Weekly Wisdom First Edition July 31, 2025: Origin Story
When I started coaching at CrossFit Vancouver I was very green. To fill the gap in my learning I attended every training cert I could: CrossFit Barbell with Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength, CrossFit Gymnastics with gymnastics coach Jeff Tucker, CrossFit Endurance with Ultra Marathoner Brian MacKenzie, Nutrition with Robb Wolf, author of the Paleo Solution and founder of LMNT, Science of CrossFit with SFU kinesiology professor Tony Leyland, Olympic Lifting with Kelly Frankson (student of Greg Everrett who literally wrote the book on Weightlifting), Olympic Lifting with Charles Staley and Olympic Lifting with Olympic gold medalist Christine Girard.
Even better for me was the fact that at any given time our gym had between 6-8 CrossFit Games athletes like Jennifer Dober (also a professional gymnastics coach) and Emily Beers (a former gymnast and collegiate rower). We also had a handful of Olympians including gymnast Kate Richardson and bobsled bronze medallist Chris LeBihan.
All this to say that there was no shortage of learning resources available to me at any given time in the first three years of my coaching journey. And of course, there was my coach, former CrossFit Games competitor Andy Swartz who was arguably more knowledgeable than all of the above combined.
All that changed when we opened Empower’s doors on Dunbar Street in 2013. Suddenly, I was supposed to be “the expert”. With did bring in guest experts like Christine Girard, Jennifer Dober, Andrew Swartz, Olympic rower Will Dean, Starting Strength coach Greg Bearss and Power Lifter Joel Klassen. But having no one to learn from on a daily basis, I leaned into the internet beginning a practice of consuming 30-60 minutes of content per day, 7 days per week on sports science, exercise science, sports performance, sports psychology, lifting, gymnastics, endurance sports, health, longevity, fitness, nutrition, etc. Podcasts, audiobooks, youtube channels, websites. I consume content at 2x speed when the option is available in order to cram as much learning as possible into my daily study. I have continued this practice for more than 12 years now as a way to compensate for the fact that I have no formal education in nutrition, health or sports science.
Recently, during my one week medical leave, with surgeon orders to avoid cardio, lifting or any kind of housework, the only entertainment available to me was walking or audio feeds. My content consumption made a huge spike. On one particularly boring day I completed 3 audiobooks! And I learned a lot. I keep a curated archive of the most interesting and useful links and share on Facebook and in blog posts but it occurred to me my sharing lags months behind my content consumption.
Then I remembered Mark’s Daily Apple website which used to have a weekend Link Love where his team shared all the most interesting health related research of the week. It was my favourite blog to follow and I was sad when it was discontinued in order to sell more product.
Well, guess what? I have decided to resurrect the spirit of that great website with a weekly blog in which I will share a handful of the tidbits of learning that I found most interesting each week in hopes that you enjoy it as much as I did and glean some value from them.
Welcome to Empower’s inaugural Weekly Wisdom blog post!
Nutrition
Vitamin D: Why you need more
We evolved outside in sunlight. Our bodies are designed for it and it powers many critical systems but these days we don’t get much sun or if we do, it is all at once and often at the wrong time of day.
Many Empower members have tested low for vitamin D and their physicians have attributed their chronic injuries to this nutritional deficit. I use supplements as a hedge but nothing beats plain old sunlight. Aim for early morning or late day when the less damaging, longer wavelengths are available. You do not need direct sunlight. I spend my work days in the shade of my north-facing back deck and even without direct light, manage to get a solid tan.
Training
Endurance Training Kills
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.125.018470
47% of endurance athletes tested positive for myocardial fibrosis (sorry ladies, they only tested men so we have no idea if this applies to women. But don’t fret, we’ve included health tips specific to women in this issue too).
Myocardial fibrosis is strongly associated with cardiac arrhythmias. You know, that one really fit dude who drops dead during every triathlon or marathon and everyone goes “But he was so fit and healthy!”
With 47% of competitive endurance athletes showing myocardial scarring associated with sudden, asymptomatic death, the real surprise is how few actually die during events.
The takeaway, if, like me, you hate endurance events, you now have a really solid excuse for why you do not plan to run a marathon.
Women’s Health
Why you’re not getting fitter
You’re doing the same workouts and healthy eating as your male counterparts but not getting the same results. He’s getting stronger and leaner and you are struggling with stubborn fat deposits and chronic aches and pains. You feel wired and tired.
Intermittent fasting is all the rage and it works. For men. But here’s the rub: women are not small men. No matter what anyone tries to tell you, we are different. At a hormonal level.
Fasted training works really well for men looking to lean out. For women, not so much. In fact, it may have the exact opposite effect. Women need to consume nutrients soon after waking and certainly before engaging in exercise.
According to Dr. Stacy Sims, as little as 15 grams of protein might do the trick.
Medical
The Great Big Scan Fallacy
1) MRI Lies - Z-Health:
If you don’t know Dr. Eric Cobb and Z-Health, he has been at the forefront of neurological training since the 90’s inspiring many folks like Original Strength founder Tim Anderson and my own CrossFit coach and former CrossFit Games competitor, Andy Swartz.
Here he delves into why the pain you are dealing with may have nothing to do with damaged tissue (despite what the scans indicate) and everything to do with retraining your neurology.
2) MRI back pain - Bob & Brad
Okay, I get it. You have no idea who Dr. Eric Cobb is and you have no foundational knowledge about neurology so for all you know, he could just be another internet phoney spouting junk science (he’s not). So, I’ve included a corroborating clip from chiropractors Bob and Brad.
The key takeaways: the older you are, the more likely you are to have bulging discs (or tissue abnormalities in other joints). In most people they remain asymptomatic. Yup. They scanned a whole load of healthy, pain free folks and discovered they have the exact same bulging disc profile that your doctor is blaming for your back pain.
So, is the pain really caused by the bulging disc or did you already have a bulging disc for years without realizing it and now that you also have back pain it is an easy scapegoat? Correlation is not causation.
While it seems obvious that these two things should be connected, it is not always the case. See Dr. Cobb above for a compelling alternative theory.
3) Dangers of Unnecessary Screening
Why I’m I drilling into the whole screening thing? Because unnecessary screening can be more detrimental than helpful especially when there is poor correlation between screening results and pain management.
Based on the results of my 2010 spinal screen, my doctor told me to never lift again. Can you imagine? If I had taken his advice I would have lived the past 15 years of my life as a total invalid! This would not only rob me of my livelihood but of my life. It is irresponsible medical advice.
Everyday folks are being frightened away from physical activity by advice received from well-intentioned but ignorant medical professionals who should know better given that 70% of our population is dying of lifestyle diseases for whom exercise is the number one preventative measure.
Good for a Laugh
The world’s first energy drink
We can laugh at this now and say that we would never approve a radioactive beverage in this day and age but, the frightening truth is we continue to poison our population with products that are poorly tested and whose long term consequences we do not understand. Thalidomide for morning sickness anyone?
Way back on Dunbar Street the Muscle Milk sales rep stopped by with a case of product and a proposal on how Empower could make big bucks selling it to members. I took a look at the ingredients and remarked, “This shit is poison, I wouldn’t sell it to members.”
To which the sales rep replied, “Your competitors are already making great revenue selling it to their members.”
“Yes, but I actually like my members,” I answered as I showed him and his toxic beverage the door.
That’s my shares for this week. Comment on what you found fun, interesting or helpful and we will try to find more like it for future posts.
(If you're looking down here for tomorrow's workout, you'll find it in my Monday post, which lists all the workouts for the week.)
