August Newsletter

August Newsletter - CrossFit Fringe - Columbia MO

August Newsletter - CrossFit Fringe - Columbia MO

Is August the Sunday of Summer?

I’ve often heard people say that August is like the Sunday of Summer. While that almost feels kind of sad at first, I am definitely reminded that Sunday is the day before the next week of programming starts, and who doesn’t love that!? Therefore, August is ripe with possibility — and we are making sure to wrap up our summer with all our favorite people – YOU! Here is the August Newsletter!

Bring a Friend Week

That’s right. If you haven’t heard yet, we are having an entire week of classes for you to invite a friend to train with multiple times at Fringe East or West! For the week of August 14 through 19, you can bring a friend or friends to the classes below. East classes are in the morning and West classes are in the evenings.

Class times and locations for Bring A Friend Week:

  • Fringe East: 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 9 a.m.
  • Fringe West: 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m.

Whether you are a member of East or West, feel free to attend the slot that works best for your friend’s schedule that week at either location. To rephrase, this means for the week of August 14 through 19 if you are a member at East only, but your friend can only attend the 5:30 p.m. class, you both can go to West (and vice versa)!

All your friends have to do to attend is:

  1. Sign up for the week trial at the location they might want to join:
  2. Snap a pic of you and your friend post workout.
  3. Check in and share the photo on our Facebook page and tag us with #crossfitfringe! You can also find us on Instagram and Twitter @crossfitfringe!

And to make things even more fun…

August/September Elements Promotion — you AND your friends can WIN!

We’ve designed our Bring a Friend Week to cover all the skills of Week 1 in our Elements program. Should your friend decide to continue their journey in CrossFit, they can either continue into Week 2 of the August session or sign up for our September session!

If your friend signs up for Private or Group Elements in August or September and lists you as their recommending member, you both will be entered into a drawing to win a free month of CFF membership!

After Vicki first suggested this idea, we hit the ground running working on all the details — including special programming and vendors. I’m so excited for it to officially launch. We want to give you each member the opportunity to bring your friends in for workouts and to show off the progress and skills you’ve worked hard on, even through the heat of the summer. We know one trial class is often not enough to get a feel for who we are and what we do, let alone enough time for you to show off what you have accomplished.

Upcoming Events

Next Saturday Seminar: We’re working on dates for our next seminar, but we need YOU to tell us what you want to see. Send us your suggestions on Facebook or [email protected]! Current suggestions are covering ring muscle ups and the snatch.

Event Recaps

Fringe Kids Summer Camp

From Coach Stout:

Some of you (most likely our Westies) may have noticed a lot of little kids and teens around the gym last week. CrossFit Fringe hosted a Fringe Kids Camp from July 24th through July 28th , which would be the first since the merge for both of locations. To say it was a success would be an understatement. With the help of Mitch Stout (head counselor), Ava Kitzi (brains behind it all), (our fearless leader) Tyler Lasley, and many volunteers, our camp hosted up to 20 kids all week teaching them new skills, educating them on nutrition and played fun games to keep them entertained all week.

We can’t thank our sponsors enough for supplying us with snacks and cool stuff for the week, Supplement Superstore, Smoothie King, HyVee and Top Drawer Custom. A few highlights that the kids got to experience were pretty cool, to say the least. As a group, they took a trip on Wednesday to Hy-Vee to sit in on a nutrition class hosted by the on-site dietitian and made a few recipes in the process (chicken & veggie wraps, cowboy salsa, and breakfast banana split).

On Thursday, we had a few guests visit to speak and show off their skills to the kids and teens. Our very own, Shannon Hempstead, spoke to them about her experiences as a Games athlete in 2015 with the CrossFit Lubbock team and our local teen, Noah Casey, from Jeff City CrossFit made an appearance as well. Good luck to Noah as a 16-17 yr old teen going to the Games in Madison, WI!!! After their second WOD of the day, Ashlyn Balch, currently in the dietetics (nutrition & exercise physiology program) and a member of Fringe as well, came in to talk about the basics of nutrition and how we can eat healthier snacks and foods throughout the day. Teaching them the difference between carbs, proteins, and fats (healthy VS. non-healthy foods).

To finish up the week, we ended with a “water” theme on Friday afternoon. The kids got to play with water balloons (partner toss back and forth), which turned into a water balloon fight. A water sponge relay, drenching the kids with every pass to the person behind them was great to watch. The wet t-shirt relay was even better and more entertaining with small little four and five-year-olds running in a wet XXL t-shirt to a
cone and back.

I can’t thank everyone involved enough on how much their help meant to all the people involved. I think the kids, teens and even the parents enjoyed the fun and knowledge everyone experienced this past week. Thank you and we hope to see more and more kids involved in fitness and taking the next step into living a healthy lifestyle for many, many years!

Programming Updates

Comp programming

As you may have noticed our comp group has had a slight shift in priorities in the past couple weeks. Here’s an update from Coach Angelo:

One of the biggest shifts has been running, where we focused on building some running volume and are now working on aerobic power in that specific modality. Running is a skill very prevalent in competitions. Outside of that, it’s summer so what better time to work on such a skill.

We’ve also started a front squat cycle where we are using Andersen squats to build strength out of the bottom. By using this format we are taking the stretch reflex out of the equation as well as giving you more exposure to one of the most important positioning part of the clean and ultimately building overall leg strength. We have also started a squat snatch cycle which we are doing in conjunction with the class squat clean cycle to build more exposure to both technical lifts.

In addition to the first two, we have included a mixed modal MAP (aerobic power) workout paired with odd object/midline stability work. If you’ve seen some of the game’s events you can see that these implements are used by some of the most elite athletes in the world. There is almost no way to replicate the stimulus that this kind of odd object training gives us and it translates incredibly well to all movements.

Housekeeping

Well, it’s finally happened, West got a much-needed face-lift and a sign to match! While it’s not a huge difference, we feel more continuity with a sign that simply states what we offer, “CrossFit.” We hope this will make a difference for our newcomers and make both our locations feel more welcoming.

Additionally, thanks to Ray, we also now have a street facing sign at East. This is a huge accomplishment and it wouldn’t have been possible without his help or expertise. Now rounding the year mark since we moved in, it’s these touches that make me more excited to come “home” every day at either location!

From Questions/Comment Box

It’s that time of year when we have students heading back into town and one of the biggest questions we get is: Do you have a student rate?

The answer is ABSOLUTELY WE DO. The price for full-time students from any of our nearby Universities and colleges is $115 + tax for an UNLIMITED Plan. That’s unlimited classes and open gym for the same price as a 3x-a-week membership. While we know CrossFit is an investment, we try to keep our prices as reasonable as possible while increasing our value. You can learn more about our membership options by checking our Plans & Pricing page, and if you have questions, just drop us a line at [email protected].

Coach’s Spotlight: Sam Hutmacher

Q: When did you first hear about CrossFit? What was it that initially got you through the doors?

So I actually googled CrossFit in Columbia my freshman year of college because a girl I had known from back home was at Mizzou, was working out at CF United, and was posting about it ALL the time. I thought I was super fit (shout out to all my Body Pumpers) and wanted to see what it was that she was raving about. I saw some video on CrossFit’s YouTube account with handstand push-ups (couple that with the standard pricing of CF gyms) and was like, “Yeah–nope. Not for me.” It wasn’t until 2013 that I finally stepped into a CF gym and, of course, fell in love.

Q: I feel like, kind of having watched you from afar (creeping), you really hit the ground running and took improvement into your hands. What were some of the biggest resources you utilized to do that?

If I were to pick one thing that kept me motivated and successful, it would be a gym buddy/accountability partner who was equally as infatuated with CrossFit as I was. I only ever worked out hard in group fitness classes because I needed the extra push. To this day, I work harder and try more things if there is even one person in the gym watching/working out with me. So when I started, it was fun to text my gym buddy or a coach I was close with and come screw around in the gym before/after classes. I also ate a lot of Little Ceasar’s Hot-N-Ready pizza. It was my early 20’s–what do you expect.

Q: Like me, you found out you were pregnant at kind of a high point in your fitness, what was it like adjusting to kind of backing off your fitness, and how did you stay motivated to stick with CrossFit?

Gosh, babies are great. Every pound gained and workout modified was worth it in the end; however, I struggled BIG TIME in accepting that my fitness regimen had to change as my body did. I was really getting into competitive Olympic Weightlifting and more competitive style CrossFit programming, so that was all I knew. Truthfully, I probably worked out a handful of times while pregnant. Though, when I did, I felt great (not sure how I didn’t make the connection there and keep coming back). Instead, I opted to work as much as possible to save for the baby (where did all that money go, btw???). I kept coaching up until I couldn’t make it work with my second job. I, luckily, had an immense amount of support from my Iron Wolf family at the time and my job was waiting for me when I was ready to accept that I was just a young, working mom now!

Q: And now with a toddler and coaching crazy amounts of classes you’ve kind of hit this amazing stride with your nutrition, what do you feel like has been the biggest key to success and what are some of your tricks for getting through the week and staying on track?

Hands down, working with Tyler (@outliernutrition) has kept me focused and on the right track. We had a discussion when IW became Fringe about the expectation that coaches workout at the gym. No-brainer, right? Lead by example. That idea was terrifying to me because I was still so out of shape at over a year postpartum that I didn’t want to embarrass myself. But I also realized that I didn’t feel credible as a coach if I wasn’t following our own methodology. I asked for help with my nutrition in February when I had started regularly following Fringe’s programming and never looked back. I am down 29.2 lbs in the past 9 months total and I am not stopping anytime soon!
The best advice I have for someone working on their nutrition is to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Plan your week, plan your day, weigh and measure, and expect it to be tough! It takes time to feel like you’re seeing results. It is easy to have this perspective in hindsight, but it is so true and so worth it. Change is hard. Being unhappy and unhealthy is harder.

Q: How do you approach now vs before Fee?

One word: BALANCE. I’m smart about not kicking my butt TOO hard in the gym so that I have the energy to sing and dance and color on the windows at home. Also, I vacuum much more now.

Q: Switching gears, the CrossFit Games are here. Who are the athletes you like to watch and why?

I am and always will be a devout fan of sports or teams or individuals who are close to home AKA Brooke Wells. I enjoy rooting for people/teams who I feel a personal connection to. And since we know Brooke so well through Fringe and from having competed with her myself, I feel closer to the competition knowing a little bit about how she operates. GO BROOKE!!

Q: What are the biggest goals you are working toward right now, and where do you hope to be this time next year?

Truthfully, my absolute number one goal is to raise a compassionate, optimistic, hard-working, resilient, and confident little girl. But, again, I must lead by example so I try my best to work on these characteristics myself so that she can one day emulate her role models and become one herself. CrossFit, my dietary practices, and the real relationships I make in this gym on a daily basis are nothing short of best practice for helping me reach that goal! Also, I want to be funnier. So hopefully I learn some new jokes by next year.


Have an amazing month of love, lifts, and GAINS! As always, if you need anything, you can reach out to us on social media, or email [email protected].