MURPH explained...

The weather has turned, Memorial Day is almost here, and school is almost complete! There’s a lot of transitions in play, so as you’re working through those, be sure to not neglect your fitness. Make it a priority to attend a couple times this week; you’ll be more productive, stay on track, and it’s always therapeutic to be around like-minded people who care about you and want to see you succeed.

We’ve been setting aside time for a lot of murph-prep during class times, but even if you haven’t done any of it; your fitness is strong enough to carry you through. Take a look at the levels we’re planning— you can definitely do one of those and still be challenged enough to pay tribute to Murph and all of the other service men and women who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

What is a HERO workout?

CrossFit has a number of “Hero,” workouts that are done to honor a fallen service member or important person. It’s not the same as a named workout (Fran, Annie, Diance), mostly because of the intention. Hero workouts are supposed to create a moment where the challenge is so large that you most summon motivation from the deepest parts of your being. Keeping in mind the intention of paying tribute to that individual is often all it takes to get you through the next hard rep or set. The difficulty, the suffering, the intention, and motivation all contribute to a powerful experience on a wide variety of levels.

Why is MURPH a big deal?

BTWB has an excellent write up about it. Here’s an excerpt about what went down in Afghanistan in June 2005:

On June 28, 2005, Lt. Murphy was the officer-in-charge of a four-man SEAL element in support of Operation Red Wing tasked with finding key anti-coalition militia commander near Asadabad, Afghanistan. Shortly after inserting into the objective area, the SEALs were spotted by three goat herders who were initially detained and then released. It is believed the goat herders immediately reported the SEALs’ presence to Taliban fighters.

–

A fierce gun battle ensued on the steep face of the mountain between the SEALs and a much larger enemy force. Despite the intensity of the firefight and suffering grave gunshot wounds himself, Murphy is credited with risking his own life to save the lives of his teammates. Murphy, intent on making contact with headquarters, but realizing this would be impossible in the extreme terrain where they were fighting, unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his own life moved into the open, where he could gain a better position to transmit a call to get help for his men.

–

Moving away from the protective mountain rocks, he knowingly exposed himself to increased enemy gunfire.  This deliberate and heroic act deprived him of cover and made him a target for the enemy.  While continuing to be fired upon, Murphy made contact with the SOF Quick Reaction Force at Bagram Air Base and requested assistance. He calmly provided his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force while requesting immediate support for his team. At one point, he was shot in the back causing him to drop the transmitter. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.  Severely wounded, Lt. Murphy returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle.

–

As a result of Murphy’s call, an MH-47 Chinook helicopter, with eight additional SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers aboard, was sent in as part of the QRF to extract the four embattled SEALs. As the Chinook drew nearer to the fight, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter, causing it to crash and killing all 16 men aboard.

–

On the ground and nearly out of ammunition, the four SEALs, continued to fight.  By the end of a two-hour gunfight that careened through the hills and over cliffs, Murphy, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson had fallen. An estimated 35 Taliban were also dead.  The fourth SEAL, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell, was blasted over a ridge by a rocket-propelled grenade and knocked unconscious. Though severely wounded, the fourth SEAL and sole survivor, Luttrell, was able to evade the enemy for nearly a day; after which local nationals came to his aide, carrying him to a nearby village where they kept him for three more days. Luttrell was rescued by U.S. Forces on July 2, 2005.

–

By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit and inspirational devotion to his men in the face of certain death, Lt. Murphy was able to relay the position of his unit, an act that ultimately led to the rescue of Luttrell and the recovery of the remains of the three who were killed in the battle.

—Murph Foundation “Biography”

Crazy story right? Now it’s all starting to make a little more sense on why CrossFitters make a big deal out of Memorial Day and Murph. It’s the least we can do to honor the courage and selfless sacrifice that was made that day.

OUR MEMORIAL DAY SCHEDULE:

7am - 8:30am - 10am

*If you plan to borrow one of our weight vests, you must reserve one!! If you borrow one, you must wear a shirt and spray it when you’re finished. — The registration for Memorial day is already open, so if you want to organized your friends, do it now. If you want to bring a friend, you may! They’ll just need to email me ben@thestandardtoledo.com what time they will be attending.

We are COVID-resilient humans.

Good afternoon! Greetings from the other side of COVID, where I had two days of feeling like trash and then basic nuisance symptoms since. There are certainly a large number of contributing factors as to why my experience was pretty minimal, but without a doubt one of them is my physical fitness. Pushing my body to change and adapt requires recovery, which requires a strong immune system. I’m convinced that I would’ve had a much harder time with it if I had been eating garbage, being sedentary, and wasn’t flexing my recovery muscle as often as I do. We have a few ore people in the gym who are currently sick and they’re battling through just fine as well. It’s a little demonstration of how what we’re doing inside The Standard works and creates healthier, happier humans.

HUGE shoutout to the entire coaching staff for filling in all of the gaps and ensuring that everyone got taken care of. Special thanks to Sam who picked up all of the 6am classes and more to make sure there was no loss of availability. Thanks so much!!

Here are the workouts for the week!

Expectations poison reality.

Hey guys! I’ve been under the weather for the last couple of days and that’s given me time for processing and relaxing and healing.

I felt like this concept was really valuable to anyone who is trying to improve themselves; physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, etc. Our expectations, most often found when we use the word “should,” often poison our real, daily lives.

“In reality, there’s no such thing as the way it should be. Everything is in a state of constant motion.

The harder you work to eliminate uncertainty and ambiguity from life, the smaller the confines of your comfort zone become. True comfort is found through embracing discomfort, not shielding yourself from uncertainty—and this is the paradox of comfort. The wider the range of potential scenarios that you’ve trained yourself to handle, the better things will turn out.”

If that seems intriguing

If not, here are the workouts for the week…

Murph Prep Extra Credit...

Every Memorial Day, CrossFit gyms around the world embark on a journey of self-discovery, misery, empathy, and achievement; all to honor one of our fallen servicemen, Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy. A brutalizing workout, Murph is not to be taken on unprepared. Being consistent in your training at The Standard, you can take this on and get out of it everything you’re meant to. For those who want to do better or enjoy having a goal to work toward; we have some Murph prep extra credit workouts in this week. I put them on suggested smartest days, but they can be done whenever wherever you may be.

“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

―Archilochus

Deadlifts & Running & ... snow?

Remember when it snowed 5 inches in 12 hours and disappeared over the next 12 hours? It was pretty, at least. :) We’ve been working through our deadlifting cycle and we’re assessing on Monday! I’m anxious to see the progress you’ve made; there’s going to be a lot! Then Thursday were planning to test our mile— I’ll be scouting some good mile courses since the river walk is under construction. Maybe we’ll make it up and down the parking garage until we’ve reached a mile. Nothing could go wrong there.

Sonos sound upgrades!

When I originally laid out how the inside of the gym would be structured, I never imagined we’d be using the “entry,” area so often (this is where I’m humbled that so many of you choose to do fitness at The Standard— I never actually expected people to support is such large numbers. THANKS!!). So, I didn’t plan our sound system to deliver audio into that area. Working out there is a little odd and disconnected because of the lack of volume, so we bit the bullet and re-invested in some Sonos speakers to more evenly distribute the sound. I’m super happy with how it’s turned out! It won’t skew the songs that we play toward your personal preferences, but at least you won’t hear your neighbor’s breathing. :))

I don’t have much to talk about this week. Next week, we WILL BE TESTING RUNNING down by the river, so you’re going to see some extra credit programmed this week that centers around improving our running capacity. I highly recommend you do that if at all possible.

Also, make sure you’re keeping focused on your weak spots with LM. If you need help with skills or strength or capacity, please talk with a coach. We want to see you progress just as much as you do.

Thanks for all the support— it’s appreciated more than you can know. <3

WORKOUTS!!

Jump Rope upgrades 🙌

Have you been one of the unfortunate folks who have had one of our two-year old ropes explode on you? Parts go everywhere, you can’t find them, you DEFINITELY can’t re-assemble it, and you have to do the walk of shame to get another one. There’s two solutions to avoiding this experience!

1) Buy your own rope and let a Standard Trainer help you size it. <— do this :)

2) Use one of our brand new Rogue jump ropes! They’re all a set length for certain heights!

100" Orange 5’0” - 5’5”
105" Red 5'5" - 5'9"
109" Blue 5'9" - 6'1"
115" Black 6'1" - 6'5"

Two years was a pretty good run for our old ones. If you want one of them for yourself, you can have one free. :)

ALSO… congrats to Coach Sam Woodring for finishing in the top 10% of all North American participants in The Open! He qualified for The Quarterfinals and has been working his way through 5 tough workouts over the last four days. It’s been fun to watch and support him. Great job Sam!

OG Standard Athlete Eric Williams did a podcast where he discussed marketing and The Standard. He’s a ridiculously smart guy, so if you want something to listen to, check it out:

Anchor:

https://anchor.fm/.../Episode-31-Cleaning-Up.../a-a539v4o

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1KIwWCRpoqHZjtDBwPeyG0...

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/.../gym-mastery/id1526311197

The Open concludes!

We’re back to regularly scheduled training! There are some good ones in here! Can’t wait to smash goals this week!

Two men wall walk into a bar...

Week 1 of the 2021 Open kicked off with a new movement that’s typically a drill; the wall walk. It was fun to watch so many of you take on the challenge of a new movement and see how much punishment your shoulders could endure. :) Great job! If you would like to participate in The Open, there’s still time! Get with a coach to sign up and get the first workout logged!

Do you all know that we have yoga twice a week? KaylaK does a really great job of forcing our beat up and strong bodies into poses and positions we don’t typically get in with CrossFit. This is incredibly valuable! This is a hole in the CrossFit methodology’s armor and we’re aiming to fix it. Thursday after the 5:45p class, and Saturday after the 8a open gym, come experience it. Register beforehand, though (if there isn’t two people registered, it’s cancelled, soooo…. yeah… do that)

This week has a LOT of movement diversity and a BIG workout to start the week with. Move as technically and purposely as you can, each day you’re in the gym. Bad reps ingrain an erroneous movement pattern and become easier to accept. Let’s try to make every rep as technical and beautiful as we can.

Let’s have a great week!

The Open, week 1, starts Thursday night!

It doesn’t get much cuter than this. Hazel, working out with her Uncle Zach and her Dad, Ben.

It’s Open season again. It’s been a while. We haven’t done an open workout since October of 2019, and this year has so many more layers to it, I’m excited to participate and watch so many of you do things you’ve never done and push each other further than you’ve ever gone. It’s a really fun experience and a rare opportunity for a worldwide community to unite and participate without politics, trigger warnings, or anything else. Just hard work, encouragement, and achievement. If you want more info, or to sign up, YOU CAN CLICK HERE

This Thursday, we’ll be hanging out after class for yoga and then watching the announcement live, so if you want something to do, we’ll be there! 8pm our time. Friday’s workout will be whatever is announced. If you’re in the open, you’ll need a judge, if you’re not, no worries, just treat it like every normal day at The Standard. :)

Workouts!

Welcome Coach Tim! ...The Open. ...fees.

Hey everybody!

There’s some big things coming up and happening, so hopefully you’re not just scrolling to the bottom and ignoring all of the vital information I put in these things. :)

Firstly, Tim Super is going to be coaching our noon classes on Tuesday and Thursday for the foreseeable future. Tim’s been working through our Coaches Development Program and has been doing really well. He’s a phenomenal person who cares a lot and knows his stuff. I have no doubt he’s going to perform well and help the nooners progress forward! Congrats and welcome, Tim Super!

Secondly, the CrossFit Open is upon us. It’s just 11 days away, in fact. The Open is a worldwide CrossFit competition, but this year is way different! There are 3 different versions of each workout, along with an equipment-free version, so EVERYONE can participate and put their scores against others across the planet! It’s a really fun experience overall, but we plan to make it more fun! Each of the three weeks will have a workout announced on Thursday night, Friday’s classes will all do those workouts. The evening classes will run in heats 4:30 will be heat 1, heat 2 will be at 5:00, heat 3 at 5:30, etc. You’ll likely do the workout and then judge for someone else afterward. We’ll have coaches on site to help with that, but Friday nights are going to be a LOT of fun! You can sign up RIGHT HERE!!

Thirdly - Did you notice that all of your Level Method levels are available in the Chalk-it app now? It will also display your level when it says “Levels consideration,” in the workout for the day. Cool update! If yours isn’t doing that, let me know, it’s an easy fix.

Lastly, as I mentioned a number of times prior, membership fees increased by $6 today. We re-invested over $10k in equipment (Kettlebells, storage, soft boxes, more training bars) and decor in 2020 to make your experience as good as it can be. We’ll continue to find ways to optimize what we do so you can get better faster and have a great time doing it. We cannot express how much we appreciate the support and hopefully you are well aware of how much we care about you being successful in and out of the gym.

Shall we, now? Workouts:

Marcus Aurelius

I always have things to say in these blogs and sometimes they’re useful, sometimes you skip them, sometimes they’re self-indulgent. Instead of writing out a bunch of stuff that I think is important and worth saying, I’m just going to post this and hope that it’s a value to you as it has been for me.

“Man is not worried about real problems, so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”

Top Golf!

This week culminated in a road trip to Top Golf in Cleveland; organized by our M.C. Sean Timmons. Thanks for setting it up! Seemed like everyone had a great time from experienced golfers to people who’ve literally never held a club. I’ll be looking forward to doing it again. Get some practice in, there’s going to be a Spring and Fall Sub-Standard Golf Outing this year. :)

Not only was it fun, but you likely enjoyed a brain benefit as well.

“It turns out that the human brain has a great potential for something called neuronal plasticity—that is, it's malleable. It appears that challenging our brains—for example, by learning a new skill—leads to actual changes in the adult brain. "It may create new connections between brain cells by changing the balance of available neurotransmitters and changing how connections are made," says Dr. Papp.

Being socially engaged may help fend off social isolation and depression, both of which have been linked with a decline in cognitive functioning later in life. Having good social supports also reduces stress, another thing that we know has a negative impact on thinking skills.” NBD, just HARVARD saying that

As you likely know, Sean and Tim have been working through our Coaches Development Program, so if you see them leading the whiteboard brief or an entire class, don’t be alarmed; and be nice. They’re trying something new too and it’s stupid scary to get in-front of all you people and not do something embarrassing.

With all of that said… Re-Load! Workouts coming this week!

First week back... we're packed. Wow.

It seems you all were very anxious to get back to the structure of typical class (!) at The Standard as we watched many classes be at capacity, or really close this week. This is a good time to remind all of you that we need to reserve our spots— if the trainers don’t know you’re coming, we can’t do as good of a job for you. Secondly, please be punctual. It REALLY helps with logistics for time, equipment, and space, but also minimizes distraction during the whiteboard brief and warm-up. All of the coaches understand that life happens and construction happens and parking happens; we’re just pumped that you made it at all… but if it’s a matter of leaving 5 minutes earlier, let’s do that for the benefit of your fellow athletes. Agreed?

On that same note, if you know you’re not going to make it, please remove your registration so someone else can fill that slot. If a class is waitlisted-get on the waitlist! People drop out and you will get a notification if that happens.

On that SAME note… I’m going to adjust capacities more specifically to the workout that day. For example, if the workout is burpees and pull-ups, we can accommodate 20 people. But if it’s thrusters and rowing, then it’s more like 12.

Some of you managed to avoid a photo (you sly dogs) and others we just didn’t capture that moment, but once again, let us celebrate everyone who leveled up and even leveled up overall! Putting in the hard work is paying off and we hope you’re having fun as you’re doing it. :)

There’s a PHENOMENAL deal happening at Crossover Symmetry for the next 24 hours. BOGO. If you want something and want to save shipping, let me know, I’ll be ordering a few things to make YOUR experience better at the gym.

Sean is organizing a trip to TOPGOLF in Cleveland next weekend. Let him know if you want to join in. You don’t have to be good at golf, you have to be willing to hang out, try, or watch others try. lol :)

Last thing - remember, membership rates increase next month by $6. If you want to further help The Standard be financially viable and thus, exist longer, you can set up a bank account for direct payments and it saves us a boat load. If you’re willing to do that, talk to Ben (me).

Let’s talk workouts!! There are some SMOKERS in store this week and a LOT of barbell movements. The barbell is our focus for virtuosity this month, so expect to see a lot of it. We’re also starting to use extra credit sections as weakness targeting. So this week, on Thursday there’s Upper Lower Endurance practice, Wednesday is upper body pressing, so you’ll see some of these specifically targeting categories we (as a whole) struggle with. If you want more specifically tailored extra credit to your GOATs, get with a coach and we’ll make sure you’re set up.

2021 Winter Assessment Season RECAP

What a wild 3 weeks it has been! Let me just say that I’m incredibly proud of all of you. The effort you put out in order to rise to the challenges put infant of you was inspiring and admirable. Sometimes it takes a friend (or two) to get you to that next level. Maybe it was a coaching cue or strategy. Maybe you just plain got better because you showed consistently over the last 4 months. Whatever it was, congratulations! Well done.

What comes next is a debrief. Your coaches want to talk about your Assessment season so we can see what we’re doing well and how we can continue helping move you in the right direction over the next few months. So, what were the highlights? what were the trouble spots? What other things should we know?

I made a video…

There are some new faces around, so make sure you introduce yourself! Welcome to:

• Maxwell

• Elvin

• Kenan

• Allen

• Tyler

They’re all impressive people, so you’ll notice them around!

Don’t forget, March, membership fees have to go up by $6. It’ll happen automatically. Also, if you don’t have your bank account set up to be your payment method, that’d be really nice to do for us. So we can exist for longer. :)

HERE ARE THE WORKOUTS!!

^^MONDAY^^

^^TUESDAY^^

^^WEDNESDAY^^

^^THURSDAY^^

^^FRIDAY^^

^^SATURDAY^^

Week 2 of Assessment Season Winter 2021

This report is so crazy to me. It’s proof that what we’re doing each day inside the walls of the gym is working. This week Rachel M said “Just when I think I’ve gotten to the highest I can go, I nudge up even further.” That’s so cool and one of the best things about fitness, it’s a forever journey. Twists and turns, steps up and down, but always worth going on.

We’re almost done! Many of you have already re-assessed your levels, so you’ll be working through the alternative workouts. I’m not going to post those for this week, just take a look at Chalk It before you come over. I' promise it’ll be more organized this week. :)

Week 1 of Assessment Season Winter 2021 is DONE!

3-2-1…

321.

That’s the number of levels entered this past week… 90%+ of them are improvements! That’s unreal and freaking amazing! Way to go. Congratulations to each and every one of you.

And look at this list… These are people who had their OVERALL LEVEL go up from filling in the blanks on their lowest levels. Applause is in order! :))

• A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER *

• UFC Pay-per-view is happening at the gym next saturday the 23rd at 10p! We’ll be there earlier than that for the prelims. Bring food and drinks and dogs (eeehhhh…. they better be good boys and girls =D)

• Membership fees go up by $6 in March. Have to. Or else we cease to exist. That’s bad for everyone.

• Stay away from each other. COVID is still a thing and while some of you lucky people have antibodies, some of us don’t. Let’s be conscious of that while we’re in the gym.

  Our upgrades and re-investments finally arrived and they look so good! NEW kettlebells produced in Michigan, not China. A dumbbell and kettlebell storage area that makes finding the dumbbell you need much much simpler. A Rogue Donkey which is awesome if you know what it does and how to use it. Many of you don’t have any use for it, but for those of you who do or will, it’ll be a godsend. We hope those make your experience just a little bit better!

Standard Assessment Season - WINTER 2021

Watch this.

ALSO CLICK HERE …we could use your feedback on a couple things.

Welcome to 2021. Let's play!

Alright! We’re off to a good start with 2021 already. Massive workout on Friday and a spicy, very technical workout yesterday left everyone needing a rest day today. Except me. I’ve been working to get a thing called Chalk It Pro set up and running how we want it to… I’m excited about it and I think you will be too, so here we go…

Let’s see if I can answer some questions straight from the get-go.

How do I get it? CLICK THIS MASSIVE LINK IN ALL CAPS TO DOWNLOAD IT - the password is: standard. Shockingly creative.

What the heck does this do for us at The Standard? ....lots....

#1 - You can track your performances, especially on strength pieces (IE... I did 5 push presses at 505 on January 4th, so that gives me an idea of what I should do on July 4th.)

#2 - Many of you are off social media (congrats), so a communication tool has been overdue. I've hoped to not use texting, so I think this will allow me to update people without being too intrusive.

#3 - Makes READING THE WORKOUT easier! If you want to have your phone somewhere in your area so you can keep the workout pulled up and know what we're doing for the day, you can click your color and it'll tell you exactly what your assignment is for the day

#4 - Video demonstrations of movements! Prior to class, you can watch these and know what's coming.

#5 - Leaderboard. You can log your time or reps on the metcons and see how you stacked up against people who also did your color. 

#6 - You can interact and converse here as well! You can leave high-fives on performances and start chat threads in Chalk Talk. 

#7 - Eventually this will combine and integrate into the Level Method app and be one streamlined process. 

If you have any questions, let me know. I'm not a Chalk It Pro, pro but I might be able to answer your basic getting started questions. :)

*MARK YOUR CALENDARS* ——> January 23rd, we’ll be hosting the UFC PPV, so if you want to see Conor McGregor fight or you just want to come hang out with friends, make plans to be there. Main card is at 10pm, we’ll likely be there at 8 or so for the undercard.

ASSESSMENT SEASON——> Starts next week. Let’s take our temperature. We will likely not be doing this again until September or so. If you know of anyone that would like to get started at The Standard, this is a good opportunity to hit the ground running.

Membership fee increases — —> For two years, we’ve absorbed all of the increasing costs of operation, but as we look at the financial health of The Standard, we simply have to raise rates. We try to provide the optimal training environment and coaching possible, so we think we’re worth $6 more. We hope you agree. This will happen in March, so we’re just making you aware. If you have anything to say about that, please ask Ben. If you want to help even more, if you can add your bank account and have it direct-pay, that would help us a ton. Again, talk to Ben.

….and now…

workouts.

^^Monday

^^Tuesday

^^Wednesday^

^^Thursday

^^Friday

^^ Saturday. Take the name literally. Penalty rounds for complaining. Do hard things. Enjoy!

New Year, new problems, less worry.

Hey everyone! Congratulations to all of you for successfully completing the Boss Mission of Life called 2020.

None of us would’ve expected any of the things that happened this year, around this time last year. I’m so impressed and proud of all of you. I get the pleasure of hearing the trials you’re encountering and then watch how you overcome them. The gym experience at The Standard is supposed to be a microcosm of life: Present with a challenge, understand and assess, execute, and overcome. I think it trains our brains to be more used to dealing with tough circumstances and roadblocks. So as we approach 2021, let’s keep our newfound adaptability, our resilience, and our positivity through the fire and manage to THANK 2020 as it leaves. We will encounter more difficulty in 2021; but at least we know we’re prepared.

I’m super pumped for 2021. It’s positioned to be our best year yet on a wide variety of fronts. :) Cheers!

HOUSEKEEPING NOTES —

1) It’s starting to be snowy and slushy. Please make an effort to change your shoes when you arrive or to clean them well before walking about the gym. We will know who you are… there’s a trail. :) Thanks.

2) Membership rates increase in March. We really can’t afford to not, but thankfully it’s just $6/mo. If you want to set up your bank account to be direct withdrawal, that’d be huge for us.

3) You’ve probably noticed Tim and Sean and a few others taking on some responsibility in the gym. They’re working through our Coaches Development Program, so if someone not wearing a trainer shirt is watching you move around— don’t be alarmed. It’s eye training. To impact more people, we need more capable and professional trainers, so it’s a process we’re going to be working through continually.

4) Assessment Season starts 1/11 - We’re just taking your fitness temperature. Don’t freak. :)