Hey Folks!

Hope you all had a great weekend and are stoked/excited to train this week! This week we’re heading into the last few Deadlift sessions – so they’ll be heavy. DIAL that low back IN. No messy or sloppy deadlifts allowed. Remember, it only takes one crappy rep to ruin your day (or week[s]). So make sure you’re doing them well – perfect practice makes perfect. If you find them really difficult, make sure you’re resting enough between sets. We’re deadlifting again on Friday, and the weight will be going up. We’ll also be Front Squatting this week – we’re just at the beginning of cycling them a bunch as our next strength focus. Same deal, make sure they’re solid, sexy front squats. Elbows up high, knees tracking over toes, weight in the heels and abs as tight as you can possibly get them.

The Christmas Party was an awesome time! The WOD was just as deceptively difficult as I remember it, the Stack was cool, the Tap House had some good food and Marc and Julie were awesome hosts to any of the hooligans able to make it to their place for the “after party” (thanks again guys!). We’ll be working on getting more frequent hang outs (though likely less elaborate) scheduled so that we can spend more time with you awesome Folks!

Laurentian Hybrid Weightlifting meet – James and Alicia lifted some things up and put them back down! They did really well – James (94kg) snatched 100 and Clean and Jerked 130 (narrowly missing the jerk on 142 though!) for a total of 230, while Alicia (58kg) snatched 46 (power snatched, more accurately, haha) and clean and jerked 61 (a 1lb PR!) for a total of 107. We’re super proud of them and stoked to see them in future meets! There is another meet at LU on February 21^st – it’s a low key, low pressure environment to get your first weightlifting meet in and would be great for keeping folks focused with their training until then! Let your coach know if you’re interested!

LuluLemon was a hit this weekend! WOW was it every busy on Saturday, and Sunday was steady with shoppers too. I hope anyone that wanted to make it out did, and got some Christmas shopping (or whatever you were shopping for) in! We’ll be having them back again in February sometime – final date to be determined in the near future.

Here is the Strength Focus for the up towards the end of January – We’re going to be doing some Deadlifting, some Front Squatting and then some Squat Cleaning, among everything else, though those will be our focuses.  Dig it!

We’re thinking about doing an event in the winter sometime – not sure exactly what to develop it around, but we’d like your feedback! Please fill in the form below and let us know what you think 🙂 Ideas – CF comp, Curling Bonspiel, Snow football game, games night, other cool option?

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Last bit before I sign off – I want to ensure you’re all taking care of yourselves. The holiday season is usually a busy one, and ensuring we’re doing what we need to get/stay healthy is important for keeping stress levels to an appropriate level, and ensuring we don’t reach New Years Eve feeling like we need to make lots of bold promises to ourselves about “next year”. I’ll put some easy suggestions in bullet form:

• Make sure you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night (8-10 would be better)
• Prioritize food prep so that you’re less likely to make poor eating decisions. Set aside an hour or two on Sunday or another day of the week and make some dishes with leftovers, as well as cleaning and cutting other veggies/fruit for the week.
• Get into the gym 3 or more times a week – be generally active the other days – getting some walks in, hikes, mobility work, yoga, swimming, etc.
• Take your fish oil (1-4g of combined EPA+DHA/day), or ask us about picking some up if you don’t have any. The price and quality of our fish oil can’t be beat; believe me, I look every year or so for better or cheaper options and they don’t exist.
• Take your vitamin D (1000-5000IU/day) – This is a cheap supplement that can make a big difference for you. Depending on how your summer went and how long you’ve been taking it, you may not need an overly large dose.
• There are lots of other things you can do to help yourself, though this is a good start. Pick 1 or 2 (or all, if you’re ambitious) and commit to doing them for a week or two. You don’t have to commit to doing it forever – commit to whatever is easy to agree to and re-evaluate later.

That’s it for now! Keep up the great work in the gym guys! And as always, don’t hesitate to ask myself, or the other coaches if you want more info!

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Stay Healthy, Friends!

Adam