There’s a difference between training, testing and competing. In CrossFit that line has gotten blurred, especially by those newer to it who are still in the honeymoon phase. I’ve been around this stuff for the better part of a decade so for me the honeymoon is over. I know what to expect. I know how most workouts are going to feel. I know how to game them. But most importantly, I know the difference between training, testing and competing.

Training is your day-to-day sessions (metcons, strength, skill work, etc). You want to get a good workout, achieve the desired stimulus, work on the things you need to work on, and then go home and recover. You work hard, but you don’t need to keep peeling yourself off the floor each and every training session.

Testing is doing a benchmark workout (or something in a similar vein) for the 2nd, 3rd, or 50th time in the hopes of improving on your previous best effort (which hopefully wasn’t done yesterday). This would also apply to strength lifts where you might do max reps of a weight at, or near, your 1-rep max. Pulling your 1-rep max for 2 or 3 reps means you had a good day, it’s not a PR. There’s a difference.

Competing is something completely different. Whether it is a competition like the CrossFit Open, some locally held event with multiple workouts in a day, or the couple times a year when you do a CrossFit, Powerlifting, or Olympic total, those are the moments when the world fades out to a muted blur, you go to that dark place and find out what kind of man or woman you truly are. That is competing. That’s when a true max effort occurs. Most people only have maybe 12 of those efforts in them per year.

Learning and knowing your limits helps you approach your training in a smarter way then just always being “that guy”. You will become stronger, increase your mental toughness, and experience less injuries which will keep you active much longer.

Long Weekend Hours reminder (Saturday):

• 8:00am – westshore only
• 10:00am – downtown only

The post Training, testing, Competing appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

These athletes have been spending countless hours in the gym working on their skills and building up their strength for the upcoming challenges at the regional event in Vancouver on June 7-9th.

The work outs our team will face are posted on the Crossfit website (games.crossfit.com). One of the more gruelling workouts in the series is a guantlet style chipper of :

TEAM EVENT 4 – 2013

Teams of 6 (3 Men, 3 Women)

For time, each member of the six-person team must complete the following:
30 Wall balls (20 / 14 lbs to a 10’ target)
30 Chest to bar Pull-ups
30 One-legged squats, alternating
30 One-arm dumbbell snatches (70 / 50 lbs)

Time cap: 25 minutes

The post Meet the Zones 2013 Regionals Squad appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

Imagine walking down the street and hearing laughter and hollering coming from around the corner.  You assume it is a group of kids playing.  When you turn the corner you see adults, some of whom are blindfolded and being led around by other adults.  Balls are flying through the air as the blindfolded people are trying to tag other blindfolded people.  In the midst of it all you see that these people are clearly having fun.

For years parents have been told about the importance of play for their children, but what about the importance of play for grown-ups? The National Institute for Play believes that play can dramatically transform our personal health, our relationships, the education we provide our children and the capacity of our corporations to innovate.

Perhaps you have heard the saying, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’  There is probably more truth to the saying than most realize.  Research indicates that without play it is hard to give your best at work or at home…

To read the rest of the article can be found here (http://firstthings.org/the-importance-of-play-for-adults).

So embrace your inner child. Throw pine cones, play tag, jump in puddles, and when fall rolls around step on that crunchy leaf

The post Importance of Play appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

We as crossfitters routinely put our body through some pretty challenging activities. When it is all said and done, our muscles can tighten causing inflexibility and sometimes aches and pains. For this reason yoga is an excellent compliment to crossfit. Working your way through the various poses you can help to open up your shoulders for those olympic lifts, or loosen up your hips and posterior chain for squats and deadlifts.

Yoga can also aide in strengthening the mental aspect of your training. It is common practice to spend some time in meditation where you can self reflect or focus on breath.

Never mind you excuses and get down to the Zone for a relaxing, rehabilitating, and rocking good time.

Photo from (http://downdawgyoga.com/ourstory.html)

The post A New Class Starting Soon! appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

So one day I get a call from a former teammate Bobby Debrone, now I knew Bob worked for the Special Olympics but I thought he was just calling me for workout advice or something.  When he asked me if I wanted to volunteer with the Special Olympics and be the head power-lifting coach I didn’t think twice.  It was a no brainer for me, this was going to be my way of honouring my sister.  So the wheels were in motion and I came to Deanna and Sandy and asked if they would be willing to donate the space, they looked at it as a no brainer too.

I was unaware that the Special Olympics was a year round program that helped introduce people with special needs to all different kinds of sport, they wanted to bring powerlifting to Victoria because there was a big interest in it.  It is a 12 week trial and they wanted to see how it would go and if it was something they wanted to continue to offer.

Photo Credit – Charla Huber – Goldstream News Gazette

So the day I really knew this whole thing was meant to be was when I found out that the three young men I’d be working with have Downs, it made me even more excited to meet Scott, Neil (The brothers) and Kyle (Who lives with Scott and Neil). Our first meeting was great, we shared a few laughs and showed off our biceps.  Kyle who is 23 was so excited about the whole thing he dropped down and started banging out pushups. Caroline who is Scott and Neil’s mother and caregiver to Kyle, informed me that Neil wouldn’t be participating because he was just diagnosed with clinical depression and hadn’t been eating much and lost weight.  So the next week we started our first session and it was pretty successful, I soon found out Kyle was a natural with the deadlift and Scott was eager to learn, Neil was quiet and stood off on the sidelines and watched.  We’ve made huge progress since that first day, form has improved and the boys have been adding more and more weight.  Neil is even starting to participate, his whole demeanor has changed and he’s starting to come out of his shell.  Neil is laughing and talking just as much as the other boys now and he’s even started eating more, I can see something has changed in his eyes, is it from the power-lifting? I’m not sure, but I really hope that it has something to do with it.

The one thing I found inaccurate from the article that “Goldstream Gazette” put out was how the boys were tentative about lifting.  The boys were always super eager to lift, they’ve never complained once.  Just like the weight, our bond has increased too!  The guys all have a great sense of humour and we laugh and have a lot of fun in the process.  I’d like to continue our friendship even after this awesome experience is over.  Even if we never end up in a single competition I hope this will give the boys more confidence in life and have an impact on them, I hope lifting can do for them what it’s done for my life.

~ Coach Ray

Please check out the article posted in the Goldstream Gazette -

http://www.vicnews.com/neighbourhoods/west_shore/205407831.html

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We are creating “Zone Crew” shirts again this year to sponsor our athletes to get to Regionals.  They will be sold for $20 donation (minimum) for the team.  I was just informed that we need to get sizes and numbers in Tuesday am so they are ordered in time for printing.  We will be getting unisex sized American Apparel shirts.  If you know you would like to get a t-shirt to sponsor the team (even if you are unable to make it to Regionals), please email admin@crossfitzone.ca your size.  Sorry for the late notice!

Open Gym (downtown)

• 9:30am – 10:30am
• 1:15pm – 4:30pm

The post In honour of my sister appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

Downtown-

Saturday May 18- 10:00 am only

Sunday May 19- No classes

Monday May 20- 9:30 am only

Westshore-

Saturday May 18- 9:00 am only

Sunday May 19- No classes

Monday May 20- 9:00 am only

CROSSFIT GAMES TICKETS GO ON-SALE TODAY - last year they sold out fast, so if you are thinking of heading to LA in July,  purchase them today.  Post to the comments if you are going.  http://games.crossfit.com/article/crossfit-games-tickets-sale-monday for more details.

 Open Gym (downtown):

• 8:00am – 9:30am
• 10:30am – 12:15pm
• 1:15pm – 4:30pm

The post Long weekend Hours appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

Lots of core strength, mobility  and shoulder stability was gained this month with the overhead squats.  Congratulations to all those that worked hard on improving and saw results.

Westshore:

Most Improved Female – Tanya with 45lbs
Most lifted (Female) – Chrysta with 90lbs
Most Improved Male – Craig with 70lbs
Most lifted (Male) – Fred with 175lbs
Average increase by those who retested – 40lbs

Pembroke:

Most Improved Female – Emily I with 20lbs
Most lifted (Female) – Emily I with 155lbs
Most Improved Male – Chad and Jer D with 40lbs
Most lifted (Male) – Ray with 270lbs
Average increase – 20lbs

Looks like the Cup will remain in the Westshore for the rest of the month!  We had only a small percentage of members retest the skill.  What can we do to encourage you to take part in the Skill of the Month and want to retest?  Please send your feedback to admin@crossfitzone.ca Thanks!

Reminder: the Advanced class is at 9:00am today!

Open Gym (downtown):

• 10:00am – 11:30am

The post Overhead Squat – Results appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

For those looking crush some wods, Coach May will be kicking around  between 11-12 for some open gym time.

The post It’s Saturday, Lets Get Outside! appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

Here is a video from Paradiso crossfit outlining a favourite warmup of Crossfit weightlifting coach Burgener

The main purpose of this is to get your Heart rate up and those hips warm and primed for some serious olympic lifting!

Give it a try today and see if you notice a difference.

Open Gym:

• 8:00am – 9:00am (downtown)
• 10:30am – 12:15pm (downtown)
• 1:15pm – 4:30pm (downtown)
• 5:00 – 6:00pm (Westshore)

The post Junkyard Dog appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.

One thing we loved here at the zone was our old WOD KILLA of the month post. So we are bringing it back!

In order to do this we need your help.

What are we asking you to do? If you see someone who you feel has been working really hard,has made some great progress at the gym, or done something you feel is exceptional. Let everyone know who you think has gone above and beyond this month by telling your coach or sending an e-mail to jon@crossfitzone.ca .

From your suggestions we will choose one name and they will be featured in a blog post. These posts are also a great way to learn something about that stranger (hopefully not) beside you.

Open Gym (downtown):

• 8:00am – 9:30am
• 10:30am – 12:15pm
• 1:15pm – 4:30pm

The post We Are Bringing it Back! appeared first on Crossfit Zone Victoria BC, Vancouver Island.