It’s June and that means Pride Month in the Bay Area.

We are extremely excited this year to be newly partnering with LGBTQIA+ organization Camp Indigo. Camp Indigo was founded on the belief that trans and gender diverse kids deserve a 'normal' summer day camp experience. The camps are conducted in Oakland and there are still spots available. Camp Indigo encourages kids to be kids and exactly who they are. This is a parent run organization and you can check out more about the excellent work they do at www.thecampindigo.org/

We encourage all our members to donate to this great organization and help support out trans kids. You can do that directly using this link https://www.venmo.com/u/CampIndigo

Our Pride WOD’s will run on our normal Saturday schedule on 24 June and will be free (again please donate to Camp Indigo as your participation fee). Sign up in MindBody as you won’t want to miss out on a great cause, excellent workout and a ton of fun!!

The party itself will be held at the gym on Saturday 24th June from 12-4pm. Well be getting it catered this year but encourage all our members to bring drinks and to our star bakers out there to please bring something sweet.

Make sure to mark your calendars as you won’t want to miss out on this one

🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈🌈🏳‍🌈

We are also raising funds for the FCCF Scholarship and will have a fun raffle. FIRST, we need YOUR HELP with donations. If you would like to donate an item (wine, experience etc..) please reach out to Alice Pollard (pink hair currently). If you know of a business that would like to donate please let us know!! It was quite competitive last year so you’ll want to get in early and cast your tickets for the items you want.

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This week’s WODs

WODs of the week:

There’s a tradition around the world and at FCCF that on Memorial Day we do the Murph Hero Workout.

‘Murph’ is named after Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in action in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. He was 29-years-old. After graduating from Penn State University in 1998, Murphy rejected offers to attend law school and instead accepted a commission in the United States Navy and became a SEAL in July 2002. For a man whose nickname was ‘The Protector’, his decision made a lot of sense.

This was one of his favourite no equipment workouts. It’s tough, works every muscle group and challenges us in the best possible way. You may be doing this for the first time, or perhaps you have been getting in some training beforehand, regardless this is how we can honour him and others for their sacrifice on Memorial Day by doing this workout.

MURPH

1 mile run
100 pullups
200 push ups
300 air squats
1 mile run

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This week’s workouts

We are excited to announce our Pride Party will be held on Saturday 24th June from 12-4pm at the gym!!

Hold the date as this is our biggest fundraiser and party of the season. We’ll have a special Pride workouts in our morning session times and then jump straight into partying. We’ll be announcing shortly the organisation we’re working with to help raise funds for.

Last year we held our inaugural raffle which was a HUGE hit and is BACK! If you have a special experience or gift you’d like to donate or know a business owner that would want to help support please reach out to Alice Pollard our Communications Director on slack or at the gym and let her know :)

Can’t wait to workout for a great cause and see you there to celebrate all things queer and wonderful 🌈🌈

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This week’s WODs

Get your headbands and wristbands dusted off and ready this week as we have some fun WODs programmed! Every day features it’s own flavour of cardio paired delightfully with lifting some heavy things. Here’s why we couple them together…

Cardio training improves endurance, oxygen utilisation efficiency, and cardiac and respiratory function. Strength training increases muscle size and strength, and additionally enhances coordination.

In essence, these types of workouts help up improve our fitness dramatically. Of course there’s always going to people screaming WHHHHHYYYYY???? (We hear you but please see ^)

Here’s the best strategy:

1. Just sign up for the week

2. Don that 80’s aerobic memorabilia

3. Surrender

After all it’s good for you!!

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I’m not sure about you but some of us thought this week that Spring maybe was here but alas, there was still more rain had. Do you remember the Spring of Deception we had last year? Perhaps this is still the Winter of Deception but regardless a quarter of the year has passed and quickly.

Have you been keeping up your Healthy Habits from January? We hope so! If you have been we’re sure you’re seeing results and keep up the good work. There is however plenty of time left so just like meditation when your mind drifts bring it back, the same applies to creating habits. If you haven’t been prioritising that’s ok, jump back into them again and pick up where you left off.

It was a busy week last week with Passover and East too! To everyone that celebrates we wish you Chag Sameach and Happy Easter!

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We take pride in our community and our community takes pride in not only our gym but our neighbourhood too. This was certainly evidenced by our volunteer event with Refuse Refuse a fantastic SF based organization that aims to keep our streets and neighbourhoods looking their best.

Thanks to our member Sara Melman who organised this fabulous event we were armed with necessary supplies including bag hoops, clips and trash pickers. After a quick brief we set out to pick up as much trash as we could around our gym. I think we all were a little surprised as to how much trash there is littering our streets. We spent the first 15 mins cleaning up the 200m from the gym along Valencia to the corner of Mission Street. Those trees we run past every week were filled with all manner of things.

It was a humbling and fun experience to go through and surprising too as to how many people thanked our group either walking by or in cars as they appreciated the effort we were making. After an hour of walking, talking and building dexterity with the pickers as well as filling our bags we headed back for some well deserved snacks and bubbly water.

Thank you to those that came and participated. This community we have is something very special and if you run/walk along Valencia Street this week I hope you notice how lovely it’s looking. We’ll definitely be doing this again!!

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As March comes to a close so does Women’s History Month. It’s a time to reflect on the women that have influenced not only this country’s history but perhaps your own life.

The first Women’s History Day was in February 1909 when it commemorated the one year anniversary of 15,000 garment workers marching through lower Manhattan, protesting their working conditions. In the 100 plus years there have been many women along the way fighting for freedom and better conditions. Each year has a theme and 2023 Women's History Month theme is Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.

You may have participated in an activity, gone to an exhibition or perhaps your work celebrated in some way. Hearing an acknowledging these stories is crucial for our future as we need to honor the past, have empathy and use the lessons learnt and won to create a better future ahead for the upcoming generations.

We encourage our community to spend time listening, reading & telling their own stories!

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We know our community cares and volunteering is something we all value and do. This year we wanted to create more opportunities for us to come together and partner with some fantastic organisations that are doing amazing work in the Bay Area.

For our first give back event of the year we are partnering with Refuse Refuse SF. Their mission is clear and simple… “Keeping our city clean is up to us. Our local government does not have the money or resources to do it alone, so it's up to us the citizens to take responsibility.” You can check out their more about their mission and work here.

On Sunday, April 2nd at 2pm, we have arranged for our Fog City community to get involved and do a neighborhood trash cleanup. This is a family friendly event - kids are great at picking up trash. We will provide trash pickers and bag holders to make the it easier for all.  We will meet at the gym, and clean up the neighborhood for about an hour. 

Let's do our part to take care of the Mission! Feel free to bring some snacks to share for after the clean up! If you are interested and want to participate please let us know by filling out this form (we'll need an estimate of how many people are coming).

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