Coach's Blog
No Failure, Only Feedback
by Michael Plank Imagine that it's 40,000 years ago. You and your friends grab your spears and journey out of your caves to hunt and gather and feed your small band of humans. Along the way, you stop to pick some berries. You set down your spear and step a little...
You Are Not Your Workout
by Michael Plank We talk a lot with our 6-year-old about choices - maybe to an over-the-top degree. Any time he talks about "bad guys" or "bad people" we always correct him to say "you mean people who made some bad choices." Why? Because people are...
With All Your Strength
by Michael Plank Most of you know we run a class at our gym called WAYS (With All Your Strength). That class is awesome. It mixes the Workout of the Day with some worship elements in a body, mind, spirit experience. Our vision at UPCF is to measurably improve the...
The Long Game
by Michael Plank The phrase my parents use most often when talking about my childhood athletic abilities is: "painful to watch." It's totally accurate. This picture marked a massive success for me in that my eyes are open (barely) and I'm facing the ball instead of...
Why Does It Take SO Long…
by Jess Pino-Goodspeed A client came to me recently and said how badly she wanted to achieve her body composition goals and how frustrated she was that it was taking so long. “Why does it take so long to see the changes?” I had the opportunity to have an open and...
3 Ways to Make Your 2021 Resolution Stick
by Michael Plank It's that time of year! "New Year, New You." "It's YOUR year." "THIS year will be different." We've been in this game for awhile now and have worked with literally hundreds of people on goals and resolutions over the last six years. Here's the bad...
There Are More than Two Options
by Michael Plank At the end of my last semester of college I got a letter from the university that said I would not graduate with the rest of my class. Turns out that skipping tons of classes has consequences. I remember my thoughts spinning immediately to how awful...
Practicing Self-Love
by Brittany Gillis Have you ever been at the gym wishing you could be that person who is lifting a ton of weight or that girl who has enough confidence to work out in her sports bra? You want so bad to be that person, so you workout countless hours each day, or go on...
Why Coaching Matters
When CrossFit first burst onto the scene 20 years ago, the workouts were revolutionary. As gyms began to affiliate and join the CrossFit brand, individual coaches would put their own tweaks on the methodology and come up with workouts that have now become staples in...
An Open Letter to CFHQ
Below is the full text of the letter we sent to CrossFit, Inc.’s Affiliate Support this morning, June 17, 2020. Dear Sir/Ma’am, We are the owners of Underwood Park CrossFit in Fort Edward, NY. We became a CrossFit Affiliate in September 2014. We opened our gym...