Dear Fellow Tribe Athlete,

My wife and I have been talking about you behind your back.

It’s true.

And what we have been talking about will be of interest to you if you’ve ever finished last in a CrossFit class.

I’ll tell you more in just a moment, but first …

Let’s say you are just getting started with CrossFit 101 and you are a little apprehensive and nervous about your first class.

Or, you’ve graduated from 101 and have been CrossFitting now for a few months.

Right off the bat, you know it isn’t going to be easy.

Just take a look around ….

• You see people running and pouring in sweat as they bolt in and out of the building in the middle of the summer heat.

• You witness young and old, male and female attempting strange lifts you’ve never even tried before.

• You hear ITF coaches barking out orders, making demands and correcting the form of those in the class.

• Suddenly, you wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into.

Gone are the lazy days of the casual walk on a treadmill at your local gym, with your headsets on, as you listen in on the news or sports on the TV.

It’s “goodbye” to a mild pump in your biceps with a set of isolation dumbbell curls.

Spin class suddenly seems like a comforting environment.

It’s all been replaced with a good dose of fear and trembling.

But you’ve been smart about it all.

When you first heard of CrossFit and Iron Tribe Fitness, you did your research.

You made a phone call, went to our website, maybe downloaded our free report … or maybe you just walked in a made a personal visit.

Most likely, you heard about us through a friend or saw an ad in Black and White or About Town.

Then the day came when you made that leap of faith, and you joined.

You felt you were ready for a change …, and you were!

And while you were a little nervous, you were excited about getting started to!

Then on your first day of CrossFit 101, you went through your base line WOD.

That’s the day reality hit you like a cold slap in the face.

Without warning you realized how out of condition you really were.

Half way through the WOD, you began huffing and puffing and feeling like you were going to blow the house down.

Your lungs were burning and your legs started filling with lactic acid.

You even wondered if you could finish the WOD.

That was bad enough, but nothing could have prepared you for what happened next.

Out of your whole class …

You came in dead last.

That’s when you experienced the greatest pain of your day … the sting of humiliation.

Humiliation … it’s an awful word, isn’t it?

It’s just so visceral … like a sucker punch in the gut when you least expect it.

That’s because at some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced humiliations on some level.

Needless to say, we never want to experience it again!

But there you were, feeling it again.

Trust me, I know how you feel, because, well, you see – I know because I’ve been the last one to finish.

A lot of times.

So has my wife, Melody.

And together, we’ve been talking about you … behind your back.

We’ve been talking about what you have felt, (and may still be feeling) and what you’ve been going through.

That’s why together, we want to bring you a word of encouragement today.

She and I want to have a heart-felt conversation with you, best we can in this blog – simply because we know how you feel … when others in your family life, work life and social life have no clue.

There’s nothing quite like feeling like no one understands, or worse, no one cares.

And there is nothing like feeling alone either.

But listen: We want to offer you something incredibly valuable.

We want to offer you hope and understanding.

There are 5 things we’d like you to understand and take away from this blog:

The first thing we’d like you to understand is …

You are not the only one who has ever finished last.

Nope. Far from it.

Consider this; every week, ITF offers 44 classes to our athletes.

Now, let that sink in for just a moment, and process that tidbit of info.

44 classes every week, means that 44 people have to finish last.

The second thing we want you to understand is …

It’s perfectly normal for you to hate being last.

As much as it may not seem like it, that negative feeling can actually be a positive motivator.

It motivates you to get better fast.

It’s true, finishing last could help you improve faster than any other single variable.

Trust me, nobody wants to be last. Nobody.

Women (and some men too) tell us all the time that they didn’t know they were so competitive, and it took CrossFit to bring it out of them.

Self discovery is a wonderful thing.

The third thing we want you to understand is …

Being the last one to finish won’t last forever.

You will get better, stronger, and faster.

You will move large loads long distances faster, and faster as your conditioning gets better.

The beautiful thing about CrossFit is …

CrossFit grows with you!

As you get better … you get better.

Some of those same CrossFit 101‘ers, who were last in the beginning, are now fire-breathers.

And some, like myself, still finish last when thrown into a class of young, athletic and highly competitive athletes.

Yep. I still finish last at times.

Which brings us to the forth thing we want you to understand ….

What is all of this really about, anyway?

When it comes right down to it, I doubt you joined ITF to “not finish last.”

Not finishing last is NOT why you joined this incredible community.

No. You have a much higher reason for becoming an ITF athlete.

Could that reason be (like myself), that you are determined to be strong and healthy as you can be as you age, so you can be vibrant and playful with your grand-buddies?

Or maybe it is to fit better in your clothes … or maybe you are about to get married … or you just got divorced … or you needed to lose weight for health reasons … or any number of other great reasons.

The point is, we don’t want you to lose sight of why you are really here.

Finally, we have one last thing we want you to understand ….

The day you don’t finish last is the day you have a new responsibility in the ITF community.

You now have a “high calling” placed upon your shoulders.

What is that exactly?

Let me answer that by telling you a quick story.

One day, during his first CrossFit 101 class, a new ITF athlete named Josh Pawlik did something very impressive in my eyes.

During his very first class, he finishes close to the top … maybe even finished first …, but he was far from being finished … he ran out the door and back down the street … to encourage – get this – the last person to finish!

He runs beside her the whole way, talking, encouraging, and helping her through the last portion of the run until she finishes her WOD.

Listen up: The day you are no longer finishing last in your WODs is the day you become the encourager to someone who is feeling the very same way you did.

Helping someone else is your reward for finishing before them.

That’s the way life should work … and that’s your call as an ITF athlete.

I hope this helps, and I hope you’ve received a bit of encouragemnet in the process.

I’d love to hear your comments and your stories.

Please tell me all about them in the comments below.

I forgot to post my Monday morning blog!

Oops. So the long weekend apparently threw me off, and suddenly about 1:30 this afternoon as I was washing my hair after a good workout, I realized it was Monday. I suppose the Rosemary mint in my shampoo woke up my brain cells.

O.k., so we’ve been cranking out copy all week for the special A-WOD edition of the TribeVibe, and in my mind I’d already written the blog, too. All that to say, I just plum forgot. (Saying it that way just makes it sound more quaint and forgiveable, doesn’t it?)

Anyway, so before Aaron calls and says, “baby, how could you do it? What happened to my ace writer? I’m gonna have to dock your pay,” I will submit this quick tale of how I took what we have learned at ITF and created my own WOD today… or as I like to call it, an SOM — spur of the moment. That’s because I don’t know what it will be until I’m doing it.

Shyla has mentioned many times that we can practice our skills out on the street. So that’s what I did, since I wasn’t industrious enough to get signed up for the scheduled class this morning. Not to mention, last night I had some red wine and french fries and felt like I needed to make up for it and sweat all that crap of my system. Can I get an “Amen, sister?” Come on, I know I’m not the only one.

So here’s how it went: Warmed up with 50 squats, 50 situps and 50 double unders. Then ran an easy 1.2 miles to the park. 1 min. rest. Sprint 400m up the hill past Homewood Library. 1 min walking rest. Run another 1.2 miles through Hollywood.

Loop back to Shades Cahaba playground. 10 knees to elbows and 10 “pullups.” Then, 25 jumps using a 16″ ledge that runs around the playground. Run back to 19th street, past Homewood PD, around SoHo, back to 29th Ave. 1 min rest. Sprint up 18th Street (240m; zigzagging around lamp posts). Then run back to park. 1 min rest. Sprint from park uphill 450m to E. Hawthorn. Easy pace from Trinity back to just before Palisades Tunnel. Sprint 340m back to my house. Finish with 50 more double unders.

The entire route works out to be about 5.1 miles. But you don’t realize it as you break it up into sections.

Since join ITF, it’s been very difficult to just do a straight run. And Shyla is right, if you pay attention to your surroundings you can find little obstacles to use in lieu of a box or real pullup bars. In fact, the bars at the playground are actually made for elementary school kids, so you kind of have to tuck your legs in and just make it work. But you still get the arm work.

So the next time you go for a jog or even a walk, look around you for things you can make a challenge. You actually see your neighborhood in a whole new way. In fact, if you find any place that has some suitable natural equipment you can do CrossFit moves with, tell us about it. Maybe we can take a field trip.

So Aaron, I hope I have redeemed myself. You can now go back to enjoying your Labor Day! And Jim, congrats on getting your Cert this weekend. I know you’ll teach us well!

Till next Monday (if I remember),

Janie

I’ll always remember Labor Day weekend 2010 for my amazing time at the CrossFit Level One Certification in Atlanta (checkout the 9/6/10 CrossFit.com post and click the view image option for a cool group photo from the cert).

Jordan Erwin and I met in my driveway at 4:30 am CT on Saturday morning and headed down I-20 East in the VW with Primal Pacs, Grainless Granola and a private showing of the CrossFit Films’ classic “Every Second Counts,” followed by a study session of our L-1 manuals (which had great review notes thanks to Aaron Crocker).

After arriving at CrossFit Atlanta in record time, Jordan and I met up with our fellow ITF Tribesman, Bebo Fitzpatrick. For the lay person, Bebo is the reigning ITF Awod winner for Most Improved Male Athlete.

Bebo, Jordan and I soaked up an amazing day of lectures, breakout sessions and small group movement tutorials, from CrossFit’s Chuck Carswell and his amazing team of trainers that included ITF friend Russell Berger, who owns CrossFit Huntsville.

We met some great folks from all over the southeast at the event. Men and women from all walks of life, who were paid their $1,000 to be at this certification, with a job or even their own business on the line!

Finally, at the end of day one, we were ready for the WOD; Fran! Jordan, Bebo and I were just three of the sixty people performing. Two heats and lots of stretching got us ready to 3, 2, 1, Go… On our way to PR in front of lots of eyeballs. The adrenalin rush was awesome.

Bebo did his first ever Fran at 7:05, Jordan PR’d 50 seconds with a 3:25 and I PR’d by 99 seconds with a 4:11. The best part, we all got caught up in lines during the pull up portions, so our times might even be better next time!

After recovering from the WOD (I was on the floor for at least a half hour coughing and gasping for air with no ability to extend my arms), Chuck and the CrossFit folks brought out the beer and we hung out… A truly neat CrossFit networking experience for a guy like me, who loves to network!

Day two started off, right where day one left off. From the nutrition segment to the team WOD where Jordan and I finished tops amongst thirty teams, we had a great final day at the event. Finally, it was go time… Test time… The money maker (or spender).

Yes, I passed. And I got my L-1! But, more importantly, I was reminded exactly why I love CrossFit and am so blessed to be a part if the ITF team.

Thanks you Forrest, Luan, Aaron, Tra and Shyla. I’m so excited about the next chapter.

Before I even get started on my post this morning I just want to say how incredibly proud of my staff I am.  To put together the A-WOD’s in less than three weeks was amazing.  However, their daily commitment and passion for what they do every day is even more amazing.  Thanks team – I’m proud to work with you and call you friends…

Reposting my recent Body Revolution Newsletter

I want to repost a Body Revolution Newsletter that I sent each of you on August 16th.  My software backend tells me that only about 70 of you actually open and read my weekly Monday newsletter so I thought this one was worth repeating.

Especially considering that so many of you are discovering the big CrossFit world out there and that there are others in town who offer CrossFit “programs” and are certainly cheaper than we are.  I will save you my rant on the state of service, facilities and staff in the over 50 CrossFit locations I have visited and let you make your own educated decision.

Here is the newsletter… Stick with me all the way to the end because I address why we opened the doors for 40 Phase II memberships and how it will never affect you or your workout experience.

One of the more curious questions I’ve ever received while signing up a new ITF athlete came from Josh Pawlik, who asked me pointedly, “Forrest, can you give me a justification for value for the price you are asking to join ITF?” A rephrasing of the question might be, “Are you valuable enough for me to join you?” So today, I’m going to talk to you a bit about the value ITF brings to you, and how people make reasonable decisions based upon their perceived value to any purchase … specifically, ITF. (See my article below entitled, “Three Types of Decision Makers.”) And in today’s case study featuring Rachel Tarver, you’ll discover how she came to her own conclusions of the value of ITF. Yours For Health, Forrest Walden P.S. Oh, one last thing. Josh Pawlik did join ITF that day, and later wrote on my office wall the following testimony: “When I first got here I asked Forrest for a “justification of value” to begin this program. After four weeks of sweat, pain, and giving up my favorite foods, the friendships gained and fitness earned is … PRICELESS!” Just thought you might want to know how that story ended.

Three Types Of Decision Makers Each and every client who walks through the doors of ITF for the very first time end up asking themselves a version of this question, “Is there enough value here for me to join?” In order to fully maximize the value of any product or service, you first need to understand the psychology of buyers. For example, a recent study conducted by one of the Country’s leading consumer tradeshow organizers revealed that there are three types of consumers … The “Benefit” Shopper – This is the person who doesn’t even look at the price tag and finds out later when he or she arrives home. To this person, price is mostly irrelevant – only benefit matters. This type of person is about 7% of the marketplace. The “Price” Shopper – This individual buys almost entirely on price. Each and every purchase comes down to price and only discounted or “cheap” items are purchased. This type of shopper is about 10% of the marketplace.  We will also certainly not be a fit for this type of shopper. The “Value” Shopper – This is the person that wants the greatest value, which you can say is the relationship between the benefit and the price. To this person, the price is evaluated in relation to the benefit being achieved. This person is willing to pay a higher price if he or she is convinced that it will result in far greater benefit. Astonishingly, this type of shopper comprises a whopping 83% of the consumers out there! That places YOU in great company with the other ITF athletes who’ve decided that the value we offer our members is more than worth the cost of being a part of Iron Tribe Fitness. And you know what else? It’s the reason why ITF has broken all known CrossFit records for rapid growth – reaching the 200 member mark faster than any other CrossFit affiliate in the world, of which there are 1,700 affiliates. That feat was the whole genesis for the A-WOD’s party that we put together in three weeks.  We were meeting as a staff talking about how to announce and celebrate our goal and the only thing that made any sense to us was to reward you our athletes! We are committed to making your experience at ITF more than just a place that you show up to a couple of times a week to do a workout.  We are building a fit community that you can be proud to call home and have immense pride in being a part of.  Hopefully you see that through events like the A-WOD’s, 300 movie night, free workshops, skill development days etc… We are committed to having the best staff in the world.  Coaches who have chosen to make this their life calling and aren’t just coaching around hours at another job.  If you stop in any other facility in town that is just what you will find.  Look at that picture again at the top of this post – this staff is amazing! So, are we more expensive than other options that you have when you pursue your fitness?  Absolutely.  But, we work every single day to make sure that the VALUE is worth every single penny! Quote Corner “Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.“ – Jonann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist and dramatist. Case Study # 9 Our next case study brings up such a wonderful point. At the tender age of 22, and as a student at UAB and working a part time job, Rachel had to look at her budget and determine the value of being a member of the Tribe. She could have gone to other gyms and paid less. So why did Rachel decide to join Iron Tribe Fitness? Let’s find out … Name: Rachel Tarver Age: 22 Condition upon arrival: Unmotivated and physically uneducated My previous work out routine consisted of running on the Treadmill/Elliptical and the occasional spin class at the standard globo-gym. This routine was by no means strict or consistent. Branching out to weights/lifting wasn’t really an option in my mind, mainly because I had no idea what to do and would probably hurt myself or others. Also, I just felt weird and out of place going into the weight lifting room with all the guys hanging around. I thought I would make a fool out of myself, so I just decided that wasn’t something for me. As far as eating habits go, I have always been a fairly healthy eater… with a bad sweet tooth. I heard about CrossFit from a few friends of mine over at CrossFit Birmingham, but never paid it much attention because I thought ‘oh that’s a guy thing. I don’t want to look all ripped and manly.’ Then a good friend of mine and fellow Iron Tribe member, Corinne Smith, told me about a new CrossFit gym in town Iron Tribe Fitness. She told me I should check it out and promised I wouldn’t turn into a beastly man. Once I was assured of the non-beastly results, I called and spoke with Forest. He was so helpful and seriously talked to me for a solid ten minutes on the phone about Iron Tribe Fitness. Obviously, if he would take that much time to talk to a complete stranger about ITF it must be something worth my while. After checking out the ITF gym I was surprisingly not intimidated. There was not a single piece of large machinery in sight that required instructions and could potentially crush me, I was ready to see what this was all about. I was confident after seeing the non-intimidating atmosphere and signed up on the spot! Now, let me give you a little personal information: I am currently a student at UAB working on my bachelors degree and I also work part time as a pharmacy tech at UAB hospital. Obviously, neither of these activities generate a tremendous amount of money or gives me a lot of spare time during my day-to-day life. Honestly, I can not think of a better way, not only to spend my time, but also my money. Instead of doing some useless activity or getting some extra sleep I spend my spare time working out at ITF. Rather than spending my money on weekly partying or other frivolous things, I spend it a little more responsibly on my ITF membership. Also, I have not only gained a beyond great fitness regime, but a support system of people that hold me accountable to constantly living a healthy lifestyle and continuing to better myself each day! So you can see the benefits greatly outweigh the time and cost. The wealth of compliments I have gotten from friends, family and coworkers are such a reinforcement to stay committed. Everyone always wants to know what I have been doing and they are pretty astonished when I explain what CrossFit is and that I love it! I suppose they never thought I would become such an avid athlete. My sister says I’m like a walking commercial for CrossFit haha! Seriously though, I love to tell people all about it all the time. CrossFit has made such a distinct and  positive difference in my life, I just want to share my new found fitness program with everyone! ITF is truly a completely different spin on working out. I mean, where else can you find a gym that is so devoted to each member’s fitness that it has a web-site with daily updates, recipes, tips and info (that really do come in handy), photos of everyone at the gym, and your very own, cool athlete profile?! They are always hosting special events to improve your CrossFit experience and Paleo lifestyle. If a question ever arises the staff is always right there to give you an answer or will go to any length to get you an answer. Not only do I have supportive trainers, but I also have my fellow ITF athletes that are always there to cheer me on when I feel like I’m going to throw-up or die. Obviously, this is a pretty sweet deal! ## END ## Thanks Rachel! Phase II Membership Offerings Now, if you are still with me I want to talk further about why we chose to expand our membership offering from 200 to 240.  I initially announced this on CBS 42 on the Friday morning before the A-WOD’s.  That was an accident as I wasn’t expecting that question and was saving the announcement for that evening at the A-WOD’s.  You do funny things when on camera… Even though we have achieved the magical number of 200 we still have numerous classes during our off peak hours that average anywhere from 5 to 10 athletes.  In fact, we have only had 3 athletes in our 8 am and 12:15 pm T, TH class this very week! I have the staff capacity to offer more classes (and staff begging to coach more and offer more options) and new customers dying to get into the program.  On top of that me and my coaches think a small class is just not as much fun and that you ultimately don’t get the same quality of workout. I wanted to figure out a way to satisfy both my staff’s desire for more classes to coach and an overwhelming response of athletes trying to get into the door. Phase II memberships solves these problems and ultimately allows us to offer life changing fitness to even more people.  That’s our core passion and reason for existing. Phase II does allow 40 more lucky athletes into the program but they will only be able to schedule during the slower times that have NEVER sold out.  Those hours are 7:15 am until 4:30 pm.  So, none of these new memberships will increase the size of your class or decrease the quality of coaching or coach to athlete ratio. It is my belief that a well attended (even sold out) class that is well staffed is the most fun and the purest expression of CrossFit.  This program is designed to be pursued in a large group format which offers energy, motivation and good old fashioned competition. My hope is that you can see that these decisions were made carefully with the desire to serve more athletes and continue to offer the best CrossFit training anywhere. I would love to hear any comments or feedback that you have on this very long (and Aaron Crocker worthy) blog post In Health, Forrest

Check out Forrest Walden’s feature interview on Iron Tribe Fitness’ recent success and the CrossFit movement!

You can access them by going here

They are also on our Iron Tribe Facebook page.  If you are not a fan of ITF on Facebook then get right over there now and become a fan.  We are currently at 600 fans and would love to hit 1,000 soon.

Great party everybody!

As the Paloe challenge came around I decided to dive in. I was off milk for three weeks and fell off the wagon and started back on milk before bedtime. Once I got back on milk I awoke early one morning with a massive migraine. Nausea, light and sound sensitivity were at an all time high. Talk about a rude awakening.

Following this D-day migraine, I began to think about periods in my life when migraines did not occur.  I started drinking milk routinely right when I started getting these headaches, late teens early twenties. It also occurred to me that out of two deployments to Iraq I only had one migraine headache (I’ve had as many as four in a month in the states). Also another interesting fact, over the past two years the majority of my headaches have occurred while I’m sleeping. So I started to reach a breakthrough on this migraine situation. Could Milk be triggering my headaches? Take a look at the facts: 1) I started drinking milk consistently in my late teens, early twenties 2) My milk consumption was extremely low in Iraq and I only had one migraine over the course of one year. 2) The majority of my headaches over the past couple of years occur in the middle of the night, a few hours after my glass of milk.

I personally feel like I’ve found the trigger for my migraine headaches. Everyone is different. I spoke with my doctor on the situation and he believes in some way everyone is allergic to milk. Some people have intestinal problems after milk consumption. I on the other hand develop severe headaches that are almost blinding. There are great alternatives available like almond milk that supports my late night snack. I strongly encourage everyone to go a month without milk and decide if it truly does a body good.

Almond milk does a body good

-Sean Eden told me about Taziki’s; where you can get a side of grilled meat, a side of fresh fruit, and a water for $4.23!

-Jim Cavale mentioned that Urban Cookhouse features the “Down Home” for $6.99 that includes a Meat and two Paleo sides (the Broccoli salad is awesome).

Please post your ideas!