CrossFit Athletic Group

Next to Erica's attendance list is a small mark I made based on how I percieve your momentum (fitness, not attendance) as of now. There are 118 people in the Champions Club this Summer, so it's definitely possible I'm wrong on some of you. I also see you guys, literally in some cases, every single day, so drastic improvements might not seem so dractic, and downward momentum might just really be static. But either way, the list is posted by the past Summer's attendance.

There is another list I post every so often. This is not like that list. That was a ranking compared to other people. This is compared to yourself from the spring. The momentum list includes 4 labels.

Double-up. A very noticeable upswing, more than would be expected.

Mr. Gjon, for example, is someone I'd have to beg to come in during April and May, for one reason or another. Now he's at 90% attendance, does the same weight as Luke in the team workouts, and is in the running for AOTS. This category can't be sustained for the long haul, but it shows someone taking advantage of the time being right.

Up. The usual progress I'd expect to see after a few months.

Dylan Colussi was splitting time in the spring between baseball for Athens, basketball with his dad and a few of the kids currently in the Rookie session, school, and here. This Summer his inclusion in the 10 am session has allowed him for not only more consistent attendance, but also more independance from his parents. He's doing 135-lb. deadlifts and pull-ups and next behind Zander/Owen in long distance running workouts. This is always the most difficult category for me to judge because of my greedy nature; I'd really like Dylan to be a Double-up kind of kid right now but for whatever reason (his body, his mind, my coaching, his sports, etc.) the timing might not be right. But then again, maybe it is and his standard isn't being held high enough. There are two main things that separate someone from this category to Double-up: 1) nutrition 2) where they are in their CrossFit career. Two weeks of locked in nutrition where there was none before will always give someone Double-up momentum. It's never not happened. It's why Mrs. Tara is on like 6 straight months of Double-up. Eventually she's going to get to the point where her gains aren't as drastic and she'll be in the Up category. Going from 3 handstand push-ups to 15, for a mom 3 years into CrossFit and starting a strict diet, is not that difficult. Going from 15 handstand push-ups to 21 for that same person takes a disproportionally longer time and is infinitely more difficult.

Straight. Not better, not worse. On the straight and narrow, more or less.

Sarah Curtis would be a good example here. During the early spring she really started to get a great feel for her body and her workouts reflected that. With spring and summer volleyball taking up a lot of her time, she hasn't been in as much; even now there are plenty of sessions where Sam is the only sibling in the car. But I have to say that I have not noticed any dip in fitness during the days where Sarah has been in. This means whenever the time is ready for her to dive into her fitness like she needs, she won't be starting from a deficit.

Down. A dip in the wrong direction, noticeably less capacity than before.

Katie Shakes came up to me in early June talking about how she thinks she bit off more than she could chew for the Summer, what with working two jobs, running a summer camp with Coach T, coaching softball, her own softball, and, of course, CrossFit. For someone who's been in it as long as she has, these kinds of clusters are going to happen. In fact, for the Careys, Crystal, Jay, Mel, myself, and Shakes one of the best ways to measure our fitness is to compare our Down momentum times. We should continually strive to make our "out-of-shape" states better and better.

It comes down to two questions: Where are you now? Where do you want to be at? The list provides what I believe is a pretty accurate depiction of where you are now. So now it's on you to marinate on if your current momentum is where you want it to be. If not, let me know and we'll get it rolling.

The most important thing to remember is that your fitness momentum will never have an endpoint; Mr. Gjon could very easily go on a Dairy Queen extravaganza over the next week that sends him in the wrong direction, while Sarah takes advantage of this week off volleyball to send her's in the right direction. It doesn't take much to swing the momentum you're currently on, for better or worse. It's just good to be honest with yourself at any given moment in time.

The whole point of having fitness is to be able to actually use it - whether that's in a weeklong soccer tournament, a 3-month long football season, or a year of teaching 2nd graders online. When you use your fitness, it's going to go down. As long as we allow ourselves time to build back up, it will be ready to use again.