Thanks!

Big thanks to everyone that came out to cheer us on at the Crossfit Ontario Challenge this past weekend in Toronto. The atmosphere that day was unbelievable! Everyone screamed their heads off and cheered on fellow competitors until the last timer hit stop! We all had a great time hanging out with friends, family and Crossfitters from all over. Thanks again!

2009 Variety Village Open

Jeremy - 3rd attempt - 122kg C&J

Saturday, July 4th was the debut of the 4 Horsemen Weightlifting Club at the 2009 Variety Village Open. Jeremy and I trained long and hard for the competition in hopes of placing. We both experimented with cutting weight and weighed in at 83.4kg and 75.5kg respectively. I lifted in the morning and after making 85kg back stage decided to open with it for my 1st attempt in the snatch. I got very nervous and missed my 1st attempt (I caught it, but wasn't focused on anything so I had no balance and lost it forward) but hit the 2nd attempt easily after refocusing. With the 85kg snatch I was already ahead by 10kg so I decided to attempt 92kg for my final attempt hoping the adrenaline would help. I had them brush the bar to get a little more rest but it proved to be too big of a jump in such a short period of time and I missed my 3rd attempt. In the future I will definitely need to train with smaller rest periods because I found it very difficult to follow myself for 3 heavy lifts. For the Clean and Jerk I opened at 110kg and hit it easily as expected. My second attempt was 116kg and I recieved 1 white and 2 red lights (so a failed attempt). Apparently there was a bit too much rebend or press out in my right elbow on the jerk. I decided to attempt 118kg for my final lift and was so focused on the jerk that I missed the clean. I ended up with a 195kg total. This was about 15kg off what I had hoped for, but a good first competition as this proved to be enough for 1st place in the 77kg class. A few hours later Jeremy weighted in and began the rehydration process. For the snatch he opened at 80 kg which went up super easy. He followed himself with 84kg, but missed. In order to get him some more rest he jumped to 86kg for his 3rd attempt (there were a few big boys lifting 85kg). Jeremy threw the 86kg up and pulled it so hard there was just a bit too much swing in the bar path that he lost it backward. For the Clean and Jerk he opened with 110kg, which he dominated. His second attempt was 116kg. He was well rested for this one since I had them change the weight to 114kg then I increased it to 116kg as there was another lifter doing 115kg. J hit 116kg easily with a very nice looking textbook jerk. His final lift was 122kg which looked very heavy but he managed to hit it giving him a total of 202kg which was good enough for 2nd in the 85kg class. All in all a great experience and first showing for the club, with hopefully more medals to come.

Me - 1st attempt - 110kg C&J

Stabilizing the Mid-line

J-rock holding a sick Flag off the life guard tower at Port Stanley

A strong core means having the ability to stabilize the mid-line (see pic above). You need to be able to recruit muscles in the front (eg. abs, + many others), back (eg. erectors + many others) and even side (eg. obliques + many others) of your body to keep you rigid and solid under load (or tension). Having a strong core is less about how many crunches you can do and more about how much weight you can lift. If you work on all the core muscle groups, and not just the abs, you will see that you can front squat, OHS, deadlift, and press more and you will be able to do more pushups and pullups. This is all because power is generate from the core to the extremities and the stronger the core the more efficient the power transfer. Additionally, the stronger your core is the farther the (center of mass of the) load can be from your mid-line which means you have a greater margin of error to work with when lifting. So the next time you have some free time, bust out an elbow lever or a flag; they are fun to try and a great core exercise.