Our reality made a major shift in the closing weeks of March and it is going to be awhile yet before the world returns to normal for us. We have been very grateful for all the support from our Empower community and have been excited by how many of you have joined us for Outside-the-Box WODs and Zoom WODs and how many of you have sent photos and video of you keeping up your training at home independent of our coached WODs! While we’d all like to return quickly to the way things were, it is gratifying to see members proving that nothing can get in the way of their fitness commitment. It is fantastic to see members get outside and get creative in improvising the WODs. And best of all, it has been very satisfying to see members including their friends and family in the workouts! Staying home in isolation it seems reduces the risk of transmitting viruses but increases the opportunity to share the fitness bug with those we love, and that is a great thing!
Let’s also give a shout out to our Empower doctors and nurses, medical technicians and law enforcement officers who are on the front line putting themselves at risk of exposure everyday that they go to work. Thank you Pepper, Hawkeye, The Heat, BFG, Bruiser, Tamahock, Hard Rock, Whisper, Mr. Fantastic, Point Break, Dangers and any other Empower members whose responsibilities put them in the path of this virus, we appreciate your dedication and service!
Thank you to all our members for all the feedback we’ve received regarding online class offerings, our April schedule will change to accommodate suggestions and we’ll continue to optimize based on attendance patterns and your feedback. Continue to let us know how best to support you!
Zoom WODs
All you need do to attend a Zoom WOD is to register on Zen Planner for the class you wish to attend. We’ll email out the workout instructions and the link required to join our WOD. We will continue our weekday 8am and 5pm WODs as attendance has been strong and we will test run a noon class on Tuesdays and Thursdays to see if that time attracts attendance. Saturday 8 and 10am seem popular but Sunday 8am was a bust so we’ll cut back to just 10am Sunday until demand increases.
1-on-1 Zoom Coaching Appointments
We will be scheduling some time slots for you to book a 1-on-1 15-minute Zoom check-in with your coach. Need direction, motivation, a sympathetic ear? We’re here for you!
Morning Mobility
HeeHee will offer a mobility Zoom WOD Wednesdays at 10am starting April 1st.
Laughter RX
Need a mental break? Get a proper laugh! Mondays at 10am HeeHee will help you start the week off right with a Zoom Laughter session to help you stay sane in these crazy times.
Lending Library
A lot of the popular items are gone but we’ve still got toys available for pick up weekdays 7:15am, weekends 9:15am. Please contact the attending coach the day before so we can have the equipment wiped down and waiting outside our door for your scheduled pick up time.
April Fools’ Dance Party
Saturday 5pm Drinks with Coach was a big hit, we all really enjoyed getting together and connecting so we will continue the tradition. But this week, in celebration of the start of April, we will have a special dance party version. It will be a seriously silly evening! Think silly, dress silly, dance silly, we’ve all had enough serious these past few weeks.
Touch of Life
Thursday 6:30pm. Yeah, I don’t know what this is about either but I’m curious to find out. Come join me in discovering what social hour looks like at Coach The Touch’s place.
Empower Cooking Club
Next Tuesday at 6pm join Coach WOD Father in his kitchen for his specialty: garlic-ginger chicken. Register early, we’ll email out your ingredients list so that you can cook along with us after your Tuesday night Zoom WOD. Hopefully other, more talented Empower chefs will step up to host this in subsequent weeks.
20 in 2020
Just because times have been challenging doesn’t mean we’re giving up on our challenge. We’ve got a whole host of Empower members in the running to win this thing. To get attendance credit you need only log your WOD score in Zen Planner for the designated day or attend a class you registered for. To get credit for WODs you did on your own, off the grid; please submit the workouts, the date performed and your workout result.
Support Your Box Event
I hesitated before sharing this. Our Empower members have been plenty supportive during these trying times and we’re not participating in this event in order to raise money for Empower. Our reasons to participate are twofold:
1) It is something fun that we all can participate in and lord knows we need some fun distractions in our lives right now (any opportunity to whoop Sandman again, am I right?)
2) We can use this charitable event to bring CrossFit into the garages and living rooms of our loved ones. How great is it if we can use current circumstances as an opportunity to spread fitness?
Over a three-week period, CrossFit will release three classic workouts, each with a scaled option that can be performed with minimal or no equipment by athletes of any ability level. All athletes who participate will have their names displayed on the Open leaderboard during the competition and will be able to create smaller leaderboards among friends, family, and other members of their affiliate by using leaderboard hashtags.
Registration will take place on games.crossfit.com/open beginning on or before Tuesday, March 31, and will remain open for the duration of the competition. The first workout will be released on Friday, April 3. Anyone can participate in the Support Your Local Box Fundraiser. Payment is not required.
When participants register, they will have the option to select a contribution amount ranging from $20 to $1,000, or participate at no cost. Participants can select which affiliate they want to receive their contribution – if you know of an affiliate in need, please don’t hesitate to select them, some affiliates have been hit much harder than we here at Empower! When the competition closes, 100% of the proceeds collected will be distributed to affiliates in accordance with their roster of supporters. CrossFit, Inc. will distribute all registration funds to the designated affiliates.
This is a chance to share the benefits of CrossFit with friends and family. We can use this charitable event to bring CrossFit into the garages and living rooms of our loved ones. We encourage everyone to share the free and accessible scaled version of the competition with those in their lives for whom this could be an entry point into improving their own fitness and health as part of the global CrossFit community.
There’s a whole lot going on in April and some significant schedule updates. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re feeling lost and need some extra support in these dizzying time!
Stay active, stay healthy!