No-Bread Challengers – your food logs are due tomorrow. We should have them back to you by the next day. If you’d like to go over the logs in depth, let me know and we can plan a sit-down to discuss the journals.
Starting tomorrow, we will also be posting a ‘Skill of the Week‘. We hear people say “Oh, I should really work on this” or “Man, I wish I was better at that”. Well, now on days when you finish your warm-up early, or have extra time at the end of the class, you have something to focus on. We are hoping you use this opportunity to focus on some weaknesses and turn them into strengths. If you have any questions, please ask a coach.
We’re also continuing with assigning the racks for the strength portion of the class. It’s worked great for the past couple of weeks. As a reminder, before you begin your warm-up, please let the coach know what lift you are doing and your expected max weight. You will be assigned a rack number and may work with others during your strength routine. If you happen to finish your warm-up early, please use that time to work on the skill of the week (or mobility). This will help the strength component run more efficiently if everyone starts at the same time.
Check out our Trophy Case! It highlights some outstanding achievements by some of our members. If you’re name should be on one of the lists, shoot me an email.
Future events:
November 26 – Miss Movember 5k or 10k Run/Walk
November 27 – Strength Q&A with the Bainbridges (CF Fredericton) – 12pm
December 2 - Swimming WOD at Riverview Aquatic Center – 8:30-9:30pm (5 spots left)
Every November, men grow mustaches and collect money to help fight the disease and this year women want to help! Miss Movember will be Atlantic Canada’s first all-women’s running event, where women will choose to run either 5 km or 10 km along Riverview’s waterfront to lend their support to the ongoing fight against prostate cancer. It will be held Saturday November 26that 10:00am. with all proceeds going to Movember Canada. There are already four ladies from the gym that registered. If interested, please follow this link – Miss Movember.
Rob Brydges has agreed to do 1 burpee for every $2 raised by CF Moncton members. He’ll do the burpees on December 5th. To donate, please visit his link – Rob’s Moustache.
On November 27th at 12pm, Tony and Jodi Bainbridge, will be visiting the gym to discuss ‘strength’. They recently competed in PEI for the Easterns where Tony deadlifted 650# and Jodi pulled 347#. Needless to say, they know their shit.
The Swim Wod was such a good time and we can’t wait to do it again. December 2nd at 8:30PM is the next date. Bring in your $5 to hold your spot.
We have a Christmas social coming up on December 10th. And because of that, the No Bread Challenge will end on the 9th (instead of the 12th). Please sign up on the whiteboard if you and significant other plan on attending.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your responses will certainly help improve the gym in many ways. Although I won’t be installing a climbing wall any time soon (Marco).
The winner of the random draw was Dan Phillips! Congrats!
One of the comments I’d like to address today is about equipment. There were 85% of people that were either satisfied or very satisfied with the amount of equipment, but there were 10 comments about getting another rack. If a class is full, that’s 10 people with four racks. With a couple people doing deadlifts or cleans, there’s 2 people per rack.
Quick solution… ask to use a rack with someone. It shouldn’t matter what weight is on it. It takes a couple seconds to unload it. Just to give you an example, CrossFit Fredericton has class sizes of 16 and they have 4 racks. On Monday, every person is doing squats, so that’s 4 people per rack. And they are finished their strength work in 15 minutes.
See the picture below. It’s 4 people with weights ranging from 95-110#. They could all be using the same rack, freeing up the other racks for 6 more people.
I hate seeing people write “didn’t have enough time to finish”. Let’s work together on this to make the strength component run more efficiently.
If you don’t have a subscription to the CrossFit Journal, you should get one! It’s only $25 for a year.
Even if you don’t there’s still a ton of free articles that are outstanding. One of them is on the Foundations of CrossFit. If you have a few minutes today, take some time to read through this great article.
Did you see that guys back?! I’m sure he’s in a wheelchair today, because his discs must have snapped in half.
But seriously, you know when you see poor form. And that was absolutely terrible. What was he trying to do? Go for max weight and it didn’t matter what it looked like. He broke every rule in the book with regards to the fundamental basics of deadlifting. And for what? So he can tell everyone he lifted X amount.
Now the second video…
Notice there was nothing fancy. He did a muscle-up into an L-sit (VERY basic) and a few crosses (also nothing that spectacular). But his form was flawless. It was the definition of virtuosity – performing the common uncommonly well. It showed complete mastery of the very basics of gymnastics. And it was a thing of beauty.
How does this relate to the gym? Let me explain with a scenario.
You walk into the gym and see people throwing weight over their head in one smooth motion (the snatch). You immediately want to try that (because it looks freakin’ cool). But your overhead squat is sketchy. You have a hard time with a 45# bar. Actually, your air squat is a little rough too. Your knees cave in and you tend to roll forward on your toes.
BUT you want to snatch big weight!
Learn the basics. Practice the basics. Master the basics. If you don’t master the basics, then the next level gets exponentially more difficult. If your air squat is bomb proof, you have a solid overhead squat, the snatch will be easier to grasp.
Does that mean you should never snatch? No. But you need to focus on the fundamentals first. Become masters in the basic movements. Practice virtuosity.
We will soon have two new coaches at the gym, Patrick and Rob W. Today is their last day at the CrossFit Level 1 Certification. They left as boys and will return as men. In all honestly, I look forward to their return as they will have new-found knowledge and skills to share with us.
That brings me to another point. If you have a question about a workout, a movement, the weight you should use, or anything training related, ask a coach. There is always at least one coach at the gym at all times. If you’re not sure who the coaches are, take a look at the Trainers Page. Your friend, brother, cousin, wife, boyfriend may have good intentions with their advice, but they are not certified. Please leave the training to those who are qualified.
