Quantum Crossfit

On my first night of cat sitting, I decided to start the week off right with a workout. I am accustomed to working out daily with an occasional active recovery day or rest day as needed, so I wanted to try and keep a similar schedule. ( ha!...I should have known the holiday weekend would mess with that plan, but on that later.) I contacted Quantum Crossfit via the form on their webpage. I was delighted to get not one, but two prompt responses within an hour welcoming me to visit and telling me the first visit was free.

I looked up their location which included a little video explaining where they were located, since it was in a bit of an out of way spot. This came in handy when I arrived, since I probably would have thought I was lost otherwise. Good addition to the site, for directionally challenged people like me.

The box is in a long mini mall or what we used to call a plaza, often found in the older areas of cities and hallelujah, free parking! This is not a common thing in Toronto as any driving visitors will know.

Its a small box, but managed to fit in lifting platforms, pull-up bars along the wall, assault bikes and rowers. I was welcomed immediately by one of the coaches and then by the other coach, who were the two people who replied to my e-mails. I was shown the whiteboard and she explained to me that they have a posted warmup and each member will choose the skill based on the stream they are following. This setup was something new for me, but it was interesting to be able to choose.

The 3 streams were; Fundamentals, which did not included barbell work, so meant for beginners; Fitness, which required a bit more skills knowledge; Competition, for higher level people interested in competing.

As an out of town visitor, this worked well for me. Although I am not skilled enough for all the competition movements, I did want to work on a skill that I would miss this week at my home gym. I decided on the Clean and Jerk workout:
4x 60% ( of one RM)=65lbs
3x 70%= 75lbs
3 x 75%= 80lbs
2 x 2 @80%=90lbs
2x 2@ 85%=95lbs

I started on the cleans and the coach was right there pointing out some of my known issues. I really know when I have a technique issue, when a coach who has never seen me points out the same flaws as the coach that has known me for 3+ years. Time to solve those issues.

The metcon was a partner WOD that  was 7 rounds of 12 burpees and 200m row. These are 2 movements that I have to say are among my weakest. Slow on the burpees and short legs kill me on the rower. Fortunately my partner was somewhat new to Crossfit and did not have high expectation of me and in fact on the second last round, joked that I need to slow down, because he wasn't getting any rest time. Me...slow down? Now thats not something I expect to ever hear. In fact after class one of the other members came over to compliment me on my C and J technique. He said my form was solid and he was impressed. This is always nice to hear and a great start to my box tourist week.

Later in the week I returned to this gym. It was close to my mothers nursing home and after taking her out for dinner, I decided it was a good idea to work off the non paleo meal I just had. The nice thing about this small gym was that they didn't need me to register for class, so I was able to make a last minute decision to drop in. I was one of 2 people in that class and since I could choose my skill, I decided that snatch drills were needed as I had not done any snatching for almost a week.

Now some people complain that drop in fees are too pricey and I suppose there is a point to that if you plan to workout every day. However in this case it was money well spent. I got 45 min of one-on-one coaching, since the class was so small and I was able to work on some fine tuning on my dip and drive in the snatch balance. It still needs work, but started to feel a lot more solid. Where can you get that kind of attention, for less than $50 an hour I ask you?

The metcon that day was killer for me after the 45 minutes of overhead work. It was a sort of EMOM ( every 90 sec instead of a minute) of 10 thrusters for 6 rounds. I decided to attempt 65lbs, since this is the weight required in the upcoming competition I signed up for. However, after 2 rounds, I had to lower the weight to 55lbs. My shoulders were smoked and I was just dying. Even the lower weight became really difficult. It was one of those moments in Crossfit when you are truly happy the final rep is not. Not even sure I had it in me to do another round! And now I need to work on heavy thrusters, before the competition. I need 65lbs to feel doable.

So all in all my experience at this gym was very good. A small space and a casual approach doesn't mean its not Crossfit and it won't kick your butt! The small community and the people I met there were also very friendly and welcoming. I will be visiting here again.

Touring the world of fitness

I started this week cat-sitting for my son and his wife. It's what moms do. Cat sit. So here I am in a fancy downtown apartment with none of my stuff, none of my usual work obligations, none of my child rearing obligations and  some loose plans to visit friend and family over the course of 10 days. And a whole lot of time on my hands in between.

So, as I am an avid Crossfitter at home, I decided that some of this free time would be well spent working out. I remarked to Coach Adam before I left that I would be going to a local gym while away and he suggested I go to a bunch.  I thought this a grand idea and commenced to searching google for Toronto affiliates.

This blog is to record my thoughts and observations of these boxes in Toronto and perhaps some day in other cities or even countries. To be clear, it's not meant as a review to criticize, ruin their reputation, rank them or judge them, but rather an observation of some different methods, style of coaching, programming (daily and weekly) as I experienced it and a celebration of like minded people who want to get fit and have fun doing it.

I wish to be positive in this and experience this community in all its variations.

I have now exhausted my clever written banter for the day and will resume tomorrow, or later, with the first gym I visited last week, which was Quantum Crossfit, followed by Crossfit 416, Academy of Lions, and Reebok Crossfit Liberty Village.

Stay tuned!