Meet Stacy Barber!

Stacy Barber rowed the first-ever Crew Fitness class in Carrie’s backyard with a boombox and 5 children running all around us. We are honored and excited to formally announce Stacy as a Crew Fitness coxswain, even though she’s been coaching here for months.

Stacy believes fitness is a vital aspect of health and happiness, right after food, water, and air. She ran her first marathon in April, and she’s hungry for more. In fact, she’s currently training for a September Ironman 70.3! Stacy uses rowing to cross-train her strength and endurance for all of her other fitness.

On top of her full-time office job, Stacy also coaches a running class at the YMCA Downtown Branch.

Her greatest accomplishment to date is her 4-year-old daughter Presley. Presley attends St. Mary’s Catholic School, but she would run the place if they would let her!

Dragon Boat Festival

Crew Fitness is excited to participate in this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, hosted by the Fuse Project. The Fuse Project is a local non-profit organization that benefits the youth of Mobile.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a celebration of community fitness. Teams race in authentic 46-foot Hong Kong-style dragon boats.

Total cost of entry for our boat is $2250 (plus $7 processing fee for each rower), and we will split this cost evenly among our participants. Each rower will contribute $107. Our boat will consist of 20 rowers and one drummer to keep our strokes strong and synchronized. Spots are limited, and your spot is reserved only after you complete the steps below and make your $107 contribution.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a celebration of friendly competition and community spirit. All ages, skill levels and physiques have a place on our boat. We’re the fittest Crew in town! Let’s show Mobile what Crew Fitness is all about!

To join the Crew Fitness Dragon Boat team, follow these steps:

1. Click the following link: http://fusedragon.causevox.com/team/Crewfitness.  

2. Click Create a Fundraising Page at the top right corner.

3. Enter your personal info.  Once complete, a box will appear that says, fundraiser login.  

4. Log in with the email address and password you created.

5. Create your profile.

6. Click Continue. The next page has a pre-formatted fundraising letter that you can use to send to your friends/family. You do not have to actually send this to anyone. You do have to enter $107 for the dollar amount that you pledge to raise and click Continue.  

7. Now you will be able to join a team. In the search bar at the top, type Crew.  

8. The Crew Fitness logo will appear. Click Join, and at the bottom of the page click Continue.  

9. An email has been created that you can import your contact list (if you choose) to ask for fundraising donations. You do not have to do this if you’re paying your own way! Just click Skip at the bottom of the page.

10. Congratulations! You have now joined the Crew Fitness Team. You’re almost finished.  

11. To pay the $107 for your seat on the boat, go back to this link: http://fusedragon.causevox.com/team/Crewfitness.

12. ROW FOR LIFE!!

ROW FOR WISHES

Row for Wishes is a charity event hosted by Crew Fitness, benefiting Make-A-Wish Alabama, set to take place on Saturday, April 30 beginning at 8:00. Rowers will work in 3-person teams to row as many meters as possible during a 30-minute Crew Fitness workout. Entry is $25 per person, with 100% of proceeds benefiting Make-A-Wish Alabama. In addition to entry fees, corporate sponsors will collectively donate one penny for every meter rowed during the event. T-shirt, goody bag, snacks and refreshments are included in the price of entry.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. Making these wishes come true changes their lives and the lives of their family members forever. Our goal for the event is to raise enough money to actually grant the wish of a local child.

Form a team with your Crew friends, bring in new friends or come to the event and try Crew for your first time! If you don't have a team of 3, no problem! Let us know and we will put you on a team or we'll row with you! Everyone is welcome in this Crew! Together, we will ROW FOR WISHES.

Click here to register for your 30-minute time slot and make your $25 donation.

After you sign up, we'll email you a link so that you can reserve your t-shirt in the proper size.

If you’re interested in becoming a corporate sponsor for the event, or in making an additional donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation, email Carrie Stuart at carrie@crew-fitness.com.

ROW FOR WISHES!

ROW FOR LIFE!!

Introducing Laura Graham

Laura is a native Mobilian, and proud to #ROWLOCAL with Crew Fitness. She is the first officially certified Crew Fitness coxswain (that’s crew lingo for the person in charge of controlling the boat’s pace and steering by giving commands to the crew).

Laura gracefully balances life as wife to Ched, mother of twins Evan and Ethan (7) and Olivia (6), with her full-time day job, certified registered nurse anaesthetist. She also has a bleeding heart for rescue dogs. #embracethebusylife

An avid runner, Laura values fitness as an integral part of health, happiness, and daily life. At 15 years old, she took her first job as a fitness instructor at the YMCA. Today she returns to her instructor roots as she takes on a regular instructing position as a Crew Fitness cox.

Music moves our rowers, and our rowers love our tunes!
Here's all of our favorite Crew songs on one awesome playlist.
Enjoy!!

By the way, each day's playlist is always on Amy's or Carrie's Spotify.
Follow us and jam Crew tunes 24/7!!
 

Black Friday Specials

GIVE THE GIFT OF FITNESS! We have discounted our 5-class pack to $55 (an $85 value) for you to give to someone special this Christmas season. Or treat yourself!!

The BEST available deal, however, is the deeply discounted membership. We are offering a limited number of 3-month contracts at $100/month. This offer will expire at 11:59pm Friday night. Don't wait another minute! Join the Crew today!

GIFT CARDS - Be sure you click GIFT CARDS in the menu at the top of the page.

Unlimited Membership: $100/month for 3 months

5 Classes for you! (Not to give as a gift)

How to not gain 25 pounds on Thanksiving

1.  Go for a fasted early-morning run Thanksgiving day. Wake up and get in a nice 20-30 minutes at a comfortable pace. Fasted cardio forces your body to use stored energy sources for fuel (aka fat), but also that morning run will set your mind right for the temptations to come.

2.  Eat a balanced breakfast. Two eggs fried in a tsp of coconut oil, half an English muffin with a tsp of almond butter on it for me. (That's my breakfast almost every day, and I won't change it for Thanksgiving.) Avoid starting the day with a great big breakfast casserole. Plenty of casseroles to come later in the day.

3.  When feast time begins, beware of the dips, Chex mixes, sausages, and other high-calorie appetizers sitting around, trying to destroy all of your nutritional goals. Have a taste! But not too much more than that. Remember, this isn't even the main event.

4. Turkey time!! Eat that turkey! That's why we're here. And fill the rest of your plate with the cleanest vegetables available. Take very small servings of the rich casseroles that really are delicious, but packed with carbs and fat. Oh and also, don't eat the bread; those are empty calories. There is plenty of delicious food around; don't waste calories you could have used to eat something awesome on boring old bread. 

5.  Dessert: EAT IT! and enjoy it! But don't eat it twice. But what if there's two desserts there? Yep, there probably will be. Eat half a serving of each. Eat ONE serving of dessert and be satisfied. 

HAPPY GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Clean Eating

Crew Fitness endorses clean eating and moderation. Eating clean means we choose foods that benefit our bodies. Purifying our diet improves the heart, mind, and body. 

Replacing snacks like packaged cereal bars with a fruit and a handful of nuts can make a big difference in our overall nutrition. Choosing a dinner like a 5-ounce steak, half a sweet potato, and asparagus instead of a cheesy casserole or lasagna will bring benefits for the following 24 hours, and making similar choices day after day will change your life. 

Amy's favorite breakfast is 2 eggs (but only one yolk) and one serving of unsweetened oatmeal. "Sometimes I even mix the eggs into the oatmeal. Other times I add in a teaspoon of almond butter or some blueberries." 

Small changes can make a big impact on your overall health. A few small shifts in food choice can yield more changes, resulting in a pure diet that our bodies will thrive on. 

Begin by making one change to your daily nutrition. Replace a pre-packaged snack with a piece of fruit and a small handful of nuts. You'll be amazed at how good this one change will make you feel. 

The claim: Rowing uses mostly upper body strength.
The verdict: FALSE!

The truth is that rowing works 84% of all of the muscles in the body, and the power in a strong row is generated by the LEGS. We row using legs, then core, then arms. The momentum of the drive is generated by the legs and continued by the core, and then completed by the arms, in the catch.

The rower is really the perfect machine for training the whole body. Rowing is awesome cardiovascular exercise at low impact to the joints.

Indoor rowing has long been used by endurance athletes such as runners, swimmers, and triathletes to cross train their cardiovascular system and increase aerobic capacity.

Sprint intervals on the rower will shred fat and boost metabolism for hours post workout. The combination of mean rowing and clean eating is going to create a strong, vibrant, healthy CREW!

Row for life!

………………

For more info on the great benefits of rowing, check out these articles:

Wall Street Journal: Row Your Flab Away

The Observer: The Rise of Indoor Rowing

Inspiring Coaches

Rowing to the beat, we come together as a Crew in 45-minute sessions of fitness and fun.