Today I spoke with a neighbour who is panicking; fearful her small business cannot survive the COVID pandemic. It’s something we can all relate to in these frightening and uncertain times. But looking around, I’m optimistic, the roads are empty but the parks are not. Vancouver is staying out of stores and out-of-doors which is the best possible response to this threat!
Attendance to our Outside-the-Box WODs has been fantastic and we are having all the fun of a fitness field trip. I can’t help thinking we should have been doing more of this all along! It’s obstacles versus opportunities all over again. That speed bump in the road may just turn out to be the spring board you needed to launch yourself into something better! The fitness will go on.
But here’s what makes me really optimistic: While places like Semperviva are worrying they may have to close their doors for good because of members cancelling and putting memberships on hold, we’re being flooded with emails like these from you, our Empower members:
– I LOVE that you are doing this. Necessity is the WODFather of invention, they say, right?
– For what it’s worth, I don’t expect to suspend or refund my membership, however this turns out.
– Thanks for the update Corey- understand your decision but look forward to some outdoor WODs in the next few weeks, thanks for coming up with great solutions.
– Thanks for your stewardship of CFE during these unusual times.
You’ll see us doing home workouts and coming to as many outdoor sessions as we can. We’ll try to bring the kids to some too. When you get a chance, let us know what the payment options are for them — drop-in fee or a monthly membership?
– I’ve cancelled my registrations but plan to commit to daily Outside of the Box WOD with my 2 daughters. I’ve e-transferred money for their monthly CFE fee. I take full responsibility for their Points of Performance. I’m very grateful for your virtual videos and workout plans!
Big Air Hugs!
– Thanks for this. This is the right call, but I know it’s a tough one for you. I appreciate the offer of outdoor and online WODs.
I believe that we are due to pay our annual fees in April or May. We’d be happy to pay them now if that would help at all.
– Today I have been reading in the Vancouver Sun about Semperviva Yoga closing permanently and another gym in Aldergrove struggling with declining membership due to Covid-19. I am not sure how much of a similar impact Crossfit Empower is experiencing but I’m sure it’s being felt. You and The Touch are doing a great job with the outdoor WODs and I look forward to my first one tonight! We were talking about what we could do to help Empower get through this difficult time and were wondering if prepaying our annual membership would do anything to improve cash flow for you over the next few months? Our annual membership renews August 1st but in order to have the funds available for it, we start putting aside money months in advance. It just sits in our savings account until we have enough by Aug 1st. Would it help at all if we started putting it your way now?
There are no words to express how much your support through message and through action means to us! Now, let us put your fears to rest: Empower will still be here for you after the COVID threat has passed. With all this support, you wouldn’t let us die if we wanted to. It is an honour to serve such a fantastic community!
Times will be tough and belts will get tightened but we have an operating line of credit and, as the 2018 expansion proved, we’re not afraid to use it. This may set our finances back a few years but what the heck? We weren’t going to get rich doing this anyhow, were we?
Your support and encouragement is all we need to keep us going in these tough times but if you want to contribute just a bit extra, please keep sending us ideas on how we can better serve you right now with the gym closed: Different Outside-the-Box times? Better video instruction for stay-at-home WODs? Better lending library hours? Things we haven’t even thought of…The more specific you can be, the better chance we do things right.
The good news (unless you hate running like I do) is that CrossFit HQ seems to be taking the current world circumstances into consideration when programming so we’re seeing more running and workouts that anyone can do anytime, anywhere with minimal equipment. We at Empower also have some fun, clever, nasty tricks up our sleeves as well, and we’re excited to share! Come join us Saturday for the first such serving.
Thursday March 19th Coach The Touch will be meeting the 6am and 5pm crew at the track for the following Outside-the-Box WOD:
Warm up
20 min SLIPS (4 min each)
Stretching (hip swings, crazy ninja fingers goblet squats)
L-sits (L-raises, straddle raises, L-overs, seated L/W sits)
Inversions (cartwheel, round off, wall walk, free stand kick up, feet on couch, press to handstand)
Plank (1:30 L, 1:00 middle, 1:30 R)
Scales
Tech
Dynamic warm up:
12 forward and backwards skips
24 high knees and butt kicks
20 sideways slide and grape vine
WOD
6 Rounds:
400m run
2min rest
Score = average time
Challenge
Try to make your 5th round your fastest while making sure your 6th round is not your slowest
Important notes:
Bring a pen and paper to keep track of splits or rounds
Have your own timer
We will all have different start lines on the track so we aren’t bunched up together, use your gear to mark your start/finish line
Remember to register by 7pm tonight if you want to find out which track we’re meeting at
Stay-at-Home WOD
Warm Up
12 forward and back wards skips
24 bear crawl steps
10 inch worm with push up steps
WOD
Death by Burpee
First min 1 burpee, second 2 burpees etc until you cannot complete number of burpees in the minute provided
Score is minutes successfully completed plus reps completed in last round.
Challenge
See how long you can inhale/exhale using your nose only with no mouth breathing. Document the round you needed to start mouth breathing.