We are what we hear.

When we Coach, we’re very deliberate about word choice. We want you to practice that on yourself as well. 

You will focus on what you hear from a Coach, if we first explain what went wrong with a lift (“you lifted your toes”) – that’s what you’ll think about. However, if we focus on what you need to do in fixing the lift (“keep your toes connected”) – it should both correct the fault and set the athlete up for success.

Your self talk works the same way. When you focus on what you perceive to be wrong, you’re more likely to repeat that very thing. When that gets combined with harsh and critical language, the situation snowballs into something worse.

Here’s the test. Would you say out loud to someone else, what you’re saying to yourself? If not, then how is that talk helping you? It isn’t. The missed lift isn’t what gets us yelling at ourselves, it’s the expectations we attached to that lift. Whether we’re chasing a personal record, or our gym rival, or some version of who we believe we’re supposed to be relative to the outside world. Instead, focus on who you are right now and what is required for you, today.

These days, there’s lots of talk about mindfulness – here’s what it boils down to – separating yourself from your thoughts. Simple, right? Yet, it’s very hard to practice.

Maybe there’s a heavy lift programmed today and maybe you also slept like garbage last night. All getting upset about that lift is going to do is make the situation worse. Please stop that. Be kind. Our bodies are capable of incredible things, by building on what we can do, doors open to so much more.

Congratulations Marissa!

Once a month, our community votes to recognize a single member who embodies the spirit of Subversus Fitness. He/she is someone who has a good attitude, even on the toughest days, is always there to lend support to fellow athletes, and generally goes the extra mile to help build our community to become even more awesome. When it’s time to vote, we send a reminder email out to the entire crew, but if you ever see another member do something really cool for you or the gym in general, feel free to shoot us an email at info@crossfitcc.com or leave a note in the box to tell us what happened! Our Member of the Month is always awarded a FREE month of membership to Subversus.

What some of you had to say about Marissa!

Congratulations from the Coaches!

And now, from our winner!

What’s your day job and profession?

I am currently in my 3rd year of medical school at Thomas Jefferson. Right now I’m planning on pursuing Emergency Medicine after I graduate!

What’s a skill or goal that you’re currently working on?

I am working on getting stronger and trying to push myself to lift heavier during our strengths! 

Tell us a story about a time that you’ve been loud?

Well, I’m not a very loud person most of the time haha. I do get into watching my Cleveland sports teams (Go Browns!). But most recently I had the opportunity to watch my sister compete at the Mayhem Classic and I definitely lost my voice cheering her on!

What is the last movie you watched, and how was it? 

The last movie I watched was 1917. I enjoyed it, definitely recommend! 

If you had to be one CrossFit Girl workout, which one would you be and why?

If I was a girl workout, I’d probably be Kelly. I love running for some reason, and box jumps and wall balls are some of my favorites as well.

What song gets you hyped up when you feel like dying?

Tough one. I don’t know that I have a particular song in my mind. Recently heard Feather or Don’t Kill My High. Or anything Beyonce.

Thanks, Marissa! Keep crushing it in workouts!

Is CrossFit for me?

We have lots of conversations with individuals who are looking to achieve their fitness goals, connect to a new community or just change up their routine and ask that question. Our answer is categorically yes. Why are we confident in that answer?

1. This is a complete fitness program. What does that mean? Your life looks different each day, so should your training. We balance short, fast efforts with longer, more cardio based days – this keeps things interesting, but also makes you able to train and recover effectively. We also don’t shy away from weights, instead – we teach you how to move heavy lifts safely.

2. Our expert Coaches. Before you can coach a class with us, our staff first must be certified and then have a minimum of 1 year of experience and learning our methods. As an athlete, you can expect a personal training level of attention in a group format.

3. We do this too. From our Coaches, to the gym owner – expect to see us not just coaching classes, but testing new programming and also doing it right alongside you! If your Coach doesn’t train like you – why are they your coach? We know this works, that’s why we know it will work for you.

4. Longevity. Our members stay with us for years and we’re intensely proud of that. We don’t just know our members, we know their kid’s names and what they do for a living. We’re invested in you as a human being, not just as a member taking a class.

5. High standards. We’re not interested in you having an “ok” class or mediocre results. Our methods are the basis for getting you in the best shape of your life and moving with excellence – that’s our goal and what we strive for with each athlete in each class.

You’re reading this because you’re interested in achieving your goals. Not “kind of” achieving your goals, but crushing them and finding new ones. We want you to be who kids point to and want to be when they grow up. We want people to look to you when it’s time to change the water cooler. This is why you train. Not just to occupy an hour and get sweaty, but to experience something different and build total fitness. CrossFit isn’t for everyone. It’s for anyone who wants to achieve the best results possible, push themselves and do amazing things – we believe that’s you.

Let’s get started.

Micro gyms are the new fine dining restaurants. I love the Netflix series “Chef’s table” for the reason that each story follows a similar arc (Joseph Campbell fans out there will get it as well..). The featured chef’s grew up in and absorbed their community. Next – they left it to learn a trade, in this case cooking. Whether through a school, going to France, etc. and through an apprenticeship – they left to learn. The third phase is the return to their community and finding uncommon success through their ability to combine technical acumen with a community imperative of authentic experience (food that locals respect and non-locals wait a year for a table). World class comes from the intersection of ability, authenticity and passion.

Fitness is becoming the new food culture. In our hierarchy of needs, the ability to move and stay alive is just after food (hence the purpose of that food). As our lives shift away from hunting and gathering – we have to cultivate ways to stay active and healthy. Cue – join a gym, running/fitness group or hire a trainer. Prior to the rise and proliferation of CrossFit and it’s style of class (60 minutes of training in a group setting that pushed high intensity and varied movements), if you wanted to be active – you joined a big box gym (rows of treadmills, free weights and lots of things attached to cables) or you did sports, primarily endurance events (running 5ks, marathons, triathlons). 

In the late 90s, Greg Glassman got kicked out of a big box gym for running classes using a combination of gymnastics, weightlifting and cardio activities. Training itself became a sport, CrossFit was born and the industry shifted. With the cultural acceptance of higher intensity training saw the rise of spinning, boxing, even yoga started to incorporate “power” movements and structures. Not to mention lots of “micro” gyms utilizing combinations of weightlifting, cardio and classes.

To bring it back to the food example. 20 years ago, if you wanted Italian food, you went to Olive Garden. Now you can go get farm-to-table, organic produced wheat pastas, hormone free chicken and sauces with tomatoes from a farm whose picture is on the menu. Olive Garden is out of business. Fitness is heading the same way. The ones who thrive, will embrace this shift as those Chef’s have, creating an experience and connection to something bigger than just a plate of pasta, but a feeling (and it better taste really, really good).

For fitness this means,  if your Coaches are parroting a workout, substituting knowledge for volume and hoping nobody gets injured – your days are numbered. This is the same as the restaurant whose staff reads you the special and gets you your food just before it’s cold – you’re not coming back.

This also means that no single program, methodology or approach is for everyone. It’s about finding the unique aspect of what you do and doing it better than anyone else in the world. It’s about asking that question of yourself as a Coach every day. If that happens, the community grows, people get what they want, the reviews and Michelin stars of the fitness world happen. If it doesn’t you’ve preyed on someone’s desire to trust their self-improvement to your skills as a “coach” and our industry is unfortunately rife with this. We choose the methods that we do because we believe in their impact, efficacy and efficiency. It’s also how we ourselves train – it doesn’t mean we don’t value other approaches, it means this is our piece of the world. The smaller the menu, the better the food. I’ve been asked why we don’t offer yoga classes. The answer is because we can’t do it well enough. It’s not our subject area and if you want to do yoga – you should absolutely seek out the best in yoga instruction. If we offer it, it will be because we believe it’s done in pursuit of the highest expression of that movement and for the greatest benefit of our members.

We obsess over barbell starting positions the way chef’s do for olive oils. We plan out workouts like the courses in a fine dining meal, each element building on another. We aren’t the only gym in the city or certain world who does this nor are we perfect every time, but the question we ask every day is how could we be better so that you can be better. What would it take to build the strongest community possible and the fittest, happiest members? That doesn’t mean you’ll be comfortable, it does mean you’ll get better and we will too – that’s our promise.

Today, we’re getting deep into science by asking a question. “Does metal have a gender?” 

Now, before you think too deeply about this – let’s skip to the answer. No, it’s metal. This is why in our gym, when describing the barbells that are available for use, you’ll hear our Coaches refer to them by what they weigh (20 kilos, 15 kilos or 15 pounds), not who has historically gravitated towards using which of those weights and what gender they identify with. To some, this may seem trivial, to others it can be transformative, to everyone it’s an example of why words matter – especially in the gender charged space of fitness.

Let me start by saying that our gym isn’t perfect – our goal is to always be learning how to best support our community. Our job is performance – helping you change from something to something else (gain weight, lose weight, get faster, improve a workout time and so on). The words that we use in that process can either enhance or derail that process far faster than the physical aspect of that process. Let’s give a quick example. A new athlete comes to train with us who happens to identify as a man and today’s class calls for pressing a barbell overhead. Let’s also say that this man doesn’t have the best shoulder position because he works at a keyboard all day. If the Coach instructs the class to grab “men’s or ladies” bars, this guy is likely to use a bar too heavy for his shoulders and get injured. The Coach could have been super attentive to watching movement, have a great attitude and even playlist, but their word choice set this athlete up for a potential injury.

Now, what if you identify as transgender? You’ve just been told that for starters you don’t belong because there isn’t any equipment for you and that’s even before we even get into what’s happening with your shoulders. If our goal is performance, all we’ve just done is derailed that process by using a few words.

Words also matter when it comes to what you say to yourself as an athlete. For starters, are you calling yourself an athlete? You should be, because you are one. There are no try-outs to be an athlete, if you’re moving your body with a purpose, congratulations – you’re in. How many times do you hear someone say “I’m not an athlete” or claim how they won’t be able to do a lift or movement. Our self-talk has a tremendous impact on our performance. Tell yourself you will or won’t do something and guess what – you’re right. However, what if you give yourself the opportunity to embrace what’s at hand? The doors open.

The language that we use in the gym as Coaches starts that process. The more closed we make discussions (gendering bars for example), the more closed our athletes will be as a result during their internal conversations. Our words matter because they are either creating growth opportunities or fixed outcomes. Beyond creating a space that is inclusive of gender and physicality, what you hear will have an impact on what you say in your head. Let’s not forget that inclusivity also applies to goals too.

So, while you might shrug it off, we don’t and that’s what makes our approach different.

We deal in helping you conquer the unknown and achieving what you never knew you could. It starts with words and raising the bar on that standard.

Competition is nerve wracking, scary and absolutely needs to be a part of your training.

Why?

Training in the gym is an important experience, you gain strength, power, resiliency and work towards achieving skills. All things that provide value to you in your life outside the gym, from being able to play with your kids, help your friend move or simply look better naked – all perfectly fine reasons to train. However, one of the critically different parts in the inception of CrossFit was the introduction of competition and game theory as a community around that training. Not just working out.

This doesn’t require that one must record the fastest time, highest number of repetitions in the workout of anyone else in class or perform as prescribed, not at all, rather it is establishing a reference point to compete against your old score months later. The greek motto for the Olympics is “citius, altius, fortius” meaning “faster, higher, stronger”. Not necessarily just measured against your competition, just faster, higher and stronger. 

It can be easy to go into a workout and say “I’m not going to record a score today, I just want to sweat and move.” We’ve all been there. Sometimes it’s because of a stressful day outside of the gym and you just need a release. It takes the pressure off, it makes the upcoming experience more comfortable. However, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Our job as Coaches is to make you uncomfortable. You simply won’t get better if you aren’t uncomfortable. That’s a fact and that’s the beauty of competing. Whether it’s a 5k race against your spouse for bragging rights, a CrossFit competition, a friendly rivalry in class or your personal performance. It doesn’t have to be as prescribed, it does need to challenge you. Want to run faster? Chase someone.

You won’t always win (I lost by 7 seconds in a recent 5k against my fiance), you will always push yourself more if there is competition on the line. You will get the most out of your valuable hour in the gym and you will be proud of your effort. You won’t always win and that’s precisely the point. Sometimes you’ll surprise yourself, sometimes you’ll discover a weakness in your training that can be improved. Always – you’ll come out a stronger person, that we can assure you. However, it only happens if you commit to compete, when you commit to be uncomfortable.

Next time, when you’ve had a tough day, get butterflies from a workout or are tempted to ask for a smiley face score. Embrace that feeling, dig in, compete – you’ll be glad you did.

Congratulations Courtney!

Once a month, our community votes to recognize a single member who embodies the spirit of Subversus Fitness. He/she is someone who has a good attitude, even on the toughest days, is always there to lend support to fellow athletes, and generally goes the extra mile to help build our community to become even more awesome. When it’s time to vote, we send a reminder email out to the entire crew, but if you ever see another member do something really cool for you or the gym in general, feel free to shoot us an email at info@crossfitcc.com or leave a note in the box to tell us what happened! Our Member of the Month is always awarded a FREE month of membership to Subversus.

What some of you had to say about Courtney!

Congratulations from the Coaches!

And now, from our winner!

What’s your day job and profession?

I am a paralegal at a class action law firm.

What’s a skill or goal that you’re currently working on?

Pull ups.

What is your favorite meal to cook for someone?

Spaghetti squash pad thai – it’s so good!

You’re a big time foster dog mom. What’s your most interesting foster mom moment?

Probably the time when Jackson, an Australian Shepard wandered away from our hiking trail and into the nudist camp adjacent to the park. The campers were really nice about it!

If you had to be one CrossFit Girl workout, which one would you be and why?

Nancy because I love running and squats. Strong second for Grace though!

What song gets you hyped up when you feel like dying?

Any song by the 3 B’s – Britney, Beyonce, or Bieber.

Thanks, Court! Keep crushing it in workouts!

This is why the holidays can be your best time to workout.

Everyone knows that the holiday season can be a stressful one, you’ll travel, you’ll wait in lines, you’ll build a calculated algorithm to sort out online sales, you’ll just cast your fitness off till January. It doesn’t have to be that way! Here are some tips.

1. Make a plan. Chances are good that at this point, you know if/when you’re traveling and the date of your office holiday party. Going into those weeks, take a look at your schedule. Sure, you might always workout after work, but maybe that day – plan to come in the morning – make time for you and be happier later.

2. Make it a game! This month, we’ll have the 20in30 challenge. Come in for class on 20 of the 30 days that we’re open (closed on Christmas Day) and you’ll be in the running to win a $100 gift card! Help keep your friends accountable too!

3. Be flexible. In the past year, I’ve done pull ups on a circular staircase, tree and more. Don’t get frustrated, get creative! If you’re traveling, find a fun way to get in some fitness (just don’t be the person who ditches your family for hours at a time..). Here are some travel friendly options (and none of them are a burpee, you’re welcome)!

   1. Chair dips

   2. Push ups

   3. Jump rope (seriously, that can fit in ANY piece of luggage)

   4. Mountain climbers

   5. Sit ups

   6. Air squats

   7. Pull ups (editor’s note – test the thing you want to use first.. Just saying..)

   8. Planks

   9. Running (gasp!)

   10. Lunges

So, don’t despair! With a few easy plans, December can actually be a great month of training AND help keep your sanity as everything around you gets crazy. Carving out some time to do the things that keep you healthy and happy will go a long way to easing stress and making time with loved ones that much more enjoyable! Just don’t be that person filming their airport workout, seriously.