In a headline: We have made mistakes, so you don’t have to.  Doing more than just the Workout of the Day (WOD) and training back to back sessions is very tempting for a number of reasons.  If you modified the weight, reps or movement you may feel you ‘didn’t get enough out of the workout’.  You may have doubled up on a second WOD because you are eager to improve your fitness or readiness for competitions.  You may just love the feel good endorphins of smashing two hours of working out and being around the gym and the community.  Some folks want to drop the ‘extra weig ..read more

Coach Vicky has been devising some amazing workouts that will boost your Engine, endorphins and energy in 45-60mins! Remember, Engine is still CrossFit®. We just press the simplification button when it comes to some of the skills (i.e. no barbells, or high skill gymnastics). Heads up, the next 6 weeks we will be focusing on: developing sustainable and repeatable efforts throughout the Engine program practice days. in real terms this means learning by feel what pace you can move at sustainably for a number of movements and machines. Single arm focus, with DBs & KBs to get ready for the ope ..read more

Wondering what kit you need for CrossFit®? Shapesmiths have got you covered! FOOTWEAR.                                                                                                                                                  &nb ..read more

It’s an often asked question. Read on for why we think you should jump on board the biggest community fitness competition in the world! Accountability is the biggest reason to sign up.  Signing up commits you to making time for the 3 weeks of competition workouts. This is amazing for building positive habits in attending class regularly. The results that you want will be with you via consistency! You also get to do the same workout as the best in the sport. The CrossFit® professionals. You get to see how you compare to them on the same leaderboard. This allows you to experience the ..read more

We think that our amazing community does a stellar job of helping the coaches and management maintain an amazing atmosphere. We love having you in the arches day after day enjoying the best hour of your day! Below are 9 of the things that we especially love when we see them. 1. Arrive on time. We know sometimes life gets in the way, trains/late meetings etc. but we love it when folks get in early and mobilise/perform movement prep for specific body parts that need special attention.  2. Come in knowing what the context of the day is, either practice, benchmark or resilience day. This make ..read more

Read on for your programming update on what to expect over the coming weeks in the Shapesmiths CrossFit® program!  Following on from the previous 6-week block, as promised we progress the back squat work, add in some more front squats (which has huge carry over to Cleans), shoulder to overhead and start to include Deadlifts to accompany LOTS of ‘pulling’ from the ground The above is all in preparation for a Benchmark workout called ‘The Shapesmiths Total’ (TST) which will be on the program in the subsequent 6 week block.  TST will test your front squat, deadlift and push pr ..read more

Have you ever wondered what the R) AM) P) section means when you read the screens for your daily workout? Well, wonder no more!! Since day 1, in 2016, Shapesmiths have used the RAMP warm up system to give unique structure our workouts. We use it to ensure that everything has method and thought behind it so we can maximise your time spent in the gym! In short here’s the lowdown on what RAMP stands for! Raise – Increase muscle temperature, core temperature, blood flow, muscle elasticity and neural activation. Activate – Engage the muscles in preparation for the upcoming session Mobilise – Focus ..read more

Earlier this week I shared the article: Should you do the Scaled Division in the CrossFit Open & Why? Today we delve very briefly into the other side of the open. Taking part, as prescribed (Rx) by CrossFit® HQ.   As a side note: check out this article I wrote on bridging the gap between scaled and RX. It will give a bit of background on why Rx is a great thing to be working towards in your CrossFit® life. Simplifying the Open. The below is a powerful piece of information we have been updating yearly since 2017. It shows movements that have appeared in the CrossFit Open & the ..read more

The scaled division’s purpose in the CrossFit® Open is to increase participation in fun events at the gym and bring you all, our TRULY wonderful community, together at Shapesmiths.  The Open also fits right in as one of our ‘Benchmark days’, which you all have taken part in already.  The workouts for the CrossFit Open will be similar to those you have ALREADY done at Shapesmiths. The only difference is, late February through March, we will run ‘heats’ all day on Saturday so you can complete the workout, you’ll have fitness friends that count reps FOR YOU and have a bit of a social th ..read more

Remnants of your past sporting or desk-bound endeavours can be brought to light in the CrossFit® gym. This is nothing but a positive thing. Backed by our world class medical staff, the Shapesmiths team have lots of opportunities to improve and fix the injuries and niggles you have been meaning to get looked at for a while. T.L.C on tap, if you will (feel free to hashtag that).  Here’s a couple of ways you can optimize your training, and just as important, your cooldown, if carrying a niggle/injury. Talk to your coach about your niggles/injuries. Quite commonly every coach will see issue ..read more