WOD WISDOM: Families fuel seven years of No Excuses CrossFit

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No Excuses CrossFit celebrated seven years as an affiliate.


Last weekend No Excuses CrossFit celebrated seven years of being an affiliate. That’s a lot of burpees.

We’ve been blessed to have a lot people walk through our doors to WOD with us. They have come from all different walks of life such as business men, stay at home moms, school teachers, former professional athletes, small business owners, etc. They’ve gone through Foundations, Basics (the pre-cursor to our Essentials level in class), Olympic lifting class, Powerlifting class, and of course the main CrossFit class. That’s more than 14,000 classes over seven years!

People like Greg Hayes, Paul Whaley, Leslie Brigman, Ashley Kubiak and Rick Clements have been with us for most of those years. Scot Poore, Robert Thornton, Mike Matthes, Matt Ziesmer, Bob Sawyer and Carl Cook still remember when we were in the old gym, which is about 200 meters from our current location.

This year’s birthday celebration was partnered with the inaugural Annandale Open, a CrossFit competition for the residents of Annandale

Eddie, left, and Evette celebrate after receiving their medals at the Annandale Open.
Eddie, left, and Evette celebrate after receiving their medals at the Annandale Open.

Village. If you’re unfamiliar with Annandale it is a place dedicated to providing life assistance for adults with developmental disabilities. No Excuses CrossFit members partnered with Annandale residents for three partner WODs. It was hard to tell who benefited more from the competition — the Annandale residents by getting some physical activity and social interaction or the No Excuses CrossFit members by serving their community through fitness.

“It was the best celebration,” No Excuses CrossFit member Lisa Orlandella said.

When you look around the gym now, you see a lot of families that train at No Excuses CrossFit. There’s actually 22 families or couples at the gym. We’ll add a 23rd next year when recently engaged Ward Woody and Kim Pulliam get married.

That’s a lot of family love in one gym that is celebrating its seventh year of being a CrossFit affiliate. It’s also a lot of trash talk between family members.

For some couples if they go home knowing they didn’t beat their spouse in the WOD, it makes for some interesting dinner conversation. It’s a friendly rivalry that may decide who is going to do the dishes that night.

Josef and Kim Roberts will exchange WOD tips. If Josef goes to the 6 am, he gives Kim a heads up on what to expect during the 9:30 class.

Todd and Kim Guthrie like to make WODing together their ‘date time.’

Glen and Nicole Wilkins teamed up for competitions like the Gwinnett Affiliate League and the Atlanta Affiliate League’s X’s and Y’s competition.

JT and Stacey Odom use the gym as a meeting spot to drop off baby Josie, so one of them can do the 5 p.m. class and the other the 6 p.m. class.

Some make it a point to only WOD together like Michael and Liz Peacock, while I don’t know if Bryan and Kanisha Bembridge have ever done a WOD together. Kanisha frequents the 9:30 class, while Bryan is a mainstay at 5 p.m.

Makena and Riley Lundin joined our CrossFit Teens program earlier this year and now their parents Ken and Shaylene are in our adult class. You can only imagine their monthly CrossFit bill. The Ezzell family can feel their pain with Trevor and Amy in the adult class and Sam, Luke and Josh in the Teens class at various points in the year.

Kurt Morris, Bucky and Traci Wood
Kurt Morris, Bucky and Traci Wood

Traci Wood has two training partners that are dear to her heart. Her husband Bucky and and her father Kurt Morris are typically in the 7 p.m. class with Traci.

These families are part of the hundreds that have trained with us over the last seven years. They make up the more then 2,000 people that have worked out at No Excuses CrossFit and we hope to continue to add to that list in the coming years.

Coach Chris, Brandon and Laura
Coach Chris, Brandon and Laura