Catalyst Fitness

BaseLine Week 2010

In life, there are challenges that are acute: a one-time lightning bolt, tough but quickly finished.  The bruises stick around, but life is otherwise quickly returned to normal.

The tougher stuff is the chronic: continuing recurring tests without a clear end in sight.  These take a different kind of endurance; a toughness that makes survival of the short-but-tough stuff seem almost lazy.

Though we'll all certainly be faced with both, we're lucky in that preparation in the one column helps with coping in the other. You can prepare for the chronic through the practice of the acute.  The opposite, however, is less true: a marathoner will not have an easier time with Fran than you will.  But you, CrossFit athlete, will be able to struggle your way through 10k, given enough time, a running clock, and Mike's coaching.

Every year, just before summer, we test your resilience.  Each of these workouts stands on its own as a tough highlight to a whole week of WODs.  Each is a highly-contested record on the Board.  If you're a CrossFitter, you may forget to buy milk, but you'll always know your Angie time.  In a world where we gauge success by performance at objective tasks, these six form a good picture of your progress.  Put together, they're daunting; your goal is just to survive, and try to PR at every single one. 

Monday: "Angie" - 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats.  For time.

Tuesday: "Michael" - Run 800m, 50 situps, 50 back extensions. 3 Rounds for time.

Wednesday: "Grace" - Clean and Jerk 135lbs. For time.

Thursday: "Fran" - 21-15-9 of Thrusters and Pullups.  For time.

Friday: "Kelly" - Run 400m, 30 box jumps, 30 wall ball.  For time.

Saturday - "Midnight 5k," starting at 12 midnight.  Featuring a local band, and a post-BaseLine celebration.

Rules (there aren't many.)

1. Total your times for every WOD.  That's your BaseLine score.

2. Only records broken in CrossFit groups are eligible for the Record Board.  It's a question of consistency, not character.

3. The REAL goal is to finish every WOD.  Just finish. 

May Evening OnRamp

This is going to be a long summer.  Our snow was gone by May, and though temperatures haven't been far above the average, you're going to be outside a lot.  At friends' houses.  In backyards. Hopefully, at the beach.

In shorts.  In T-shirts.  In less.  Doing stuff.  Playing.  Digging.  Working.  Sweating.

This is NOT a beach-body ad.  Yes, I care about how you look.  Yes, I want you to seek occasions to take your shirt off.  But I'm more interested in what you do with yourself.

Will THIS be the summer you show up for your buddy's beach volleyball game and barbeque....or another summer when you politely decline, and watch movies inside instead? Will THIS be the summer you put 1000k on your bike - like you believed you'd do when you bought it - or will it it stay a statue in your garage? Will THIS summer be the one you wear shorts?  A sleeveless shirt?  Will you play frisbee? Will you sit on your blanket, watch your kids, and say, "Oh, I wish I had their energy?" Will you plant a garden?  Will you go to a party where you don't know anyone? 

OnRamp isn't just about abs.  It's about strength.  It's about slowly becoming a member of a community of happy, confident, exercising people.  Whitney and Coop won't introduce you only to deadlifts, squats, handstands, and snatches....they'll introduce you to two hundred others, all very different, all just like you. Better yet, they'll introduce you to the person you could be.  

Big promises, yes.  And we've never found, in decades of cumulative experience, a program that could deliver them - until we found CrossFit.

There's a person, standing only a foot in front of you, who's on that road already.  They're not yet among the uberfit; but their clothes feel a bit better.  Their chin is up.  They make more eye contact.  They're noticing their triceps.  Want to be in their shoes?  All it takes is one small step:

Register here for May OnRamp.  Evenings for two weeks with Whit, evenings for one week with Coop, culminating in Baseline Week: our annual week-long celebration of personal bests. If you choose, finish the week with a Midnight 5k run with about 50 of your new workout partners (and a band, and maybe a can of beer!) and a smile.  It's gonna be a great summer.

Nurses' Week 2010

I like my nurses the same way I like my airplane pilots: rested, happy, stress-free.

One of the greatest tragedies in medicine: our nurses are exhausted, overworked, understaffed, and possibly unsafe.

Rates of nurse burnout and depression have never been higher.  Nurses are sicker themselves than they've ever been.  They're getting overuse injuries; they're carrying the load of two.  And they're usually smiling their way through it anyway.

Nurses need help.

This year, we're going to take action.  During Nurses' Week (May 10-15,) nurses may attend any CrossFit group at Catalyst for FREE.  No charge.  We want you to feel better; to get stronger.

We don't want you to risk injury every time you flip a patient, or succumb to cortisol-induced cravings for sweets at midnight.  We want you to have an outlet for stress. 

On Saturday, May 15th at 11am, we'll host a Safe Lifting Clinic for nurses and healthcare providers (also 100% FREE.) Save your back. Save your knees.  Learn to move people (and yourself) more effectively.  Our Trainers are schooled and experienced educators in workplace ergonomics, safe lifting and loading practices.  We're also big fans of nurses.  

Catalyst family: you can help, too.  Join us for Nurses' Week workouts.  Welcome and thank the nurses you meet.  In the long term, keep working to lighten their load.  It's up to us.

The 2010 Apprenticeship Program

In 1998, after finishing University, I  started my education.

With a degree under my belt, I was still young enough to believe I knew everything - or that I could figure it out, at least.  Twelve years later, I realize I'm still just starting.  I scramble, every day, desperate for answers.  Each new piece of research raises more 'why?'s than "a-HA!"s. 

There exists a gap between a student's formal education and the readiness to apply practical knowledge.  In more industrial fields, Apprenticeship programs bridge the distance. Sadly, in the fitness community, fresh-from-the-oven recruits are typically thrown into leadership roles with as little as a weekend of instruction.  Ready?  Fire!  Aim!

Even with a four-year degree, I recognize now that I was in no way prepared to train people at an acceptable level; I thank my earliest clients for the start of my real education. I was blessed with a collective of very inquisitive teens (most of whom are now pursuing education in kinesiology-related fields) who quizzed me on every detail of their training.

Looking back further, had it not been for the hands-on immersion of high school co-op education, I'd be miserably fixing computers today, carrying even worse posture, nearing my first heart attack and shying away from carrying 'heavy' monitors.  That gratitude toward employers willing to take on risk for no discernible benefit prompted us to accept 4 co-op students this semester, and it's been very rewarding.

One of the best things about the Catalyst Coaching Team: diversity.  We're united by a common pursuit of excellence, but our backgrounds are very different.  Exposure to each coach, in turn, will give a much broader perspective into excellence than any coach alone.

This summer, we're offering the type of program we wish we'd had during our formal education: hands-on, in-depth, and challenging.  We'll be accepting five students to study with each coach on the Catalyst roster; assist in coaching groups; get their feet wet with individual programming; experience the endurance required to be a great coach; read and write research; coach and referee at events; and perform better, themselves, at individual skills.

We're asking each student for a small enrollment fee.  The value of this program - including participation in Catalyst groups for free, a free membership, and some paid work time - exponentially exceeds the cost.  That said, we don't want everybody.  Students will be assigned a letter grade at the end of their residency.  Not all students who pass through our Apprenticeship program will eventually be hired to work at Catalyst (in fact, most won't) but new Catalyst staff will come from this group. 

Over the summer, students will:

• Participate in coaching at both Sault Ste. Marie facilities;
• Be enrolled in every Catalyst group offered at no additional cost;
• Learn to operate the Park gym, in pairs and solo;
• Write, read, and study more intensely than any University program;
• Assist in coaching CrossFit groups;
• Assist in coaching sport-specific groups
• Assist in coaching for special populations
• Assist in coaching teams
• Become trained in the CAT Testing system;
• Receive group training on professionalism, coaching, and client adherence strategy
• Participate in coach-only meetings and clinics
• Actually do the stuff that makes us great.

Prerequisites:

• Enrollment in a College- or University-level exercise-science program
• Confidence
• Outstanding verbal and written skills (this sounds like a filler.  It's not.  If you can't write without correcting mistakes, save yourself the time.)
• Experience in a wide variety of exercise philosophies, not just techniques
• Ditto nutritional strategies
• Ability to laugh at yourself
• NOT be a perfectionist
• "Beginner's Mind"
• Familiarity with the CAT Testing system
• Happy and smiley at 6am and 9pm - ideally, on the same day
• You've got to care.  "Liking the job" is not enough: if it wakes you up at night, you have the potential to be one of us.

Interested?  Email chris@catalystgym.com for the Student Residency Package. If your email is your first contact with us, please tell us your story.

Fight On Friday - Flights

17 minutes.  That's all it takes to turn a corner.

Fight Gone Bad is this Friday - Good Friday, April 2.  To accommodate the religious holiday, we'll be starting early, and closing at noon.  Flights times are approximate; please be early to cheer (most participants stay for the entire event.) 

Haven't entered yet?  Click here.  Want to just drop in that day?  No problem; we'll fit you in somewhere. But you're on the bubble: be ready for action!

Records: Vilaca - 449; Deluco - 435; Fisher - 250 (youth); Cappelli - 235 (women)

7am

Heather Hicks

Neal Smykacz

Bobby Russon

7:30am

Phil Strickler

Anna Cappelli

Ed Cappelli

Kath Fryia

Cain Coulis

8am

Nadia Amaral

Candace Nicholas

Donna Waboose

Marnie Scott

Monique Rollin

8:30am

Ray Gowlett

Hillary Speck

Josh Deluco

Michele Irwin

Cameron Wilson

9am - Junior Division!

Max Fisher

Owen Headrick

9:30am

Glen Fisher

Amy Jolicoeur

Gabe Wetzel

Sadie Puddister

Brandon Corelli

10:00am

Shannon Love

Carolle Robinson

Troy Woods

Kyle Campbell

Greg Beharriel

10:30am

Wade Kraft

Stephen Moore

Ryan Walker

Brad Rennison

Jordan Oikari

11:00am

Margo Beaudoin

Chris Pratt

Devin Boston

Joe Leblanc

Rich Leblanc

11:30am

Coop

Watson

Mitch Fryia

Adrian Vilaca

Odane Ferguson

The Next 7 Days

Today is Monday.  Out of a possible 24 hours, 9 are already gone; another 2 are committed for sleep later tonight.  You'll spend another nine working. That leaves four.

In the Western Christian calendar, this is the season of rebirth.  And about time, too: we're dying here! For the first time, our childrens' generation has a lower projected lifespan than our own.  We've literally got it so easy - so pain-free, so automatic - that it's killing us. 

It's a common misconception that we're just plain lazy.  We're not.  Our minds have been finely tuned over a million years to be primed for action.  We simply haven't come all this way, done all this preparation, to be more ready to watch Oprah than ever before.  It's also a mistake to think that we've reached the end of evolution....unless we're capping the genome right here. If we continue to devolve, it's over. 

Our problem isn't lack of motivation.  It's not weakness of character, or weak ankles, or some elusive 1950s term like, "willpower."  Given a crisis, we can still respond better than our predecessors.  So what's stopping us?  Too much information, Jerry!

Paralysis by analysis.  We're looking for the perfect way to shed our skin.  In a city of a hundred avenues, we're mesmerized by the map, bagel in hand, acting the tourist.  We sample the culture without becoming immersed.  We do drive-by dieting.  We count to 8 (sometimes 12, if Dr. Oz says so) while we kill time on the recumbent bike, waiting for the Exercise Pill to pass the patent board.

You have better options. 

They're simple, but they're not easy. For one, you can spend three weeks learning to exercise.  You can meet Smilin' Whit every morning for 21 days, and reap the benefits for the next 50 years.

You can give yourself permission to be bad at it - at first.  We all were.  The most successful are just the ones who allowed themselves to fail most often. 

You can plant something.

You can come to Fight On Friday, hover near the back, and just try not to get excited.  It's impossible.  Try NOT to cheer, we dares ya.  Try not to smile.  Then remind yourself: this is exercise.  Are we supposed to like it this much?

You can try a Zone meal.  One thing about the Zone style of eating: forgiveness.  If you eat a non-Zone meal, just eat a Zone meal at the next one, and you're back on the road to insulin bliss.

You can tithe.  That is, commit in advance to spending two percent of your day, once per week - 30 minutes - with a personal trainer.  30 minutes, once per week, and then just do the homework you're given.  Heck, we'll even figure out your Zone blocks for you.

By Monday, you could be living a different life.  To say 'reborn' is cliched nonsense, but starting a different track will be like learning to walk again.  Expect shaky legs on the upward climb to self-actualization.

Ontario CrossFit Sectionals Wrap-Up

One of the best compliments I've ever received was in the shower after the Ontario Sectionals.

But it's not what you think.

Athlete, to me:"You're one of those Green Army guys from the Sault, eh?"

Me, still grinning after the 4th WOD: "Oh, yeah!"

Athlete: "You guys brought some awesome athletes down!  Thanks for making the drive, man!"

This was the story, echoed over and over to each of us individually: that the Catalyst crew was always smiling; always having fun; always polite.  Almost as if we were grateful to be there.  Which, of course, we were.  You do not, as a rule, get to pull up stakes, commit two days to driving and another two to competing, without massive support.  Our friends stayed with us all weekend on facebook and twitter; our spouses took care of everything you could ever imagine; our other coaches kept the Park alive and thumpin'. Thanks.  We ARE grateful.

On to the event itself:

The goal of this new level of competition, Sectionals, is to qualify athletes for the Regional (National) level of competition based on skill.  Obviously, there's still a time element, because the more skilled will be able to complete each task faster.  But what matters at Sectionals is not how fast, but how well.  It's a screen for Regionals.  And that means simpler WODs, lighter weights, and an atmosphere of inclusivity.

The goal of CrossFit is to improve work, defined as force x distance.  And force, in turn, is mass x acceleration.  Before the event had even begun, there was plenty of criticism on various discussion boards regarding the light weights and short events.  My thought: if the weight is too light, then just go faster.  If the Sectionals day is too easy, go home and train afterward.  Sectionals is not part of the preparatory phase for Regionals; it's just a filter.  Welcome the newcomer, and elevate the most proficient.

Now, the exciting part.  The following is a play-by-play, from memory.  You'll have to click to read it all, and I warn you: it's going to be long.  But the magic is in the details, and I don't want to leave any out.

100 Reasons I'm Competing At Sectionals

1. Three words: "Go, daddy, go!"
2. Anxiety makes me a better athlete.
3. Fear makes me eat my broccoli.
4. "Feeding The Baby" - I'd probably just stand there and pantomime everything if I wasn't competing.
5. Gotta represent the "unnaturals" who didn't play sports their whole lives
6. Got an Army to feed!
7. Next year, Sectionals may require prequalification
8. This is year One of my 15-year training plan for the Masters division
9. Ray Gowlett: "It's like unwrapping your Christmas presents!"
10. The worst-case scenario (last place?) really isn't bad at all.
11. It's not a fashion show, and I support that.
12. It's my sport. 
13. I love my team. 
14. Carolle, who showed up for every single Team WOD every single Friday.
15. Competing at CrossFit = winning at life.
16. Two rounds of 7 hours' good conversation with my wife on the long drive.
17. My kids tend to try the stuff they see me doing.  Anyone else ever notice that?
18. I get to wear 3 of my favourite hats in the same day: cheerleader, coach, and athlete.
19. The next day, I'll wear my fourth favourite, when I write about it.
20. I get to watch Josh Deluco up close.  This kid's something special.
21. Get to hang with other Affiliate owners and friends!
22. I'll do anything for a cool t-shirt.
23. Feeling my lizard brain writhe during the last 10 seconds before the start.
24. Frequent exposure to physical stress makes me better at dealing with other stress.  It's a physiological fact.
25. If you knew me in high school, you'd never have guessed I'd be here.
26. CTV news, baby!
27. Participation is good for the sport.
28. 48 hours of post-Sectional glee.  Almost like a refractory period.
29. The incredible photography that shows up afterward!
30. Watching the CrossFit community flex its collective muscle.
31. Watching the CrossFit philosophy flex its solid muscle.
32. I just don't have the opportunity to be amazed that often anymore.
33. I know how hard it's been to get to my current level, and if there are 100 better, that's going to be incredible to watch.
34. If I keep meeting new people, I don't have to learn any new jokes.
35. This train only goes forward or backward.
36. Posting the WODs on my facebook wall got 21 responses...in the first 10 minutes.
37. I think this is the 'right' carrot to hang in front of people.
38. I'm going to learn like crazy.
39. I'll have more people to cheer for at CrossFit Games 2010 in Aromas (hey! I warmed up with that guy!)
40. Event #4 might just be a max deadlift.  You never know.
41. I'm never going to be this young again.
42. OPT.
43. It's all about the story.
44. I get to see if the wiring and the plumbing work well together.
45. I get to carry my blue foam roller through downtown Toronto.
46. I'll get to see Whit compete against other girls. Yikes.
47. "The walk" over in the morning with the Team. Nervous jokes are double-funny!
48. 'Recovery' swimming with my kids.
49. I'd like to get it done so I can get back and try 'Muscle Murph' - 50 muscle-ups, 100 clapping pushups, 150 x 95lbs front squat, with a mile before and after
50. Writing this list is really easy - that's reason enough!
51. Test, revise curriculum, repeat.
52. My form will be checked against the highest standard.
53. How else would I know?
54. I'm building an exercise habit, too.  You don't ever stop.
55. I've already got the calluses.
56. So I can convince 20 people to come next year. 
57. As long as I can keep Clint healthy, I'm not the oldest.
58. Some of the most athletic physiques in the country....and not a single mirror.
59. Best seats in the house are on the stage.  See # 4, "feeding the baby."
60. Gotta stop Josh from eating the jar of pickles before the pickle-eating contest.
61. I know the family's watching back home.
62. My sister's flying across the country to be there.
63. I'll share a chalk dish with some of the best lifters,writers,and businesspeople in the country.
64. More people wearing Chucks in one room than anywhere else north of Westside Barbell!
65. "This is a truth derived through competition, not debate." - Greg Glassman
66. Brent's outfits are best experienced in person.
67. Exercise theory funneled down to a fine point.  Either it's true, or you lose.
68. Only the bullfighter really knows what it's like in the arena.
69. Ray's "game face."
70. It's nice to be in an environment where "lockout" doesn't refer to striking auto workers.
71. The soundtrack is always excellent.
72. The sound of 20 bars slamming the ground in unison.
73. Solidarity.
74. Alecia smiling while she links pullup after pullup.
75. There will be deadlifts there.
76. A glimpse of the next level, waiting for my footprint soon.
77. CrossFit Huronia owes me a shirt.
78. This essay.
79. It will keep me humble for another year.
80. Proud, but humble.
81. The competition IS my reward.
82. Not too many years ago, I would have chickened out.
83. My wife does CrossFit now!
84. The other Sectionals events were AWESOME!
85. The three brand-new CrossFitters who signed up this week.
86. The Saturday Morning, 9am group is doing the same workouts!
87. 40 first-timer, never-evers finished Murph last weekend!
88. The anticipation is always worse than the action.
89. There just aren't many sunsets left to ride off into.
90. We're collectively nudging the human genome back in the right direction.
91. The species didn't go through this whole evolutionary process to be better at watching Oprah.
92. EVERY time we've called, the Catalyst Family has answered. Time to repay the favour.
93. Brad Rennison: boy wonder.  (You want me to try the 3k row for you? Sure!)
94. WWPDD? (What would Pam Didonato Do?)
95. Now, I can link muscle-ups and do HSPU on the parallettes.  I couldn't until I committed.
96. Some athletes are complaining about the workouts already, 8 hours after they've been posted.
97. I get to live like a professional athlete for the whole weekend (thanks, Ray!)
98. I have a reason to train hard, eat right, and sleep.  Also, complain.
99. I stole Philsy's rope, and I need an excuse.
100. I can.  Therefore, I must.

The Hows and Whys of Fight Gone Bad

Our 'Fight On Friday' Teaser spurred a lot of questions.  Well, two questions: how, and why?

How

1 minute at each station.  1 rep equals 1 point:

Box Jumps

Push Press with 75lbs

Sumo High Pull with 75lbs

Wall Ball

Rower (each calorie equals one point.) 

Take one minute of rest, and repeat for 3 total rounds.  17 minutes of holding your gut to the flame.  17 minutes of pouring cold water on your character and looking for leaks.

Why

A few weeks ago, someone forwarded this email:

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up and totally worn out and screaming "woohoo what a ride"! And that is why I did not workout today!!!!"

It's a nice turn of prose, no doubt.  But it's not reality.  In this-here "real world," you're far more likely to slip, sedated, into a dirty grave with only the clothes on your back and anecdotes of remorse.  You'll probably have nothing to tell St. Pete that he hasn't heard already.  If you're in the majority, your death - maybe, even, your life - will be a long stretch of grey cliche, with some little blips of colour around your sixth birthday, your wedding toast, and your death-bed recant.

There are no PowerBall tickets when it comes to health, quality, happiness, or longevity.  The only last-second Hail Marys will be the ones whispered, on wine-fume breath, into your grey ears by the attending vicar.  There's no luck.  There's only work.

Right or wrong, sliding or simpering, you'll have earned it.  And that should scare the hell out of you; it does me.  Will your end be so terrible that you'll require the out-of-body displacement of morphine? Will you be alert, but tired?  Will you be celebrated?  When you're ten years in the ground, will it matter?

These are the thoughts that pry me from bed at 4:30am.  These are the reasons I stumble through essays, and learn video editing, and drennrive headfirst into entrepreneurship, and would like to learn the guitar.  This is why I do CrossFit: It's hard.  It's work.  It's not easy.  That's the point.

You're alone in the cave.  Mary isn't picking flowers outside.  Start rolling back the stone.

When

April 2nd.  Good Friday.  7:30am. Plenty of time to celebrate your rebirth afterward.  

Fight On Friday Teaser