5/7 #PODIUMWEEK DAY 1

Today starts Podium Week, our twice annual fitness testing week. Every December and May we take stock of our strength, skills and metabolic conditioning by performing the CrossFit or Powerlifting Total, the Level 4 Gymnastics Skills tests, the Level 4 Conditioning tests, an endurance workout and the Baseline. 
Repeating these workouts twice every year shows us our strengths and weaknesses. It shows us if our fitness is increasing or if we've hit a plateau. It can motivate us to stay committed our fitness program and can provide just the spark we need to take our fitness to the next level. 
We call it Podium Week because we will celebrate your WINS today. Did you get a PR? Yes! That's Podium worthy. Did you do something for the first time? Yes! That's Podium worthy. At the end of class your coach will set up some podiums and ask you to write your accomplishment on a small whiteboard. We'll snap your photo and send it to you as a reminder of your amazingness. ​

​We held our first Podium week in December 2015 with the CrossFit/Powerlifting Total, and that's how we'll start this week. The CrossFit/Powerlifting Total is best test of pure strength there is. The CrossFit Total was created by our favorite strength coach, Mark Rippetoe, who introduced it to the CrossFit community in 2006. We will pay attention to his coach's notes today:
"Here are some basic precautions that need to be followed for safety:
1) Don’t be stupid.
Don’t total if you’re injured to the extent that a total will aggravate the problem. This will cost you in at least training time, and possibly time off of work if you’re ultra-stupid.
2) Don’t be greedy.
Learn to recognize the difference between greed and ambition, and be merely ambitious.
3) Don’t be pig-headed.
If your first attempt tells you that you need to lower your second, do so, without a misplaced sense of diminished self-worth. It’s a test, and it’s designed to measure what’s there, not create something that’s not. That’s what training is for."