With September here we officially start fall. Labour Day Monday we will have a team workout at 10am.
Stay tuned for our upcoming nutrition challenge. Coach Rich will have more details soon.
You may have seen a few new faces at Shinobi recently. In the evening classes we have Bryn and Lindsey starting with us. They were introduced to us by Chloe.
Left to right: Bryn and Lindsey
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “Success and Nothing Less” shows the mindset of our athletes.
This week we are going to answer a question from one of our new members.
Question: I’ve just started and this is challenging. Does it ever get easier?
Answer: This is a common question we receive. When you first start out you don’t know the movements. You are sore for days. Power snatch. Hang clean. Hollow rocks. You think we made up terms during a weekend of partying.
We understand. We were once new to this too. But in a short time you start improving. You start lifting more weight. Your times get faster and you notice yourself looking better.
You’ll hear Coach Rich often say that it doesn’t get easier. In fact, it can get harder. The stronger and faster you get, the more you can push yourself to places where you never thought were possible. This isn’t easy. If this was easy then everyone would be rocking six pack abs with no effort what so ever.
It is always going to be hard. You are making improvements, but most importantly, you are getting better. That is the ultimate result.
For those of you who are visual learners, we created this for you:
And if this ever gets easy for you, then we will hammer it into you that you need to TRY HARDER.
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “I am Shinobi” shows how we stand strong and brave no matter what happens.
This week we will mix it up a bit. Instead of the usual format, we present this week’s wrap up in a photo essay.
“Just keep going” – Kyle fighting for every rep
“I can and I will” – Jose strong overhead
“Believe in yourself” – Chris pondering during rest
“Believe you can and you are half way there” – Meet kettlebell swing
“Be strong” – Anesa handstand
“On good days I workout, on bad days I workout HARDER” – David overhead squat
“I cannot change yesterday, but I can change today” – Jem doing burpees
“Don’t just set goals. HUNT THEM” – Suavek’s fierce and ferocious look of intensity
“Be someone you would be proud to know” – Jorden setting up to lift
“I don’t make excuses, I make results” – Anesa with weight overhead
“What will you achieve today?” – Team Shinobi Saturday
-Harvey
You may have seen a few new faces at Shinobi recently. In the evening classes we have Bryn and Lindsey starting with us. They were introduced to us by Chloe.
In the mornings we have David starting with us. He is a father and has a black belt in Kendo.
David split jerk
If you haven’t seen it already, we have posted our July photos on our Facebook page
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “This is Shinobi Fitness” showcases how our athletes train.
We’ve mentioned before that consistency is key to achieving fitness goals. With this week being a condensed week due to the long weekend, we were pleased to see Kevin come in for his scheduled three times a week. It would have been easy to just skip a day or two this week but, Kevin made the commitment to himself to train, even if it meant having to come three days in a row this week.
Along with consistency, Kevin has been working on his mobility. We see Kevin spending extra time stretching and mobilizing and is starting to see results. He has also been perfecting the technique on his lifts and training his pacing on his workouts.
Coach’s Comment – “I’ve talked to Kevin about consistency… and this is the first time I’ve seen him come three days back to back to back” -Coach Suavek
Kevin push press
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
Last Sunday, Suavek, Chris, and I participated in the Spartan Race Sprint which is a 5km course with obstacles. Last year I ran in a group but this year I wanted to run it as fast as I could. Since this was my second race, I knew that having people in front creating a bottleneck would slow down my time. Thus, we got to our starting line nice and early and we were the first racers in our heat at the front of the line. Being a veteran at this, I refused to waste my energy by participating in the chants the announcer tried get us hyped up with.
Suavek and Chris ran off to a faster pace at the start than I was comfortable with and I chose to pace it since this would take at least half an hour. This would lead to my downfall as I was expecting them to slow down similar to other workouts I’ve done with them in the past. I was able to catch Chris around the 10 min mark and kept Suavek in my line of sight for the first third of the race. Suavek pushed the run portion and didn’t let up the pace.
I only failed one obstacle and that was the spear throw. This was also the only obstacle I failed last year as well. Failing an obstacles means a thirty burpee penalty and this time I knew I had to throw the spear as hard as I could to hit the haystack target. However, this time I didn’t realize I was stepping on the rope that the spear was attached to. Although I gave it a hard throw, the rope got caught around my leg and caused the spear to not have enough distance to make it to the target.
Most of the obstacles were really easy including the monkey bars, tire flips, stone carry, and climbing. I thought the hardest obstacle was the one where we had to grab a gymnastic ring and swing to a rope and then swing to a bar and shimmy ourselves over and repeat going onto a ring, rope and bar again and then ring the bell. All this while hanging and we couldn’t allow our feet to touch the floor. What really made this obstacle difficult was that the objects were really far apart from each other and you had to keep momentum and swing yourself to each object. I barely hit the bell to clear the obstacle.
Being a strong runner was key to this race. There was so much running that even if a strong runner failed obstacles and had to do burpees, he would still be in the lead. Suavek finished the fastest even though he failed 2 ostacles and had to do 60 burpees. I was in the middle and failed once. Chris was in the rear even though he didn’t fail any obstacles and didn’t have to do any burpees.
Results – Spartan Sprint Open Division:
Name Time Overall
Slawomir Litwin 44:51 17
Harvey Woo 46:53 27
Chris Krahn 47:25 29
-Coach Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “The Life of @Coachninja” went viral. It became our most liked picture in Shinobi Instagram history with over 350 likes!
A photo posted by Shinobi Fitness (@shinobifitness_wpg) on
This week the spotlight is on our newest coach, Suavek. He has a thirst for knowledge and is constantly trying to improve his skills. His unique warm up drills bring a fresh take on getting warmed up and has been enjoyed by our members.
This month alone he has had personal records in his snatch, clean, and back squat.
Suavek will be improving his knowledge of the olympic lifts as he is taking the Crossfit Weightlifting course this weekend in Boulder Colorado.
You can read more about Suavek on our coaches page.
This week I had an extra large serving of humble pie. After struggling a few times to hit a max clean, Chris, coming in with no warm up walks to my bar and easily gets the weight up. This just shows the phrase that “somebody somewhere is warming up with your max” is not a lie.
Here it is for your amusement:
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “Team Building Drills at Shinobi” showed how having a partner during a workout can make the experience more enjoyable.
A video posted by Shinobi Fitness (@shinobifitness_wpg) on
We’ve known Dwayne for a while now and we are pleased to have him at Shinobi. He is starting to train again after coming back from knee surgery. If you see his Flame & Comfort truck in the parking lot, you’ll know Dwayne will be in and looking to crush a WOD.
Dwayne
Meet
The most difficult exercise for me this week was Wednesday’s “1 1/4 Front Squats 5×3 @ 70%”. Some of you might be surprised that I didn’t pick one of the conditioning parts as the hardest. There are a few reasons for that. First off, front squats are my weakest movement. I’ve always had problems getting the weight up from the bottom. I think its a combination of front rack mobility and weak quads. Secondly, during conditioning workouts, if it gets difficult, I can slow down. During a 3 rep front squat, there is no where to hide.
I loaded the bar with 170 pounds and each set was a struggle. I wanted to quit after every set but I knew I had to work on my weakness for the full 5 sets. The feeling of not giving up was well worth the short moment of difficulty.
Front Squat Struggle
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “The Ladies of Shinobi Showing Their Strength” was this week’s hit. We have a beautiful group of ladies who value their health and are tough as nails in a workout.
Jorden is a single mother who works multiple jobs and still has time for fitness. She values the importance of health and fitness and is a great role model for her teenage daughter. With her busy schedule, Jorden is all business at the gym. Often she’ll come in, knock off an intense workout and while everyone else is still sitting down recovering, she’ll be out the door already.
Even with a bad knee, she doesn’t quit during a workout. Sometimes we will modify a movement for her but that doesn’t stop her ferocious intensity.
Coach’s Comment – “Jorden is one of the most focused members at Shinobi. She doesn’t quit” -Coach Harvey
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
On Wednesday we saw this workout on the board:
“Woo”
3 RFT
15 Deadlifts (155/115)
15 Pullups
15 WallBalls
No, I did not create this one as some of you thought. I don’t think that would be proper etiquette. If I were to create one there would have to be burpees in it. This one turned out to be a classic triplet movement workout and to get a really good score it forced you to get as many reps unbroken as you could. The other way to get a better time was to minimize the transition time between movements. As usual both of these strategies were a lot harder in practice than on paper. I was able to go unbroken on the pullups the first round but subsequent rounds were broken in 5s. I didn’t have to split up the deadlifts or wallballs. I finished in 5:29 and I don’t think I would have imagined ever saying this, but the wallballs turned out to be were the “rest” was in this wod.
Our Canada Day team workout was a great success. Coach Suavek designed a workout that saw our members split into pairs doing some strong man movements including tire flips, farmer’s carry, prowler push, sled pulls and a sprint. We even saw Coach Rich hop in there to break a sweat.
Canada Day Team
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. “Super Dad Kyle” was this week’s hit.
Having long term fitness related goals are a key way to keep yourself motivated. When you aren’t feeling like doing a workout, you just have to think of your goals and why you are training and that often gives you the drive to get out and exercise. By publicly sharing your goals, it will force accountability for you to complete it. We are excited for our members’ goals at Shinobi
Ashley is training for the Prince Edward Island Marathon on October 16, 2016. She has ran shorter distances before but this will be her first full marathon. Coach Rich has set a goal for Ashley to finish under 4 hours and 19 minutes.
Ashley Running
On the same day October 16, 2016, JD will be running in the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Half Marathon and trying to finish it under two hours
JD ball slam
Dee is one of our members who has probably been the most consistent workout attendances. She usually trains bright and early at 6am five days a week. She is recovering from a lower body injury and for the last few weeks she had been modifying workouts around her injury. Even with an injury she realizes that coming in and training on something she is able to do is much better than not doing anything at all. This week we saw Dee starting to hit some harder training sessions as she was recovering and feeling better this week.
Coach’s Comment – “We are delighted that Dee is recovering from her injury and is back on the right track” Coach Harvey
Dee overhead squat
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
The “Rico Suavek” workout this week was a memorable workout that challenged us to keep us in the front rack position when tired. Congrats to everyone who didn’t drop the bar.
Congrats to Matt, MD, JD, and Colleen for running in the Manitoba Marathon. Here are some pictures from that event.
JD and Colleen
Finish Line
Rich and JD
Matt and MD
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. Chapstick, Gum and Lifting with Jose was this week’s hit.
A video posted by Shinobi Fitness (@crossfitshinobifitness_) on
This week we posted the quote “nobody is too busy, it’s just a matter of priorities” on our Instagram feed. Anesa is a single mother of two kids, works multiple jobs, trains in boxing and competes in Salsa competitions and still finds time to train at Shinobi three times a week.
This week she set a personal best on her back squat at 140 pounds and participated in the Winnipeg International Salsa Congress.
Coach’s Comment – “Anesa’s PR squat she fought for that out of the bottom. It was full depth and legit.” Coach Harvey
Anesa Tire Flip
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
This week Coach Suavek and I donated blood for the first time. I have always been a bit scared of needles but the process was actually quite painless. We encourage our members to roll up our sleeves and donate.
We are approaching the summer solstice already. With your new found fitness, try new sports, get outside and stay active!
Looking at the programming for the week coming up we see a couple of named workouts. “Mortal Kombat” is making a return and we will see on Tuesday a workout called “Rico Suavek”. Looking at the movements in the workout I’m guessing Suavek had no input in the design of this one.
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. We call this picture “mobility gainz”.
A photo posted by Shinobi Fitness (@crossfitshinobifitness_) on
We want to highlight JD and Colleen this week for racing in the Manitoba Half Marathon. They have been training for this since at least the beginning of the year. Each week they would push each other in their workouts. At Shinobi they did their strength and conditioning workouts and they did running specific training outside.
Coach’s Comment – “I ran with JD and Colleen on one of their runs. I trailed behind them the entire time and couldn’t keep up with them. They are great runners.” Coach Harvey
JD and Colleen
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps