We are a personal coaching facility that helps individuals to find their most powerful self.The group aspect of what you’re doing/of functional fitness is fun, and doing the same high intensity workout with others around you will double up on hormone responses that your body gets hooked on. Doing those high intensity workouts with others doubles your hormone responses and gets your body hooked. You convince yourself that this is where you need to be, because it just feels so good. But, does it? Does it really feel good?Are your goals being addressed? Your specific goals? Or are you snatching because that's what's on the menu for the day?Is your movement selection and load correct for your body and your lifestyle?Are your workouts serving you, or consuming you? Before we get into this, I'm referring to the group class where everyone does the same "high intensity" workout while trying to "forge elite fitness."Don't get me wrong. I "drank the kool-aid." I mean, I swam in it. I never stopped to ask whether or not this was what people wanted or - more importantly - needed. I was so consumed with the cool fitness modality, or "sport" if you will, that I was blinded to the fact that there are some pretty obvious flaws if you want to create a fitness journey that lasts a lifetime and can lead to a client having autonomy in their fitness.After ten years in the "Crossfit™” scene I have seen too many people become consumed by having to prove themselves to others or to themselves and forget that they need to take care of their mind and body, first.If you want to get a pull-up you should be working on that.If you don't want a big back squat, there is no need for you to do heavy back squats. In fact the argument could be made that unless you're training for a sport that requires bilateral power production, you don't ever need back squats in your life. Blasphemy, I know.It is not normal or correct to have an "always achy" joint. Your workouts should address this and work around it if necessary.Group fitness is fun, I get that. Nobody is telling you not to workout with your friends. We're only saying that your friend might not need or want to snatch to be fit. You might not want to do handstand push-ups but your friend is all about it./We have to question whether our motivation is simply to “keep up with the Joneses.” If you’re going into the gym and loading more weight to keep up with a buddy even though your knee is aching, this is a sign of misaligned intent for fitness. At that point, movement practice has become counterproductive.Listen, I love the "constantly varied high intensity functional movement" idea for fitness. It changed my life and allowed me to open a gym to help change other lives. I also know that the early adopters were MMA fighters, special warfare operators, and olympic athletes. Resilient individuals who had spent years practicing the basics and practicing a personal program before just diving in.There was no long term test for the masses. CrossFit took off like a bullet train and we all just tried to keep up.High volume high impact cyclical movements performed at high intensity for the sake of "forging elite fitness" were prescribed to the masses with little regard for variables such as training age, chronological age, specific goals, or movement limitations.Planning for individuals with these variables in mind provides quality of life AND allows a professional coach to write a program that addresses imbalances. Overlooking physical markers and contributing lifestyle factors is blindly prescribing movement to a person. This is both irresponsible and a disservice to individuals seeking health and fitness. Let's be real for a second. Most of us do not need "elite fitness" and even more people do not have the lifestyle pieces in place outside the gym to be able to safely and repeatedly express the high intensity movement inside the gym - even when "modified" or "scaled." Being in pain because of the gym is the opposite of why we should be doing fitness. Participating in an exercise program that causes discomfort is akin to insanity, of which the definition is "repeating the same task over and over expecting a different result."Finding a program that speaks to you and your goals is hard, and sticking with one is even more difficult. How many times have you started something and not even a few weeks later life gets in the way and you never go back?This is why we are moving forward with our Hybrid group class at Iron Forged Athletics. Our Hybrid Group Class is unlike any that you’ve experienced. First we assign you a personal coach aka Coach for Life. You and your coach for life will decide how many times per week you should attend and how often you both should meet 1-on-1 to ensure you stay on track. These are designed to keep you attending and ensure you meet with your coach for life as often as needed. No more starting a program and never finishing it, we make sure you’re in the facility as often as you need to be! Your coach has also armed you with the knowledge of:
- How to maintain (and stick with) a good diet
- Proper modifications for you according to your movement screening & baseline tests
- Mobility and Recovery techniques
- Set attainable goals with your coach for life
We combined an individualized program with a fun, 60 minute group session with your friends. You get the best of both worlds. This approach gives us the most effective AND most fun approach by combining a personal program with the opportunity to throw-down with your friends. Coach Jordan
Owner | Head Coach, Iron Forged
