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The last two posts I have really enjoyed writing them up and have got some pretty good feedback on these.

Today I am posting about the Muscle Hamster himself, Gabriel Ramos!

As in my last two posts, Gabe was a plus one with his cousin to a class a little over three years ago. Gabe started at the gym when he was like 22 years old, but because of the way he carries himself and acts, I thought he was closer to my age. When I was 22, I was a goofball, loud, and selfish – he was none of these.

My first impressions of Gabe, outside of his maturity, was that he was super athletic and had a knack for getting hurt lol. He can pick up on anything. You show him one time, and he can do it, and usually do it well. He is a workout role model for the evening classes. People love working out with him because he is an example of what the program is capable of. He allows people to see the complexity of movements as well as what intensity looks like. He is a staple and a must in our evenings.

A little while back, I asked Gabe and his wife Cloud to test a program that I had purchased for the gym but wanted to see how it worked with our current plan. Both of them have seen some impressive gains from the additional work, and because of it, I added it as an option to our daily workouts. I remember when they first started the program, it had a handstand walking in it. Gabe asked me, “What do I do when it says handstand walk.” I told him, “You handstand walk.” It didn’t matter if you were walking two feet or five feet at time you will get better with practice. Yesterday he posted this video of him doing a 25′ handstand walk without falling but in the middle walking over an object. Hard work pays off!

I am really proud of Gabe and his desire to be better. He has put in the work daily, even while away from the gym. He pushes his wife and mother to get in and workout and leads from the front. BWCF can’t wait to have him back!

What I realize writing these posts is that I am inspired by so many people and didn’t even know it. The people I get to work with all have a story, and all wake up daily and make themselves better. I am a very fortunate guy, and I thank everyone for being apart of this community!

Stay moving my friends!
Richard

In keeping with my daily post of people who have been kicking ass during the stay at home, today is the Mooney clan.

Kelly did a testimonial video for me before we were forced to shut down, so some of yall may know her already from this, but today we will talk about her whole family.

Like Robert yesterday, Kelly was a plus one from her husband, Robert. He started a week or two before she did, but now they are both regulars.

When I first met each of them, they were both very personable.
They told me exactly what they were looking to do and why they are driving to BWCF and not another gym. I appreciated that. No BS with either of these two and honestly, it keeps me in check with what I am providing everyone else, not just them.

Robert reminds me often that CrossFit is not a tall guys thing, and I agree with him, but he still kicks ass anyway. Kelly would tell me she had a hard time putting together some of the lifts, but not anymore, I will touch on that in another paragraph. Both have improved tremendously in their first year at the gym.

The Mooneys have two kids, and both work full-time jobs. They work 12-hour shifts at odd hours, but if you are friends with Kelly on Facebook, you know that they do not miss many workouts, even with the gym closed. Everyone has an excuse, but if yours is “I have kids,” or “I work 12-hour shift work,” it can’t be used here.

The great part about Kelly’s Facebook videos is the fact that the kids participate with them. Kelly would tell me she didn’t get some of the lifts, and now she is teaching her kids how to move and move well at that. Robert told me last week that the youngest one watched a documentary with him and now plans to go to the CrossFit games when he is old enough. Pretty badass!

It makes me proud to see their posts and hear the things about their kids. I love that I have been apart of their fitness journey, and I am ready to be back in the gym with everyone!

Richard

So today makes us one step closer to being back at the gym. I know there are so many of you that are just as excited or more to be back. We have a few restrictions, but it is for our safety, and we are going to make it great!

Over the next couple of days, I want to highlight a few people who kept on keeping on during this COVID stay at home. There are not enough days before the start of our classes, but I will try to touch on someone each day.

Robert Wells is my first write up. He has been a member for almost four years and is a staple at our 5 am classes.

Robert’s first day was actually as a plus one with his wife, Tracy. She found us and was a consistent member of our afternoon classes, and Robert tagged along one day and has never left.

One of my first memories of these two together was about music. I typically play the edited versions of the top 50, and at the time, it was probably some modern workout tunes, and then a Metalica song made it up, and both of them looked at each other. I remember seeing them both start nodding their head to the beat. The next thing I knew Roberts wodify profile pic was this.

Now every time a Metaclia song comes on in one of Roberts’s classes, I always look to see his reaction.

During this stay at home Robert and his family have been killing workouts. You don’t see him on social media, but he worked out so hard his dumbbells could not keep up. Robert even got his kids involved putting them through some of the kid’s strength and conditioning each day.

I am very proud of him and how he led his family through exercise during this stay at home. It is tough to stay motivated and do things right now, so Robert is one of a kind!

Keep it up, Robert, and I hope to see you soon!

Richard

This time of the year is usually one of the happiest times for me. But this year, it was different.

My birthday was this weekend. I turned 31…crazy to think that I am over a third of the way through my life. Coronavirus seriously put a damper on that one. But every year on my birthday, we also pay our CrossFit Affiliate Dues. This year makes 7 years operating as a CrossFit gym.

In the fall of 2012, I was attending CrossFit Deer Park’s 5:00 am class regularly. In that class, there was a guy about ten years older than me name Dennis Robbins. Dennis was on the life track that I wanted to be on. He was an aspiring entrepreneur, a married father of two, he was fit, happy, and successful. I would pick his brain from time to time, and one day he told me to come by his office in Baytown. I got there, and he showed me his building and what he wanted to be BayWay CrossFit. He knew I had my CrossFit Level 1 and asked if I would start training people there. (If you know my story, you know I jumped at that opportunity.) From there, we began BayWay Fitness.

We ran a few small fitness classes in the garage attached to the office that he used for his construction company. He and I worked classes together, and it was raw. Learning to run a gym on the fly as we built a small membership base, which was mostly their family and friends, but we were growing.

Dennis introduced me to Dee (all three of us are partners and have grown the business together) the same day that I came to the office, and they told me their plans for affiliating with CrossFit and creating a partnership. Still, it would be down the road a little as the gym needed to make enough money to pay for certifications and the affiliate fees.

Dennis had his third child that December, and I remember it well because he said, “Rich, you got this.” From there, I became the head coach of BayWay Fitness and worked tirelessly to make enough money to pay for us to become BayWay CrossFit.

I would coach classes in the early morning, work my day job until about 4:00. Drive to the gym, work two classes, and then work out myself. Being in my early twenties, putting in 16-18 hour days was no problem. I’m very thankful for our coaching staff these days now in my 30’s!!!!

On May 3rd, 2013, we officially became BayWay CrossFit. I became a partner in the business with Dee and Dennis, and the real work started there. We had a small space that once we affiliated, we outgrew. We knocked down a few walls after a while and grew the area a little more. We had a welded together pull-up rig and some garage sale equipment for probably the first two years until we could afford a real Rogue Rig. We got our first rower in the gym around the same time that we did our second expansion of the building in 2015.

We couldn’t expand any further from there but added so many awesome members and lots of new equipment from 2015 to 2019. That small space changed its face so many times over the seven years that we were there. I have so many great memories there and have met some of my closest friends there.

At the end of 2019, we moved to the new building we are in now. Big, spacious, clean, and beautiful. Lots of parking and a legit backdrop for every picture as the building sits on five acres of woods. We bought more bikes and rowers to accommodate growing classes as well as other pieces of equipment too. So much hard work went into getting us this building, and all of the members who were apart of BWCF along the way are to be thanked. Dee, Dennis, and I cannot thank everyone enough!

Coronavirus has halted BWCF for a while, but the great state of Texas plans to reopen soon, and so will we. Who knows what the future for gyms looks like, but we are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to keep our members safe but also getting them fit again.

Fitness is a legit defense against COVID-19. That doesn’t mean you won’t get it, or that fit people haven’t got it and been seriously ill from it, and it’s not a cure. But you are far less likely to have severe symptoms being fit. Most of the people who are at serious risk are either/both/all 55+, obese, have diabetes, or have hypertension. Exercise cannot turn back time, but it can help with the rest.

When given the green light, I will do everything I can to make sure that everyone is safe at BWCF. That we will all continue to build our fitness but in a secure way.

If you are not ready even with the green light to be back, I will be offering online programming that is customized to you as well.

Thank you to everyone who has been apart of this journey, and we hope that there are many more celebrations ahead of us!

As always,
Stay moving my friends!
Richard

With the stay at home order coming down so quickly, hardly anyone was prepared to workout at home. Most people have no equipment because we have gym memberships and have never needed it. Some gyms rented out stuff so that you could stay fit during the crisis but what happens if this resurfaces in the fall and we are back at home? Or maybe you like working out at home a few days a week; you need some equipment.

I have said on just about every platform I have that I do not believe at-home fitness is sustainable, and most of us are feeling that to be true right now in week four of stay at home. But having some equipment available to you if needed is not a bad idea. Maybe even splitting your days at home and the gym when they reopen fitness centers.

Equipment manufacturers have garage gym packages that work, but I will be honest, most of these packages give you things you do not need.

Here are some things I think you should avoid purchasing for a home gym and why.

Barbell & Plates:
This is usually the first thing people want to purchase for their home gyms because it is such a staple in most commercial and micro/studio gyms like ours.
I don’t think that most people need this because everyday exercisers are not powerlifters or Olympic lifters. We do not need regular barbell work to maintain technique or to build absolute strength. Plus, bars and plates only have real functionality when put together.
They also take up a lot of room and require some decent storage space and are a pain in the ass to move.
If you have a gym membership but also want to have the ability to workout at home, plan to attend the gym on days that there is strength or skill work programmed. This way, you can get the strength work you need and focus on metcons at home.

Squat Rack & Bench:
They may have some functionality, but they are expensive, and when the gyms reopen will eventually be used to hang clothes on.
If you do not have a barbell or enough plates, the rack sometimes is pointless to have, and again if you are not training for absolute strength, which most of us are not, you can save yourself the money here.
Some racks have a pull-up bar attachment, which adds some functionality but not worth the purchase just for the pull-up bar. You can buy a wall-mounted pull-up bar for much cheaper.
Again, schedule the strength and skill days at the gym, and it leaves your metcon heavy days for home workouts.

Cardio Machines:
This one price-wise is pretty obvious. These are by far the most expensive purchases for home gyms with rowers costing around $900, bikes around $700, and ski ergs also in that price range.
Running is free, and let’s be honest; we can all be a bit better at running.
These machines take up lots of space, and yes, have some low impact workout value but are just not functional if you are maintaining your gym membership. Almost any gym owner will allow you to stay after and get some extra cardio on a machine of your choice as long as you do not disrupt the current class or use a machine the class is using.

The problem many people have with trying to train at home is that they think they can do it on their own. That they can find workouts and go for it, but for most, this isn’t possible. What you need, even at home, is coaching. You need a program that fits what you have and what you are capable of, rather than trying to purchase stuff so that you can do any program.

Once you have a coach, here is what you need to have a decent variety of equipment for tons of workout options, all for under the cost of one machine.

Plyo Box
Dumbbells (2 Pairs)
Kettlebells (2 Weights)
Slam Ball (20-30lbs)
Sandbag (40-60lbs)
Jump Rope
PowerBand (light resistance)

Look for weights that cost less than a dollar per pound, and you could have all of that for under $500—a much smaller investment than dropping over a grand on some of these garage gym packages you see online that are less practical than the list above.

The only way to stay diligent at home is to have a coach that is programming workouts with your equipment, workouts you are capable of and do not have to think of your scaling options, and most of all, KEEP YOU ACCOUNTABLE. As I am sure you all have discovered, it is really easy to stay on the couch rather than walk outside and get a workout in.

If you need any help with coaching or programming, shoot me an email!
[email protected]

Richard

So its Friday, and it doesn’t feel like Friday. Most weeks end with relief and some congregation, but not this Friday. This Friday, we will all be homebodies, and we will all Netflix and Chill.

My sister has been staying with us through this ‘stay at home order.’ As I am sure, you have seen in my videos. One thing that our mom taught us both to do was cook. She made home-cooked meals regularly and had us help her often. Katy is a great cook and makes most of her meals off the top of her head. Yesterday she said she was going to make eggs on avocado toast, so we filmed it. Here’s the video, enjoy!

Monday, I am going to be adding to our current online program that we are offering. Right now, you have the CrossFit program as well as the HOME program. Both we have been posting videos on and providing tons of modifications.

We will continue to do that, but now on the wodify app, there will be a “Kids Speed & Strength” section. I have had a lot of questions on what kids should be doing, so I put this together. It will be a five-day program that will have movements for the kids to do that will help them develop sport-specific training—meaning speed and agility drills, as well as some explosive work. I will attach youtube videos on all movements so that you can show them. There will be lateral movements, so unless you feel that you are athletic enough to do them, please let the kids do the kids program. Lateral movements on older bodies are not a good combination lol.

I will also be reaching out to the people who put that they were looking for customized programs and one on one coaching outside of what we are already doing.

Anyone who wants to join our online nutrition work as well needs to send me an email. I have already received a couple of emails from people who have lost weight during this following our guidelines!

As always, reach out to me if you need help with anything!

Stay moving my friends,
Richard

Now my rant if you made it this far:
This situation that we are in right now is more significant than any one person. Take care of yourself so that you can take care of your family. If something happens to you, who is going to take care of them? Let your health be your motivator; let your family’s health be your motivator. Stop eating crap, and don’t skip workouts. Even if you are not putting full effort into the workout, you are doing something that is going to be beneficial to your health.
And lastly, we all know we need to social distance. It’s basically the dieting of 2020. We know we should be doing it, and some will and some won’t. We know what can happen when we don’t diet, and we know what could happen when we don’t social distance. What we don’t need is people planning their best, “I told you so’s,” for when this is all over. No one cares if you were the first to post on social media about it. If you are thinking of only you, how this plays into politics, how you can be right or virtue signaling, YOU ARE DOING HUMAN WRONG.

Rant over.

So in my life before coronavirus, I had a rigorous routine. I would wake up at the same time every day and go to bed at the same time. I coached the same classes and had my hours blocked out throughout the entire day around my coaching ours. I even time block my workout time, and if I didn’t finish, then I didn’t finish. Each day was time blocked out for different tasks that I wanted to accomplish during that day.

Now I am stuck at home, and finding a routine to get into has been pretty tough. I found a resource online and made my time block “At HOME” day based on the last day or two. This may change if they lower some of the restrictions, and I try to get back out and do house calls, but for now, this is how I am structuring my day. This is about 90% correct on my day, the other 10% that is missing is me on the phone or computer communicating with people, motivating, or answering questions.

With my wife home from work for the last couple of days, I have been using the HOUSEWORK section to go for a run. I hate being stuck behind a desk, and in the house, so I go for a run to get out. Yesterday I even ran to the store to get a few things, but the stuff in my backpack, and ran home.

Because of my personality, I know if I can stick to this routine, I can still be productive and keep everyone engaged and bring BWCF back stronger than ever.

Take a few minutes and put together a routine for you. I promise it will help your day pass and feel like you did something.

I hope it helps!
Richard