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Blog Post: “New Year, New Me. New Year, New You. New Year, New Decade”

8 / 1 / 2020
“New Year, New Me. New Year, New You. New Year, New Decade”
 
Well 2019 has proved to be another wonderful year for the Rooftop of Dreams. We started the year celebrating our 7th birthday & ended it smashing out 12 back to back “named” WoDs for the 12 Days of Christmas. 
For our “veterans” we have seen you guys build your skillsets and fitness over the 12 months. For the newer among our community we have witnessed the start of what we are sure will be a wonderfully successful journey working on your fitness endeavours.
We continued on with our popular “CBD Benchmark Cycle Series” from which we got a TONNE of data, on how to help you all prosper with your strength & fitness goals. We had the awesomely fun day, The “RODapalooza”, a friendly in-house competition in the middle of winter as we were unable to host our annual “WoD on the ROD Games” partner event due to the changes in the CrossFit Open season. Such a fun occasion where we melded true fitness with “off the cuff/real life” fitness challenges. 
2019 year also saw something unusual in having to contend with TWO CrossFit Opens! We will likely never see this again within a calendar year and it was actually an awesome thing to watch you guys test your fitness in March & then get re-tested so soon in October. From a coaches point of view we feel we saw growth as well as witnessing how well you all handled the pressure, we saw yet even more PRs get broken along the way too!
 
 
So where does this leave us now going into the new year 2020?!?! (Can you believe we are the start of another new decade???)
We have been working hard behind the scenes to improve your CBD experience. We have been listening to you, our community, about what you might like to see at CBD and we have been thinking hard about how to incorporate these changes. Everything from the class culture, programming, class logistics, facility layout, equipment & maintenance - to our class/lesson plan content & teaching practices have been reviewed. We feel we have devised some new & cool ways in which to make your time here at CBD the best time it can be (and hopefully some of the best hour/s of your day).
 
 
Here are some of the things you can expect to see coming your way in 2020.
  • New CBD 2020 Core values released.
  • Reframing/refocus on what “RX” is and what it is to “RX” a workout.
  • Improved layout of gym floor to create more useable space
  • Continued & improved upkeep of facility equipment for all members to use.
  • Weekday programming to be released on Sunday. (starting 12th Jan)
  • Revised lesson planning with more emphasis on teaching/learning progressions with more opportunities to progress on skills / movements (this both includes skill acquisition and strength toward it). More focus placed on proper cool downs and recovery methods.
  • Introduction of a monthly “skills day” into the programming. (Jan)
  • Skill progression flow charts to help further understand the trajectory to mastery in certain movements. (early Jan).
  • Monthly skill development workshop held on a Saturday morning. (starting late Jan)
  • Quarterly face-to-face meetings with your coaches to seek your feedback and check in on your progress. (late Jan).
  • In-house Seminars held every 6-8 weeks focussing on the “nuggets” that can help your fitness outside of the exercise itself. (Jan)
  • Introduction of Aaron Troyer coaching more regularly. (mid-Jan onward).
  • CrossFit CBD’s 8th Birthday (early Jan)
  • Return of the “WoD on the ROD” friendly in-house partner comp. (late Feb)
 
 
As you can see there is a LOT to look forward to. We have been digging deep to make these things a reality for you all. Now, as we are sure you would understand, these things won’t all suddenly be here January 2nd. We aren’t super human!
 
So let's dig a little into the first few bits on the list.
 
  • 2020 Core values.
We want to foster a tight knit & cohesive community on the rooftop. We as coaches promise to bring our "A-game" to each & every class and in return we ask that you, our community, bring your "A-game”. It is very much a two way street and together we know we can continue to forge the BEST CrossFit community in Melbourne!
The offical core values list will include the following things. Here are the broad brush strokes of them. There will be an official board going up very soon.
 
  1. Arrive on time for the start of class.
  2. Say hello to everyone, especially to someone you don’t yet know.
  3. No mobile phones on the gym floor.
  4. Be ready & willing to apply yourself fully whilst in class
  5. Be respectful, to everyone & everything at CBD.
  6. Clean up after yourself
 
 
  • Reframing/Refocus on approaching workouts & the subject of “RX".
During 2019 we saw many many new PRs happen. Saw multiple people hit new movements or weights in WoDs for the first time which is an awesome achievement in of itself. We also saw messaging of the workouts sometimes gets misinterpreted and misunderstood. As coaches we absolutely pride ourselves on not only teaching movement but also teaching about things like the meaning of intensity, intended time domains and workout intentions and about progression both outside & inside of timed WoDs. The term “RX” can sometimes lead us astray. We have actually prepared a post for just this topic all on its own as it deserves more than just a quick sentence or two to explain it. The main takeaway from this point is to let you know that we will be spending January & possibly some of February not prescribing any weights on movements. Aside from any notable or special workouts that we will hit up you won’t see any loading attached to the weightlifting moves. Instead you may see terms such as “light, “medium”or “heavy”. We will advise on certain points like how many reps you should be able to hold on for or how long it should take, etc. Gymnastics moves will have reps attached like normal but the reframing here will be more along the lines of how many reps you can do at once, etc. Lastly you will see more of the “goal” or “target” section on the whiteboard. This is where our key messaging will look to come across. Our full blog post here on our thoughts behind the term “RX” will be coming soon, but essentially this section of the whiteboard is where the key nuggets will lie. The goal may be time or rounds focused, it may be more mindset focussed or it may just be a movement based goal. We hope that by reframing our collective mindsets on each workout that we will see some massive improvements in fitness, strength, capacity and numbers which in turn will make us all more fit. Thats the goal right?
  • Improved layout of gym floor.
We have thought long & hard about how to make the gym space the most useable it can be. We feel we have done a pretty good job at playing Tetris on our rooftop over the years but we are always wanting to make things as comfortable and user friendly as possible. We spent a lot of time over the xmas holidays reconfiguring the gyms' layout. Some of the changes probably may have gone unnoticed so allow us to fill you in….
  1. We wanted to free up the handstand wall to make it more ready-to-use at all times. This means we have moved all the box jumps & most of the pound pads off of the gym floor and they now live where the kettlebells used to live. 
  2. The kettlebells have been moved over to the bumper plates. 
  3. We have also moved the heavier plates over nearer the bathroom. This has freed up room for us to reconfigure the dumbbells & will also act as a nice divider from the bathroom to the gym floor. 
  4. With the dumbbells we've brought them all together to make the easier to grab. Along with that we have colour coded them with tape. This is to help everyone find the weights they want quicker. (And also allow everyone to put their dumbbells back in the correct places!).
  5. Wall balls. We have thoroughly cleaned up and separated all the wall ball weights to make it easier to find the one you want. We have moved the larger dead-balls off the gym floor to create more space around the rig uprights.
  6. Wall ball targets. We are in the process of phasing out the wall ball ball boards. The reason for this is we want to space you all out more when we have wall balls programmed. We are creating new stations to wall ball to that will be a bit more spread out from each other and will allow for some different workout combos with regards to the wall ball. There will still be lots of 9ft & 10ft markers to aim for. One of the boards will stop being used very soon and the other board will follow in due course. We will see how the planned WoDs pan out before we actually take down the boards for good.
  • Continued & improved upkeep of facility equipment for all members to use.
This one goes hand in hand with the point above. Along with the rejig of equipment we have been able to fully restore all 4 Assault bikes back. One more rower is now back in action with the other following very shortly. Every box jump has been taken apart and refixed back again, tighter & stronger than ever. The existing wall ball targets have been moved & re-tightened. All of this, along with the obvious benefit of having more equipment available is that it will allow for some more options in programming new & fun workouts for you all.
We hope you are all pumped with the changes and improvements.
  • Weekday programming to be released on the Sunday. (starting 12th Jan)
This one we have been mulling over for a while now and are very much willing to give it a trial. From Sunday 12th January you will now be able to see the weeks programming ahead of time. We will release the CBD WoDs for Monday to Friday only. This one is moreso aimed at our more experienced members who have been training for multiple years and perhaps want more knowledge ahead of time. By releasing the workouts 5 days ahead of time you will now be able to plan out your week a bit better by seeing what day we have a strength day on or perhaps what day has lots of pull-ups going on so you don’t unwittingly do lots of them the day before. The only real rule in place is that you will NOT be allowed to do a class WoD ahead of time. That is NOT the point of us releasing them early. We will however place a couple of caveats in there. We will of course reserve the right to change any pre-planned workout as we see fit. It may be a weather issue that causes a change or it may be that we are seeing a trend in the gym of poor recovery and decide to switch out a few days to help the majority of people get over a certain WoD. The other one will be that this is a trial phase. We will be monitoring everyone's attendance and if we feel we see a trend of “cherry picking” then we will stop the early release and go back to the day before. If we see a trend for people trying to alter the order and do WoDs in open gym ahead of time we will also stop. We will still leave Saturdays release until the Friday evening beforehand.
  • Revised lesson planning with more emphasis on teaching/learning progressions with more opportunities to progress on skills / movements (this includes both skill acquisition and strength toward it). More focus placed on proper cool downs and recovery methods.
This one is something we are always looking to make the best possible product we can. We pre-plan every. single. class. This may sound normal or routine but this is very much not as common as you think. The reason we do this is we are a teaching CrossFit gym. Coaching is what we do and with that comes detailed teaching progressions that enhance your strengths & skills in environments that aren’t only confined to the WoDs themselves.
After seeking some feedback we have come to the conclusion of a few things. That we need to allow a touch more time to work on skills and that we need to promote and nudge progression more obviously. So, with this in mind we will be slightly re-jigging our class plans to allow for this. From your end this is where we want your “A-game” to be at it most prominent. We can give you the tools, but you have to do the work. The CrossFit program is incredibly efficient at getting you results as long as the full effort is there to go along with it. We will also remind everyone that we are on a long trajectory to a distant horizon. What this means is that there is no set rush to force yourself to a muscle-up or pull-up. It may (& likely will) take time to get to your goals but if you work with us we WILL progress you…...
  • Introduction of a monthly “skills day” into the programming.
Following on from the previous point about progressions in class, we are going to make innovations to our monthly program based on developing &/or refining skills. First up we are happy to announce that one day a month we will inject a “skills day” into the main group programming during the week. We have chosen this so we can reach as many of you as possible. It can even act as a form of active recovery from the week itself but also allow everyone to choose a skill that they want to work on and, with your coaches guidance in class, can work on it and hopefully make solid progress toward it. How this will look essentially is that instead of seeing a programmed WoD for you do, we will make a list of possible moves you could work on. We will take everyone through a general warm-up to loosen up and then allot 30 minutes on the TV timer rolling on an “EMOM” clock (this can be used as a guide for work:rest etc). You will be working autonomously but with your coaches floating around, watching your moves, chatting with you on what you came to work on. We can then offer up tips & coaching advice to help you make some progress. We hope everyone takes up the onus to apply themselves in these situations. After all the results you see from sessions like these will be down to the effort you make daring them.
  • Creation of skills flow charts.
Along with the skills day we are in the process of creating infographic style flow charts to more easily visualise the pathway to mastery in the gymnastics movements. 
Easy to read & follow, it will detail the true development pathway to mastery of these moves. These will be able to outlay where you currently may be on the spectrum of a move & give you insight on what is needed to make the next step. If you want chest to bar pull ups but don’t yet have a certain number of consecutive strict pull-ups or kipping pull-ups then you know what you can work on to get toward that goal.
 
  • Introduction of a monthly skill development workshop aimed at working on a specific move each time (starting early Feb)
Lastly in this trio is a monthly workshop which will appear on a Saturday morning once a month (to be scheduled during an open gym slot). It will feature just the one movement and will carry with it specific skills/drills to work toward said move (think muscle-ups, hspu, etc). In these FREE to member workshops you will be shown how to develop the skill. Depending on the move at hand they may be some pre-requisite/s needed in order to partake (like working on getting toward the muscle-up for example will need with it some fundamentally important strength requirements. 
Working on the basics toward the move under low intensity parameters will be of great benefit for the CrossFitter who is wanting to make a stride on certain moves.
  • Quarterly face-to-face meetings with your coaches to seek your feedback and check in on your progress. (late Jan).
Last year we attempted to do monthly online check-in’s with you all. Whilst we believe the initiative was there, the frequency of checking in was too great & created such a large workload that it became unsustainable. We always try to learn from our mistakes so we have thought of another way. We still want to know what our community is thinking about their training, their gym, their progress, etc so we will now introduce a quarterly face to face check-in of sorts. We want to know what the vibe is like at CBD so that we can be the best versions of ourselves for you and in turn make CBD the best damn CrossFit gym in Melbourne!! We will be striving to meet each of you once every 3 months (or so) to see how you are getting on and seek your thoughts on some questions that we will bring with us. We will try our hardest to make this as accommodating to you so we will try to offer to meet in an open gym or at a coffee shop nearby at a time that may work better for you. If you just cannot get any spare time then we can look at an online/email version instead but we will always try to make this as personal as possible. We will start to roll these out in late January and will start with our more experienced long time members and work our way down the list chronologically (so don’t expect this to in alphabetical order or anything and wonder why you haven’t been called yet).
  • In-house Seminars held every 6-8 weeks focussing on the “nuggets” that can help your fitness outside of the exercise itself.
We are so pleased to be bringing you these in-house seminars to you all. The CrossFit program is not just confined to thrusters & pull-ups or just sweating & suffering for 15 minutes only to lie on the floor and think “wow that was tough!”. The methodology is multi faceted and encompasses so many different points, perspectives, angles, nuggets & insights. We think that by bringing you some of these nuggets in more detail can only help you make progress along your fitness journey. Things you can expect along this year are setting goals, nutrition, etc etc. These will be held on a Saturday morning (most likely on a open gym time slot). They will be FREE to members to book into & we can’t wait to see what an impact it makes for your fitness. 
  • Introduction of Aaron Troyer coaching more regularly. (mid-Jan onward).
You may have already seen Aaron knocking about in a class here or there. Or even had the pleasure of taking a class by him. But some of you may not know him yet. Aaron comes to us from gold ole the U.S of A via Adelaide. He is a CrossFit Level 2 Coach and an accomplished athlete himself both in the CrossFit world and the Ironman world. With that he brings a raft of experience and knowledge to offer up in class.
We are pumped to see him start with a fortnightly shift on Wednesday evenings starting mid January. We trust you will love him. We take the responsibility of coaching very seriously and wouldn’t just pass any old person onto you guys. We want anyone wanting to coach at CBD to have the same ethics, philosophy & knowhow we strive for at CBD. Aaron fits all those handily. If you want to be coached by him why not book yourself into one of Wednesday evening classes (even if you are normally a morning bird).
 
  • CrossFit CBD’s 8th Birthday (early Jan)
This will seem like late notice as the birthday is THIS WEEK! But yes, we are turning 8!!
Time has absolutely flown for us here at the ROD. When we first started setting up the gym it was late 2011 & the CrossFit scene was infinitely different to what it looks like today. Since being one of the early adopters to the Melbourne CrossFit scene we have seen it grow in spades. We have watched as the community veered toward the competitive side of CrossFit more than ever before and then shift itself back over to its origins of health & wellness. We are very proud of the fact that here at CBD we have been pushing the health & wellness side of the CrossFit methodology the entire time and feel we have some great experience & data to bring with us to teach what we hope will be many more hundreds, if not thousands of people to be functionally capable in their everyday lives.  
We too have been evolving along with it ourselves & are insanely proud to call ourselves a licensed CrossFit Affiliate. In just 2 short years time we will proudly be able to add our name to the very exclusive list of 10 year Affiliates!
On Thursday the 9th (our actual anniversary of the very first day we held classes) we will do a throwback WoD from 2012. Then on Saturday 18th January we will have a lovely Community day up on the ROD with a fun partner/team WoD (TBC) and a BBQ after. We’d love to as many of you turn up as possible to remind us all just how strong our community is.
 
  • Return of the “WoD on the ROD” friendly in-house partner comp. (late Feb)
Yes yes yes!! It is coming back!!!
A staple in the CBD calendar every October since 2013 we had too have a rethink last year as CrossFit changed their timing of the worldwide CrossFit open to the very same time of year!! We instead went with an individual comp in the middle of winter (the RODapalooza) to bridge the gap. That was a super fun day but we know all of you have had a fondness for the WoD on the ROD. 
We are in the planning stages and have earmarked the day for Saturday 22nd February. We are pumped to get this awesome day organised and back into the CBD calendar!! Stay tuned!!
 

So there we have it. A lot to digest but we think you’ll agree that it will all have a great & positive impact for us all at CBD. You can be assured of one thing.  That your staff here at CBD are absolutely committed to being the very best we can be for you and to continue to make CrossFit CBD a respected pillar of the community.

We are here for you every step of the way. 2020 is going to be a blast!!!

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