Author: Brian Holmes

News

Technology Benefits our Fitness

Data is a wonderful thing. Data helps us plan, create goals, and look back at progress. At Fern Creek CrossFit (FCCF) we use (2) pieces of technology to help us and you collect data. Zen Planner and SugarWOD are important apps provided to you as athletes at FCCF. Both apps serve unique and specific purposes.

Zen Planner (ZP) is the back-end system of our operations. It is used to add/delete memberships, perform billing functions, RSVP for classes, and track attendance. The information gathered in ZP is what helps us recognize consistency in attendance and notifies us when you are away so we can follow up with you. We encourage all athletes to use ZP daily by RSVP’ing for a class and checking-in on your arrival. You can also use ZP to see who is coaching and if your friends RSVP’d for class!

SugarWOD is your logbook! In SugarWOD is were we publish our daily programming and notes, make any daily announcements, and is a home for you to record your ongoing performance. You can track your daily WOD, Benchmark WOD’s, PR lifts, or add in a custom workout that you created and want to track. It is helpful to have this information, specifically when goal setting, working off percentages, or tracking your performance progress .Both applications are emailed to members upon signing-up. If you need to download the apps you can find them at the links below.

To get it installed on your mobile device, use these links:

Zen Planner Member App

https://help.zenplanner.com/…/360026572553-How-to…

SugarWod Member App

Android: www.sugarwod.com/android

iPhone: www.sugarwod.com/ios

News, Staff

Fern Creek CrossFit’s Coaching Development Program

Fern Creek CrossFit (FCCF) sets itself apart from other CrossFit programs, through the results of our athletes. Those results come from athlete effort, and behind that effort is our inspiring and well educated professional CrossFit coaching staff.

We believe that all programs administer at FCCF should be of the highest quality and consistency. Every athlete should leave each class feeling as though they made progress in their performance, learned something of value, and were inspired to reach the goals they set out in our Goal Setting Program.

As our athlete community grows, our staff must grow as well. To ensure quality is not lost, and that we best utilize the resources within our own community, FCCF has created the Fern Creek CrossFit Coaching Development Program. We are excited to announce our Coaching Development Program will be lead by Coach Robbie Brown. Robbie has been a dedicated athlete and coach for many years at FCCF. His valuable experience and expertise will help nurture a strong professional coaching staff for many years to come.

Coach Robbie Brown (with Daughter Peyton)

Program Goals

The Coaching Development Program will educate incoming coaches about our specific program, standards, and community. Additionally, the program aims to enhance individual coaching differences and contributions, while maintaining a high level of cohesion.

Adding new people and new points of view is exciting and valuable. At the same time, we value maintaining specific standards and codes of conduct.

Training Program Details

Coaches in Training will learn coaching skills through a shadowing process, reading and research assignments, and competency assessments. The FCCF Coaching Development Program is extensive and challenging. Coaches in Training will participate in over 60 hours of shadowing and mentoring during the program with countless other hours of studying.

As athletes, you’ll notice that the floor Coach may have Coaches in Training shadowing during class. They are there to observe both the coach, and the class as a whole. Initially, they are not expected to interact in any way while shadowing.

Eventually Coaches in Training will move from shadowing, to coaching part of your class, and then to coaching the entire thing. During this time, the normal floor Coach will be present, but will not be the Coach on the floor (in charge).

Coaches in Training will gain knowledge through outside resources. These resources include an extensive reading list, website research, and event attendance requirements. We want them to be integral members of our FCCF community, but also a part of the larger CrossFit community.

Any feedback you have on our coaches in training is welcome. Please keep in mind that those in the program have shown a dedication to CrossFit and learning, a passion for teaching others, and a love for FCCF specifically!

Health

Surviving the Heat

Spring is here, and Summer is coming! The heat is on, and it’s only getting hotter. Staying healthy isn’t just about lifting weights and doing metcons. It also means trying to take care of ourselves as a whole. During this season, knowing how to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion is crucial for looking after ourselves.

Staying hydrated is something to be taken very seriously. CrossFit is fun. You may think we try to kill you with some WODs, but we actually want you to be healthy and feel good. Here are some tips for staying hydrated, cool and healthy during the summer months.

STAY HYDRATED AND COOL

Water, water, water. Seriously – get tons and tons of water. In Kentucky, it is not only hot but humid too. And we sweat buckets!

You have to get lots of water. With that being said, your water also needs to replenish you. Electrolytes, and certain minerals need to be fed back into your body when you are sweating as much as we do in the summer. Minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium are all found in your sweat. Make sure you allow your body to get extra of these so you stay healthy.

Also, get in the shade and in front of a fan. The sun can be physically and mentally draining when you are in it for hours on end. Plus, your skin can only take so much heat and sun before it becomes damaged. Do your body a favor: hydrate, shade, and fan.

HEAT EXHAUSTION VS HEAT STROKE

Heat related injuries can be very dangerous. If the proper precautions are not taken, they can result in major problems and even death. First and foremost, it’s important to know how to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

However, if either of these heat injuries do occur, quick actions and proper medical attention are crucial in treating them. But how do you know exactly which heat related injury you’re dealing with?

SYMPTOMS OF HEAT EXHAUSTION:

Heat exhaustion is one of the three heat-related injuries. Heat cramps is the mildest and heat stroke is the most severe. Without treatment, heat exhaustion can develop into heat stroke quickly, which is very dangerous.

  • Heavy sweating.
  • Weakness.
  • Cool, pale, clammy skin.
  • Fast or weak pulse.
  • Possible muscle cramps.
  • Dizziness.
  • Nausea or vomiting.
  • Fainting.

HOW TO TREAT HEAT EXHAUSTION:

  • Move person to a cooler environment.
  • Lay person down and loosen clothing.
  • Apply cool, wet cloths to as much of the body as possible.
  • Fan or move victim to air conditioned room.
  • Offer sips of water.

SYMPTOMS OF HEAT STROKE:

Heat stroke is more serious than heat exhaustion. It requires immediate medical attention. Symptoms include:

  • Altered mental state. The patient may be confused.
  • One or more of the following: throbbing headache, confusion, nausea, dizziness, shallow breathing.
  • Body temperature above 103°F.
  • No longer sweating but has become dry.
  • Rapid and strong pulse.
  • Fainting/losing consciousness.

HOW TO TREAT HEAT STROKE:

  • Heat stroke is a severe medical emergency. Call 911 or get the victim to a hospital immediately. Delay can be fatal.
  • Move the victim to a cooler, preferably air-conditioned, environment.
  • Reduce body temperature with cool clothes or a bath.
  • Use a fan if heat index temperatures are below the high 90’s. A fan can make you hotter at higher temperatures.
  • Do NOT give fluids.

FINAL TIPS FOR HOW TO BEAT THE HEAT

Paying attention to how your body feels and performs is the key to staying healthy and safe. No WOD is worth possibly dying. Instead, remember how to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion. And know how to treat them if you do suffer a heat injury.

Stay hydrated and healthy, and have an awesome summer.

Motivation, The Open

WHY SHOULD I DO THE CROSSFIT OPEN?

You should sign up for the CrossFit Open: Here’s our why

It’s that time of year again—time to register for the CrossFit Open. This year, the action starts March 11.

If you don’t know already, the Open is a three-week-long online WOD competition that is open to every CrossFitter from every box around the globe. Age is not a barrier to joining the fun and neither is experience—scaled WODs are offered.

The Open is not just about WODs, or RX-ing workouts, or pushing yourself to hit PRs. Like CrossFit itself, the heart of the event centers on building a healthy, supportive community through friendly competition.

To play an integral part in a great community challenge—that’s the whole point of the Open and of CrossFit. Each week Fern Creek CrossFit and other CrossFit boxes everywhere around the world ask their members to throw down in a brutal workout and then, at the end, to celebrate everyone’s individual successes. The Open is just a large-scale version of that weekly exercise in community-based exercise.

But there are other important reasons to sign-up for the Open. Here’s a few to consider if you’re still on the fence:

1. To see how far you’ve come.

You come in to the gym three to five times a week and work your butt off. The Open is a great way to showcase the results of all those efforts. More importantly, it will help push you to the next level. We have seen such amazing progress when people are put to the test of the CrossFit Open. The sheer number of first muscle-ups and double-unders is staggering.

2. To count yourself within the community.

Hundreds of thousands of people sign-up for the event each year, and the Open website allows you to see where you rank according to age and location. Don’t get nervous or shy about that part. The only people who should feel bummed about where they rank at the end of the competition should be those that didn’t choose to participate but secretly wanted to.

3. Because you can do it.

The Open is tailored to all athletes—not just the pros—and WODs are scaled accordingly—that means YOU can do it.

Sure, you can still marvel at how the elite athletes make the RX workouts look so easy, but going through your own modified version is a good reminder about what it takes to be at the elite level. It’s also great for your development.

The Open is the one time of the year where you have the opportunity to showcase your skills and development— while being cheered on by a supportive, fun group. Don’t get hung-up on thinking that the Open is for elite athletes only, or that you’re not ready for the challenge. The Open is designed for you and everyone that loves CrossFit. Don’t miss out on a great time.

4. What is your why?

Each day leading up to The Open we will be sharing our athletes “Why.” Don’t forget to check out Fern Creek CrossFit on Facebook and Instagram to see their stories!

2021 CrossFit Open

Click below to register for The Open

Register Now

Check out this video: 

COVID-19

CrossFit and COVID 19

“It’s going to happen to all of us,”

Dave Finlay, Owner CrossFit in the D

This past weekend Coach Robbie and myself had the opportunity to expand our coaching skill set by attending the CrossFit Level 2 Trainer course. The course was fantastic in many ways, so much learning took place to make us better coaches, but that is not why I’m writing this post today.

Over two FULL days we had the pleasure to interact with CrossFit coaches from all over the United States, mostly local, but some as far away as Michigan, Ohio, and Virgina. The topic that prefaced every conversation was COVID 19. The lectures, coaching evaluations, and general conversation all began with COVID 19 topics. For most of us, this was the first opportunity to see how other gyms were handling the pandemic.

Outbreaks

Before I get to far, I would like to share a recent article from the Morning Chalk Up. “How Two Gym Owners Handled COVID-19 Outbreaks.” This article was one of the first of its kind. Several CrossFit linked groups have written articles regarding COVID 19, mostly dealing with how to prepare, what to do, and how to survive when being shut down. This article, however, is one of the first to talk about what happens when a handful of members test positive for COVID 19.

This has and will continue to be a large concern for any gym operating in group settings. It has definitely been on the fore-front of all of our decision making at Fern Creek CrossFit. We have anticipated this scenario and even with the most robust of precautions, we knew the risk existed for exposure. Was this risk more because of our environment, likely not, as evidence has shown transmission rates in gym settings have been extremely low. but none the less the risk still existed.

In the article, Dave Finley, Owner of CrossFit in the D joked that he probably did everything “too correctly.” We feel this on a high level. Fern Creek CrossFit made a commitment to our members to do everything in our power to protect our members to the best of our ability. Even with voluntary shut downs, communication transparency, staff training and gym protocols, and an over abundance of cleaning and disinfecting we are still faced with positive cases of COVID 19 in our community.

COVID 19 in CrossFit

Back to our COVID 19 discussions with the other coaches. Some are very similar to us with their precautions, actually the majority of the other gyms represented align with our protocols, however some were less restrictive.

COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines

We cannot say that being less or more restrictive with our COVID 19 protocols equals fewer positive cases in our community. There are just too many variables. A persons time in the gym is only a small fraction of their day. Members are still interacting outside of our bubble day in and day out, something we cannot control.

“Now, people understand that it really can be coming from anywhere, it’s not as much ‘Oh I got it at this place,’” Nick Beal, owner of CrossFit Casco Bay and CrossFit Casco Bay Undaunted says in the article.

But at Fern Creek CrossFit we echo the sentiments of Dave Finlay, and many others we had the pleasure of chatting with…

I couldn’t even tell you how many thousands of dollars we’ve spent to try to keep things clean: buying equipment to clean things, buying masks, heating the place while the garage doors are open. The people who are coming, they’re getting a clean environment [and] a ventilated environment,

The Goal – Safe and Clean

That is the goal, a safe and clean environment, sparing no cost. We have no clue if we are even getting close to doing the right thing, only time will tell. There was no pandemic playbook, there was no CrossFit Headquarter guidance early on, we just started doing what we felt was the right thing to do.

Our discussion this past weekend with other coaches provided us confidence that we are on the right track. Couple that with positive feedback from our members, we are optimistic that we can and will survive this pandemic!

We are so thankful that you as members continue to support and trust us to be a safe place for you. If at anytime you feel we need to do better please talk with a member of the coaching staff or email [email protected]. We value your opinion, as we are not a community without our people.

Coach Erick

Uncategorized

Goal Setting Session

Thank you for scheduling your Goal Setting session. You will receive a confirmation email for your appointment.

Please start thinking about your goals and what you would like to discuss with the Coach. And not just any goals – SMART Goals.

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

There is a lot of value in those 5 words. To make the most of your CrossFit experience, it is a good idea to have some solid goals to work towards. Getting in better shape is a really abstract concept – how do you know when you’ve gotten there? How do you know that you have  achieved your goal? How do you know when it is time to make new and improved goals? Be specific. I want to be able to touch my toes. I want to string together 10 unbroken double unders. I want to front squat 260 pounds. A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

Be very careful of weight loss or measurement loss goals though. As your body composition changes you may very well lose fat and gain muscle and actually see the numbers on the scale increase. The way your clothes fit is a better indicator of your body composition than the number on a scale.
Your specific goals need to be measurable. Running faster is a goal, but not one that you can measure as is. You need to be more specific, like run a 5k in under 20 minutes. This also means that you need to know where you are starting at so that you can see the improvement made. You need to know what your current 5k time is so you can measure your progress over time.

Your goals need to be attainable. You have to have the desire and the means to follow through with them. I can say that I want to complete an IronMan in 2016 in under 12 hours (specific, measurable and timely), but if I don’t have the time or dedication to train that hard or the money for the equipment, it really isn’t an attainable goal for me at this time. Something more attainable might be to run a marathon in 6 months, or complete a sprint triathlon in September.

The goal has to be realistic for you. To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic – you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be.

Losing 20 pounds in 2 weeks or increasing your back squat by 100 pounds in a month isn’t safe or realistic. Depending on what your weight is at currently or what your max effort back squat is, we could talk about an appropriate timeline to reach either of those goals. They are both attainable, but we need to make them realistic for you.

Your goals have to have a date on them. Even if that dates moves once in awhile, you have to have a date that you are working towards. If there is no timeframe, there is no sense of urgency. Goals with no time frame belong on a Bucket List. Those things you will get around to someday. Doing a strict push up, pull up or muscle up in 30 days is something you can work on right now.

Another important part of this is to share your goals with your Coach. They surely want to help you achieve everything you are working towards, but they need to know what that is to help you in the most efficient way possible. If you are looking to compete, they know to enforce movement standards and maybe call out some no-reps. They can also push you harder in workouts.

Taking your goals into account will also help you decide how many days a week you should be committing to the gym and how clean your eating, recovery and sleep habits are. Your coaches want to help you with all of this.

When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them a reality. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals. You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. You many not know exactly what those steps are, but good coaches can help you figure that out.