Blog entry September 2010

Emilee Johnson, September's Mount Olympian of the Month, serves as an excellent example to all of us.  Emilee has been with us since the day we opened our doors and accomplished a great deal athletically and even more outside the gym. 

Emilee recently completed a Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership while working full-time and still finds time to volunteer with her church youth group.  Emilee serves as director of Tiny Tim's Foundation for Kids, one of our favorite non-profit agencies.  Tiny Tim's makes and sends handmade toys all over the world.  Recently she organized a team for the Red Rock Relay that raised over $4,000 for the foundation.  This required a tremendous amount of logistical work, as well as running 186 miles with the team "Crutches for Tiny Tim" in a race (and a van) that none of us will soon forget.  We all owe Emilee for our blisters and sore legs!

Crutches for Tiny Tim, everyone still smiling!

Emilee readily tries new challenges.  She has run the St. George Marathon and number of 5k and 10k's.  She was the sole female runner on our fast team at the Dirty Dash. 

A pearl among swine.

Emilee lifts the spirits of everyone with her cheerful demeanor and easy smile.  We consider ourselves fortunate to count her as a friend.  However, don't let that happy exterior fool you, she'll run you into the ground!

The better looking part of the Sun Team:  Angela, Emilee, Jenny, and Stacy

As if Emilee weren't busy enough, she also manages to be a full-time wife to Joel--we all know how he is!

Congrats to two teams of Mount Olympus Misfits who jumped in with both feet during the Dirty Dash!  We had two teams successfully navigate the Soldier Hollow mud pits.  

Before the race

 Ren, Emilee, Joel, Devin, and Sam     

Kristi, Stacy, Brandon, Jeremy and Bob

Special note goes to Brandon who unleashed his inner predator and attempted to haul down several runners on the initial mud hill, setting a proper tone for the rest of the race!

The race is on!

True love!  CrossFit style. 

Are you sure?  I think they have a few good miles in them.

We are excited for a Big Saturday!  There are two outstanding workouts providing something for everybody.  Both will be at different locations away from CrossFit Mount Olympus.

Fight Gone Bad 5 will take place beginning at 10:00am at CrossFit NRG. There will be over 200 people working out to raise money for several worthy organizations. 

CrossFit affiliates worldwide will be doing Fight Gone Bad on Saturday. If you aren't running the Dirty Dash, go down to NRG and pitch in.

Dirty Dash

The Dirty Dash teams will be leaving from the gym at 7:30.  We need to carpool, and every vehicle with 5 or more people will be given 5 free passes to ski at Soldier Hollow this winter!  Come ready to get muddy.

We just returned from a phenomenal Movement and Mobility training clinic with Kelly Starrett, DPT.  We have been waiting for this training before implementing a mobility piece to each CrossFit class.  It will normally occur at the end of the workout, but expect some mobility movements as part of the warm-up as well.

In Dr. Starrett's words, "Every human being should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves. You know what to eat, how to train, and what to do if you have a cut; you should also know how to fix your tight hips, painful knees, and stiff shoulders, and how to make yourself faster and more powerful. It's too much to mobilize everything, all the time, everyday. Start somewhere. The Mobility Wod should take you four to 10 minutes to complete. Do it everyday."

In addition to the mobility piece of class, we are assigning homework to be done EVERYDAY!  It will take less than 10 minutes and will pay performance dividends for the rest of your life.  

Here is the video for overhead squat help.  A different movement will be posted everday. You should do this everyday if you are serious about your performance and overall health!

CrossFit Mount Olympus is first and foremost, a School of Elite Fitness.   School has started and it's time for you to return!

We will implement a few changes that will begin next week.

1. We will return to formal class times.  The current schedule can be found HERE.   Be ready when class starts, classes will last one hour. 
2. Warming up and cooling down.  We will have a more dynamic warm-up and cool-down in each class.  We will warm up and cool down together.  Feel free to come early and stay late to do additional work.
3. Practice.  Each day we will practice one specific skill as part of the warmup.  Listen to your coach and have a go--this will help you greatly on your quest for elite fitness.  Skills may be specific lifts, running form, or agility drills.  Everything is fair

Labor Day Weekend Schedule

All of the trainers will be attending a mobility seminar, so we will not have classes Friday night, Saturday, or Monday morning.  Monday night classes will be at the normal times.  We will post workouts you can do at home, take advantage of them.