Coach's Blog

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...

How I found UPCF

I found CrossFit in early 2010. I had done the classic 3x/wk bodybuilding, 2x/wk cardio routine for years. That worked great throughout high school and into college. But after college, my metabolism slowed down, I knew nothing about nutrition, and those workouts from...

What the Heck is ‘Accessory Work’?

You're going to be hearing that term a lot soon: ACCESSORY WORK I mean, you can pretty much figure out that it means "extra stuff," but why? How many of you remember your first CrossFit "warmup," sweating buckets, panting like a dog in the summertime, hearing the...

Intensity is Everything

When people try new restaurants, I often ask them how they liked it. If they did like it, you know what a lot of people say? "It was great! They give you so much food!" But I've been to enough restaurants that give you enormous portions of terrible food to believe...

What’s Your “Why”?

Feb 15, 2018 | CrossFit

All over the internet right now, motivational sources encourage you to find your "Why." (I've encouraged people to do it too). The thinking goes that if your WHY - your reason for doing what you're doing - is big enough, you can overcome any HOW. It's good advice. And...

Patience is a Virtue

Jan 10, 2018 | CrossFit

Do you know how amazing life is right now? You can literally touch your phone in the right places and a car will show up wherever you are to take you wherever you want to go. You can say things, like "Alexa, order me shampoo" to what is basically just a speaker and...

You Don’t Have to Like It

Nov 15, 2017 | CrossFit

I remember hearing that as a kid... "You don't have to like it." Usually when I was complaining about something, about chores, or homework, or going to school. It always felt tough and kind of mean. But I thought of it the other day. We had a tough workout and a lot...

What Were You Created For?

Oct 25, 2017 | CrossFit, History

My alarm went off the other day in the dark. It was so cold. The bed was so warm. It was so early. For the first time in weeks, I hit the snooze button. I rolled over. I closed my eyes. And right before I drifted off, I thought about Marcus Aurelius. One of the...

Don’t Quit at Mile 20

Oct 18, 2017 | CrossFit

Most people who run marathons finish them. Most. But not all. At the 2016 New York City marathon there were almost 700 people who didn't make it to the end. It's hard to find serious data on this but conventional wisdom is that most people who quit drop out at about...

3 Ways to Stop Skipping Workouts

Oct 6, 2017 | CrossFit

The WOD starts in 70 minutes and there you are... The ZP app is open, you check the workout. Looks rough. And then your thumb moves back to "Calendar" and heads on up to "Reservations" and you click on the class and see that bright red bar on the bottom of the...

Win the Mental Battle

Sep 20, 2017 | CrossFit

What's the hardest part of the workout? The burpees? Kettlebell swings? Thrusters? (by FAR, my least favorite) Nope. It's not that those things are so hard... It's making yourself do those things that's so hard. When your pulse is pounding faster than the booming...

Moms Make Better CrossFitters (and CrossFit Makes Better Moms)

May 7, 2016 | CrossFit

Maybe CrossFit was started by a man. Maybe men hold most of the records, win most of the competitions and get most of the glory. But I’m here to talk about what women in CrossFit gyms all over the globe already know: CrossFit is the most feminist sport on the planet....

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