I will always be grateful for the NCFIT Mountain View gym. It was a place that saved my fitness during a difficult period of transition in my life and I'm sad to be leaving it due to a job change that takes me out of the area.
The coaches are diverse and each has a unique, positive personality that they contribute to members, while also having strong relationships among themselves. They show they care through their enthusiasm, happiness to see you and watchful eye during complex movements. While the class sizes can get big, they often have 2 coaches on the floor and somehow manage to execute the classes smoothly while paying attention to individual movement quality. The coaches themselves compete in CrossFit, are insanely fit, practice mindfulness and nutrition practices, and themselves do the programmed workouts. They walk the talk and this is really important for members to see in their coaches. They are funny, knowledgeable, approachable, kind, and actively promote community between the members.
The member mix is a good sampling of general people of all levels working out and some athletes who are really impressive - just enough to be inspiring but not intimidating to someone new to CrossFit.
The programming is excellent. It is comprehensive, managing to cover classic CrossFit (benchmark and named workouts), strength, Olympic Weightlifting, aerobic capacity, interval weight training, gymnastics skillwork, recovery/blood flow, functional body building, and some classic body building. One can see that there is a long term design built around benchmark tests that makes logical sense and helps an individual work on progress in an area, rather than just going to do some random workout that crushes you for no reason. For example, a variety of clean and jerk based workouts over the span of weeks, leading up to retesting "Grace" or a 1 rep max clean and jerk. Or a 1 mile test followed by weeks of programming in which running is a component of an interval weight training piece. Frequent gymnastics-oriented EMOMS with muscle up or handstand push up progressions and a variety of scaled options to break down the skill and practice the components with guidance. Programming around the Open seemed tailored to challenge your engine or maintain your fitness, depending on how you wanted to go about the Open, with active recovery workouts programmed for Thursday and the Open workout programmed as the Friday workout. The programming for the weekend is generally a tough, volume-heavy partner workout, hero WOD or something you could take at an easier pace, particularly if it follows a more intense, heavy week of training. The programming is thoughtful and intelligent, and I'm considering buying it to do on my own at my next gym.
Also, the warm-ups are a combination of movements tailored to each workout, and are therefore different for every class. This reflects the thoughtful intention behind preparing the body with movement specific warm-ups. This level of attention to detail and intent is really impressive.
The weightlifting coaching is as good as you can get in a group class setting. I have received many helpful observations, cues, and suggestions that have helped me understand how I was moving my body, or given me greater awareness around the mechanics of the snatch / clean and jerk / squat / deadlift.
Lastly, the front desk staff are warm and friendly, taking care of that all important first moment a member walks in the door, and that last moment when you walk out and they say goodbye. The gym is clean, the equipment is organized, and people seem genuinely happy to be here.
Basically NCFIT far exceeds what a standard CrossFit gym does. It provides a level of member experience with great coaches, community and thoughtful programming that well exceed the investment. read more
