Gifted athletes abound. Lance J. proves that he does indeed know squat, and Jeff W., Trevor B., Tod C. and Amy D. seem very excited about their synchronized Turkish get-ups.
Welcome to MetamorPHitness, version 3.0 (you may have briefly noticed version 2.0 earlier this week). We have made substantial improvements that we hope will expand, accelerate and generally raise the quality of your training and fitness.
For months, if not years, you have given us the reigns to lead you to the green pastures of strength and conditioning—to health and wellness. We have taught you new movements, introduced the concept of intensity, espoused the virtues of proper nutrition and largely, discoursed on our philosophy to an extent greater than you may have ever wished. With that said, let us introduce the next step: the “Workout of the Day” (WOD). This workout will be performed by everyone who participates in a personal training session, group session or self-workout session, and it will be posted on this site each day. The vast majority of these workouts will be brand-spanking new. Once again, all will be performing the same workout, and we will post your results to the site daily. Why? Because this gives us greater creative freedom, improved continuity between in-gym and out-of-gym training, more focused skill development—and it gives you daily comparisons with your peers. Each workout will be scaled to individual capacity, with weight adjustments and exercise substitutions made as necessary, or appropriate. Of course, we will continue to work on each of your personal goals during your sessions, and in addition, continue to practice individual skill work each day. There is no substitute for good coaching.
We will be talking individually with each of you in the near future to see if we can place you into our small group training sessions, at least once each week. We firmly believe that this type of environment provides the ideal ratio of coaching, camaraderie and friendly competition, and we see that those clients already active in this type of environment making great strides.
Our training style is founded on CrossFit principles, an institution which has created a worldwide revolution in the concept of functional fitness over the past eight years. As you are already aware, we both hold trainer/instructor certifications with this organization—we bleed this stuff, and have literally done so for many years. What you may not know is that during the past 18 months, we have given substantial consideration to opening our own CrossFit affiliate and facility. While we have no immediate plans to do so, there may be more news on this front within the next six months. This is a long—and expensive—process, and we must decide if this move is truly what we desire. If we do travel down this road at some point, the recent changes to our website are the first step. Please explore it.
If we have neglected to say it recently, thank you for your continued support, feedback and of course, your hard work and commitment each and every workout. We look forward to a successful 2009 and hope you are as excited as we are.
–Melody and John
First of all, the most recent photos are inspiring – especially since I am still working to achieve a good-form overhead squat, let alone a loaded one. Great work, all the Happy Young Turks in the second photo. Second, thanks for the site reorganization; it’s logical and systematic and helpful. Third, I’ve been thinking for some time about what your own facility/operation might be like, and encourage your thoughtful consideration and exploration of such a venture (recognizing the great thing you’ve got going where you are, and the potential you can still realize where you are). Fourth, I really like the aphorisms at the top of the page – the first I paid attention to was “fight muscular atrophy” – which I think I did to the extreme last week; and I really like the implied permission being granted by “no you can’t work in…” I guess at John and Melody’s gym there’d be no worries about asserting yourself in this way because the norm would folks doing timed, functional fitness efforts rather than gym rats hanging on the equipment all day! Ted
Thanks, Ted. We recognize that there is nothing more silly or frustrating than some overweight bodybuilder checking himself out while doing biceps curls on the “cables”.