Inside the Affiliate, Literally

Today, we want to take you inside our affiliate—literally. We recently added another 5,000 square-feet to CrossFit South Brooklyn (CFSBK) across the street and wanted to find ways to leverage the expansion online. As you may have noticed in Google Maps, you can take a virtual tour of many businesses (it's called Google Street View). I loved the idea of this, and contacted a photographer through Google, who created a virtual tour of our three spaces. You can see them below.

One of great things about CrossFit is that because we're not a franchise model, we have the ability to create our own unique cultures—and our facilities are a big part of that culture. As CrossFit continues to spread, one of the ways we can differentiate ourselves from other affiliates is by showing off our facilities online (ideally you'll be showing that space off on your website). Your online presence can help sway prospective members when they're making the pivotal choice to come check you out instead of the other gym that might be closer to where they live or work. Personally, I know that whenever I'm looking at other gyms' blogs, I always check to see what their facilities look like, which often creates a powerful impression of what they're all about.

It's important to remember that you definitely do not have to have the biggest or best facility out there, but you do need to take care of what you've got. Organize it well, and obviously, keep your bathrooms clean. Be proud of and confident about your space. It makes a huge difference.

Here is our original space, which we call 597 (since the address is 597 Degraw Street):

This is our recent expansion (which has our showers in it!), which we call 608:

This was the second space we expanded into, above 597. We call it "the Annex," and we use it for our CrossFit Kids programming, personal training, and Pilates and yoga classes:

Check out these other gyms that we spotlighted to see their facilities!

• CrossFit Roots: Inside a Colorado Affiliate
• CrossFit Oahu: Inside a Hawaii Affiliate
• STRONG Gym: Inside a Strength Training Gym
• CrossFit Solace: Inside a Manhattan Gym

CrossFit Preschool: 5 Things I’ve Learned From Working with 5-Year-Olds

By David Osorio, with Janelle Barth

In February of this year, we launched CrossFit Kids (6-8) and CrossFit Preschool (3-5) at CrossFit South Brooklyn (CFSBK). Though I had wanted to launch this program for a while, it took a backseat until our Front Desk manager Janelle—who has a lot of professional experience working with kids and is pursuing her masters in education—expressed interest in getting it started. I'd only dabbled in coaching kids during an internship after college and since I’m the youngest in my family, I didn’t have much experience working with these age groups. Even despite Janelle’s expertise, I was a little nervous—but up for the challenge and excited to expand my coaching horizons.

I’m not the only one who felt this way. At the CrossFit Kids seminar that Janelle and I took, we talked to a number of people with varying ranges of experience that all said they were nervous about running these classes. In today's article, I want to share a few things that we’ve learned since launching our CrossFit Preschool program (more on our CrossFit Kids later), in the interest of letting people know what to expect.

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How to Properly Spot the Bench Press at CrossFit Gyms

I recently visited an affiliate while traveling and the instruction on bench pressing itself was excellent, but there was no mention of how or when to spot. Everyone in the class seemed to be doing something completely different. Some were a mile away from their partner having conversations with other gym-goers, some were hovering over their partners basically tea-bagging them, and one girl was "spotting" her partner by standing next to her. Yes, like next to her—on the wrong side of the bar.

Bench pressing is the barbell lift most of the general population has been exposed to—and more often than not, exposed to incorrectly. When spotting, it's important to teach your members how to do it correctly so that no one is put at undue risk. Partial reps and sloppy set-up positions aside, the worst habits you might see in any given gym are a spotter who either is too handsy—assisting the entire movement and thus invalidating the lift—or a spotter who isn’t engaged and would only have front-row tickets to an accident were one to occur.

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How to Prevent CrossFit Injuries: A Guide for Coaches and Athletes

This article was originally published on Breaking Muscle

If you’ve ever experienced an injury, you know it can be emotionally devastating. You think the world is ending and you feel claustrophobic in a body that no longer performs in a way you’ve come to expect. As a CrossFit coach, your own injuries (or imagining your way into what such an experience feels like) should cultivate a disposition of empathy for your athletes—which should also lead to taking your responsibility as a coach even more seriously. 

Injury is an unfortunate reality inherent in all rigorous physical activity and no gym will ever be injury-free. But there are injuries I would consider preventable or easily avoided if coaches and affiliates adhere to some basic principles.

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Why Your CrossFit Gym Needs a Front Desk

In the early days, CrossFit South Brooklyn’s “Front Desk” was a broken and badly worn desk I found in the Brooklyn Lyceum, the facility where I was renting space by the hour. On that desk, I kept a pencil pouch with a Post-It note on it that said, “Please leave $20 for class.” There was also a composition notebook where people logged their names as they came in. The pencil pouch was our honor-based payment system, and the notebook was my clumsy attempt at tracking CFSBK’s membership.

This arrangement was the extent of our “Front Desk” for several years until we transitioned over to a software system called Mind Body Online. Then we moved to Volusion, and finally found Zen Planner. Even with the software, and for years after we moved into our current location, our initial point of contact with our membership remained that same pencil pouch full of $20 bills, and our composition notebook upgraded to a three-ring binder.

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Elevating the Push-Up

Here is our second installment in our "Correcting Common Errors With the Push-Up" series! In this video, I discuss two easy ways to modify push-ups for someone who is on the verge or getting their strict push-ups but not quite there yet.

Elevated Push-Ups

If possible, use an adjustable rack so that the athlete can quantify their progress and adjust over time (lowering as they get stronger). Also, for new athletes, set them up at the bottom of the push-up with their sternum on the horizontal support so they can walk their feet out to the exact point they'll need to be at. Often people arbitrarily set up their feet on elevated push-ups and end up incorrectly aligned as they initiate their descent.

Banded Push-Ups 

Setting up a jump stretch band just below their anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) allows them to scale how much force they need to produce in order to move through a full range-of-motion. This is also great for people who struggle with the bottom few inches—where more of their body weight is being shifted toward their arms—because as they descend, the band is stretching out, creating more tension and thus more support as they descend.

We'll be back soon with another ITA video!

How To Fix the Push-Up

Above is a video demonstrating some common cues we use for our general population CrossFitters as they execute push-ups. Check it out and see if it helps your athletes move more correctly! We wrote out the cues below, too. 

Sagging Midline

Verbal cues
+ "Belly-button touches the floor last."
+ "Lead with your belly-button off the floor." 

Tactile cues
+ Place your hand on their lumbar vertebra and ask them to "Lead here" as they come up.
+ If your athlete has been doing push-ups with a soft midline they will say this version feels harder. Say "Good!" 

Sagging Neck/Shoulders

Verbal cues
+ Getting your athlete oriented vertically and having them experience the sensation of trying to be taller with good posture is a much more readily available sensation most people can quickly organize. Set that as the default position to think about before getting into a prone orientation. "Get long" or "get tall" could encorage this while doing push-ups.

+ Initially explain that they need to keep their chin and nose behind the wall on the way down. I find that specifically mentioning to push their chin and nose back prevents cervical overextenion which many would otherwise default to. "head back" or something similar would work as a briefer cue once they get the concept.

Tactile cues
+ From a kneeling or standing position, use your arm or PVC to create a line from their sternum up to their nose and have them imagine saying behind it on the way down.

If they're too weak to organize this, you may want to elevate them. More on that soon!

Why Your Gym Should Program Rest Days

Any effective strength and conditioning programming has to account for work-to-rest ratio in order to manage stress and allow the body to adapt to training. CrossFit often teaches the three-on/one-off template, as well as the five-on/two-off template. At CrossFit South Brooklyn, way back in 2008, we started using a three-on/one-off, two-on/one-off template, which has worked extremely well for us. This schedule allows our athletes to train at high intensities throughout the week while not overextending themselves, and it provides our gym with a consistent programming template and weekly schedule.

We all know rest is important, but an obstacle to rest for many affiliates is accounting for programmed rest days while remaining open seven days per week (which is a practical and financial necessity for most gyms). The two most common solutions we’ve seen affiliates come up with include either offering seven days per week of novel programming, or running alternative, low-intensity programming on particular days—perhaps a skills class, Active Recovery, or just open gym time. We’ve also seen gyms simply close on Saturdays or Sundays, which creates a mandatory rest day for their populations. At CFSBK, our membership options and three-on/one-off, two-n/one-off template allow athletes to take up to five CrossFit group classes per week. We additionally provide various skill classes (yoga, Pilates, etc.) and open gym time. This allows us to offer seven days per week of attendance options without compromising our programming, and this precludes overzealous members from coming in every single day and training themselves into the ground.

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CrossFit Solace: Inside a Manhattan Gym

Basic Statistics

Affiliate name: CrossFit Solace

Location: 38 East 32nd Street, New York, NY

Year started: October 2014

Estimated number of members: 300 and growing

Square footage: 11,000 square-feet

Gym owner’s name/s: Tristan Keeffe, Jim Loperfido, and Chad McDonald

Number of full-time and part-time trainers: 16

ITA: Tell us the story about how your gym started. 

Tristan Keeffe: Jim and I initially met working out at EVF on the Upper East Side in 2012. We began discussing the idea of opening a CrossFit gym after investors showed interest in providing capital for Goattape, a company Jim was a major owner of. In January 2013, we set out in earnest to raise capital for our vision of what a CrossFit gym could truly be. 

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Will Lifting Make Me Bulky? Answers to Common CrossFit Questions

I've owned a CrossFit gym for almost eight years, which means I've fielded my fair share of questions, not just from my members but also from those who are curious about CrossFit. As I wrote in "Free Intro Classes at CrossFit Affiliates," we shouldn't be cynical or defensive when a woman yet again asks if she’ll get too bulky by lifting weights, or if a guy worries CrossFit is dangerous. Remember: they’re new to this stuff, and it’s on us to answer honestly and with empathy. If we want people to join our gyms, we should act like it. 

But now, maybe you can just direct the CrossFit Curious to this interview I did for The Homeopathoholic, a blog created by Liza Behles that is dedicated to exploring different types of exercise, diets, and health-related issues. Liza asked a bunch of common questions about CrossFit, and I hope my answers will be useful to you, whether you've never set foot in a gym, are just discovering CrossFit, or have been doing this for years and need help answering a friend's questions. We reposted the interview below, but you can also read the original on Liza's excellent blog.

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