Blog Archive

Just a reminder about the hours this weekend.

LONG WEEKEND HOURS:

Friday June 28th: Normal
Saturday June 29th: Normal (10am and 11am)
Sunday June 30th: 11am ONLY
Monday July 1st: CLOSED

Congrats again to Patty and Audrey

It seems like an over touched on subject by me; there is probably a reason why I can talk for hours on movements you classify as no-brainers. I will persist. Some youthful performance junkies aim around the idea of “living fast and dying young”; the veteran version of this mindset sits around “living faster and dying sooner”. There is always the other path of living a little slower and dying a little later. Regardless of your direction, not taking in the unforeseeable/random, I can assume you would enjoy living at the highest of quality. We would like to feel amazing (in life/in gym/naked), look amazing (in life/in gym/naked), and perform amazing (in life/in gym/naked). The keys to a fast high quality lifestyle (in life/in gym/naked) and a long high quality lifestyle (in life/in gym/naked) are in the preparation:

1. Mobility (foam roller, lacrosse ball, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation)

Before we start jumping around, take the time to release the restrictions. Tight shoulder, junkie hip, non existant ankle flexion are all issues that can flare up in the heat of moment. Establish some normal(or something better than usual) range of motion and restore some regular function to your joints and muscles. Free yourself.

2. Dynamic Warm Up (dynamic stability exercises)

Move your body through various ranges of motion that require you to stabilize. Squating, compass lunging, toe touches, pulls, reaches, and other exercises that stimulate. With billions of options you can warm up every corner of your bodies joints and tissues. Lubrication is key for effective movement. *These should be easier now if you have taken step 1.

3.Corrective Work (activation, strengthening, cueing)

Re-pattern your body to fire on all cylinders. Supine bridges,  band external rotation cueing, band pull aparts, overhead lunges, hollow body ring rows, weighted situps are all examples. We all have individual postural/structural/neurological imbalances, not one exercise will be necessary for everyone. Alignment is essential for your body to function correctly and not compromise. Know what your imbalances are, you are in the right place. MadLab.

4. Strength/Power/Skill (lift, swing, pull, jump, land, sprint)

It’s tech time, dial in movement quality and develop your understanding. Move with precision throughout the desired rep range and build your capacity. When we load the movement pattern we provide significant stress on our bodies to make the gains we so love to achieve. Force application is here, use the tools from correction to enhance your potential. Quality begets quality, crap begets crap.

5. Performance (GPP, SPP, Sport, Wod, Play)

Time to take everything you have been training for and put it to the test. Push yourself relative to where your capacity is (edge of the cliff, not the jagged rocks down below). The human body is an adaptable machine and is capable of handling so much more than you could imagine. Dial in your movements, chase performance. Exceed what you thought was possible without compromising your future, be mindful of your movements. Neglect leads to failure. You got this.

6. Cool down. Sleep well, eat well, and recover like a champion.

7. Repeat steps 1-6 regularly, fast or long.

Who wants to live forvever?

Chesty

Friday:

Warm-up: 20 minutes of mobility – Coaches Choice (ankles, hips, hamstrings, shoulders)

Tech:

– Weighted Pistols (holding a DB or KB in the goblet position) 3 sets of 4/4
– Overhead pistols (Can you do a 45 lb. bar OH Pistol??) 3 sets of 4/4

If you’re not ready pistols, let alone weighted pistols, try a few different progressions (counter weight, heal on a plate, one-legged squat to box, pistol on a box with leg dangling over the edge…) before choosing the best progression for the workout. Really focus on making sure your knee doesn’t move inside and that your heals stay on the ground!

Workout: Mary

20 minute AMRAP:

5 HSPU (negatives or DB shoulder press for progressions)
10 Pistols
15 Pull ups

Saturday:

Veteran Kim ‘Mama Bear’s’ other workout request was the Bear Complex, so here it goes!

Warm-up: Bear Complex with an empty bar

Bear Complex – complete the following in order 3 consecutive times without dropping the bar. REPEAT!

1 Power Clean
1 Front Squat
1 Push Press
1 Back Squat
1 Push Press (then down to a touch and go to start the next power clean)

Old School CrossFit WOD DEMO video:

WORKOUT #1: Set the clock at quarter after the hour allow 15 minutes to establish max weight Bear Complex.

***Again, I want you to go through the BEAR COMPLEX 3 CONSECUTIVE TIMES! This means you’re doing the entire sequence from the power clean to the push press from behind the neck 3 TIMES before dropping the bar!

Record your max weight lifted in those 15 minutes.

WORKOUT 2: At half past the hour, allow 15 minutes for athletes to do 3 max calorie rows in one minute.

Athletes you choose your rest, but you have 15 minutes to get on the rowing machine 3 times. Each time, you row all out for one minute and record how many calories you get each minute.

REST BETWEEN QUARTER TO AND TEN TO THE HOUR

WORKOUT 3: At ten to the hour, begin TABATA DB SNATCHES! (50/35 lbs)

Keep track of your TOTAL amount of DB snatches in those 4 minutes of Tabata intervals.

LEADERBOARD is the sum of your MAX LOAD LIFTED, your TOTAL CALORIES FROM ALL THREE MINUTES plus your TOTAL AMOUNT OF DB SNATCHES.

Ex:

Max Bear Complex: 100 lbs
Max Calories from all three minutes: 50
Max DB Snatches from all 8 intervals: 50

Score: 200

SUNDAY: Make up Day

– EUNICE AND KERM SIGNING OFF FOR JUNE PROGRAMMING!!!!

MovNat is movement re-education. Its ninja training. Its a system that teaches you how to move naturally with ease, power and grace.

Join us July 28th for a MovNat workshop at CFV, lead by Jon Randles.

Learn Fundamental MovNat Techniques and practice their variations. Develop competency in locomotive skills such as crawling, climbing, running, jumping, and manipulative skills like lifting, carrying, throwing and catching. Refine your movements, effectively increase balance, strength, mobility, agility, and power.

There are only a few spots left, so check your schedule and sign up Here.
Andy

I’ve been at CrossFit Vancouver for almost ten months now and I had initially only planned on staying for the autumn months and then heading back home at Christmas, taking a ton of knowledge and experience with me. Usually at the end of a process like this you are asked to give a testimonial. I never did. So here one goes…

It’s been about a year now since I decided to come to Vancouver and start the Apprentice program. When I initially came to CFV I had no intention of sticking around, to be honest I thought I was showing up for three solid months of nothing but grueling grinders, constant strength sessions and a year round paleo challenge. I was wrong on so many levels.

I was a tunnel vision CrossFitter who was nothing more than a want to be regional competitor. As I began to shadow TBear and spend more time around the CFV crew, one thing became fairly obvious very quickly. The hard core, elite gym I thought I was arriving at was more of a country club, filled with folks who wanted nothing more than to get in a work out, maybe chat about their day with some friends and then head home to have a glass of wine… or two.

As the clock ticked on my CFV experience I began to appreciate the community more and more. I learned that people around here aren’t judged solely on their Fran time, or what their max snatch is. I know this all sounding completely cliche, but it’s true.

Ill back track a bit and here and just tell you about my life before I came to CFV.

I would wake up at 4:30, eat a paleo breakfast and pack a paleo lunch. I’d be downtown Toronto by 6:00 start work at 6:30, (I was a pipe-fitter). Leave work at 3:30, head to the gym, arrive by 5:00, workout and coach a little. Leave the gym by 8:00. Home, shower, paleo dinner, bed.

The point of this isn’t to be a sob story, the point is that I needed to slow down. I kid you not when I say I don’t think I had any “fun” in two solid years. CrossFit felt like a job but I wasn’t about to give that up, it was the only thing keeping me sane, and as far my career was going, I wasn’t happy their either.

This is what lead me to CFV. I love CrossFit and what it has taught me in the last two years, but what I learned about myself while at CFV is that I have much more to offer and much less to worry about than I realized prior to my start as apprentice.

I could go on an on about why this place is awesome and why the people are so great. Their a few people specifically who have played a huge role in turning me from a “want to be” to  just me. You know who you are. Certain folks around here have gone out of their way to show me around the city, invite me in to their homes and get me out doing things that have nothing to do with CrossFit.

I came to Vancouver to learn how to be a better athlete and coach, what I’ve received is far more than that, I’ve become a better human being.

For that, I thank you all.

Tom

Warm-up:

3 Rounds:

15 GH Bridges
10 Push ups
10 Banded Side Steps each leg

Strength:

20 meter Sled Pushes: 5 ALL-OUT EFFORTS each

– There are only 2 sleds, so we’re going to have to share. Load one up with 135 lbs for men and one with 95 lbs for women. This won’t feel all that heavy but it will allow you to get some speed behind the sled

– If it’s raining, do this inside. If it’s dry, clear the parking lot of cars and do it there

Alternate Sled Pushes with:

6/6 Bulgarian Split Squats with DBs or KBs (5 sets)

Workout: Annie

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders
Sit-Ups

Eunice and Kermit

FIRST

Morning men Robert and Russ are hosting a Youth Warriors Fundraiser at the Charlatan on Commercial Drive tonight – June 26th. Come out and get to know some morning people. And raise some money for Youth Warriors.

$25 includes burger and a drink.

SECOND: Veteran’s Appreciation WEDNESDAY

You can thank Kim “Mama Bear” Neil for this warm-up! The rest of her veteran workout will appear this Saturday.

When Kim first walked through the doors, she wasn’t sure about CrossFit. She was wearing what Sheppy calls a “Power Suit,” sporting the sexy woman look. She looked at Sheppy with inquisitive skepticism, giving him the full-on CSIS investigation before making her decision. “I don’t know, should I do this? Is it worth it?” asked Mama Bear. After careful evaluation, she decided CrossFit was a good idea – maybe it was Sheppy’s boyish good looks that sold her.

Since then she has become a veteran of this place, and we really should collectively thank Kim. She always takes the time to make new students feel welcome in class – she gets my vote for Most Helpful Veteran. Thanks for all you do, Kim!

Warm-up: 800 meter Indian Ball Run

Tech: STRICT WORK

5 sets of 8-12 STRICT toes to bar (progression is strict knees to chest or v-sits)

5 sets of STRICT Handstand push-ups – choose a number you can maintain for all five sets (progression is seated DB shoulder press)

Workout:

Max Burpees in 1 minute

Rest 2 minutes

Repeat 4 times

LEADERBOARD: Total burpees for all 4 minutes combined

No-Repper’s are becoming more present in our society. Excessive no-repping can elicit many bad habits and lead to unsavoury lifestyles: lying to family members, missing work to no-rep, bouncing cheques at the casino. Immediate affects can be seen in losses of integrity, respect from others, and premature celebration. The long term affects are far more serious; we see poor movement patterns leading to movement amnesia, isolation from loving communities, and decreases in fitness levels coupled with increased injury rates. The condition is here, know the who’s who.

Pathological Reppers
These people are uncoachable, blackout during workouts, and are in dire need of an intervention. You can find them half squatting, bent arm swinging, clapping overhead, and overloading the barbell beyond their capacity. Maintenance of good form in just about anything can be difficult due the amount of exposure they have had to ‘that’ll do’. They see failure to achieve full range as a “near miss”; these near misses are seen as near wins and now overload the brain with endorphins that reestablish their sense of good. The repper feeds on this like an opiate, looking to reach wod orgasm again and again. This contant cycle makes it very difficult for the body to know what good form feels like; in the end, a vicious cycle ensues and without appropriate help the repper injures and may disappear for a few weeks.

Non Pathological Reppers
These people socially no rep but don’t exhibit any problematic behaviour. You will usually find these folk scattered amongst the crowds, missing the occasional rep and sharing the comment with a fellow repper. They engage with coaches and are often aware that form or range is being compromised. In movements, you’ll find every third or twelfth rep missed. They will attempt all load vectors with average to acceptable form and attentively push beyond. Neurologically the need to win can be quite unexcited and, in many situations, the repper may even correct his/her own fault. You will usually find these people making consistent gains across the board and only suffering injuries by neglecting quality. Unfortunately there are no reps present and awareness to them can lie dormant for years.

The 2 reppers react differently to missed repetitions. Pathological reppers get a mental high from the no reps; they promptly put down another no rep. Non pathological reppers exhibit different behaviour: the near miss or no rep triggers feelings of apprehension and prompts them to stop before it gets worse. It is unclear if the pathological reppers are born this way or if they have been exposed to PSN (Postural Structural Neurological) faults. This directly impacts their neurochemistry, so can we really hold them accountable for their reps? Absolutely!

Stop committing repetition suicide, it affects more than yourself. We all have a responsibility to look after one another and promote a healthy way of life. Life is movement. Movement requires fitness. Fitness is increased work capacity. Health is sustainable fitness over your life. Life is movement.

Repetition is the father of learning,

Chesty

Tuesday:

Tech:

5 sets of 2 Squat Cleans (they don’t have to be touch and go, but do 2 heavy squat cleans within 10 seconds of each other)

Alternate with

5 sets of 5 weighted ring dips (scale accordingly)

Workout: Regional 2013 Individual Event 7

4 Rounds:

2 Rope Climbs
Sprint (out to Nutts Finish Line and Back)
4 Squat Cleans (185/115)

12 minute time cap

The Regional weight was 225 lbs for men and 135 lbs. for women, so if you’re up to the challenge try that weight, but I’d rather see good quality squat cleans at a slightly lower weight.