August Blue Crab CrossFit Newsletter

What to Expect in August

July was a jam-packed month, so before we start looking ahead at what’s to come, let’s first take a look back at everything we accomplished last month.

We have to start off by highlighting the start of our third strength cycle, which is all about the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. We kept things simple, working on building percentages week to week with triples, doubles, and singles before testing a 1RM for both movements in August!

We also changed from Phase II, which was focused on longer GRIND workouts, to Phase III, which is going to be all about SPRINT workouts. We will still see a variety of workouts across the weeks, but the focus will be dropping the hammer 1-2 times per week. We saw a focus on the Pull-Up, chest-to-bar, and Bar Muscle-Up, along with tests of a new Benchmark workout/ Hero workout and a retest of the Filthy 50 from April.

Looking at August, let’s first mention the three things that will carry over into this month. First, we will be finishing our Oly cycle with our heavy 1RM tests the week of 8/12.

We also will be continuing with our Phase III SPRINT focus, which means we will see 1-2 faster workouts each week to build everyone’s anaerobic base.

Lastly, we will still see 1-2 Flex Finishers per week to carry us through the second half of summer. Looking at some changes in the programming, we will have a greater emphasis on the Push-Up and the kipping handstand push-up. We focused on Strict HSPU in June, took a slight break in July, and now we are going to use that shoulder strength and add in some kipping!

We will also test Nancy as our Benchmark for the month and retest Kelly from back in May. On top of those workouts to look forward to, we will also see an NCFIT Classic, Supersonic, and a new Hero workout for this month! Let’s keep our foot on the gas this month and keep training hard!

Weekly August Workout Commitments

(2x/ Week) Oly Strength Cycle

(1x/ Week) Deadlift or Back Squat

(1-2x/ Week) Sprint Workouts

(1x/ Week) Workout of the Week or Benchmark/ Classic workout

(1x/ Week) Push-Up/ Kipping Handstand Push-Up Capacity/ Focus

(1-2x/ Week) FLEX-style Finishers

Tell us your story - where did you grow up and what kind of activities did you do growing up?

Marisa: I was lucky enough to move all my life, living in Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, and Virginia until my parents sent me to Florida to pursue golf in high school which led me to a college in Colorado. Growing up, my parents gave me the opportunity to played all different types of sports: softball, basketball, golf, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, dance, and soccer.

Tanner: Hey, I'm Tanner Eggers, I was born in Alaska, but grew up moving all around the world. Most notably, I lived in Italy and Germany both for 3 years and spent most of my life traveling to different countries. I grew up playing multiple sports throughout my lifetime, in high school I wrestled and played baseball and in college I played Rugby at the University of Northern Colorado.

Tell us how you were first introduced to CrossFit? How long have you been doing CrossFit - any thoughts/comments on how it’s changed or influenced your life.

Marisa: In 2020, my college roommate, who was a swimmer, had a free month trial to a local CrossFit gym that her teammate worked at. She ended up not wanting to go and gave me the voucher. I absolutely loved it from Day 1 and haven’t stopped going. Especially after playing collegiate golf, I loved having another avenue to continue being competitive and stay active.

Tanner: I was introduced to CrossFit by my wife Marisa. Our first year of marriage was spent doing long distance and she picked it up as a way to continue staying active after college athletics. Whenever I would come visit her in Colorado, she would always schedule for us to do a class or two and I really fell in love with it. I've been doing CrossFit for 2 years now and have no intention of ever stopping.