Beginner Class in Park!
With group classes slated to return June 15th we are anticipating a rush of new members.  At Empower we require everyone new to CrossFit to complete our beginner curriculum.  You can do this through personal training but for the month of June only we are offering our Beginner Group Class in Jericho Beach Park Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5pm for only $250.  It is a big discount.  If you know someone on a budget hoping to join group classes this summer please let them know.  Registration closes Sunday night.

To register:
1. Follow this link
2. Click the “Login” button
3. Select “Sign Up Now” at the bottom of the page. 
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select “June Beginner Class Special”
5. Select “Sign Up” then fill in your details to complete your registration.

Empower COVID Games Event 21.1: Sultan’s Revenge
Yes, I insist on calling this the “First Annual” because we plan to continue having fun every year with or without a pandemic!  Your first event this year will be:

10 min AMRAP
10 DB TGU
10 DB Swings

As many reps as possible of 10 Dumbbell Turkish Get Ups and 10 DB Swings.  You must use the same weight for the TGU and the Swing but athletes on the same team may select different weights.  This workout is done one partner working at a time.  At the completion of 10 reps you must change partners, you may not change before completing 10 reps of a movement.  Partner 1 must complete 10 TGU before partner 2 can perform 10 Swings, partner 3 will then return to 10 TGU and so on.

Scorecards with complete details and adaptive options will be emailed to one representative of your team.  You have until 5pm Sunday June 6th to submit your team score.

Farewell Party June 5th
This summer we bid farewell to two members of the Empower team and their beloved families as Fierce & Menace head off to Alberta and The Truth & Hufflepuff relocate to the Okanagan. 

The Truth has served as technical high performance coach to our CanWest competitive team as well as our resident barbell care and restoration expert.  But of all the many generous contributions he has made to the community over the years he will be best remembered for the amazing lifting platforms that he built for us!

Fierce has served as our Facility Manager and is the force behind keeping the gym clean and tidy and our equipment in good repair.  Through the pandemic she’s faced the added challenges of keeping us COVID compliant.  The second annual Empower Unstoppable Challenge currently underway is her legacy, inspired by her 2019 feat of completing every WOD programmed that year despite being pregnant through 9 months of the year and giving birth that year as well.  She of course went on to complete the 2020 Unstoppable Challenge, this time overcoming COVID closures to repeat her 2019 performance!

It is a great loss to our community to say goodbye to members who have contributed so much.  Saturday we hope you will come out and help us express our gratitude with a socially distanced WOD in their honour and picnic (at your own station of course – this is a potluck-free pandemic).

When: Saturday June 5th 4pm
Where:  3 Willows at Jericho Beach Park
What to Bring: Food for your household and gratitude to our dear friends
WOD: Meet at the gym 3:30pm to pick up one dumbbell per person (you pick your weight), carrying your dumbbell to the park will be your warm up. We will admit one household at a time to the gym.

Landmark with Molly Gunn
The Touch, HeeHee and I have all derived great benefit from the Landmark program which was introduced to me by the coaching team at CrossFit Vancouver in 2009.  There I met great people like Big Boss whose company used the Landmark training for all their valued team members.  We’ve found it a very useful training tool for both coaches and athletes (my athletic performance jumped up dramatically after attending my first Landmark event and I’ve never looked back).  We have long wanted to offer Empower members a free Landmark introduction course so we were excited to learn that current member Molly Gunn is enrolled in one of Landmark’s leadership programs.  I have asked her to put something together specifically for our Empower community and she has generously agreed to do so.  Here she is in her words:

Hey Guys!

Molly Gunn here! I am so grateful to have the Empower platform to share with you the exciting work I am participating in. This work has made a huge impact on me, and my life and I would love for all of you to be part of it. I began participating in this work two years ago and it completely changed the relationships I have in my life. During the program I participated in one of many exercises and it gave me a totally new perspective on how I was being in my life. I continue to use these skills and apply them to all areas of my life and the transformation is amazing. This work will impact any or all areas of your life that you choose to apply it to. I am arranging an introduction evening and would love for you to attend. You can email me at the following: [email protected]. The introductions are on Zoom and I can arrange times that are convenient for everyone. I look forward to hearing from you.  

I recommend Landmark if you are struggling in certain areas of your life or would like to improve your performance in specific relationships or endeavours.  It has proven a very useful interpersonal and professional tool.  Not only were the skills I learned at Landmark essential in building Empower, they have also helped HeeHee and I navigate challenging times in our marriage and through the teen years with our son.  Though neither of us have been involved with Landmark since 2009 we continue to derive value from the lessons we learned there about ourselves and how to operate more effectively in the world.

Empower Online Store
Just a heads up, our summer apparel is about to go on sale.  we expect the online store to go live this week.  Like last time, the store will only be taking orders for one week before it closes again so don’t miss out!  Last year several members were disappointed they missed out on some of the great apparel available from Oddball Workshop.  Keep your eyes on the blog and your email inbox and we will let you know as soon as it goes live!

COVID Restrictions Easing
It has been thrilling to be able to coach low intensity group classes in the gym again.  In June we will continue to offer Zoom classes, open gym times and coaching in the gym for low intensity WODs.  We are optimistically looking forward to the prospect of resuming high intensity group class coaching in the gym mid month if all goes well.  Here’s what the proposed easing schedule looks like:

Effective June 15th Masks Mandatory, High Intensity Group Classes permitted at reduced capacity (7 stations)
Effective July 1st Masks Required, High Intensity Group Classes with increased capacity (??)
Effective September 4th Masks Optional, Return to pre-COVID capacity (12)


Missed Reservations

Dear Members,

Thank you so much for your diligent effort through the month of May regarding your open gym reservations.  As you know COVID capacity restrictions have resulted in many of our most popular times being fully booked making it ever more challenging to access the gym at peak times.  Thanks to your conscientious efforts, missed classes in May were at an all time low.  Great job!

While we are thrilled with the improvement there still have been several missed reservations that resulted in waitlisted members being unable to attend a class.  It has come down to a few members who each account for several missed reservations this past month.  We understand that to err is human.  We all make mistakes.  One missed reservation is an accident.  Two missed reservations begins to feel like carelessness.  More than two suggests disregard for other members of our community.  If you have work or social obligations or have a health issue that may interfere with your ability to attend, out of fairness to others, please cancel your registration or refrain from making a reservation until you are certain that you will be able to attend.

As of June we will be addressing repeated missed reservations by restricting registration privileges for those members who have repeatedly failed to make it to their reserved times.  We hope this warning will be enough to end careless reservation practices and bring down our missed reservations in June to zero so that everyone who hopes to access the gym is able to do so!

Monday Make Up Day

1) 50/5-40/4-30/3-20/2-10/1
DB Snatches 45/70#
Rope Climbs

2) 21-18-15-12-9-6-3
Triple Unders
Bike (Cal)

3) Empower COVID Games Event 21.1: Sultan’s Revenge
10 min AMRAP
10 DB TGU
10 DB Swings

4) Empower Reset #19
1 min face down breathing
30/30 sec head nods/rotations on belly and elbows

1 min upper body roll
1 min lower body roll

3 mins
10 heads-up cross touch dead bugs
10 head pressed down windshield wipers

3 mins
10 cross touch plank bird dogs
10 judo push up rocks

5 mins
Max Hanging Hold
Max Leopard Crawl

10 Full Body Rock
400m KB Suitcase carry @1/1.5 pood