Archive for July, 2009

Crossfit Westside and the CrossFit Games

Written by Jenika Gordon

As you all know I was down in Newport Beach last month training with CrossFit and their new Football program. In this cert, my goals were to learn how to be a better coach, how to put programs together, and to learn more about how different levels of athletes train. I also wanted to learn more about the fundamentals behind the Football program so I could put together something similar at CrossFit Westside.

When I came home, I spent countless hours and days with Jason putting together the “CFWS Performance Program.” This program is meant to work not only for football players, but also for every other athlete (Hockey, Rugby, Soccer) and CrossFitters in general. The idea behind the CFWS designed program was to put something together that would benefit our current clients, the elite athletes we are training right now, and future Canadian athletes.

With our curriculum in place, Jason and I picked a group of CrossFitters from within CrossFit Westside to test out our new Program. We have just come upon the halfway mark of the eight-week training schedule and boy has it been interesting! We have discovered that training as an elite athlete is tough.

One of the biggest things we’ve noticed is that a certain degree of mental fortitude has to be present to take on this intensity of training. It’s hard to get yourself to the gym day after day and lift the heavy loads we’ve been lifting, particularly since they increase in weight with each workout. Doing five sets of five reps of heavy back squats week to week is a ton of work. Today after calculating my weight on the squat by how many reps I did, I was floored – I lifted over 4000lbs of weight! And that was only counting my back squat weight. I didn’t even add in my press! But that’s not where the day’s workout ended. Each day, after we’ve done our heavy lifting, we then move on to the Workout of the Day (WOD). I just lifted 4000lbs and now I have to sprint 200 meters and do max pulls? And I have to do as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes? This is where the real test of mental toughness comes in!

And these workouts are even harder if we don’t pay particular attention to our nutrition and make sure we are fuelling our bodies properly. We’ve realized that we can’t eat crap because if we do we won’t make it through our workout! I tested this the other night – I went out for dinner, had some drinks, some dessert, and ate too much. The next day, my workout was terrible and I learned a valuable lesson.

Despite how mentally tough we’ve gotten and how well we’ve fed our bodies, there are definitely some days where we’ve all been so exhausted from all the work that we don’t want to come in. Each of has struggled with our own trash talk, where we’ve said to ourselves over and over, “I don’t want to go. I can’t lift this weight any heavier, I can’t do the workout. I just don’t have it in me.” But guess what? We still had to come in. It’s part of the program. You miss a day and you fall behind everyone else in the workouts and that just makes you grumpier.

All of that being said, I freaking love this program! As much as it is tough physically and mentally, this type of training is essential for elite athleticism. Anyone who wants to be the best at their sport or for that matter at CrossFit, needs this! Not only will it help you get physically stronger, it will help you be mentally stronger so that you can get over the trash talk inside your head and just go for it. Any athlete who goes to play their game can’t be thinking, “I can’t do it” – they just have to do it. No one can look themselves in the mirror after a game or a workout if they know they did not give it everything they’ve got.

As difficult as the Performance Program has been, it has helped that there’s been a group of us in it together, which is motivating and FUN! We have definitely built a sense of comraderie and have pushed each other to achieve goals we would not have been able to do on our own. Moreover, knowing that six other people are as grumpy and hungry as you makes life a lot easier. (LOL!). And having someone yelling at you to pump out five more pull ups when you think your arms might fall off is AWESOME! At the end you are stoked you did it, especially since inside your head you were telling yourself you’d never make it.

Looking back at the last four weeks, I have to say I am proud of everyone for sticking with the Performance Program. We did it and are doing it and will continue to do it for four more weeks. And when we see where we have come from and where we are going, we will be even more pumped!

To finish this off, CrossFit holds the “CrossFit Games” every July down in the US. Individual CrossFitter’s and CrossFit Affiliate Teams get together to compete against each other. This year we missed the qualifiers for the Games but Jason and I want to start our own Affiliate Team for the CrossFit Games next year. If you are interested in doing this (hopefully we didn’t scare you off with this article) we would love to hear from you. Please email me or talk to us at the gym if you are interested.

For more information about the games check out this link: http://games2009.crossfit.com/

posted: 6 Jul 09   ·   Category: NewslettersNo Comments

Zone Recipe: Peaches and ‘Cream’ Sundae (4 blocks)

Here’s a simple way to dress up peaches for breakfast. You can mix up the topping the day or night before you need it.

Vanilla “Cream” Sauce:
2 cups organic low-fat yogurt (2 2/3 cup if yogurt does not contain non-fat dry milk)
16 chopped macadamia nuts
4 (1 ounce) scoops vanilla egg white protein or whey protein
1 teaspoon cinnamon or ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract,in nonalcoholic base or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
in alcohol
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon stevia extract powder or liquid (optional)

Fruit:
9 large peaches, halved, pitted and sliced (or 6 3/4 cups thawed, frozen sliced peaches)
24 fresh pitted sweet cherries (or 1 cup thawed, frozen, unsweetened, “sweet” cherries)*

Instructions:
Combine ingredients for vanilla cream (except stevia). Stir and taste. Add 1/16 teaspoon stevia if protein powder is unsweetened or a sweeter taste is desired. Blend and taste again. Add more stevia as/if needed. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight if time permits. Divide peaches between 4 serving bowls. Top with protein-enriched cream sauce. Garnish with cherries and serve immediately.

Variation: Replace cherries with three more peaches.

Source: www.zonediet.com

posted: 6 Jul 09   ·   Category: NewslettersNo Comments

New Faces, New Classes!

Yesterday we launched our New Schedule! We will be running classes 7 days a week with more times and more types of classes. Check the New Schedule Here.

Also a big welcome to all our new clients who have signed up in the last week. Susan, Ria, Joseph, Barb, Karen, Chindy, Andrea, Paul, Adrianna, Barb, and Kathleen. Welcome to Crossfit Westside, we look forward to training you and having you be part of our community.

posted: 3 Jul 09   ·   Category: PostsNo Comments

Happy Canada Day

Big Congratulations to Ellen for getting her first couple of Kipping Pull ups! She never thought it was going to happen, but we knew it would. And it did!! Great job Ellen! 50 years old and still rockin it!

Crossfit Westside is also very EXCITED to announce that we will be open 7 days a week. Starting July 2nd, we will be offering 11 new classes and be open Monday thru Sunday. Thanks again to all of our clients who have supported us and continue to do so. This would not be happening without you!

posted: 1 Jul 09   ·   Category: PostsNo Comments