Saturday, May 19, 2012

Core CrossFit






Spring Break. WoooHooo!  Right?  Back in the day Spring Break meant a pligramage to a place in the sun, water,  alcohol, and girls.  Nowadays, for me, it means anyplace warmer and drier than the Pacific Northwest, maybe a beer or two with dinner, and water slides at the hotel with my kids.  Not quite the picture of wild and crazy but it suits me just fine.

A couple weeks ago we made our way to Phoenix, AZ for a few days away from the daily grind, in between sessions of laying by the pool and rounds of putt putt I was able to squeeze in a wod at       Core CrossFit.  If you're ever in the area I definitely recommend a visit. 

Core CF is a 4500sq ft box conveniently located just off 10W, only 10 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.  I wasnt charged a drop in fee and t-shirts are $25, which in my opinion is well worth it, definitely one of the cooler shirt designs I have ever seen.  Old school skateboard design. 

The day I dropped in had a cool wod programmed of 5 X 3 Push Jerk and a Met Con of EMOM (for 18 min) of alternating 1 rep Squat snatch (@ 80% 1RM) and ME (max effort) HSPU.  Great wod.  Creative mix.  Coach DJ had a great technical eye and passed along some sound advice.  He actually, without prompting, took the time to write a quick note of their philosiphy on improving O-lifting.  First time in 60+ boxes that a coach has done that which I find pretty awesome.  So Thanks DJ. 

I had the opportunity to speak with the owner Tom Colvin and asked,"What are you most proud of in regards to your gym?"  His answer came quick...

"We have a really cool Kid's program that we've all worked hard to create.  Our gym is located in a low income area.  Most of the kids don't have anything to do after school.  During workouts as we  would run down the street, they would cheer for us.  Then they started to run along side us.  They started to come to the gym and peer through the windows and wait for us to run.

We had a rowdy client who put on a Halloween mask one day before he bolted out the door and chased the kids.  They had a riot and so did he.  The next day every kid in the hood showed up and waited to get chased.  Shortly after that, we started our kid's program.  I think if you were to ask any of our coaches, they would be the most proud of that program."

Very cool!  Do any of your boxes have a story as to how they are impacting the local community?