Bound Newsletter 8.18.2025
Competitions, Friendships, and Results:
Why CrossFit Brings Out the Best in You
When most people walk into a CrossFit gym for the first time, they’re usually focused on one thing: results. Maybe it’s losing weight, getting stronger, moving faster, or simply feeling better throughout the day. But what they often discover is that the results go far beyond physical changes—they’re built on the bonds of friendship and the energy of competition.
Competition: The Spark That Pushes You Forward
Competition in CrossFit isn’t just about winning; it’s about raising the standard for yourself. The person lifting next to you or sprinting on the rower doesn’t make you feel “less than”—they inspire you to push harder than you thought possible. Healthy competition drives intensity, which is one of the key ingredients for results in CrossFit. Whether it’s an in-class workout, a local throwdown, or the CrossFit Open, competition teaches you how to test yourself, set goals, and measure progress.
Friendships: The Support That Keeps You Going
CrossFit is unique because it’s done together. You suffer through the same workouts, cheer for one another when it gets tough, and celebrate every milestone—big or small. These friendships aren’t just surface-level; they’re forged through shared effort and resilience. Having training partners who believe in you keeps you accountable, motivated, and most importantly, consistent. And consistency is the secret to lasting results.
Results: The Reward for Showing Up
When competition fuels your effort and friendships support your journey, results follow naturally. CrossFit results aren’t just about PRs and new skills (though those are huge wins). They’re also about confidence, energy, and the belief that you’re capable of handling challenges both inside and outside the gym. Results come in many forms—faster times, heavier lifts, better endurance, or simply the ability to do things in daily life that once felt impossible.
Why It Matters
CrossFit training is built on more than just workouts. It’s a community where competition sharpens you, friendships sustain you, and results remind you why you started. When those three elements work together, fitness becomes more than just exercise—it becomes a lifestyle that transforms who you are.
So next time you’re in class, look around: the people beside you are not just competitors, they’re friends. And together, you’ll find the results you’ve been chasing.
Bragging Board:
Coach Nicole hosted a gymnastics seminar this weekend
Jen Wells completed her 1st HSPU (+6-8 more after that)
Santez Kindred completed his 1st bar muscle ups
Brian Lawler can now successfully kick up into HSPUs
The Corner Gang competed at the Big Orange Brawl
Grant took 5th
Logan Brown took 2nd
Team- Trevor Lampe-Cole Scott-Emily Crumb took 4th
Jesus Mundo took 13th
Great weekend for the gang up in Knoxville!
Trevor Maloney
Ran a random and his first half marathon in Roswell with a very respectable 2hr and 19 minute finish time. Impressive for a 220lb CrossFitter
Jeb Buffington went to CrossFit Resurgens partnering up with Austin Medford and Matt Powell to support and compete in the Noble Clay Fundraiser. Took 4th overall just outside of placing.
Upcoming Birthdays and Anniversaries
Anniversary
1-Year
Kerry Aponte Aug 23
2-Year
Ean Parr Aug 20
Birthdays
Jeff Mayr Aug 21
Eric Harvey Aug 22
Michael Jamorksi Aug 26
Trey Mason Aug 26
Chris Mench Aug 30
Ashton Huppert Aug 30
Upcoming Schedule & Events
Bring A Friend Week August 18-22:
Have a friend/family interested in our gym or want to see what we do. Free Week August 18-22.
Participant must email info@crossfitbound.com, with Name, Email, Phone Number and Bday to get registered for the week.
Kids Classes Updates: Begins August 25
Pricing is $85 a month for each program.
Tuesdays:
Mini Movers: 10:15-11:15am
Homeschooled Junior Jumpers: 11:15-12:15pm
During the Holiday-Breaks we will be hosting “kids camps”
Melanie Venable has put together a ‘team’ for the upcoming Savage Race. The team is called ‘FRIENDS BOUND’
Need a training plan to get ready Bound Endurance is implementing a 5K program for this summer. 2 Days a week of running.
Helen Holiday Half & 10K Race - December 13, 2025
discount code ‘Helen10’. *thank you Jen Wells!
CrossFit Journal Article of the Week: MECHANICS, CONSISTENCY, INTENSITY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
By: CrossFit
One of the most overlooked and undervalued tenets of the CrossFit program is the mechanics-consistency-intensity charter. The Level 1 Certificate Course and CrossFit’s founding documents, as published in the early CrossFit Journal, define CrossFit as constantly varied functional movements, executed at high intensity. While this definition of CrossFit is both descriptive and prescriptive, the accompanying mechanics-consistency-intensity charter further elucidates how the program should be implemented by providing a hierarchy of concerns and establishing a linear timeline of development.
Yet, since the program’s inception, CrossFit has faced criticism due to the misguided assumption that intensity is the singular, definitive characteristic of the methodology, as if the inclusion of an element that can be overdone encourages a fatalistic, Icarian-drive to do so. We often see this accusation of “intensity above all” stemming from a limited understanding of the fundamental tenets of the program, combined with extrapolations based on a single moment in time.
For example, an athlete is seen executing a movement poorly either during a workout or simply while practicing. Upon observing this struggle, the uneducated viewer is quick to assume this single point along a continuum of progress is the permanent endpoint of the athlete’s development. This judgment denies the reality of learning and developing new skills; beginners will look like beginners long before they ever reach the point of smooth, precise execution. Not allowing athletes to struggle during the learning process means tacitly accepting that these techniques are reserved only for those who have already refined them. This is nonsense. Even those with generally sound technique will have moments of technical failure. It should be considered that the stimulus necessary to progress is the same stimulus that may occasionally result in momentary, technical breakdown.
A second oft-repeated misconstruction occurs when viewing advanced athletes, already steeped in CrossFit culture, deep in the throes of a difficult workout. The athlete wears their effort on their sleeve, quite visibly uncomfortable and pushing the limits of their current capacity. The assumption is then made that anyone new to the methodology is doomed to be sacrificed on the pyre of intensity. Again, while witnessing an athlete’s progression from beginner to advanced performance, no single point in time can really do justice to the athlete’s fitness or development.
The actual intention and direction of the CrossFit methodology holds that while intensity is an essential building block of the program, its implementation is described not as an absolute metric but rather as an effort that is relative to the physical and psychological tolerances of each individual. Further, fitness is defined as a long-term endeavor. Intelligently balancing safety, efficacy, and efficiency is essential to long-term success, as never learning to productively apply oneself to the task at hand or being sidelined by injury will fundamentally blunt output (or efficacy).
From the start, CrossFit trainers have been charged with focusing on foundational movement mechanics and understanding that this is paramount to the long-term development of any athlete. This remains one of the key tenets stressed in CrossFit’s Level 1 and Level 2 Certificate Courses. The foundation of movement competence serves as the bedrock required for an athlete to advance.
Once movement mechanics are ingrained, the next step is to test consistency. Can the athlete perform the movement in a correct, predictable fashion from one day to the next? Can they do so without constant oversight from the trainer? Can they apply the broad movement themes across minor variations in equipment, rep schemes, and loading? Have they been consistently exposed to the stimulus at an intensity appropriate to their capacity; generally, has a person been training three or more times per week in order to gain the requisite conditioning? If the answer is a resounding “Yes!” then and only then is an increase in intensity warranted.
Thus, our charter for implementing constantly varied functional movements, executed at hIgh intensity requires mechanics, consistency, and thenintensity. This provides the athlete and coach with a simple blueprint for applying the program in a way that supports long-term sustainability — i.e., fitness and health.
While this charter is applied in a linear fashion for new athletes, it also should be revisited and applied throughout an athlete’s “career.” Even an athlete who progresses out of the beginner stage and has been cleared to add greater levels of intensity to their workouts will still have weaknesses that will be best addressed by lowering the intensity and working for a time with a deliberate focus on mechanics and consistency. This is often seen with more complex movements. For example, an intermediate-level athlete who struggles with maintaining consistently sound movement patterns in the snatch can be charged to work the movement under lower loads for fewer reps and at lower intensity — even during workouts — until their mechanics are consistent enough to merit greater levels of intensity. In this way, the mechanics-consistency-intensity charter provides a practical framework for the art of coaching. The skilled trainer will learn to navigate and apply the charter fluidly and effectively for athletes of all experience levels.
In the next installment of this series, we will take a deep dive into the application of the mechanics portion of this charter.
