You Know you are a Crossfiter when:

• You Can’t hold a beer in your had that night
• You cant sleep because you know you can do it faster
• You chalk the steering wheel before going on long drives or its already chalked…….just in case
• When you have and WOD KILLA sticker on your rear window and get stopped 3 times by the cops on your way to work to explain what it means.  Then they tell you your crazy.
• You deadlift you 125lbs dog in and out of the car.  No jumping allowed.
• You jump off the bed and yell TIME at the end of “Relations”
• You see a tree branck or any horisontal hanging object and feel the need to do a pull-up.
• When your 3 year old is teaching her friends to do a burpee.
• You own more workout shorts the jeans
• You realize you want to be strong not skinny
• You do burpees in the dressing room before you buy workout pants to ensure you crack doesn’t pop put
• You hands look like you’ve been washing then in battery acid.
• You plan all meals around WOD and your WOD is all you think about all day long.
• You start noticing that you squat perfectly when bending over to do ANYTHING
• You do a Different girl everyday of the week
• You can actually feel your blood run through your veins faster when you hear 3,2,1, ….Go!
• You dont go to the gym, you train
• You say things like” i need to shave my hands” and your no crazy.
• The people at your gym have become your family
• You go out in public and wonder what random people’s FRAN time would be
• You get bummed out because it is your rest day
• You choose 21159 as your PIN number.

Hello Cross fitters!

First of all thanks for all the response I have gotten from those of you who want to see Justin go to the World Finals! 

After watching Justin dominates at the local Firefighter Combat Challenge, Jared and I asked Justin if he was going to go to the championship since he qualified, he of coarse said no that it would cost a lot of extra money that he did not have right now to spend on something like that.  After talking to Jared and a few other people who also wanted to see Justin go, I decided to email Justin.  I asked him if the trip was paid for would he want to go to the Worlds.  Of course it is hard for any of us to accept money, but he put his pride aside and said Yes, well actually he said “Hell Yes” and was very , very grateful and told me he would make the Gym proud (which I am sure all of us believe he will)!

So right now we are looking to raise $1,500 so send him, which for one person is a lot of money, but not much for a group to raise, and maybe we could even make a little extra for him, since I am pretty sure he is figuring on eating PB &J the whole time to save some money!  Here are my thoughts so far. Maybe a BBQ at the Gym and sell some food ( Paleo I am sure J) also Yanni has some pizza coupons people could sell and we could make about $10 a piece on those.  Also any one who is creative could make up a flyer to put at the fire stations and any other ideas would be great!  We have some time and with all the people at the Gym I think we have a lot of connections that will make this goal easy! 

So  right now, if you want to email me keliev@hotmail.com with any ideas or connections you may have and hopefully in a few weeks we can get our efforts going.  I will try and be at the gym  a few times next week  if anyone wants to talk with me about ideas, and maybe next Saturday we can have a meeting.

Thanks everyone! I know Justin is very grateful for this opportunity and I told him I am looking forward to seeing him lying on the floor after every workout!! I was even thinking we could get him to do a burpee for every dollar we raise J although he has not agreed to that yet!  

Thanks,

Jared and Kelie Willson

Wow what a week.   Congrats to everyone this week i know that is was hot and the wods were tough.  Good job.  This week I watched  some goals reached.  So just a shout out to this clients for raising the bar to that next level. Katie great job on Rx ing the WODs and doing this while going to paleo diet.  Andy with the heart of a warrior is now not only doing full pull-ups now but climbed the rope 10 time, jumped the 25″ box and is doing double unders what a week man great job. Susie did her first pullups today and continues to learn and challenge herself.  Yanni and Ave who walk in and learned Double unders and now are well on there way to setting goals to do Double unders unbroken.  Justin who texted me and stated he did 25 Du in a row, granted he didn’t do this at the gym and used his cheater rope lol.  To Will who in his personal goal to do 100 DU is now up to 74.  What a week of firsts great job.

What are your goals? Not just at the gym but in the rest of your life, too. I think everyone should have some sort of goal in and out of the gym. People without goals can lack focus, which eventually leads to lack of motivation and determination. Goals can give you the extra push you need to stay on track.

Justin and Keith set up small goals for each one of us to reach our full potential as well as provide additional skill we may not get from a WOD. Those goals could include being able to do one double under or reaching a new max in your deadlift. Overhead squats, pushpress, learning to master on kipping pullup, a butterfly pullup or even the dreaded handstand pushup are all attainable goals. There have been other kinds of goals — usually harder ones — that have included 1,000 burpees in a week or running 25 miles in a week.

I can’t say I’ve fully mastered or completed any of these yet, but they have planted the seed. Goals help you get to your full potential regardless if you meet the goal or not. Goals push you to dig from deep within and try your best. You will only improve and your WODs will come faster, you will get stronger, and you will gain the confidence and persistence to becoming a better athlete.

One of my biggest fears at CrossFit was that 18 feet of rope you see hanging in the gym. I set a goal for myself to climb the rope. It didn’t matter how pretty or quickly I did it. All I wanted was to overcome my fear and conquer the damn thing. I did it with persistence, practice and determination … and with a little added competition, I climbed the rope — not once — but twice. It took me nearly eight months, but I did it.

Set goals for yourself, follow Justin and Keith’s goals, learn to love them and you WILL succeed. It will make you stronger, faster and have more confidence in and out of the gym.

What are your goals? Post them in the comments.

Outside Magazine crowned triathlete Mark Allen “the fittest man on earth.” Let’s just assume for a moment that this famous six-time winner of the IronMan Triathlon is the fittest of the fit, then what title do we bestow on the decathlete Simon Poelman who also possesses incredible endurance and stamina, yet crushes Mr. Allen in any comparison that includes strength, power, speed, and coordination?

Perhaps the definition of fitness doesn’t include strength, speed, power, and coordination though that seems rather odd. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “fitness” and being “fit” as the ability to transmit genes and being healthy. No help there. Searching the Internet for a workable, reasonable definition of fitness yields disappointingly little. Worse yet, the NSCA, the most respected publisher in exercise physiology, in their highly authoritative Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning doesn’t even attempt a definition.

Crossfit’s Fitness
For CrossFit the specter of championing a fitness program without clearly defining what it is that the program delivers combines elements of fraud and farce. The vacuum of guiding authority has therefore necessitated that CrossFit’s directors provide their own definition of fitness. That’s what this issue of CrossFit Journal is about, our “fitness.”

If you haven’t already, read the whole article by clicking here.

What is your definition of fit? What makes you fitter than the next person? Comments are now open for discussion.

Hi.  So some of you may have heard me talking about weekly goal setting.  The idea is to set a goal that will challenge you mentality and phisicaly.  To say something like i want to lost 10 lbs and get toner is a great goal to have but very hard to achieve in a week.  So for example this weeks goal is to do: 500 push-up and 1000 squats.   (PS you can thank Kat for this one.)   

When goal setting its a good idea to think about some thing you may be working on like kipping pull-up, ring dip’s and write down exactly what it is you want to do.    ex.  do one ring dip by the end of the week,  climb the rope.  Next it is always helpful to tell everyone, so we can help and maybe participate.   The weekly goals go above and beyond the daily work out,  These for the time being  are done on the honer system, as Paula so well said i don’t cheat this referring to herself.  The weekly goals should be completed at 1200pm Friday..  So 500 push-up and 1000 squat if you like or set your own.

This article may get me hot water with the female clients. Oh well here goes. One of the things I have never understood is people’s obsession with their weight. People get this idea that they have to be a certain weight in order to be healthy.  CrossFit has never been about how much you weigh.  If you got on the main Crossfit website you would have a hard time finding an article about losing weight. CrossFit is about performance and your ability to handle the challenges in daily life. Ask yourself this you have gained 5 pounds, but picking up your child is easier because you have gotten stronger.  Your pants seem a little snugger in the legs or does the shirt fit tighter in the shoulder/ arm area because you have gained muscle.

A person’s physical ability is never based on what that person looks like on the outside. I attended the CrossFit Games in March @ Golden Co. I saw people who were in very good physical condition. There were others, who were physically obese. Your first thought is have they ever seen the inside of a gym. There was a man and women who stood out at the competition to me.  They were clearly overweight by at least 50 pounds so I wanted to watch how they did in at the competition. The first workout was a Row/KB swing/Run workout, the gentlemen sat down at the row machine next to a guy who had his shirt off showing his six pack. I was 100% sure the obese guy wasn’t going to even finish the workout.  Not only did he finish, he was in the top 70 out of 120 competitors for the weekend.  I was impressed; this guy’s ability to do “work” was incredible.  The next day I watched the girl doing chest to bar pull-ups.  Hell I can barely do chest to bar pull-ups, but I watched her go through sets of 6 like they were nothing, and then watched her do “muscle-ups”.

Right here in Black Hills CrossFit we have our examples of physical ability. Scott J. is the first example (sorry Scott). When you look at Scott from a physical aspect you wouldn’t expect much. The guy isn’t fat but he isn’t a huge guy with bulging muscles.  But yet he consistently finishes with some of the best times during the WOD for the day. You put him on the course for the Firefighter Combat Challenge he will beat guys that are half his age and in better shape.  Now Tim R. about a year ago was about 60lb overweight. He discovered the Palio Diet and loved it. Tim lost 60 lb or more with the diet and started coming to CrossFit in December 2009. Since he started coming here he has gained back some of the weight however he feels he is in much better shape and more powerful physically and mentally. Tim found that the mental aspect of CrossFit has helped him push through the workouts, as well as his ability to push harder during his bike races.

Instead of gauging yourself on the scale you need to stop and ask yourself “ARE YOU GIVING EVERYTHING YOU CAN DURING THE W.O.D.” Are you pushing hard to get every rep until time is called or do you stop 20 seconds short because you figure the last couple doesn’t matter. No matter what the workout is for the day you need to push yourself hard to the very end. We shouldn’t have to do “finishers” because people want more after the W.O.D this makes me wonder did you not give it everything you had. Just because you may have beat the best time on the board by a few seconds.  Doesn’t mean you gave YOUR FULL POTENTIAL, next time try to GIVE it all you can and you may surprise yourself.  Keep pushing hard, and don’t be afraid to work on your weakness. I absolutely hate box jumps and overhead squats. Those workouts hurt me and I am very slow at them. But I continually work on them so I can get better at my weakness. Until next week  remember “God Loves a Burpee”

As many of you are aware I have been competing in the Fire Fighter Combat Challenge for almost ten years.  My first competition was in Oklahoma City in June 2000; my time was a blistering 2:28. I lay on the ground for about 45 minutes after that run. It was about 95 degrees that day, and as I was laying there half unconscious my dad thought it was a good idea to dump ice cold water over my head.  I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest. After that I was finally able to stand and walk around. I was hooked and loved it. 

Over the last few years I’ve had moderate success running the competition. I placed in the top 5 at various events and got invited into the “Lions Den” which is a club for people who have run the competition under 100 seconds.  My best time is 1:35 in which I ran in 2008. I did not run the competition in 2009, because I was busy getting involved in setting up Black hills Crossfit.

Now it is 2010, the gym is growing and the Firefighter combat competition is coming to Rapid City. This will be a regional event that will on July 17th and 18th. As you can imagine this puts the spotlight right on me to step up and run well.  Not only am I going to be running in front of all the firefighters and friends. It was decided to have our family reunion that weekend in Rapid City. No pressure at all.

 Over the last year I admit I have let my training slip. I go to the gym every day to work out but I find myself doing other things at the gym and the next thing it’s time to go home and I didn’t do the W.O.D. Starting  Monday April 5^th  my days of excuses are over. I am putting this out there so that Crossfit clients/friends can hold me accountable and push me.  This is the main reason I don’t put up my time on the board during the daily WOD because I am ashamed of my time. Now I have no excuse and want to work in order to achieve the best that I can become as a trainer. So let it be at 3:00 pm or 3:00 am.

One of the reason I love CrossFit so much is because each and every workout is like a small competition in itself.  During the warm-up you look up constantly at the WOD written on the board and thinking “why do I come and put myself through this hell”.  The music gets cranked up and you hear it   3-2-1 GO and all the doubts goes away and you start cranking out reps.  Before you know it, the rounds are done; you are lying in a pool of sweat wondering what happened?  Everybody around you is talking about how the workout sucked but wonder to themselves what will the WOD be tomorrow. This is the same exact feelings, I get when I run in the Firefighter competition.

Every day I go to the gym, I see the athletics at the gym pushing themselves and constantly reaching their goals. This week alone I saw Hillary D go 10 feet up the rope and Christina do a 1 min plank without stopping.  Other things that make me proud is watching Marquis’s son do burpees and watching my 2 year old daughter grap on to a kettlebell and start doing kb swings with perfect from. These are the little things that keep me pushing forward towards my goals.

Thanks today for all your help moving over to the new suite.  With your help we will continue to grow and improve in all aspects.  thank you for making this possible.  See you on Monday.

Weds March 17 2010.                       

I have to give a shout out to the Lady’s today.  Great job way to show up and represent.   Enjoy your st. Patty’s day.

Trainers Log March 11, 2010

Well the Crossfit total challenge is off and running with big numbers already posted. Look forward to seeing all of our clients improve over this next month.

Also the Dublin dash is just around the corner. I heard that bloody marries never tasted better then after the dash.

Justin and I are look at opening an 1100-1200 hr. Mon-wed-Fri. these are very busy 1200-1300 classes. What do you think? Does this time work for some? We will continue to improve refine our schedule.

Monday March 8 2010

I think I should start this log with a little personal info about me Keith Trojanowski:
10 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I have no middle name
2. I don’t grown hair on my head
3. I am 31
4. I am from Wyo. Go pokes
5. I have lived in SD for 10 years.
6. I like fast bikes
7. I like old cars
8. Don’t like early mornings
9. Wont eat liver
10. love all pie’s

Hi my name is Keith and this is a test. More to come.