Bringing you the latest from your local CrossFit & HYROX Gym
"This one is for the Boys"
November is Men's Health Month at Beyond Walls, and this year we're keeping the message simple: Make Time for Mates.
You can train alongside someone every week, know their favourite barbell and exactly how much they dislike burpees, yet know surprisingly little about their life outside the gym. This month, we're making a little more room for those conversations.
Barry and Jono have put together a month of pairs workouts, daily conversation starters and a Men's Takeover Evening on Thursday 12 November. The idea is to get to know someone better, spend some time together and make a plan to do it again. A workout is a good start. A coffee afterwards might be where the friendship begins.
And to the strong women of Beyond Walls: we haven't forgotten you. There's plenty for you throughout November too, alongside our usual training, community events and celebrations.
In this month's newsletter, we'll also reflect on #4Georgia, celebrate EverStrong turning one, meet Coach Alex Hopkins and look ahead to Christmas and our 2027 events.
Train hard. Talk honestly. Laugh often. And make time for each other.
PROGRAMMING UPDATE
CrossFit Programming: November 2026: Strength, Variety & Capacity
November brings a fresh focus: building strength, improving muscular endurance, and keeping you ready for whatever the workout throws at you.
Expect more variety in the lifts and rep schemes, with higher-volume strength work alongside moderate to heavy Olympic lifting. Loads will be guided by feel rather than fixed percentages, so work with your coach to find the right challenge while keeping your movement sharp.
Conditioning will combine machine intervals with bodyweight movements and barbell work. The aim is to build an engine you can rely on across longer efforts, repeated intervals, and everything in between.
Our gymnastics focus is grip and pressing strength, with hanging and inversion work helping develop control and confidence on the rig and upside down.
We also have CHAD, Roped In, and the November Push-up Challenge to get stuck into. Scale where needed, record your results, and give yourself something to build on.
HYROX Programming: November 2026: Ascent: The Final Build
Four weeks of Ascent are behind us. Now we move into weeks 5–8, taking the strength, skills, and engine we have built and putting them together as London approaches.
Our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday sessions become increasingly focused on race execution: holding your pace after demanding stations, moving efficiently between movements, and finding an effort you can sustain.
Week 5: Find your race rhythm. Expect race-load sled work, strength maintenance, and longer combinations of running and stations. The challenge is to keep your efforts repeatable from the first round to the last.
Week 6: The peak week. This is the toughest week of the block, with sled work under fatigue, substantial station practice, and a race simulation. Use it to check your pacing, transitions, and where you need a clearer plan.
Week 7: Sharpen up. Volume comes down while race-specific work stays in. We will rehearse target pace, tidy up transitions, and practise moving smoothly when the legs are tired.
Week 8: Freshness and confidence. Shorter sessions, lighter work, and controlled efforts bring the block to a close. The aim is to arrive ready to race, with energy in reserve.
These classes sit alongside the separate running programme, so speak to a coach about how everything fits together as London gets closer.
Whether you are racing or training alongside those who are, the focus is the same: consistent pacing, efficient movement, and confidence across every station.
New Workout Categories
To help you get the most from each class, we are introducing three categories: Push It, Build It, and Try It. Each gives you a clear purpose for the session. These were a great success after our Bring-a-Friend week programming.
- Push It: These are the days to challenge your pace, commit to the workout, and see what you can do. Choose a suitable scale, bring the effort, and aim to finish knowing you gave it a proper go.
- Build It: These sessions lay the foundations for progress. Focus on quality repetitions, controlled movement, and consistent effort to develop your strength and capacity.
- Try It: An opportunity to practise something unfamiliar or take the next step with a skill. Work with your coach, explore the progressions, and give yourself room to learn.
#4Georgia: £5,600 Raised, So Much Love Behind It
Our #4Georgia fundraiser currently stands at an amazing £5,600. To everyone who worked out, donated, sent a message, helped organise or simply came along to show your support: thank you. Seeing our community come together for Georgia was something special. Your generosity will help her access the support, treatment and rehabilitation she needs, and her message afterwards made clear how much the day meant to her and her family: "You haven't just raised money. You've given me hope."
Georgia told us: "You've given me a community that has shown up for me when I need it most." That support reaches beyond the gym, giving her mum, dad and brother strength and hope too. We'll leave the final words to Georgia, because they sound very much like the person we know and love: "Until then, keep a space for me in that gym. I've got some chaos to make up for." There's a space here for you, Georgia. Always.
Bring a Friend Week: Thanks for Bringing Your People
Bring a Friend Week kicked off with #4Georgia and some Diver's Carries, giving our guests a very Beyond Walls introduction: a workout together and a community showing up for one of its own. Thank you to everyone who brought someone along, made a new face feel welcome or gave a friend the encouragement to walk through the door.
Across the week, 63 friends came along, making this our busiest Bring a Friend Week ever! It was brilliant to welcome so many new faces and share a little of what makes Beyond Walls special. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having you here.
Learning Together at AffiliateCon
October also took Julie and me to Dallas for AffiliateCon, a conference focused on running the best CrossFit affiliate possible. It was an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day running of Beyond Walls and spend time learning alongside other affiliate owners.
Our aim in going was simple: to keep improving the gym and the experience we offer you. We heard from many CrossFit OG's including the founder Greg Glassman and the current CEO Bruce Edwards:
But the most rewarding conversations were with other Affiliate Owners as we shared ideas and learned from those who are much older and much bigger than Beyond Walls. Over the coming months you may see improvements and ideas that were born in Texax!
Kicking Off Men's Health Month:
Make Time for Mates
You might know who always takes the rowing machine nearest the door, who loves a heavy deadlift and who can turn a warm-up into a competitive event. But how much do you know about the person beside you?
This November, we're making time to find out. Barry and Jono have put together a month built around a simple idea: help the men of Beyond Walls get to know one another better, build friendships and keep making time together beyond November.
Find a mate. Make a plan.
Each Monday, we'll share a new pairs workout to complete during the week. The workout changes, but the four steps stay the same:
- Meet someone. Find a partner, introduce yourself and agree when to train. If you're arriving on your own, a coach will help you pair up.
- Spend time together. Take on the workout and learn a little about your partner along the way.
- Reconnect. Make time afterwards for a coffee, a walk or a beer.
- Keep it going. Book another session together, team up for Super Saturday or make a plan outside the gym.
New Blog - What the Photograph Doesn't Show
Mum recently sent me this photograph from the Windsor Triathlon in 2000. Shaved legs and chest, tiny Lycra and sunglasses I considered incredibly cool. Twenty-six years later, it stopped me in my tracks.
The photograph captures someone fit enough to complete a triathlon. What it doesn't show is the struggle I was having with drug taking, a distructive lifestyle and the darker days that followed.
As we begin Men's Health Month, I wanted to share a personal perspective about a difficult chapter of my life, finding a healthier way forward and why a photograph can be a surprisingly good place to start an honest conversation.
For the Boys - Share a Photo
Alongside Jamie's blog, we're inviting the men of Beyond Walls to share a photograph from any point in their life. It could show an achievement, an earlier chapter or simply a moment that means something to you.
Upload your photo to Barry or Jono with your first name and, if you'd like, a short caption to the Men's Social Group. With your permission, we'll print it for our gym board.
You'll also spot a question on the whiteboard each day, giving us an easy way to start a conversation. Nothing complicated, and always fine to pass. You may discover that someone you've trained beside for months shares your love of cycling, fishing or watching darts.
Men's Takeover Evening: Thursday 12 November
Join us for an evening of training, conversation, food and time together. We're planning two pairs workouts and two short talks: one exploring why connection matters, and another reflecting on an earlier chapter of life and the lessons we'd share with our younger selves. Kicking off at 6:30pm, finishing around 8:30pm-9:00pm
The aim is to leave having got to know someone better and made a plan to meet or train again.
Beyond November: Pass the Baton
We want these connections to last. The plan is a men's social every three months, with one volunteer organising an outing before handing over to the next person.
A cycle, a run, coffee or a trip to watch rugby, football or darts: it doesn't need to be elaborate. It just needs someone to make the first suggestion.
Train hard. Talk honestly. Laugh often. Make time for mates.
EverStrong Turns One: One Year Stronger
On 28 October, EverStrong celebrated its first birthday. Twelve months of growing stronger, building confidence and declaring almost every workout "definitely the hardest one". Followed, of course, by fist bumps, coffee and a good chat.
There's plenty to celebrate. Suzanne has grown in confidence and willingness to try, while Glenn is now getting down to a mat and back up, jogging and stepping onto a box. According to Meg, these are things he hadn't been able to do for more than ten years. That's progress that reaches well beyond the gym.
The crew have also built something special together: encouragement, friendships and enough questions and creative interpretations of exercises to keep the coaches alert. For Alex, EverStrong has had a particularly lasting impact: "It is the class that inspired me to change my career path and focus on coaching."
Happy first birthday, EverStrong. We're proud of what you've achieved and delighted you're part of Beyond Walls. Read the birthday blog for more member stories, a few familiar characters and the occasional unauthorised exercise variation.
November: What's in Store
As well as Men's Health Month there's plenty happening for the whole gym. Lift Off, CHAD 1000X and our Christmas Party are open to everyone:.
SAT 7 NOV: Lift Off: Strength at Every Age
Heats starting at 10am · Open to everyone
Our weightlifting competition returns, giving you the chance to test your snatch and clean & jerk with coaches, friends and a cheering squad behind you.
Format is simple; a six-minute window for each lift. Your best successful snatch and clean & jerk produce your combined total, with scoring adjusted for bodyweight and age.
Whether you're entering your first lifting competition or chasing a personal best, come and enjoy putting your training to the test and have a little Beyond Walls taste of a weightlifting competition.
Spectators and enthusiastic encouragement are welcome too. To participate simply book on as if it were a normal class (on the app). Free for members; £30 for non-members.
WED 11 NOV: CHAD 1000X
Open to everyone of all abilities
A big challenge with a purpose: CHAD 1000X centres on 1,000 step-ups and raises awareness of suicide prevention, a particularly relevant conversation during Men's Health Month.
Everyone is welcome to take part. Sessions are at 06:00am, 09:00am, 17:00pm, and 18:00pm. Come ready to support the people beside you as well as tackle the workout.
Last year, 64 Beyond Walls members took on CHAD. Our reflection on that day explores the man the workout honours, the conversations it started and why the support we offer one another matters. Read the story behind the reps below.
Christmas Party: Tickets Now Available
Thursday 26 November · Open to everyone
Time to swap the gym kit for something festive and get together for an evening of food, music and fun.
Tickets are £50 per person, including food and a welcome drink then a cash bar. Come and celebrate with the Beyond Walls community as we head towards the end of another busy year.
Where: The Ferry Pub, Cookham
When: Thursday 26 November at 07:30pm-11:30pm
Please note that parking at the venue is limited. There are a few local car parks or we will leave the gym Open for parking if you want to share a taxi to the venue.
Community Notices:
Please Leave the Mud Outside
As the weather gets wetter, please check your trainers before stepping onto the gym floor. If you've walked across muddy paths or fields, give them a proper clean or bring a clean pair to change into.
We all spend plenty of time down on that floor. Burpees are bad enough on a clean one! Thanks for helping us keep it that way.
New kit
We're always looking to improve the kit available to our members. This month we've added new heavy sandbags, more mats, ropes and foam rollers. We're also testing some new outdoor matting ready for the winter.
Coaches Spotlight
An Official Welcome to the Team, Alex!
Alex Hopkins is already a familiar face at Beyond Walls. She's been helping out for some time, coaching, supporting members and getting involved wherever she can. But we now have a good reason to make her welcome a little more official.
In mid-October, Alex stepped away from her role as an HR Director and began getting more involved with Beyond Walls. Alongside coaching, she's starting helping us stay more connected with members and our broader community activities.
Alex brings a wealth of experience working with people, alongside her enthusiasm for this community. I suspect you'll see her playing an even bigger part as we move towards 2027. For now, we're delighted to have more of her time, energy and care going into Beyond Walls.
Welcome officially, Alex. We're very glad you're here.
October Committed Club: So Close, and Plenty to Celebrate!
We set October's Committed Club Challenge at 121 members. The final count? 115! Six short of the target, but 25 more than September's 90, in a month that included school half term, disrupted routines and plenty of competing demands. That's a result worth celebrating...even if I am sulking that AI got it right!!!
Thank you to everyone who got behind the challenge, encouraged a training buddy and made time to show up. We didn't quite get the record this time, but we've built some brilliant momentum. Let's carry it into November.
Congratulations to Our October Qualifiers
A huge well done to all 115 members who made Committed Club in October. Every sticker represents time you set aside for yourself, sessions you booked and effort you put in. Be proud of yours. You earned it.
Well done to every single one of you, but a particular well done to our ten members who qualified for the first time in 2026;
Amy Weir, Harvey Hendry, Libby Davies-Small, Matt Saxon, Olly Hurst, Richard Lucas, Sam Campbell, Sarah Shields, Scott Jackson and Steph Foulds.
Final Thought: Make Time for Each Other
While we're focusing on men's health this month, the messages we're exploring with the guys apply to every member. Get to know someone a little better. Make time together. Ask how they're doing, and leave enough space to hear the answer.
We've seen what that can mean. The support for Georgia has shown how much it matters to know people are beside you when life becomes incredibly hard. EverStrong's first birthday reminds us how friendships can grow through a regular workout and a coffee afterwards. And the photograph I've shared this month is a reminder that there's often more to someone's story than we can see.
You don't need to organise a fundraiser or share a deeply personal story to make a difference. Introduce yourself to someone you haven't spoken to. Stay for a coffee. Message the training partner you haven't seen for a while. Ask someone if they fancy booking a class together.
You might discover a shared interest, hear a story you never expected or simply make someone feel a little more welcome.
So this November, make time for one conversation you might otherwise have missed. Then, perhaps, make a plan to have another.
See you in class, Jamie, Julie and the Beyond Walls Team
