The cert was held at one of the bigger Crossfit gymes here in Toronto, Crossfit Colosseum. Hosted by one of the first boxes I visited before moving to Canada. In an upcoming post I will talk more about Crossfit Colosseum and how it is to train there.

The cert started at 9:00am where everyone had to do their normal registration, filling out the attendance form, getting your name tag etc. After all the logistics the cert itself began.

Rob Orlando started out by welcoming everyone to the cert and introducing his team of athletes from his gym, Hybrid Athletics. He brought a very strong and knowledgeable team of people that would soon turn out to be the best motivators and coaches I have been around.

The first Stongman lift we had to learn was the Tire flip.

Now these tires were not the same size and weight that I’m used to, they are way bigger and a whole lot heavier. Also the technique to lift the tire is very different, but a whole lot safer then I’m used to. Rob and his team divided the group in teams so we all had a tire to practice on as a group.

 First drill was to practice driving through the tire instead of “lifting” it, like I had done so many times before in the past. At first moving the tire like that felt very different, but with time, it became much easier to move then the technique I have used in the past.

We would practice the drill on one tire and when we had it down, we would rotate to a heavier tire. After we had killed our backs on the tire flip(s), Rob and his team came up with a small but killer WOD using Tire Flips and box jumps. After 3 rounds of getting killed with Tire flips and Box Jumps, it was time for the next lecture on the Atlas Stone.

By far one of the things I was most interested in learning at this cert was the Atlas Stone lift. There is something über masculine to me about lifting stones.

The setup for the lift it very similar to the setup of the Deadlift except that your feet are beside the stone. The first part of the lift is again very similar to the Deadlift, but as soon as you have the stone of the ground then everything changes from there.

Like with the Tire Flip, we would practice the basics of the lift in different stages and then when we had the technique down, we would then move on to a heavier stone.

We ended the session with a WOD consisting of Atlas Stone lifts and Burpees.

The next technique that we practiced was the Keg lift, which in many ways are similar to the stone lift. The it was time for some well deserved lunch.

After lunch we had a Q & A session with Rob, where we could ask questions regarding programming and how to implement the Stongman training with the Crossfit training. We had a really interesting debate and we talked a lot about why the Crossfit protocol is the way it is and why the WOD’s are in the time frame they are. I see some boxes that create their own WOD’s and every time the WOD is gets more and more extreme. It seams like they are making the workouts to attract more members, instead of making workouts that falls into the energy system of our bodies, but that is a whole other discussion.

We then proceeded outside where Rob and his team would teach us the Yoke carry and farmers walk.

The Yoke is an amazing tool, and one thing that I for sure will get in the near future. Even without any weight added to it, it takes some trail and error to move it correctly without it starting to swing on you.

Adding weight to it changed everything. This is probably one of the most hardcore things I have ever tried. The extreme pressure on your core is unreal. This thing will get your core rock hard in no time, and I can just imagine how using the Yoke can transfer to getting stronger and heavier back squats.

Then it became time for the Farmer Carry/Walk. Now Im used to do farmers walk with Kettlebells and with barbells, but my problem has always been with the barbells, that the bar tilts with the weight in almost every direction, just to piss us off, when walking

With the special Stongman equipment (Farmer Handles) your don’t get this problem. The bar stays where it should and with the added handles to it, it makes it a hole lot easier to use.  You will even be surprised that you can carry more weight then you could with your normal barbells. The difference is that using the barbell will screw up your wrist and you might trip when the bars cross (yep been there, done that). The Farmer Handles don’t screw up your wrist, but they will kill your grip. Adding weight will make many people loose the grip, because of the pure downward pulling force added to it. Want grip strength, this thing will make you crush a coconut with your bare hands.

Last techniques on the program was the Log and Viper Press. These techniques are similar in setup like the clean and jerk, but only to a certain point, then the whole body-mechanics changes.

Like previous Rob introduced us to the technique in steps, and we would then practice it until we felt comfortable enough to add more weight on it. To me this technique was hard, because I have a tendency to smack my chin on almost everything that I  pushing from shoulders to overhead. The Log itself is way bigger then the Olympic bars I’m used to use for the same press. But with time and some patience I got the move down without smacking myself in the face and I ended up absolutely loving the Log technique.

All I can say, is that this cert was an absolutely blast from start to finish. I got the chance to meet up with some old Crossfit friends, that I haven’t seen since the Football Cert and I had the chance to meet a bunch of new people. Rob and his team did an amazing job of keeping all of us focused and passioned all the time. I would highly recommend this cert to anyone interested in leaning Strongman and how to implement it into Crossfit. Even if you are not interested in implementing it, you will learn a lot of new cool things, that you can transfer into Olympic lifting as well. I just can’t wait for Rob and his team to make a level 2 cert.

The 2012 Reebok Crossfit games qualification is well on its way and so far the Open has been amazing. I have seen some unbelievable attempts from people to push their limits and have set the bar for the future of Crossfit very high.

Rich Froning is still in the lead. He is a beast and has an amazing work ethic. My über hero Chris Spealler has gained some muscle mass this year. It will be very interesting to see if it will be to his advantage or ends up costing him.  The Danish Beast Frederik Aegidius is in at a 30′th place and he is fired up this year.

Just to recap here are the WOD’s for the Open.

Workout 12.1

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of:

Burpees

Workout 12.2

Men

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
135 pound Snatch, 30 reps
165 pound Snatch, 30 reps
210 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

Women

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
45 pound Snatch, 30 reps
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
100 pound Snatch, 30 reps
120 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

Workout 12.3

Men

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 24″ box
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar

Women

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 20″ box
75 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar

Workout 12.4

Men

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Wall balls (20lbs to 10′ target)
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups

Women

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Wall balls (14lbs to 9′ target)
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups

Workout 12.5

Men

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
100 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 18 reps
18 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 21 reps
21 Chest to bar Pull-ups…
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 21, go on to 24. If you complete 24, go on to 27, etc

Women

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
65 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 18 reps
18 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 21 reps
21 Chest to bar Pull-ups…
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 21, go on to 24. If you complete 24, go on to 27, etc.

I’m really proud of my old student and assistant Coach Anders Galaly from Aarhus, Denmark that he is nr. 19′th in Europe. He is a beast and I wish him and the rest of the guys all the best of luck at the regionals.

There are some amazing athletes this year and I cant wait to see the workouts at the regionals and how everyone is doing.

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”.

It has been a very long time since I posted anything on my site. I have been very busy with new job, moving to a new place, teaching and training. I’m very happy about training and teaching at Square One Crossfit here in Mississauga. I hope many more will both join to train Crossfit bot also to train the wonderful art of Chi Sim Weng Chun Kung Fu.

Chi Sim Weng Chun is still not that know worldwide, but with the help of dedicated teachers around the world maybe one day that will change. I started to train Chi Sim Weng Chun in 2005, under my Sifu’s Thomas Roskjær and Sifu Henrik “Affe” Sprechler. Affe is the founder of Butcherslab and Butchersgarage in Copenhagen, Denmark where you can train Crossfit, Training for Warriors and Weng Chun/Bjj. When I got the idea for Aarhus Crossfit in the beginning of 2008, Affe was one of the people that I consulted for help with my ideas.

Weng Chun is not only a martial art and healing art, but also an art that teaches people the way of the spiritual warrior through the teachings of Chan Buddhism. In the 6 1/2 principle form the first principle is “Tai”, which means to raise or to lift. This can be transfered to your everyday life. If a person next to you is in a bad mood, you try to life their spirit so they feel better, so you are using the principle of “Tai”. When you get out of bed in the morning you also use “Tai” not only to lift you body out of bed, but also to lift your spirit/mind to the task at hand, to go to work.  Similar to that the 64′th verse of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu reminds us that ” A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I hope to see more people for the Weng Chun Classes at Square One Crossfit. Our website is here we train Monday 8:00Pm-9:00Pm, Wednesday 8:00Pm -9:00Pm and Friday 7:00Pm – 8:00Pm and the address is

1203A Fewster Drive,

Mississauga, ON

L4W 1A2

Here is a clip of the beautiful art of Chi Sim Weng Chun hope you enjoy:

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

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:

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

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

I am disappointed beyond words about this. I feel like this is the second time Martin is being robbed from a title shot. I have no idea why or who makes these decisions, but I really think that the UFC should rethink either their judges or their score system.

I will try to talk to Martin and get his input on this situation, cause I am speechless…….so sad