Legacy Barbell Club!

CrossFit Legacy is excited to announce the Legacy Barbell Club Started Thursday November second at 6:30pm.
(See the Gym Schedule for additional times.)

Mike Walker is joining us as our weightlifting coach.

Coach Mike has been involved with weightlifting since the age of ten. He has coached multiple state record holders as well as national level lifters.
Some of his accomplishments include:

  • USAW level 1 coach
  • MS Exercise Physiology
  • BS Strength and Conditioning and Coaching
  • 15+ years experience in weightlifting
  • Coached multiple national level lifters/American open medalist/International Masters medalist
  • Co Director Arnold Classic 2013,2014

Please visit our Pricing Page for details on fees.

We are really excited about all the new additions to Legacy, and are looking forward to being able to offer these to everyone. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to post, or talk to Brian or Leslie at the gym.


Rest Well.

How well do you Rest?













—-Keep your head up


—Control your breathing(belly breathe)


—Have a plan before the workout begins




—Positive self talk


—being dramatic won’t make you go faster


—always keep moving


—keep your hands off your knees








Technique vs. Load, written by Andrew Sokolowski

Technique vs. Load

group pvc

Where do I draw the line between the two?


Speaking of the whiteboard.




So what is our first instinct?








Okay okay get to your point.














There’s a reason you started to snatch with a PVC pipe.




Stop loading the bar if you know your back is rounded!





Trust the process.


“Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals”

— Lou Holtz


Be Incapable of Discouragement


No matter what your goals are at CrossFit Legacy, or in life, these words can offer some insight encouragement, and focus during some of the more difficult times. 

Stay the course to your goals and your aspirations.


It’s going to take longer than you originally thought.

You are going to need to invest more effort than you ever would have liked to exert.

You are going to have to endure more pain than you planned.

Face more failed attempts than you thought would have been necessary.

Experience more setbacks than you rationally and logically should have ever had to go through.

There’s going to be many times where your effort will not be rewarded, or even acknowledged.

Yes, at times, it’s going to suck.

For now.

You need to get through the suck.

Success always lags hard work and effort.

When you have put in more effort than reward received, you have to double down on belief, confidence and enthusiasm.

You have to continue to work yourself to the brink of collapse and tears.

You need to be able to do this indefinitely.

You need to have faith in the process.

For this part of the process is the final filtering system to creating greatness.

As your reward is not being unjustifiably held from you, it is actually being deferred for you.

Stored up, to be given to you in a lump sum, rather than in incremental pieces.

At this point in the process it is more important what you do not do, rather than what you do.

In order to receive the reward of your hard work.

The reward you deserve.

The reward you have earned –

You need to be incapable of discouragement.


Enjoy the Process.


Enthusiasm or Patience?

With the competition season rapidly approaching, I know many of us are eager to add new skills to our skill sets and/or refine techniques for existing skills. As coaches, we welcome the infectious enthusiasm that spreads throughout the community this time of year–regardless of your competitive aspirations. It’s a fun opportunity for us to help all of you address those individual goals.

It’s always nice to see people practicing and working the progressions required to safely and efficiently develop proficiency with these skills. I am particularly excited to see many of you are making time to attack some of the higher skill gymnastic movements.
Recently, the butterfly pull-up has been a focal point for many. As such, the comments below will focus on that movement as a way to illustrate the bigger picture.

(Below is a video of the butterfly being performed as well as I have seen. Video and series of questions below courtesy of CrossFit Milford and Power Monkey gymnastics)

To butterfly or not?

Are they safe for you? How many are you doing? Why are you doing them? (desired training stimulus) What is your structure? Shoulder/spine/hip range of motion? Can you control that full range of motion? Can you demonstrate scapular stability and control? How is your posture? Have you worked on building a solid structural foundation? How are your strict pull up positions? Age? Training age? Any past/present injuries? How is your technique and timing?

All these considerations are of the utmost importance for determining your readiness to perform/practice any movement. At any given moment, you are as fit and as skilled as you are. Improving one will improve the other. They are not mutually exclusive.

Like other dynamic movements, the butterfly pull-up places a very high demand on the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints. As such, your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints must be properly prepared for this demand. This is accomplished by working your progressions! Ignoring the progressions is a recipe for disaster.

Let me be clear–prepare properly or prepare for injury.


Always practice the basics. Fall in love with the process, not the movement. Demonstrate the willingness to put in the work required to perform the movement WELL!

Quality trumps quantity. Intelligence and patience trump blind enthusiasm. If you were preparing for an algebra test by taking as many practice tests as possible, wouldn’t it be best if you knew basic arithmetic first? I am fairly certain that all the enthusiasm in the world for voluminous practice testing is going to prove to be useless if you can’t add. The same principle applies to our goals. It’s been my experience that the person who can pair their enthusiasm with a patient willingness to learn will be much better off in the bigger picture. Don’t forget we always have other things to work on. Obsessing over any one thing is a mistake. All skills and abilities are part of the whole. When we assess someone that wants to “fix” their butterfly, or any other movement, the fix (more often than not) is going back and putting in the work with the basics.

Enjoy the process. Laugh off frustration. Most importantly, have fun.


Follow this link for video that Coach Travis is Referring to.



Happy New Year


Happy New Years to all of the members of the CrossFit Legacy family! It has been an exciting year, and we all look forward to even better things coming in 2016.  

We coaches would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support and dedication to the gym and to one another. It’s one thing to see everyone evolve in the gym, but it has been even greater to see how this gym is so close outside of the Legacy walls. I can recall multiple times throughout the year when a member was moving and needed a hand with moving furniture and there were numerous people from the gym willing to lend a hand and help out. Or, a few members would be competing at a competition over the summer and a number of members would be there to cheer them on and support them. Clinics have been attended, CCW courses have taken place, Yoga classes have started up, and it has been YOU all that have made these possible.

Seeing first hand how members will regularly get together outside of classes to have breakfast, go for a run, see a movie, truly shows how this gym has come together as more than acquaintances or even friends; this is a family. 

As we go into this new year, of course it is a great idea to think about goals and commit to them. Consider what you have planned for yourself, where you see opportunities to improve your fitness, or what challenges still need to be overcome. But also think about your goals for improving your character. A great way to do so is by helping each other reach their goals. You have shown time and time again that this is an easy task. Maybe someone has a weakness they want to work on that you happen to be a ninja at. There’s your chance! Showing your compassion and selflessness by giving some helpful advice can go a long way. 

Again, thank you, Legacy family. Have a happy new year and be safe. We look forward to seeing what all we can accomplish in this coming year!

All the best in 2016,

Brian, Travis, Brandon, Lauren, Kristen, Andrew


Bad Days. By Doug Chapman

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Bad Days

Everyone has bad days. The days where nothing goes right. Your feet hit the ground in the morning, your whole body says go back to bed. So be it. You are going to get your ass kicked today. Maybe you won’t PR, or maybe you feel like you have never squatted before in your life. So be it. If you cannot cope with a bad day you do not deserve good one. Bad days are where you learn to be tough. It is really easy when things are going your way. Calm seas do not make good sailors.

Wrestling is one of the most unforgiving sports. When you roll into the room and you are not clicking, no one is going to show you mercy and no one should. When you are training to be the best, people going easy on you is not going to make you better. A firm ass kicking will. Every wrestler has had those days. The days you get beaten for two hours are the days that make the difference. The barbell is impartial. The barbell is going to be your objective measure.

People want everything to feel right. People have their comfort zones. They have their favorite barbell, pull up bar or set of rings. Once they get uncomfortable they can no longer perform. That is what bad days are for. Learn from your bad days. People need to learn to tough it out through bad days. Bad days hurt, mentally, emotionally and physically. When things get tough, is when you push. The fight begins when things get hard. We respect grit, we admi

Deal with it. Life is tough. The challenges in life are what mold people into what they can become. There is a misconception that the people make it to the top have a smooth ride. Nothing can be further from the truth. The people who attain the greatest heights have often had to overcome the greatest of challenges. Broken homes, poverty, learning disabilities are common among great achievers. Each bad day is a gift. Relish it. A bad day is an opportunity to display your poise and confidence that you will succeed in spite of hardship. Deal with it.

How to deal with it? Step back and assess what actually happened. Look objectively at the events, not how you felt about them, what actually happened. Many times the “Bad Day” isn’t really that bad, it just felt bad. Feelings are liars. Feelings will trick you into doubting.

Feelings are left overs of evolutionary fight or flight response. Every time to deal with hardship, know that is how you are earning your next great performance. So, your snatch for the day was 94% of your max when you wanted a PR. It is simply what you were able to do that day. You did your best under the circumstances and you will wake up tomorrow and fight again. You deal with it by enjoying the process. Have confidence in the process. Deal with it.

What do you do when you find a real issue? Deal with it. Maybe you find a skill you are truly not good at. Ask some questions: How can I get better at the skill? How can I break it down into small pieces to develop skills? How often should I practice the skill to overcome it. Who could help me to overcome my problem? Who do I know that has had the same problem? How did they get through it? Breaking it down and figuring it out is how you deal with it. If someone else has done it before, then so can you. If no one has done it before, smile and be the first.

Enjoy the process.


Guest Post about Mind Set by Kfling

We encounter challenges everyday. Whether these challenges be new tasks, new goals, new skills, obstacles at home or in the workplace. When presented with these challenges, what’s the first thing you do? Look at someone else who has gone through or is going through the same thing or compare yourself to them to see where you stand or if you even measure up? We live in a world where everything is a competition. In the gym, many people compare their times, their weights, their reps with the top numbers for the day. At work, we try to outsell our fellow employees or reach quota goals to win that quarterly award. At home, we try to be the best parents, yet best friends with our kids and boast it on social media. What’s the outcome of this?

Hating ourselves when we don’t reach those high expectations? Walking out of the gym halfway through a WOD because we got beat? Feeling inadequate at work and home because someone is perceived as “better”?

For the past few months, I have had to work on changing my mindset for the things that I do everyday. I will be the first to say that it has helped me tremendously, in not only keeping my sanity, but staying consistent with my hectic schedule as well. The mindset change was to be “realistic”.

Seems easy enough, right? I want to challenge all of you to do the same. Not only will you like yourself better, but you might just notice yourself becoming a much more well-liked person by those around you. Here is the steps I took, and if any apply to you, try to see if the change could work for you….

1. You are not Rich Froning, Jr., Julie Foucher, hell, even Allie Sholley or Brandon Nolin.  Stop comparing your scores to the best, and compare them to the person you were yesterday! This is where logging your’ workouts or even writing a goal on the goal board comes to play. If you backsquat five pounds more than YOU did last month, beat YOUR previous “Fran” time, or even worked out four times instead of last weeks three, you’re winning. Those all-star athletes you compare yourself to are there for motivation only. I guarantee if you ask these people where they were three years ago, it is a big difference from today.

2. Learn to walk away. I don’t mean give up, but if you put so much of yourself in to too many things, you’re going to break down, mentally and physically. Cut out all of the unnecessary B.S. and figure out what’s really important to you and deserves your’ attention and requires your’ time. It is not worth being involved in 20 different things if you’re are so worn out that you are half-assing all of it.

3. You can’t be the best at everything. Let’s face it, some of us didn’t win the lottery in the gene pool and have to work extremely hard in order to hit a PR, lose two pounds, get that “A” grade, receive that promotion. But if you don’t make it to the top, so what? You aren’t any less of a person and you can only do so much. When things don’t turn out your way or you’re stressing over an upcoming event, learn to say “screw it, if it’s meant to be, it will.”

The holiday months of November-March are named the most depressing and stressful among Americans. My hope is that you attempt to change your mindset and outlook so that you and the people around you can truly enjoy the holiday season and winter months. This is not a time for greed, sadness, jealousy or stress. It is a time to show love, gratitude, and just enjoy having the friends and family around while you have the opportunity to do so.





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At CrossFit Legacy we have been coaching athletes since 2007.   Eight and one half years of helping people in their journey of health, wellness, and fitness with CrossFit as the model.   

This weekend, 8 people from CrossFit Legacy competed in competitions around the area.   Their ages ranged from early 20’s to over 60 years old.  Years of CrossFit(CF) experience ranged from 5 years, to less than 1.   Now, this is not the first time we have had numerous people competing simultaneously on the same weekend, but rather this weekend I realized something.

We were one of the first 150 CrossFit affiliates worldwide. Legacy was the 3rd in Northeast Ohio(behind CrossFIt Cleveland, and CrossFit CLE), and the first in Summit County.  Close to 8 other affiliates have opened as a result of their owners being associated with us.   This is also widely known as we maintain a close relationship with a many of those affiliates.   Yet this weekend, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments.

In-de-pen-dence : self-sufficiency, self-reliance, autonomy, freedom, liberty

What does the above word have to do with anything?    It has everything to do with what I realized about the people that choose to call CrossFit Legacy home and compete under the banner of the lion.

At CrossFit Legacy we teach and instill INDEPENDENCE into each and every member.   We teach, coach, and inspire people to ask questions, learn, and discover what they are capable of mentally and physically.

One of the greatest aspects of this is that we let them do it under the watchful eye of nearly 20 combined years of CrossFit coaching experience in our Staff, and an environment that lets people discover what they want out of their CF experience.  

Weight Loss?


Look better naked?

Compete in CrossFit?

Whatever it is that our current and future member wants, our staff will pour into them so that they are adequately equipped to get the most out of their time within and without the walls of CrossFit Legacy.   

I am so Proud of those who competed this weekend.  Regardless of the outcome, you stepped out of the comfort zone of the Legacy walls and you did something with an unknown outcome to get a known result—better fitness, and better understanding of what you are capable of.  Keep that up!  Each day, each workout, each competition, warm-up, skill session, olympic lift, or strength cycle is a chance to learn about yourself, your fitness, and to breach the boundaries we have set or that have been set for us.  Keep being coachably independent

Thank you for you letting us be a part of that.