Coach’s Blog

Grit.  Determination.  Drive.  Stamina is the physical and mental skill that we develop in CrossFit training that allows us to keep on pushing forward when the workout – or challenging life situation – demands us to.  Stamina helps you overcome resistance, over and over again.  Pick up something heavy and move with it, or do near maximal sets of back squats and push-ups.  And then do it again, and again.  If you can do that with poise and grace and a strong frame of mind, you have Stamina.

I try not to be biased in my own training and of course in my coaching and workout selection, but I have to say these are the workouts that I love.  If you come to our CrossFit Light class you may notice that we lean into these types of workouts quite a bit, because they are simple – they even might appear easy on paper – but tough to finish.  When you do finish them, you feel a real sense of accomplishment – like you have proven to yourself that you can do hard things.  Many of our Stamina-focused workouts will be written as “5 rounds, not for time”.  Many CrossFitters will balk at that, because it takes the competition away.  No result to post to the Wodify leaderboard, no record that you completed it, except for the record in your mind.

Stamina workouts are popular with military and police athletes because they are functional fitness in the truest sense.  If you can gut it out in the gym for a 30-minute grind, then you can also perform for the long haul when it really counts.  They’re also popular as CrossFit Games workouts, for the sheer spectator enjoyment of watching your favorite athletes toil through an arduous task, like heavy sandbag carries and sled pushes and lunges with a kettlebell locked out overhead.  Sure, anyone can do that movement one time, but who can keep up a winning pace through long efforts and short breaks to outlast their fellow competitors?

Mental Stamina is also known as toughness, another trait that is developed through years of hard training.  If you can maintain focus in the midst of chaos and fatigue, you are tough.  You can lean on that skill to bounce back quickly and be resilient when the time comes.  Of course, we want to know that that is how we will respond to tough situations – another reason that we think Stamina training is super important.

Next time you see a workout on the whiteboard that looks like a real gut check, know that what you are training for is not just increased physical capacity and strength but also Stamina.  Toughness.  Resilience.  Keep on pushing through with a positive attitude, visualizing the job being done.  You’re increasing your physical and mental Stamina, and you’ll need it for what comes next.

Ryan

Durability is the final of the three foundational skills, along with Strength and Endurance.  Once again, if you don’t have a baseline level of these three physical traits, it will be very difficult or impossible to build yourself up as a well-rounded athlete.  Specifically, if you don’t have Durability, you will get hurt.

Being physically Durable means being able to withstand hard physical training or a test, and come out in one piece.  We train for this in the gym by working on our muscular flexibility (to avoid strains or tears from trying to move a tight muscle really fast), and developing full range of motion around our joints (to prevent a dreaded knee or shoulder injury that comes from expressing ranges of motion that our joints are not ready for).  We do this by warming up correctly, getting our core temperature up and then progressing through increased range of motion to prepare for the workout, or know how we need to modify it.  Then we cool down after the workout with some more slow movement, myofascial release with lacrosse balls and foam rollers, and stretching to relax and lengthen the muscles now that they’re nice and warm.

Another aspect of being hard to injure is a solid base of core strength.  We know from our training that strength and power starts in the core, and then can be expressed outward to the extremities, so core strength is necessary for performance.  But our abdominals and our back muscles are also primary protectors of our spine, and improper spinal movement.  Doing your sit-ups and back extensions on the GHD will allow you to deadlift with a stable, neutral spine.  I’ve read stories of CrossFitters who have gotten into bad car accidents and the doctors telling them that if their core wasn’t so well developed they likely would have died.

On the mental side, being Durable means having a flexible attitude, one that can withstand the hits that life brings without completely falling apart.  Expect the unexpected, stay true to your strong core beliefs, and you’ll be standing again after the hard times.

Next time we’ll continue digging into another physical and mental skill that becomes very important in training and in life – Stamina.  I like to think of it as Strength-Endurance.  Until then, let’s be intentional about our warm-ups and cool-downs, and do a few extra sets of V-ups after the workout.  Your increased Durability will keep you training and enjoying life!

Ryan

Last week we started a series of posts about the different categories of workouts that we do at CrossFit Kent Island, or the major physical traits that we are developing with our training.  We started by discussing Strength — what it is, and why we train for it.  Check out that post here if you haven’t yet!

Now we move on to Endurance, definitely another one of our foundational skills.  We all love to work on Strength – it’s fun to lift heavy weights and it’s the one physical trait that you can outwardly see.  That guy has big muscles, he is Strong.  But Strength without Endurance is just that, a one-sided version of fitness training.  Maybe you can deadlift twice your bodyweight, but if you can’t run a mile without stopping, your fitness program has fallen short.

Endurance is a foundational skill because like Strength, the other skills depend on it.  You must develop a baseline level of Endurance, or cardiovascular efficiency, before starting to seriously develop Stamina or Work Capacity, two of the other classic domains of fitness that we train every day in CrossFit.  You develop Endurance when you train for longer, continuous stretches of time, traditionally with one “cardio” movement but as we see in our CFKI workouts it doesn’t have to be that way!  Many of us in the CrossFit world have come “running” into the gym and away from endurance training because of boredom or overuse injuries.  But you can train for Endurance by mixing in lots of different, relatively low intensity movements.  Running, rowing, biking, skiing, jumping rope, burpees, box step-ups, and lightweight weightlifting movements are all fair game for endurance-type training.  These longer workouts, generally lasting 20+ minutes, are intended to be done with little to no rest, and they rely on oxygen for fuel rather than stored glucose.  Your coach will encourage you to be conscious of your breathing, and slow it down with big nasal breaths, in order to slow down your heart rate as much as possible to a level you can manage for a long time.

At the mental level, endurance training will help you develop the capacity to stay at a task for the long haul.  Getting a college degree, working hard for several years to be promoted, finishing your first book, all of these take mental and emotional endurance.

Let’s lean into the longer Endurance-focused workouts!  Let’s build our capacity to go for the long haul – it will help with the rest of our higher intensity training by allowing us to go longer into those dark moments where the big-time adaptations take place.  And having a strong heart and big healthy lungs means longevity and the ability to go for those long vacation hikes when you want to!

Ryan

I’d like to begin a series of posts on the different types of workouts that we do at CrossFit Kent Island, and why we do them.  It’s tough to categorize every workout because there certainly are some that fall not-so-neatly between these broad training archetypes that I’m about to list, but I would say most of the time you should be able to look at a workout and say, “oh, we’re training {INSERT WORKOUT TYPE} today, got it.”

The major workout categories that I’ll include in our training plan are Strength, Endurance, Stamina, Work Capacity (or Power), Speed, and Flexibility (or Durability).  Fans of CrossFit’s Ten General Physical Skills might note that I’m leaving out Accuracy, Agility, Coordination, and Balance.  I do not discount these, and we absolutely develop them as a result of sound training in the six “major” skills or workout categories that I list above.  Another good way to train these last four skills is to get out and play some pickleball.  What is fitness if you can’t use it?

After reading that list, many or maybe all of us get super pumped up about one or more of those workout types.  Annnnnnd maybe not so pumped about the others.  That’s OK!  It’s good to know what you like to do and what you don’t like to do in the gym, that’s all good information for yourself and for your coach too!  We tend to like doing things that we are good at.

Do you like weightlifting, working on Strength?  Guess what, I would bet other people would say you’re pretty good at it, maybe even genetically blessed with a few extra fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Do you like longer, Endurance-based workouts?  You’re probably in the minority in the CrossFit world, but that’s a great place to be, and you’re probably a pretty good runner.  That gives you a leg up in many benchmark CrossFit workouts.

The important thing to note is that we all come into CrossFit training with a bias, something that we are really good at that will help us perform very well in those types of workouts.  But at CrossFit Kent Island, we’re not going to limit our training to any one particular category or skill.  We want to be good at… well, everything.  Maybe not great, but good.  And so we can’t focus solely on what we like to do and are naturally gifted at.  If anything, we need to lean in on the categories that make us not so pumped about the day’s training plan.  Get in the gym and work on it, and become a well-rounded athlete!

Having said all of that, I’ll focus today on one of the foundational skills in CrossFit training, or sports, or life.  STRENGTH.  Strength is a foundational skill because without a baseline level of Strength, it is really hard to work on the other skills – except for another foundational skill of Endurance which I will cover next time.

A Strength-focused workout is characterized by working at near-maximal output for very short periods of time, measured in seconds.  Today’s workout of building up to a one-rep max Back Squat is a classic example.  It doesn’t have to be all about powerlifting though, or have a barbell involved at all.  Gymnastics movements like pull-ups, dips, muscle-ups, sit-ups, toes-to-bar, and pistol squats all involve a crazy amount of strength, and a workout dedicated to practicing one of those movements for 20 minutes is absolutely a Strength workout.  Bodybuilding workouts that we do at the end of class 1-2 times per week also are focused on building Strength in a hyper-focused way.

We generally focus on Strength workouts in class right after a warm-up, so that our muscles are not too taxed from a previous workout to exert enough force to produce Strength gains.  We will sometimes focus on Strength at the end of a session though, to create a mental challenge to step up to the plate and get some hard Strength work in when in a fatigued state.

Training for Strength obviously creates a huge physical benefit.  Mark Rippetoe, author of one of the preeminent books on the subject, Starting Strength, says that “strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”  Well said!  But I think training to eliminate physical weakness in the gym also creates mental and emotional strength that can power you through hard times outside of the gym.

Until next time, let’s work on getting stronger.  Beach season may be over, but the carry-over benefits of Strength training will propel us to new heights in the other types of workouts we will encounter as well.

Lift heavy!

Ryan

9/11.

 

I’m writing this as a blog post but don’t know if I’ll send it.  I was going to delay posting a blog on my usual Wednesday schedule, out of respect for 9/11 and the great patriotic content that a lot of other people usually are putting out.  But today I jumped on Instagram and Facebook to feel good, to feel proud about being an American, or even a human being, and I don’t.

 

I didn’t watch the presidential debate last night because I didn’t want to watch two people yelling at each other.  What I found online this morning is that they didn’t have the chance to interrupt each other’s speeches because their mics were turned off when the other was speaking, that was good.  But the highlights that I found were still hard to watch, and scrolling though comments was worse.  We’ve become so divided as an American public, and I found myself saying “just forget about it, politics is just politics”, but it’s more than that – there is some serious hate out there.  People are attacking others that they don’t even know, just because of that person’s identity or which “side” they’ve aligned themselves with.

 

I used to actually look forward to 9/11 every year because it was a time for us all to look back and remember the people that were lost that day, and maybe even remember the weeks and months afterward – when we are all together.  We were united as a country and as a world against evil.  Maybe what came out of that, the war on terror, was not a good thing in the end, because it was a war.  And that longstanding war created a feeling of aggressiveness, of hostility toward other people.  That has transcended the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, with professional soldiers who are paid to be aggressive and carry out hostilities in the name of their flag, and it has pervaded American society.

 

I want us to be better, as American citizens.  We shouldn’t need a national tragedy to unite us and push us forward to being a great nation and a beacon of truth and hope for the world.

 

I don’t know where you stand on politics, or who you’re planning to vote for.  Both presidential candidates have earned the right to stand up on their platform and tell us what they would do if given a chance to govern us in the next four years.  Maybe you’re voting based on a certain issue, like abortion, or gun control, or future wars.  That’s all great, and that’s the point of our political system – informed citizens can elect leaders, or even become leaders, based on the change that they want to see in the world.  But let’s stop attacking each other and vilifying the “other side”.  It doesn’t need to be that way.

 

I had a whole series of blog posts planned out for today and the next few weeks, informing our members on the types of workouts that we do at CrossFit Kent Island and why we do them, the physical and mental benefits they will get from each training session.  But this seemed more important for me today, on 9/11.  I’ll get back at it next week, I promise.  But today, let’s take a pause, and remember that we are human beings, each with a purpose.  I don’t think any of us would say that our purpose is to hate others, or to cause them harm.  Let’s move forward this week with courage and love, remembering those that we have lost, and fighting to do better for them.

 

9/11/2024

Ryan

BACK IN THE DAY, when I was involved in sports (high school) or military training (college), I knew what I was training for:  A FIGHT.

At Penn State in the ROTC Special Warfare program, I was in a serious fight club – Thursday mornings were training jiu-jitsu with no-shit instructions on this is how you break someone’s arm, got it?  Sunday mornings were intense with swim training, usually including some “lifesaving skills” that involved underwater wrestling, after a ton of fatiguing laps in the pool.  Most other mornings were with the regular ROTC midshipmen, but it was always a battle to make sure you were at the front of the pack on a run or you could do the most push-ups.  We were training to fight, and training was a fight every day.

It’s the same in high school sports – you practice and lift weights and run so that you can compete against another team, or individually against an opponent.  As a football player, I had to be stronger than the kid in front of me.  If not, right off the bat, you lose.  Touchdown, other team.  Battle lost.

Fast forward to today, and I feel the need to invent reasons to train.  There is no more fight.  As much as I try to provoke Ron the in the 6am class, nobody in the CFKI community is threatening me with violence.  And I appreciate that!  But where does that leave me with my training?  What am I fighting for?

Peace.

As I get older and more mature (I’m sure some would argue that), I find reasons to train hard, like ultramarathons and long swims and CrossFit competitions – things to look forward to and be ready for.  But they are just checkmarks on a list of accomplishments.  So what?

Peace.

Maybe I train so that I can maintain my body in a war-like state, for peace.  Maybe I train so that if someone does come to threaten my family, I am ready for it.  Maybe I train so that if everything goes wrong, I am ready.  Or maybe I train so that if my oldest son who is currently playing high school football wants to wrestle, I can take it to him, NO PROBLEM.  That is currently not the case.

If you’re having a hard time getting motivated getting to the gym, think about WHY you’re going.

Are you training for an upcoming event?  If so, you have that short-term motivation, and you’re probably crushing your gym time, nice work.

Are you showing up to the gym without motivation, maybe not showing up at all?  Think about WHY you want to be there.  What are you training for?  What do you want to accomplish?  What do you want to be ready for?

For me now it’s about life, and maintaining PEACE in my household and in my community.  I train so that I can be ready physically and mentally to respond to any situation that might occur, so that I can maintain that peace.  And it’s kind of fun to approach training in that way.  Train for the unknown and unknowable.  Train hard now, so that you can perform when it’s absolutely necessary.

So, what are you training for?

Peace out,

Ryan

One of the things that I really like to do is read.  I remind myself every morning that it’s something that I’m passionate about, because I enjoy developing myself and learning new things, and I just find it relaxing and a good way to stretch my imagination muscles.  But because it’s something that I like to do, I sometimes feel bad doing it because shouldn’t I be doing something else MORE PRODUCTIVE??  Do you guys ever do that — beat yourself up for doing something that you like?  I know that’s not a healthy mindset, so a couple years ago I made it my goal to read one book per month, nothing too crazy when you hear of people finishing a book in a weekend — wow!  To hold myself accountable to this goal, I enlisted help from you all and formed our very own CFKI Book Club.  We’ve wavered from 2 members in a month to 5 or 6, and some people admittedly come to our monthly meeting not having finished or even read the book at all, but just want to chat!  I have to admit I’ve been in that boat before once — I just quit reading the book and danced around each chapter a bit to get a summary, but I didn’t really like it.

This morning I gathered up all the Book Club books that I still have — I’ve given some to friends and probably just don’t know where the others are — to jog my memory on my Top 5. If you haven’t read these, I recommend them — and I’ll tell you why below.  I’d be interested to hear from other Book Clubbers on their favorites too!

Here we go, in no particular order:

Out and Back, by Hillary Allen
I think this was the first book that we selected back in 2022, and it was a great start — it kind of put us on a trend of reading thrilling or adventure style books for a few months.  It’s the self-told story of a world-class ultrarunner who has a catastrophic near-fatal fall, 150 feet off of a mountainous ridge during a race in Norway.  Her story of overcoming all the physical and mental pain and struggles to get back to competing in “skyrunning” is incredible, and a really fast but emotional read.

Unbeatable Mind, by Mark Divine
This book back in the early 2000’s put me on a path toward developing myself as much mentally as physically, and helped me understand that the two are very closely linked.  Since then I have trained personally with Coach Divine and the SEALFIT and Unbeatable team to become an Unbeatable Mind coach myself, and I align my daily training very closely with this operating model.
If you want to get started with a integrated body-mind training regimen, this is the book that you need to read first.

The 12 Hour Walk, by Colin O’Brady
You may have heard of Colin O’Brady – he’s a ten-time world record holder in endurance events, like the first solo unsupported crossing of Antarctica, and the first human-powered ocean row across the Drake Passage.  This book takes lessons from those events and many other mountaineering challenges and applies them to the lesson that we preach at CFKI as well: do hard things because you’ll learn about yourself and grow.  The 12 Hour Walk is his challenge to all of us — go out on a 12-hour walk, by yourself, no phone, no music.  See what happens.

Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
This was the hardest one to read but I’m so glad that I did, for the history lessons that many of us didn’t learn in school.  The author explores how America has been shaped throughout its history by a hidden caste system, like the more overt caste system that still exists in many ways in India and the systemic racism of Nazi Germany.  This was definitely the deepest and most intellectually stimulating discussion that we had about a book.

Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman
The title of the book is an obscure one, but once you know what he’s referring to — the average human lifespan — you know it’s about to get deep.  The subtitle is “Time Management for Mortals”, and it’s a great one because there are so many awesome scientifically-backed lessons and practical exercises crammed in here.  Of all five books listed here, this is the one I realize I need to read again to see if I need a refresher course.

Let me know if you’d like to borrow any of these great reads!  And please throw out some recommendations of books we need to get into next.  We haven’t picked one yet for September!!

Happy reading!

Ryan

You guys.  I’m super excited that the CrossFit Games are about to begin, and I know you are too!  Some of you reading this are CrossFit veterans and know all about the excitement of the Games and the season leading up to it – the CrossFit Open, Quarterfinals, and regional Semifinal competitions.  A lot of you reading this might be new to the CrossFit world and maybe haven’t seen the Games at all.  Either way, if you’re in the CrossFit ecosystem as you read this, prepare for an exciting week.

Borrowing from the CrossFit Games website: “The CrossFit Games are the ultimate proving grounds for the Fittest Man, Woman, and Team on Earth and are world-renowned as the definitive test of fitness… The Games began in 2007 in Aromas, California, as the first competition to objectively measure fitness. From their inception, they have been unlike traditional sports such as track and field, gymnastics, weightlifting, or even decathlon — all specialist sports in which the events are known long in advance. Instead, athletes  from around the world are tested against a variety of unannounced events, each with different movements, equipment, and time domains. Competitors are required to train for the unknown, and the scores of events have included distance swims, obstacle courses, 1-rep-max lifts, handstand walking, sled pushes, rope climbs, and odd-object carries… The combination of highly trained athletes and unknown events makes for an explosive mix.
At this point in the season, the field has been whittled down from the hundreds of thousands of athletes in the Open to the top 40 men, 40 women, and 40 teams from around the world. The CrossFit Games rank the world’s fittest and determine who is the Fittest on Earth™.”

Wow.  Even reading this again gives me butterflies – as a former competitor in team sports like baseball and football, I know what it’s like to be on the main stage in front of a crowd, and the anticipation and anxiety that comes with it.  Competing for the title of Fittest on Earth?  That would actually be outside of my realm of comprehension if I didn’t know a few people who have competed, including our own Coach Alyssa who placed 12^th in the world at the CrossFit Games in the 40-44 age group three years ago.  It is pretty awesome to be in the presence of someone who has competed at a sport at the highest level internationally, and who is still competing and pushing for higher levels of skill and strength every year!

This year’s CrossFit Games competition will include past winning men Justin Medeiros (2021 and 2022) and reigning champ Jeff Adler, as well as tons of veterans who have podiumed before like Brent Fikowski, Pat Vellner, Ricky Garard (maybe, as he was found to be taking PEDs last time…) and Sam Kwant.  On the women’s side, a former perennial champ is back after one year of maternity leave – the great Tia-Clair Toomey (2017-2022, seriously).  Challenging her for the crown is last year’s champ, Laura Horvath, and many other favorites like Haley Adams, Danielle Brandon, and Brooke Wells.

You can watch the CrossFit Games online, on TV, or at the gym where we’ll be streaming it Thursday-Sunday.

I don’t know if I need to be neutral on who wins… but I’m not – I’m rooting for Medeiros for a comeback and Brooke Wells – I think she’s due.  Can’t wait to watch it all go down!!

Ryan

This one’s going out to our older generations, but we all need to read it.  If you’re in your 60’s or 70’s, this is urgent news.  If you’re in your 40’s like me, this is maybe a rude awakening – you’re getting old, bro! – and also a call to action.

Imagine yourself way beyond what we would call our “athlete years”, in your 80’s.  What do you look like?  What do you feel like?  Are you going on cool vacations to Hawaii, or Iceland?  Are you sitting on the couch every day because you can’t get up and do anything else?  Are you looking forward to those years, or dreading them?

CrossFit started as a workout regimen for the Fittest on Earth, to become – Fittest-er?  Greg Glassman moved from training his local gymnastics squad to training the Santa Cruz police force to training Navy SEALs and it blew up from there.  It blew up for a reason – because it’s AWESOME.  But I realize as I type this that not everyone thinks it’s awesome for the same reasons that I think it is.  We have barbells and protein shakes and pull-up bars.  Most other gyms or fitness routines do not.  They have machines, and tight-fitting shorts, and saunas.  All very cool, mind you – but not the best overall plan if you want to become and stay fit into your 80’s, 90’s, and beyond!

Here are a couple of reasons why you should do CrossFit as you get older:

CrossFit makes you strong, and the opposite of strong is weak.
Going back to your earlier visualization of your older years.  What do you look like?  Are you strong?

We train with barbells and dumbbells and sandbags and all kinds of fun stuff because getting strong and staying strong is super important as we all get older.  It’s as simple as this – if you’re not strong, you’re weak.

CrossFit makes you functionally strong.
​​​​​​​I know lots of older people who go to the gym on a regular basis, but are not fit in the way that I would hope they would be.  Can they walk for 50 minutes on a treadmill?  Yes.  Can they pick up their 50-pound dog that needs to go to the vet?  Absolutely not.  At a CrossFit gym, we train endurance, like walking, rowing, biking.  But we also train other functional movements so that we can all stay functionally healthy.  Squats, presses, pulls.  Can you imagine not being able to do that stuff in your regular life?

Thanks for reading, and for passing this on to your friends and loved ones – let’s all get more fit and strong as we get older!!

Ryan

“Just try it, you might like it!”

Those of you who have parented small children know that phrase all too well.  We put something in front of our kids that we know tastes great, and we’re just trying to get them to try it one time because we know they will like it if they just let down their guard and give it a little taste.  One of my kids would, I think, actually like something but pretend that he didn’t just to stay entrenched in his position but that’s a different story.  He even did it with chocolate ice cream.

When we’re trying to convince our friends or family to try CrossFit it can be very similar to getting a child to try a new food.  We know that they will like it if they just stay open to the possibility that it could be tasty (food) / fun (CrossFit), and we know it’s even good for them.  What a win/win!  But they are distrustful and feel like somehow the wool is being pulled over their eyes and they’ll be tricked into doing something terrible.  So, what now?  We are on one side, knowing it’s great, and they are on the other, knowing it will be different and uncomfortable.

Who is going to win this battle?  Maybe the one that compromises their entrenched position a little bit.  “OK,” we’ll say – “maybe CrossFit is not for everyone and some people actually don’t like it.  But I like it a lot and I think you would too, because you’re really a really good runner and you played soccer in high school and CrossFit feels like you’re working out with a team again.”

I don’t know a lot about debate, but this model sounds rock-solid and I’ll call it the “I’ll admit I might be wrong and you might be right, but here’s another reason why I’m right that includes something personal about you.”  Boom.

Then, we just ask them to try it one time.  We’re not asking them to commit to the 5am class for a month.  We’re asking them to come to a Saturday class with us one time.  If they hate it, then they win the debate and it’s over.  But if they like it, we have done something great for them, and started them on a path toward greater fitness and health.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a lesson on how to sell CrossFit to your friends, but I guess that’s where we are.  You all are in fact our greatest marketing and sales reps because of how hard you work in the gym and the results that people around you notice, and ask about it.  “What are you doing, living in the gym?” – No, just one hour a day of CrossFit.

So one last piece to remind you of.  If you get your buddy, or your mom or your dogsitter’s sister to come to the gym and then they sign up for a membership, YOU GET $80 OFF YOUR NEXT MONTH.  And… THEY GET $80 OFF THEIR FIRST MONTH.  No referral code to use or anything, just remind me that you referred them and I’ll make the financial magic happen.  If it sounds too good to be true, it’s not, it’s just our best strategy to get new members because you know them, you’re vouching for them, and they’re going to stick around because they know you and now they love it.

Next week we’ll discuss how to sell ketchup popsicles to a woman wearing white gloves, but for now we’ll keep it easy.  Tell your friends that you think would like CrossFit about us, get them to JUST TRY IT one time, and then help them (and you) save money on a membership.

Train hard, tell your friends,
Ryan