Blog Archive

Rocinha CrossFit – located in one of Brazil’s most famous slums

For many of you, CrossFit Vancouver is about fitness. It’s about sweating with others and pushing each other to be better.

For others, it’s a social house. It’s a home away from home, a place where not only does everyone know your name, but you probably also even have a nickname or two that you have reluctantly learned to embrace over the years.

For others still, CrossFit Vancouver is about personal development, about discovering a new way to look at the world.

Whatever this place is to you, there’s a reason you show up two, three, five times a week to push yourself to become better.

And sometimes, through the pain and suffering, we forget that we have it good here at CrossFit Vancouver. We have a huge facility, tons of equipment, and we’re surrounded by likeminded, privileged people.

This is as good as it gets. Not everyone is this lucky.

Introducing Rocinha CrossFit, a CrossFit box located in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious slums, a place marred by extreme poverty, governed by drug traffickers.

Rocinha CrossFit’s history begins with an American man named Chris Clark. He explained in a story published in the CrossFit Journal that he first went to Rocinha to teach English, but when word got out that he was a marine, he was soon pushed into teaching fitness classes.

‘We found old basketballs and volleyballs and made medicine balls and kettlebells. With an old rusty iron bar and two used tire rims, we welded an Olympic bar…,’ he wrote in the Journal story.

With help from Greg Glassman, who granted him a not-for-profit-affiliation, he managed to open Rocinha CrossFit.

Today, the Rocinha box is ready to flourish, but it has its barriers – decent equipment being one of them. Another issue is paying to get its coaches Level 1 Certified.

Clark says “the principle driving force” behind Rocinha is a man named Rogerio, born and raised in the slum. Rogerio has been running the WODs on the beaches in the slum for a while now.

This February, Rogerio is making a trip to North America, first to Chicago where he will do his Level 1 Certification, and then to CrossFit Vancouver, where he will spend one month learning our methods and systems.

It’s amazing how CrossFit has grown. A few years ago, we were the only CrossFit box in British Columbia. Before that, the only box in Canada. Now there are unofficial boxes on Canadian army bases in Kandahar; there’s a government-subsidized box on an indigenous reserve in Ontario, and there’s a CrossFit box in a slum in Brazil.

We all come from such different places. We all have different CrossFit goals and mindsets. But whether you’re in Brazil or Canada, there’s something about CrossFit that brings us all together; it makes us all feel alive.

In his story, Clark wrote: “Rocinha CrossFit is raw and human, and the story represents everything that is good and everything that is bad.”

I could have described CrossFit Vancouver the same way.

Quick Reach-Out:

Getting back to our Brazilian guest – Rogerio – who by the way, speaks fluent English, French and Spanish: he will be on a tight budget and will need a place to stay while in Vancouver.

Does anyone who lives close to CrossFit Vancouver have an extra room and the ability to house Rogerio for the month of February?

Let us know if you do!

– Eunice

I can’t over emphasize the importance of the strength day.  I wish the strength day hit was as addictive to all our students as our CrossFit MetCon’s.

Avoid the plateau. Lift Heavy, rest as needed, address your form faults, master the movement as best you can.

If you don’t know your 1 rep max – establish it today.  Then we can better plan and train with better purpose in the coming weeks.

MONDAY WORKOUT

Back Squat (3,3,3,3,3) somewhere around 80% of 1RM

Shoulder Press (3,3,3,3,3)

Roll and Stretch out after class.

Leaderboard will be your 3 rep max shoulder press.

T

Ray Lewis. Its hard to fake passion.

Saturday’s Skill/Tech/Str Element:

SumoDeadlift 1.1.1, 4 sets

Saturday’s Workout:

Partner – 2 Minute Defence

In teams of two, trading off rounds

1 Power Clean (135/95)
3 Hang Squat Cleans
2 Jerks
Run 200 Feet

20 Rounds (10 each)

Sunday

Make up day

A

Today’s Skill/Tech/Str Element:

Take fifteen minutes to find a heavy Thruster Triple, use a rack – don’t worry, we’ll be pulling off the floor again on Saturday

Today’s Workout:

9 Thrusters (95/65lbs), no rack
9 Pullups
2 minutes rest

6 Rounds
Subtract rest time from total time to find your score

A

Behdad Salimi snatches 214kg (470lbs!!!) with his 3rd attempt at the World Weightlifting Championship 2011 last month; making it look easy.

Today’s Skill/Tech/Str Element:

1 Snatch Balance + 3 Overhead Squats X 5

Today’s Workout:

7 Power Snatch (95/65lbs)
7 Box Jumps (24/19″)
7 Rounds

A

Today’s Warm Up:

Traveling Kick Up (to handstand) progressions

Version 1 requires you to kick up, stacking the shoulders and hips over the hands while keeping the knees tucked close to the chest.
Version 2 requires you to kick up, stacking the shoulders and hips over the hands while keeping the trailing leg as close to the ground as possible.

Kick up, get as close to the ideal position as possible, kick down, take a step foreword, and repeat the length of the gym (V1 first, rest, then do V2). Try to calibrate each kick up so that you find a brief moment of balance. Please note that object of the drill is to hone the kick up, not to try a handstand with every rep. This is a lot more tiring than it looks.

Today’s Skill/Teck/Str Element:

Ring Push Up Strength Work. Treat this like a heavy bench press session. Warm up, and then choose the hardest ring progression that you can do (knees, standard, bulgarian, archer, feet elevated, weighted, planche etc) for 6 sets of 3-5 reps. This is strength work, not conditioning work, so make it difficult, and take a lot of rest between sets.

Today’s Workout:

5 V Sit ups
7 Burpees
9/9 Single Dumbbell Hang Power Cleans
(normals use 40/25lbs, firebreathers use 45/30lbs)
Rounds in 12 min

A

A couple of notes re. MadLab tomorrow
1. Each team needs 4 players. No exceptions. Subs are allowed with a fitness rating equal to or less than the missing player.
2. We would love a few judges to help keep everyone in line.

A new study uncovers a relationship of between Vitamin D and muscle injuries, using 89 NFL players as test subjects.

A Vitamin D deficiency can cause or has been linked to rickets, depression, hyperparathyroidism, MS, chronic pain, diabetes, some cancer, hypertension, fatigue, and now, an increased chance of muscular injury. Get your levels tested. Tackle Anthony next time you see him at the gym, and ask him about the Vit D Level Testing Kit he offers through the proshop.

Today’s Skill/Tech/Str Element:

Max Vertical Jump. Take 3-4 attempts with plenty of rest between. This is test is part of our fitness rating (entered in cm). The vertical jump is a legitimate expression of power and coordination. The top 5 men and top 5 women get immortalized on the leaderboad at the gym.

Today’s Workout:

30 sec Row for Max Avg Watts, 2 min rest, 4-5 attempts
Divide your MAW by your body weight to find your score e.g.. 830/200lbs = 4.15

This will be you online leaderboard score

A

Athlete Profile: Laura M

Meet Laura (pictured on the right…about to get owned). Laura is one of our early morning dynamos; her smile, energy and drive are infectious. Laura is 10 months into her Crossfit career, and like many of you, she logs her workout weights and times in her training journal. But Laura also keeps detailed notes on some of the finer points of technique and workout strategy. In a Week 2 entry she clinically notes ‘grunting seems to help’, which, months later she refines to ‘swearing seems to help’.  I think she’s on the right track.

Laura is a holistic nutritionist and personal chef (Dan and I have sampled some of her grub, and he’ll back me up in saying its pretty awesome). She also keeps an often not so ‘paleo friendly’ but always yummy food blog called Always Room for Dessert .You should check it out.

Here’s a recipe from Laura:

Rib Eye Steak with Wild Mushroom Bacon Ragout
(Serves 2)

Rib eye has to be one of my favorite cuts of beef and chanterelle mushrooms are in season so take advantage!

2 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup chanterelle mushrooms, torn into pieces
10 strips bacon, sliced crosswise in 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 white onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1/2 cup low sodium beef stock (or chicken stock)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
s+p to taste
2 rib eye steaks, grilled, broiled or pan fried
kale, steamed
cherry tomatoes, roasted
2 eggs, sunny side up

1. In a medium size pan, fry bacon until crispy. Transfer bacon to a side plate and reserve bacon fat. Sample bacon, obviously for quality control purposes.

2. Add back 3 tbsp of bacon fat, saute onions until caramelized on medium high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic and thyme and cook until soft.

3. Add beef stock and balsamic vinegar, turn heat on high and reduce down until sauce becomes thick. Add bacon back in, season with salt and pepper.

4. Place kale and tomatoes on plate, add steak, mushroom ragout and a sunny side up egg because we all know everything tastes better with an egg on top.

Today’s Workout:

Barbara

20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

5 Rounds, rest precisely three minutes between each round.
Subtract rest time from your total time to find your score.

Note – there will be more pull-ups coming on Friday, so if you are prone to rip then tape up…if you are going to tape up, prep everything before hand so that class doesn’t have to wait for you…if you are going to tape up, then sign your name somewhere on your tape job so I know who to thank when I pick up ripped, bloody and discarded tape mess off the floor after everyone has left post-workout.

Andy