Taking Care of the Tribe

Hey Catacombs Tribe—

Today’s post comes to you courtesy of your fellow athletes and coaches. While it will likely not inspire you to great workout heights, it will make Catacombs a better place for all of us. Some of the requests below come directly from the member survey and others are reminders from our Tribal Knowledge handbook. Thanks for reading this post and for your dedication to the Tribe.

1.) The cubbies up front are for holding keys, phones, and personal items while you are at the gym. We do not have space to hold everyone’s extra shoes, water bottles, workout clothes, etc. We average over 100 people coming through Catacombs every single day and we just don’t have the capacity to store personal belongings. I know it is nice to have all your gear in one place but that is the perfect excuse to buy yourself a new gym bag. There are multiple requests on the member survey to keep the cubbies free for their intended purpose. Please respect your fellow athletes and take your personal items home. We will be cleaning out the cubbies Friday afternoon and donating unclaimed items.

2.) Please sign up for class ahead of time. We add a second coach to any class with more than 12 people signed up. We do this because we are committed to maintaining a coach to athlete ratio that gets everyone the attention they deserve in class. At the same time, we can’t support paying two coaches to coach 5 athletes. If we don’t know you are coming until you get here, then we can’t add a second coach in a timely manner. There are many classes where there are 5 or fewer people signed up in advance but 20 show up at class time. Don’t take this the wrong way, we want you all here! We just want to be ready for you. If your schedule opens up last minute and you are able to make it, awesome! Please come. But if you know even an hour in advance, it really helps us if you sign up.

3.) Limit shower time when others are waiting. This is common courtesy and most of you are over the top considerate of your fellow athletes. Still, more than one of you made this request on the member survey. And for those of you requesting more showers on the member survey, let me know where you would like us to put those and we will get right on it.

4.) Your score is your business…most of the time. Lets’s get one thing straight. At Catacombs, we pride ourselves on competing only with ourselves. The goal is to give your best effort every single day. It is a critical part of maintaining a welcoming environment for all. We record scores on the board and in SugarWOD because it keeps us accountable and helps build community. It is how we measure progress. But you are not your score. We are all imperfect people trying to become better versions of ourselves. As such, no one judges if you choose to scale or modify and in many cases that is the smartest option.

For those of you who choose to pursue the RX version of a workout, listen up. You may have noticed that our coaches have gotten a little stingier with the “RX” designation lately. RX is reserved for workouts where every single rep meets 100% of the movement standards prescribed for the workout. It’s not enough to do all the reps at the prescribed weight. There must also be no questionable reps and zero margin for error in counting. There can be no doubt around squat depth or chest touching the floor on push ups, no gray area on wall ball height or elbow lock out. Questionable reps must be repeated in order to earn the RX designation. Not interested in that much scrutiny around your workout? No problem…most of us are not. Leave the RX designation for those who are and just get yourself a great workout in.

5.) When you finish your workout, find something to mobilize, encourage someone still working or just recover for a couple of minutes while others finish. Once everyone is done, wipe down all your equipment with a gym wipe and help get everything put back away where it belongs. If we all do this, it keeps the community healthier, keeps our equipment neat and organized and fosters the sense of community that is so special.

Questions? Just ask a coach or someone who has been around for awhile. We are all happy to help. Again, I apologize that this isn’t the most inspirational blog post but sometimes we all need a little refresher on how to be a good member of the tribe. And if you haven’t checked out the Tribal Knowledge brochure, it’s a great resource for members new and old. They are on the counter by the check in kiosk.

See you at the gym!