It has been a tough year for everyone, not least of all businesses. And it’s not over yet. With COVID cases in BC climbing we are certainly not considering increasing class sizes at this time and really must brace ourselves for the possibility of another closure. We hope that this won’t happen but at least now we know the drill, should the time come, we’ll switch directly to equipment lending mode and have Zoom classes in full swing without missing a beat. South Korea, once the gold standard for how to control the spread of COVID, is now now getting out of control as complacent church groups continue to ignore social distancing. I feel Vancouverites partying at the beaches on weekends may be creating a similar predicament for us here. We all need to do our part to control the spread, don’t get complacent!
Fitness businesses have been especially hard hit with so many closures city wide. In the 15 years before COVID no single CrossFit in the region ever went out of business. This year we’ve seen both Burnaby CrossFits, Lion’s West, CrossFit Maple Ridge and CrossFit North Vancouver go under. And this week we were hit closer to home when we heard news that our neighbour CrossFit West 10th has now succumbed to COVID’s financial devastation. Please be very clear that this represents the death of someone’s dream. The owners Brian and Nancy have spent 7 years building their business and their community and living on the very thin margins that gym owners earn only to see their dream destroyed by unfortunate circumstances outside their control.
Now their members are scrambling to find a gym to train at even while we’re struggling to fit our existing members into reduced group classes. We can certainly add class times (11am or 6pm come to mind) but I suspect it is the popular time zones where demand will be highest. I will be meeting next week with some of our orphaned CrossFit neighbours to see which time zones they are looking to train at. These are people like you and me committed to fitness suddenly left without a place to train. Without displacing our own loyal community members, we need to consider how we can help our fellow CrossFitters. Citizen is the only other option and like us, EJ cannot take them all. Thank you for all the great suggestions so far, we are considering them all!
These are tough times and they don’t figure to get any easier in the coming months. Thank you for sticking with us through hard times and helping us get through a bad situation, without you we could not continue to do this. We’ve made sacrifices to stay in business and we know that you have too. I truly believe that hard times reveal character and I am so impressed by our Empower community and how steadfast you’ve been throughout this ordeal. We’ve a rough road to travel but not only will we come through it as a community, we will come through it stronger together!
Thursday WOD
Warm up
3 rnds
1 min inch worm( no push up, push up, pike push up)
1 min shoulder pass throughs
1 min plank (L,M,R)
1 min rocking( scapula, os push up, full)
Tech
Bike
Shoulder press
Note scaling:
Bike: 250 row or ski, 200m run, 15 burpees
Shoulder press: barbell, kettle bells, dumbbells, back pack. If the weight you have is light challenge yourself with a bottoms up shoulder press, and increase reps to hit same total weight lifted as half body weight would be.
WOD
3 rnds
500m bike
15 shoulder press 1/2 body weight
Then
3 rnds
500m bike
12 shoulder press
Then
3 rnds
500m bike
9 shoulder press
Cool down
Shoulder pass throughs
Grip stretch
Hip swings
Child pose with pvc pipe