Leigh has been part of my Boot Camp for a long time and she told me a few months ago she would like to get back into more crossFit classes so we got her involved in them too. Even though she hadn’t done much CrossFit for a while, she got right into it and she is able to do most Wods rx. Now she is taking the next step and getting involved in competitions. However, Leigh is no stranger to competitions having done a few lifting comps for Otago Weightlifting.

Leigh is a well-rounded athlete who should do very well no matter what comes up. No many exercises will stop her in her tracks and that should give her and the team confidence if things start to go west.

A really good thing about having Leigh in the team is she doesn’t really care about what comes out of the hopper, she just gets to work and gets the job done. If any of the team members see that, they will hopefully worry less as well and just think about the job at hand. Always with a smile on her face, Leigh’s positive attitude will surely rub off on the rest of the team which should keep everyone grounded throughout the competition and keep the whole camp in good spirits.

Its awesome to have Leigh as part of our community always happy to get amongst the banter and have a laugh. Easy to get a long with and she is prepared to work hard when the time starts.

Christian

Wednesday 3/5/17

WOD: Every min on the min for as long as pissible

1st: 10 Deadlift 100/70kg

2nd: 10 Burpee over Bar

3rd: 10 Wall Ball 9/6kg

4th: 10 Pull Ups

Increase the Rep Count by 2 every 4 min Round until failure. Continue each exercise until you can no longer complete the amount of reps in a minute.

Before MaryAnn turned up early this year she had been doing CrossFit in Gore and it showed because she was moving very well and she was obviously fit. She has been a regular for our lunchtime classes and rarely misses a class. It is awesome to have a member like MaryAnn that turns up often and sees the improvements from it. Everyone has things they can improve on but MaryAnns baseline fitness and strength is very good which means she picks up new lifts and skills very well. She is always prepared to take advice which makes her extremely easy to coach. That willingness to learn and improve will give her some very good results in the future. It means we can start working towards the more complex lifts and skills which is very important as we get closer to the comp.

MaryAnn works out with a lot of intensity which is going to help the team a lot, especially if the team needs a little energy boost on the second day. So far MaryAnn has shown all-round capabilities and it will only get better as we get closer to the comp.

We are very happy to have you as part of the gym and the team going up north to represent the Southern Peak colours:)

Christian

Tuesday 2/5/17

WOD #1: Every 4 min for 16 min

400m Run

Stay consistent with the lap times.

WOD #2: 4 Rounds of

12 DB Step Ups (AHAP)

12 Strict TTB

12 Box Jumps 24/20′

12 DB Strict Press (AHAP)

Joe is the third member of the team going to Nationals. He started as a member of the gym when we were at Vogel Street. As you most likely read a month back, joe is working as a PT through the gym now.

His size and strength will be very useful during odd objects and carrying workouts. He enjoys the grind of sled pushes and object carries so hopefully we will get to see him smash through some grunt work. Joe’s body building background has helped him develop a huge power to weight ratio which means most gymnastics movements come easier to him than for most. This will help the team through the more skillful workouts with hopefully a good finish.

When it comes to training and fitness Joe has a lot of knowledge and this will help the team prepare well for each event when it comes to warming up and cooling down. This will be Joe’s first big comp and we are looking forward to seeing him start off on a high note.

Christian

Monday 1/5/17

Strength: Front Squat

3 x 10 @ 75% or same weight as last week

Skill: 10 min EMOM

Odd: 10-15 Push ups

Even 5-10 Strict Pull ups

WOD: 3 Rounds for Time

100 Double Unders

20 Alt DB Snatches 22.5/15kg

Note: The month of May will focus on Push ups and Handstand Push ups. This means even if it just says Push ups or HSPU in the workout the coach will have specific aspects for the class to work on rather than just smashing out RX or Scaled reps.

Next member is another fit olympic weightlifter:) Marco has been a member since day one and has been consistently going to classes. Marco found out he was good at weight lifting and spent some time last year working on his strength and technique a lot. It definitely worked and he has been using that improved strength and technique in his CrossFit. He is a young guy with plenty of talent so it will be good to see how far he can get in the sport of CrossFit.

He will be fairly new to the competition aspect when it comes to big CrossFit comps but he is keen to gain as much experience as possible as he prepares to take it as far as possible. Marco will be of huge help to the team during short intense workouts or anything with a barbell. About a year ago Marco had a bit of a hole in his fitness when it came to the longer workouts but he went home over the summer holidays and it looked like he did a ton of work because he came back with a much improved gas tank so he will be looking to show how much he has improved in the longer workouts.

Christian

Saturday 29/4/17

Partner WOD: 30 min AMRAP

Buy in: 1200m Run Together

in remaining time perform AMRAP of:

12 Rope Climbs (1 for 1)

24 Burpees (each)

36 KB SDHP 24/16kg (each)

48 Sit Ups (each)

400m Run Together

Both can perform reps at the same time but only on the same exercise.

You will find Riley at Otago Weightlifting just as often as you’ll see him do CrossFit. He has been lifting for a number of years and for that reason he has one of the best lifting techniques in the gym. He has always been naturally fit so it was just a matter of doing regular classes to keep and improve over the last few months while he has been a member. The only couple of holes in his fitness were gymnastic related. He picks up things very well so all we had to do was give him a couple of cues on exercises like toes to bar  and bar muscle ups and he was under way.

He is a well-rounded athlete and that combined with his relaxed nature made him a perfect fit for Team Captain. He has done plenty of comps in both weightlifting and CrossFit so he will be able to keep a cool head under pressure and help the team out.

When we were demoing the offices in the building to make room for the gym Riley wasn’t even a member and he still made time to come in and help us which was an amazing thing to do. I think Harlem enjoyed it as that meant there was another professional around:)

We are very lucky to have a person like that in the team who goes that extra mile to help friends out, any team will benefit from a person like that. Really looking forward to seeing Riley in action at a big comp, he is going to be leading a great bunch of athletes with plenty of talent in it.

Christian

Friday 28/4/17

Strength: Every 2 min for 10 min

2 Cleans – 1 Jerk

Build in weight

WOD: For Time

10 Squat Cleans 80/60kg

200m Run

8 Squat Cleans

200m Run

6 Squat Cleans

200m Run

4 Squat Cleans

200m Run

2 Squat Cleans

Accessory Work: 3 Rounds of:

20 Hollow Rocks/Holds

30 sec Hanging L-Sit

30 Sec Handstand Hold

The last Masters Team profile is Megan. She has been a super loyal member over a long period of time, first during my boot camps and later when the gym was set up. Megan has been doing a lot of fitness even way before I got to know her. She is a great runner and has done heaps of endurance events and still does them. She thrives during longer workouts especially with running and bodyweight exercises. We have been working hard on improving her barbell work and she has seen huge increases in strength over the past months from regularly attending classes.

It will be great to finally see her compete at a big CrossFit comp. She might have had some concerns about how she would do with these types of comps but there shouldn’t be any doubt in her mind about how to compete. She will be as fit as anybody there and I am looking forward to seeing Megan showing off her fitness. Her endurance background will help her recover well between events, so I will not be surprised if she is the one dragging the team across the finish line on the last workout of the day. She will be able to find that extra gear when everyone else might feel a bit beat up. It will be very good to have a person like that in the team to motivate and push the rest of the team towards the end of some long days.

That was the Masters Team introduced to everyone. Tomorrow we will start with the Open Intermediate Team going to Nationals.

Christian

Thursday 27/4/17

Skill: 10 min EMOM

Odd: 50 Double Unders

Even: 5 Strict TTB – 7 Kipping TTB

WOD: 16 min EMOM

Odd: 16 KB Goblet Reverse Lunges 24/16kg

Even: 6 Box Jumps 24/20′ – 8 KB Swings 24/16kg

REMINDER: If you have ordered apparel but haven’t paid yet, Please bring the cash in today. That way we don’t have to chase up people at a later date.

In a former life Jo was a very good power lifter and even now you can tell there is still some raw strength left which will help the team a long way forward when the barbells come up. Make sure you ask her about the lifting records to her name there are some very impressive numbers in there.

Strength is never a weakness as they say and that is certainly the case with Jo. She will help the rest of the team along in that department for sure but her mental strength is also going to help when the longer wods come up. She can push herself hard when need be which will be very important in a two day event.

Jo has showed real quality as a CrossFitter by qualifying for the top 200 masters athletes before, and she is well on her way back there. It will be super exciting to follow her development over the next months as she prepares with the rest of the team.

She will hope for Double Unders to come up for sure as she will have some of the fasters reps in the country:)

Always prepared to throw some banter at whoever is near so will be a great personality to have around for the weekend she will be just as bad as the boys when it comes to locker room chat haha

Christian

Wednesday 26/4/17

Strength: Front Squats

4 x 8 @ 70-75% of 1RM

WOD: 3 Rounds for Time

10 DB Thrusters 22.5/15kg

20 Burpees

50 Double Unders

I hope everyone enjoyed leaving it all on the floor yesterday during Hero Wod Murph. We will be paying our respect for ANZAC by closing the gym for today. This is a day for you to remember the fallen soldiers and celebrate their sacrifice so you can enjoy your freedom in a way you see fit.

I am not from NZ, but being from Denmark I have still seen how the World Wars have affected the lives of people overseas. I have felt the importance of the fight against evil and will continue to pay my respect wherever I may live in the world.

We will see you again Wednesday morning back to normal schedule.

Christian

I have had the pleasure of training Diana for a few years now and she has come a long way from when I first saw her. Mobility was always an issue especially hips and calves but a serious amount of work has helped her get to a place where no amount of overhead squats is an issue:) Diana has developed a good level of intensity over the last few months and I am sure she is excited about showing that extra gear at Nationals.

When it comes to helping at the gym she has been awesome. The white painted front of the gym was under her supervision when we had our first working-bee in December and it is still looking great.

Diana has been a regular to either lunch time or morning classes and she rarely misses a class during the week. She sometimes complain about the wod when she walks in and see what is programmed but she always gets after it when time starts no matter how hard it is. Sometimes we even have to pull her back a bit because she can very competitive and always wants to get close to an RX workout. It is a great drive to have as long as we use it positively.

Christian

Monday 24/4/17

HERO WOD to Honour ANZAC Day

REMINDER: Apparel Order goes out today so last chance of getting something in.

We are CLOSED on ANZAC DAY so make sure you get your HERO Wod in today!

Brett has only been with us for about a month but he has shown a real desire to improve and get back to previous strength and fitness levels. It was a little hard to convince him to join the team but we got him on board and I am sure he will enjoy it.

It has been great having Brett at the gym. In the short time he has been here he has been keen to help out when ever available which is a huge plus. He is much fitter than he gives himself credit for so with a couple more improvements in the endurance department we are looking good. He has many of the gymnastics skills that they will come up against at Nationals so he will be a real weapon on those workouts. He has shown great technique and strength on both Pull Ups and Toe to Bar so I am sure he will be looking forward to getting some bar work done. Brett is also close to the notorious muscle up. Chances are we won’t see them but just in case, we have Brett who will be thriving on the opportunity of showing of his skills.

These three male athletes in the Masters team are well rounded and each have their strengths to bring to the table. It will be great to see them succeed on the Competition floor come October.

Christian

Saturday 22/4/17

WOD: Partner Wod

3 rounds for Time:

100 Double Unders

75 KB Swings 24/16kg

50 Burpee Over Box 24/20′

25 TTB

Partition reps as needed

REMINDER: We are closed on ANZAC Day (Tuesday) But you will get to show your respect on Monday with a special HERO Wod. Hope to see you all at MOndays Classes.