Effective immediately, the following changes will be in effect at CrossFit Denver.  Steve will be overseeing group classes, workout of the day, and overall management of the facility.  Randy will be focusing on personal training, CrossFit Kids, and corporate wellness training. If you participate in the WOD classes, you will likely not notice any changes, other than we will be adding additional classes and instructors in the near future. If you have any questions about the reorganization, please do not hesitate to talk to either of us about it, we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

If you have questions about group training or the way the workout of the day is handled, contact Steve.  For one-on-one personal training, CrossFit Kids, or getting a corporate wellness program at your place of business, please contact Randy.

This weekend is the fight gone bad 5 charity event!  Fight Gone Bad (the event) is a charity event supporting LIVESTRONG, the Wounded Warrior Project (supporting injured military veterans), and the CrossFit Foundation.

I feel very guilty that I haven’t been pushing this more, but the gym reorganization has been taking all my time.  It late, but there’s still time to participate in the fund raiser!  We’d love to see you register on the site and help in the fundraising!  You can do that here:  Register If you’d rather not register for fund raising, PLEASE visit my page and make a donation for the charity.  You can do that here:  Donate

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome some new and future staff members at the gym.

New Instructors, CrossFit Level 1 Ceritifed:

Martine Buffet.  Martine comes to us from CrossFit Las Vegas, and got her level 1 certification in May of this year.  She will be teaching morning and noon classes primarily.

Jaimie Lusk.  Jaimie has trained with us for over a year, and decided to take the next step to instructor last weekend.  She is now level 1 certified, and will begin co-teaching morning classes immediately.

Soon-to-be-certified assistant instructors:

Brian Saxon and Paula Leuske will be certified at the end of October, and will be assisting classes with current trainers in the interim.  We’re still working on what their schedules will be, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

We now have 10 certified (or soon to be) instructors at the gym!  Steve Paul, Randy Goldstein, Katrine Moreale, Mark Lodmill, Mike Silverman, Kevin Bell, and the four new trainers above.

Just so you’re aware, our current trainer schedule (subject to change without notice), is as follows:

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
6a	Mark	Steve	Katrine	Katrine	Steve
7a	Monica (Yoga)	Martine	Jaimie	Jaimie	Steve
9:30a						Randy	Steve
Noon	Steve	Steve	Steve	Mike	Steve
5:30p	Steve	Steve	Steve	Steve	Mark
6:30p		Steve	Steve	Steve
7:30p		Steve (rugby)	Eric (sticks)

Other staff members:

Jessica Vastola.  Jess has been training with CrossFit Denver for several years, and has agreed to take on the role of social coordinator.  We feel strongly that its much more fun to train with friends, and the best way to get more friends is to have lots of field trips, get-togethers, off-site WODs, etc.  Jessica will be working closely with Steve to make these happen.  Got an idea for an event?  Please email Jess at jessica@crossfitdenver.com

Deanna Seitz.  Deanna is returning to the gym after a brief hiatus, and will be the gym’s marketing coordinator.  Deanna’s full-time job is in marketing, and we’re sure she will bring some coherence to our current marketing strategy.  Or rather, our total lack of one.  Help create XFD’s marketing strategy by sending suggestions to deanna@crossfitdenver.com

Monica Zaltsberg:  Monica is a yoga instructor and teaches the 7am Monday yoga class.  She also teaches for core power yoga, and is a volunteer instructor for a homeless mission downtown.

Eric Underwood:  Eric is our sticks (martial arts) instructor, and teaches the 7:30pm Wednesday sticks class.  He is a second-degree black belt in Doce Pares Eskrima, and has been teaching in various capacities for several years.

Stay tuned!  We’re looking at some other staff additions, and we’ll keep you posted with all of them.

As you may have noticed, we’ve been hard at work upgrading the gym lately.

We have installed 7 new sets of rings, which have measurements marked on the straps, so it will be easier to keep the rings level.  We need to add another strap to the top end so they are long enough to make a full loop, but that should be done this week.

We’ve painted half the gym with a new, brighter white, along with a new wall ball stripe.  We’re going to repaint the lounge too.

Thanks to Eric Underwood, we now have a stereo mounted in the workout area, with speakers along the wall.  No hitting the speakers with wall-balls!!!!

Lots more upgrades still to come.  The gym should look different every day you walk in!

We’ve just gotten Pandora for the gym.  Pandora is an internet music service that will make playlists based on an artist you name.  So, I need some artists to start with.  Throw some names out there for me.  What music do you like to listen to when you work out?  There’s a comment block for you to answer down below.

We’ve got tons of buffalo available for purchase!  Please see Steve to buy some.  We have ground buffalo for $5/pound, chuck roast for $7/pound, various other roasts for $8/pound, and steaks for $10/pound.  Act now to get the best cuts.

Just a quick clarification about dropping weights at the gym.  ANYTIME you feel you need to drop any piece of equipment to avoid personal injury, please do so, even if it breaks that piece of equipment.  I can fix or replace equipment, I can’t fix or replace you.  Having said that, some people seem to be really enjoying the big boom a weight makes when it is dropped from a height.  That’s all fine, but I would ask you to be aware of the following guidelines if your personal safety is NOT at risk:

- Be aware of your surroundings.  When getting under a weight, ANY weight, be aware of where other people/equipment/racks are, so if you have to bail, you can avoid throwing anything in their direction.  Some of our weights take strange bounces (i.e. kettlebells), so when at all possible use those away from others, or stay in contact with the weights as you drop them.

- Along the same lines, when doing olympic lifting from a rack, get far enough away from the rack so you can bail without damaging the rack.  For example, standing a foot away form the rack for an overhead squat pretty much guarantees that you’re going to bounce the bar off the rack, most likely damaging both and maybe yourself with the bar bounces back at you.

- Dropping bars onto the racks.  The racks are obviously made to support heavy weights, but please do make sure you are safely ON the forks before releasing the weights.  Throwing the weights in the general direction of the forks is probably not the best tactic to rack your weights.

- Please don’t drop empty olympic bars if you can avoid it.  When there are bumper plates on the bar its fine, but they’re not made to be dropped without bumpers, and we’re seeing more and more bent bars recently.

- Try very hard to avoid dropping the 15-lb PVC bars and/or the wooden 5-lb plates.  They’re somewhat durable, but aren’t made for the high-velocity drops that tend to happen in a WOD and they will break if abused.  I can fix the bars (and do so, frequently), but I’d rather not have to fix them if we can avoid breaking them altogether.

Thanks very much for your attention and cooperation!!

Remember!  Anytime you refer a new member to us, both you and the new member get 50% off your normal monthly rate the next month!  Bring us in two people a month and you train for free!