Catalyst Fitness

What We're Doing About It

"You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change."

— Greg Mortenson, author of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time"

Greg's talking about digging into roots.  He's talking about very poor people in Pakistan and, more recently, Afghanistan.  He's talking about the way to really beat the Taliban in the Middle East.

We're talking about insurgency, too.

The common foe, when it comes to our health care system: dogma.  Do the same thing, hope for a different result.  Feed the machine until you're elected out of office.  The repetition of the same information until it becomes a cultural mainstay.

"Walk-ing-means-the-loss-of-weight!  / Ev'ry-body-knows-it's great!"

Except it doesn't work.

"Eat-your-grains-and-you-will-see / You-can-beat-di-a-beet-ees!"

Not so much.

"Once-I-swore-by-Lip-I-Tor / Now-it's-ACE-in-hib-it-ors!"

....or you can do something else.

We're not going to change the system from the inside: that much is clear.  We've been waving flags, from deep in the back pocket of the Industrial Park, for years.  That doesn't work either.  We could revert to our more primitive techniques of yesteryear, and write angry editorials in the middle of the night, to no effect.  There's no way to make it through the centre.

We're going around.  In the next few months, we're building a library.

Though we're going to plant the seeds, this will be a community garden.  Using the mezzanine space at the Park, we'll make our texts, research, and Journals available to everyone, for free.  Got an interesting study?  Bring it in.  But this isn't about the Dewey Decimal System. 

Our goal is to spur discussion, and debate.  Dissemination of information is a skill, just like public speaking, cleans from the high hang, driving a car, or muscle-ups.  Practice is required. 

Yesterday, I wrote about the stressed-out Healthcare system relying on the old fallbacks of low-calorie, low-fat diets.  The basic code of The System is still an "if/then" model, in a world full of greys.  YOU'RE the one who's going to have to pull the sword from that stone.  Luckily, you're in the right group. 

We have a few municipal wrinkles to iron out, first.  And we need permission to reprint certain Journals and articles.  But in the meantime, start ripping things out; printing things off; storing things away.  Our interns are working on a filing system.   Coop's finalizing engineering-type stuff with the City.  We hope to deliver by September.  Thanks for making it possible.

Get Well Soon

"You can listen to me, or you can die."

Those were her doctor's words.  But now, hunched over her collapsed body in her tight hallway, her doctor was far away.  I made eye contact with one of the Paramedics: he knew the truth, too. 

"Your doctor told you to drink that?" he asked, drawing a curtain of professionalism over his incredulity.  He nodded toward her jug o' juice, the main part of her diet for the last two weeks.  To her, it was medical science: 1000 calories a day of Space Tang, a mathematical miracle.  To us, it was a Carbohydrate Cowboy with an itchy trigger finger.  Having a diabetic lose weight on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet seemed to defy logic.  But, then again......doctor said!

They took her away in an ambulance.  Again.  To Big-E Emergency.  Again.  Protesting, again.  To be prescribed few calories, no fat, and rigid adherence.  Again.  Hey, it works for everyone else, right?

On the porch with her son and grandson, I couldn't hold my tongue.  Maybe my message of research and logic and overreliance on 1970s technology was lost in my shocking use of profanity.  Maybe, but I'd had enough.  After sprinting my fastest 400m ever to find my mother-in-law, sweating and fighting for consciousness on her low-pile carpet, I was ready to say my piece.

Patricia's doctor, you see, had never told her there was a third option.  There's always a third option.  In this case:  3) ...or you can do something else.

They'll call it improving impaired glucose sensitivity.  They'll call it improved glucagon/insulin balance.  They'll call it restabilization of fasting blood sugar.  We'll call it walking.  For now.  Later, we'll call it walking with a little more. 

They'll call it a low-carb diet.  We'll call it better balance of protein, carbohydrate, and healthy fats. 

It's clear, now, that it won't be possible to change the medical system from the inside.  You'll need to look outside the traditional 'medical' world for help: and that's scary, isn't it?  There's just as much bad information out there as good information.  But we're going to help, and we're going to do it in a big way.  More on that tomorrow.

Today, though, Patricia is still using a hospital bed.  After spending her first night in a hallway, alone, she was finally given a room. The next day, Grammy's shoes were stolen.  Yesterday, doctors gave her medications checklist a serious overhaul......and no one mentioned exercise.  Dietitians visited last week, and gave her a book about the DASH diet (low sodium) - an excellent idea to treat the symptoms of congestive heart failure, but not the causes.

Who's at fault?  The system.  The 'funnel' paradigm - intake, process, output - is a defensive model.  It's reactionary.  To make it worse, the funnel's overflowing.  Your best bet is to avoid the process.  We'll talk about that tomorrow, too.  "Get Well Soon" is can't just be a greeting-card cliche anymore; it's a social imperative.

Catalyst Go! Newsletter - March 2010

Are You Fitter Than A Fifth-Grader?

If you're over 25, and were born in Canada, I'm betting you can sing along to this:

In the 1970s and 1980s, Canadian students were pushed through a needle-eye called the Canada Fitness Test.  The test consisted of pushups, situps, a paused pullup ("flexed-arm hang") some sprints, a shuttle run, and a longer run.  Students were awarded Levels, based on their achievement in each event: Bronze, Silver, Gold, or the coveted "Award of Excellence."

The standards were a bit odd.  For instance, consider the times necessary to achieve an "Award of Excellence" in the 1-mile (1600m) Run.  As a twelve-year-old, you'd have to run the mile in 7:41.  As a 13-year-old?  11:31.  That's almost an extra 4 minutes, or 50% longer! 

Here are the original standards (labeled as 'Air Cadets Fitness Testing', but the same as the original ParticipACTION tests.)

Download Fitness_test

Why is it gone?  Well, like all tests, it was meant to be a tool for guiding teachers toward the pursuit of their students' weakest points of understanding.  Unfortunately, many teachers embraced the 'test' concept without using the resulting data to change the direction of their instruction.   No one in Grade Five can do more than 9 pushups?  Well, back to our regularly-scheduled floor hockey game.....

Also, the tests seemed very divisive.  The stigma attached to a Bronze continues to haunt many (as evidenced on various discussion boards,) and these days, it's not kosher to promote anything other than sameness.  In our lockstep march to mediocrity, the pace is driven by our desire to ignore individual strengths and weaknesses.  Failure must be avoided at all costs, right?  Kids will only be successful if they never experience losing.......right???  Instead of being great at some things and bad at others, it's better if we're all just kinda average at everything, maybe.

Above: the Tragically Hip, “Next to your comrades in the national fitness program/ Caught in some eternal flexed arm hang/ Dropping to the mat in a fit of laughter” - Fireworks

Many 30somethings will remember their scores on these tests (mine were all Silvers and Bronzes, I'm sure.)  I was probably reading a book while trying to do pushups.  The point: can you match - or better your scores today?  On Thursday, you'll get a chance to find out!

Bring your shorty-shorts.  If you can fit into your Amazing Spider-Man, E.T., or Michael Jackson "Bad" t-shirt, wear it.  Pigtails optional.  Let's revisit our youth.

Coach's prediction: CrossFitters will kill this test.

Catalyst GO! Newsletter - January 2010

Note: if the links don't work in your browser, please click here.

Christmas Presents for CrossFitters

Yesterday, we published a little essay on what NOT to buy this Christmas.  Never the ones to present a problem without a solution, here are a few things that your family CrossFitter has been eyeing:

LaraBars. Gluten-free, unsweetened, usable by those doing Zone OR Paleo.

The Zone Live Lecture ebook. Why didn't The Zone book stay popular? Well, it was kinda complicated. In this 90-minute lecture, Barry Sears lays out his best advice: how to 'ballpark' Zone eating. We did a little writeup here.

Chucks. Best lifting shoe out there. You don't need the original (since Nike bought out Converse, Chucks have gone from under $20 to over $60) but they're the best lifting shoes out there. We even have our own pair with the Catalyst arrow on them!

Every Second Counts: The Movie. Chronicles the training and lives of some of the top-rated competitors of the 2008 CrossFit Games. Note: if you know who has my copy, get it back for me. That can count as my gift.

Tooth. This was from FranFest, by way of Michele Irwin's mouth:

Second Skin. See hand, above.

Tape. To be applied over the Second Skin.

MuscleUps/Double-Unders/Butterfly Kips.

Foam Roller. For Pre-hab. For warmups. For a conversation-starter. Almost as good as massage.

YakTrax. Run safely on local sidewalks, which typically feature a delightful array of salt, sand, water, slush, ice, and snow. C'mon - your treadmill "Murph" time doesn't count as Rx'd.

Parallettes.

Awesome Crossfit Tees. There are a LOT of choices here. Try the STORE at CROSSFIT.COM first, but there are some pretty amazing choices available at some of the affiliate sites, as well as these two: LifeAsRx and AffiliateShirts. (we also have a new one for Christmas at our own store.)

Punch Card/Membership to your favourite local CrossFit Affiliate! Find your affiliate here: CrossFit Affiliates. Get your CrossFitter coaching to bring up weak links; get them more training; get them into an OnRamp program. It's really the best gift out there.

PaleoKits. If you're looking for CrossFit-friendly snacks, you can't beat PaleoKits. Bonus: all proceeds go to Steve's Club, a nonprofit affiliate to help introduce kids to CrossFit.

How To Avoid Buying A Treadmill This Christmas

Okay, an admission: I started writing this article November 14, 2008.  And I just can't do it.  I spent 3 years selling treadmills (and I was pretty good at it, I guess) but I no longer believe they're a solution.  In fact, it's easy for them to become part of the problem.

The first few paragraphs below are from the original draft.  They're true.  But after that, it's all new.  The text is shot from the hip, but the sentiment is straight from the heart.  

Christmas is coming.  Most people enter the Holiday season feeling less than great about themselves; lots of food, dumpy weather, and the shorter days have many depressed about how they look and feel.  They KNOW they have to lose weight, or at least start eating better.  I'd prefer they exercise.  

If they choose the exercise option (hooray!) most people give themselves 3 choices:

1. Join a gym

2. Start walking, or plan to do something

3. Buy a treadmill

Now, we know that for exercise to be effective, you have to stick to it.  And we know that, for you to stick to an exercise program (assuming you don't have some abnormal disorder,) the program has to be novel, challenging, fun, community-based, and allow for nonlinear progression (you can't just focus on the scale or some other subjective measurement.)  To really work, the plan has to carry some sort of personal risk - financial is okay, but fear of letting oneself down is more important.  This is why we do monthly challenges....but I digress.

Joining a gym is the best option, especially if the gym you're joining actually CARES about your progress, but I concede that it can be intimidating for people.  Frankly, the absolute best option is to visit a good Trainer, and let them lay out the options for you.

(To visit and chat with the best, without spending any money or committing to anything, click here.)

Which of the three provides novelty?  Which provides challenge?  Which is fun?  Which has a built-in community?  Which provides nonlinear progression (more on that in a minute)?  Which carries any risk?

Most treadmills end up as yard sale fodder.  There, I said it.  By March, they look like this:

 

...drying clothes!  

Novelty: while most treadmills now feature "programs" as a price point, the novelty of blinking lights and auto-adjusting elevation wears off in about............now.  Doing a walking program called "Pike's Peak" in your living room isn't like really going to Pike's Peak in Utah.  It's like, well, standing around in your living room, a space built for relaxing, not exercising.  Bedroom?  Worse.

Challenge: it's walking.  Walking is locomotion, not exercise.  Yes, some people will run on a treadmill, but without an ultimate goal (5k, 10k, marathon) where you actually have a chance at failing, it's nearly impossible to make yourself walk on a treadmill for its own sake.  And yes, some folks go to gyms just to walk on treadmills (not this gym) - but they're out of the house.  They're really paying for the environment.  

Fun: you can put in a DVD.  You can link up to the internet.  But as long as you have to distract yourself from exercise to keep exercising, you'll soon be distracted by other things instead. Above: the only fun you can have on a treadmill.

Community-based: treadmill walking is the fitness equivalent of writing a manifesto, alone, in your mother's basement, at midnight, in a stained t-shirt.  It encourages brooding.  You fixate.  Your focal point narrows until little problems polish themselves into hard little pearls.  You don't solve any problems on a treadmill.  Got a problem with a coworker?  Ask them to deadlift with you.  You'll both feel better.

Nonlinear progression: you'll go farther if you can shift your focus for awhile.  Stuck on a weight-loss plateau?  Focus on gaining strength for a few weeks.  Not getting any faster?  Try improving technique on the rower.  Strength not improving?  Work on your sprints.  A change is as good as a rest.  

There are a hundred websites out there to tell you how to buy a treadmill.  But consider: are you buying progress, or just forcing yourself to hold a yard sale in June?

Catalyst GO! Newsletter - December 2009

ALERT! We've decided, at the last minute, to run an OnRamp Group in December (starts Nov. 30.) We have 3 people signed up; to make the group fun, we need six. That means we're looking for 3 people in the next 6 days. $199 for coaching - 21 straight days - lifelong improvement - a new habit set in stone by Christmas! Can't beat it. Call 256-1344. We're only taking 3 more people!

Christmas Vacation Groups:

This year, if you're a high school student, you have an amazing opportunity to improve POWER and SPEED while your opponents are getting fat. One hour per day for five days, you'll train your heart out with Mike Watson at the Park. You'll jump, you'll throw, you'll push and pull and carry. You'll emerge from the five-day cocoon as a more powerful athlete in every way.

YOUTH SPEED AND POWER DEVELOPMENT CAMP

DECEMBER 28 - JANUARY 1 - INDUSTRIAL PARK LOCATION

10am - Boys Aged 10-13

11am - Girls Aged 10-13

1pm - Men Aged 14-19

2pm - Women Aged 14-19

Okay, we admit it: FranFest was awesome! True story. 22 teams of two, 202 food donations to the Food Bank (loaded into the van in 1:33!) 4 hours of mayhem divided up into 5-minute chunks of misery. Lots of suspense as teams made it from one round to another. Some great T-shirts, a gym full of spectators, and some great stories. Tyler finished in 3:03 to break the Coach record; Ray (right, with partner Nicole Kinsell) finished in 3:14 to break the Gym record. The whole write-up is coming soon.....

The Barbell Bettys competed in their first Virtualmeet, and some amazing numbers were hit: Anna Cappelli hit 310 at a reduced bodyweight; Melissa Oikari had a ridiculously-deep 215lbs back squat. Unreal. The next day, 20 women were ready to start all over. Men: your chance is coming in January. OLY coaching from Ty Belanger and Mitch Fryia, as well as powerlifting training in a 4-day split AND some METCON work for homework. Good times!

DECEMBER EVENTS:

November 30 - December OnRamp group begins, coached by Whitney Pagnucco! 21 straight days at 7am for 30 minutes. A better life. CrossFit draws the line between your couch and athleticism; OnRamp is the perfect starting spot.

December 12: King Of The Cage. Catalyst athletes Jeff Elliott, Adrian Vilaca, Ray Gowlett, and Dalton MacFarlane will enter the octogon to fight against Michigan's best in a MMA throwdown for the ages. We've got a block of 45 tickets sold, but we can always add more!

December 19 : SUPERMEET. Take the best of Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting, add a favourite CrossFit event, and compress two days' worth of heavy work into three hours. Double the monthly chalk order, and stock up on Second Skin. You'll have three hours to complete a Total (sum of your best lifts in each) in: Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Press (standing, no leg,) Squat, Deadlift, and Weighted Pullup. Take as many attempts at each as you like; prioritize your strengths as you see fit.

December 26 - Boxing Day Fun Run and Fitness Walk - Catalyst will be joining the Sault Stryders for a fun, non-timed, non-competitive event.  9am at the Water Tower.

December 28 - January 1: TEEN SPEED and POWER camps at the Park! Get more explosive! Move faster! Jump higher! Pull harder! Throw farther! A five-week, VERY intense group with Mike Watson, BHK CSCS in an environment built for athletes. Groups are split between boys and girls, and ages 10-13 and 14-18.

At this, the start of our fifth year as Catalyst Fitness, we'd like to reflect for a moment. As we mentioned in our essay, The Original Eight, CrossFit has grown from 8 volunteers, who arrived and participated uncoached in March 2008, to a huge family of athletes. None of us may have described themselves as 'athletes' when we started, but as soon as you survive one workout, you can lay claim to that title. The CrossFit community worldwide has also exploded (we were lucky enough to feature some writing by some of its best and brightest, starting with this post). We're ecstatic about that. But our core - our reason for being here - is coaching. We believe in the Japanese concept of Kaizen - continual self-improvement in all areas. Our personal trainers have personal trainers. We compete, we compare, we continually seek a higher level. Crossfit is our passion, but coaching is our career. Luckily, the two are siblings.

In January, we'll continue to increase our coaching influence with a few new evening groups - a formal Barbell Club for the guys, finally, and a better system for booking clients, reserving space in groups, and paying for sessions online. More corporate groups - coworkers who band together and book private CrossFit times - are appearing on the horizon (if this is something you're interested in, call us 256-1344.) We'll continue to prioritize solid coaching for ALL levels in the new year. Thanks for learning along with us. Merry Christmas!

Catalyst GO! Newsletter - November 2009

Four years ago, Mike and I were squatting in a cage on Queen Street.  (He's the one with the thick black hair.)  This was pre-Catalyst. 

We're older.  Our hair is greyer.  Our squats are deeper and unassisted.  From the look of it, my posterior chain is much more flexible (and our bars are much more rigid, thank goodness.  No wonder I had trouble hitting depth in competition!)

We're also a lot busier than those misguided days of our youth:

Catalyst Teens expands to two nights/week, beginning next Tuesday and Wednesday.  An amazing group that's left me hoarse every single week so far.  And that's not easy.  All the clapping has started to wear down my pullups calluses.

OnRamp starts its November group on the 9th.  If you're thinking of starting CrossFit, you've gotta do OnRamp.  Invest 21 days, and you'll know virtually everything you need to succeed at CrossFit.  It's so effective that I regret we didn't insist that all new CrossFitters do OnRamp right from Day #1.  Can you blame us for being so excited?  Here's the thing: the OnRamp Program tends to fill up WAY in advance.  As I write this, 4 of 7 spots are filled for November''s Group, thanks to a huge waiting list from October!  Get your name on the list: 256-1344.

The difference this has made to our CrossFit programming has been tremendous: graduates start their first CrossFit group already knowing how to do more than the basics.  They know what to expect, how to move well, and they're excited to rip it up with the old veterans!

FranFest is November 21!  A tournament-style competition for the most famous of all the CrossFit workouts, Fran.  Teams of two will Fran head-to-head as we narrow the field from 20+ pairs to 8, and finally to the Fran Championships.  8am start.  An amazing event for spectators too, we've already had confirmation from two local media outlets.

Santana's Indoor Cycling Group will start their second session of the fall on November 17.  Most are now leaving their bikes inside (boo!) but burning up our main area every Tuesday night.  (Hey, in 4 years, you'll never find a worse joke.  Feel free to check.)

More and more members are starting their own groups with co-workers and friends.  We're doing private CrossFit groups for several businesses at both Catalyst locations - Park and Queen - several days per week.

November 21 is the Santa Claus Parade!  As usual, the absolute best place to watch is Catalyst at our Queen Street location! Bring your kids inside for a hot chocolate, hang with other members of the Catalyst family over coffee (provided by Forever Fit!) and enjoy the parade in your T-shirt.  (Most families bring snowsuits to watch the parade outside, and then return inside for awhile afterward.)

Starting in November, we'll be operating an Olympic Weightlifting Club at the Park!  We started the Club because interest is high in OLY lifting due to CrossFit; because we have some excellent coaches available; and because we want to get Sebastien Wetzel into the Special Olympics.  We haven't named the Club yet, but we'll be offering coaching to our members as soon as possible.

One of the big highlights from October for me was our Essays Project.  We're featuring three essays each from some of the top writers in the CrossFit universe.  It's been remarkably easy to reach these folks (just friend them, like us, on facebook) and they've all been really cool about letting us reprint their articles.  They've even chosen one each!  Another great highlight: having so many other CrossFit boxes link to our No Scale article.  One of the most popular of all time on our site.

Our community is amazing.  Two members of the Park crew have their own blogs now.  Our tracking software has taken on a life of its own: Leanne issued her own Paleo challenge for November.  CASS has their own website now (awesome!) and they'll be the second local high school to use the tracking software soon.

No Scale

I'm yelling as loudly as I can, but no one in the room can hear me. I'm bellowing numbers in descending order: "11!" The crowd roars. "10!" They start jumping up and down. "9!" They're looking at my hands in the air now, as the room heaves with excitement. In front of me, she's standing, hands on hips, trying to pull air down from the ceiling. I'm talking right into the back of her head. But she's gone. Gone to that "other" place. It's a domain reserved solely for the athlete at the paper-cut-sharp edge of the envelope. She's found it. Fourty-three seconds later, she'll collapse into the mob of her fans, shaking all over. Many of them have teared up.

Yeah, but how much does she weigh?

He slid, a thousand miles an hour, under his Harley-Davidson. "You'll never walk unaided," they said. "You'll never work again," they said. "How are your bed sores this morning?" they said. This summer, he ran his first 5km race. At midnight. With his son, for his 18th birthday.

Yeah, but what's his bench?

It's safe to bet that she's never won any single sport in her whole life. She's experienced that hell-on-earth when, on the playground, the teams are chosen, and she was one of the last two to be picked. "Please, pick me. Please, anything but last again. I can do better than that other kid. I'll try really hard. Please, please, pleeeeeease." So last week, when she finished the 500m row portion of the workout in first place and headed to the rower, the crowd was reserved. When she finished the box jumps in first place, they were clapping. But when she dropped the skipping rope first, they exploded. Thirty adults and teens, on their feet, cheering. I told them my voice was cracking from all the yelling, but that was a lie.

Yeah, but how many friends does she have on facebook?

Setting the table, her sister commented on how muscular her arms looked. "Holy crap, girl! What have you been DOING?!?" She told them about CrossFit. About kipping and almost doing pullups. About Barbell Bettys and knee socks and how Fran felt after a night shift and how much she could split jerk. Predictably came the response: "You're crazy. I could NEVER do that stuff." She just smiled and shrugged, quietly knowing that Confident is the new Size 4; that yes, they could do this stuff, but she alone had the guts to pull that particular trigger.

Yeah, but how many calories could she possibly burn in 20 minutes?

I'm already hanging from the bar before the referees start to argue. "He's gotta go back!" says the man in charge. My personal judges, possibly the nicest coaches this side of the 49th Parallel, tug me down from the rack and escort me through the plates, back to the bar. It wasn't a happy reunion. I had to redo 3 squat cleans at 165lbs. And I still had a quarter mile to run, 5 more big cleans and jerks, and 24 more pullups. I was staring down the barrel of a very long day.

The crowd was rowdy. It was only 9am, and many had already yelled themselves hoarse. But I couldn't hear anything: nothing but a small voice, chanting "Go-Daddy-Go! Go-Daddy-Go!" So I went.

Yeah, but he weighs under 200lbs now! He's little!

No scale in the world can measure this stuff.