About Us
What are we:
CrossFit Altitude is an official CrossFit Affiliate and CrossFit Kids Affiliate as recognized by CrossFit Headquarters. We are not a franchise and are independently owned and operated. We have been in business since October 2009. Our passion is fitness and health. We have created a community of individuals that support, work hard, play hard and have fun together! We welcome ALL fitness levels, ages and individuals from all walks of life.
Our Philosophy:
At CrossFit Altitude, our goal is to enable you to perform at your best. For some, this may be important for athletic purposes and performance enhancement; for others the goal may be to have sustained energy and lose body fat; and for others, the goal may be to enhance workouts, job performance, sleep, and /or life-long health. Whatever your goals are we can help. We love motivated people!! We train like people used to train before exercise got dumbed down for the masses. We believe that the human body is meant to express itself in beautiful, intelligent and powerful ways. We don’t use machines; we draw from a wide variety of gymnastics and weightlifting movements and incorporate them in ways that make you stronger and more fit.
Our Owner:
CrossFit Altitude is independently owned and operated by Jennifer Morris. Jen has been CrossFitting for over 4 years and coaching CrossFit for 3. She holds a masters degree in Food and Nutritional Sciences and has extensive business experience in the Health and Fitness fields. Jen left the corporate world over 2 years ago to open CrossFit Altitude when she made the life changing move to truly help others. Jen’s passion is CrossFit. She hopes to expand the sport, to share, educate and help people in the community become healthier, fitter and more confident in all aspects of their lives.
Our Facility:
The gym (or the “box” as it is called in the Crossfit world) is located near the core of Burlington, Ontario. The facility itself is over 3300 square feet with about 2500 sq. feet of actual gym space. We have SHOWERS, change-rooms, washrooms, lockers, a water cooler and all the equipment needed to do any CrossFit workout. Since CrossFit is constantly evolving, we try to make sure we are constantly upgrading and bringing in new equipment to enhance your experience. We have plans for future expansion and improvements in 2012 to allow us to run multiple classes and meet the growing demand for more class times and fitness levels.
Our Community:
CrossFit Altitude is more than "just a gym", it is a community. We’re here to help you get fitter and stronger, and we expect that as you get comfortable, you’ll help other people get fitter and stronger. This is not your "big-box" gym — you can’t be anonymous here. We’ll be keeping tabs on your progress and are always available to help you design your training and nutrition to achieve optimal results.We have over 120 active members. We are very much a community, everyone supports everyone. We run events in and out of the gym and encourage active participation from everyone in these events. Don't be shy, get involved!!
Come by for a visit, talk to the members and to the trainers. We would love to meet you and share our passion for the sport and lifestyle of CrossFit with you!
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GYM ETIQUETTE
- PLEASE SIGN UP ON-LINE to ensure your spot in the class- use the link at the top of the website (if you have trouble signing in please let us know). As we grow and expand our membership it is CRITICAL that you do this or we CANNOT guarantee there will be a spot for you in the class. We are always adding more equipment to accommodate more people in a class, but for now please respect the fact that we have this on-line sign up system for a reason!
- SHOW UP ON TIME - please respect that many people do CrossFit because they can be in and out of the gym in an hour. If you show up late, you potentially delay the whole class- throwing off other members schedules, cutting down your warm-up time and making it difficult for us to teach everyone proper form and technique at the beginning of the class- potentially leading to injury which we really want to avoid. You are welcome to come early (or stay later) if you need a longer warm up/cool-down or want to work on skills and technique.
- Have a plan - the WOD is posted every morning at 12:01 am. Please check out what awaits you and have a plan ready when you come into the gym. We should never hear "I don't have the right shirt/shoes/bra/etc" for this!" If you need to scale something or a movement isn't going to happen on a particular day, just let the coach know when you come in. We're happy to make modifications. PLEASE ADVISE US PRIOR TO STARTING WOD IF YOU HAVE ANY INJURIES.
- Barbell/Kettle Bell/Dumbbell Etiquette: It's easy to get caught up in the heat of an intense workout, especially when there are lots of members participating simultaneously. But it is so important to remember that you are in control of and responsible for your own barbell/KB etc... We would just like to bring this issue up and ask everyone to please control their barbell when they are dumping their weight. Keep your hands on the bar until it passes your waist and when it bounces, push it back down towards the ground. Same goes for the Kettle Bell- do not launch your KB into the air so it comes crashing to the ground...place it down on the floor between your legs! ALWAYS be aware of others around you.
- Protect your shins. But more importantly don't leave your DNA on the bar for others to deal with. If you don't like tube socks then wear sweatpants or tape your shins (a cheap alternative to waxing). Shin protection should be used whenever pulling a barbell from the ground.
- If your hands rip or you sweat a ton, wipe the bar/floor/equipment with the cleaning solution. You can find paper towels and the spray bottle on the shelf by the stereo near the showers.
- When someone is set to lift heavy, don't walk into their line of site- keeping focussed on a point in front of you while lifting is crucial to getting those heavy PR's and keeping good form to avoid injury!
- When you chalk your hands keep them in the bucket until the loose chalk is off of them. Don't take a chalk piece over to the pull up bar to use during the workout. Just walk to the bucket. There's a saying in weightlifting gyms, “the chalk trail leads to the rookie". Don't be the rookie...
- Set up, tidy up - Know your weights and scaling and help us set up the equipment you'll need for the WOD. When you're done, you can breathe again, and you've peeled yourself off the floor please unload and replace your bars, re-rack your dumbbells, hang up your skipping ropes, etc. We appreciate the help and a tidy gym is a happy gym.
- Be nice, be supportive - always be ready to offer a kind or encouraging word to your fellow athletes. If you finish first, stick around when possible to cheer for the rest of the group. Be ready for high fives when it's all done. If you notice an issue with another person's form, range of motion, or cheating, never address the person directly. Discuss it with the coach and let them handle it.
AND LASTLY....
Check your ego at the door - Everybody sucks at something, so be prepared to handle it like an adult when we find your thing. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem! It's ok to have an off day too, and trying to push the weight or speed when you can't handle it is a recipe for injury. Don't come in with a laundry list of excuses, just accept the reality of the day and move on. Grunting, swearing, and screaming are all accepted practices inside our walls but please no tantrums, fits, or pouting. I saw a CrossFit shirt once that said "You can cry, just don't be a baby". Bingo
Any other suggestions or ideas? We would love to hear from you! Thanks!
CrossFit Mantra at Burlington CrossFit Altitude
- I will promise to do my best. My best will vary from day to day, from hour to hour, from minute to minute. But in that minute, I will do the very best I can.
- Lactic acid is my friend. The wind is my friend. Anything that opposes me is actually helping me to become stronger. If I had no opposition, I would be WEAK.
- If I can run, I run. If I have to walk, I walk. When I am forced to crawl, I crawl. And then I rest and live to fight another day.
- I fear no person, but I FEAR my workout. If I don't fear my workout, it isn't hard enough.
- I may puke. I may cry. But I will never quit. EVER.
- I never cheat. There is no honour in cheating. What joy can there be in a victory I did not earn?
- The workout missed is the opportunity missed. I will not cheat myself out of the opportunity to become a better athlete and a person.
- I understand the value of the push up, the pull up, the sit up, the squat and the dead lift. Just as there are a million ways to make chicken, so too are there a million ways to squat, sit up, pull up, push up and dead lift.
- I will give everything I have and then find more within myself.
- I don't complain. Complaining is for cry-babies. There are 1500 babies born in Canada every day. I will leave the crying to them and I will soldier on.
- I will bite off challenges, spit out results AND BEG FOR MORE
