CROSSFIT ASIA

"Angie"

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CFA 2010 Mission Statement

Warning!! This is very long, get a snack and

a cup of coffee!!!

OUR GOAL

Our goal is to provide athletes with an avenue to

pursue their own goals whatever they may be.  

That being said, we are a performance-oriented

gym, there are no mirrors to flex in or recumbent

bikes to read the latest novel while "working out"! 

There is nothing wrong with the esthetic value of

fitness we just believe it should be a bi-product of

a greater goal which is improved overall strength

and conditioning, not the end state.   While we

pride ourselves on being the first purpose-built

Crossfit Gym in Asia, it is not all we are. 

Constantly varied, functionality cannot and should

not be limited to one source of methodology and

our promise to you is that we will take what works,

implement it, try to improve upon it and discard that

which is ineffective and inefficient. 

In the coming year we will introduce both formal

Power-Lifting Programs and Olympic lifting Programs

to compliment our all-inclusive fitness Crossfit

programming.  We will also be dual branding the gym

in an effort to attract more local nationals, we want to

introduce them to CrossFit but they have no idea or

understanding of the word CrossFit, so you may see

references to IronWerx Fitness and Barbell @ some

point, it should be transparent though as it will be

written in Japanese.  All these things coupled together

we believe will bring more athletes who gravitate

toward specialization and give a greater ability to

cross-talk best practices, which will be of benefit to all

athletes.   After all, we are looking for increased

performance across modal domains and having those

who specialize in said domains is the quickest way to

understand what works best.  Can a Cross-Fitter learn

from an Olympic Weight Lifter or Power Lifter? 

Undoubtedly. It's also easy to say a Power Lifter or

Olympic Lifter can gain the same wealth of knowledge

from a Cross-Fitter.

THE TRAINING

The fact is 99% of us are not elite in our chosen

specialization and therefore training in this single

modality is a detractor from our overall fitness.  Most

who run a marathon do so with the intent of finishing

not winning, so using protocols of competitive runners

which generally lead to injury and adrenal fatigue

produce substandard results; while all-inclusive fitness

would have allowed for the same athlete to complete

the race without over training and a reduced chance of

injury.   Similarly you see the same things in the

conventional gym, using regimens designed for

competitive bodybuilders, when lifting weights to them

is no more than a hobby, as most do not have the time

to dedicate or the genetics to being a competitive body

builder.   Again all-inclusive prescription is a better fit for

these athletes unless of course only the esthetic value is

what's important and not fitness level.

We prescribe to constantly varied functional movements

executed @ high intensity.  In other words, we believe fitness

is gained by pushing the body to the limit of human potential.  

No machines, no routines, no ergo-meters just good

old fashioned hard work done with free weights against the

clock to ensure you are working to your utmost ability!  We

also understand that everyone's human potential is limited by

their current fitness level, so we ensure that our fitness

protocols and programming need to always be scalable to

meet the athletes needs.  There is no cookie cutter

prescription for what's best for everyone.  The one workout,

one weight, one timetable theory of fitness is antiquated and

on one end of the spectrum dangerous while on the other end

ineffective (designed for the lowest common denominator).

While we advocate specializing in not specializing we

understand the human need to compete and sometimes that

avenue is through specialization of sport.    General,

all-inclusive fitness is the best and most efficient method we

know of to accomplish increasing an athletes work capacity

whether it be across modal domains or specialized ones. We

do not deny the need for a specialized athlete's need to train

it his or her modality, but generalized training outside of that

modality can lend greatly to an athletes overall performance.

THE WOD

For most our Workout of the day is a sufficient blast of

anaerobic fitness, and we have in the past and will continue

to prescribe to the Main Page WOD for the bulk of our

programming.  The ideology of the main page WOD is that it

is a routine designed to exceed the capacity of even the

fittest athlete over broad time and modal domains.  As our

growth as trainers has increased we have worked to make

the Main Page WOD more applicable to everyone through

the Warrior WOD.   Typically a watered down version of the

main page WOD. This has not always addressed the need

for growth in athletes or led to development of virtuosity in

the basic movements.  In the future the Warrior WOD will

be specifically designed to improve the quality of your basic

movements.  Bi-monthly the trainers will hold a Basic Skills

Test.  What does this mean to you?  That you will spend a

minimum of two months as a Warrior, if you are already a

"Ninja" and cannot consistently perform the basic movements

@ an intermediate level you we be told to join the Warrior

classes until a time @ which you can retest with the basic skills

test.  This is for the most part the way we are currently operating,

but I felt it important to get it in a format that if someone has a

question it will be answered here.   We will continue to offer open

gym to intermediate and advanced (ninja and Samurai) athletes,

with the understanding that classes are the priority and that if

your workout runs into a class time your workout will be

terminated.  Also from now forward there will be no exceptions

made for beginner athletes, it is mandatory that you attend a

scheduled class, under no conditions will you be allowed to use

open gym time.  If you show up late you will need to wait for the

next class start time.  If a beginner athlete shows up during

open gym we are sorry, you will be turned away.  This is for the

good of the athlete, while we want your experience to be

convenient we see greater growth and longer retain-ability from

athletes who participate in our classes period.   

STRENGTH TRAINING

 To accommodate everyone's desire to get stronger, we will be

running Strength sessions in conjunction with the WOD.  The

number of classes we run will in the future be based on

attendance and interest level.   There is a huge amount of

proficiency associated with moving large loads, as well as

the confidence and belief in your ability to do so.  We believe

that this will lead to exponential growth for new athletes and

help experienced athletes that have stalled to jumpstart their

strength gains again.  We will focus these sessions around

power lifting movements, taking programming from Starting

Strength by Mark Rippetoe, Louie Simmons, the legendary

coach from Westside Barbell as well as various other

reputable coaches in the power lifting community drawing

upon their experience and protocols.  If you are wondering

if this is all knee Jerk reaction from the recent video

segment on the main page?  No, we have been gathering

information from as many sources as possible since we

opened our doors, as well as testing some of the protocols

to see how feasibly we can implement them. 

OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING

Several of our trainers have also been training Olympic

lifting protocols, it is no secret that I have a love for

Olympic weightlifting. In an attempt to make everyone

more well rounded we will be offering more frequent

workshops for entry level athletes to learn proper

techniques for lifting in a non-competitive environment. 

We will also be adding Olympic weightlifting sessions

during the week, these are not for everyone, they are by

invitation only and designed to give competitive athletes

more practice and advanced coaching in weightlifting.  If

you have not attended at least 2 Olympic Lift Workshops

and spent a considerable amount of time improving your

basic movements you will not be invited to attend.  Our

goal is to give athletes what they need when they need

it, not overwhelm them with information that they are not

ready for. 

THE GAMES

In the near future many of our top athletes will be deviating

from the normal WOD to work on their weak areas in an

effort to better prepare them for the Asia Regional Qualifiers

as well as the CrossFit Games. We will do our best to keep

this training non-invasive when it comes to our normal

operations but may on occasion need to adjust the schedule

to accommodate training.  We will also be integrating some

team WOD's monthly into the programming. These WOD's

will be open to all athletes and used to not only promote

growth for our Affiliate Cup team hopefuls but build a closer

community.

OUR COMMITMENT

I would like to start this off by saying that we (CrossFit Asia,

Myself) have not always been as open as we could be to

the growth of this gym, mostly because of our commitment

to give you the best CrossFit Facility and CrossFit coaching

available in Asia.  This caused us to approach this with

some very linear thinking on what directions we should focus

our efforts.  Our athletes on occasion have approached me

with incredible tidbits of information, that @ the time I may

has appeared to shrug off not because I didn't believe in it

but because I am not one to just jump @ something that

sounds good. I need the knowledge and information to

back it up before I present it to the masses.  If I have made

you feel like your input was not valued, my apologies, it

was not my intent and I appreciate each and every idea

presented.  End rant!!!  We have gone through a lot in the

past year personally and professionally and feel like we

have the quality of trainers and knowledge to expand into

some areas we could not afford to dedicate time towards

in the past.  This by no means is a statement that we

are no longer a CrossFit Gym. It is our promise to strive

to be the best CrossFit gym and more, and our

recognition that there is no one best way to train an

athlete. We still believe the CrossFit model is the best

available and the addition of Power-lifting and Olympic

Weightlifting on a more consistent basis will promote

not only our desire to always be on the cutting edge

when it comes to training but also the open source

idea that is CrossFit's charter... to take what works and

discard what doesn't.  If we can make an athlete better,

stronger, and faster by adding supplemental Power lifting

protocols then that is what has to be done.  If through

Olympic Weightlifting, we can give an athlete better range

of motion, increased explosivity, and better balance under

load then this has to be done too.  Our mission is to push

the limits of human performance and ignoring these vital

components would mean giving you, our athletes a

substandard product.  So here is my commitment to you,

I can only speak for myself as I am not going to put other

trainers on the hook, while I will encourage them to expand

their knowledge I understand they have other commitments

to uphold.  For me, I am beginning to study for my CSCS.

Why? Not to add to my credentials, I think that there are

plenty of sources and seminars available to expand my

knowledge in training without have specific accreditations.  

It is a personal goal which I have set for myself and think

the experience will be worthwhile.  I also intend to

participate in a USA-W Certification Course; while I think,

I have an understanding for Olympic weightlifting that far

exceeds your everyday trainer, I am still a novice coach

and have only begun to crack the code on the many

different techniques and protocols to take our athletes

to the next level.   This will give me an opportunity to see

other coaches'' approaches to Olympic Weight Lifting and

bring that knowledge back to you.

Here is what I can promise in the way of our trainers. 

Each and every trainer will strive to give each and every

athlete the best and most current training and guidance

available no matter what your fitness level. 

·        They will ensure you have an honest

understanding of our expectations of you as

an athlete and make sure you fully understand

your weaknesses and how to go about fixing

them.   It is every trainers responsibility to help

the growth of the athletes here, this includes

ensuring the quality of movement, effort, and

accuracy of repetitions are in accordance with

the intent of every WOD performed no matter

who the athlete is, myself included!! 

·        They will all have the tools available to

them to help you reach whatever your goal may

be (of course it should be attainable, we can't

help you make Chief or be the next American

Idol, sorry).  Our growth is directly dependent

on you the athlete having success and that

should be every trainer's goal and it should be

more important to them than their own.

·        That our Trainers are trainers first, athletes

second No, that doesn't mean they are going to

let you win regional's if your goal is the games,

but they will help you to become the best

competitor you can be.   If they have a situation

where they need to be an athlete first they will have

the maturity to temporarily resign their trainer status

to be that athlete.

·        That any trainer who is running a class will be

competent and confident for the level of instruction

needed.   The ability to motivate an athlete is singularly

the most valuable skill a trainer can have.... If you are

not motivated we need to know so we can address your

situation accordingly.  

Our Expectations:

We are here to train dedicated and committed persons

who are intent on improving their fitness for whatever

their personal reason may be.  We expect for our

athletes to show up on time for appointments, classes,

workshops, etc.  If you are not able to keep a

scheduled appointment, please call and let us know

as soon as possible. Failure to do so will result in you

being charged for that session. Classes and workshops

need to begin on time so that everything that needs to

be accomplished can be done so within the allotted time.

If you are going to be late, again, please give us a call.

If you are late and we have not heard form you, you

will not be allowed to participate.

You are expected to maintain your training log and

be actively involved in the proper scaling of your

WOD. We are here to assist you with this, but in the

end, you are the only one who truly knows what

you're capable of. You should always strive to make

progress and set new PRs.

Just as we will be honest in our communication with

you, we expect honesty in return. In order for us to

provide you with the best services we can, we need

to have an accurate picture of what's going on with

you. Be honest about outside activities, injuries (not

discomforts, real injuries), nutrition, etc. Above

anything we need to make sure you are safe and we

can't do this if you're not completely honest with us.

If you have any questions, issues, or concerns please

communicate them to a trainer in a timely manner so

they can be addressed as quickly as possible.

Along with honesty comes integrity, We expect you

to maintain integrity in your movement standards, rep

counts, logs, and interaction with other members and

staff even when we aren't watching. There is a unique

camaraderie in this gym and actions detrimental to that

will not be tolerated.

Our job is to train you, to coach you, to motivate you.

What I will tell you is this, being your trainer is a job that

requires us to be callous @ times, you are paying us to

make you better not be your friend.  On that note we are

not here to pander to excuses, this is a real gym where

serious people come to train.

In the past athletes have taken liberties with the idea that

it's a gym, it should be dirty.  While I too like the

dungeon-esque appearance of the gym please be courteous

to other athletes and the trainers and for lack of a better

term "Clean up your own shit"!!  What does that mean?

It means if you leave a giant puddle of sweat grab a mob

and swab it up.  If you are a chalk fairy and sprinkle

enough chalk around the gym that your area can be

mistaken for a snowstorm, have the decency to grab

a broom and clean it up.  We provide chalk to help you

perform, when you're done, clean up the remnants of

your performance accelerator.   We don't expect anyone

to get out the buffer or wax the floor, simply clean up

after yourself.  Lastly, this pertains to the equipment too. 

If you set it up break it down unless a trainer has told you

other wise or someone has asked to use your set up. 

Final Thoughts

In the end we want every one of our athletes to reach

their goals and beyond and the only way we can do that is

together.   Come ready to train and open to criticism, so we

can do our job and help you improve.   There are no short

cuts to becoming fitter, it takes hard work and a

willingness to push yourself harder and farther than

you ever have before.  We hope you welcome the

challenge!