Newsletter • July 2008

Member Interview
Jessica Lowrance
Age: 24
Profession: Staffing Specialist
• How did you find out about CrossFit?
My boyfriend, Kurt.

• How have CrossFit workouts changed you?

I am sleeping better and have more energy
throughout the day. I have also noticed a big
difference in my strength and the different things I
can do in the workouts that I wasn’t able to do when
I first started. I couldn’t even do a 12-inch box jump
and within a month I was doing 18-inch box jumps.

• What do you like about the workouts

compared to other programs?
I like the variety and being able to work out with
other people, I feel like it pushes me harder to
complete the work out. I also like how I can work
out for 15-20 mins and feel dead tired, instead of
spending 45-60 mins on a treadmill/elliptical and
not break a sweat.
• What do you like least?
Box jumps and wall ball. I hated running but I am
getting better at it.
• What would you say to someone who is
thinking of starting CrossFit workouts?
Try it. You may be hurting after your first workout,
but the hardest thing about it is just to keep going
back.
• Some people say they want to ‘get in
shape’ before starting CrossFit. What are
your thoughts on that sentiment?
Why? There is no point. It will always just be a
reason not to go. I was far from being in shape
when I started and now I feel better then I ever
have.
• As a woman, did you have any
preconceived notions about CrossFit?
Seeing how Kurt looked and felt when he came
home sometimes gave me the idea that it was for
men who wanted to get big muscles. But then he
started showing me some of the other women who
did CrossFit and videos of it and I realized that it
wasn’t so much about getting muscles as it was
about getting in shape and gaining strengths in the
things that I do in every day life.
This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Workout
By Herb Sampson
When visitors or new members walk through
the doors of TitanFit, one of the first things I say
is, “Today, while you are here, forget everything
you know about fitness. This ain’t your daddy’s
workout!”
I started saying it after I asked a first-day
member to change the position of her hands during
the second round of jumping pull-ups during her
warm-up. She asked if changing her hands would
work a different part of her arms. It’s been a long
time since I was in the ‘body building/feel the burn’
mind frame, so of course my response was “forget
everything you know about fitness.”
I added the “this ain’t your granddaddy’s
workout” for dramatic effect.
Then I started thinking about it. CrossFit
SHOULD be your granddaddy’s, (grandmother’s,
daddy’s, mommy’s, whole darn family’s) workout.
One of the best things about CrossFit is the ability
to scale.
Workouts can be and are scaled based on
load (amount of weight used) reps, duration, etc.
Scaling allows folks of dissimilar abilities (based on
fitness level, strength, etc) to do the same workout.
Weekend Hours
Recently I had a funny email exchange...
EMAILER: Word on the streets is the weekend
hours at TitanFit have changed?
ME: Yup. Based on member feedback, we are now
open at 10:00AM on Saturdays and Sundays.
EMAILER: Good to know when you open, but
when do you close?
ME: Nice catch. We are open from 10:00 AM to
2:00 PM on Saturdays and Sunday.
EMAILER: since when
ME: Lots of time on your hands I see. Have you
visited the site recently? Starting Saturday June 14,
2008. I think it’s Flag Day, just so you know.
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Recently one of our members dragged in her 21-
year-old son so he could get a feel for what this is
all about.
Mom and son did a workout that featured:
rowing, thrusters and pull-ups. They both rowed
500M for each segment; for thrusters he used 65
lbs and mom used 15 lbs; for pull-ups mom did
jumping while he did regular pull-ups. Mom did
fewer reps per exercise and they finished within a
minute of one another.
I cannot think of another exercise program
where mom and son, dad and daughter, husband
and wife can workout TOGETHER. I can’t play
basketball with my mom. You can’t lift with your
dad. You could go walk the mall with granny, but
you’d both have more fun and get more benefit
from visiting TitanFit.
EMAILER: Flag Day, nice. Will you mention that
on your site? If so, why didn’t you mention the D-
Day anniversary?
ME: No, I do not think I’ll make a reference to Flag
Day. I have made some references to holiday (e.g.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years). I have
also made mention to member’s birthdays. But as
PCness has taken over, I’m not going to mention
holidays that don’t give you a day off work... So
sorry Arbor, Flag, Grandparents, Mother’s, Father’s
Valentine’s, (Valentine’s ugly sister) Sweetest, etc...
Newsletter
July 2008
Member’s Corner
Megan McKim
Age: 24
Profession: Graphic Designer
Exercise has always been a part of my life. I
was on a swim team growing up and I have pretty
much always belonged to a gym. Like most people,
I gained some weight in college (thanks dining hall
cheese fries and late-night Taco Bell runs!) but I
lost it the year after I graduated and I then weighed
the same as I did when I graduated high school.
However, I was one of those skinny fat people. I
was smaller, but I did not have any definition. I lost
fat and that was it. I didn’t build any muscle.
My fiance Jerry started getting into CrossFit in
the summer of 2006 and started working out with
Herb shorterly thereafter. From the way he talked
about CrossFit, it was a bit intimidating. Picking
up two times your body weight off the floor?
Working out so hard you feel like you might throw
up? I didn’t know about all that, so I stayed in my
comfort zone and did the elliptical for another year.
Eventually though, curiousity got the best of
me. Could I really get a great workout in such a
short amount of time? Were my legs strong enough
to jump up onto a box 20 times in a row? Jerry was
going there three or four times a week... was Herb
really even a MAN?!
I joined Jerry for my first TitanFit workout in
the late summer of 2007 (and yes, Herb WAS a man
with a lovely wife and two adorable kids!) and Jerry
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and Seth and I did Fight Gone Bad. It went alright
minus the mishap I had with the wall ball in which
I was so tired that I squated, threw it upwards and
then proceeded to miss catching it. It rolled down
the hill in Herb’s front yard and bumped into a car
parked on the street. I groaned and stumbled down
to get it, my legs and arms feeling like jello. Overall
though, my first experience with CrossFit and
TitanFit was great.
I kept going back and it’s been nearly a year
now. One of my favorite things about CrossFit is
that the workouts are so short. The other day, I did
a metcon of deadlifts and pushups and was done
in less than seven minutes. Seven minutes! That’s
about a fourth of the time I was spending on the
elliptical and I know now that the elliptical was
also only giving me about a fourth of the workout.
I’m not a math major, but I have come to learn that
CrossFit > machines at the gym.
I can’t lie, I still occasionally go to the gym
when I can’t make it out to Herb’s, but the workout
I get there doesn’t even compare to the workout I
get at TitanFit. I feel stronger than I ever have in my
entire life. The once-foreign words that Jerry would
talk about - back squat, front squat, overhead squat,
deadlift, split jerk, clean, etc. - now all have a place
in my vocabulary as well. I can deadlift 1.25 x body
weight, I can row a 2:06 500M and I can do real,
non-girl push-ups that actually count! My next goal
is a pull-up and I feel confident that I’ll be able to
get one soon. Wall ball and I still aren’t very good
friends, but I’m okay with that.
Newsletter
July 2008
CrossFit and Learning
Do you keep a log?
Six weeks ago, Jessica struggled with 10
weightless air squats during her warm-up. On June
13th, she did 100 Thrusters (a front squat combined
with a push press). A hundred thrusters! She
knocked out the 100 after doing 30 air squats during
her warm-up. Did I mention she did 100 Thrusters?!
When she finished, one of the other members
looked at me and said, “You should write that
down.” It needs to be notated as it is pretty cool that
she improved so much in 6 weeks, but it also needs
to be notated for a point of comparison for her next
100 Thrusters. Yes Jes, there will be another time.
As I describe CrossFit to others, I try to mention
that the routines are measurable and repeatable.
Measurable and repeatable are important as they
allow you track your success. If on day one, for
example, you were able to do 10 reps of 18-inch
CrossFit In The Media
For the love of Pete! WORK OUT!
I did not know Tim Russert. Other than being a
fan of bad football teams (me, Vikings; him, Bills),
being a dad and loving his own dad, I do not think
we had a lot in common either. Nonetheless, his
death saddens me.
Occasionally, when a famous person dies, it
makes me think about how and why. I remember
when Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died, I spent hours
wondering why a person with it all would take his
own life. Of course, as I got older and wiser, I began
to realize that some folks just are not happy. When
I heard about Heath Ledger recently, I did not even
blink an eye. See how hardened I have become?
Well, that takes me to hearing the news about
news anchor Tim Russert. What now baffles me is
how many young folks die because of they do not
take care of themselves. While 50+ might not seem
young to you, it is young to my mom and I bet your
mom too.
By not taking care of themselves, I mean that
they do not exercise. (This is a fitness site after
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box jumps in two minutes, and two months later
you were now able to do 20 18-inch box jumps in
one minute. You can measure your improvement.
While it is a great thing that the routines are
measurable and repeatable, it means nothing if you
are not keeping track of your efforts.
How much have you improved since starting at
TitanFit? How many rounds did you get with your
first “Cindy”? What was your first “Helen” time?
What are they now?
all.) I have used CrossFit as my primary form of
exercise for 2+ years now. In those 2+ years, I have
worked out approximately 4-5 times a week. On
average, those workouts have lasted 30 minutes
(with warm-up, which I need to do more often).
Thirty minutes four times a week (sounds like an
infomercial, I know) to have a healthier, stronger,
better-conditioned body.
There is a ton of science that says working
out is good for you. It fights of depression, keeps
dementia at bay, helps reduce the incidents of heart
disease, improves your overall well being and costs
(at TitanFit) about two bucks a day. I workout with
the hopes of some day seeing my grandchildre; I
workout as not to be a burden on my kids as I age; I
workout because it keeps me out of trouble. I wish
Russert had and that those like him will start.
Newsletter
July 2008
Workout Of The Month
Here’s the workout (for time):
l 100 KETTLEBELL SWINGS

TitanFit Member TImes:

70 lbs KB 53 Lbs LB 35 lbs KB
Seth 7:50 Kelin 7:45 Carol 10:47
Kurt 7:54
Chris 9:08 20 lbs KB
Herb 9:37 Jessica 3:32
Are YOU up for the challenge?

TitanFit Records
New Records From June 2008
Weighted Chin-up —
Deadlift — Kelin Mark 413 6/14/2008 Chris Wood BWT + 98 lbs 6/16/2008
OHS — Kurt Fuller 195 6/11/2008 Back Squat (Women) —
Snatch — Jerry Berg 145 6/20/2008 Megan McKim 100 6/16/2008
Jackie* — Kurt Fuller 7:28 6/12/2008 *1000M row, 50 45-pound thrusters, 30 pull-ups

Welcome to Liquid McDonald’s!

May I take your order?
Are you one of those people (like me) who has
difficulty losing weight/fat? It just might be you are
drinking yourself to bad health! Check this out - I
started small just by going to diet sodas versus those
poison regular ones and lost 10 pounds.
Try getting rid of all calorie containing
beverages from your diet. This includes soda the worst possible food when my body is unable to
(diet soda is acceptable in moderation), fruit juice properly process the junk?
(nothing but concentrated sugar, deficient in the
good stuff - fiber - so ditch the juice and eat the Did you know:
Item Calories Fat Carbs Caffiene
fruit), lattes (heavy cream, sugar, etc... LIQUID Starbucks Coffee o’ the week 5 0g 0g 415mg
McDONALDS), and I hate it, but get rid of the Iced White Chocolate Mocha 610 24g 84g 255mg
alcohol as well. Big Mac 540 25g 45g 0mg
Alcohol, research has informed me, has to Sources: starbucks.com and mcdonalds.com
go through the liver to be metabolized and it is
impossible for the body to burn fat during the So the question of the day is...WOULD YOU
metabolization process. Why is it I’m usually eating DRINK A BIG MAC?

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July 2008
TitanPics

TitanFit Goes On The Road

Catch TitanFit At A Park Near You!
Now that the weather has turned nice and we
no longer need gloves for runs, it is time to take
TitanFit out on the road. Starting June 7th (the
first Saturday of June) and every other Saturday
until October 25th (the last Saturday of October),
TitanFit will hit the streets.
That being the case, make sure you check the
blog, www.titanfit.com, to see which park/track and
where in the Indy metro area that Saturday’s class
will be held. them see/feel, what the “fuss” is all about! Power to
The park/track workouts are FREE to all. This the people.
allows you to bring those unsuspecting friends that Want us to come to your area? Shoot Herb an
you have told about CrossFit and TitanFit, and let email at herb@titanfit.com and give us some ideas.

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July 2008