Monthly: July 2011

Four-time CrossFit Games competitor Peter Egyed is also the owner of CrossFit Fury, whose affiliate team he will be coaching at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games. Egyed shares his perspective as an affiliate owner and what has worked for him to bring in new clients.

Egyed said he experimented with different methods to introduce new athletes to CrossFit. He first tried fundamentals classes but found they were still insufficient to prepare athletes for classes where new members would be expected to keep up with others.

“It wasn’t safe for them. It wasn’t efficient for our classes,” he says.

Upon the advice of one of his members, Egyed decided to make it easier for new athletes to begin CrossFit, and he started the Basics program. CrossFit Fury offers Basics classes three times a week, and the program focuses on body-weight movements, mobility and nutrition—not barbell training or advanced gymnastics.

“It’s proven very effective for their results. It’s proven very effective for us as a business model because people are just joining left and right, and it’s very easy for people to join—they just start paying a monthly membership,” Egyed says. The effectiveness is in the simplicity of the program. “There’s no real, you know, on-ramp procedure that they need to go through,” he says.

6min 52sec

Additional reading: Second Chances—CrossFit Works, Part 2 by Peter Egyed and Kevin O’Malley, published Feb. 6, 2010.

Jack Goodson talks to Jennifer and Katelyn Haynes about competing in the Central East Regional as mother and daughter.

Katelyn Haynes did not take CrossFit seriously. Not at all.

The idea of an active lifestyle had always been appealing, sure. Her parents, Chris and Jennifer, lifelong exercisers themselves, opened CrossFit Rutherford (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) in 2009. The competitive side of fitness, however, and all that accompanies it, was never really a priority for Haynes. That perspective changed about a year ago, when Jennifer competed at the sectional level of the 2010 CrossFit Games.

Haynes accompanied her parents to Huntsville for the Alabama Sectional and was blown away by what she discovered. The environment was jolting. The feeling, the energy surrounding the place was unavoidable. Haynes was hooked.

Fast-forward to June. The fiery, outspoken 19-year-old not only competed in the Reebok CrossFit Games Open, but also, in her first full-on taste of the competition, qualified for the Central East Regional.

Not to be outdone, mom was there as well. And, wouldn’t you know it, she also scored a regional berth.

Talk about establishing a healthy family tradition.

Jeremy Mullins is a registered dietician who owns two affiliates in West Virginia. His take on nutrition is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all strategy.

“Just like in training programs, there’s a lot of variance in nutritional programs based upon the individual,” he says.

In this video, Mullins interviews CrossFit athletes to find out what they are eating and to look for trends.

For Rich Froning Jr., milk is a main item on his menu both before and after his workouts. He also combines Progenex with chocolate milk after some workouts.

Michelle Kinney also likes supplements for post-workout recovery when she doesn’t have time to eat a protein- and carbohydrate-heavy meal.

Dan Bailey starts with a protein shake and then needs a meal soon after, or, he says: “I’ll be so fatigued I won’t be able to move.”

In addition to a post-workout shake, reigning Games champ Graham Holmberg is also focusing on recovery foods like acai berries and sea greens, which are superfoods, and higher starch carbohydrates like sweet potatoes after a workout. For Holmberg, quality matters.

“I’m trying to be more conscious of trying to get, like, fresh produce, like organic milk … local-raised chicken, that kind of stuff,” he says.

14min 21sec

Video by Again Faster.

Additional reading: Nutrition: The Teeter-Totter by Nicole Carroll, published March 1, 2008.

“The thought was, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want to die,” says Jonathan Edwards. “The very next thought was my kids … . I can’t let them grow up without a dad.”

Jonathan Edwards was a police officer before he opened CrossFit North Alpharetta in Georgia. He relates the life-threatening experience that led to his career change.

Edwards describes how CrossFit helped him recover so quickly.

“In CrossFit, you tear down your body during a workout, right? You just completely annihilate yourself, and you’re left in a puddle of goo on the floor, right? Your muscles know what’s going on, and they repair themselves, right? So I’ve been doing that for three years, and my body knew what to do when trauma was introduced to it,” he says.

However, his recovery was not yet complete. Edwards was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Therapy and CrossFit helped him get a handle on his life, and he made the decision to leave law enforcement and open his own CrossFit box.

Even though this endeavor had a slow start, growth has been exponential.

“As soon as people come in the door, man, the results speak for themselves,” Edwards says.

14min 22sec

Additional reading: Athletes—Always by Russell Berger, published Nov. 4, 2010.