REMINDER! – Spring food challenge info sessions are Wednesday at 6:30am and 6:30pm.  Click here for the basic details.  Come to the info sessions in you’re interested in participating!

Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
75 pound Shoulder press, 4 reps
75 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 8 reps
75 pound Front squat, 12 reps

Welcome Holden Durling & Thoughts From Mom & Dad

On March 13, 2013, at 5:30 a.m., Jake and Caitlin welcomed Holden Durling into the world.  Weighing in at 9 lbs, 2 oz and 21 inches long he’s made his presence known!  We are more than happy for you both, congratulations!

Jake and Caitlin were nice enough to share their thoughts on the impact of CrossFit before and after the Holden was born.

While it’s easy to focus on the day to day workouts and hour in the gym each day it’s a great reminder that we do the work in the gym so it can carry us through our lives outside the gym.  

Caitlin’s List:
(Before diving in, I just want to acknowledge that I was extremely lucky not to experience any major complications during my pregnancy, which allowed me to stay active throughout.  That being said, I do think that CrossFit made a huge difference in my general wellbeing and ultimately in a healthy pregnancy.)

1. Community – The community support that the Roots coaches and members provided during pregnancy and leading up to Holden’s birth was every bit as important as the physical and mental strength from the actual workouts.  I received invaluable advice and support in the days and months before labor began, and both have continued since Holden’s arrival.  

2. Strength – Labor ended with three and a half hours of pushing.  I have absolutely no doubt that it was my time at CrossFit that enabled me to summon the strength and endurance, not to mention the mental fortitude, to keep working after the doctor offered “assistance.”  Everyone has those workouts when you want to quit in the middle (100+ double under workouts when you are reduced to sets of two reps come to mind) and you learn at Roots to push through the pain and frustration.  I could have quit pushing; there were alternatives.  But I drew on my CrossFit experience and just kept going.

3. Recovery – Last but not least!  I wore my pre-pregnancy jeans to the 13.3 announcement – exactly one week after giving birth.  I give full credit to consistent CrossFit workouts and a year-long no sugar challenge that I started back in October… a challenge that would have never crossed my mind before being introduced to paleo eating. A personal thanks to Nicole and Eric for the camaraderie in the sugar challenge, which, as a side note, was originally Jake’s idea… although he only lasted a month and a half.  Slacker.

Jake the Slacker’s List: 
As a dad, I certainly have less to draw on here.  But formalizing these lists was my idea (like the sugar challenge except that I followed through on this one) because I was so struck by how often I thought about Roots during labor.  

1. Perspective – Labor was an AMRAP, a long, long AMRAP of indeterminate length.  Contractions were more or less a one minute of work, followed by several minutes of rest. As in CrossFit, the goal was to go as hard as possible during the contractions and then to rest and recuperate when not working. Admittedly, my “work” was nothing compared to Caitlin’s but I was still bending, squatting, holding, and supporting her for a dozen or so hours and I was struck by how much of the AMRAP perspective Caitlin could channel.

2. Flexibility – When I showed up at Roots, my full depth squat was a joke – two hip flexors torn playing college rugby and it was a rare day when my hip crease neared parallel.  At Roots, I cured that mobility issue and it’s a good thing I did – I spent the better part of a day squatting when Caitlin was in labor.  I would be in the bottom of a squat and be thinking, “Knees out, butt back, chest up” – I could and did do it all day, even when Caitlin would lean her body weight into me at the bottom of a squat and I’d sit there, for a minute plus, holding both of us up. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the coaches at Roots constantly pushing me to work on my mobility.

3. Clothing – No joke (okay, maybe a little bit): I packed my two most comfortable tee-shirts for the hospital and, without realizing it, the pillowy cotton of my Roots shirts earned them the honor.  Holden was born with me in a worn, slightly-ripped, old-school Roots tee-shirt…