“The goal of our Blue Angels’ team is to inspire a culture of excellence and service to country.”
– Blue Angels Website

“Teamwork makes the dream work.”
– Unknown

Tim’s Deep Squats (Thoughts)

Team. Team. Team. It’s about the team.

I LOVE the goal of The Blue Angels. Inspiring a culture of excellence. Inspiring service to country. WOW. Clear. Concise. Powerful. I watched The Blue Angels perform in SF last Friday and Sunday. Combining that with Tom Brady’s interview and the book I referenced in the last email, “How to Stay Sane in an Insane World” I have been inundated by this theme of a team. So, of course, I started thinking how it relates to CrossFit, CFPA and the experience at a CrossFit Affiliate.

I started playing team sports in U8 AYSO soccer in Sterling Heights, MI. I was not the most naturally gifted athlete. I even had a bizarre fashion sense, insisting on wearing white shoes when everyone else wore black. “Tim likes to be different.” – Rich Dymmel (probably)

Over the years my best coaches emphasized that the team win was the goal. NOT, the personal stat line. We were responsible for our own performance, but only in so much that it contributed to the team.

What does this have to do with CrossFit? I believe that we are a team at CFPA. Not just the coaching team. The whole gym community. By joining together in a common goal of achieving greater fitness we experience being a part of something greater than ourselves. We get to contribute with measurable efforts. And we receive a wealth of benefits from the shared experience known as the Workout of the Day.

We all have a role to play on this team/community. Coaches lead and do most of the talking. (Side note: I am super proud that our coaches also participate in classes.) Some are the color commentary. Some are the legal references. Some are the party planners that are rays of sunshine when they walk in the room. Some are the wallflowers that prefer not to talk much. We are all valuable parts of the team and we are all better when you are here. Likewise, we miss out on you when you are not.

Many, or likely ALL, of us exercise for the benefits that it gives us. We are stronger, more flexible, more capable as a result of training. This is why we exist as CrossFit Palo Alto. We want to help you increase your capacity to do “what you want, as long as you want, as fast as you want, with as much as you want.” My hope for this note is for you to realize that while you are here working hard to increase your work capacity (chasing excellence) you are also making every other person here better, too (service to others). And when we are all better, The Team is better.

Kind of a Big Deal

Coach Andrew and Coach Rebecca recently attended the CrossFit Level 2 Instructor Course. They passed the test with flying colors. Congratulations y’all!!!

What’s Going On?

Feedback from last week’s email was amazing and humbling. We received reports from a few former members that had left the area many years ago. They have continued CrossFit in their new locales. We are sad when members leave, but so happy to know that CrossFit has become an essential part of their lives.

Two former members rejoined the gym this week. One has been absent six years and the other was last here over eight years ago. Welcome back, Anna and John!

If you’ve moved away and still do CrossFit please let us know how it’s going. If you miss the power of community and want to come back, we’d love to have you.

Challenge for the Week:

Introduce yourself to someone in class that you don’t know. You might just make their day/week and they might make yours.

Influencing

Coastline by Hollow Coves just feels like a song for Fall and the changing of the seasons.

I’m the sentimental type. Long Haul by Ian Munsick gets me right in the feelz.

Need a book? My first audiobook was Relentless by Tim Grover. Tim was the personal trainer for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade.

Send me your influences. Music? Books? Movies? Series?