Athlete Handbook

Our Mission:

To build a stronger community by building stronger individuals  through superior coaching, training, tools and resources.

You are now a Second Wind CrossFit Athlete!

Congratulations! You have successfully passed through our Foundations program or joined us from another affiliate, and we are so excited to have you as a member of the Second Wind CrossFit family.

In Foundations you learned the foundational movements allowing you to transition into the daily WODs. You now have a basic knowledge of the movements, but we certainly do not expect you to be an expert. Your coaches will help you scale the workouts appropriately. Remember, you can scale any workout by load (weight), reps, time, or movement.

We won’t ask you to do something you can’t do, but let’s find out what you can do!

Remember, Foundations is just the start of the journey. You should understand the CrossFit methodology, and the basics on movements. But we call it “class” for a reason. You will learn. And practice. And learn some more. CrossFit can be both exciting and frustrating. Celebrate the small achievements. Your coaches are here to help you get fitter and stronger, and your fellow athletes will be your greatest support. If you are dedicated to coming in consistently and working hard, we are dedicated to helping you reach your goals.

This page will give you a roadmap for what to expect from us, and what we will expect from you.

CrossFit Philosophy and Methodology

CrossFit is for everyone.

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that focuses on improving General Physical Preparedness (GPP). CrossFit is defined as constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensity.

In CrossFit, you will run, jump, row, pull, push, throw, lift and use your body in the way it was meant to be used. The workouts vary from day-to-day, and we always push ourselves to find new limits.

The entire CrossFit program is designed to do one thing – increase your fitness. We define fitness as an increase in work capacity over broad time and modal domains. Or in other words, your ability to move more weight, farther distance, faster.

Here is CrossFit’s “Elite Fitness in 100 Words”:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.”

How do we program our workouts? For a more detailed understanding of how we come op with each day’s WOD, read this. 

Your First Two Months

In the beginning, no matter where you start, you can expect to be sore. Sore, not hurt. There is a difference.  Your body will begin to adjust to the level of intensity that we strive for. As you adjust the amount of working out and stress you place on your body, it is extremely important that you remain consistent and keep coming to class.

Often, the best medicine for sore muscles is to move them. Workout again.

Assuming that you show up regularly, work hard, and pay attention to what you’re eating, you should start to feel and see results in the first month. Often the scale doesn’t change, but your body composition does. In that first month, however awkward the workouts may seem, your coordination, strength and flexibility will improve. The uncomfortable feeling of doing a WOD at high intensity starts to feel more normal.

The real magic happens after the two month mark. Athletes begin to get good at basic skills and become more efficient at workouts. You begin to push your intensity because you know your body better. Your energy improves during the day. You sleep better at night. You feel stronger. You are stronger.

In the early part of your CrossFit career, consistency is more important than intensity. Consistency is your best friend.

Coming to Class

Unless otherwise noted, all the workouts in each class each day are the same. The WOD is posted on the website and to the SugarWOD app the night before. You will work out alongside veteran CrossFitters and beginners just like yourself. Scale the workouts appropriately for yourself especially in the beginning. If you have a question, ask the coach. Always tell your coach before class if you have an injury or physical limitation.

You do not have to sign up for class in advance.

The entire class schedule is listed on the Second Wind CrossFit website here. Bookmark this page, and check it daily. Special events come and go. There are several specialty classes. Know before you go (to the gym).

CrossFit Etiquette and House Rules

• Everyone is late sometimes. Some people are late all the time. Please don’t be one of those people. Coaches have been instructed to start classes exactly on time. That starts with critical explanation of the workout at the whiteboard. If you miss that, you are already behind. It is also simply inconsiderate to the coaches and to the athletes who make a point to be on time every day. Being on time means being ready to work, not just walking in the door.

   

• Be considerate of the class in progress. Whether you are there early or staying late, please understand that your full-voice conversations can be annoying to people working out or can compete with the coach running a class. Watch where you sit, stretch and walk as the workout is going on.

   

• Class is class. Give the Coach your full attention. Coaches coach. Athletes learn.

   

• Wipe up your DNA. High intensity workouts produce sweaty athletes. Bring a towel. Clean all your toys and equipment after class. We provide high quality bacterial wipes for the equipment; we keep a bucket and sponge for the floor. Wipe up your personal trail of sweat. If you bleed on any equipment, it must be cleaned immediately. Period.

   

• Put your toys away. Weights left sitting around will ensure you’ll get a burpee-per-pound penalty the next time you walk in the door.

   

• Don’t drop the weights. Never drop an empty barbell. Respect the equipment. We are in a condo building. Please respect the neighbors.

   

• Check your ego at the door. Your health and safety is our priority, not how much weight you think you can lift. Listen to your coaches.

   

• Don’t cheat. No one cares what your score is. But they do care if you cheat. Practice full range of motion. Scale accordingly.

   

• Chalk. Someone had to clean it up. Use it freely but be mindful of where it goes.

   

• Greet new members. Remember when you didn’t know anyone? There are no clubs here, just one big happy family. Introduce yourself.

   

• Community is a big part of CrossFit. Respect the community. Cheer on the last athlete.  Wait until everyone is finished before you clean up. Leaving early tells everyone you really don’t care about the community.

Membership Options

Second Wind CrossFit offers several options for attending class.  

CrossFit Monthly Membership

Click here https://www.secondwindcrossfit.com/membership/ to see our membership options!

Personal Training and Private Skill Work

Maybe you want some one-on-one work, or the class schedule doesn’t work for you, but private sessions do. Maybe you’re looking for special programming and accessory work to achieve a certain skill.  

We offer Personal and Small Group training. See options and pricing here.

Other Classes

• Barbell Bettys – weightlifting for women, coached by women
• Legends (AKA Circuit Strength and Conditioning) – Kinder and gentler CrossFit for seniors, beginners, and persons with mobility restricionts.

Membership Policies

• Memberships auto-renew every month on your specific billing date, regardless of membership type. It is your responsibility to know your billing date.
• A three (3) day written cancellation notice prior to the next renewal date is required in order to prevent the next month’s charge from going through.
• Memberships may be placed on a one-month hold with the above notification because of medical suspension or extended travel. Again, please email the request so we both have a record of it. This must be done in advance; this isn’t meant to ask for a monthly refund because you didn’t get to class enough last month.
• Any cancellation made less than 24 hours in advance for a private training session may result in being charged for the session. We understand that life gets busy, so if the training session is rescheduled within the 24 hour window, there will be no charge. Your time is valuable. So is ours.
• Most fees are subject to the stupid 6% DC Sales Tax.

CrossFit Glossary

AMRAP – As Many Rounds/Reps as Possible

Box – What CrossFit Gyms are called in the CrossFit community.

Burpee – The exercise from hell. From a standing position, jump down to a push-up, jump feet back toward your hands, jump straight up in the air and clap hands overhead

BW – Body Weight

CFT – CrossFit Total – Max squat, press, and deadlift

C&J – Clean & Jerk

Clean – lifting a weight from ground to shoulders in one movement

C2B – Chest to Bar (Pull-ups)

DL – Deadlift

DU’s – Double Unders – Jumping Rope with rope passing twice under each jump.

EMOM – Every Minute On the Minute

GHD – Glute Ham Developer – that weird contraption in the corner for harder sit ups.

Hook Grip – The grip you use for pulling during Cleans and Snatches. Wrap your hand around the bar and grab as much of your thumbs with your first two fingers.

HSPU – Handstand Push-up

KB – Kettlebell

KBS – Kettlebell Swing

K2E – Knees to Elbows – Hang from a bar and, with a tight stomach, lift the legs just high enough so that your knees touch your elbows.

Kipping – Using full body momentum, either by kicking or swinging, to get a pull up or toes to bar

MB – Med Ball

MetCon – Metabolic Conditioning Workout

MU – Muscle Up – Gymnastics movement hanging from rings, a combination pull-up + dip so you end in an upright support.

OHS – Overhead Squat – Full-depth squat performed while arms are locked out in a wide grip press position above head.

Olympic Lifts – Clean, Jerk and Snatch

PC – Power Clean

Power Lifts – Squats, Deadlifts and Presses

PR – Personal Record – Celebrate these, preferably with dancing and ringing the PR bell

Rep – Repetition – One performance of an exercise.

RNFT – Rounds Not For Time – stressing quality not quantity

Rx – As Prescribed; as written. A WOD done without any scaling.

RM – Rep Max. Your 1RM is your max lift for one rep. Your 10 RM is the most you can lift 10x’s.

ROM – Range of Motion

Scaling, Scale – modifying a WOD/workout to make it appropriate for you. Technically, scaling down means to make the WOD safer by decreasing load, number of reps, rounds, or adjusting the movement.

Set – A number of repetitions, ex. 3 sets of 10 reps, often seen as 3×10, means do 10 reps, rest, repeat, rest, repeat.

TGU – Turkish Get-up

T2B – Toes to Bar – hang from a bar and lift your legs up so that your toes come in contact with the bar between your hands (at the same time)

WOD – Workout of the Day. It’s the entire workout, not just the met con.

The Olympic Lifts

For CrossFit beginners, the Olympic lifts are among the most challenging things we do. They require almost all of the 10 General Physical Skills, simultaneously in a split second. It’s no wonder they take years of practice.

Olympic lifting is simple in theory: Take a weight off the floor and put it over your head. That’s it. That can be done in two different ways.

1. The Snatch. This takes the bar from ground to overhead in one fast motion.
2. The Clean & Jerk. This takes the bar from the ground to the shoulders (clean) and then from the shoulders to overhead (jerk).

Simple in theory. Difficult in execution.

Then you start throwing terms like “hang” and “power” and “squat” and all of a sudden, beginners have no idea what we are talking about anymore.

Remember this: Hang and power are simply qualifiers that shorten the movement, thus scaling it somewhat. Hang refers to the starting position of the bar (off the ground between the knees and hips) and power refers to the catch position (above a full-depth squat).  

So a Hang Power Snatch will take the bar from just above the kneecaps (hang) to overhead in one fast motion (snatch) with a short squat (power – hips not getting below knees) in the overhead catch.

Clear as mud, right? Don’t worry. Practice, practice, practice. It will come. And as I explain here, the better you get at the Olympic lifts, the better you get and roughly every physical activity you do in CrossFit and your daily life.

For a nice visual explanation of what we have just talked about, click the image above. You will get a large view of this poster from Olympic lifter and CrossFit coach, Diane Fu, who seamlessly falls into the coolest business name ever, FuBarbell.

Required reading: Why We Practice the Olympic Lifts

Our Coaches

We take our Second Wind family very seriously and are fortunate to have built what we believe is the best coaching staff in D.C.

Gayle Moseley
CF Level 2 Trainer

Grant Barker
CF Level 2 Trainer