“You can call me Joe. Buy me a drink and shake my hand. You want courage. I’ll show you courage you can understand.” That’s Springsteen talking, but his words apply here. See, our Joe here in the FDNY shirt is a volunteer firefighter.

Why is that important? In other than a “golf clap” kind of way?

Because Joe serves. He serves something other than himself, some ideal other than himself, people other than himself.

Like our teachers do. And our cops. And our military. And almost everyone who is a member of CrossFit Watertown. In some way, no matter if they manage people or they manage a portfolio, there is some aspect of their lives– personal or professional– where they take care of other people and serve.

See, we’re not interested in selfish bastards here. Really. Honestly. If you’re just out for yourself and what you can get in this life for you, don’t walk through our doors. We have no place for you here. Head down the street to a regular gym, put your earphones on, and disconnect from everyone.

Because if you come here, we expect you to connect, to take the headphones off, to become a part of a community, to give a sh** about other people, to serve. You don’t have to be a maniac about it. Just a “hello” here and a “nice work” there and maybe a “I’ll put that away for you” once in a while. Anything more than that is up to you. That sounds crazy for a gym, doesn’t it? This is just exercise, right?

Wrong. CrossFit is more than that. If you understand that — or even want to try to understand that — if you are looking for fantastic fitness and a community that actually cares, walk in here. Get in line behind Joe and learn some muscle-up transitions. You’ll be glad you did.

And to everyone who is out there serving: Thanks. We appreciate it.

Reminder: Free Workout every Saturday at 9am. Call or e-mail us if you’d like to attend.

Schedule Alert: The Sun 9am class will meet at the Taft School fields off Guernseytown Road in Watertown. There will be a workout and you’ll learn how to play Ultimate Frisbee. How can you beat that?

“Warming Up to the Warm-Up” by Melissa Reed (Physical Therapist and CrossFit Coach)

Classes start on the hour with a group warm-up here at CrossFit Watertown. Your coaches spend about 10-15 minutes preparing your bodies for the WOD ahead, and while it is sufficient to get you ready for that day’s workout, you all can (and should) be doing more!

The crowd usually starts gathering in the Club Room about 15 minutes before each class; we chat about our day, our soreness, and who killed the WOD yesterday. I love this aspect of CFW. The community and friendships are what makes CFW so great and unique. I’m going to make one suggestion: Let’s take it INSIDE the gym. Use the 15 minutes to make yourself a better CrossFitter and a better athlete.

We all have our unique flexibility issues, injuries, and goats. This is a great time to work on them. Let me offer up a few suggestions . . .

First, start off with an easy run or row to get the blood flowing and help loosen up all your muscles and joints. If you have specific flexibility issues (like not being able to get into a good front rack position for your front squat) spend some time working on PVC dislocates and other shoulder and wrist stretches.

For those of you with low back pain, OHS with PVC pipe/ring holds/plank position are all great exercises that will help build core strength. For those of you with shoulder issues, it’s important to prehab and rehab with ring rows, shoulder dislocates, plank holds, and foam roller to the thoracic spine, all of which will improve mobility and strength.

Are you someone who spends all day at a desk or has a long commute? Use the 15 minutes to stretch out your back and hips; press-ups and active hamstring stretches are both great!

Double-unders getting you down? Practice, practice, practice. Double-unders are an example of a coordination/agility/balance/accuracy exercise that CrossFit includes in the 10 domains of fitness. The only way to get better at these types of exercises is to practice!

If all else fails, keep in mind the basic CrossFit warm-up. Samson stretch, squats, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups: 10 reps, 3 rounds. That should get a sweat going. Talk to any of the coaches if you are unsure of what you should be working on or if you need suggestions for exercises.

See all those balls in the background? Those are your responsibilities, your work, your kids, your worries, your fears, your life. All the stuff that you have to take care of, that you have to do, that you have to be, everyday.

Put them all to the side for an hour at CrossFit.

Pile them in a corner.

Let them sit by themselves for 60 minutes.

Work on yourself instead.

For an hour.

Forget what you have to do. Forget what you need to do.

Play.

Sweat.

Laugh.

Find how to be happy again.

It will roll over into all the rest of your life.

You need those 60 minutes. And they’ll make you better able to handle all that other stuff.

Trust me.

The world gives back what you give it. Like the ocean. Throw trash in the water and guess what? That same bag of garbage is washing up on your shore. It might take a while, but it will happen. One morning, a putrid mess could be swishing over your toes.

The gym is no different. What you get out of your CrossFit experience is going to be directly related to what you put into it — physically and emotionally. So you might as well throw your heart into it right now and get some beautiful, clear water back.

See these folks in the photo? They could have been doing something else. Working on a lift. Stripping down their bars. Getting a drink of water. Checking their Facebook. But they all stopped what they were doing and came over to watch Erin try to get a new max on her back squat. They cheered her on — and she got it. Sure, it might not seem like that big a thing, but it’s huge.

Whether we admit it or not, it helps to have a cheering section in life. Did you watch the 2010 CrossFit Games? Who didn’t want to be Jason Khalipa, with an entire section full of crazy guys waving signs, chanting his name, and spelling out “K-H-A-L-I-P-A” on their bare chests? They couldn’t help him lift the bar, but they helped lift his spirit during some brutal, crushing workouts — a feat of strength that we can only begin to imagine.

So, the next time you’re wondering why life — or CrossFit – isn’t giving you the results you so desperately want, think about what you’re putting into the mix. Think about the effort and enthusiasm you’re bringing to the task in front of you — and the task in front of the others around you. Become a cheering section. You don’t have to paint letters on your chest, you just have to yell a little for the other guys. You just have to hope desperately for successes other than your own. You simply have to help will the others to victory too. And the ocean will return what you give it . . .

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

No big words today, just come in and enjoy Jen’s Birthday WOD today. You’ll be glad you did.

Enjoy your weekend!

And remember, if you’re reading this and want to know how/when to start CrossFit, we have Fundamentals classes every Tuesday/Thursday at 7pm. Sign up today and you could be a CrossFitter by Tuesday! (Ignore the “worn-out” photos here — it’s a good worn-out feeling!)

Study this photo hard. Crazy tough mean broads, huh? Spitting nails and running your sh** over, right? CrossFit is only full of the most elite athletes ever to walk the face of the planet Earth. Cops and soldiers and Navy Seals. People who will kill you with their BARE hands in order to get another pull-up. It’s SO hard that there is NO way you could ever try it now. You need to get in shape for the next 24 months at least to try it. It will KILL you otherwise. People die EVERY day from CrossFit!

Or not. Maybe we’ve got some students, a teacher, and the owner of a hair salon in this photo. Maybe the 9am class is CrossFit Chick Central these days. A bunch of gals throwing down and getting fit and literally laughing their a**** off after they push a lot of iron. Maybe you’re just a baby and finding excuses not to call us and make the decision to get into shape, to fix your body, to fix your life. Maybe I just offended you. That breaks a cardinal rule of a blog for a business, I guess. But you know what? I don’t really care about cardinal rules. I care about changing your life, I care about saving your life. I care about helping you to become a better person.

Maybe you care too. Or maybe somebody who cares about you will forward this blog to you because they want you to be happy and to live a long life. They’re trying to help you — I’m trying to help you . . . so, let us help. Come on and CrossFit. First session is always free.

Grip. What grip do you use on a deadlift? Do you ever change it? When do you change it?

There are a lot of philosophies out there about grip. No single one is definitive other than this: If you can’t hold onto it, you can’t lift it.

So, you need to decide what to do when. I like to keep it simple: Overhand hook grip deadlift until my thumbs rip off. Or until I can’t hold it anymore, actually. If the bar starts to feel jiggy in my hands, time to go to the mixed grip. But not until my grip is almost done. I like Mark Rippetoe’s theory that the mixed grip is like the silver bullet — save it for when you really need it. Change your grip at the beginning of failure and send a different signal to your brain — “Oh! New movement! New recruitment pattern!”  . . . and maybe you can get some more mileage out of that tank of gas. (Whoa — I just mixed ammo and fuel in metaphors — watch out!)

Now, you might have a different philosophy — and that’s okay. But test it, try it, mess around with your theory, your grip, your life. Like our old friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote back in 1842: “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Emerson would have so loved CrossFit, right?

But some things just can’t be powered through, like double-unders here. You can’t just set your jaw and drive through your heels. The rope doesn’t care how big your quads are, or how determined your mind is, or who the heck you are in life.

The rope wants quick wrists, light feet, and — gasp — a relaxed state. WTH? You want me to RELAX? This is CROSSFIT! I’m geared up, pumped up, espresso’d up, and ready to rip through life with my bare hands, sharp teeth, and razor wit! I am roaring!

And so you won’t have double-unders. Not until you learn to listen, relax, and make your body do what the coaches tell you to do. Until you make that commitment, you’ll be passed by every person in your gym who has two feet and learned to listen.

So, chill. Stand tall and relax. Quick wrists, light feet. It seems like the antithesis of an aggressive sport like CrossFit, but that’s the beauty of it all — we must learn the things we don’t want to learn. We must sometimes be who we think we can’t be. And then we learn so much more.

(Words/Photo: Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

We’re back from the CrossFit Games! Sorry for the lack of posts since Thursday. The Games were amazing, fantastic, inspiring, motivating, and everything else you could imagine. Start saving your pennies and vacation time because you are going to want to be there next year. If you somehow missed the action, go here to watch the archives or go here to check out photos and discussion on the CrossFit Facebook page . . . (written by someone you might know).

But enough talk about the Games! Let’s talk about CrossFit Watertown. What’s new? More mats at the gym! We’re going to be doing a little redesign work in the near future to make our space even better for ya’ll. Look for our painting volunteers to be getting busy too. Thanks to everyone for helping!

And now, let’s get busy getting stronger and better so we can send some folks to the Games next year . . . whaddaya say?