August 2022
Preview of Programming Focuses this Month
Strength Cycle: 5RM Back Squat and Bench Press
Notable Benchmark Workouts: “Diane”, “Helen”, “Bear Complex”. Whiteboard leaderboard up soon to track these workouts.
Community Highlights/ Announcements
Alcova Lake Wod 2022 is in the books! Thank you Bart and Tara Butcher for hosting such an amazing community event. Congratulations to all the podium finishers, and thank you to everyone who came out and helped push themselves and each other.
Congratulations to two special couples in our community for tying the knot in July! Chad and Rachel (Thursday July 21st) and John and Lauren (Saturday July 23rd) were all married in the same week :)
307 Athlete Courses open for enrollment for August sessions. Go to 307athlete.com to sign up your kids for the best summer youth strength and conditioning program in Wyoming. (Spots still available in Varsity + Cubs)
New 307 Clothing Swag!
CrossFit Games start this week! August 3rd-7th
Upcoming Events
Backcountry Doctors is doing a FREE seminar covering Stress, Management Strategies, Supplements etc. at Lifetime
FREE - Saturday Aug 20 @10:30am (Insert Flyer PDF)Capital City Games CrossFit Competition: Saturday Aug 6th, Cheyenne WY
Rumble in the Hills CrossFit Competition Saturday August 20th, Sturgis SD: Multiple teams from 307 attending!
Do More Charity Challenge CrossFit Competition: September 10th, Castle Rock CO
Measuring Progress and CrossFit Benchmarks
“You can’t measure what’s not being tracked.”
Peter Drucker
It is difficult to know whether you are successful unless that success is defined and measured. With a clearly defined metric for success, you can quantify progress and adjust your process to achieve the desired outcome. It is up to each of us to figure out what that desired outcome should be. In other words, what are you working towards?
Liz and Jeff were in debt, a lot of debt, a sobering $180,000 to be exact. They set out to be debt free in 5 years. Planning, discipline, and consistency were the principles they tried to adhere to. They worked extra jobs, stopped leisurely spending, paid off credit cards, and eventually achieved their goal in 7 years. Even though they set a goal and failed, they did not give up at the 5 year mark, and stayed on the path. With a vision, consistent execution, and trackable metrics they chipped away at a massive milestone.
Liz and Jeff are real people, with real struggles, who benefited from having a plan and measuring the progress of that plan along the way. Life is not always this straightforward, and in our instance is not about finances, but fitness, which can also be measured.
Benchmark: “A standard or point of reference in which things may be compared or assessed.”
In CrossFit, we have many “benchmarks” that act as a milestone to measure progress. Fran, Murph, 1RM Clean and Jerk, these are all widely accepted exercises to track the level of our fitness against ourselves and others. There are also other medically based benchmarks we can use to track our health: weight, resting heart rate, body fat %, lean muscle mass, body mass index, and cholesterol levels to name a few. These fitness and health benchmarks are like Liz and Jeff’s financial metrics: credit score and bank account.
Liz and Jeff’s goal was to be debt free, our goal is to be disease free. To achieve this, we regularly check our progress by seeing our “health credit score” by performing benchmarks like the workout “Helen” or getting a blood panel done, and then checking it again in due time to see any progression or regression.
A benchmark can be an intimidating activity that illuminates something we do not want to see, but can really help redirect us on the path to achieve our goal. They are notoriously uncomfortable, but can be one of the most incentivizing opportunities in life. There are a lot of positives about them, but with anything can be overdone and lead to some negative consequences.
Competition can bring out the best in people’s ability, and sometimes the worst in their character. That is why benchmarks can be detrimental without wholesome intent. We all want to grow and progress, and to do so some people take the easier path and cut corners to find that progress sooner. Not achieving a full range squat and fully locked out press in the thruster of the benchmark “Fran” can save some time and get you a better score. It can also compromise your integrity and disrupt the trajectory of your growth by falsely inflating your actual fitness.
Enter community and camaraderie. With added accountability from your friendly neighborhood coach or fellow classmate, our integrity and character hopefully rise to the occasion of the benchmark and we push each other to find the best version of ourselves in a repeatable high quality setting. In summary, it is valuable to have a goal in mind, a plan to track progress towards it, and others to support and challenge you along your journey.