Crossfit

The Reebok Crossfit Games 2011

This weekend is the annual Crossfit Games to determine who is the fittest person/team on the planet. I have been glued to the screen watching with amazement as the athletes crushed the most grueling of workouts so far. I am so proud that there are so many Scandinavians in the games this year. My friends from Crossfit Butchers Garage are competing in the team events and they are doing an amazing job.

It is truly amazing to look back at where Crossfit started and where it is now. I would never have imagined that I would sit here and watch the Crossfit Games being so big as it is this year. Crossfit has changed that lives of people and the way we view fitness. It is an amazing time we have ahead of us, “WE ARE CROSSFIT”.


 


News and inspiration

I have great news, I have found a place to teach Weng Chun, so hopefully I will be able to start classes next Monday. I’m still working on the final details, but for those of you that already have send me an email, I will send out a mail with the information in it this week. I hope as many people will support this, so we can make Weng Chun strong in North America. I will also teach Crossfit and sports specific training at this place, so if you want to get in shape this is the right place for you.

I’m also working on a series of certs/workshops to be held here in Toronto with some of the people, that I find most inspirational in Crossfit, Gymnastics, Olympic Lifting, Power Lifting, Kettlebells, Speed and Endurance training, MMA related training, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and much more. I’m sure this will be a very busy year for me when it comes to training, teaching and learning new things. I’am very excited about having this great opportunity to share my knowledge with you and also to be the student and learn new things and ideas.

Here are some more inspirational videos


Training inspiration and mental training

There are many really amazing guys out there that are pushing athletes to their limits every day. I wanted to pay tribute to some of my favorite ones here on my blog.

I have read books as long as I can remember and one of the first books I ever read on personal development and NLP was Anthony Robbins “Awaking the giant within. In this book Robbins explains how he took a group of snipers and made them the best sniper group in America. The story on how he accomplished this has to do with seeking out the very best in what ever field it might be, so that you will gain to same or similar skills. This story has always been in my mind, and has been one of the main reasons why I always would seek out the very best in a specific field to learn from them. When I say learn, I don’t mean only learn their skills, but I also mean the way they think.
Now why is this important? Well you can learn a lot from watching someone doing Snatches, but you will learn way more by also leaning about what this person thinks when he/she performs and why they are doing it this way. So if you want to be the best, then seek out the best and for god sake ask them questions.

I have trained Martial arts for many years, and one of the best thing I can teach others is to always have the student mind, see everything from a students perspective, never let your EGO take over and dictate everything, then you will learn nothing, because you will be attached to your “knowing” perspective.

With all this in mind, here is your task for the week: (feel free to email me your experiences with this task)

  • Seek out someone that you see as an inspiration to you. Spend time with this person and try to learn as much as you can from this person. But keep the beginners mind, and not let your ego take over. Be present and learn. Remember to thank this person for teaching you and thank them for being an inspiration to you.

 

Here is some videos for your inspiration:


The open, and new ideas

Happy Easter to every one. Its been a while since I have posted anything here sorry for that.

I have been following the Crossfit Open I am very impressed with the athletes and their skill level. My long time friends from Butcherslab in Denmark are number 4 in all of Europe. Really good job boyz. I can’t wait to see the end results from this competition. I really think that this is an amazing event and a super idea from Crossfit HQ’s side. It has giving more people a chance to show their skills and passion for Crossfit, then otherwise would have been possible. Going to compete in the 2011 games is expensive, especially if you are coming from Europe. I hope that in the near future there will be more then one event for the Crossfit Games or it would be easier for people traveling from far away places to attend. Maybe one day we will see a European Crossfit Games? I can’t wait to see this years games, its gonna be huge.

On another matter, I have a new idea that I want to create on my Blog. I still did not decide on the name of this yet, but like you have the Work out of the day, I will be posting something similar to that. The idea is that it will not only be workouts, but also different mental exercises that I want Your feedback on. The point is to give you the reader some new ideas and new tools so that you can improve different areas of your life. In Crossfit we have the 10 Fitness Domains that we can follow to improve our skill, but what do we use in our day-to-day life? Which skill-set do we use when we are fighting with our love ones? So my idea with this is not only to improve your physical skills, but also your mental and emotional skill-set. If you have ideas or thoughts on this, I would be more then happy to hear them. Thank you :-)

Here is a little inspirational video for you, with Dr. Wayne Dyer


Strenghtbox

One of my friends came by Toronto on his trip to Mexico and Cuba. He wanted to see how the Crossfit gyms are here compared to back home, so I took him to see Strengthbox. Greg Carver, the owner and founder of Strengthbox met us at his box and our training began.

Greg gave us a introduction to Movnat, the principles behind it and how to move properly.  It was very interesting to see the differences between Crossfit and Movnat. Crossfit has more “raw” movements, where Movnat is more gentle in its way of moving.

Here is a clip from Strengthbox with Movnat in action:

Movnat is primal movements at its best. You will learn how to reconnect with the natural way your body moves in different environments. It was a fun day, with lots of new insights and new ideas for working out.
Here is a clip from the founder of Movnat Erwan Le Corre

If you are in Toronto or are visiting and want to workout I highly recommend going to Strengthbox. You will learn new and very inspiring things and Greg Carver is a very nice person and a great coach. So go try Strengthbox


Mikko Salo, Crossfit Games 2009 winner

Mikko Salo has been one of my Crossfit idols since I first saw him in 2009. He dominated the 2009 Crossfit Games and has since then made a huge impact on the Crossfit community as a whole. Mikko was born in Pori, Finland in 1979. The Finnish has a long history of training and battle, they were part of Sweden until 1249. In 1809 they became part of Russia under Alexander the first and stayed a part of Russia until 1917. When you grow up in Scandinavia you hear tails and story’s of your Scandinavian brothers and sisters from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Faroe Islands and our Norse Gods. We used to fight as vikings and travel the seas and were brave warriors. When you look at Mikko, and see how he does his workouts, he looks very concentrated yet peaceful and calm. He is an amazing athlete and is a true inspiration for all Scandinavians and Crossfitters worldwide.

If you go to Cross Gyms home page and look at the sponsored athletes they are manly from the norther country’s such as Finland and Iceland, viking power…

Mikko Salo’s documentary trailer:


Crossfit and Reebok, the future of Crossfit

It is no longer a secret that Crossfit Inc and Reebok has joined forces in making new products for the Crossfitters out there.
In this weeks episode of the Crossfit Journal with Mikko Salo in America. Mikko goes to Boston to meet with the representatives from Reebok. Reebok seems to be truly interested in the sport of Crossfit and to make products that will benefit our athletes in the long run. They also opened the first Reebok Crossfit training facility where they do the testing of the new Reebok products. How these Reebok Crossfit facilities that will open all across the world, will effect the local affiliates only time will tell. The future of Crossfit is for sure an exciting time and hopefully we will all benefit from this new partnership.

Here is a video where Greg Glassman talks about the future of Crossfit.


Old article and new weng chun video

I found this old article from a Danish news paper that I did a year ago. The idea was that a journalist would come down to my gym and see what Crossfit was. I gave him simple exercises because of his age, injures and being out of shape. It turned out to become a very fun and exciting interview.  It is in Danish, sorry folks, but you can always use Google translate if you want to read it.

Værs’go! Bræk dig bare i spanden

Crossfit gør op med spejle, maskiner og steroider i råt havnemiljø med hammer og dæk

Fredag den 15. januar 2010, 00:00
Af Morten Ravn mora@stiften.dk


»Værs’go. Her er en spand. Hvis du giver dig fuldt ud, kan du få brug for den. Til gengæld honorerer vi alle, der brækker sig, med en gratis Crossfit T-shirt,« lyder det friskt fra cheftræner Peter Assentoft.

Journalistens ellers overskuelige fysiske udfoldelser har ligget stille næsten fire måneder. Et forvredet knæ i sæsonens sidste old boys-kamp er denne vintersæsons undskyldning.

Kroppen skriger på at komme i aktion igen. Cheftræneren, der har certifikat som Crossfit-træner, griber forhammeren og ruller traktordækket frem.

»Vi skal nok få dig gjort klar til skiferien, selv om seks uger er i underkanten. Men holder du ved et halvt års tid, rykker du forbi dine teenage-drenge. Vi får også styrket din skulder, så den ikke går af led igen,« lyder meldingen.

Opgør med spejl-kulturen
Journalisten kaster sig efter opvarmningen med forhammeren.

I venstre øjenkrog ligger en gammel medicinbold i læder. Den er formentlig fyldt med sand, som dem vi slæbte rundt med på de frosthårde grusbaner i januar i en halv meters sne på Fredensvang eller i Lyseng Idrætspark. Jo, det var før de velplejede kunststofbaner af tredje generation slog igennem.

»Crossfit er en græsrodsbevægelse, som i begyndelsen af 2000 slog igennem i USA. Den er et opgør med fitnesscentrene, lad os bare sige det direkte. Her er ingen spejle, her kan du komme i det tøj, du vil. Vi står ikke og falder i staver over os selv i spejlene. Når vi går ind i lokalet, så træner vi. Vi kan snakke bagefter,« siger Kåre Vincents Fisker.

Han er daglig leder af de 400 nyindrettede kvadratmeter ved indgangen til Århus Havn i Sverigesgade. Crossfit er en verdensomspændende træningsform på hastig fremmarch. Der findes et enkelt center i Odense og fire i København. Århus Crossfit så i efteråret dagens lys i Østergades teatersal. Nu står de nye lokaler klar. Næsten da.

»Vi mangler lige at få badefaciliteterne op. Der er ikke lagt vand ind i lagerhallen, så vi stiller et par skurvogne op ude på parkeringspladsen til en start. Det er lige i vores ånd,« siger Kåre Vincents Fisker.

Rå, ren og rummelig
»Til sommer tager vi en løbetur i skoven, havnens rå miljø passer godt til os. Vi står for at være rå, rene og rummelige. Vi taler om den rå motion, hvor vi går tilbage tilden funktionelle træning uden maskiner. Hele kroppen skal bruges og i form. Vi er rene, og der er ikke plads til steroider,« siger Kåre Vincents Fisker, der har 35 års baggrund i den danske motionsverden. Blandt andet inden for fitness.

»Vi har haft et par pumpede fittness-drenge på besøg. Efter 10 minutter sidder de ude i forhallen. Deres krop kan ganske enkelt ikke tåle vores træning. Rummeligheden er, at her kan alle komme, og der er plads til, at mændene råber og smider deres T-shirt. Kvinderne tæller dog 30 procent af vores klientel. Der er plads til alle.«

Bliv nu ved!
Journalisten kan næsten ikke hive sig i sine push ups – gode gamle armbøjninger. 10 minutter med skiftevis 10 armbøjninger og 10 knæbøjninger. Mindelserne om den gode gamle circuit-træning kommer op i den gamle skriverkarl – sammen med brækfornemmelsen.

»Godt, bliv ved! Hold ud – hold tempo,« lyder opmuntringen fra cheftræneren.

»I stedet for maskiner og løbebånd taler vi simple, funktionelle øvelser; En gymnastisk del, hvor kroppen arbejder. En vægtløfterdel med de gamle olympiske øvelser, hvor man bruger sin egen vægt. Og lærer at løfte rigtigt – og så godt gammeldags konditionsløb,« siger Peter Assentoft.

»Crossfit er for alle. Vi træner på hold, hvor mindre stærke løftes op af andre. Især brandmænd, soldater og aspiranter til politiskolen er fascineret af træningen,« siger cheftræneren.

Journalisten ønsker sig endnu en gang, at han holdt ved drengedrømmen om at blive brandmand. Så havde formen været en anden. Men lad os tales ved om seks uger.

Værs'go! Bræk dig bare i spanden - 1

Cheftræneren, 31-årige Peter Assentoft, fik øjnene op for, at hele kroppen skal tæskes og trænes igennem, da han var i Butchers Lab – slagterens laboratorium – i København. Journalisten tror på, at Crossfit-metoderne også hjælper hele kroppen. Foto: Axel Scütt

Værs’go! Bræk dig bare i spanden – Århus.

There is also a new Weng Chun clip of the month with Sifu Affe under the Martial Arts page


Crossfit Gymnastics

Finally after a very long wait, gymnastic guru Coach Jeff Tucker has lunched his own website Crossfit Gymnastics. The site will be a great tool for us all that want to improve our gymnastics skills.

I had the honor of training with Tucker and his team in 2009, and I have only positive things to say about his cert. You will learn to improve in all eras of your game.

We had a blast at Butcherslab training with Tucker

Tucker also relished his book The Gymnastic Solution


4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss

One of the best selling authors at the moment is Timothy Ferriss. He is the author of The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body.

He is a little trailer from the 4-hour body book with my favorite band Sevendust:

Tim Ferriss has a vast knowledge of training and is well known in the Crossfit community. He is a RKC Kettlebell level 2 instructor under Pavel Tsatsouline. Tim has put the last 10 or so years of his own experience in training into this book and there are some pretty amazing things in it. I highly recommend both his books.


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