Summer is over and Empower’s power couples are back with a fury!  We recently saw the return to group classes of the original Empower Power Couple BFG & Quicksilver but this week we were also joined by the upstarts HHH & Smash.  It was only a matter of time before these titans clashed!

To save space and with the hopes of finishing all 350 reps inside the very tight 30 minute time cap BFG & Quicksilver and HHH & Smash tag teamed the 50’s WOD at 6am.  Watching these perennial rivals go head-to-head for 30 frantic minutes made for an exciting class.  It was just like old times.

BFG & Quicksilver got off to an early lead and despite some back-and-forth were mostly able to hold that lead until the the final stretch when HHH & Smash passed them by on the T2B.  It was a close race, hotly contested until the final minutes but do not dream it is over, I predict many more such battles in coming weeks and months as members emerge from summer vacation and COVID lock down.

In fact, this week has been full of excitement as Empower members seemingly tired of getting their asses kicked by 2020 have decided to start doing some of their own ass kicking.  Hawkeye for example got her first pull ups Thursday while Yeti got his first 10 consecutive HSPU’s and newcomer The Finisher managed to score some quality double unders during Heavy 17.5.  It’s great to see everyone charging ahead.

And you may have noticed an expanding talent pool.  Joy, The Finisher, Molly Gunn & BB have become group class mainstays.  Most of you don’t yet know CrossFit veteran The Colonel from my old CrossFit Vancouver days but his daughters Loki & Icy have been tearing it up in group classes as well.

It’s exciting to see everyone starting September in full throttle but be warned: we’re in a patch of very challenging CrossFit Games workouts that are high in volume, heavy in load and are the types of workouts that can break you if you do not play safely.  Leave your ego out of it.  Scale the weights and reps as needed, take days off to recover and try to remember that these workouts are designed to crush the best in the world, it’s okay to sample them but do so with humility and caution!

Saturday WOD
We’ll be taking it down a notch Saturday for the Clean & Jerk, expect a technical review of the lifts for newcomers and veterans alike.  We will be able to accommodate 9 individual lifters and perhaps a few extra if their are couples willing to share a barbell.  We will take 4 heavy lifters on the platform.

Equipment:
PVC Pipe
Barbell

Warm Up:
1 min Belly Breathing
1 min Head Nods/Rotations
1 min Full Body Rocks
1 min Cross Crawls
1 min PVC Power Cleans
1 min PVC Push Jerks
1 min Clean & Jerks

Tech
Clean Points of Performance
Jerk Points of Performance

WOD
Clean & Jerk
3-3-3-3-3

Cool Down
Hands & Knees Rock
Upper Body Rolls
Lower Body Rolls