“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”- Franklin D. Roosevelt
GOOD
MakeWODsGreatAgain Rows for Dylan’s House
John Wooley, the man behind the MakeWODSGreatAgain Instagram page, is taking on an important challenge. He is doing a fundraising row to support Dylan’s House, an Ohio-based nonprofit organization that aims to promote independence for autistic individuals.
The details: On May 6 around 7:30 AM ET, Wooley will climb onto an Assault Fitness rower, and he will complete one meter for every dollar that has been donated on GoFundMe. The goal is to reach $42,195, which would equate to a full marathon. Wooley will livestream the event so people can either root for him or bask in his suffering.
“I’ve done a full marathon row before and I’m a decent rower,” Wooley said. “Like I’m tall for a CrossFitter, I’ve got long legs, so I enjoy rowing. Although, admittedly, I don’t enjoy rowing a full marathon.”
“My thought was, If we were going to raise money for them, we need to do something that would–particularly since they’re outside of the community–something that maybe would give people a reason to donate besides just the charity.”
“I’ve got people who love me and I’ve got my share of haters. And I figured for people wanting to spend money to watch me punish myself on a rower for three-and-a-half hours, I’d do it.”
The background: Back in 2022, Wooley and Dr. Tom McCoy joined Jennifer Pishko to become co-owners of Chagrin Falls CrossFit. This move gave Wooley a larger platform to focus on philanthropic efforts, which had become a key part of his meme page as it grew in follower count.
“We were discussing fundraising,” Wooley said. “We were kind of looking for something local, something within Cleveland that kind of fell within what we’ve been doing. And Dylan’s house was founded by a guy I’ve known for years through the banking industry. He’s in investments, I’m in retail banking.
“I’ve known him for decades, and I knew his son – his oldest son – was autistic. And they had found this charity. So what they’re trying to do is really outstanding there. Basically helping autistic individuals get independence. …So they’re getting these individuals homes and then assistance for caregivers.”
Wooley has shown support for multiple foundations, such as the OUT Foundation, but he wanted to use this potential marathon row as a way to highlight an organization that is not part of the CrossFit community. Doing so would only help showcase the importance of fitness, and it would lead to a healthier relationship with those in the local communities.
“I think for us, the story is that CrossFit is bigger than just the fitness that happens within our four walls,” Wooley said. “We have to get outside of our community and start talking to others and help other charities outside of our community.”
“If we’re going to grow our business and bring in more people – and I think in this case, the people that are most vulnerable, that need our help the most, are people in the adaptive community.”
“Those are the ones that need fitness more than anything else, and the only way you’re gonna get them in is to be more inclusive, which means getting outside of the four walls.”
“If CrossFit’s main function is to get more people to walk in the doors of our affiliates, then we should be more inclusive, not less inclusive. More people, not less people, more divisions, not less divisions. So that’s kind of the point of this for us locally.”
Why a marathon row? There are multiple workouts that Wooley could have used to raise money for Dylan’s House. He could have done weighted step-ups, burpees, or a variety of movements. Instead, he went with something that challenged some of the fittest humans on the planet during the 2018 CrossFit Games.
“It seemed like a reasonably hard challenge. Like, if we’d said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get on the C2 Bike,’ any a****** can get on a C2 Bike for a couple hours. It’s not hard, but if you’ve got to sit there and row for three hours, that’s hard. It’s not insignificant.”
“People know how bad it is, which is partly why I wanted to do it if people would be willing to kind of punish me. Mostly, one of the best advantages to raise money for the charity as possible, regardless of what that meant physically. I thought this would give us our best opportunity to do so.”
SPONSORED
How Danielle Brandon Controls The Chaos
Haven’s first sponsored athlete, and 4x CrossFit Games competitor, can’t stand a mess and the chaos it brings. In her home and in the gym, Danielle knows that being organized and ready is high performance rocket fuel.
From Danielle:
“My house gets tidied frequently, so it only makes sense that I love how organized my backpack is now. Everything has a place where it belongs.”
“It’s a question of ‘do you take your training seriously?’ Because if you do: having all the tools with you and in a place you can easily find will help you get the most out of your training.”
Yoooo, Let’s Go: The LSKD San Diego store opened April 8. Get there now.
🤯 Did anyone else see that Strict Bar Muscle-Ups were programmed on CrossFit’s mainsite yesterday? Check out Pamela Gagnon’s video on how to conquer them.
Andrea Nisler and Taylor Williamson Show Dominance in Team Division Post-Mayhem Era
Andrea Nisler and Taylor Williamson joined forces with CrossFit legend Rich Froning in 2021 to compete on his team at the CrossFit Games where they dominated the field taking first place two years in a row. This season, however, the duo is paving their own path as they seek to stand on top of the podium for another year, this time with Team PRVN.
Upon Froning’s retirement from the team division after the 2022 season Nisler and Williamson knew they had to find a new home for their talents. Nashville,Tennessee the homebase of PRVN Fitness turned out to be the right fit. PRVN is run by Shane Orr, the coach and husband to the six-time CrossFit Games Champion Tia-Clair Toomey.
Unlock Your Potential Retreat Teaches Athletes to Improve Performance Outside of the Gym
Stephane Bachellerie, with a Master of Science in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology and a slew of other related certifications, has traveled the entire world. From New Zealand to Canada and South Africa to Iceland, he’s coached strength and conditioning to the top athletes in the world in a wide array of sports. He has learned a lot from his travels and been able to glean lots of information and perspective from his years on the road.
One thing stuck out to him, though: athletes aren’t using all the tools available to them to increase their performance.
Sure, CrossFit athletes build on the foundation of sport every day inside the walls of their gym. Marathon athletes put in the work every day on the track to bring their mile times down. Professional football athletes have entire teams of coaches giving them drills, plays, and exercises to practice each day to ensure they’re ready to win on game day. So what’s missing?
“I want to explain and show to the people that it’s not enough, for example, to do a CrossFit workout per day. You have to focus on nutrition, the grit work, your training, of course, and your recovery,” Bachellerie said.
To bring this theory and his knowledge to light, Bachellerie is spearheading a new retreat available for athletes of all backgrounds. This exclusive experience, which takes place at the Santasport lodge in Lapland, Finland, will allow participants to gain knowledge and tools to increase their overall performance in a small group setting.
The retreat includes various exercise practices, including a focus on technique work, swimming, running, gymnastics, weightlifting, mobility, and soft-tissue mobilization. While it can be exciting to stack weights on the bar, Bachellerie has a long-running policy of always putting technique first–if his athlete can’t execute a movement perfectly with an empty barbell, for example, he’ll never let them add weight.
As for practices outside of the gym, Bachellerie teaches athletes to focus on nutrition–bringing more whole foods into their diets–and recovery. Participants in the retreat get to try cold-exposure techniques like ice baths, breathing exercises, and mindset commitment.
While some of these practices may seem like far-away goals for some athletes, Bachellerie says that there’s not a single person who couldn’t take something away from his retreat.
“It’s for everybody. I can scale from fitness enthusiasts to high-level athletes and it’s for any sport,” Bachellerie said. “I think (participants)will be excited about the impact and the experience, they’ll want to challenge themselves.”
Plus, it doesn’t hurt his case that the location of his retreat can bring in participants from across the world–from traditional Lappish meals to sightseeing and potentially catching the Aurora Borealis, Bachellerie hopes athletes have an amazing experience outside the programmed activities.
There are several retreat weekends with spots still available for this summer, and you can learn more about the experience here. With his first weekend coming up soon, Bachellerie hopes to impart lots of wisdom to participants in the same way he’s experienced in his own life.
“It’s very exciting for me to get more knowledge about the body,” Bachellerie said. “I think my success with my athletes is from the power of knowledge.”
THINGS TO...
...DO
Hit up the RXSG Barbecue Extravaganza April 15th
Need plans this Saturday? Well we found you some! RX Smart Gear is hosting a barbecue for fitness leaders to share ideas, experiences and wisdom! Anyone in the fitness industry is welcome to attend. There will be food, music, games, prizes and giveaways at RXSG HQ. Be there or be square.
Which quarter should you prioritize to sign up new clients? Which clients generate the most revenue? Is there a trend where clients who sign-up during a certain month generate more revenue than others?
If you’re guilty (like most of us) of doing a quick little quad stretch and jumping right into a run, then you might want to try this easy three movement warm up to widen your stride and feel better on your run.
365 days of FREE ground beef. I mean, come on ButcherBox these deals are insane! New ButcherBox subscribers will get 2 lbs of 100% grass-fed ground beef FREE in every box for a year. Not to mention, all the other high quality meats you’ll get. Don’t miss this!
The infamous 1,000LB challenge is back! This year there are new weight divisions including the 750lb, 1,000lb and 1,250lb+ clubs. Check out the lifts and how to enter here!
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