Pushing yourself can be tough
Deciding to make changes in life is never an easy decision to make, and following through can be even harder. What holds people back from achieving their fitness goals? Is it lack of time? Perhaps it’s bad exercise habits or a lack of motivation? Maybe, although many people have conquered these factors and still didn’t get the results they were looking for. Often enough, the real limiting factor is the lack of a good support system. That’s where StrengthBox comes in! Located in East York, Toronto, StrengthBox gives clients all the tools necessary for success.
Semi-Private Training
Just look at people who have really made changes in their bodies and in their physical capabilities. More often than not, they had access to a great support system. Those who don’t stick with it are often those who aren’t supported by those around them. You are, after all, the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So if your own “five” aren’t as supportive as you like, you’ll find our coaches, our members, and our community a tremendous resource. We keep saying it: “It’s easier to work hard when there’s five people cheering for you!”.
Even advanced athletes need support
Our athletes range from those who are very experienced to those who are just re-discovering their own physical movement capabilities. StrengthBox clients get support, proper training each and every time they come into the gym, nutritional guidance, feedback and great motivation!
Group agility work
Using concepts of play
We’ve had some terrific open-house workout sessions over the past few weeks, and the box is ready to open its doors to the general public on Monday, March 1st. Check the website at www.strengthbox.ca for details, rates and the current training schedule. If you like what you see, give us a shout and come join us!
StrengthBox is located at 45 Cranfield Rd (Unit #5) in Toronto, Canada.
Tags: commitment, StrengthBox, training, workouts
Ready to Rock!
The gym is fully kitted, the t-shirts are printed, and the inaugural workout has taken place–meaning that the StrengthBox is ready for opening! We hope to see some of you in the Toronto area, so feel free to drop a line or arrange to stop by for a tour.
In fact, things are happening so fast, that we’ve been able to host some workouts with friends and family prior to our official opening on March 1st! It’s been a blast showing people the facility, and the response has been fantastic.
Natural Movement Drills
Most of our workouts centre around three training pillars. We usually start with a dynamic warmup, using natural movement patters and some joint mobility work. The warmup quickly transpires into a skill-development session, working on specific movements such as running, jumping, climbing, balancing, throwing and catching, etc. These are very ancient skills; in fact they would have been second-nature to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, but our sedentary way of modern living has tossed them aside in favor of technology and comfort. The StrengthBox crew believes it’s time to work these primal capabilities again, as they form the basis of evolutionary fitness. Incorporating activities (and diet principles) from our evolutionary past is a very effective strategy for well-being! Just look at the posts written by MovNat founder Erwan LeCorre!
Front Squat
One natural skill we pay a lot of attention to at StrengthBox involves lifting heavy objects. And while we often use barbells as the tool of choice, we pay particular attention to lifting odd objects. This might mean anything from a sandbag (with no convenient handle to grip) to a heavy rock. Using these objects adds an element of context to our training, forcing us to adapt.
Bodyweight Rows
Finally, we usually round out our training with a short workout combo. Intense physical activity is important, especially when it’s mixed and varied. We never do repetitive motions (i.e. slow, long cardio) or unvaried routines. The goal is to raise one’s metabolic rate, and to keep it raised – at least until the next training session!
Stay tuned for more StrengthBox details, as we get underway and open our doors on March 1st! We hope to see you there!
Tags: MovNat, natural movement, StrengthBox, training, workouts
The Box
Today marked a turning point. A dream that has been in the back of my mind for some time is finally becoming reality! Together with partners Howie Tse and Liz McGurrin, we are planning the opening of our own training space in East York, Toronto: StrengthBox! And we feel that it’s going to be nothing short of fantastic!
We share a vision to create a space that is accessible to all fitness levels. We’ll make use of high-intensity interval workouts while prioritizing strength training. And we will draw upon natural movement training methodologies: essentially working to improve human skills such as jumping, climbing, running, throwing, lifting, etc. Our goal is to create practical programming that produces real results; improving athletic strength and conditioning, while promoting fitness benefits such as fat loss and lean muscle growth.
The partners and trainers in the venture bring a wide variety of experience to the table, with training backgrounds ranging from CrossFit to MovNat. And we’re pretty excited to put our collective knowledge to work!
We’re starting with some core values:
- Inspire One Another
- Have Fun
- Life Should Feel Good
Watch this space transform!
Right now, the StrengthBox is literally just that – a box. There’s some work ahead. The location is at 45 Cranfield Road, near Bermondsey and O’Connor in Toronto. It has everything we want: a good concrete floor (ready for rubber matting), high ceilings, a roll-up garage door, big skylights and windows, a loft and a reception area. Did I mention skylights? Love at first sight!
Combine a good space with knowledgeable and caring trainers, some good equipment, and a fantastic community – and it’s a recipe for results! True, there is much to be done over the next little while, but with a bit of perseverance and lot of elbow grease, we’ll get things ready for a March open! From kettlebells to sandbags – we want to have a pretty cool space to workout in!
So, stay tuned for more info, ’cause we’d love to have you a part of our StrengthBox community!
Tags: StrengthBox, training
Chocolate Nut Banana
We all get sweet cravings from time to time, and while there exists a plethora of paleo dessert recipes to be found in web-land, I think it’s important to remember that it’s still to be considered paleo “candy”. Moderation is the key. When eating anything with a sugar-punch (even if it’s natural fruit sugar), it’s usually best to time indulgences by saving the treats for morning, or right after a workout.
It’s pretty amazing what you can create even when sticking to paleo diet guidelines! Fellow blogger and friend Cosmopolitan Primal Girl even created an amazing Pineapple Banana Upside Down Cake that was truly delicious! Be sure to check out the other recipes on her blog!
With busy lives, sometimes convenience reigns, and that’s where fruit – in all its simple goodness – comes into play. Fresh fruit and berries, mixed with nuts, raw honey and other delights are nature’s candy store.
One of my favorite simple treats is a chocolate-nut-banana. All I do is slice a banana lengthwise (halving it first), spread it with almond or sunflower seed butter, sprinkle on some raw cacao nibs and add a halved pecan. It takes two seconds to make, and would put any sickenly-sweet commercial peanut-butter cup to shame. Try it! Raw chocolate is a super-food, full of anti-oxidants, and the espresso-bean bitter taste is well-complemented by the sweet banana.
Now how easy is that?
Grass-Fed Beef: The Real Diet of Man
Prime rib is truly fit for feasts and special occasions, and the marbling of the better cuts (white sections of fat that run through the meat) doesn’t have to lead to artery-clogging consequences. While beef fat is saturated, good quality grass-fed beef will have a superior balance of fatty acids over conventional beef products. Grass-fed beef is high in CLA – which our bodies use to convert fats to muscle and energy. Factory animals, on the other hand, are fed cereal and grain (like processed GMO corn) that have a high concentration of omega-6s — something that most of us have too much of in the first place. Since there have been huge changes in animal husbandry after the industrial revolution (around 99% of beef consumed today is produced from grain-fed feedlot cattle, while almost all animals were pastured as few as 200 years ago), grass-fed beef is a cornerstone of the paleo diet.
So the secret to a healthy and amazing prime rib starts with quality grass-fed meat. If you have never cooked grass-fed beef before, you should be aware that while it tastes great (I think it’s far superior), it tends to be leaner overall, and can dry out easily and become tough. Do not overcook it! I’ll only say that once! 
Here’s a prime rib recipe from Dr Al Edwards, a close personal friend whose cooking skills I’ve always admired. On his recent visit to Toronto, he prepared the following meal to the delight of many.
Note that his use of red wine and soy sauce in the marinade make it not strictly paleo, but I believe that it’s a reasonable compromise since both are great ingredients with their own health benefits, and they are only used to marinate the meat so that it will become even more tender.
Start with a good cut of meat, with the fat and ribs intact. Marinate the beef in the following:
Marinade:
- 1/2 cup of red wine
- 1/4 cup of Tamari soy sauce (wheat-free)
- Small handful of fresh chives, roughly cut
- 6 cloves of garlic crushed
- The top part of a rosemary sprig
Place all of the above ingredients into a large plastic freezer bag. Poke holes in the roast, on all sides, and insert into the bag. Tilt the bag back and forth to cover the meat in the marinade, then refrigerate anywhere from 4-6 hours or overnight.
Other ingredients:
- I bag of miniature red onions (peeled)
- 10 Cremini mushrooms sliced in large pieces
- 1/3 c balsamic vinegar
- 1/3 c raw honey
- 1/3 c maple syrup
Brown the meat on all sides in a cast iron skillet. I used olive oil mixed with some (non-paleo) organic butter for the taste, although you may wish to use a true paleo oil with a higher smoke-point tolerance such as virgin coconut oil.
Browning the roast
Remove the beef to a tray or cutting board, then put into the skillet one small bag of miniature red onions (or others of your choice) that you have peeled. Brown these.
Add the cut Cremini mushrooms and some roughly chopped chives. When they have partially cooked, reinsert the roast into the pan.
With onions and chives
Mushrooms added, meat is now basted.
Mix 1/3 c of good balsamic vinegar, 1/3 c raw honey and 1/3 c of maple syrup to constitute a basting and cooking liquid. Pour some of the liquid over the roast and insert the it into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Since I used a cast iron pan, the skillet went right into the oven–eliminating the need for a separate roasting pan. After the 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and cook the roast to your taste (internal temp around 120 or slightly more). The remaining basting liquid will be used periodically during the cooking.
When the roast has reached your preference as to doneness, remove it from the pan so that it can rest. In the interim, crush the cooked garlic so that it becomes a kind of pulp that will better incorporate with the jus created from the basting liquid and the natural juices from the meat.
Slice the roast and serve it with the onion jus, and a generous portion of roasted vegetables. Don’t be surprised if your neighbours come knocking…
Cooked to perfection
Finally, only cut as many ribs from the roast as you need at one time. The roast will keep for quite a few days, and the leftovers will be great. I had mine sliced over avocado with some grilled yellow zucchini.
Perfect paleo snack
Tags: grass-fed beef, paleo, prime rib, recipe
Post ice swim!
I don’t do well in the cold. In fact, despite being Canadian, I don’t even like winter at all. I tend to hibernate more than I should. Nevertheless, I managed to take the plunge into Lake Ontario last year on New Year’s Day (only through the proddings of fellow fitness enthusiast Boris), and this year I partook in the January the 1st ritual without any persuasion at all.
Polar Bear plunges are usually done for charitable purposes. I chose to take part in the one sponsored by Habitat for Humanity; this year marking their 5th annual dip here in Toronto’s Lake Ontario. Each year the event grows larger, and today more than several hundred people showed up ready to brave the elements.
While there were a few costumed individuals, I opted for the traditional swimsuit. My Vibram Five Fingers came in handy, as they gave me the sensation of being barefoot while they protected the bottoms of my feet. The small crowd was held back for several minutes (bare skin bracing against the wind), and when the countdown was finally finished, everyone yelled and raced into the frigid waters.
The cold hit like a thousand icy needles digging into the skin. And while it shouldn’t have been as difficult as last year (in 2009, there was a cold-weather alert on New Year’s eve, and the organizers had to spent several hours chopping up the ice so the bathers could get into the water), for some reason it seemed just as bad. I kept my focus, and headed out into deeper waters, finally taking a dive under the surface and managing a few strokes to get some space between myself and the shivering crowd.
2009 was even more icy
I’ll admit that I didn’t swim for very long. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get out of the water as the pain became intense. But as soon as I got myself back onto the beach, I was engulfed by a warming sensation as my body temperature had risen considerably due to the ice water shock. I’m pretty sure that steam was rising from my body. Unfortunately, this warm feeling rapidly diminished as the cold in my fingers and toes set in. I couldn’t even zipper up my coat, as my fingers stopped working. I needed to get warm — fast. Walking back to the car, my Vibrams stiffened and seemed to freeze to my feet so they were difficult to get off. Warm socks and clothes were gratefully waiting, as were my car seat heaters.
Rescuers at the ready
While most of the Polar Bear participants are there for the fun of it, there are some physical culture benefits for the heart-healthy. Cold water immersion can supposedly boost the immune system. In fact, there are many who swear by this like religion, and douse themselves with ice water several times per week year-round (yes, I’ve tried that too, although I can’t claim to be a “regular”). The theory (unproven with no clinical research that I’m aware of) is that immersing or dousing yourself with cold water raises your internal body temperature just enough (like giving yourself a mini-fever) to ward off any harmful colds or viruses. I’m not sure how much stock I put in that, but it sure is invigorating.
Who’s in for 2011?
Tags: dousing, ice swimming, polar bear dip
Daring to try again!
How hard can it be? Well, now that I’m experienced, it’s not hard at all. And I got plenty of experience last Christmas making my first medicine ball, and if you haven’t read my post on that particular gem of an evening, I suggest you do it right now. It’s worth the effort and you’ll learn everything not to do in the meantime.
Yes folks, on my one-year anniversary of medicine ball disaster, I decided to try again. Only this time I would: i) get the right sand; ii) invite a friend to help; and iii) avoid any materials even remotely sounding like “expanding foam”.
Armed with said experience, I met my friend Lisa (who also wanted her own med ball) at my place to puncture, fill and seal two more basketballs with about 20 pounds of sand each. Desperate not to repeat last year’s fiasco involving coarse, damp sand – I went to the trouble of ordering 50 pounds of indoor playsand from another friend who worked in a day care centre. This was premium playsand – it was even pre-dried (usually the stuff comes slightly damp so it doesn’t fly everywhere when you pour it from the bag). Lisa and I called it “luxury sand”. It even glittered, I swear.
Not just sand, this was "Sandtastik"!
Luxury sand glitters!
We punctured the basketballs with a radial tire puncture tool, and had rigged two funnels for filling– one using a plastic 3-in-1 oil container with the bottom cut off, and the other using a turkey baster. Both worked just fine and the sand ran through fairly quickly. At least at first. Perhaps it was the jubilation of seeing merely seeing the sand flow at all that made it seem fast. Or, perhaps our judgement was a little impaired by having imbibed several glasses of red wine (one needs an occasional vice, and this one had anti-oxidants!). Anyhow, things were working.
Does this weigh 20 pounds yet?
In fact, everything was going swimmingly. Of course, we had a few mishaps. The evening gradually stretched into late night as the basketballs filled, because at some point the sand would invariably reach the level of the air hole where air needed to escape in order to get more sand into the ball. At that point, filling became excrutiatingly slow. My medicine ball got so full at one point I thought it would be impossible to get a single extra grain of sand into it.
Nevertheless, what a difference when compared to last year’s experience. I can’t tell you what a delight it was to work with nice, fine sand. That stupid, coarse and pebble-filled stuff I contended with last December was now a distant memory. Eventually, both basketballs weighed a respectable 20 pounds.
Gee, this is fun!
Mishaps? Just some red wine spills...
Now the fun part. Each had to be sealed with plugs (using the plugging strips that came with the puncture and repair kit) and further sealed with some Shoo Goo. The plugging strip was threaded onto the tool that is used to push the plug into the ball, only when the tool was pulled out — the plug came out as well. The balls were filled so full, that the plugs were being driven into sand, and the sand instantly coated the sticky rubber plugs rendering them useless.
Tire plugs or Blair Witch twig sculptures?
This is gonna work, really??
After several failed attempts, we decided to seal the holes using a bit of creativity. Lisa came up with the idea of threading two plugging strips onto the tool, and pushing both strips almost all the way in. I was a bit skeptical, but it seemed to work. Rather than pulling the tool out rapidly (and risking the strips coming out too), we just pushed the strips almost all of the way in, jamming them into place as best we could. Thus sealed, they seemed to be fine, but of course the real test would come only from slamming them on concrete. The medicine ball I made last year has been slammed many many times, and it has held up perfectly. I wanted these to be the same.
After some trimming of the plugs, a bit of Shoo Goo was applied to each ball to further seal the holes. Could we have been successful? Whatever the case, we certainly had fun. We finished at around 3:15 am, having spent most of the night filling sand, in between fits of hysterical laughter (you had do be there, trust me). Now we needed the seals to dry and cure for about 2 or 3 days before trying them.
The week after, Lisa came by again and we tried slamming them. The results? Medicine ball perfection!! Can’t wait to try for more. Well, maybe I’ll wait a little bit, lol.
Here we are trying them out on December 24th:
Have a great holiday everyone!
Tags: homemade equipment, medicine ball, natural movement, training, workouts
Getting over the bar
This weekend, Erwan Le Corre was in town to do two one-day MovNat seminars in Oakville at Total Balance Fitness. Having had the opportunity to train with Erwan in West Virginia this summer, I was anxious to see how he would train and coach in an indoor environment. After all, I had collected enough scratches, scrapes and thorns in West Virginia to completely associate natural movement with nature in the raw. How do you take that experience inside?
Le Corre explains that natural movement is not dependent on the environment because it’s adaptive. It’s something primal. Natural movement is instinctive (children do it), universal (it’s not culturally specific) and practical. And indoors is a great place to start practicing because nature is tough — it’s rough, unpredictable, and frankly downright dangerous. You can’t scale anything (you can’t make a tree branch higher or lower or a rock smaller) and the risks are very real.
After this weekend, I learned that training inside can even be an advantage, especially for beginners, as it allows the practice of skills in a safe environment. Walking on all fours is certainly easier on a gym floor than it is on a slippery outdoor slope. But the real fun is when you add context: real or imaginary.
Kids add context all the time when they play. They may walk on a sidewalk curb and pretend that they might fall into a pit of alligators if they lose their balance. As adults, we don’t have to add the same amount of drama, but training can still be playful. We can imagine context by pretending there is an imaginary fence that we have to cross by lifting the legs up and over, one at a time. We can bend and lean forward at the hips to clear an imaginary tree limb as we’re walking. We can lie on the ground and raise our upper body with our hands and scan our surroundings, looking backwards, sideways and looking up into the imaginary trees. We can squat as low as possible and walk, pretending that we’re going through a very narrow and low passage. All great “warmup” exercises that are very primal and playful in nature.
Bumper plates: context for jumping skills
Other contextual possibilities inside are of course very real. Setting up a few bumper plates to land on provides some real context to training accuracy in jumping: landing perfectly with the forefoot on the plate and the heels just hanging over the edge. We can climb a monkey bar or attempt to muscle-up to be on top of it. We can practice catching medicine balls and PVC tubing, using peripheral vision (not looking directly at the object being thrown). We can lift and carry heavy objects. This past weekend had us doing all of those movements and more.
Of course, some things are suited better to outside, and Erwan took us for some outdoor training by the lake, although the December cold and wind provided some additional challenges. Erwan, being accustomed to training in harsh conditions, chose to go in shorts and without shoes. Outside, we trained running, throwing heavy stones, jumping and vaulting (park benches came in handy), and balancing skills using logs on the beach.
A barefoot Le Corre is mindful of his trainees
All in all, it was a great clinic and provided me with some great ideas for future training. It really reinforced the principles that I learned this summer, and I can’t wait to continue practicing my skills. This is how training should be: functional, fun, challenging and free.
This spring, I will take my MovNat training further as I will be accompanying Erwan on a 9-day training retreat in Itacaré, Brazil. This is the workshop that was made famous by Chris McDougall’s article in Men’s Health, and promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
The retreat is limited to 12 people. If you are interested in finding out more, please visit Erwan’s website at www.movnat.com.
Tags: Erwan Le Corre, MovNat, natural movement, training
The festive season beckons
Shopping, baking, parties and alcohol – it all adds up! Throw in some extra stress, and before you know it, holiday weight gain hits. Taking preventative measures is the key, as you don’t want to wait until the New Year to go on a strict diet.
Below you’ll find a link for a free e-book (PDF) for you, your friends, coworkers, and family — and it’s going to help you stay on track throughout the holidays. The book, Holiday Survival Guide, contains 10 simple strategies to help you control your weight over the holidays, and it was put together by the folks over at Fitness Spotlight for readers of this blog. Mike O’Donnell from The IF Life and Scott Kustes from Modern Forager are the creators of Fitness Spotlight, and they are both veteran health and fitness bloggers.
You can download the free e-book by clicking on the link below. Click to view now, or right click to save it to your computer (control click on a Mac).
I hope you find the tips useful!
Once you add kettlebells to your workout, it’s hard to go without them. They’re inexpensive, completely portable, and hard to beat for developing core strength, power, stamina, endurance, and overall coordination. They can be used for size and strength programs (typical 5×5 routines) or in longer metabolic conditioning circuits like the one above.
This Sunday morning, a group of us decided to take our workout to a high-school track. We did what is known as an AMRAP workout (As Many Rounds/Reps as Possible), choosing 20 minutes as our fixed time for completion. Armed with a few kettlebells, we partnered up for the following:
The first set of partners would run one lap of 400 meters, while their teammates kept the kettlebells moving (swings, snatches, presses and cleans). They couldn’t put the bells down until their partner returned from the run. When the lap was complete, the partners would switch places. The workout lasted 20 minutes.
Was it tough? In a word, yes! But it was also exhilarating to be out there in the unseasonably warm November weather. I hope everyone has such a great kick-start to their week. Remember — the holidays are fast approaching, and it’s more important that ever to keep on track! Stay strong everyone…
Tags: CrossFit, kettlebells, training
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