Spring Time, Fresh Class, more Kettlebells and Wallballs

First Xfit class of 2016, its been a while since I coached a class. I have a great group for this spring class, everyone is eager to learn and trusted me enough to smash their shins on the box going for a max box jump.

yesterdays WOD was a running baseline that I borrowed from my coach.

Running Baseline
400m run
40 squat
30 situps
20 pushups
10 pullups

Jenny ended up taking the box jump with a 34" leap, and Carrie took the baseline with a 4:58 RX

New Year New Challenge Whole Life Challenge

It’s a new year, and again, I have been slacking on my blogging. Today I embark on a new challenge, The Whole life Challenge. My wife and I are getting settled in a new home, a permanent home in Burns Lake, BC. My home gym is coming together, I have a space set aside for it, and the squat rack is set up, I just need to get a gym floor in there. My wife found out about a cool, paleo, lifestyle challenge through our friends at Bodyshop Crossfit in West Kelowna, BC.

The Challenge is run through the wholelifechallenge.com website and for the next 56 days, we organize our life around the WLC 7 Daily Habits:

1.       Eat by the WLC rules you choose at the level that is right for you. Make conscious choices that support your vision for a healthy lifestyle. Earn up to 5 points daily for nutrition.

2.       Exercise for at least 10 minutes each day. We recommend 3-5 “workouts” each week. The other days you’ll earn your points by being active. Ride your bike, surf, hike, even take an invigorating walk at sunset. This is your time to move daily. You earn 2 points for exercise.

3.       Stretch for at least 10 minutes each day. You earn 2 points for stretching.

4.       Water One third of your body weight in oz. of water each day (20 ml per kg). You earn 1 point for water.

5.       Supplement with a dietary supplement that would make a difference for your body if you took it every day. You earn one point for your supplement.

6.       Live the WLC weekly lifestyle practice – things like sleep, meditate, & supporting others. You earn 1 point each day you complete the weekly lifestyle task.

7.       Reflect at the end of each day and check in with how it went and how you’re doing. No amount of numbers can paint the whole picture. Your daily reflection helps you see how the challenge is really going. You earn 1 point daily for your reflection.

Our LIFESTYLE PRACTICE for Week 1 of the Whole Life Challenge is to practice Mindfulness for 10 minutes each day.

     What does that mean? Every day of week 1, starting on Saturday, January 17 and ending Friday, January 23 I will earn my lifestyle points for participating in a practice of mindfulness each day, 

·         Mindfulness can come in the form of meditation, prayer, or journaling

·         Any form of meditation or prayer counts

·         Any form of journaling counts, even if you develop “writers block” and have a hard time actually putting pen to paper for the full 10 minutes

·         Any combination of the above two is also acceptable. If you choose to meditate or reflect for a short period and then journal about it for the remainder of the 10 minutes, you can do that as well.

So this is where I’m at, completing my mindfulness task of the day blogging to you. I encourage you all to check out this website and try it out. Be a part of my Cannon Strength and Conditioning team. I hope to continue on this journey and complete the next Challenge starting May 2^nd as well. I hope you will be a part of that challenge with me.

Now on to the fun part, in order to start the challenge we must take before pictures, take measurements, step on the scale, and complete an introductory workout. I plan to use the WLC Fall 2014 Official Workout.

In 11 minutes:

Row/Run 500 m, 1000m, or 1500m(choose a distance you can finish in 6 minutes or less)

In the time remaining, complete as much of the following list as you can:

30 Air Squats

30 Sit Ups

30 Plank Ups

40 Lunges

40 Bicycles

40 Push Ups

50 Squat Jumps

50 Flutter Kicks

50 Mountain Climbers

100 Burpees

Your score is the total number of reps you complete.

Notes:

- Don’t worry – this workout was not designed to actually be finished in less than 11 minutes – just get as far as you can in the list and count all your reps as points.

- Your choice in run/row distance must remain the same for both your prelim and the final inventory.

So enjoy! And start following again, because, I’m back baby! 

Here is a little taste of the new digs...

5050 Burpee Challenge

Hi all, as promised, here is the layout for the 100 day Burpee Challenge. For our challenge it will be called the "5050 Burpee Challenge". We will start on Feb 1st! This challenge will have a different layout than the way my CrossFit Kelowna friends did theirs. We will keep a continuous burpee count. All burpees completed in the 100 days count, and your end total will be 5050 in 100 days. You can do as many or as few per day as you like. So long as end with 5050 burpees. The simplest method would be to do 51 burpees per day for 99 days, then  on day 100 do one perfect burpee to complete the challenge. 

We will start on Feb 1st and Finish May 11

This challenge is for fun, and all you will get in return is the satisfaction that you accomplished 5050 burpees in 100 days. Please don't do these burpees for time every day, as it is likely your form will fall apart and you are likely to hurt yourself. We aren't looking to blow up shoulders, bruise knees or puke... This challenge is to improve your form, increase your efficiency and to help us all feel ready to do burpees.

For those of you that somehow managed to read through all that while not knowing what a burpee is... Here you go. 

Please work to improve your form, after all this challenge isn't just to beat you up. Check out the following video from Carl Paoli. I have also added some links as well to help give you some ideas to improve your burpees.

Burpee Skill Transfer pt 1 Gwod
Burpee Skill Transfer pt 2 Gwod
Burpee Skill Transfer pt 3 Gwod
Burpee Skill Transfer pt 4 Gwod
Burpee Skill Transfer pt 5 Gwod
Burpee Skill Transfer pt 6 Gwod


Now make a plan and stick to it. My plan is to do 5 sets of 10 throughout the day each day. The original method for this was to do a ladder, each day completing one more burpee than the day before. Day one, one burpee, day two, two burpees.. and so on. You could do it this way if you choose, but it creates a large volume of burpees in the end and creates a possibility of over-training. Another smart option would be 3 days on 2 days off. this would allow for a recovery period, but would up you volume per day to 85...

Please comment and let us know that you are going to be completing the challenge with us. And let us know what your plan is, it may help someone else get through the challenge. Keep motivated and hit those burpees every day!

New T-shirt Logo for 2013!

I have been working on a new logo for a little while now, finally I added it to my store. As I have mentioned before any money from the sales of these shirts goes into Cannon Strength & Conditioning. This includes but is not limited to buying equipment, setting up a brick and mortar business, and education. By Purchasing Cannon Strength & Conditioning you are supporting my dream of owning a gym and running it full time. This year I  made four sales in my online store, this is less than I would have liked, but I haven't been promoting enough either. 

Moving forward I  promise to make at least one post a month. the contents of which will be a combination of what is happening in my little gym, news related to the fitness industry, and anything else that seems to be running through my head.

Today, More heavy lifting.

 After a weekend of horrible eating... I mean delicious, but horrible. I had a really rough Monday, so I pushed back my squat deadlift day to today. My stomach feels better, but felt a little drained had only 4 egg muffins for breakfast. 

My calf is still injured from practicing POSE, obviously not practicing correctly. I hope that my Calf feels better for Thursday, so I can try again. But I will only do 100m sprints this week and progress slowly.

Squat

135 x 5

225 x 5

305 x 5

225 x 5

 Deadlift

225 x 5

315 x 5

425 x 5

425 is harder than I remember it being... I went to a power lifting grip for my heavy set. My goal is slowly getting closer, I still plan to hit 500 x 5 but it might be harder than first thought.

I really need to tighten up my diet if I am going to keep hitting PR's It is always the weekend that is hard on me. During the week I can control myself.

Four Animal Stew And a Poor Training Day

 The two subjects in the title are not related.

I figured I would tell everyone about my four animal stew.(Paleo Dish Elk Stew Recipe modified with acouple extra animals....) I replace the Elk with Moose and Buffalo (simply because I didn't have any Elk left), and I used Beef and Chicken broth. Hence the name.

Training today sucked... Feeling a little discouraged, but give me a minute and I will get over myself. Got interrupted just as I got strapped into the rower. that took 20min. So by the time I rot my row started I decided to skip heavy squats. My row was alright 1.37.3 (500m) for a good warmup. Did a quick 30 air squats to grease the joints up a bit. Got into bench, failed hard on my first work set. 3/5 at 205lbs, week sauce. So I pealed my belt off and stomped out in a rage. Oh, that's my minute, I'm done!

I mentioned that the stew didn't cause my poor training. however I am pretty sure the giant chunk of apple crumble, and three huge scoops of ice cream may have had something to do with it.

Diet today is better so far today, although I haven't thought about dinner. Breakfast 4 hard boiled n3 eggs. lunch giant bowl of four animal stew as I type. 

Directive, Where will I go with this Blog/ Theorietical Hierarchy of Development

My though with this blog first was to bring fitness information to my friends who care to follow it. Now with the closing of our beloved CrossFit Kelowna, I am thinking that we need more. For now I will make sure I post something at least once a week. Then once I get some equipment in hand I will start posting workouts every day. That way people can do them at home or come to my place and get your sweat on. I will be building Plyo boxes, dip stations and putting up a pullup bar right away so stay tuned. Enough Info for today, more to come...

Theorietical Hierarchy of Development

Hey everyone, look how simple it is to be awesome….. lol. All you have to do is follow this simple pyramid!

Starting with eating right, not dieting, just eating right. I want everyone to make simple changes, like eliminating bread! Start there, that is the easiest one I found. Then add something, more green leafy stuff. You get it right! Keep it going!

Now that you are making positive changes in your fuel source all of a sudden you seem to be getting faster? Crazy right? Not really, makes perfect sense, if you are feeding your body high octane fuel, it will use it more efficiently. Then keep crushing wods and you will start to lose body fat. Making you more efficient!

Wow, now you are feeling good, moving faster, and leaning out. So what happens next… Your strength to bodyweight ratio gets better, and your bodyweight exercises get easier! Well that was an easy improvement I didn’t even have to do any extra work!