5 Ways to Successfully Reach Your Goals Written by Nichole DeHart We are in the business of helping people reach their goals. Whether it be helping someone lean out, perform better in the gym or trying to attain a healthier lifestyle, we are working towards reaching our members’ goals on a daily basis. Many of my clients have been successful in attaining their goals, but their success has been dependent on a number of things. Obviously, commitment to the goal and consistency plays a huge part in achieving your goals. However, I have found that if you follow these five
Read more →Are your shoulders tight? Written by Dave Lipson Shoulder mobility is an essential component of good human movement and effective training programs. If we are training the upper body to pull and push in multiple planes through a full range of motion, shoulder mobility is a necessity. Too many times I have walked into CrossFit gyms and watched tight shoulders muscle through compromised range of motion. There are lots of unstable spinal positions and open rib cages working in an effort to steal movement for tight shoulders, lots of pressing in front of the head, and grinding kipping pull-ups. For
Read more →Better Accessories for Your Jerk Written by Cody Burgener Let’s talk about your jerk. You know, the movement that is supposed to be the cherry on top of your beautiful new PR clean. You don’t want to be one of those people that tells me, “well, I cleaned xxx lbs, but I missed the jerk.” That should never happen! The jerk should be the easy part. But for many beginning lifters, the jerk can be frustrating and difficult. One of the reasons many beginning lifters struggle with the jerk is that they fail to consistently place their feet in the
Read more →Look at All the Things I Can Do! – A Case for Incorporating More Single-Leg Movements Written by Michele Vieux Things I can do on one leg with NO support from hands or crutches: Wash my hair in the sink while standing; put away dishes from the dishwasher; move a full Crockpot from the counter to the fridge; clean the cat box; refill my Game Ready with ice; mop the floor with a towel by hand because I spilled ice all over the kitchen trying to refill my Game Ready; sit and stand with control from the couch, chair, or
Read more →How Do You Choose Your Accessory Lifts? Written by Cody Burgener Nobody is perfect. Everyone has weaknesses and room for improvement. When it comes to the Olympic lifts, there is always one weakness that sets you back from making personal records. So the question I’m asking is, “how do you go about improving upon that weakness?” For example, one common problem that lifters have is receiving the barbell in the bottom of the snatch. They will often attempt to remedy this by training more overhead squats to strengthen their overhead position. Is this the best way to approach it? Overhead
Read more →We’ve Got the Beets, We’ve Got the Beets! Written by Michele Vieux Beets beets beets . . . have definitely been an acquired taste for me, but with my recent hankering for them, I’ve been trying out new ways of using them. And besides the yummy beet itself, the greens are also very tasty sautéed up like you would spinach or kale, so don’t throw those away! If you don’t want to use them right away, put them back in your fridge (unwashed) and they should last a few more days. Three things to know about beets: 1. They make
Read more →Pre-Workout Skill Honing Written by Nichole DeHart Okay, I have a confession. I am somewhat neurotic. I love writing to-do lists, crossing things off my to do lists, scheduling every minute of my day and trying to be as productive as humanly possible throughout the day (I often fall well below my standards of efficiency). If you know me well, this isn’t a confession. You have probably already diagnosed me with many neuroses that revolve around my love of being productive. Sometimes my love of productivity will even be applied to other people (I can be a little overzealous). Case
Read more →YAY BURPEES!!! Written by C.J. Martin In case you hadn’t heard, the first workout for the CrossFit Games Open has been announced. The workout is: Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of: Burpees YAY BURPEES! Before you go forming an opinion about this workout, let me tell you what your opinion is. ☺ Seriously though, if you look on the interwebs you’re going to see some people complaining for one reason or another. But you can count me in as an advocate for this workout. I think it’s a great first test. Everyone can do burpees. That
Read more →Should You Be Taking Branched-Chain Amino Acids? Written by Calvin Sun I have had a good number of questions lately from both athletes and coaches in our community on branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation. For several years now, BCAAs have been a hot topic amongst athletes, strength coaches, and fitness professionals. In that time, BCAA supplementation has become a mainstream practice for amateur and professional athletes alike. There are a variety of claims associated with BCAAs including increased lean muscle mass, improved recovery time, and increased strength. What exactly are BCAAs? There are 22 standard amino acids and these amino
Read more →The Fuzz Written by Calvin Sun Most movement issues we see are due to what most people describe as muscle “stiffness” and/or “tightness.” In reality, your muscles are really numerous sliding surfaces built upon more sliding surfaces. Often problems arise when these surfaces no longer slide very well. Take a look at the photo above, see the cobweb-like structures on both sides? That is fuzz that has accumulated in between tissue surfaces. “Fuzz” is almost like an adhesive in that it causes your sliding surfaces to stick together as if they were glued down. This can result in poor positioning,
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