We are less than 24 hours away from the start of the Canada Regionals Qualifier.

Please be advised, the 6.7k X-C run Friday night will happen - come rain, snow or shine. Please plan accordingly. Extra shoes, warm clothes, rain jackets and harsh weather gear are all strongly recommended. Team members will find themselves waiting at points in the course for their turn to run - there will be no shelter at these locations. If team athletes leave clothes, gear, or other belongings at their starting point the team member that is running to them will be able to collect those items. A bus will be used to shuttle athletes to and from these relay points.

Athletes, spectators and volunteers travelling to Okotoks are encouraged to please travel carefully and leave yourself extra time- road conditions are not the best right now.

May 26th

Planning? OCD?.....you decide

Be a provenance
of something gathered, a summation of
previous intuitions, let your vulnerabilities
walking on the cracked sliding limestone
be this time, not a weakness, but a faculty
for understanding what's about
to happen

- David Whyte

What if I don't have a rowing machine?

Do Sumo Deadlift High Pulls.
If you don't have a rower substitute sumo-dealift high pulls (sdhp) with 45 pounds for men and 30 pounds for women. Take the bar from mid shin to under your chin--"shin to chin."
2K row = 200 sdhp's, 1K row = 100 sdhp's, 500 meter row = 50 sdhp's

Okotoks Newspaper Article

Geoff Aucoin performs a pull up during a Crossfit competition at Natural High Crossfit. Aucoin will be at the Canadian regional qualifier for the World Crossfit Games in Okotoks on May 28-30.

Expect the unexpected at competition

12 May 2010 by Rick Northrop - Staff Reporter

The best way to define Crossfit is to say it has no definition.

The athletes who participate are plenty defined, but as a rule each workout, each contest and each day in the gym is different in Crossfit.

Some days you don’t even train in the gym.

“I have no idea what to expect actually,” said Lauren Pryor, who will be competing May 28-30 when Okotoks hosts the Central Canada Sectionals, a qualifier for the upcoming 2010 World CrossFit Games.

Crossfit is renowned for the unorthodox exercises that make up the sport and the unexpected events included in competitions.

For example, during a competition last year, Pryor saw for the first time a combined event where athletes had to row for distance on a rowing machine then pound a four-foot stake into the ground using a sledge hammer.

“You can’t prepare for it because you found out about it the day before,” said Pryor, who first tried Crossfit three years ago.

Any event that involves moving her own body weight around ranks among the least favourite for Pryor, like pull-ups.

“I’m tall. I’m five-foot nine, I’m not a gymnast size.”

Pryor prefers to do some heavy lifting.

“Ones that I do like are weightlifting (events) like squats or deadlifts,” said Pryor, who said her personal best at the dead lift is 340 pounds.

To prepare for a competition Pryor follows a blog called Optimum Performance Training that posts daily workouts, each different from the last.

“There’s a whole bunch of them out there and they post new workouts each day,” said Pryor. “So you don’t know what the workout is until the day before.”

Pryor said training in this method is like competition because she can’t prepare for a workout in advance if she doesn’t know what is coming up.

Brett Marshall of Calgary placed second at the inaugural World Crossfit Games in 2007. Marshall said he shines in short, intense events whether they involve weightlifting or gymnastics.

“I won’t be one of the larger athletes, I’ll probably be the smallest athlete,” said Marshall, who is five-foot six and 150 pounds.

At that size, Marshall said he will still place well in aerobic events such as a five-kilometre run but he doesn’t do much running in his day-to-day training.

“It’s just something for me, maybe I got tired of it when I was young, it doesn’t provide the stimulation that some of the other combination of events do for me,” said Marshall.

Performing benchmark workouts often named after tropical storms like Helen, gives Marshall a true sense of his fitness levels. Yet he shies away from doing even those workouts more than once.

“My training is fairly dynamic that way,” said Marshall. “I’m typically doing different things all the time.”

The Central Canada Sectionals will be held May 28-30 and hosted by Natural High Crossfit. For more information see www.naturalhighcrossfit.ca

CrossFit Acronyms and Abbreviations

■AMRAP: As Many Reps (sometimes Rounds)as Possible
■ATG: Ass to Grass
■BP: Bench press
■BS: Back squat
■BW (or BWT): Body weight
■CFT:CrossFit Total - consisting of max squat, press, and deadlift.
■CFSB: CrossFit Strength Bias. A program developed by Jeff Martin and Darrell White, explained here. You'll need a CFJ subscription.
■CFWU:CrossFit Warm-up
■CLN: Clean
■C&J: Clean and jerk
■C2: Concept II rowing machine
■DL: Deadlift
■FS: Front squat
■GHR(D): Glute ham raise (developer). Posterior chain exercise, like a back extension. Also, the device that allows for the proper performance of a GHR.
■GHR(D) Situp: Situp done on the GHR(D) bench.
■GPP: General physical preparedness, aka "fitness."
■GTG: Grease the Groove, a protocol of doing many sub-maximal sets of an exercise throughtout the day
■H2H: Hand to hand; refers to Jeff Martone's kettlebell "juggling" techniques (or to combat).
■HSPU: Hand stand push up. Kick up into a handstand (use wall for balance, if needed) bend arms until nose touches floor and push back up.
■HSQ: Hang squat (clean or snatch). Start with bar "at the hang," about knee height. Initiate pull. As the bar rises drop into a full squat and catch the bar in the racked position. From there, rise to a standing position
■IF: Intermittent Fasting
■KB: Kettlebell
■MEBBMaximum Effort Black box, term coined by Mike Rutherford. Search the forum for it. Originally laid out in one of the early Performance Menu issues.
■KTE: Knees to elbows. Similar to TTBs described below.
■MetCon: Metabolic Conditioning workout
■MP: Military press
■MU: Muscle ups. Hanging from rings you do a combination pull-up and dip so you end in an upright support.
■OHS: Overhead squat. Full-depth squat performed while arms are locked out in a wide grip press position above (and usually behind) the head.
■PC: Power clean
■Pd: Pood, weight measure for kettlebells
■PR: Personal record
■PP: Push press
■PSN: Power snatch
■PU: Pull-ups, possibly push ups depending on the context
■Rep: Repetition. One performance of an exercise.
■Rx'd; as Rx'd: As prescribed; as written. WOD done without any adjustments.
■RM: Repetition maximum. Your 1RM is your max lift for one rep. Your 10 RM is the most you can lift 10 times.
■SDHP: Sumo deadlift high pull (see exercise section)
■Set: A number of repetitions. e.g., 3 sets of 10 reps, often seen as 3x10, means do 10 reps, rest, repeat, rest, repeat.
■SPP: Specific physical preparednesss, aka skill training.
■SN: Snatch
■SQ: Squat
■SS: Starting Strength; Mark Rippetoe's great book on strength training basics. Available right here.
■Subbed: Substituted. The CORRECT use of "subbed," as in "substituted," is, "I subbed an exercise I can do for one I can't," For example,if you can't do HSPU, you subbed regular pushups.
Sadly, many illiterate posters get this bass-ackward, and claim that since they can't do HSPU, they subbed HSPU for pushups. D'oh!
■TGU: Turkish get-up (See exercise section)
■TTB: Toes to bar. Hang from bar. Bending only at waist raise your toes to touch the bar, slowly lower them and repeat.
■WO, sometimes W/O: Workout
■WOD: Workout of the day
■YBF: You'll Be Fine (liberally applied in spray form)

Reflections

Gang,

There have been many e-mails submitted over the past several days, all of which reflected positive experiences about our first CF2 Challenge.

Spend some thinking about what truly impacted you the most about the day.

What was inspirational to you? Are there any specific moments in time that will stand out in your mind? Why do you think these moments stand out?

Post your thoughts here.

Challenge Day

Have fun today.

100% effort = 100% success

In a properly executed front squat, the load is born entirely by the shoulders, and not at all by the hands and fingers.