Strongtown Talks

In this episode, we get a chance to sit down with Steve Anderson...also known as "Esteban".

Steven is a High School Biology teacher and grew up in the Wolcott area.

He's married to Caitlin and has been a close friend of the Strongtown community since the beginning.

When gyms around the state got shut down - Steve started doing the "Strongtown General" workrouts as an 'at home' workout option...which led to him completing his 1st "Murph" this past 4th of July.

We talk about his background, how he and Caitlin first met, and his experiences with fitness and the Strongtown General.

I have to thank him for taking the time to talk with me and hope you all enjoy the show.

This week's episode was a sit down with Mikey and was a bit of musing about our upcoming Phase III - which we need to nail down a bit more this upcoming week.

It also includes some talk about chalk, and gyms in the tri-state area.

This week’s show is a sit down with the one and only Rob LaBonne III, he comes from a long line of Rob LaBonnes and is man of many facets.

I regret not getting into more of his back story and if I can get him back him on a future episode that is definitely something to chat about.

As an introduction - Rob is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of LaBonne’s Markets in Watertown, Woodbury, Salisbury, and Prospect CT. As of this past year, he became the owner of Southbury Self Storage, formerly Storage Haus. Over the years he has also been involved in founding a Landscape Construction company, a company that specializes in water bottles for BMW enthusiasts, and a Tent Company.

He is an avid water skier, dog whisperer, entrepreneur and outdoorsman….he’s also only 31.

Southbury Self Storage: https://www.southburystorage.com/

LaBonne's Markets: https://labonnes.com/

Happy 4th of July! In this week's episode, Mikey and I sit down to talk about Strongtown's Phase 2 which is kicking off this Friday...July 10th.

We're talking bigger classes, the return of open gym times, and making sure we're still providing everyone with the same great & safe workout experience. 

Mikey also got a chance to check out Newsylum Brewing which just recently opened up in the Fairfield Hills are of Newtown.

Phase II Cliff Notes:

In this week's episode Mike and I sit down to discuss the current state of events in the CrossFit community.

We talk about what happened...and most importantly, what it means for us and our gym. 

This episode was recorded on 6/21/20 so events have continued to unfold and progress...at the end of the episode there is a quick outro / update and we'll talk more about things on the show.

Mikey and I recorded this episode on Saturday June 6th, the state had just recently announced that gyms will be allowed to reopen for indoor classes a few days earlier than originally planned which is great news.

We’re excited to get back into the gym and we review the phases that we’ve created that will allow us to comply with the state and run a class that we are comfortable with.

After this episode was recorded there was a series of events and interactions involving the founder of CrossFit. Between the quarantine and the tension in society being at an all-time high it has caused a tremendous amount of upheaval through the greater CrossFit community. In some ways, it was a ‘perfect storm’ of an event.

I was going to try to address things during this intro piece and it really deserves to be the focus of an episode which will be next week’s show.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone back in the gym this week!

Welcome to June! This week’s Strongtown Talk is a sit down with Mikey, myself, and Matty Mauro.

Matty was brought on the show as a guest and also as a bit of a technical expert to help make sure last week’s recording issues don’t become a regular occurrence.

Matty has a background in audio production and recording...he has been a part of the Strongtown community since 2013’ish and prior to moving up to this area of the state he owned and operated a music production studio for 7 years.

We get a chance to talk about what first brought him to CrossFit, becoming a new parent, and bit about quarantined life.

A quick note - since I had Matty for the recording we recorded the show in 2 parts using slightly different equipment and setups. There is a brief intermission about 60% through the show as we switched gear.

I owe him a huge thank you for both taking the time to share his story and for helping me get a better handle on the recording process.

And we’re back!

We fell off our regular routine last week...I’m sorry about that and we should be back on track.

In this week’s episode I was able to sit down with Rich & Sara. Rich has been on a few of the earlier shows and this was Sara’s first time.

A couple of quick notes:

1 - I screwed something up during the recording so my voice is even more muffled and mumbly than usual. Rich and Sara sound great so I tried to cut out as much of myself as possible.

2 - Sara works for an undisclosed retailer who was recently the victim of some looting and vandalism. The story you are about to hear is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Welcome to a new week and another episode of Strongtown Talks.

In the theme of Mother’s Day this week’s episode was a virtual sit-down with Coach LuAnn who started off the Quarantine by becoming a new mother.

Mikey and I have known LuAnn since she first began CrossFit back in 2009 during the Watertown days.

We get a chance to talk about what first brought her into the gym, her running days, adjusting to motherhood during the Quarantine, working remotely, and getting back into fitness postpartum.

I want to give a quick shout out to Melissa Reed from CrossFit 203 and Reed Fitness & Physical Therapy, for helping LuAnn get back into a workout routine. Melissa recently published a “Postpartum Return to Fitness Guidebook” (link below) which LuAnn has found to be a tremendous resource.

Enjoy the show...

Post Partum Return to Fitness Guide Book by Melissa Reed:

We’re mixing things up a bit on this week’s episode and going with a series of a game show style, rapid-fire questions.

I came up with a series of 21 questions split up across 3 categories - Lifestyle, Fitness, and the Wild Card Category - to throw at Mikey.

The goal was 21 questions...giving Mikey 15 seconds to respond...keeping the show under 9 Minutes.

Considering we couldn’t see the timer we were actually pretty close on time.