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?

NorCal CrossFit - San Jose

For the last 16 months it’s been all about notches on my proverbial CrossFit bedpost. I'm talking about visiting and working out at as many different CrossFit boxes as possible as I travel the world. I broke that cycle with  NorCal CF -San Jose. I've had the good fortune of visiting the other two locations for NorCal CrossFit (Santa Clara and Mountainside), but wanted to see firsthand the newest addition to the Khalipa Kingdom. I barely made it in the front door and was greeted by none other than Games badass, Pat Barber. I didn't get the impression that I was being treated special, because I was visiting, it seems as though he has the habit of treating everyone as though he's known them for years. (Affiliate owners, this is called professionalism and common courtesy. Take note, follow suit it really does matter.)


After knocking out the obligatory waiver and grabbing a t-shirt ($20), I started down an extremely long hallway towards the box. Along the way, I passed a couple of racquet ball courts, a couple of big locker rooms (w/ showers), 3-4 Jiu Jitsu and judo rooms, and some personal training rooms. On the way to the workout space I passed a door with a sign marked "Super Heroes" only, seems appropriate with Pat Barber, Jason Khalipa, and Neil Maddox working out here.

The crossfit area of the facility measures approximately 8000 sq ft with an additional 2500 sq ft room set up to focus on O-lifting.

Coach Pat feels the potential for CF NorCal San Jose is huge, citing its very convenient location off the I-280 S (Junipero Serra Freeway) and the dense population of San Jose.  Add in the excellent programming and great coaching and I would agree their future is very bright. In the three months the gym has been opened they have built up a membership of 120+ athletes. 

The afternoon session, I dropped in for was being coached by Taz (Pat's fiance). There were approximately 20 athletes in the class and Coach Taz recognized that there was an abundance of unfamiliar faces. She did a little Ice breaker and had the group introduce themselves and share how long they had been crossfitting. The majority of the athletes measured their experience in weeks or months, rather than years. Evidence again of the continued growth of the sport we all know and love.

Today’s wod was 21-15-9 of back squats and HSPU (handstand push ups). The warm up was a series of increasing weight squats and HSPU progressions. Coach Taz, to her credit, was adamant that even if athletes already had strict HSPU's they progress through the warm up hitting handstand holds, negatives, kipping HSPU's, and strict HSPU's. For the workout, if you knew you wouldn't be able to maintain strict HSPU throughout you were to do push press with body weight. I liked the fact that she set a particular standard rather than let people scale throughout the workout. I believe that learning a movement correctly and being able to do it repeatedly is critical in ones success in crossfit. Often once you’re on the clock, form can suffer and Taz made sure that wasn't going to happen in this situation.

 

After the wod, Coach Pat made a point to speak with me and ask how everything went.  He made sure I understood,that I was welcome to come back during my trip to Palo Alto/ San Jose area. He said this even after I explained my blog and history of visiting multiple boxes during my travels. Coach Pat offered some recommendations of other affiliates, but his sincerity in inviting me to visit again stuck with me. So a couple days later, I did just that and hit up a second wod NCCF. I'll admit the opportunity to get coached by a Games veteran did weigh in somewhat on my decision. When I showed up and found out the wod was 5-5-5-3-3-3 Power Cleans to be coached by Pat, I was pretty happy.

I didn't have a chance to talk in depth about to Pat about this particular progra, CrossFit/ SAT Prep Program, but it's pretty awesome.  Wish I would have had something like this when I was young.

A great example of how CrossFit is different.  Yes it's a business but they understand the value of giving back to the community. Pretty sure 24 Hour Fitness, Golds, etc would never see the value.


Check out the video.

If you're ever in the area of San Jose/ Palo Alto I strongly recommend you make the time to visit at least one of the NorCal CrossFit locations, you won't be disappointed.

                                                                                     

Gables CrossFit

At every box I  visit, I  ask "If I were to hit any other box in this city, which one should it be?"  At 3 of the 4 previous gyms I visited in Miami, CrossFit Gables came up as the box I needed to visit.  No one was able to truly articulate what made Gables such a great box, just that it was a top notch gym. 

Located approximately 10 minutes East of the airport in the quaint downtown of Coral Gables. I'd say it is probably the most convenient gym to visit if you end up on a long layover at Miami International.   I happened in on a pretty sleepy Monday morning,  for a small class of 7-8 athletes.  Two of the participants happened to be fellow traveling crossfitters from Aspen, CO.  The guy (I apologize, but I suck with names and have totally forgotten his name) who travels extensively mentioned to me that he was up to 27 boxes visited.  I told him that was awesome and that Gables was my 64th.  HA.  It's always cool to meet people that have a similar passion for CrossFit. 

Today's wod was called "Syaonara Open" being that it was the Monday after the end of the CrossFit Games Open. It consisted of backsquat "21's" @ 135lb.  You know the classic body building routine, I remember doing them for biceps, 7 partial reps in the top range of motion, 7 in the bottom range, and 7 of the full range.  The metcon was a good quick wod... 3 rounds of 10 burpees, 400M run, 10 burpees, Two minutes of rest in between of each round. 

The 3500+ sq ft space is spacious enough to handle their 500-600 membership. I wasn't charged a drop in fee and unfortunately they didn't have any t-shirts available. 

I hope I get a chance to hit Gables again for a big class and experience the energy I'm sure they have with such a large membership. 

IMT CrossFit

IMT CrossFit another gigantic box with a massive, passionate membership in the greater Miami area.  IMT, is owned and operated by the same dynamic group that runs Reebok CrossFit Miami Beach. It's obvious where the energy and intensity I experienced at RCMB comes from.  IMT is not without it's  problems, though.  A problem, I imagine, most other affiliate owners would love to be stricken with, uncontrollable Growth.  Four out of the last five years IMT has had to move to a larger facility to accommodate their ever increasing clientele.  They believe their new 10,000 sq ft facility should hold them for a while and more than accommodate their 420+ athletes.

The night I visited they had 4 wods going on at once and there was still plenty of room.  I know what you're thinking...How can you have quality coaching with so much going on?  After 4pm they staff the box with a minimum of 3 coaches. 

Some athletes were knocking out 12.5 while the rest were involved in a wod consisting of 3 x 8 minute Mini wods dubbed "Stations From Hell". 

Station 1

30m Burpee broad jump

60m O.H. lunges(45/25)

90m Plate run (45/25)

Station 2

25 Double unders(75 singles)

250m Row

Station 3

8-Cln and Jerk (135/95)

8-Toes to bar

Being a new box location they are great example of integrating technology into the gym. They have a simple to use bar code reader for clients to check in allowing the management to easily track their clients.

Located approximately 20 minutes South of Miami International Airport.  Drop in fees are $15 and shirts are $20.  Being that they are associated with Reebok they have a small selection of Reebok gear in their office/ coaches lounge.  One thing that I found unique was Gaby's attention to the quality of work environment for his coaches.  He was adamant that he wanted to provide an environment his coaches not only wanted to work in but hang out in as well. 

I AM CROSSFIT

Holy warehouse Batman!!!  Very few boxes cause me to pause when I walk in, that's not the case with the 20,000+ sq ft I AM CROSSFIT.  The place is so ridiculously big it short circuited my brain.  And it’s not just a huge undeveloped open warehouse space, it's totally painted and has plenty of gear throughout.  One section known simply as "Eastside" is 4000sq ft and is a complete box in and of itself.  This area is used by members more as an open gym space where they can do their own wod/ programming (Outlaw, Wendler, etc..), separate from the daily wods.  One unique feature in Eastside is a full size boxing ring. 

A lot of props to Coach Danny and Coach DJ, they went out of their way to make me feel welcome in their house.  I note this because unfortunately it's not a common occurrence at quite a few of the gyms I have visited.  Affiliates, CrossFit is a worldwide community, not just in your neighborhood. 

IACF is located a convenient 10 minutes south of Miami International Airport, in the Doral neighborhood.  They have been in their current location for just a year and have built a membership of over 500 athletes.  Make sure you confirm the address before you head there as I found two separate addresses online. 

I Am CrossFit is part of a 5 gym network of boxes in the greater Miami area.  Those gyms are I Am CrossFit, Gables CrossFit, CrossFit Vida Brickell (currently 6th in the SouthEast Regionals), CrossFit South Miami, and CrossFit Coconut Grove.  Most of the gyms have a specialty offering as well, South Miami has CrossFit Kids, I Am CrossFit has boxing, Gables has yoga, etc.  $150 buys you a monthly unlimited at one gym or $175 gets you into any one in the group.  Heck of a deal.  Programming is done by one person and wods are consistent across the network.  A cool thing to keep the group of boxes connected is their annual Civil War Games.  A Games like competition of individual throw downs and a team finals competition.  The winning box takes home The Golden Hammer which is currently held by I Am CrossFit.

The wod today consisted of a 1 mile run (warm up) then 3X1 Front Squats followed by the metcon "Longhorn"; 5 rounds of 1 minute Max KB swings, 1 minute Max burpees, 1 minute rest.  I swear I did enough burpees in 3 wods in FL to last me a couple months.   Good wod.  Tons of encouragement doled out by the coaches as well as the athletes.  This place had a great "family" vibe and supports Coach Danny's opinion that the coolest thing about IACF is the athletes.

HUGE

"Eastside"

 

Every CrossFit gym should have this sign on their front door.