6, or 12 month commitment to your fitness and to our new home, we’re going to offer the same rates we did for Black Friday.  $325 for 3 months, $650 for 6 months,  $1,290.00 for a year.  After March 1st, the rates will go up to reflect the new spot, so if you want to get a few weeks or a month free and lock in that rate forever, now is the time.  From March 1, the new membership prices are going to increase so get in now while the gettin’s good so to speak.

2/20/14 WOD

Click here for Big News!!!

 

Barbell: Strict Press, 1×5@65%, 1×5@75%, 1×5+@85%

WOD: 8 Minute AMRAP,

• 30 Box jump buy in (24/20),

Then in the remaining time:

• 5 HSPU’s
• 8 Alternating KB Snatches (24/16)

2/19/14 WOD

 

One more day until our ginormous announcement!

Today though, before we get to the WOD, your awesomekindness challenge: Write a hand-written letter to somebody who has inspired you. It doesn’t have to be long, but it does have to be hand written and sent though the US Postal Service, with a stamp and everything.  Send the letter, then change your profile picture to the one on the Facebook page, or at least tag yourself in it.

Ok, now for the fun stuff.

Barbell: Deadlift. 1×5 @ 65%, 1×5 at 75%, and 1×5+ at 85%.

WOD: 3 Rounds for time, with 2 minutes rest in between rounds of:

• 12 Squat Cleans, 135/93 lbs
• 21 Pull-ups
• 35 Double Unders

2/18/14 WOD

Barbell: Bench Press,

• 1×5 @ 65%
• 1×5 @ 75%
• 1×5+@ 85%

WOD: “Graver ” 20 Minute AMRAP of

• 10 Box Jumps, 24/20 in
• 9 Toes-to-bars
• 8 Burpee (Bar Facing)s
• 7 Deadlifts, 185/135 lbs
• 6 Pistols (Alternating Legs)s
• 5 Kettlebell Swings, 24/16 kg

Announcement Coming. A really big announcement.

 

I just wanted to let you all know that there’s a big announcement coming. On Thursday night.

I will tell you this much:

1. This is awesome
2. It’s been in the works for some time
3. This is incredible
4. Yes, this is that amazing
5. I mean, seriously. You’re going to be flabbergasted.

2/17/14 WOD

Barbell: Today we Start the 5-3-1 sessions. Everybody will be doing squats. We’ll warm up, and then

• 5 reps @ 65% of 1RM
• 5 reps @ 75% of 1RM
• 5+ reps @ 85% of 1RM

Two things to remember:  First, calculate your 1RM by taking 90% of your most recent actual 1RM. We just did this last week, so you should have that number handy. Also, note that the last set says 5+, so do as many reps as you can, but at least 5.

WOD: 15 Minute AMReps, in an ascending ladder of

• Burpees
• Wall Balls (20/14)

Start with 1/1, then 2/2, 3/3. This isn’t an EMOM, it’s reps for time. As soon as you finish one round move on to the next.

Saturday, 2/15/14

Yes, we are open today and having all classes. Up Your’s Mother Nature…

But seriously, do be careful. If you can make it, we’ll be here.

Strong People…

We’ve been working for about 2 months now on pressing, deadlifting and squatting uncommonly well, and all of us are moving significantly better because of it.  Not to say that there isn’t plenty of room for improvement for even the best of our athletes, but everyone is really moving very well.  With that foundation more firmly in place, now it is time to move into the next phase…

We are going to start adding to our Virtuosity Cycles that we’ve been warming up with a specific strength building phase. This isn’t my brain child, it is the 5-3-1 system. It’s simple, it’s effective and it’s perfect for Crossfit.  We’ll be focusing on 4 lifts; Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift and Strict Press.  (Wow! It seems like we just tested them this week. Weird, right?)  We’ll go through each lift 4 times. The first time you touch the weight you’ll do 3 sets of 5 reps with the prescribed percentages. The next time it will be 3×3, the next time it will be a set of 5, then 3, then 1. The last time it will be back to 3×5 but at much lower weights.  The schedule is on the new whiteboard to the right of the main whiteboard.  If you are able to come and do each lift one time a week, it will take you 4 weeks.  If you can only do it 3x/week, it will take a little longer.  Here’s the kicker: EVERYBODY SHOULD DO EVERY REP!!! And because not everybody is here all on the same days, that means that we won’t all be doing the same barbell movement at the same time every day. That’s ok. It also means that you will have to keep track of where you are in the cycle. You can do this by filling out your notebooks (if you don’t have one, there’s a stack of fresh ones on the shelf) and by tracking your work on Beyond the White Board.  (Your membership to that site comes free with your membership here. Simply sign up and then request to be added to our Box.)  The coaches will absolutely be here to help you, all you need to worry about is remembering what lift you’re doing that day.

So on the days that you squat, do the squat warm up, days that you press, go ahead and do the pressing warm up and days that you deadlift do the deadlift warm up progression. The only difference in the daily classes will be during the first half, where the Barbell section will typically be one of those 4 lifts, or a skill set like pull ups, muscle ups, pistols or handstands as well as more mobility practice to work on during that time if you have already finished your barbell work for that week. We will all still warm up together, lift together WOD together, and cool down together, there’s just going to be a few different barbell movements happening at the same time for a little while.

I am very excited to see where this takes all of us!  In the middle of March, we are going to retest the Total and the 1RM Bench press to see the progress that we have made.  That should give everybody sufficient time to get though at least one round, and possibly start another.  All the details are here at the box, so when you come in for the first time next week, start squatting!

– Tim

Stay in bed folks….

We’ll try to open by 9.