Happy New Year! Another successful year at CFG has passed and we would like to thank all of our coaches for their countless hours of hard work and continuing desire to develop and learn. We’d also like to thank Craig Lowe for his unending willingness to help and assist no matter the job; coach, rig builder, spark, janny, judge, technical assistant and friend. Thank you Craig.
We have come a long way since opening and to highlight just how far we’ve come and how much Gavin and I have aged here’s a quick recap of the last 12 months.
4 years ago and looking 10 years younger
January
A quiet start to the year but saw 45 new members experience CrossFit Glasgow from 2 Fundamentals weekends in the one month. Laura organised a Quiz night at the end of the month testing your knowledge of who’s who in the CrossFit World and to show off Gavin’s extensive knowledge of nature and dinosaurs. The quiet before the storm.
February
Ground Up – movement seminar with the one and only I Am Scott Houston. We hope to follow up with more classes in parkour and hand balancing in 2015.
Benni Magnusson Deadlift Seminar – we played host to both Benni and his wife Gemma for half a day as they spoke about programming and strength improvements for one of the big lifts. Later that year Benni went on to break the World Record raw deadlift at the European’s Strongest Man with a colossal 461kg. His record even beats the equipped record set by Andy Bolton.
Scottish Weightlifting Open – for the third year running CFG hosted the Scottish Open which saw the largest Open roster ever in Scottish Weightlifting history! With some familiar names and faces involved, Elise, Sabeeha, Colette and Louise all lifted, as well as Colin and Kathleen. Gavin also features as a judge and looks pretty natty.
Suave
26th – the CrossFit Games Open 2014 began and CFG was, for the second year running, the largest team in Europe with 192 members signed up! A very proud moment for the gym and our favourite time of year, the box comes alight with passion, excitement and a little bit of fear as 5 workouts are set to be released over 5 weeks. I could keep writing about this event but this is already looking like a long post, check out the pre-Open post here and the roundup.
March
14.1 – 14.2 – 14.3 – 14.4 – 14.5: The open begins and the WODs are released, I conveniently fuck off to Dubai and leave Gavin with 192 people to judge on the longest AMRAP of the competiton. Standard. This is an action I hope to repeat in 2015. Steph Dekker finishes 30th in Europe and earns herself a place at the European Regionals for a second year running. The community comes together and through the 5 weeks there’s many highs, some low’s; like Red repeating 14.3 only to score the exact same again and loads of cake! Through it all the community supports every last person’s efforts and as always the loudest cheers were reserved for those who worked the longest. Aside from the Open we also host the Ladies ClamJam Women’s Day event ran by Kel and Fiona.
Iain is asked to assist and travels down to CrossFit Clitheroe with Rob Orlando for the CrossFit Strongman Seminar and then over to CrossFit Cardiff the following day.
2014 Open at CFG
April
5th – End of Open party – Held at The Griffin and organised again by Laura Heselton and accompanied with plenty of drink (as always)
18th – Team Linda – To help support John Colquhoun’s heroic act of completing the Marathon Des Sables the community gathered, under the guidance of Laura once more, and raised money for a great cause; Macmillan Cancer Support. John completed the Marathon Des Sables on 12th April, 6 marathons over 5 days across the Sahara Desert. An incredible accomplishment. Over the Easter weekend CFG raises over £400 for the cause!
May
3rd – Hero WOD Rhodri in memory of a member of CrossFit Aberdeen.
2nd – Steph Dekker was selected and travels all the way to Boston for the NPFL (now NPGL) combine. A good performance here would see her passed on to final selection in Las Vegas before the NPFL planned on going live for it’s first year.
15th to 18th – Steph Dekker represents CrossFit Glasgow for a second year running as an athlete at the European CrossFit Games Regionals. She finishes in 16th place and perhaps more impressively doesn’t leave Copenhagen a bloody, malnourished mess. Gavin also travelled to Copenhagen and undertook his second year judging, not an easy task, unless you’re judging Annie Thorisdottir who took 1st place for the females whilst Jonne Koski took 1st for the males.
CrossFit Endurance Seminar with PJ Newton. We are all taught to leeeeeeean and pull! Craig Lowe creates Lamppostercise™ and hopes to one day open CrossFit Hulahulahulahula.com
Regionals 2014
June
16th – Success once again for Steph as she makes it to the final combine in Las Vegas for the NPFL. After all the international competitions over such a short period of time the community band together and help fund Steph chase her dream of making it as a professional sportsperson. CFG runs it’s first ever CrossFit Kids class and Gavin and Laura take a much needed break to Morzine. Leaving Iain on his own. Revenge at last for Gav.
July – August
The Commonwealth Games begins in Glasgow and CFG appear on BBC Radio. Louise Mather competes for Scotland.
Long time friend of CFG Alan Wilson opens CrossFit Kirkintilloch on the 2nd of August.
30th – CrossFit Glasgow plays host to Rob Orlando as he brings the Strongman Seminar for the second year running, Iain works as seminar staff in front of a home crowd.
On the same day athletes and volunteers are also representing CFG across the river in the SECC at Scotland’s SFN Expo. Gavin and Iain organised and programmed for the CrossFit event which CFG finished an admirable second place behind CrossFit East Kilbride. That’s not all, the following day CFG picks up the prize for ‘Best Box/Functional fitness gym 2014’.
Strongman Seminar and SFM Expo
September – October
6th – CFG hosts it’s second weightlifting event of the year. The Western Districts. Colin and Nisha compete as Iain and Gavin load…. for the entire day.
21st & 22nd – Another Level 1 Seminar!
17th – Professor Scotty Butcher hosts a small, free seminar during the day explaining the importance of strength training and CrossFit as a training methodology from the perspective of a physiotherapist. Read more about his work on the link.
Halloween 2014
18th & 19th – Shane Sweatt of CrossFit Conjugate and perhaps better known for his role as a coach in Westside Barbell and husband/coach to Laura Phelps-Sweatt, the most successful female powerlifter of all time, visits Scotland for the first time as he teaches the Conjugate Method to a small but dedicated class. The knowledge bombs fly. This guy really knows his stuff.
Philippa Roy features in a fantastic article on Ladies Who Lift, a star is born.
November – December
Near the end. Not much more to go, I promise.
FFD CrossFit host Scotland’s first ever local CrossFit event. The competitor stream shows it’s worth as CFG is proudly represented by 3 teams of athletes who finish an astonishing 2nd, 3rd and 5th from over 20 teams in participation. The event as a whole is awesome, it runs on time and the guys at FFD worked hard to make everyone feel welcome and well attended throughout the day.
Movember 2014
Steve Morrison organises a Movember night out after raising £245 for the Movember charity. The boys test their mettle against Buckfast, Jager and Jumpin Jaks.
MonkeyBox visits CFG – They deliver a talk before the 17.15 WOD and then take part in the class programming to show that people’s needs differ only by degree, not kind and that functional fitness can play a crucial role in recovery of serious injury and improvement of chronic health issues.
We host our final Level 1 seminar for the year. Three in a year! Karl Steadman and Rob Lawson attend every one. Golf Charlies.
Christmas night out at St. Judes – organised by Laura. Lots of prizes are given and a chance for the staff and members to unwind and enjoy a beverage or twelve. With it being on McFall’s and Dekker’s birthday as well this was a messy night. Ask Nisha, she loves talking about it.
FFD Throwdown 2014
Over the course of the year we have welcomed new faces, said goodbye for now to old friends, we’ve had engagements, marriages, new arrivals and literally hundreds of landmark fitness achievements ranging from wall climbs, muscle ups and that first ever double under. It’s impossible for me to mention it all but it’s these things that make our job our passion and we thank each and every one of you for you time, trust and friendship.
2015
The year ahead already looks to be packed with awesome seminars, events, competitions and opportunity. The Athlete Games is probably the first major event of the year and we have Steph and Nisha both travelling to Manchester to represent CFG and compete against some of the best in Europe. These girls have worked extremely hard and it’s great to see them both qualify to what’s quickly becoming the most prestigious event in the UK. Top CFG competitor Gary Wilson will be opening CrossFit Enniskillen and we wish him the best of luck in his new role as affiliate owner. The Open is fast approaching, will CFG be the largest team in Europe for 3 years running? Can we add a third start to our tees? Only you can decide this, help us prove to the World we are a force to be reckoned with! We hope to see a change in programming in Arch2 as we move on to Conjugate programming after the Open. We are hosting more seminars; Level 1, Level 2, CF Rowing, CF Strongman, CF Endurance, CF Powerlifting and CF Strongman are all on the cards. Will Steph make it to Regionals for a thirs year? Will CFG get a team to Regionals? Will Philippa Roy remember us when she becomes famous? Will Craig Lowe start the GMC? Only time will tell!