Hey everybody! This will be the last newsletter for our current location! Say what?!
WE’RE MOVING
That’s right, we’re moving to a new spot just down the road near Terrapin. Update your address book to 150 Fritz Mar Lane. The new place will be roughly double our current space at 9000 sqft. It’s three times our current size if you only count our main space and ignore the mezzanine… That’s huge! We don’t have any current pictures of the inside because our landlord is finishing some final renovations for us. It’s going to have two bathrooms plus a shower! The new gym is also located right next to a bakery…mmm…donuts! The current move-in date is August 1st, which is only next weekend! It’s a lot more efficient, lower ceilings, LED lights, and most of all: it’s not so damn hot in there!
WE NEED HELP MOVING
To help facilitate the move, we will be closed beginning next Thursday (July 30th) with plans to reopen on Monday, August 3rd. If anyone would like to help, we’d greatly appreciate it! The plan is to disassemble the rig, roll up the floor, remove shit from the walls, and other miscellaneous housekeeping tasks on Thursday. That way we can move most everything on Friday and Saturday, and put everything together and get kinda organized on Sunday. We should have a trailer to move all the large items, if not we’ll get a UHaul or something. If anyone has a truck, we could probably use the bed to move some of the odd objects like kettlebells, plates, balls, etc. Let us know at the gym if you’d like to help, I’ll put up a sign up sheet at the entrance. We’ll provide some beer, water, and grub for those that are awesome and help! All our coaches will be returning to help with the move, it could be a great big CFS family reunion! It’ll take a while for us to settle into our new location, so please be patient with us. We have lots of changes and big plans for the new place!
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’
So, we’re going to make some changes, both big and small, when we move. First off: memberships will change for new athletes. If you currently have a membership with us, you’re grandfathered in to whatever rate you’re paying now for the foreseeable future. We might have to migrate everyone off the old plans somewhere down the line, but we have no plans to do that anytime soon. Just know that it might happen. If it does, we’ll give you plenty of notice and we’ll do our best to work with you to find a suitable plan. If you wish to change your membership to a different plan that we currently offer, please do so now! Email us if you cannot do it yourself online. We will be removing some plans, we will be adding some plans, we will be increasing the price on some plans, and some plans will see no change. New prices go in effect August 1st. We are also changing the billing dates on all new plans: instead of prorating to the first of the month, you will be billed on the anniversary of your sign up day. Join on the 18th and you’ll always be billed on the 18th. If you are currently out of town on summer vacation and wish to stay on one of our current plans, please contact us immediately! Like before next week! If you haven’t already accepted the terms and conditions on your plan, do so now to avoid penalties!
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A VALID PASS OR PLAN
Every athlete needs to have a current membership on file: there will be no more gratis arrangements. If you had something worked out with us about trading services for memberships, you will need to speak with us about continuing with that relationship. Sometimes we were a bit too nice and lenient, and sometimes people would take advantage of that and not uphold their end of the bargain. So everyone needs to have a membership and card on file, and if you provide a service for us, we will compensate you after the fact. We offer a free week of Sweatshop or one free class of CrossFit to new athletes, but beyond that, everyone pays. If you sign up and show up without a valid plan or pass, be prepared to pay a drop-in fee, or purchase a plan/pass, else you won’t be able to work out. We’ve lost way too much trying to be flexible. We said it like a year ago, but I’m going to implement it sometime before the end of the year: we’re going to transition off credit/debit card payments to ACH payments to cut down on fees paid every month. We’ll still take credit cards, but they’ll come with an additional fee for those that chose that option. If you want to save a few bucks, talk to us about paying with cash (you’ll still need a valid card on file in case of delinquency). There will be a separate post about ACH once it’s all planned out.
GO FOR GOLD!
For those that forgot or don’t read our newsletters, we renamed our memberships to bronze, silver, and gold. Beyond that there’s also our sweatshop-only membership. Bronze is sweatshop + 2x/week crossfit, Silver is sweatshop + crossfit, and Gold is sweatshop + crossfit + open gym hours + specialty classes + shower privileges. That’s right, gold members get free shower access. Water doesn’t just grow on trees, ya know?! For everyone else, if you want to use the shower then it’ll be a nominal fee. You’ll need to bring your own toiletries and towels, or purchase some from our pro shop. Right now you can upgrade your membership to gold for only $25/month, and this will increase when we move. If you have any of our retired “Unlimited” memberships, you’re considered a gold member.
OPEN GYM
We’re moving to a much bigger place, so that means we won’t be on top of each other fighting for space anymore. We’re going to build a few lifting platforms with squat racks to be used by those doing open gym to stay out of the way of classes. With that in mind, we will be limiting our Open Gym hours to specific times of the day. Currently, the plan is to have Open Gym in the mornings from 6:30AM until 8:30AM, and then in the afternoons from 4:00PM to 6:00PM. Make sure you sign up, it’s not that hard. We got rid of the open gym only membership a while ago because it was turning in to a mess. We shouldn’t have to remind people to get out of the way for the classes every day. The wods are written on the board, so everyone should be mindful of what is needed for class. Or you would think, right? Yet every week it’s the same thing… The evening times are our busiest, so we cannot have open gym past 6:00PM anymore. At 6pm, we have a crossfit class going on at the same time as a sweatshop class. In the new place we’re also going to start offering some specialty classes at 6pm. That’s 3 classes going on at the same time. No open gym during this time, it’s that simple.
SCHEDULE CHANGES
Like stated above, we are changing our open gym times. We will also start adding more classes to the schedule soon: We are going to offer new specialty classes throughout the week for gold members only. These will include more barbell club as well as stuff like endurance and gymnastics. Barbell club will run 3x/week: twice on weekdays at 6pm, and then once on Saturday at 10am. These classes will focus on either the snatch, clean, or jerk, and will be supplemented with accessory work. Endurance classes will work on helping athletes with their running or rowing technique plus some time trials. Once we move and everything settles, we will look to y’all about adding even more class times. As long as there is a decent turn out, we’ll make it happen. I don’t think we’re going to bring back the team wod on Saturdays. A team-based workout might still show up on Saturdays, but it will be on the schedule as CrossFit.
For those that are new to CrossFit and wish to get a taste, they will be directed towards Sweatshop. We offer a free week for those that are interested. If they enjoy Sweatshop and wish to try CrossFit, then they will still need to attend the intro course before joining the CrossFit classes. Those that are new to town and have CrossFit experience can get a free week of CrossFit classes as long as their previous coach emails me with their blessing. It’s frustrating when someone comes in and tells me they’ve been doing crossfit for X amount of time so we let them jump in..only to find out their form is terrible and they have no idea what they’re doing. So instead of coaching a class we have to keep my eye on these kids to make sure no one dies.
This is our planned schedule to go in effect sometime in August:
CrossFit: MTWTF: 530am, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm; Saturday: 11am
Open Gym: MTWTF: 630am, 730am, 4pm, 5pm; Saturday: 11am; Sunday: 10am, 11am
Sweatshop: MTWTF: 8am, 6pm; Sunday: 10am
Specialty: MTWT: 6pm, Satuday: 10am
SEMINARS
We’ll post more details soon, but we will offer another Nutrition seminar hosted by our very own Jess and Natalie this fall! This one will be much more in depth, as well as require a small price to attend for our CFS members. You’ll be able to bring a friend who is not a member to reduce this fee. We’re also applying to host a USAW cert at our gym. If we get approved, you’ll be able to get your Level 1 Sports Performance USAW cert over the weekend at a seminar hosted by a national level USAW coach. This seminar runs a few hundred bucks, but if you’re interested in learning more about Olympic lifting as an athlete or a coach, then this is for you!
FUNDRAISING
Barbells for Boobs will return this fall as well as a #TeamAmanda fundraiser. Amanda is doing well, and she’s going to finish up physical therapy in the coming weeks. We will continue to support her through competing at local events, selling swag, and raising money in her name. We will run an in-house competition for her at a date TBD. We also would like to make a Team Weight or carry something for her during the Athens 9/11 Goruck Challenge in September. James, LT, my brother, and I will make the team weight. For more information about the Challenge and other things going on at the gym, join our members-only Facebook group here: LINK. After we move, we’re going through the roster to remove any non-members from the group.
See you at the gym!