Crossfit/Oly lift trainer in Baltimore?

[Emily Mattes]

My boyfriend and I have been doing Crossfit for about a month straight now using the BrandX scaling. We're at the point where we're ready to start doing the Olympic lifts with real weights. After practicing the push-jerk today it became apparent we could use some help with our form--errors that we can't find while practicing with light weights are showing up in even the slightly heavier ones.

Can anyone recommend any coaches in the Baltimore area who could give us some pointers on the basic Olympic lifts? Maybe a session or more? We're willing to make a weekend trip to Crossfit Annapolis if necessary, but would prefer something a bit closer to home if possible.

[Matt Smiley]

I've never met him, but I've heard/seen several people recommend a guy named Tim Guarino in Baltimore.

Found his contact info in another thread:
(410) 665-0239
timguarino@hotmail.com

Good luck. If you do train with him, could you post a review for the benefit of the rest of us who are curious?

[Emily Mattes]

I finished a session with Tim Guarino this past Tuesday. He is a fantastic trainer and really knows his stuff. My clean-and-jerk and snatch are 200% better in form after only one session. His gym is great, a real down-and-dirty CF friendly place. I only wish it was closer to me and then I'd sign up in a heartbeat!

As a warning, you have to be very clear about what you do and do not know, or he may make assumptions that you know something you don't and will run from there.

A great coach. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to improve their form.

[Sebastian Arana]

Where is his gym, and where do you CrossFit? I have been CF'ing about a year now at a local YMCA in Baltimore, and am close enough to Johns Hopkins Homewood campus to use their rec gym (I have affiliation with the University) although technically they don't allow power or oly lifts in their rec gym, cough, their monitor isn't always around, cough. The ROTC has a great pull-up parallel bar set-up outside for days when that's all you need. The YMCA is pretty CF friendly so far, although it can get crowded, making days for three bars of death annoying, for example. Anyway, I was just curious about where you all train. I considered contacting Mr. Guarino about helping with oly lifts, I just figured I wouldn't have the budget to pay the man for his time. Anyway, happy CF'ing in Baltimore!

Sebastian

[John Hoffner]

There were at least five of us in and around Baltimore who attended the cerrt last weekend in Quantico. I'm not an affiliate or a trainer, I do work out occassionally in Federal Hill if I'm not down at Meade. I am looking forward to Dale from CF Annapolis opening up a facility, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that its closre to here than Annapolis.
I would alos be interested in hearing how the Oly Lift training went, and the where, how much, etc if you wouldn't mind sharing...
Thanks!

[Connie Morreale]

i also cf at my ymca in ellicott city. its full of blue hairs that shuffle past me when i'm trying to run to the pull-up bar from the c-2. all my timed workouts are getting slower working out here.
sigh.
so how much does tim charge? perhaps a few of us an go in together to make the cost doable?

anyone thinking of joining krav maga md in columbia here is one more reason to join. we will be doing a class 2x week based on crossfit metodology. no heavy oly lifts. mostly filthy 50, fight gone bad types of workouts.

[Philip Stablein]

Thanks much for digiging up this info. I am guessing I'll need to get some Oly coaching soon, if I can't find a CF facility convenient.

To add, to the public knowledge:
I do CF workouts in Fed Hill (riverside park), Fells Point (a garage in an alley that belongs to a friend), and in College Park in the HHP building. Email me anytime to join in (and I should be making appearances as various MD CF-friendly locales)

[Dale Ryan Thompson]

On Saturday's from 10am-12pm I hold a class/instructional period where we go over anything you can think of. I bring everything i have with me. Rower, Slam Balls, dynamax, Bars, Bumpers, Kettlebells, you name it. Sorry, no GHD yet. If your new to crossfit or need some help with certain things 10am-11 is for you. 11-12 is when we run a WOD. Let me know if you have any questions.
Dale Ryan Thompson
CrossFit Annapolis/BullFit
www.bullfit.typepad.com
P.S. It looks like the Dorsey Rd location is pulling away in the Race.

[Joel Schlossberg]

CrossFit Baltimore will be coming on-line as a CF affiliate in March '08. Check us out soon at www.CrossFitBaltimore.net (note site is not up & running yet). Our CF program will be run out of dedicated CF space in LifeBridge Health & Fitness located just outside the Beltway at Exit 20 Reisterstown Rd. You can check out the LifeBridge site at www.LifeBridgehealthandfitness.com. Don't worry were not Globo Gym our CF program will be a straight up CF program. We already have 3 CF Level I instrutctors on our Team and we are looking to add more. So if you have been CFing in Baltimore soon you have a dedicated CF facility to come to and/or if you are looking to become a CF instructor please feel free to get in touch with us.

[Martin Shuster]

I just wanted to update this thread...in case anyone else was interested...but I just had a lesson with Tim Guarino last night and I was extremely impressed. Tim is an excellent coach--helped me very quickly and effectively w/ various snatch issues and just seems like an all around standup guy. Pleasure to work with and I wholeheartedly encourage anyone else to look him up if you need lessons--from the way he teaches/coaches, I am certain he could help anyone at any level.