Blog Archive

Some of you may have noticed Charlie Palmer’s absence.

After an eventful summer that included getting engaged, last week he had a run-in with his appendix (maybe too much fun at Nutts Cup?). A day later, he was in surgery getting his appendix removed.

He’s out of the hospital now, but apparently he’s on an all liquid diet and is likely bored out of his mind. So let’s give him some kind words to read while he rests up. Post to comments what you love about Charlie Palmer.

I love that he has time for everyone! He’s never in a rush to pursue his own selfish interests. Instead, he takes the time to really listen to people, to really give people the time we all deserve. Heal up, Charlie!!

Lesson Plan for Tuesday, August 27th:

Warm-up: 2 rounds

20 second handstand hold
20 second samson lunge hold (10s/leg)
12 burpees

Strength/Technique: Push Press (5,3,3,3,1,1)

For the sets of 3 and 5 reps pay particular attention to the form and rebound to string your push presses together.  This will pay off when the load is lightened and your efficiently string them together in the WoD.

WoD: Open Workout 12.3 (kinda)

AMRAP in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps (24/20)
12 Shoulder to Overhead (115/75)
9 Toes-to-bar

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I’m obnoxious. Vegans deserve love, too. (maybe).

Recently, I contemplated dating a vegan. But it was not meant to be. There I was texting him with chicken BBQ-ing on my deck, prosciutto in the salad, and a chub of salami and goat cheese looking delicious on my table. There is no room for a vegan in my life (probably for moral, as well as practical reasons).

UNTIL NOW??

That’s right – they’re making real MEAT without real meat!!! WTF??

Check it out: $380,000 of research and development went into producing this TEST TUBE BURGER – a burger made from 20,000 strips of lab-grown meat tissue combined with lab-grown animal fat.

Read More Here. And Here. Or HERE.

If this becomes a consumer viable product in the near future, I may be able to broaden my scope of datable subjects to the vegan community – the thought just blew my mind!

Lesson Plan for Monday, August 26th:

Warm up:  Two times through

10 rolls to v-sit with forward reach
20 hollow rocks
10 burpee

Strength:  This strength piece is the leaderboard for today.  2 parts, 35 minutes cap.

A1. Front Squat (5,5,5,5,5)

A2. Strict Pull-up 5 x M.E.*

I put the asterisk next to “Max Effort” to indicate it likely shouldn’t be a true max effort but one where you stop 1-3 reps shy to maximize the number of pull-ups you’ll do across all 5 sets.  Score is heaviest weight front squatted plus TOTAL number of pull-ups.

WoD:  300 Double-unders

Save 10 minutes at the end to go for this little test.  It’s one of the more advanced markers we’ll be using in the pocket coach for your fitness rating.

Bill 

Its back! Did you miss it? I did. This stuff works great on these olds bones (and my dandruff).

Epic Nutrients Mighty Omega Fish oil is now back in stock. Patty had to climb a mountain and fight a cave troll for this to happen but we got it!

Lucas Parker – Loves Mighty Omega

Why buy this fish oil? Check out epicnutrients.com. The site is excellent at educating readers about fish oil and tells you what sets Mighty Omega apart from the rest.

We are selling it in our vending machine which now has a credit card swiper thing!  The Pro Shop is selling it as well.

The cc swiper will also come in handy for all you folks when you go to buy your own skipping rope.

Mucho Amore,

Sheppy

Lesson Plan for Friday, August 23rd and Saturday, August 24th:

Friday

Warm-up: 3 rounds

10 kettle bell swing
10 box jump

Tech:  Hang Power Clean (3,3,3,1,1,1)

WoD:  3 rounds

15 hang power clean (135/95)
15 burpee

 Saturday:

Warm-up: Turkish Get-Up – max reps in 5 minutes (24kg, 16kg)

Tech: Warm-up WoD movements and set up stations

Partner WoD: 30 minute AMRAP

30 wall balls (20, 14)
20 burpee box jumps (24″, 20″)
10 strict pull-ups

Bumpy and Bilbo

The 100 bottles of wine are going to a happy home: The winner is Julie Robbilard, a brain scientist from UBC.

When the draw happened, Bill, Julie’s coach, ran outside to let his client know of her good fortune. Julie was out with friends that night. “I was pretty sure Bill was just drunk texting and that it was meant for someone else. Why would he ask me to call him on a Saturday night? Probably not to discuss my power cleans,” Julie said.

“I called back and he told me about winning the wine raffle and I honestly couldn’t believe it. I’m not usually lucky with these kinds of things, so it was an awesome surprise,” added Julie, who immediately started thinking of all the ways she could put the wine to good use. “I pretty much spent the rest of the ride home planning a giant party at my place.”

As for how long she expects it to take her to get through the wine, Julie joked: “I guess it depends on how many people show up to my party.”

Lesson Plan for Wednesday, August 21st:

Warm-up:  Spend a few minutes opening up the hips, knees and ankles then go for a light-ish 1 mile run.  Don’t kill yourself here as we’re going to do some more intense running to follow.

Test 1:  400m Ball Run

Test 2: Max continuous hollow rocks. (if your number is very low get in a few sets here)

WoD:  5 rounds

200m Ball Run (20/12)
12 pull-up

Laura (aka Hard Core) Mar is one of our morning crew chefs.

And she’s the owner of Snackbox, a company she started 5 months ago.

What is Snackbox?

Snackbox is a Canada-wide monthly subscription service that sends its customers a box of healthy, delicious snacks every month via Canada Post. Each month, members received a special curated box of snack foods and a new way to discover brands and foods they have never tried before. There’s a huge emphasis on gluten-free snacks.

In just five months, Laura’s company is growing fast – this month, they shipped out 500 snackboxes.

Pretty cool!

Check out their website: SNACKBOX

Laura has also created a coupon code: CROSSFITVAN. Enter the code and you’ll get $15 off your first snackbox.

Lesson Plan for Tuesday, August 20th:

Warm-up:  Set the clock for 7 minutes and work through this quick little chipper (not for time!)

5 pull-up
10 push-up
15 kettle bell swing
20 Cossack squat
25 hollow rock

If you finish this with some time left over jump on the rings and work through 5-10 reps of the following progression for the front lever.  Start by getting inverted then tuck (knees to chest) and lower yourself to hanging as SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE.  If getting inverted on the rings isn’t an option for you start working through the circuit above one more time.

Strength: Two pieces. 25 minutes to get it done.  Set up racks on one side of the gym floor and use the other half for dead lifting.

Sumo Dead Lift (3,3,3,3)

Press (3,3,1,1)

For the press, please help us in collecting some data by recording your heaviest triple and single on the white board next to your name.  These don’t have to be maxes but should be quite challenging.  On Thursday we’ll collect data on your handstand push-ups and body weight to make a comparison.  This data will be particularly useful for us if you’ve recently gotten handstand push-ups or don’t have them yet.  Thanks!

WoD:  Sasquatch

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

Sumo dead lift high pull (75/55)
Push press (75/55)

12 minute time cap.  Pick a weight where you won’t have to stop much to rest.

OK So I think it wise to prepare everyone for a good old Gaspesian (aka Madlab)  party.

Over the years we have gotten countless amounts of complaints, threats and emotional breakdowns from people who came to the  party with the wrong frame of mind (We used to say wrong people, but anyone can groove at one of these things, you just have to go with the flow, let go of a bit of control and trust those around you to take care of you…….get it.    )

Got it  

Here is the progression of any good party…..as keith Richards once said ” The best parties you only remember the vibe and images”

The vibe we want is…..LOVE!!!!

Any good party starts with a pre warm up.  Find at least one friend and tell them you love them and maybe who you have a secret crush on.  Let the love flow……..let go of the wheel.

Come to the “Lab” listen to some music, introduce yourself to some new people, chill and vibe.  

Notice sheppy vibing the “Meatloaf” on karoke night……He is a cool guy.  Terrible singer

Get your groove on wall flower………Don’t be a pussy, woman up and hit the dance floor!

Andy Sack = Foot loose

Chill talk laugh…..nothing going on here.  

DO NOT DRIVE!   WE HAVE A PERFECTLY GOOD ROOM TO CHILL.  

Ah fuck it why not?  What would Andy do?  He would go.  So should you.

Pretty simple.

Chill.  Love thy neighbour.  Forget your bullshit and live in the moment.

The world is a good place because our brother Andy sacrificed his life so we could have a great night of friendship, love and togetherness.

HAVE FUN!!!!

By the people for the people…………..THE DUDE AWARD!

Who in our community best exemplifies the strength of Character that Andy Nutts was so beloved for?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5Q7S3J6

A little history of the Dude award:

Awesome Crew!!!!   Best of the Best

Tomorrow stay tuned for “What to expect at a MADLAB PARTY?”  “Rules, party fouls and regulations of a MADLAB PARTY”

Patty  

Lesson Plan for Friday, August 16th:

Warm-up: 2 rounds

20 mountain climbers + 20 second plank hold at end
10 sit-ups
5 pull-ups/ring-rows (don’t make these too difficult, see below)

Tech: Two pieces.  Warm up to each before testing.

1.  Max weighted pull-up.

2.  Max reps push-ups.

You don’t have to kill yourself here, but we want to gauge where you’re at.

WoD: 15 minute AMRAP

6 pull-up
9 weighted sit-up (45/25)
12 weighted walking lunge (same plate as sit-ups)

Every year we honour our friend and comrade Andy Nutts by selecting a member of the community who most exemplifies his strength of character.

Andy was the most unique person I have ever met.  He was the most open hearted and giving person, always helping others, always staying late to clean up, paint or help a newbie with a difficult new skill.  But Andy was not a “nice” person in the way that all too often people who are labelled “nice” are either soft, weak or fake.  He was a strong dude and spoke his mind when shit didn’t sit right with him.  He was in trouble lots, especially in his first year in the military (he got in trouble for speaking out).

He was also cool as hell, and FUNNY!  He would take one for the team, get in a fight for you, help the slow kid in class, get pissed drunk and pick up the pretty girl at the dance, then bike to work in the rain to teach the 6am class.   HE WAS A DUDE!!!

So we have a request for you.  Every one of you……….nominate someone from our community who best personifies “The Dude”.

Post your nomination to comments.  Feel free to explain why.  Our first winner of this award was a Pinky…….so feel free to nominate from either gender.  Chicks can be Dudes too.  

Patty

Lesson Plan for Monday, August 12th:

Warm-up: 3 quick pieces for this today

1. Hip and shoulder mobility lengths.
2. 3 rounds of 10 sit-up, 10 back extension/good morning
3. 3 rounds of 5 box jump, 10 goblet squat (really explode upward on those jumps)

Strength WoD: Back Squat Walking Lunge Mash-up

5 rounds for weight

5 Back Squat
20 meter weighted walking lunge

For the walking lunges use kettle bells in either the goblet hold or single/double rack position.  Rest as needed between rounds and exercises.  Score will be the sum total of your heaviest paired back squat and walking lunge sets.