Blog Archive

Don’t you find it so hard to get the ice pack in the right spot…………
Here is the solution!

Fellow Crossfitter Jason Noel will be in the school on Monday (6.30am and again in the afternoon/evening). Demoing and selling these wraps.

The feedback that I have heard is that they are amazing!

So make sure you are around Monday to learn and purchase

Dashie

I love this site. Love it.

Exuberant Animal

Anyone know what a meme is? Neither did I.

“A meme is simply a unit of culture that replicates, with variation across space and time. The word was first made popular by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 bestseller, The Selfish Gene. The basic idea is that memes behave like genes. They make copies of themselves and spread out into the cultural environment. And like genes, they mutate, spinning off variations that may or may not survive in the wild. Some memes replicate in astonishing num- bers and remain viable for years or even centuries, while others quickly perish.”

Founder of Exuberant Animal, Frank Forencich, has written an interesting essay talking about the popularization of the word “Paleo” as a meme and all of its spin offs. Both informative and entertaining, the article calls for a more holistic undertaking of what is meant by paleo instead of “cherry picking” part of this fascinating era to further our interests. Definitely widened my perspective. Which is always a good thing. Give it a go.

The State of the Meme

As much as I liked the article I did have to disagree with him about cartoon paleo. As if The Flintstones weren’t real.

Saturday’s Workout:

Double Grace

60 Clean and Jerk (135/95 lbs)

For Time

If you are doing HPC on Sunday do not do this workout.

Sunday’s Workout: Make Up Day

Sheppy Out.

Lon Kilgore has written an awesome article about different kinds of athletic shoes and how to rate them for your use. He is an excellent writer. From his choice of subject matter to his ability to communicate scientific ideas to the lay person (me) I believe he is one of the Journal’s most prized assets.

I really liked how he compared the bar path on squats between weightlifting shoes and running shoes. Very telling.

Read the article here.

Our very own Tony Leyland is another CF Journal juggernaut. This summer while on sabbatical he is going to research tolerances to foods seemingly bad for you by Paleo standards. The Dutch diet is full of dairy, bread and beer yet they are some of the healthiest humans on the planet (look at Andy Swartz). Why is that? Is the Paleo diet really for everyone? Is there a genetic bias for tolerances to gluton and dairy? Don’t know where the research will be published but it will nevertheless be super interesting.

This is just a sample of the excellent journalism and material made available to us by the CrossFit Journal. They also use lots of video in the publications. Its only $25 a year. Guaranteed huge bang for your buck.

Sign up for The CrossFit Journal here.

I actually put the shoe article up in our Project Endurance section for our awesome runners. Loved it so much I just had to share with the rest of you. (Pardon the shameless Project Endurance plug – we are doing another this summer!) This Saturday is the final session of PE. Runners are going to be testing themselves against their first day with PE – A 2 mile run. Should be really interesting to see the results.

Friday’s Workout:

The Hellenator – Sort Of.

You and a partner will trade rounds of Helen for 40 minutes.

EXCEPT!! WallBalls will be done instead of KB Swings.

400 m Run
21 Wall Balls (20/14 lbs)
12 Pull Ups

Actual hand tag is required to trade off the round.

Write your names and rounds on the front board.

I know. Its raining.

Inset a rub on the back from Sheppy here.

Now get in here and kill this WOD.

Muah!

Shep

Mark the date: Saturday, August 11th. If there’s a CF Vancouver event that you want to be at, it’s this one!

Sheppy described last year’s Nutts Cup as, “One of the most memorable days ever at our box.” Competitor Pete ‘Big Baby’ O’Sullivan called it, “The most fun CrossFit competition ever.”

Team No No

From the military presence, to the pig on a spit roasting in the parking lot, to the emotions released when we honoured Andy Nutts, to Lemonade Rob’s potent drinks, to the elite CrossFit athletes who competed, last year’s competition had people talking for weeks.

Here’s some footage of last year’s Nutts Cup, which also made it onto the news hour on Global TV.

This year we are following some of the same trends, and are adding some new ones.

Format: Teams of three (two men and one woman)

Entry Fee: $120 per team

Teams: Maximum 30 teams

Prize: $3000 for first, with smaller cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd

REGISTRATION WILL OPEN IN A COUPLE SHORT WEEKS, so stay tuned.

We will also bring back the Caveman Cookout crew to roast us a pig and Lemonade Dan to make us his infamous drinks. And, of course, the after party will remain intact.

However, a couple new features include:

1. An event specifically for newbies to CrossFit (details to come).
2. This year, Nutts Cup will be a fundraiser for youth at risk. Charlie Palmer has been working with the Take a Hike charity for a number of years now, so we’re going to help raise money for his kids.

NUTTS CUP: THE HISTORY

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Andy Nutts, he was a beloved coach here in Vancouver. He wanted to make a difference in life, so he joined the Canadian Army. He achieved his dream of leading men into combat when he secured the most sought after role in the Canadian Military – platoon leader in Afghanistan.

Andy led from the front and was killed in Afghanistan at the end of 2009.

He was a special human being.

In 2010, we held the first ‘Nutts Cup’ to commemorate his life. CrossFit Vancouver members brought their friends, newbies to CrossFit, who participated in their first CrossFit workout. We had more than 200 people here participating. Then, to top it off, the veteran firebreathers bravely attempted the Nutts Hero WOD. In the end, 2010 Games competitor Garth Prouse took it down on the men’s side, while Eunice topped the women.

In 2011, we turned Nutts Cup into a team competition. Andy Nutts was a socializer, so we wanted to make his event representative of who he was. We had 30 teams of three compete with $5000 up for grabs, and in the end Andy, Max, and Joy took home to cup, beating out an American team made up of two of the best CrossFitters in the world, Ashleigh Moe and Noah Peters (both individual CrossFit Games athletes).

Read a story about Nutts from the CrossFit Journal last August:

What Would Andy Do – CrossFit Journal

More details will come in the upcoming weeks and months.

EUNICE

Thanks for that Punky. I’m betting it is going to be another really special day.

Thursday’s Workout:

Tech: Double Unders
Deadlift – 1 Rep SAFE Max – 1, 1, 1

Safe max means not your pure 1 rep max. Moreover its something around 90% of your 1 repper that you can do with impecable form.

Workout: CrossFit Games 2009 Mid Atlantic Qualifier

10 Deadlifts (275/185 lbs)
50 Double Unders

x 3 For Time

A very testing combination of brute strength mixed with speed, agility and coordination. Winning time for men was 2:52 and women 3:01. Bad. Ass.

Do not be afraid to scale the weight to get the appropriate hit.

One Love,

El Shepardo

No. We are not talking about Christian Louboutin.

Athletic shoes. We need different types for different sports.

The great thing about running is that all you need to do it is shoes.

Or do you?

I have attached a great CrossFit Journal article written by Lon Kilgore. He discusses the in and outs of how to rate shoe and tries to make sense of these crazy foot harnesses we wear all the time.

Rate Your Shoe – Lon Kilgore

Please give it a read.

And please post your times and such for this week’s homework.

Cheers!

Sheppy

Join us on Wednesday, April 4th any time after 7 pm for a goodbye celebration for Corey and his family, who are about to head off on their European Adventure.

Corey and his lovely wife Sunghee

Corey will also be doing the pre-screening of the Wreck Beach Naked Fran that night. Find out who the nine brave souls were who stripped down and flopped around on a pull up bar last weekend…

Check out the FACEBOOK EVENT.

Please bring some wine, cheese, or chocolate to the celebration to share.

Also, thanks to one of Corey’s loyal clients, Chantale ‘Too Tall,’ we will be raffling off prizes, as well.

For more info or how to help (or donate prizes for the raffle), call Too Tall at 778-288-5148, or email her at chantale.fournier@gmail.com

Thursday is my last day at CFV and Too Tall has generously volunteered to organize our farewell party which will also be a pre-screening party for our Naked Fran video.

I hope that you can come say goodbye.

7pm Wednesday April 4th at CFV

Too Tall has kindly created this event as a fund raiser but Sunghee and I have received so much from you already that the only gift we ask or hope for is you. There is nothing more valuable that you can share with us!

Whether you can attend or not I am writing this to you:

No, not some other person.
YOU are the person I want to share this with!

But first I must say thank you! Thank you for your love and support. Thank you for helping feed my family. Thank you for helping feed my ambitions, my dreams, my courage and my confidence.

Thank you for teaching me about myself, about life, about CrossFit!

In your own way, you have contributed to my life and your contribution has been as unique and individual as you are. So many people have shared their gift with me but not one has given the exact gift that was yours to share. I am so grateful for you!

You have made the next stage of this adventure, that I call life, possible.

I will miss you.

As of March 31st I will no longer be your coach, but I hope that you will always consider me your friend.

Though our travels may include stretches without internet access, I am only an email away and as your friend I look forward to hearing from you, helping you and yes, maybe even coaching you when you ask for it (or sometimes even when you don’t).

We will keep you updated on our adventures by regularly updating our website www.crossfitempower.com. I hope that you visit. If something we share inspires or interests you please take the time to comment. It means so much to us to hear from you and to know that you are with us in the faraway places we will travel to.

The world is full of wonderful new friends waiting to meet us but we will always miss you and cherish your friendship.

My CrossFit journey hasn’t ended, it is only just beginning.

I hope the same is true for you.

There is nothing more important or more valuable than your health. No amount of money can compensate for the loss of health. Happiness is not sustainable without your health. Your health is the greatest investment you will ever make. You owe yourself and your loved ones the greatest health.

I have never claimed that CrossFit is the only path to health but it is the best one that I know. I have never claimed that CrossFit Vancouver is perfect but it is the best CrossFit facility, the best community and has the best coaches I have known.

If our time together has left you with anything, I hope that it is the committment to be healthy so that you can enjoy life and all its’ pleasures and treasures. I will never stop wanting that for you, however far away I travel.

Please share with me your successes, your triumphs, your challenges.

I hope that I will always be more than just your CrossFit coach!

With all my heart,

Corey

And for those of you staying fit at home, here’s some inspiration courtesy of Pirate Sox: