Beauty Of MY sport!

I have chosen a sport where I can walk in a box and feel just as at home as I do in my box. 

I have chosen a sport where I can bring friends/family and they will feel just as welcome as I do. 

I have chosen a sport where I can attend an “open gym” time AND bring my Grandmother and Aunt Barbara who have never done crossfit before and they can feel just as comfortable as I do inside the box. 

I have chosen a sport where I can workout alongside my Grandmother, Aunt Barbara and mother and even at all different levels of fitness, we can all benefit from it just as much. 

Today was just another reminder of the beauty of my sport, crossfit. Feeling some serious guilt on the amount of food I consumed yesterday (not all paleo) and all the pics on the various social media feeds of my fellow athletes working out, I posted on facebook the desire I had for an open box (previous research before traveling I discovered that all the boxes I knew of were going to be closed) in the area I was in (Cypress). Thanks to Leah Shullenberger, she connected me to the owners of G Bar 3 Crossfit because she heard they were having open gym. After a few text I had an address and an owners name. I asked my mom to join me and that perked interest in my Aunt Barbara who has expressed interest in crossfit which perked interest in my grandmother. I struck while the iron was hot and told them they could just stretch some of their sore muscles from the Turkey Trott we did yesterday. They were in! As we drove there I couldn’t help but to pinch myself and see if I would wake up from this dream. I was headed to a crossfit box to workout with my Grandmother, Aunt and Mother…3 generations worth! 

We got there and was greeted by the owner Mike and one of his coaches Suzanne Wright. There was 2 others working out, one was in town from deployment and dropped in (he did an iron cross on the rings during his WOD). This was open gym format so there was no set WOD for us to do, we were own our own. This means I had to come up with a WOD for all of us to do with all of our different levels. I had to make sure my mom benefited having over a year of experience in CF. I had to come up with a WOD my grandmother who has never done crossfit before but needed some serious scaling. I had to come up with a WOD for my Aunt who has never done crossfit before but is already in good shape. A WOD where we could all have fun and wouldn’t be injured or sore all with keeping the idea of community. The first thing that came to mind was FRAN. Fran is very scalable and everyone could benefit from it. For those that don’t know, Fran is: 

Thrusters (65/95)

Pull Ups

I explained to them what they were going to do and how it was easy to scale, but yet they would still get the benefit from the WOD. They were in!!  I had to get them warm. We did a quick 250 row for my Aunt and Grandmother and a 500m Row for mom and me. We then did a dynamic warm up. I then brought out the PVC pipe and we got our shoulders warmed then I talked about the movements, thrusters and pull ups/ring rows. I told my grandmother, Pat Pat, she was going to stick with PVC pipe and I got a 15# bar for my Aunt. My mom was in charge of setting up her bar (she did 40#). We then moved to the rings where I explained to them they were going to do ring rows versus the RX Pull ups. We discussed how to scale pull ups by doing ring rows. We talked about the foot placement and how to make it harder and easier. Mom set up her bands for pull ups. I asked them if they had and questions and they were set to go. Before 3-2-1 was called, I explained to them that we could even scale reps to 15-12-9. This made Pat Pat feel better. Therefore Fran looked like this: 

Mom:                                    Aunt Barbara:                             Pat Pat:

21-15-9                                 21-15-9                                      15-12-9

Thrusters 40#                       Thrusters 15#                              Thrusters PVC

Pull Ups (blue band)             Ring Rows                                 Ring Rows

3-2-1 was called and they were off!! Is this really happening??? I was really watching my Mom, Aunt AND GRANDMOTHER do Fran!! 

After “TIME” was called, we put our equipment away. My Aunt rowed 1000m and Pat Pat walked about 300m. I went over some band stretching (yes I prob should have done that before but I was just too excited). THANK YOU Crossfit G Bar 3 for making this experience one I will NEVER forget.

It chokes me up to write this because I’m so PROUD and BLESSED to be a part of this AMAZING, CRAZY, LIFE CHANGING sport called CROSSFIT!