Chaos. Wreckage. Fun. :)

We have 6 days until Christmas, so many of us took on the Chaos of Christmas workout yesterday. Some went it alone, some went with a partner, some mis-understood the workout and went alone with a partner. ——— lol

Everyone had a great time, moved well, stayed healthy, and celebrated afterward. Thanks to those of you who contributed to the gifts for the coaching staff! We’re honored that you trust us to guide your fitness and we love doing it. We’re continually trying to do better for you, so the recognition and appreciation goes a long way for us. :))

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2021 Membership pricing

I mentioned this in the last major update blog, but 2021 membership prices are going to increase by $6/mo in March. We’ve been re-investing our revenue into equipment, systems, aesthetics, and education to make sure your experience is the best it can be. You’ve seen some of those investments happening over the last few weeks and if Rogue ever decides to ship equipment again, you’ll see just how much we’ve spent to upgrade our equipment. :) March is also when our second lease rate increase kicks in. We didn’t pass any of those costs along the first year, but we need to now. This will help us continue to do re-invest (and, you know, continue to exist) moving forward. If you want to see all of the exciting things we’ve been putting together and the stuff we did last year, CLICK HERE If you have any questions, please talk to Ben. If you want to help even further, you can add a bank account to your push press account and that saves us a significant amount of money each month in credit card fees. We can help you set that up too! :)

CHRISTMAS EVE - 8AM & 10AM only!

CHRISTMAS - CLOSED

NEW YEARS EVE - 6AM - NOON - 4:30? 5:45? Let me know if you want to come

NEW YEARS - 10AM - NOON

NEW SLIDES —

Featuring Chalk-It. This is how you’ll see things on the TV in the next few weeks…

Monday

Monday

Tuesday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Wednesday

Thursday - Classes at 8am & 10am ONLY — Enjoy your Christmas!!

Thursday - Classes at 8am & 10am ONLY — Enjoy your Christmas!!

Saturday

Saturday

The Championship comes to a close & on to the Chaos of Christmas this week.

The Inaugural Fair Fight Championship is complete and we crowned the Champ Champ yesterday morning. It was so much fun to see all of you compete and we hope you had fun doing it. Congrats to our podium finishers Ben Holt (Brown), Maddy Gladieux (Purple), and Rachel Marroquin (Blue)! Thanks for putting on a great show!

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CHAOS OF CHRISTMAS

This coming Saturday. For those of you who did it last year, you’ll remember this is a tough workout, but a lot of fun. Everyone will need a partner— preferably someone your same color level or can handle the same barbell weight as you. REGISTRATION IS OPEN for it already, so make sure you and your partner reserve a spot. If you want to have a whole crew of people in the same class time, arrange it. :)

This is a long workout, so get there early to stretch and get warmed up. It’s not a good idea to show up right at 8 or 10 and just get straight to work. Get there early!

Also, dress Christmas-y if you like. Any elf costumes lying around? Reindeer noses?

2021 Membership pricing

I mentioned this in the last major update blog, but 2021 membership prices are going to increase by $6/mo in March. We’ve been re-investing our revenue into equipment, systems, aesthetics, and education to make sure your experience is the best it can be. You’ve seen some of those investments happening over the last few weeks and if Rogue ever decides to ship equipment again, you’ll see just how much we’ve spent to upgrade our equipment. :) March is also when our second lease rate increase kicks in. We didn’t pass any of those costs along the first year, but we need to now. This will help us continue to do re-invest (and, you know, continue to exist) moving forward. If you want to see all of the exciting things we’ve been putting together and the stuff we did last year, CLICK HERE If you have any questions, please talk to Ben. If you want to help even further, you can add a bank account to your push press account and that saves us a significant amount of money each month in credit card fees. We can help you set that up too! :)

Ok ok… yeah yeah yeah… workouts.

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MEET YOUR FAIR FIGHT CHAMPS... they battle this Saturday...

2020’s Fair Fight Championship results are tallied and the victors have been named!

Brown Level Champ is Ben Holt

Purple Level Champs are Sam Harmon (Sam 3) and Madisen Gladieux

Blue Level Champs are Zach Holt and Rachel Marroquin

Orange Level Champs are Jay Hanson and Emily Hermiller

Our Yellow Level Champ is Daniel Rectenwald (we didn’t have any Yellow ladies do all of the workouts)

CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU!!

FAIR FIGHT INVITATIONAL THIS SATURDAY AT 11AM!!

Stick around after the 10am class to watch our Champs go head-to-head in a single-elimination knockout workout! Battle Royale! Last Champ standing becomes The Standard Champ Champ! It’ll be a blast to watch!

IF YOU DIDN’T READ THE LAST BLOG, YOU REALLY SHOULD…

Workouts for the week - here’s a helpful link for Thursday’s workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6_aD2IWEEA&ab_channel=FunctionalBodybuilding

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Thanks to you, we survived 2020. Here's what we're bringing to you in 2021...

What happened this year?

Has anyone had the best year of their life in 2020? If so, please share your methods with us! It’s been a tough year for everyone and it’s been marvelous to watch all of you adapt and respond to what needs to get done, the same way we practice in the gym each day. When we were shut down in May, we switched to an online delivery system, created the Resilience Challenge, started a “Push Play,” channel on our YouTube, and no one complained. We loaned our equipment so you could keep up with the workouts and continue to get better despite less than optimal circumstances. You kept your memberships in tact so there’d be a gym to come back to when the dust settled. We cannot express how much we appreciated that on many levels, but mostly it validated the value of what we all are building as a community at The Standard. As a way of giving back, we partnered with The Community Coalition to provide gift codes and discounts through a number of brands to anyone who kept their membership through the shutdown. As we wind down the year, we partnered with them again, but even bigger than last time! There are significantly more brands involved with offers worth taking advantage of. This is a way for us to say thanks. Thanks for helping us endure the chaos and for continuing to trust us with your physical fitness and development, but also, thanks for sharing your lives with us, encouraging each other, and creating an atmosphere that is welcoming, friendly, and positive. I think we’ve all played a major role in that aspect and while I think coaching is important, that cleanliness matters, and programming has to be right— ultimately how it “feels,” is the most important. You make that happen. Thanks.

So with all of that said, if you’re getting this email, you’ve played a part in making The Standard what it is today, so you’re invited to participate in the give-back campaign through the Community Coalition and The Standard. FOLLOW THIS LINK and save your hands, get double unders, buy clothes that fit better, use supplements (VITAMIN D helps COVID immunity, btw), and so much more. We appreciate you.

What’s December 2020 going to look like?

The Fair Fight Champions will go head to head in the Fair Fight Invitational. Details are still being sorted out.

12/10 YOGA!! - Kayla K is going to be leading us through some really under-appreciated stretching and static strength poses on Thursdays at 7pm and Saturdays at 9a. CLASS NOTE: Typical 9a Open gym on Saturday will move to 8a with yoga to follow. She is offering these times on a donation basis, so bring a couple dollars to tip the teacher. :)

12/19 We’ll be doing the Chaos of Christmas event again. This was a ton of fun last year and since there’s so many new people around here, we figured we’d do it again! It’s a killer workout! Team up with your gym equal and have a good time throwing down. Bonus points for dressing festively. :)

So what’s 2021 going to look like for us?

Firstly, we have a new performance tracking, community-interaction centered, application we’ll be rolling out. It’s called Chalk-It and integrates perfectly with Level Method. Eventually LM and Chalk-It will be a single app, but for now, yes, we want you to download another app. Why? Because many of our people have divorced from Facebook and social media and we need an information delivery system that isn’t as intrusive as texting, but is better than email. Chalk-It will let us send announcements, make video demonstrations, and so much more that will make your education and overall experience better here. Also, performance tracking is valuable! Sometimes you have no idea what your goal is for strict press sets of 5— now you can look at your history and have a range of expectation. You can post your score in the metcon and see how it stacks up with others that did a similar version of the workout as you did (don’t worry, you can keep them private too), so the friendly rivalries can thrive. There’s more info coming about that in the very near future…

We’ve made significant investments in equipment, storage and aesthetics as well. You’ve already seen some of that process begin with the newly painted brick wall and the bathroom art with hangers (!!), but more is ordered and on the way! Better equipment, better layout, better socially-distance space optimization, and even more COVID mitigation efforts (to be talked about later).

January 11th will begin our next global assessment cycle, which will have been 3 months since the last one. Let me say this immediately: Retest every category. Level yourself down. It’s fine. We, as a coaching staff, need this information so we can serve you as well as you deserve.

At the beginning of the year, our rent will increase for the second year in a row and costs of operation have gone up generally the past two years. So in March, membership rates are going to jump up $6/mo. You can get an exemption though! If you set up ACH through your bank, you can insulate yourself from that. Just ask how to get that set up and we’ll make it happen; it’s painless and saves us a lot on credit card fees, so that balances a lot.

We are in negotiation with a 24/7 service provider, but I’m on the fence about the idea for a variety of reasons. If you have any feedback about the value that would bring to you, please let me know. It seems like a good idea in theory, but I'd love any thoughts from you guys. It would cost a little extra ($10?), just for some frame of reference.

Lastly, a HUGE development is going to be completed: Storefront parking. =) It’ll be metered, but man, not having to walk a city block to get to the gym will be a nice change!

We’re excited about everything The Standard has become and we’re anxious to continue to make it better and better for all of you. Last reminder… FOLLOW THIS LINK and get some discounts from The Community Coalition!

Happy Thursday!

Your Standard Team.

Fair Fight Finishes and the gym is under construction...

Whew! We made it through Fair Fight Fridays! We hope you had a great time challenging yourself to do things you normally wouldn’t in the gym or to do something you’ve never done before. I know the coaching staff had a great time with it and loved seeing you all step up to the challenges! Champions will be crowned this week and there are more details to come about that— we’re not done just yet!

Adrienne spent a number of vacation days last week installing some art in the bathrooms, then plowed through some Christmas decor, painted our main wall, and even provided some Thanksgiving snack packs. Thanks for all you did and all you do!

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Bullet dodged - Thanksgiving holiday schedule!

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I know you do this. Read this:

**HOLIDAY SCHEDULE**

Thanksgiving Thursday - 9AM Open gym, 10am Class

Black Fair Fight Friday - 10AM-Noon Open gym, Noon Class

Ok now you can scroll and look at the workouts. Or stay and read the things I have to say, which may be pertinent to you! Just kidding. I don’t have anything to say other than I’m glad Dewine made the right choice and didn’t force us to close. Let’s continue our diligence of distancing inside the gym, masking when we’re in public, washing our hands more, avoiding random gatherings, and eating our vegetables daily. That’s the only scientific efforts that can be made, so let’s make them.

I can’t wait to see all of you this week. :)

P.S. We’re starting some beautifying projects at the gym, so expect some paint and saw dust and disorganization en route to ambiance upgrades.

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MENTAL PREPARATION

Happy Sunday afternoon, friends! We had a pretty tremendous week of training, capped off with a stellar Round 3 for the Fair Fight Championship that saw many of you get your first chest-to-bar or pullup or use kipping in a workout for the first time. Congratulations! Those are incredible to watch and it inspired me.

From the Bummer News Department, your Standard team are preparing for another government shutdown that seems inevitable and forthcoming. BUT. We’ve done this before and we are better prepared for it this time around. We can’t make any official proclamations until it happens, but if you have feedback to give; we welcome and desire all of it. Check out this video:

I’m going to act as if it’s business as usual though, so HERE ARE THE WORKOUTS for the week! Each Fair Fight round was selected by a Standard trainer, so week 1 was Sam’s, week 2 was Logan’s, last week was Stephen’s, this week is mine, and the last week is Christian/Kayla’s. Enjoy! :))

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Fair Fight Round 1 - Done! Take a short rest and be ready for Round 2!

Fair Fight Championship kicked off Friday with a bang! Lots of really impressive performances and even more misery, but a good time was had by all. Getting 3 of the least enjoyable movements out of the way in one workout is sorta nice though, right? Guys?

If you don’t know, after this most recent assessment season, I’ve been taking the programming each week and catering it to our community as a whole. It’s a lot of work, but it’s enjoyable, and some kind of fun, but you’ll notice a bunch of it this week. Lots of options for catering workouts to yourself, in side your level. Let’s take a look…

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Fair Fight Championship & the shin-saving upgrade arrives...

This week marks the kick-off of the 2020 Fair Fight Championship! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the video below. Over the next 5 weeks, we’ll announce 5 different workouts on every Friday, all catered to your level. You’ll gain points for your performance each week and at the end, each level will crown a champ! It’s going to be a lot of fun and really challenging!

The first of the upgrades showed up this week. FOAM plyo boxes!!

The first of the upgrades showed up this week. FOAM plyo boxes!!

WORKOUTS FOR THE WEEK!!

We’ve been working toward a deadlift assessment the last four weeks, so let’s give it a go!

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The maintenance & continuation...

ALRIGHT - for those of you who took on 3 Weeks To Shredded, you’ve arrived. How did you do? More importantly, what will you do now? Here’s a video that talks about just that… how to move forward after a 3 week cycle of learning, discipline, and results.

The main points to take away is consistency is key. Consistently eating high quality foods, minimizing processed garbage and nutritionally worthless food (pizza, doughnuts, candy…), will keep you moving in the right direction. Once you get to a place where you’re happy with your body composition, you can be less diligent and make amendments to recipes so they’re more enjoyable. Until then, stay disciplined. Now, all of that said, you should 100% allow yourself some mental relaxation and a vacation from discipline… for about 4 hours. It’s your 4 hour hall pass. Eat whatever you’ve been craving, go to the birthday party and have cake and ice cream, go to the wedding and get more beers than you should, or have a big UFC party and enjoy the heck out it. But then get RIGHT BACK ON TRACK with your next meal. Your body can only absorb so many calories, so don’t make it a cheat day, make it an earned meal.

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FAIR FIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP!! It’s just about 10 days away from kickoff! I’m super pumped about this because I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, you’ll overcome some real challenges, and get to see your friends perform at their bests! Every Friday, starting on 10/30, we’ll be having an extended evening session where (we hope) everyone can come support each other, get their workout done, and have a good time. I’ll announce how scoring is going to happen next week, but if you have any levels you want to re-address, do it in the next few days!

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NEW EQUIPMENT STARTS ARRIVING THIS WEEK - (You’ll notice)

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WORKOUTS!!

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Are you shredding yet?

Lots of us are! It’s been awesome to hear about how you guys are smashing The Dolce Diet and losing significant pounds! You’re on your last week— you’re almost there! But what do we do once we’re done? That’s the most important part. You create a lifestyle.

Dolce is a wealth of knowledge about all things nutrition and strength and conditioning— he’s a really good funnel of information, only passing along the nuggets that are most valuable and factual. Over the last few weeks you should’ve learned how to prep and cook a couple really easy go-to meals. You should’ve seen how there’s a good number of carbs in the morning, then fewer throughout the rest of the day. You learned how to get protein, fats, and carbs in nearly all of those meals, but more importantly, to get MICROs from fruits and vegetables as well. Adrienne live our lives in a pretty consistent state of week 2. Egg scrambles, breakfast bowls, and whatever she wishes to make for dinners; as long as it follows the same principles.

1) Eat locally sourced earth-grown nutrients

2) Eat until satisfied, not until full

3) Eat regularly; what you eat should be determined by what you just did or what you’re about to do (pre or post-workout, etc)

4) Drink water, brewed teas, and black coffee

5) Sleep 7.5-9 hours and reduce stress overall

We put up some butcher paper at the entrance to show how well people are doing. Put your name on it next time you’re in and let us rejoice with you.

!!REMEMBER!!

FAIR FIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP starts Halloween weekend! If you have ANY levels you need to address before then, get with a coach ASAP.

Workouts.

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Re-investments and persistence

This past week was a tremendous week of training that saw a lot of people understand and move better across various skills, culminating in a really fun Saturday morning team workout with Braxton. That was super fun! I also learned that Sam Granada just got hired to work at Steve Reamey’s facility as a nurse and it’s awesome to see the community working together to help each other. Like Kong spending a few of his weekend hours to help Sean get City Egg’s system back online. Those stories are better than personal bests, those are life-changing!

I’m also hearing pretty good reports from those of you who are on 3 weeks to shredded! I’ve heard many 8-10lb losses in the first week, so keep up the good work! This is when it gets the most hard, when you most crave the foods/treats you typically have. Stay disciplined and persistent toward the goal and it’ll pay off. If you didn’t start last week, but want to do it, you still can! Pick up the kindle/ibooks version and get started! Week 2 will see a bit less food quantity, but it’ll be more than tolerable. STAY ON TARGET!

Adrienne and I also pulled the trigger on some (many) experience upgrades; reinvesting in making your time at The Standard the best it possibly can be. You already saw the new ski erg and in the next few weeks, even more will arrive. We hope you guys notice and enjoy it! Consider it early Christmas presents. :)

Lastly, Tim Super is down in Cincinnati learning from world-class instructors at the Level 1 Trainer course. Tim had already been shadowing me for a few weeks prior, so expect to see him running a class or two in the very near future; once he’s gotten the Standard Coaching Staff Seal of Approval.

It’s starting to get chilly in the gym, so jackets are more and more likely to be brought in. We’ll have a coat rack shortly to accommodate and we still have some sweatshirts available for sale if you’re into super soft, really warm and comfy clothing.

**Remember… bags are banned. If you bring a bag, it must stay with you in your square/area. Don’t leave them at the front. With space being limited consistently in class, we need to keep available space maximized. We post these workouts each week so you can know what you’ll need and bring it in with you. Leave your weight belts and lifters in the car when it’s a rowing and burpee workout. Cooooool? Thanks. I do actually appreciate it. Don’t make me put your bag outside.

Workouts!

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New week! 3 weeks to shredded...

Hey everybody! I hope you had just as good of a weekend as I did! I spent the last few days playing golf with my dad and participating in the 1st Annual Sub-Standard Golf Outing! Congrats to everyone who managed to complete all 18 holes, and extra special congrats to Sean Timmons for shooting the lowest score for the day at 80! I’m looking forward to next year being less sub-standard. :)

This week, you’re invited to follow a weigh-cut program called 3 weeks to shredded from Mike Dolce. It’s not just about leaning out, you’ll also reset your nutritional preferences, meal quality and quantity, and much more. Here’s a (7 minute long) video if you’re planning to join in or just want more info. It’s $10 on the Kindle app, so it’s a pretty low barrier to participate! If you don’t want to, that’s all good, no pressure, we just wanted to give some direction to those who might need it.

Sidenote: the meal plan was for an MMA fighter who was training twice a day leading up to a fight… We’re not doing that, just maintain whatever workout schedule you’ve been on.

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The HARD work is done. The journey continues! ...ANNOUNCEMENTS...

This was a CRAZY hard three weeks in a wide variety of ways! The assessment workouts are some of the hardest we encounter because we’re all working at our capacity and trying to prove that we can do more. Completing those workouts in such close time periods, sometimes multiple times, is super taxing on the body AND mind. We have some deloading in both of those areas this week.

The striving and struggle surely paid off though. We had 44 overall color level-ups and …. wait for it… nearly 600 level ups!! That’s unbelievable. To have spent nearly 3 months out of the gym because of COVID and see this kind of massive result is a gigantic achievement! I’m so proud of you guys, proud of your effort, and your willingness to learn, adapt, and improve. It’s awesome to watch and I’m blessed to be a part of it.

This Assessment season has been truly gratifying on multiple levels for me. It also revealed some massive holes in some of your games. So, let’s get a game plan together. I want to meet with every single one of you over the course of the week to talk through how the last few weeks went for you and how we, as a coaching staff, can come alongside you to make the next one even better!

!!ANNOUNCEMENTS!!

#1 - GOLF OUTING and UFC 253 - If you are the golf playing type, a bunch of us are getting together for some fun and a little bit of friendly competition. We have a block of tee times set up at Giant Oak in Temperance on Saturday the 26th at 3:30. If you want to play, let Ben know. We’ll be going to Buffalo Wild Wings afterward for dinner, then hanging around to watch UFC 253. Anyone is welcome at any time! (…unless you’re a negative superjerk, then nah, y’banned)

#2 - A LOT of you are limited by your non-functional weight and could use a way (weigh) to shed some of that off. On Monday 9/28, we’re going to start a program called 3 Weeks To Shredded that’s created by Mike Dolce, a world-renown weight-cutting specialist, but all-around smart dude and food guru. It prescribes you what to eat and when, so for those of you who don’t deal well with open-ended diet regimens and would rather have the dictator-style approach, this is a good place to start. It’ll also reset your taste preferences, teach you what’s acceptable and unacceptable food, and more. If you want to participate, all you have to do is pick up a copy of his book and pre-shop for food.

#3 - The Standard’s “Fair Fight Championship!” — If you recall, we kicked off an in-house competition called March Madness just one week before COVID shut us down. It’s been resuscitated, re-named, and re-scheduled! We’ll be kicking that off on HALLOWEEN WEEKEND! It’ll be five weeks long and now that everyone has their shiny new level re-established accurately, you’ll be competing with people in your same category. Which of you oranges has the most juice? heh heh heh… More details coming.

OH…. you didn’t read anything above and just want the workouts? K… read the up above.

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ASSESSMENT SEASON WRAP-UP

Alright ladies and gentlemen! We’ve come a long way and have just a week left to go. Some of you have completed all of the assessments and I want to congratulate you! That’s a tremendous amount of work to get done in a short period of time; I hope you’re proud of your performance and got a few level ups! If you haven’t completed all of the categories for this season, make sure you do!

I know that some of you are on specific schedules, so if you need to get one of those completed on a day that isn’t intended, please get with your coach, we’ll accommodate best we can! Either way, be sure to work through them ALL… even if you’re going to level down, we need to know so we can coach and program for you better moving forward. No skipping! I’ll be checking your entries! No one can hide! (Just get them done, k?)

This Assessment Season flowed differently than the last one after hearing a lot of feedback about being beaten up over the course of the first two weeks and I feel like this structure treated everyone better. If you have ANY feedback about how this season went, please let me know. We feed experiential info to Level Method, so everyone wins with more feedback.

Also… don’t forget the SHOUT STATION — If you see someone do something kind or impressive or funny or you just want to leave someone a nice note, fill out the postcards on the entry bar and we’ll send them out.

Here we go! Last week! Know what categories you have to complete! Let’s get the work done!

Ben.

ASSESSMENT SEASON BEGINS!

Tomorrow begins an exciting and tough stretch of challenges around The Standard. Each day, we work our way through our daily training sessions with the intent of improving our skills, strengths, mental fortitude, and so much more. This assessment season is to see where we are at. To take our fitness temperature. It’s like a fitness check-up. “Hey, last time we got together, you were Orange and purple, and blue all over… now the oranges are gone, and some purples have emerged.” If we aren’t testing, we’re just guessing!

So, let’s see where we are at. Let’s see how much we can deadlift tomorrow. Let’s see how much we can press or how many pushups we can do. Let’s run as fast as we can.

Let’s NOT GIVE A CRAP about what we did last time!

Let’s put forth our best effort and that’s all that can be asked! MANY of you will level up. This is so much fun and addictive; to do something you’ve never done before. Many of you will establish a first initial overall level. Many of you will level DOWN and I NEED you to be ok with it. I need you to understand that fitness fluctuates. I need you to respect the impact COVID had, the impact your crappy nutrition has had, the impact of working from home or dealing with homeschooling your kids, or whatever. Those are all worthy variants that DO IMPACT your performance. Leveling down is not a failure. It’s just an indicator that tells us we need to address an area.

We’ll work through all 15 categories over the next three weeks. If you miss a category, you’ll be able to catch it later or come to Saturday class times, which will always be set aside as make-up times. If you have already tested a category and don’t want to retest API to see if you can get an extra rep or two (I understand :)), there will be an alternate workout. ALWAYS talk to your coach; we will give you something to do. We will not be allowing people to do different tests than what is assigned for that day during class times (example: Class is doing Fran, but you missed Diane last week… resist the urge to ask to do Diane). Come for Open gym (each evening it’s available!) or wait until Saturday’s make up day. This will help minimize the load on your coaches, who already have an increased workload during these weeks.

Please pay more attention than normal during the whiteboard meetings. All of your coaches have been through this process 3 times, so we’ve learned some things along the way that will make your experience better and your performance higher.

If you typically come on a specific schedule (M,W,F), consider deviating from that schedule if possible to make sure you get to work through each assessment. If you typically come M-F, you may consider taking a day off in there to recover and subsequently maximize your performance.

Labor Day is a week from tomorrow and we will have 9AM and 10AM classes only. We’ll be doing lactic tolerance (FRAN) and a 1 mile run. LT only takes 6ish minutes, so we’ll have multiple heats and a long rest time between efforts.

I’m really excited to see the progress you’ve all made! It’s going to be a lot of work, but so so so worth it. :)

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One week until Assessment Season! ...and people are already leveling up.

Happy Sunday everyone! I’m getting pretty pumped about some things that are coming down the pipeline, but mostly the Assessment Season we’re about to start next week. For many of you, that means getting your overall level, for some of you it’ll be re-assessing your post-COVID fitness, and for some of you it’ll be seeing how your hard work has paid off over the last many months. Be mentally prepared to level DOWN! …yes. That’s a thing that’s possible. I’m a Red IV rower… I might row red II. That’s totally fine and acceptable and, frankly, expected. If you don’t deadlift what you did last time, accept it. That’s the system we use. We use it because it keeps us safe, primarily, but also reveals areas to focus on. Be ready for that one. ALSO be ready to celebrate your friends as they do things they’ve never done before! It’s an exciting (read: grueling) time!

These workouts should set you up really well for success next week… take a look…

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September Assessment Cycle!

We’re long overdue for an assessment cycle due to COVID, so I’m pumped to announce we’ll be kicking off our 3-week process on Aug 31st! MANY of you are significantly more skilled and more fit than when we last worked through these tests, so I’m excited to get to watch all of the level ups! Some of you do not have overall levels established yet and that’s totally fine, but this will set time aside specifically to do just that.

This is a perfect time for people to come into The Standard community as well, so if you know anyone that’s been on the fence, maybe doesn’t want to go through basics, or just wants to see where they’re at with their own fitness project; now is the time.

Also, you’ll notice that each day this week provides an outdoor option. COVID is a legitimately worrisome thing and I feel like we’ve taken all of the required and reasonable steps to ensure we’re being responsible, but as an increased layer, this workout can be done outside under the awning. This will also allow us to accommodate more people at each class time. At the same time, maybe you just want to enjoy the construction views and fresh air. :) If so, go right ahead!

That’s the news for the week… here’s the workouts!

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Let’s start with a few highlights from the week!!

Huge shoutouts to these guys!

John (Kong… yes, it’s ok if you call him that) came to us a few weeks back frustrated about his weight plateau. We BATTLED through Basics in roughly a week and has brought the intensity to every workout since! Welcome, sir! We’re happy to have you a…

John (Kong… yes, it’s ok if you call him that) came to us a few weeks back frustrated about his weight plateau. We BATTLED through Basics in roughly a week and has brought the intensity to every workout since! Welcome, sir! We’re happy to have you and proud to be trusted with your journey to optimal health.

Ben Holt is a firefighter who lives in Liberty Center. He doesn’t get to come to class as often as we’d all like, but he’s been working one-on-one with Stephen Dull, one of our coaches and produced his first bar muscle-up! Congrats gentlemen!!

Ben Holt is a firefighter who lives in Liberty Center. He doesn’t get to come to class as often as we’d all like, but he’s been working one-on-one with Stephen Dull, one of our coaches and produced his first bar muscle-up! Congrats gentlemen!!

If you see either of them in class, make sure to introduce yourself and congratulate them.

Let’s talk about workouts this week. Level Method allows us to make adjustments as needed when it relates to our community of athletes, so a lot of changes have been made for this week. To give an example, LM is not going to program partner workouts because many gyms are not open still or are under stricter guidelines than Ohio… but partner WODs are important training stimulus and simply FUN! So, I wrote one for Saturday that hits things we didn’t get to during the week... you can hate me for this one.

Here we go! We start HUGE tomorrow with “17.2(ish)” ….

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