Motor City CrossFit

You’ll hear this title thrown around a lot at Motor City Crossfit. It will have a dual meaning here. First, some explanation:

The term “Sheep Dog” originally came from a book titled On Combat by Lt COL (Ret) Dave Grossman, and is best explained in a letter by Major Charles Grennel, US Army, written to a student at the University of Washington. I HIGHLY suggest you read the letter first, and the following page will make much more sense.

Whether we like to admit it or not, there ARE evil men in this world who are capable of evil deeds. Denying their existence offers no protection from them. A Sheep Dog is a term used to describe those who protect the flock. Here in the United States, there’s three different groups of people, Sheep, Sheep Dogs, and Wolves; and there’s no shame belonging to any one group (well, there is being in the wolves group, but we’ll get to that later).

Sheep: The general population who go about their daily business. Good, hard working people who are wholly incapable of harming each other except under extreme provocation.

Sheep Dogs: Those who have a genuine love for people, and have both the desire and the capacity to physically defend their fellow people from danger, whether it be natural dangers from the environment, an accident, or the deliberate attempts of wolves.

Wolves: Those who have a capacity for violence and harm, but do not have a genuine love for their fellow citizens, and will actively seek to harm their fellow citizens to benefit their own ends.

Here at Motor City Crossfit, we have the utmost respect for our Sheep Dogs. These men and women’s lives (and the lives of innocent people) depend on their being physically prepared to meet any threat. We offer a 30% discount to all individuals who are currently serving or have served us as sheep dogs. The criteria are as follows:

• Currently serving (or have served) in the Military, as a Policeman, or Firefighter qualify for the 30% Sheep Dogs discount.

Additionally, the term Sheep Dogs has another meaning at Motor City Crossfit. Crossfit workouts are scalable for individuals of any fitness level, and as such, we’ve named each level of scaling:

• Sheep Dogs: Workouts exactly as written
• Sheep: Hard workouts done with slight down scaling
• Buttercup: Beginner level workouts done with lots of down scaling

There is no shame in participating at the Sheep or Buttercup level, they are merely designations, and it often takes months of training to properly perform even your best workout at the Sheep Dogs level without compromising your form or safety. Each level will have Men’s and Women’s prescriptions. For example, a workout may be the following:

5 Rounds for time of each:
5 Burpees
10 Dumbbell Clean & Jerk
15 Squats
5 Handstand Pushups

The Sheep Dog level may have a prescribed weight for the dumbbells of 25 lbs for men, 15 lbs for women. And they would do full (or partial) range of motion handstand pushups.

The Sheep level may have a prescribed weight of 15 lbs for men, and 10 lbs for women, and they would do either partial range of motion handstand pushups or a 30-second handstand hold

The Buttercup level may have a prescribed weight of 10 lbs for men, and 8 or 5 lbs for women, and they would do either a 30-second handstand hold or a 30-second pushup-position hold with their feet up on a box. In addition, this workout may be scaled down to 3 rounds for the buttercup level, depending on the individual.

The idea here is that if you have trained and are capable of performing at the Sheep Dog level, you have the basis of physical capacity to, with proper training, defend yourself and others from the wolves out there.

Major Grennel summed it up well when he said the following:

If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior’s path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

That’s what Motor City Crossfit is all about, preparing yourself to handle whatever life can throw your way.