Bound Newsletter 2.1.2026
At CrossFit Bound, we believe fitness isn’t just about lifting heavier or moving faster—it’s a mindset. The way you train in the gym reflects how you tackle life: your energy for your family, your focus at work, and the way you show up for yourself each day.
When you commit to discipline—through nutrition, sleep, and daily movement—you’re not just building a stronger body. You’re strengthening your mind, your resilience, your purpose.
Science Says: Healthy Habits Build Healthy Minds
A growing body of research shows that exercise, proper nutrition, and sleep aren’t just good for your body—they’re essential for your brain and mental health.
🧠 Exercise Improves Mental Health
Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress while boosting cognitive performance and emotional regulation. Exercise increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that supports learning, memory, and overall brain health—creating a positive feedback loop that enhances motivation and resilience.
🥗 Nutrition and Sleep Are Foundational
Nutrition and sleep work together with exercise to support emotional and cognitive well-being. Studies show that healthy eating patterns and quality sleep are linked to improved mood and reduce the risk of mental health disorders. These lifestyle factors don’t just coexist—they influence each other, improving appetite regulation, energy levels, recovery, and even life expectancy.
Stoic Wisdom: Discipline Is Strength
Ancient Stoic philosophers knew what modern science now confirms: mastering yourself is the truest measure of strength.
Here are a few Stoic quotes to inspire your journey:
“Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” — Zeno of Citium
“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.” — Epictetus
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
Stoicism teaches that what we can control—our habits, effort, and choices—is where our power truly lies. When you commit to disciplined actions like showing up for workouts, choosing nutrient-rich food, and honoring sleep, you’re not just building physical fitness—you’re forging mental clarity, resilience, and freedom from unnecessary stress.
How Discipline Improves Your Everyday Life
👨👩👧 For Your Family
Better energy + better focus = more presence.
When you prioritize your well-being, you show up more fully for your loved ones—physically and emotionally.
💼 For Your Career
Consistency in habits strengthens self-control and executive function—skills that improve productivity, decision-making, and resilience under pressure. You’ll find challenges at work become growth opportunities instead of stressors.
🙌 For Yourself
Fitness isn’t selfish—it’s foundational.
Discipline builds confidence. Confidence builds positive habits. And positive habits build a life you want to live.
Putting It Into Practice
Here are simple ways to build your mindset muscle:
✔ Nutrition: Start with whole, protein-rich meals and plenty of vegetables to fuel your training and recovery.
✔ Sleep: Aim for consistent rest (7–9 hours). Sleep is when your body rebuilds stronger.
✔ Movement: Treat daily training as non-negotiable—you show up for others better when you show up for yourself first.
The Takeaway
At CrossFit Bound, your training isn’t isolated. It’s connected to your life—your performance, relationships, mental health, and sense of purpose. Science supports what the Stoics taught centuries ago: discipline frees you.
Every rep, every meal choice, every night of good sleep is a vote for the life you want to live. Your family, your work, and most importantly—you—deserve that commitment.
Be disciplined. Be present. Be unstoppable.
Bragging Board:
Both Dylan Porter, Natalie Gordon, & Sheri Kindred completed their 1st Dianes (21-15-9 Deadlifts | HSPU Rx)
Check Out our Weekly Training Highlight Reel Below
Upcoming Brithdays & Anniversaries
Anniversaries
5-Years
- Brian Chambers Feb 22
4-Years
- Hilary & Trevor Maloney Feb 14
3-Years
- Ruben Rivera Feb 3
2-Year
- Greg Dafini Feb 12
- Jim Blackhall Feb 15
1-Year
- Elaine Dunbar Feb 7
- Sam Porter Feb 20
- Paulette Colon Feb 28
- Sabrina Melo Feb 2
Birthdays
Sarah Weaver Feb 2
Haley Cooper Feb 2
Jeff McDonald Feb 4
Matthew Heaton Feb 9
Mandi Nobis Feb 9
Kamila Hernandez Feb 15
Savannah Haygood Feb 17
Jenni Pettit Feb 17
Jennifer Hughes Feb 19
Ryan Allen Feb 21
Miles Pettit Feb 26
Upcoming Events & Clinics
Gymnastics Clinic - February 7th from 10am-12pm
CROSSFIT OPEN - FEBRUARY 26 through MARCH 16
- Jan 14th is the opening day for registration. Let’s represent this year!
- HERE are more details.
Friday Night Lights
Feb 27
March 6
March 13
Olivia Kates Path 5K in celebration of Olivia Pugh to benefit the Oliva Kate Pugh Strength and Shield Scholarship to Harrison High School Seniors
February 28, 2026 @ 8:30am
CrossFit Journal Article of the Week: Mastering CrossFit Gymnastics: How to Build Strength, Stability, and Confidence
By Pamela Gagnon, CF-L2
This article is the final and eighth in our series with gymnastics athlete and coach Pamela Gagnon. We’ve had kipping pull-ups, toes-to-bar, handstand push-ups, bar muscle-ups, handstand walking, ring muscle-ups, and butterfly pull-ups. Today, we end this series with your action plan for leveling up your gymnastics skills over the next few months.
When toes-to-bars show up in a workout, how often have you said, “I need to work on that more.”
When handstand push-ups show up in a workout, how often have you said, “I need to work on that more.”
And so on. It seems like there are so many gymnastics skills in CrossFit and so much to work on that it gets too overwhelming; we do nothing and just cross our fingers the next time a high skill comes up in a workout.
How can you work on gymnastics skills so you can move toward going as prescribed on your workouts without it seeming so overwhelming?
WHERE TO BEGIN?
Let’s relate this question to the clean and jerk. When you began CrossFit, how did you learn the lifting portion? The coach probably handed you a PVC pipe and you began one position at a time. The shrug, the shrug and pull, the muscle clean, and so on. You learned the fundamentals, breaking down positions within a full skill, and understanding movement and technique before loading the barbell.
You can apply the same principle to gymnastics. The foundation for body-weight skills is the same, whether you are doing handstand push-ups or kipping pull-ups. We learn skills by mastering shapes, tension, flexibility, and strength.
Let’s take a look deeper into these four foundational key components.
KEY FOUNDATION 1 – GYMNASTICS SHAPES
The two foundational shapes in gymnastics are the hollow and arch. The hollow is a global flexion where you tuck the pelvis slightly and pull your ribs toward your belly button, which creates tight abs and glutes and stabilizes your trunk to create tension.
The opposite of the hollow is the arch, a global extension that provides tension through the thoracic spine, glutes, and hamstrings.
The arch and hollow work together, as equal and opposite reactions, to create a lot of power in kipping, stability when inverted, and strength to move your body through space. The arch and hollow can help you understand how to create stability and power from core to extremity and also how to find tension in your body while moving through space.
KEY FOUNDATION 2- TENSION AND WHY YOU NEED IT
Tension is simply muscles doing work. While the definition may seem simple, being able to execute tension during skills can be very challenging. To understand how to create tension, you need to connect your brain to your body. You do this through practice, which is simply repetition.
To successfully build tension, it’s best to master holds before adding dynamic movement. For example, you would master tension in the arch and hollow on the floor before learning the kip swing. If you have a fault in the static hollow or arch, you will certainly see a fault in the kip swing.
So why do we NEED tension? Think about the barbell. What if you performed an overhead squat and your arms started to bend? You’d lose tension in your body and it may feel like the barbell would collapse on top of you.
When you lose tension in your body, it doesn’t feel like a safe or powerful lifting position. The same applies as your body moves through space. What happens when you kick up to a handstand and your arms bend? It feels scary and like you might collapse on your head. But if you had sturdy arms and strong upper-back muscles to support you in your handstand, you would feel in control and safe. Tension is KEY!
KEY FOUNDATION 3 – FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is simple; if you can’t get into the position, the skill will be much harder. It’s not to say you can’t perform handstand walking without mobile shoulders, but to compensate for lack of shoulder mobility, you will have to over-arch to balance. This will cause stress in your lower back, it will cause you to work harder, instead of smarter, and it skips over the foundation of all handstands, which is the ability to stack your skeletal system for balance. Therefore, flexibility is a crucial part of a skill.
KEY FOUNDATION 4 – STRENGTH IS KING
Strict strength is crucial before adding a dynamic movement. When working on a squat snatch, you make sure you can overhead squat the weight before you catch it in a more dynamic skill. In gymnastics, strength is key to building skills properly and safely. When you add kipping to your skills, you are adding approximately three to five times your body weight. If you don’t have strict strength behind a kipping skill, you won’t be able to control the power coming through your skill, and this puts your ligaments under stress. This can be where kipping gets a bad rap, those who are performing it before laying the strength foundation.
Practice
Success in the gymnastics portion of CrossFit requires regular practice, not just attempts during the workout. Therefore, doing drills and warm-ups outside class will help you feel even more prepared the next time pull-ups appear in the workout. Going forward, set aside 10 minutes to work on positional work, which includes shapes and mobility, and work on strength by adding strict work, as well.
Do these movements three times a week for the next three weeks.
Day 1
3 rounds, 3 rounds of each skill below, accumulate 30 seconds of work each round of:
Day 2
Accumulate 2 minutes of practice:
Day 3
3 rounds, work 40 seconds, rest 20 seconds:
Drills and Warm-Ups
A few quality drills and warm-ups include:
RECIPE OF THE WEEK: Crockpot Garlic Herb Chicken
📊 Nutrition (per serving – approx.)
Protein: 40–45g
Carbs: ~2–3g
Fat: ~3–4g
🥦 Low-Carb Side Dishes (Pick 2–3)
1️⃣ Roasted Garlic Green Beans
Fresh green beans tossed with olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper
Roast at 400°F for 15–20 min
Macros: ~4g carbs | 2g fiber
2️⃣ Cauliflower Mash
Steam cauliflower florets
Blend with garlic, salt, pepper, and a splash of almond milk
Macros: ~5g net carbs per serving
3️⃣ Sautéed Zucchini & Squash
Sliced zucchini & yellow squash
Sauté with olive oil and Italian seasoning
Macros: ~3–4g net carbs
✅ Why We Love This Meal
✔ High protein for muscle recovery
✔ Low carb & low fat for body composition goals
✔ Dump-and-go crockpot convenience
✔ Kid-friendly and meal-prep approved
High Protein • Low Carb • Low Fat
Serves 4–5
🛒 Ingredients
For the Chicken
2.5–3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
👨🍳 Instructions
Add chicken breasts to the crockpot.
In a bowl, mix broth, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings.
Pour mixture over chicken.
Cook on LOW for 6–7 hours or HIGH for 3–4 hours, until chicken is tender.
Shred or serve whole. Spoon extra juices over the top for flavor.
