Idaho Ed News Story

Recently, a reporter came out and did a piece on our program here at Vision CrossFit.  I thought I would share a link to that story here.  http://www.idahoednews.org/features/crossfit-school-students-lift-squat-rope/

Vision CrossFit gets expert coaching at Snake River CrossFit

Today several of my students had the opportunity to work out at one of the Northwest's premier CrossFit boxes, Snake River CrossFit in Nampa.  Students had the opportunity to get their hands on a barbell, do some skill work, and get in an amazing metcon.  I am so grateful to the coaches at Snake River for offering up their time and their facility to help foster the development of my athletes.  We also got to leave with some much needed tires for some tire flips next week.

One thing became quickly apparent during our visit today is that we definitely need some more equipment at Vision CrossFit (check earlier post for some of our equipment needs).  Students worked on Sumo deadlifts and then did a 12 minute AMRAP of  9 push presses, 12 toes to bar, and 15 box jumps.  They did an amazing job and were all smiles afterwards. I am continually amazed by the CrossFit community and their willingness to share their passion for fitness.  I believe these students will be changed forever.

Reflections on Weeks 1-2

What a great start to the year! I have 20 students signed up for the class and there is still a waiting list. The students are working very hard.  The weather has been hot, the workouts aren't glamorous (lots of body weight WODs because we don't have that much equipment yet), and yet everyone has had such a great attitude.  The students are already showing improvement on a daily basis.  The first day we did air squats I was mortified, but we talked about some "squat therapy" and the students went home and practiced their squat and showed great improvement the next time we squatted in a workout.  We definitely have a long way to go, but they have come so far already.  I am also learning and growing as their coach.  For example, yesterday's workout was "Karen" (150 wall balls for time), which is a bench mark workout in CrossFit.  This was the first time many of my students had ever even attempted a wall ball. I quickly realized 150 reps would be too much, so we modified the workout to get at least 100 and then I gave them the option to keep going if they were able.  We are learning together and growing together,  It has been a great experience!

Excellence?

"Excellence," we strive for it, but what is it really?  I am primarily a science teacher by trade, so I am inclined to think that the things we pursue should leave a trail of data along the way that inform us of our progress. Otherwise, how will we ever know if we are making progress towards our goals. What I mean is that it is difficult to know if we are moving toward excellence, unless we have a way to measure it.  People don't like to be measured for whatever reason, it might be their ego or just a lack of self confidence.  We don't like to know where we stand because it is easier to lie to yourself if you aren't measuring anything. You can apply this line of thinking to all sorts of areas of your life if you like, but I will focus primarily on excellence in fitness for this particular blog post.

I think the only way to measure excellence is to have some sort of fitness standard that you can measure yourself against.  Lucky for us, CrossFit has defined these standards of fitness for us. These standards of fitness, unlike other definitions of fitness, are actually measurable. According to the CrossFit Journal, http://journal.crossfit.com/ There are ten recognized general physical skills. These physical skills include: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.  You cannot be good at one thing and be considered fit.  If I am a great runner and possess tremendous amounts of cardiovascular and respirator endurance, but cannot jump more than 3 inches off the ground or pick up a 50 lb bag of salt from Costco for my water softener, would you consider me to be fit? No way! If I am a huge competitive weight lifter who can dead lift over 500 lbs, but I lack the mobility to pick a pencil up off of the floor, would you consider me to be fit? Absolutely not!  My point is, and CrossFit has be making this point for years now, these "specialists" are not necessarily fit.  Specialists are good at one thing.  In biology, when they say "survival of the fittest," they are not necessarily referring to the strongest or the fastest individual.  Scientists are typically referring to the individual who is best adapted to a changing environment. This is a great parallel, because he or she who is fittest may not be the absolute best in a single area, but they can adapt quickly to all areas of fitness and perform well in each area. This adaptability to changing conditions, and the ability to thrive in those conditions, is more desirable for the functionality required in our everyday lives. According to CrossFit, "you are as fit as you are competent in each of the ten skills. A regimen develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these ten skills."  This is measurable, this is scientific, and this is the only definition that gives any sort of standard by which to measure ourselves and our fitness.

For more on this topic please go to http://journal.crossfit.com/ and read the classic article "What is Fitness?" It is a very thorough article on the topic.  So go measure yourself against the standard, because in my book this is "excellence."  Those who progress towards a standard of fitness and are willing to put in the work required to move closer to the standard each and every day are excellent!

A New Vision for Physical Education in our Schools

As diabetes and other metabolic disorders skyrocket among the young, we should stop and ask ourselves if we are truly meeting the most basic health needs of our kids.  There are lots of proposed solutions, but the only thing that really speaks the truth is the data.  You can't argue with data and the data is revealing that we are losing the war on preventable disease specifically related to fitness and nutrition.  My own kids have always been active, but it was until the last year when we joined our local CrossFit affiliate "Snake River CrossFIt" in Nampa, Idaho that I really began to see them become passionate about fitness and nutrition. They literally beg me to get them there early so that they can do "skill work" before the actual workout. They are telling their grandparents, on their own, "I can't eat that, I need something with more protein and less processed sugars."  When was the last time your pre-teen and teenager said something like that.  Basically, everything that I have been telling them for years has all of the sudden clicked. I believe it is a result of their exposure to the CrossFit community, communities are powerful, and this is redefining what it means to be healthy for my kids.  This ultimately led me to get my CF-L1 last spring and apply to become a non-profit school affiliate with CrossFit HQ.  The upcoming 2016-2017 school  year will be our first year offering CrossFit as a class to our students.  We have even partnered with Northwest Nazarene University to offer this course for college credit to our high school students.  I have always had a passion for health sciences (I have BA in Kinesiology Ed. and a MA in Science Education) so this seemed like a natural fit for our school and possibly a working model for other schools.  The data will be the only thing that informs us if this experiment truly works, luckily the model set forth by CrossFit is easily quantified with real numbers and real data. I have a hunch that we are on to something big.  Stay posted throughout the year as I reflect upon what it looks like to start from scratch, to start a CrossFit afiiliate in school, and to hopefully start a fitness revolution to win back the health of our youth.  As a science teacher, I love experiments, we will see what happens with this one.

Equipment Needed!

As many of you know already, we are a non-profit school CrossFit affiliate, which means we cannot and will not charge our students or staff to participate in this program.  This leads to some financial challenges regarding the purchase of needed fitness equipment and the eventual construction of facility or "box" on site to house this equipment.  We are looking for sponsors and donors to help us get started and get this amazing program off the ground.  We are the first and only non-profit school affiliate in Idaho and we are very excited about the future of fitness for our students.  If you are able to make a donation or help us purchase equipment (see list below), please use the contact form at the bottom of the page and let us know.  All donations to schools are tax deductible.
-Olympic Barbells (15lbs/35lbs/45lbs)
-Bumper Plates (10 lbs/15lbs/25lbs/35lbs/45lbs)
-Kettle Bells & Dumbells (10lbs/15lbs/18lbs/25lbs/35lbs/53lbs/70lbs)
-Medicine Balls & D-Balls (10lbs/15lbs/20lbs/25lbs/30lbs/50lbs)
-Plyometric Boxes (12 inches/ 18 inches/ 24 inches/ 30 inches)
-Yoke
-Prowler Sled
-Rope
-Gymnastics Rings
-Dip Station/Matador
-Squat Racks/Pull-up rigs
-Benches
-Ab Mats
-Concept 2 Rowers
-Assault Bikes
-Truck and Tractor Tires

All equipment can be found at http://roguefitness.com/crossfit-equipment

Thanks for your support
Jason George

Needed Equipment (most of this equipment can be found through the Rogue website: 

Help Support Us!

You can work with donors choose to help support us as we look to purchase basic equipment for Vision CrossFit students.  Check us out at the following link: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/vision-crossfit/1985093/?rf=email-system-2016-05-proposal_approve-teacher_2632464&challengeid=20509405&utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=proposal_approve&utm_swu=4258

This project qualifies for the LIFTOFF match: For the next 5 days, when someone donates to your project and enters the code LIFTOFF, DonorsChoose.org will match their donation dollar for dollar. Make sure to donate by May 8, 2016 and use the promo code LIFTOFF during checkout to double their donations to your project (up to $100).

Welcome to Vision CrossFit!

We are currently the only non-profit, k-12 school CrossFit affiliate in Idaho. We will begin classes for our students during this upcoming school school year 2016-2017.  In the meantime if you are interested in getting your teens involved in CrossFit please visit Snake River CrossFit:  http://snakerivercrossfit.com/, they have excellent classes for kids, teens, and adults. We will be busy this summer looking for grants to buy equipment for our class. Please stay tuned as we embark on this new and exciting venture here at Vision Charter School promoting lifetime fitness for the next generation.