Happy holiday weekend to one and all. We'll be open for at least one workout in the morning both Saturday and Monday. Please check your email and the Facebook feed for any last minute changes to the workout schedule. There may be some due to the erratic demand on a holiday weekend.

Remember that the next Running Clinic is just 1 week away - beginning next Saturday, July 9th, at the gym. Set the stage for a lifetime of efficient and injury-free running. Open to the general public. Sign up and pre-pay online.

There is a highly recommended seminar coming to Tacoma August 27th featuring Mike Mahler on the subject of metabolic conditioning and hormone optimization, and why and how kettlebells are one of the best tools for that job. The early registration price is $400, but I am in the process of negotiating a significant discount for Gravity Janes members so please see me or leave a message at the gym before you sign up if you'd like to participate. Details here.

Picture: A few of our newest Basic Training inductees get their first taste of tire flipping.

Hope you find opportunities to enjoy your new-found capacity and health this weekend.

GJ will run a normal schedule Saturday morning, July 2nd, including the new Jane Games beginning at 8A. Monday we'll be open for special 4th of July workouts at 7:30A and 9:30A only, and closed the remainder of the day. Come celebrate your independence from fake fitness. We'll have a special edition of the real thing on Monday.

The Jane Games debuted on Saturday morning. The picture to the right is Sasha, Jacqueline, Marissa, and Lori during the girls portion of the tire flip event. There is a short video of the event over on the Gravity Janes Facebook page.

Start time for the Jane Games Team Challenge is 8A this Saturday. That will leave plenty of time for warm up, team selection, and instruction. All levels are invited, everyone can contribute.

The Jane Games are also a great opportunity to invite family and friends to see what you do here.

Another terrific CrossFit Total competition took place in the gym Tuesday. The picture to the right is Tuesday's  whiteboard so you can see how everyone did. Click on the photo for an enlarged view.

Coffee drinkers: a primal-friendly medical take on the drink you love.

This coming Saturday, June 25, Gravity Janes will debut a new format for our Saturday morning schedule. Beginning at 8:30A on Saturdays, GJ coaches will lead a team competition featuring several challenges during which teams will compete against each other. You will be teamed with other members and vie for gym bragging rights and small prizes (mostly bragging rights).

Come and be a part of the new era in GJ workouts. Those that show up in the early weeks will have a lot of input into the development of this concept. And, best of all, this program is guaranteed to bring a new level of results from your workouts. Show up at the gym anytime after 8A every Saturday for a warm up, and the team events begin at 8:30A sharp.

More details about the new Jane Games are coming soon to the GJ Facebook page. If you haven't checked out the features of the GJ Facebook page, visit us at www.facebook.com/gravityjanes. There's lots of exclusive information about active events and the gym, and an on-going conversation with your fellow gym-mates.

Picture: Rope climbing segment of a previous team challenge at GJs.

Below is Mark Sisson's (Primal Blueprint) take on the new "My Plate" dietary guidelines that replace the old food pyramid:

"The slick graphic belies the same old story: “enjoy your food, but eat less,” the inability to say “protein” without “lean” preceding it, the insistence of “low and non-fat dairy,” heaping compulsory piles of grains (what is with our dear leaders’ obsessive grain fetish?). Instead of observing the growing number of obese men, women, kids, tots, and infants (!) and reevaluating the meat of their recommendations, the authorities just repackaged it. I wish I had more to say, but nothing’s really changed. I eagerly await the collective melt-off of the nation’s pounds and the diffusion of its calories into the atmosphere as folks “eat less, move more” in response to this groundbreaking new information."

For the 2nd year Gravity Janes is participating in the classic car event in downtown Issaquah on Father’s Day (this Sunday!). We need volunteers to power the town’s famous hand-operated railroad car taking guests on a short ride. See the video below of some practice runs from last year.

Bring your own dad down and give him a private Father’s Day ride. We only need each volunteer to be available to give rides for 30 minutes between 10A and 2P.

Sign up on the whiteboard at the gym, or email us and let us know what time you'll be available. T-shirts provided.

There are tons of physically challenging activities and events going on in our area over the summer. We'll do our best to keep you informed of them all on our Facebook page, and on the public whiteboard above the coach's station. Check it often, and please contribute anything you know about that we missed.

Picture: Just some of the great food contributed for the first summer BBQ on Saturday, 6/11. We'll categorize it as "paleo-approximate". See more photos on our Facebook page.

Gravity Janes has an official Facebook presence at -

http://www.facebook.com/gravityjanes

You can follow most of the action in the right-hand sidebar of our site but we'd love you to be both a visitor and a contributor to the main FB page.

One of the things you'll find there right now is information about the first of our summer-series BBQs on June 11th. Head over there and RSVP on the Events tab. This also our 3rd anniversary celebration. Love to see you there.

Picture: We did a lot of ring work this past week, including some muscle-up progressions. One valuable tool we have is the ring harness which will take you through the entire movement (with a little help from your friends). This is Trudi in full "flight". If you want to continue this work on your own, don't hesitate to ask for some assistance.

Read: an interesting explanation of CrossFit from a layman's perspective. A good read for anyone still trying to figure out what makes Gravity Janes different.