I was not able to attend the annual 306 gala this weekend and would like to take a minute to say I missed everyone. Preliminary reports are in and it sounds like a great time was had by all! I, of course, would suspect nothing less. Not with our community getting together for an evening out.

The importance of “community” is showcased every single day in the gym when we finish a workout. When people stick around to cheer on someone else to the very end. Help put someone else’s equipment away. High fives and encouragement after the workout. While all of these (I would certainly hope anyways) can be found in any Crossfit gym; I am confident in saying our gym goes many steps further. These “steps further” are not the exception around our gym, they are the norm.

Two people were recognized on Saturday for “Community Leaders” and I believe they were both very well deserved. Janice Peterson and Brad Merkosky were this year’s winners if you have not already heard. These two people personify our motto of “Community Above All Else”. Jay expanded on both why Janice and Brad received this recognition on Saturday night and I just want to echo those sentiments to them both. Janice and Brad, you are both examples for all 306 members and it is truly a pleasure to have you in the gym!

I will take it a step further also and say how both Janice and Brad are two people in a very tight knit group. While CrossFit brings people from all walks of life together in the gym, our community extends further than that with relationships out of it as well. This community is what 306 is all about. You all deserve a pat on the back for this culture that is our gym.

If you see Brad and/or Janice around in the next few days, be sure to pass on a congratulations and a hug to them both! And to everyone else in this wonderful 306 community, thank you for being a part of something bigger than yourself and making our gym a very awesome place to be!

Is CrossFit a cure for anxiety and depression?

I have dozens of conversations daily with athletes that suffer from anxiety and or depression.  Now I don’t pretend to be an expert in psychological disorders, but my life experience has lead me to come to understand some basics as it pertains to the inner workings of our minds. 

As humans, we have an incredible ability to forecast, to calculate the likelihood of possible outcomes, and potentially mitigate disasters.  This ability is why us, and not another species runs our planet.  Foresight is hard-wired into our system and has aided in our survival.  While we have an incredible ability to see into the future, we also possess a tremendous memory that keeps us from repeating mistakes.  Anxiety and depression are both the by-products of our enhance cognitive ability.  Anxiety is generally explained as thinking ahead and creating constant what-if scenarios.  Depression is linked to forever thinking back on mistakes and how things could have been different.  If our minds are always looking back or calculating potential outcomes into the future then how do we live in the now?

As athletes and humans, the ability to be in the moment and have a still mind is one of the greatest feats you can accomplish.  Being in the “now” is something that humanity has always longed for.  Mediation is generally all about achieving a still mind, one can argue that prayer is a chance to be in the now.  The desire to free ourselves from constant reflection and forward thinking is also why so many us turn to drugs and alcohol to silence those pesky voices inside our heads.  Drugs and alcohol offer a reprieve from a wandering mind and allows us to be present.  Think about all the great conversations you had while under the influence, how time just flew by, because you were simply able to stay in the moment.  Of course, drugs and alcohol and not a healthy way to combat anxiety and depression.  I offer another alternative – CrossFit.

If you’ve ever done CrossFit as it is intended your mind is 100% involved into completing the task.  This level of involvement ensures that you are in the now, it is a healthy and pure way to recalibrate our minds inner workings, and allow us to be mindful. 

There is nothing that I enjoy more than being so engrossed into my workout that I have no clue what music is playing, what others are doing, and what time it is.  My mind is focused solely on getting through the next rep.  Before a workout starts, we are all nervous, our minds are racing ahead creating what if scenarios, dreading the potential pain ahead. Once the coach says go, anxiety levels drop within the first minute to be replace by a healthy dose of endorphins… 

They were the bane of my athletic career - double unders!

I’ve always been a fairly athletic person and learning new physical skills has always come fairly easy to me. Until someone introduced me to double unders. I struggled. And struggled. Said a few choice words more than a few times. And struggled. I bought four or five different ropes in an attempt to “change something up” in hopes they would click. In the end, it was nothing but time practising them. A lot of time practising them. I remember my calves being so sore from countless broken sets day after day. They eventually stuck and I was off to the races…

…Rizzo also points to data analyzed from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked to death certificate data in the National Death Index to support his claim that seniors need more exercise, and particularly weight lifting, to age well.  The data revealed that adults 65 years and older who strength trained twice a week had a 46% lower mortality rate and that strength training reduces all causes of death, including cancer and cardiac death…

See the full article at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2018/10/15/do-you-even-lift-grandma-why-older-adults-should-be-making-gains-its-more-than-just-bro-science/?fbclid=IwAR2Gg5D9XayUaf2WnkgcGqESwl00hygR4W6Ec36c7r3hMLnb8ctsIK4-gZ8#507efdc26911

If you have ever asked yourself this question before, continue on reading. This is another one of those “Crossfit rabbit holes” that we could jump down but I will try to be as informative and objective as I can on this. It is a huge topic and I will make a lot of generalizations with the hopes of shedding some light to people who may not know any better.

Kelsey and I are so excited to be starting a new set of Ladies only Bootcamps.  Over the years, we have met so many incredible women that have inspired us.  You don't need any experience or to even know what CrossFit is.  All you have to do is show up and we will take care of the rest. 

In the last blog, we talked about diagnosing the cause for some common lower back pain. We identified if we were by default, stuck in “flexion” or “extension” (if these words don’t mean anything to you, reference back to the last blog post and watch the attached video).

Another Reebok CrossFit 306 3 on 3 Throwdown has come and gone. The atmosphere in our gym was absolutely electric all day and was deafening by the time we came to the head to head semi-finals.

36 teams started the day across three divisions. By mid-afternoon only the top four teams remained. Top teams got “home field advantage” over their adversaries. This meant that they could select the order and their opponent as well as the WOD that benefitted them the most.

In the scaled division the teams picked from Grace, Fran, and Annnie, classic CrossFit benchmarks. The top ranked team from Reebok 306 lost their opening match-up on Annie and had to win both Grace and Fran to move to the finals. They would win both, Fran by a hair and eventually took the finals as well.

In the intermediate division the top ranked team fromCF Warman matched up against Reebok 306 athletes. Warman would win both match-ups and face off against Strongfit from Saskatoon. CF Warman would go on and win the finals and capture their first team title at the 3 on 3.

The RX division was deep, featuring former Games, and regional athletes as well national level lifters. Team 306 with two regional athletes, Aaron Parker and Eric Peterson, won three of the first five workouts showcasing that they had the most well balanced team. They moved through the semis after Kelsey Rhode put up a World Class 5:09 on DT. They met up against CF Man-Made from Edmonton for a hard fought final. Team 306 took the victory.

A giant thank you to all the athletes for competing and putting forth such a strong effort, the spectators for brining in all the excitement and the volunteers for making the day run smooth.

We’ll see you all in June for our next comp at the 2nd Annual BeLikeBruce Fitness Festival.

Our leaderboard for this weekend's event can be found at the following link!

http://3on3throwdown2018.wodcast.com

If you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance you are a person who does CrossFit. If you are person who does Crossfit on a regular basis, you are more fit than the average person…

Why You Struggle with pull ups - by coach TJ

You have been doing CrossFit for a while. You come in day after day for the workouts. You are feeling better, looking better and performing better. Yet day after day you are stuck on a scaled version of a pull up. While scaled versions of a pull up (banded or jumping for example) are great exercises to keep allow the hear rate to stay up and get the conditioning portion of the workout, they will not necessarily translate into you magically not needing the box or band one day…

As we welcome so many new members every month, some of us don’t know a lot of our general agreed upon rules to keep our gym safe and fun for all. Here is a quick review of some principles that we try to maintain at 306 to ensure an incredible experience for all.

It’s Crossfit and it’s meant to get messy…

As we welcome so many new members every month, some of us don’t know a lot of our general agreed upon rules to keep our gym safe and fun for all. Here is a quick review of some principles that we try to maintain at 306 to ensure an incredible experience for all.

We are so happy to announce that Coach Sam and David have welcomed to the world a healthy baby boy.  Westley Mitchell Mapeltoft was born yesterday at noon.  Mom and baby are doing great!  

“Toes To Bar”. They are a basic movement that lend themselves terrifically well to all of our other gymnastic bar movements. Controlling, or “linking”, our T2B is a great starting point for those butterfly pull ups, butterfly chest to bar and linking bar muscle ups.

What does ageing look like? Sometimes we think it’s inevitable that we lose all muscle mass, end up a little soft around the middle and not able to move so well. It may also seem pretty normal that a few medications in the cupboard are just a part of the process. As I get older, I want to make sure that I can do anything that I can to ensure that I can have a good quality of life as I age. I don’t want to think that there is a time that I can’t care for myself. Maybe that time does come, but I want to do whatever I can to make that as short as possible. I have often wondered how much “nature vs. nurture” affects us. Were some just born to age better? While I believe that nature does play a role, I also think that nurture plays a bigger role. Think of your body as this house. On the left, you didn’t clean regularly or keep up with the yard. You didn’t care for it and just let tme and the elements take its tole. The house on the right, well, you did your yard work, regular maintenance, cared for it and stayed on top of up-keep. Just like the house, the same can be said for people…

Rest Day Blog - by coach TJ

When To NOT Come To The Gym

For many of us, our time spent at 306 is our “get away”. Time to forget about the day to day rigours and just move. We get to socialize and catch up with our friends in the community and spend time making ourself better. However, sometimes “more” time in the gym will not make us better…

We teach kids healthy habits. To be better at sport, and life. Register today for our twice a week kids program. All details and registration available on our website at

https://www.reebokcrossfit306.com/kids-fitness/

Time to prioritize you! Ladies only bootcamps at Reebok CrossFit 306 are designed for all you ladies that are always putting everyone's needs ahead of your own. Join our bootcamps and start focusing on you!

Our next bootcamps start Thursday August 30th!

Classes are offered MWT at 8pm or MTT at 9AM. Find out more and register by visiting:

https://www.reebokcrossfit306.com/crossfit-bootcamp/

Limited spots, so don't miss the chance to start living better now.

It is with great excitement that we would like to welcome TJ Nicholson (@nich.tj ) to our staff. TJ will officially be our Sales and Operations manager along with being our dedicated full time morning coach . He will be covering the 6,7 and 10 am classes. Please join me in congratulating TJ on his new position. #reebok306 #reebokcrossfit306 #saskatoon#saskatchewan #coach…