Crossfit baby food
What to Pack in Your Food Cooler for Competition Day
The Sea of Green cheers for Team Invictus at the 2015 Regionals.What to Pack in Your Food Cooler for Competition Day
Written by Jean Thorson
It’s finally here. The big event that you have been training hard for. The gym bag is packed with all your shoes, two jump ropes, knee sleeves, lifting belt, tape, extra socks, a couple changes of clothes, towels, mobility gadgets and everything else to prepare you for the gym floor. But what about that food cooler? Is it packed with the essentials to keep you going until the end of that last workout? The last thing you want is to bonk on that last workout that is in your wheelhouse, because of the lack of fuel to get you through it.
When preparing for a long day at an event, the key is keeping it simple and quick to consume. Focusing on hydration, carbohydrates and proteins. Depending on the schedule of events, you want to be prepared for quick consumption that is easily digested. This would be the time to have a protein/carb shake ready to go or maybe some fruit, juices, coconut water and baby food pouches. If you have a larger break of 2-3 hours, have a meal ready that consist of lean meat and carbs that your body is use to eating and you know will digest with no problems. The last thing you want is to bring something that your body will not agree with while doing a heavy squat snatch.
I highly suggest bringing food favorites. If you really don’t like eating broccoli, don’t pack it just because it’s a healthy choice. Bring some white rice or those sweet potatoes with a little honey that you love!
A couple days before the event (rather than the night before):
Freeze 5-6, 12 oz water bottles. They can be used for ice packs in your cooler and also consumed as they melt. And bring a gallon jug of water too. Coconut water and fruit juices are good to have on hand and can be added to pre/post recovery drinks.
Carbs:
Make a Sweet Potato Puree with some honey or grab baby food pouches from the store.
(I prefer ones with sweet potatoes, bananas or rice in them).
Grab some fruit (bananas, apples, pineapple, grapes, berries). Wash them and cut them up into small bags.
Grab some veggies if you know you will eat them. Personally, these end up being the last thing I grab for during the day of an event. But if you know you will eat them, pack your favorites.
Protein:
Protein Powders, use small containers or snack size plastic bags with pre-measured amounts in them. This eliminates the need of packing the oversized tubes.
Boil a dozen eggs and take the shells off. That will make it easier come event day to just grab and eat.
Grill some chicken and dice it up to fit in containers.
For a Meal during the long break – here are a few of my favorites.
Bacon, Egg, Avocado, Tomato Salad
Almond Banana Pancakes I make PBnJ sandwiches with the pancakes.
Pulled Pork
Fat:
Having some trail mix, nuts and or nut butter are great to have, as well as avocado and bacon.
But be aware that they digest slowly. Just keep it to small amounts and consume them during those long breaks. High fiber and fat meals are best for after the event when you are recovering and refueling for the next day.
The big reward at the bottom of the bag:
Sometimes we just need to know that our favorite snack is waiting for us when we are done for the day. A Couple of my favorites: Peanut Butter Protein Balls and The Best Paleo Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookies.
A few helpful reminders:
Eat a breakfast 2-3 hours before the event. Do not rely on a large coffee to get you through the morning session. Be fueled and ready to go from the start, it will pay off come mid day. Pack 2-3 shaker bottles – one for pre-workout drinks, one for post-workout drinks and one filled with water.
Baby wipes and paper towels for those hands. Sometimes the bathroom situation isn’t ideal at events. Either not enough or just outhouses.
Utensils and plates.
Small trash bags.
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Can Baby Food Replace My Sports Gels?
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If you’re a runner, cyclist, or other endurance athlete who can’t imagine downing another gel, I feel you. Most of us enjoy a love-hate relationship with classic sports nutrition products. Although there are a handful of flavors worth trying to stomach, you can’t escape the sticky texture, subsequent dry mouth, and possible GI upset.
As the push for whole food–based alternatives has gained traction in the endurance community, athletes have gotten creative with what they’re willing to try. Take Clif Organic Energy Food, which launched a few years back as purees of real-food ingredients mixed in the right nutritional ratios to function as performance fuel.
If a product that resembles baby food in texture and appearance could make it on the market, I wondered if the real stuff could work as well. I set out to test it by fueling with a high-end, organic baby food called Yumi.
Like Blue Apron for babies, Yumi is a food delivery startup created by new mom Angela Sutherland and former Wall Street Journal reporter Evelyn Rusli. The purees and blends are low in sugar and high in several foods that babies wouldn’t otherwise get until their palates develop, says Nicole Avena, a nutritional adviser and neuroscientist with the New York Obesity Research Center at Columbia University. Each flavor features fancy (and highly nutritious) ingredients like sweet potato, bell pepper, apples, leafy greens, quinoa, berries, coconut milk, chia seeds, dates, and spirulina. Not too unlike staples of the classic diet of an athlete, right?
Nutritional Head-to-HeadBefore testing Yumi in action, I wanted to compare its nutrition content to the Clif Organic Energy Food products, similar in texture and makeup but specifically calibrated for endurance fueling.
Although the exact nutrition figures vary slightly depending on the flavor, they are generally the same across brands. Clif and Yumi include whole-food ingredients and have similar calorie counts, but the real difference in their ability to fuel performance lies in a handful of nutrition categories: sodium, potassium, fiber, and fat.
Sodium: Only one of the four Yumi blends I tried had more than 30 milligrams of sodium, while Clif blends such as Pizza Margherita have sodium contents as high as 600 milligrams. Salt is critical during long, hard efforts, as it helps prevent dehydration and stave off cramping, says dietitian Kate Sweeney.
Potassium: At 570 milligrams, Yumi’s potassium count nearly doubles the Clif figure. That’s huge for helping to restore electrolyte balance during a tough effort.
Fiber: You want to avoid fiber in the middle of a race because it can prevent absorption and complicate the digestive process.
“Certain things are just useless and would get in the way. Fiber would be one of those things,” says nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald. Unfortunately for Yumi, it has a moderate amount of fiber, clocking in at more than double than the Clif offerings.
Fat: Fitzgerald says that too much fat in purpose-built endurance fuel can cause GI distress. While both contain small amounts, Yumi has less, which gives it a mark in the win column.
The Road TestI packed the Yumi Kale N’ Pear blend for an afternoon 50-mile ride.
That morning, I ate a breakfast of toast and a couple oranges to get my glycogen stores going for the day, but I skipped lunch and got on the bike around 2 p.m. to simulate the feeling of needing muscle glycogen to sustain a quality effort.
I opened the container at mile 15 and fearlessly slurped down the baby food.
At first taste, I was impressed by its lack of bitterness, especially given how much kale constitutes the mix.
The quinoa added a heartiness that made me feel like I was eating real food, rather than a sugar-based energy gel.
I then waited to see if an energy boost kicked in. I got after it on the hills, shooting for a slightly below-threshold effort to simulate a long race pace. At first, I was burping up pears and kale—like a baby, the feeling of which was not lost on me—but the blend settled in my gut after about 20 minutes.
When I suck down an energy gel, it typically takes no more than 15 minutes for me to feel the impact—a physical energy boost closely followed by a mental pick-me-up. If I deploy it properly, that means the back half of my ride feels as good, and sometimes even better, than the front. Yumi didn’t give me that same lift. I waited about 30 minutes before admitting that the backside of my ride was going to feel less than great as a result. By the final and 50th mile, I was dragging and definitely would have felt stronger using conventional fueling methods. But the flip side was that I didn’t have any of the gastrointestinal distress the dietitians warned me about.
The verdict? Although the Yumi baby food blend tasted better than expected and kept my stomach happy, it’s not a specifically designed endurance fuel, and the difference was noticeable at the end of the ride. Still, finding the right fueling scheme is an individual process. If you’re looking for whole-food options or something that’s easier on your stomach, Yumi’s worth checking out to determine if you’ll have better luck than I did.
age categories, exercises, complexes and training program
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What will be required
- Turniper
- Cup
- Kanat
- Lacking
- Rowing simulator
- Ball
Crossfit for children - this is a functional type of training, developing strength, endurance and coordination adapted for young age athletes. Crossfit classes are not yet very common among children under the age of 10-11, but recently many parents are increasingly thinking that their children lack strength and functional training.
This has become one of the fundamental reasons why children's CrossFit is gaining well-deserved popularity. nine0005
Of course, CrossFit for children is significantly different from classes for adults - fully formed, well-developed physically people, as there are a number of special age contraindications, for example, axial load on the spine or achieving anaerobic glycolysis. Before enrolling a child in functional training classes or any other section, it is necessary to consult a doctor about possible harm to health and find a sufficiently qualified certified trainer with extensive experience working with children .
CrossFit for kids: benefit or harm?
The benefits of children's CrossFit, despite the divergence of opinions of different experts, are still undoubted. Moderately intensive classes will help the child to get in good physical shape, increasing the overall strength of the body due to the load on individual muscle groups and improving the functioning of the musculoskeletal system, as well as developing endurance through regular cardio loading and improving the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
If you observe the measure in the intensity of the training process, properly recover and train under the close attention of the instructor, functional training will not cause any harm to the growing body. nine0005
CrossFit will give your child that strength and functional base, which will be an excellent basis for further sports success in any sport, whether it be swimming, football, athletics or martial arts.
CrossFit features for different ages
Of course, training volume and intensity will vary depending on age and level of physical development. Conventionally, children's crossfit is divided into two age groups: children 6-7 years old and children under 10-11 years old (over 12 already belong to the age category of teenagers). nine0005
By the age of 11, the body becomes more adapted to strength work, so many trainers advise starting to work with a little additional weight, and not just doing bodyweight exercises - this way the desired result will be achieved much faster.
Age group 6-7 years old
CrossFit exercises for children 6-7 years old are less intense and strength and in fact are a more advanced version of general physical training for this age group. nine0005
The program for children aged 6-7 years is based on various types of cardio, shuttle running, bodyweight exercises (push-ups, squats, etc.) and exercises for the development of abdominal muscles. As for work with additional weights, it is permissible to perform the rowing exercise, work with vertical and horizontal ropes.
© Elizaveta — stock.adobe.com
Under 11 age group
CrossFit for ages 8 to 10-11 may be more anaerobic in nature. The program can include basic barbell exercises (bench press, bicep curls), introduce relatively simple crossfit exercises into the training process (burpees, jump squats, box jumps, wall throws, etc.). nine0005
To diversify the load, you can perform exercises with a bag (sandbag), as well as various movements that require good coordination (push-ups in a handstand, pull-ups on the horizontal bar and rings, lunges with your own weight).
Of course, the weight of the burden should be minimal , since at this age the articular-ligamentous apparatus has not yet been fully formed and is not ready for serious strength work.
© Aleksey — stock.adobe.com
Crossfit exercises for kids
Below is a list of some of the exercises that are recommended for children's training by most children's trainers and experts in the field of sports and physical education.
Please note that younger children work exclusively with body weight and cardio. Work with a small additional weight is allowed no earlier than 11 years. But with the condition of constant monitoring by the coaches and with the permission of the doctor, who will assess the level of the physiological development of the child and determine if there are any contraindications for additional physical activity. nine0005
The exercises are given without a description of the execution technique, since it is no different from the rules for performing the same exercises by adults, and you can find a description of each of them on our website.
Bodyweight Workout
So, let's take a look at some of the most popular exercises from the category of gymnastic loads, in which young athletes work with their own weight, training muscles and developing strength:
- muscles and triceps. It is better for children to start working with a reduced load, putting their knees on the floor - this way they will strengthen most of the muscles of the torso and shoulder girdle, and also prepare the musculoskeletal system for harder work. nine0078
- Bodyweight air squat is the most anatomically comfortable exercise for the development of leg muscles. The benefits are obvious: developed legs increase strength and improve coordination, as well as improve posture.
- The handstand push-up is a rather difficult but extremely effective exercise. It should be performed only if you are sure that the child does not have any diseases of the eyes or the cardiovascular system, since intraocular and intracranial pressure increases significantly.
nine0078 - Triceps bench press is a basic exercise for triceps development. Having strong triceps from childhood will help you make it easier to perform various pressing exercises as an adult. You should start this exercise with your feet on the floor, and not on the bench, this option is much better suited for children and beginners.
© progressman — stock.adobe.com
- Burpees and jump squats are introductory exercises to anaerobic training. Performing burpees (assuming lying down, push-ups and jumping up with a clap above your head) should be started at a pace that is comfortable for the child, you should not bet on the intensity and number of repetitions, you first need to set the correct technique. A similar story with jump squats. nine0078
© logo3in1 — stock.adobe.com
- Pull-ups on the horizontal bar - "traction" of your body to the crossbar due to the efforts of the biceps and latissimus dorsi. Children are encouraged to perform the exercise at full range whenever possible in order to engage the greatest number of muscle fibers, increase muscle strength and strengthen ligaments and tendons.
If it is impossible to perform, you can replace it with horizontal pull-ups or perform them with the help of adults.
Exercises with sports equipment
- Rope climbing is an exercise that simultaneously develops endurance, coordination and arm strength. It is best to start training with the “3 steps” method.
- Throwing a ball at a target is an exercise that develops coordination, agility and accuracy. It is best to start with low throws, the target should be designated just above the level of the child's head. Do not start doing the exercise with a medicine ball, it is better to start with a regular ball.
- Box jumps - an explosive exercise to increase leg strength. You should start with boxes of low height and be sure to take a completely vertical position at the top point - this way you minimize the axial load on the spine. nine0078
© Syda Productions — stock.adobe.com
Development of metabolic functionality
The following exercises will help develop endurance and metabolic function of the body:
- Rowing is an exercise that perfectly develops strength endurance of almost all muscles of the torso.
If your child's gym is equipped with a rowing machine, this exercise should be included in the training program. You should start with mastering the technique, you do not need to chase the speed of execution or the maximum distance traveled. nine0078 - Shuttle run is an exercise aimed at developing explosive leg strength. You should start with low intensity, with each workout gradually increasing the speed of the exercise and the number of approaches.
© Daxiao Productions — stock.adobe.com
- Rope jumping is an exercise that develops legs and coordination. As a rule, children perceive this exercise as a game and quickly master double jumps on a rope and even triple ones.
CrossFit for kids
| Jasmine | Perform 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 10 bodyweight squats. Only 4 rounds. |
| North-South | Perform 10 burpees, 10 crunches, and 15 jump squats. Only 5 rounds. |
| Triple 9 | Perform 9 box jumps, 9 handstand push-ups, and 9 shuttle runs. Only 3 rounds. nine0140 |
Children's training program
Crossfit classes should be regular with a systematic increase in intensity and the introduction of new exercises into the program. The load must necessarily vary, it would be advisable to divide the workouts into lighter and heavier ones. You should not do more than three CrossFit workouts a week, as the child's body simply will not have time to recover.
For example, a weekly CrossFit program for kids might look something like this:
| Workout number | Exercises |
| First workout of the week (easy): |
|
| Second workout of the week (hard): |
|
| Third workout of the week (easy): |
|
Overview of CrossFit competitions for kids
The most famous CrossFit competition for kids is the Race of Heroes. Children”, designed for young athletes aged 7 to 14 years. Her compulsory program includes running, rope climbing, overcoming a vertical wall, imitation barbed wire and many other obstacles that children love to overcome. Competitors are divided into two groups: junior (7-11 years old) and senior (12-14 years old).
A team of 10 people participates in the race. Each children's team is accompanied by a qualified adult instructor. nine0005
In September 2015, the GERAKLION CrossFit Club, together with the Reebok Training in Moscow Parks project, also held CrossFit competitions among children and teenagers for the first time. The following divisions were presented: entry-level and advanced level (14-15 and 16-17 years old).
Many CrossFit clubs around the world have also made it a rule to hold children's competitions on an equal basis with adults. It should be said that children turn out to be no less gambling athletes and also zealously strive for victory, like their adult crossfit colleagues. nine0005
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Training experience - more than 8 years. Winner and prize-winner of the All-Russian tournaments in powerlifting and deadlift. Candidate for master of sports in deadlift.
Cross.expert staff
How we manage the CrossFit Sprut club in Krasnoyarsk
There are very few CrossFit clubs in Russia. We can say that this industry does not exist. Everyone who is involved in CrossFit as a business is the biggest CrossFit fan. If these people could not open their hall, they would not open it. But they can't. Therefore, in our country there are crossfit clubs. nine0005
My name is Maxim Kolosov. I work for CrossFit Sprut. This is another small crossfit club in Krasnoyarsk. We manage it together with the head coach Natasha Stashkevich. She takes care of everything that happens on the training ground, I am responsible for everything that happens outside of it.
She and I have been in CrossFit for six years now. First, for three years they took part in the work of four clubs, then they began to work in the Sprut. In January 2021, he turned three years old.
Where to get inspiration
The owner of a small crossfit club in Russia has nowhere to eat knowledge and look for food for the mind.
Unlike the powerful fitness center industry with large seminars, trainings and the exchange of ideas, almost every owner of a CrossFit club follows his own personal rake.
We listen to Jason Kalipa's podcast on how he does his NC.FIT, read Chris Cooper, see what other gyms are doing. But often the American experience is difficult to apply in our conditions, and observations of clubs in social networks do not explain the logic of their decisions. nine0005
In six years we have come up with a working model that is proving to be effective. This text is an attempt to share the way we think and show what guides us in working on the hall and how we make decisions.
We do everything ourselves
Six people work in Sprut. Katya Savranchuk, Vlad Yunzhakov and Natasha Stashkevich are coaches. Nadya Cherepakhina leads children's groups and mobility. Recently, Natasha Vorogushina began to help at the counter three days a week. We also have three secret advisers with us and friends often help us out.
nine0005
Our microclub does not have a sales department. There are no account managers, usually there is no one to pick up the phone, there is no smm-man, photographer, cleaner, targetologist, supply manager, accountant.
We only do what we can do ourselves: conduct a workout, paint the walls, make a website, take a picture, post it on Instagram, organize a summer camp, clean the floors, pay taxes, shoot a video, hold a competition, write a longread.
If you need to involve outsiders to implement an idea, we usually don't do it. Almost always there are no resources for this, or confidence that we can control the result. nine0005
This may not be the most productive approach, but this is often the case in small clubs. We deliberately exist in this mode. We build workflows based on the fact that everything will have to be done by ourselves.
CrossFit Club Management System
Most of the work happens in the club management system. For a long time, various tools and approaches were sorted out.
In the end, they came to their own decision.
CrossFit Sprut management system consists of several linked Airtable databases and several external services connected to them. About how everything is arranged technically and why we decided that Airtable suits us better than most boxed solutions, I will write next time. nine0005 Airtable + integrations with Zapier, Mailchimp, Twilio and Telegram chatbots
Everything is driven by data
From the first day of the club's operation, we record and store the maximum amount of information available. We collect data on the website, on Instagram and the management system.
All of our information can be classified into three types:
- personal data
- money inflow and outflow
- behavioral metrics
personal data
This is a standard set of mandatory information about a person that allows him to be identified. Name, surname, passport, address, phone number.
Part of the data comes from the training registration forms on the site, the other part is filled in by us.
Incoming and outgoing money
The usual set of numbers for bookkeeping. Who and when paid, how much money came, how much to spend, how much they owe, how much is left. Income, expenses, taxes, payments, deductions. nine0005 Membership sales
Behavioral metrics
This is data about how people interact with the club online and offline. Who came when, where he found out, who signed up and did not come (how many times he signed up and did not come), on what days he trains, how often he breaks, when was the last time and many other parameters. Information about behavior accumulates itself.
List of workouts the person has attended
Information is a tool
At first glance, behavioral data doesn't make much sense. This is true. How a particular person attends training may be of interest only to him and his coach.
However, when the parameters of a thousand people flock into one array, this impersonal information becomes a tool. nine0005
With numbers, we don't need to rely on sensations. We know exactly what's going on in the club. This knowledge allows you to notice weaknesses. They make it clear how we can help our guys: how to make their training more effective, and our work better and more useful. Statistics are the breeding ground for ideas.
We look at statistics, find problems, come up with and test ideas. We get the numbers, analyze the results and draw conclusions.
Then we decide what to do next.
We always have a lot of ideas. They constantly arise from observation and intuition. We formulate each idea into a hypothesis - an assumption that needs to be tested in practice. nine0005
Usually a hypothesis must satisfy two conditions:
- Be useful for everyone who trains in the Octopus
- Be useful for the club
If the lack of benefit is obvious at the idea stage, it does not go to work.
For example: “we will announce discounts for new customers” is a bad idea. She offends those who are already training and is most likely useless for the club.
Hypothesis testing
Each person has a unique experience and point of view on any issue. One considers the idea brilliant, the second - nonsense. Feelings are wonderful, but it is not known how much they coincide with reality. The only way to find out is to put it into practice and collect metrics. nine0005 Graph for changing certain parameters in the crossfit club management system
This is the most important part of the work. Let's talk about several hypotheses from among those that we formulated and tested in the Octopus.
Hypothesis. We have a lot of people who have a couple. And what if you sell the second subscription in a pair for 50% cheaper. Perhaps the guys will start training together and think less about money.
Couples will have a common passion, support from a loved one, a new topic for conversation and savings in the overall budget.
nine0005
The club may lose money. However, it will solve a more important task: it will get new members - just as cool as those who are already training (only cool people train in the Octopus). This will improve the overall atmosphere. It seems like everyone wins.
Tanya and Sasha Nikulin
Initial data
Monthly subscription costs 5000₽, we train 3 couples. Every month they bring the club 6×5000=30000₽. If we sell the second subscription at half the price, we will immediately start losing 7,500 rubles every month. Considered this a reasonable fee for the verification. We can no longer cancel the offer. nine0005
Working
The next month three guys brought their halves and there were six couples. Then seven. After nine months, the number of couples reached 15; despite the fact that one of the couples broke up and the guys began to train one by one (plak-plak).
Schedule for the purchase of paired subscriptions in CrossFit Sprut by months (in pieces) For club members, the advantages are obvious, and Sprut received an additional 15 people and 32,500 rubles per month.
As long as the number of paired subscriptions does not fall below three, the idea works. nine0005 Tolya and Yana are real fashion models
Setting up ads on Instagram. I wonder if there is a relationship between the remoteness of the place of residence and the decision to choose our club for training?
In other words: does the duration of the trip to the gym affect whether a person will train in the Octopus? This determines whether it is worth increasing the campaign budget and showing ads to the entire city, or it is better to focus on residents of the nearest areas.
Preparation
We took an impersonal array of club members' addresses, connected the system to Google Maps, overlaid the addresses on the map.
The red circle is the location of the CrossFit Sprut club
Search for patterns
Yes, many people live in the areas adjacent to the club, but there is no direct correlation. In general, everyone lives everywhere, and three live in the same house on the other side of the city! But we will never tell them this, because we securely store personal data and do not transfer it to anyone.
Most likely, the remoteness of the place of residence from the club does not greatly affect the decision to train with us. Someone travels from home, someone on the way from work or even from a neighboring city.
You can eliminate this factor and advertise throughout the city.
Hypothesis. It seems that there are a large number of people who are not ready to come to CrossFit immediately in groups. What if I did separate introductory CrossFit Start workouts for them?
Many of those who would like to start exercising tell us that they are stopped by the need to immediately show up for a regular group session. They do not feel comfortable around those who are already engaged. nine0005
Perhaps if there were separate introductory classes for beginners in the Octopus, it would be easier for such people to start training.
Ira at training in Sprut
Formulating a proposal
We asked several potential participants in such training what they worry about the most.
We asked those who are already training to remember how they felt when they went to the first training session.
We came up with a special structure of classes, chose a convenient time, assigned a separate trainer, filmed a video, made a special page on the website. We launched ads and offered people to try CrossFit for free in the most fluid environment possible. nine0005
Verification and data collection
Worked for seven months. Waiting for people who need special attention, more explanations and extra time. Contrary to expectations, dozens of ordinary guys, girls, men and women regularly came to CrossFit Start, who did not need these workouts.
Moreover: due to their organization, they believed that since this is Start, it means that according to the rules, it is necessary to start with these classes. People deliberately redraw their schedule in order to come to the gym on an inconvenient day. We sent them to groups and excluded them from the statistics.
They poured in perfectly from the first lesson and continued to train. nine0005
Of those for whom CrossFit Start would have made sense, 63 signed up within 7 months. 15 reached the gym, and 5 remained to train. Over the next two months, they all stopped training.
Analysis and conclusions
Apparently, the problem of difficult adaptation of beginners is not as acute as we thought. People who are really ready to start doing CrossFit are great in groups. Those who talked about the need for special introductory classes found new reasons not to train. nine0005
Removed CrossFit Start workouts from the schedule and occupied the trainer's attention with more useful things. Need to think more.
Vagiz training in the Sprut
Hypothesis. Okay, CrossFit Start didn't work. What if club members were invited to take their friends along to the most fun workout of the week?
Every Saturday we have a big Sprut United workout. Everyone who trains in the Octopus on different days and different times meets on it.
We divide into teams, perform some interesting complex and have fun. Teams are made up of people of different backgrounds. Each participant performs work, the volume and complexity of which is selected taking into account his capabilities. nine0005
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Post from CrossFit SPRUT, Krasnoyarsk (@crossfitsprut)
Teamwork with an experienced friend looks like a great chance to get to know CrossFit softly. A friend will answer questions, show you how everything works, take on the difficult part of the task and help the coach look after the person in training.
United Friends with friends
At one of the Saturday training sessions of Sprut United We decided that every second Saturday we would organize general training sessions in the United Friends format.
We created a separate entry form, the data from which enters our system. We made a page with a detailed description on the site, a link to which you can send to a friend. nine0005
crossfitsprut.ru/unitedfriends
Special page on the website and registration form for the training
Analysis of the results
During eight training sessions, the guys brought 19 of their friends. We have two left. They fit in perfectly and continue to train.
This is much less than the influx of new people through the usual channels. The hypothesis seems to be wrong. Most likely, the problem of soft entry into CrossFit does not exist. If a person wants to start training, he will come himself. If there is no desire, then a friend will not help. nine0005 List of visitors to United Friends training in the club management system
On the other hand: if the problem of difficult adaptation of beginner CrossFitters exists, then perhaps training in a team with a friend is not his solution.
Let's leave the opportunity to invite friends every second Saturday and continue to watch.
Hypothesis. The first training in the Octopus is free. But what if we introduce a small fee for it - perhaps this will reduce the flow of random passengers and allow coaches to work more efficiently? nine0045
We monitor the conversion. This parameter shows how many people who came to the trial training became members of the club. Our conversion rates for a long time stayed at about the same level that we liked.
More flow, lower conversion
Over time, statistics began to show that the Sprut audience has grown significantly. More and more people began to come to trial training. However, the number of those who became members of the club remained unchanged. The conversion has dropped. At the expense of the groups, the coaches had to pay more and more attention to those who came for free and then disappeared forever. nine0005
When a few dozen people came to free training in a month, and the number of those who remained did not change radically, we realized that it was time for a change.
We decided that we should pay for the first training session. Everyone wins, except for those who come solely because of the free, and know in advance that they are not going to stay.
For those who are really considering starting to train with us, the training fee will look reasonable. This will allow coaches to give their attention to those who really need it. nine0005
Result
We set the cost of the first training at 300 rubles (or on account of a future subscription). Within three months, the flow of new people decreased. However, almost everyone who comes stays. The conversion jumped to values that we have not seen yet. This is exactly what is needed.
Hypothesis. During the closure of the halls for quarantine in the summer of 2020, I had to train at home. But what if instead of online sessions in Zoom, you shoot a series of video workouts on Youtube? nine0045
Videos of these workouts will always remain available on the Internet and draw attention to the club.
The guys will be able to train at any convenient time, they will be able to repeat the training. We compensate for the lack of interactive communication in a special chat.
Weekly subscription
We came up with a scheme that is beneficial for everyone: the subscription costs 500 rubles per week. For this money, the subscriber receives a video every day, the opportunity to post their result on a virtual board and discuss their impressions in a chat. nine0005
At the same time, you can train for free. Then access to each fresh workout opens with a delay of three days.
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Publication from CrossFit SPRUT, Krasnoyarsk (@crossfitsprut)
We created a special section on the site, in which every day we began to publish workouts and a virtual board of results from our Airtable system.
In a month, 28 video training sessions were received.
Result
Subscription was purchased by 79 people. This money saved us in April 2020. Basically, we were supported by those who train in Sprut or live in Krasnoyarsk.
They were joined by people from Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Rome, New York, Khimki, San Francisco, Tashtagol and Concorde (near Boston).
During the summer of 2020, SPRUT Stay-at-Home workouts received 10,756 views on Youtube.
This gave a huge boost to our online resources. Visits to the site crossfitsprut.ru increased 30 times. Search engines have raised us in the search results for many important queries, the Yandex quality index has increased by 5.5 times. Added one and a half hundred subscribers on Instagram and a couple of dozen on YouTube. nine0005 Visits to the site crossfitsprut.ru in the spring of 2020
Everyone won. The guys were able to train regardless of the desire or ability to pay for access.
We got a livelihood, experience in extreme video production and a huge influx of new audiences.
SPRUT Homework
After a couple of weeks of rest and analysis of what happened, we designed and recorded from scratch a much better course of 16 SPRUT Homework crossfit home video workouts. nine0005 SPRUT Homework
home training course Now you can buy it on our website. This is a separate full-fledged information product that we are proud of.
Step by step
Perhaps the result that the implementation of a single idea brings is not very significant. However, a large array of diverse information from different sources allows you to quickly test them, accumulate results and constantly progress.
Already at the idea stage, we can easily collect the required set of parameters and evaluate how the idea corresponds to reality. Analysis of statistics allows you to see weaknesses, notice patterns, allows you to plan and think about preventing problems in the future.
