Blog Archive

Saturday, March 12th, CF Van is hosting its first ever Clothing Swap – a chance for you to purge your closet and sell your unwanted clothes.

It’s not too late to host a table (share one with a friend if you don’t have that much to sell).

Details below.

If you still have questions about the event, leave them to comments.

PS Invite your friends! The more tables we sell, the more people who come, the more money YOU make

E-mail Emily to book a table at [email protected] or 778-887-7903

That’s right it is time practice the old school gymnastic movement, the handstand! Check out Andy’s one arm version from a few years ago.

Technique: Start against the wall. Perform 5 handstands holding for a minimum of 10 seconds. Move out onto the floor, attempt some handstands with a partner to spot you or if you’re feeling confident just give it a go. Coach’s also review rope climbs prior to the workout.

I think this article has been posted in the past (perhaps even by me) but it is worth a second read.

Handstand fundamentals.

Now onto the good stuff!

Workout: Kermit’s Kreation du jour!

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of

1 rope climb
6 pistols (3 per leg)
2 muscle-ups
8 double unders
3 toes to bar
10 v-sits

Use progressions as necessary.

-Kermit

I don’t know about you folks, but I miss my clean. All of the overhead squats and snatch work we’ve been doing has been great, but the clean holds a special place in my heart and it feels as though it has been too long since we last visited this movement. So, it’s time for some clean action.

Warm-up: 10 seconds of hollow rocks followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat 10 times.

Technique: Power Clean – go for broke (1,1,1,1,1)

Workout: Elizabeth

21,15,9
Power cleans (85lbs/135lbs)
Ring Dips

-Kermit

Believe it or not folks, assuming my calculations are correct, we are heading into week five of our overhead squat strength building program! Nice work to everyone who has kept on top of their squats. I am curious to know what the gains have been so far. Who is brave enough to post their results to the comments section?

Technique & Workout: 10 x 10 sets of Overhead squats.

Lil Burner: 5 rounds of

5 double wall balls (14lbs/20lbs)
5 burpees
5 box jumps (20″)
5 kb swings (red/black)

Recently I was reading a special issue of Wired, my favorite magazine. It was titled “The Underworld Exposed”, now I know that this is probably not everyone’s cup of tea so I was surprised to see one of the articles pop up on the crossfit.com website. This article examines the value of the human body…in pieces. Ever wonder how much a liver is worth? How about your ligaments and bones? You might be surprised. Check it out.

“Inside the business of selling human body parts”

– Kermit

Well that about does it for the week of Sheppy. I chose workouts that would challenge you. Your strength. Your met-con. Your technique. Your heart. Your resolve.

In case anyone is hating me right now… Here is living proof that karma exists.

Patty always told me that in order to be a good coach, your athletes need to hate you a little.

Saturday’s Workout:

Warm Up: Parkour Quadrapedal Basics

Workout: You have the remainder of the class to complete:

2000 m Row

Recover. And…

Annie

50 Double Unders
50 Sit Ups
40 Double Unders
40 Sit Ups
30 Double Unders
30 Sit Ups
20 Double Unders
20 Sit Ups
10 Double Unders
10 Sit Ups

Do either half of the workout in any order. Leaderboard is combined time for both. Charlie F Palmer MUST do the workout.

Sunday’s Wokout:

Warm Up: Wheelbarrow Race

Skill/Tech: 1 Rep Max Thruster

Workout: Fran

21, 15, 9

Thrusters (95/65 lbs)
Pull Ups

Warm Down: Coaches lead a good stretch session.

I promised myself that I would put up Fran every time I had to program in 2011. So far so good. Really wanted to do this on a weekday but it just didn’t work with all the other overhead stuff.

Have a great weekend,

Shep

Saturday, March 12th, CF Van is hosting its first ever Clothing Swap – a chance for you to purge your closet and sell your unwanted clothes.

Or a chance to shop and buy nice, classy clothes for cheap.

Details below.

If you still have questions about the event, or to host a table, contact Emily: [email protected]

PS Invite your friends! The more tables we sell, the more people who come, the more money YOU make

As many of you know, Wendy and The Panda recently had a baby. Lovely Justine.

Crazy to think that little muffin came out of there.

With a couple of months left in her pregnancy, I asked Wendy to write an article about her experience of being pregnant and CrossFitting. She promptly got back to me with a Pulitzer worthy effort. Pictures and everything.

I thought Wendy’s handling of her pregnancy and fitness was exemplary. She asked me to not publish the article until she had the baby. Once she did bring Justine into this world she said she didn’t want to change the article one bit. Although she ended up having a C- section, she said labour was still harder than any CrossFit workout she ever did. I’ll never be pregnant, but I believe her.

Can’t bare to break the article apart so I’ve attached it here for your own reading pleasure.

Crossfit_and_Preggers.pdf

Who knew Panda wore glasses?

Friday’s Workout: The Hellenator

This is a partner workout. You will trade rounds of Helen for 30 minutes. That is to say… You do a round. They do a round. You do a round… And so on.
Just in case you forgot, 1 round of Helen is:

400m Run
21 KB Swings (Black/Red)
12 Pull Ups

Score it AMRAP with each round being 35 points. 2 points for the run (if you get to the top of the alley along McLean it counts as 1 point). 1 point/KB. 1 point/pull up.

I want you to test your resolve. I want you to smash each round. I want to throw yourself overboard. Recover. Do it again.

No leaderboard. Put your names on the front board with your score. Old School. Lars and I got 10.20 last week.

Coaches get the workout started by 10 minutes past the hour and lead a stretch to finish up.

Nuttin’ But Love,

Christopher Ram Saini

We’ve all heard the question: Is the glass half full or half empty? It’s a colourful dichotomy about life. I was thinking (it happens sometime) one night about where my glass was and came up with the following idea.

There are several reasons why we CrossFit. Get fit, feel good, look good… Neural Endocrine Response. Whatever your reasons are I want you to consider how you look at each session you put in at CrossFit Vancouver.

Tuesday I saw people laying on the ground after the workout (rightly so). I saw some extreme effort and resulting fatique. I think some would look at them and say they gave their all and the tank is now empty. This may be true, but try changing lenses.

What if you thought about CrossFit Vancouver as the place you came to fill your glass up, not empty it. Think about it – Say you are beginning the workout portion of your hour at a quarter to. This would mean your glass is already half empty. What kind of mind set is that to go into a workout with?

What if it went like this. Picture number one is you after your pre warm up. Picture number 2 (left to right) is you after your class warm up. Picture number 3 is you after the skill/tech portion of the hour (looking good!). Picture number 4 is you after the hour is finished. Delicious. Now you go out into the world topped up and ready to rock.

Make sense?

Let’s call the froth on top the post workout stretch session.

Thursday’s Workout:

We are in the fourth week of our overhead squat progression. I thought this would be the perfect time to work with the snatch.

Warm Up: Burgener Warm Up

Skill/Tech: Squat Snatch. Mess around. Go for a max if you feel up to it.

Workout: Isabel

30 Squat Snatch (135/85 lbs)

Choose a weight you can get this done in under 10 minutes.

Cheers!

Sheppy

I saw some exceptional performances on Tuesday. A lot of you showed up and brought it hard. Loved it.

But what I did not see is everyone stretching after the workout.

Tony Leyland has provided us with an article that outlines what science is discovering about stretching.

Summary: “The immediate effects of static stretching on muscular performance are different from the long term effects. Static stretching does not have immediate benefits to muscular performance or muscular injury rate. The training benefits of stretching, however, are improvements in both flexibility and muscular performance. Strength coaches should prescribe stretching in the cooldown after vigorous training and active warm up routines rather than static stretching before vigorous activity.”

Pretty straight forward. Static stretching before a workout produces a short term decrease in most kinds of maximal muscular performance. It does this by neuromuscular inhibition and decreased contractile force.

In fact, static stretching in a warm up can lead to injury. It decreases your ability to handle overload and thus cause injury. One way this can happen is weakening the joint stability.

Warm ups should consist of active or dynamic movements. The article suggests a “progressive warm up routine that mimics the sport or exercises to follow”. Makes sense. Think of doing dislocates before you practice overhead squats with just the dowel. An effective warm up. I’ve always said: You warm a muscle up by moving it.

All athletes must stretch. Inactivity, genetics (I can only presume this is the Prof) and repetitive movements can all cause inflexibility. “Static stretching is an important long term training stimulus and fitness routine for all athletes”. Doing it often over the long haul is better than one giant dose here and there.

Interestingly, the article does state that too much flexibility can cause injury as it can’t limit excessive motion to protect your joint. “Maintenance of normal flexibility should be the goal of a stretching program”.

This raises an interesting situation for us here at CrossFit Vancouver. Classes are 1 hour long and we want to pack as much CrossFitting in there as possible. Sometimes we can program stretching after a fixed time workout but we generally leave it to the athlete to stretch after a workout. I know we all have busy lives but this is not something you want to neglect. We’ve recently started teaching some stretching in the pt sessions.

Ask a coach or one of our stretching enthusiasts for some guidance. I strongly strongly encourage all of you to attend the next stretching class put on by Giselle and Andy (check the bulletin board by the women’s washroom). They are also available for personal sessions as well. Take the time to give yourself the medicine you need after a workout.

So I’m hoping to see far more people stretching after the workouts FROM NOW ON!!!

Read the article – Program_Stretching_After_Vigorous_Physical_Training.pdf

Wednesday’s Workout:

Warm Up: 20 m Butt Scoot for Time
Record you score here as we will come back to this sometime in the future

Tech: Max Static Box Jump
Been a while since we did this. Always entertaining. Those of you who reach your max early in the session just keep hitting it.

Workout:

15 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
30 Second Ring LSit Hold

Rounds in 15 minutes

Be certain to maintain straight legs that are parallel to the ground. The lovely and talented Kelly Hansen shows us a superb ring Lsit in this first picture.

She was also generous enough to show us the broken leg lsit which is a no no.

Last picture is the VBear (Vacation Bear) showing us a straight leg Lsit but the legs are tilted way too far towards the ground.

Use the parallettes if you can’t maintain the unstable plain of the rings. Use 2 boxes if you need to Lsit crouch. Score it AMRAP with each round being 45 points (15 C2B and 30 Seconds).

Wish Kelly and Bear a great vacation as they are off to New Zealand on Wednesday.

I got this workout of crossfit.com a while back. Chewb Steak and I did it last week. It was stupid hard and a really good test. Good Luck!!

Shep

Ever wonder why you like coming to CrossFit Vancouver?

Ever wonder why you feel a special kinship with those that you workout with?

CrossFit founder Greg Glassman tells us exactly why in this video.

Yes. Agony and laughter. The cornerstones of camaraderie.

You like coming here because you love a challenge. You know there is currency in trying really hard at something. And if you are going to suffer, you want someone else to do it with.

Or maybe you come for a different reason? I know Rhea comes here because every time she shows up its “Hot Guy O’Clock”. You funny Rhea.

So I’ve got some efforts for you to pursue today.

Tuesday’s Workout:

Warm Up: 1 Length Samson Stretch/1 Length Inch Worm x 2 Get it done fast

You have the rest of the class to complete the following…

The Dynamic Duo

8 Deadlifts (275/175 lbs)
200 m Run

x 3

Recover as needed then…

30 Body Weight Back Squats
1000m Row

Your score for the Leaderboard will be total time of the two workouts combined.

Make sure your deadlift weight is appropriate for your capability. Do not surrender the strong back position for any reason.

Your back squat weight should be so that you can finish the workout in under 8 minutes.

If the classes are big then you can run sequential heats or half the class can do one workout while the second half does the other then flip.

I want you to smash these workouts. I want you to attack the numbers. I want you to make the bars and rowers sing.

One Love,

Sheppy