There’s been a few birthdays as of late.  We need to help those of us marking another year to ‘celebrate’.  Don’t be scared now!

A Canadian classic…

Friday

Tech: -5-5-2-2-2 bench press

Workout:
3 rounds of:
-1 min. double unders
-1 min. squats
-1 min. rest

Lately a lot of people have been telling me that their breakfast consists of a morning smoothie made in their blender. Currently, the most popular ingredients seems to be a whole bunch of fruit, kale or spinach, some flax, hemp or chia seeds, yogurt, protein powder, and then ginger and garlic. Some of us might want to ease back on the amount of fruit in our blender. One banana, one apple, and a cup of frozen berries might be a bit too much sugar for one person first thing in the morning. But that’s a topic for another time.

Many have complained to me that they want to add ginger and garlic because of the health benefits but have a really hard time with the overpowering flavour. So my little tip for the day is as follows: boil or simmer your sliced or crushed garlic and ginger for a few minutes before adding them to your shake. I’ve found that it greatly reduces their pungency and odour. Not only that, but it’s been shown that some of the gingerol in ginger – the compounds generally associated with positive health benefits in ginger – are converted to zingerone and shogaol. Both of which, along with gingerol, have been studied as aids for everything from nausea and diarrhea, to treating inflammation and cancer. This conversion from gingerol to zingerone is what reduces the spiciness of the ginger. As for the garlic, I’m not sure what’s going on to make it more palatable. But I think everyone would agree that cooked garlic is a lot easier to ingest than raw.

Thursday

Tech: -3-3-3-3-3-3 deadlift

Workout:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of:
-toes to bar
-front squat (75/55 lbs)

Wow, yesterday’s workout looked like it probably left some people with sore arms…  Well hopefully today’s workout is less likely to induce delayed onset muscle soreness.

Wednesday

Tech: -5-5-3-3-3 front squat

Workout:
4 min. tabata of:
-kettlebell SDHP (72/55 lbs)
-squats
-leg scissors

The T-shirt design is finished! And we’re going to be sending in the order this week. The T-shirts are going to run $39.20 each ($39 is fine). The very latest we can take payment for a shirt is this Friday. Don’t be late, hesitate, or prevaricate!

Make sure to let us know what size you require. They are dri-fit shirts so there is a little stretch to them.

Tuesday

Tech: -5-5-3-2-2 clean

Workout:
4 rounds of:
-10 ring dips
-20 shoulder press (65/45 lbs)
-30 push-ups

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the NAGA tournament in Seattle.  That means that there will not be a regularly scheduled class this Friday.  Saturday the club will be closed for the long weekend.  To make up for lost time there will be a class this Monday at one.  Either come in and hit it or enjoy your Victoria day long weekend without me!

I know I’ve had to alter the regular class schedule over the past few weeks on a couple of occasions now due to competitions.   But don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you guys with really hard workouts!  As a matter of fact, let’s do one today.

Wish me luck this weekend!

Thursday

Tech: -5-5-4-2-2 snatch

Workout:
‘Daniel’
-50 pullups
-400m run
-21 thruster (95/65 lbs)
-800m run
-21 thruster (95/65 lbs)
-400m run
-50 pullups

Rain rain go away… So we can work outside everyday! Or maybe we should just workout in the rain sometimes… After all this is the lower mainland!

Wednesday

Tech: -4-3-3-2-2 deadlift

Workout:
-100 jumping lunges
-100 pullups
-100 situps
+partition the above in any manner you’d like
+3 burpees every min on the min

In a recent article from the Associated Press it was reported that the increased demand for quinoa has led to an increase in it’s production in Bolivia. This increase in land usage for quinoa production has caused a decrease in the production of other crops that are staples in Bolivia. Not a good thing in a country where one in five children suffer from malnutrition. Not only that, but because quinoa has become insanely popular in Western Europe and North America over the past eight years or so the price has been driven up. So although native Bolivians grow quinoa it’s cheaper for them to eat imported rice. Strange times.

Quinoa is a pseudocereal (it’s actually a seed) considered to be a ‘superfood’. The AP article highlights many interesting points regarding global quinoa consumption/production and their effects on Bolivia – where it is a traditional highland crop. But perhaps something we should be considering is how much stock we put into the notion of superfoods in general.

What is a superfood? And if something is labelled as such, should we eat only that forsaking all other options? Perhaps if we weren’t so willing to jump on the bandwagon and focused on maintaining a diet with a bit more variety it’d be better not only nutritionally but globally as well. Food for thought.

Tuesday

Tech: -3-3-3-3-3 press

Workout:
12 min. AMRAP of:
-3 ring dips
-5 kettlebell swing
-8 double unders

Well the website is back up and running!  It was down for reasons unknown to me.  It was explained… somewhat… but I don’t think it helped my understanding of what occurred.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again.  If it wasn’t for the awesome people helping out I’d be lost – and I don’t just mean on the technological end.  Team!

Monday

Tech: -5-5-3-2-2 squat

Workout:
-1 rope climb
-10 deadlifts (135/95 lbs)
-1 rope climb
-10 clean (135/95 lbs)
-1 rope climb
-10 front squats (135/95 lbs)
-1 rope climb
-10 shoulder to overhead (135/95 lbs)
-1 rope climb

Wow, we sure are running a lot this week…  I wonder if there’s some kind of pattern or theme for the week?

Wednesday

Tech: -4-4-4-3-3 hang clean

Workout:
-200m run
-200 double unders
-400m run
-100 double unders
-800m run
-50 double unders

Watch this slow motion video of David Bedzhanyan clean and jerking 240 kg. It’s great! This guy is something else. He holds the official 105 kg weight class clean and jerk world record at 238 kg.

What’s really crazy is that he wasn’t even sent to London for the 2012 Olympics! Two others – Akkaev and Klokov – were going instead. They were subsequently injured and Russia didn’t field any athletes in the men’s 105 kg weight class.

Today we’re doing the push jerk and most of us could benefit from paying attention to his form and technique during that portion of the video above. I’ve had to say it quite often lately – and you can see it in the video above – you’re not supposed to be pushing the bar forward and away from you when pressing overhead. Move your head out of the bar path as best you can. Some of us should expect to lift more weight with this minor correction.

Tuesday

Tech: -4-4-2-2-2 push jerk

Workout:
20 min. AMRAP of:
-200m run
-7 thrusters (95/65 lbs)
-10 burpees