Stayfitanywhere’s Blog

So here it was.  Sunday, February 28th- the final day of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Today was to be quite the historic day as the Canada vs USA Gold medal hockey game was to be played out and the closing ceremonies, thereafter.

My day started at 9 am so I could get downtown to the Earls’ Paramount to meet up with my friends for the hockey game.  The bar was packed by 10:30 am and people were already on their second beer by 11.  I was not one of those individuals  I was supposed to be at the rehearsal compound by 1:30 pm, but the game went into overtime and I absolutely could not leave.  Once the magical Crosby overtime goal happened, I celebrated like crazy with everybody in the bar for 10 minutes and then walked down the joyous streets of downtown (high fiving everybody on the way) to get to the compound.

I showed up a little late, but that didn’t matter.  We still had more than enough time to prepare & get ready.  Once 6 pm came around, the hundreds of performers were all escorted across the street to the stadium and we took our positions.  The atmosphere felt electric and I felt very excited & proud to be there.  When our turn was up, we went ahead and performed our first task:  Zorb wrangling.  We pushed the zorbs up the ramp and onto the field of play.  Then we quickly went to our positions under the stage to get ready for our second task.  There were to be 4 Russian athletes to come out of the stage with us.  One of them was Alexander Ovechkin.  A few of us stopped by his scala to get photos & autographs.  It was a very cool moment.  We then quickly headed to our scala and Victor Pochenko (the figure skater) was waiting by ours.  We got his autograph & photo as well.

Then it was finally show time.  The Russian segment of the closing ceremonies began and we entered onto the stage with our flags.  The curtain lifted and we ran out to an electrifying and jam-packed BC place stadium and did our flag routine.  We were on stage for 30 seconds and then we exited and that was it!  We went immediately back to the compound to rendez-vous.  We all celebrated with Igor (our Russian choreographer) by taking a few photos and each downing a nice shot of Russian vodka!

After that, a party for the closing ceremony staff had been arranged at Fortune Sound Club.  So we all went there afterwards (still in our costumes) and drank and danced the night away.  It was a great way wind down from all the incredible excitement of the day and to put a final stamp on the Olympics. It was all so much fun and it will definitely be an experience I will never forget!

Happy Training! 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

I had a fantastic Easter Weekend, it was filled with activities, friends, and fun!  I kicked off the long weekend by celebrating my Kiwi friend’s birthday with an outing to Marpole Curling Club.  My Friend Damo was so enthralled by curling during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics that he decided he had to try it out and booked a few sheets of ice for the night of his birthday.  With a large group of people that had zero curling experience we took to the ice, and oh yeah we were decked out in retro athletic gear so that our lack lustre skills would be outshone by our bright outfits.  After getting a quick lesson we split into teams and went to war.  Stones, brooms and bodies were all over the ice in the first few ends but as the night progressed our ability to hurl the 40lb rocks down the ice got better, but not much.  Our match ended in a tie which was fitting seeing as no one really showed any real skill.  If you ever have the chance to get some friends together and try out curling I would recommend working on the following exercises be: Lunges, World’s Greatest Stretch, 1 Foot Balance, and Standing Partner Battles.

My night of curling was just a warm up to the most important event of the weekend, the 2010 BC Senior Men’s Field lacrosse Provincial Championships.  My team, the Whalley Ballers, was entering the tournament ready to avenge our Overtime Loss in the Gold Medal game the year before and we were prepared and confident we would do just that.  We played two round robin games Friday against the John B Pub and the Abbotsford Attack and won both to earn a trip the semi finals on Saturday against the Ladner Pioneers, the team that beat us in the gold medal game a year ago.  The score was close at half time, but as the second half rolled along my team was able to secure a good lead and hold on to beat the Pioneers and secure our spot in the finals against the Coquitlam Beer Hunters.  The Beer Hunters were our biggest competition throughout the year and they came to play on Saturday afternoon.  The game was close finishing with a score of 11-9 for the Whalley Ballers and my team claimed our first provincial Senior Men’s championship and a spot in the National Championships in Montreal!  A big congratulations to all my teammates for a great effort over the weekend and a special congratulations to Reese Baillie (top defensemen), Ian Poole (top midfielder), and Tom Johnson (top goalie).

With all of the activity I took part in over the weekend I took some opportunities to relax by starting a new book, Born to Run by Chris McDougall.  I am nearly finished and this book is going to be on my recommended reading list!  I am by no means a runner, and am even less interested in running ultradistance races but while reading this book all I wanted to do is go running through trails on the North Shore in my barefeet!  The book is about the greatest footrace and runners the world has never heard of.  McDougall introduces the characters beautifully and describes the culture of the Tarahumara tribe with great passion that makes it nearly impossible to put the book down.

This weekend saw me take part in an activity I have no experience in, accomplish a goal with my teammates, and get inspired to do something I never thought possible.  I hope your Easter weekend was as good as mine!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTips at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

We had our partners and the colour of our flags established.  Now it was time to go over the actual tasks that we were to do.  The first task was quite simple:  with our partners, we push the zorbs up the ramp and on to the field of play and exit.  Once this was completed we had a second role to perform. And this was where the flags would come in.  In our pairs, we were given a 12 metre long flag.  There were 3 different flags:  One was white with the reverse side bronze, another was blue with the reverse side silver, and the other was red with the reverse side gold.  My partner Doug and I had the Silver flag that flipped to blue.

So here was the sequence that we had to practice:  enter from the ’scala’ (stairs).  Line up facing your partner in groups of 6 people.  Enter the field of play.  Partner 1 holds the flag (me), partner 2 runs the flag (Doug).  Wave the flag.  Flip the flag.  Stretch the flag.  Flip the flag again.  And exit.  Over and over we practiced this sequence.  By the 3rd rehearsal, we pretty much had everything down pat.  And as soon as we had our first rehearsal in the stadium, we were golden.  But we had to keep showing up to rehearsals, not because we needed the practice, but because the choreographer needed to rehearse the sequencing and timing with all the other performers.

In the end, we had 7 rehearsals, from February 18th to the 27th.  5 were in the compound and 2 were in the stadium.  Most of the rehearsals were no more than 4 hours, but I really enjoyed them as it gave me a sense of really being a part of the whole Olympics in Vancouver.  Even the simple fact of walking every day through the Olympic grounds, past all the pavilions, and past all the security check-points was an experience in itself!

By the time Sunday, February 28th came, all we had to do was just show up and do it.  But not before attending the small matter of a Canada/USA Gold medal hockey game

Stay tuned for the 5th and final installment of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’ next week!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

Soon after we entered the compound and watched all these Russian performers running around in the giant spherical zorbs, we were introduced to Igor.  Igor was the head choreographer for the Sochi segment of the closing ceremonies.  He gave us a quick run down of what stations to tune into for our headphones (so we could hear his directions through the mic) and what our roles would be.

Our first task was to divide ourselves up into 2 groups (36 of us in total) and then partner up.  My number was G27, so I was partnered with G28.  His name was Doug.  In our 2 groups, our job was to push the zorbs along a narrow corridor and then exit in a very orderly fashion.  This essentially, was simulating the job we would have to do at the closing ceremonies:  Pushing the zorbs up the ramp leading to the ‘field of play’ in BC Place Stadium.  We rehearsed getting ourselves lined up in our exact positions, walking together simultaneously, and exiting in single file a couple times through and had it nailed in 10 minutes.

Our second task for the closing ceremonies was flag bearing.  This required us (in our partners) to run out a section of a Russian flag onto the field of play.  Each flag was 12 metres long and had either a bronze, silver, or gold colour on its reverse side.  So our job was for one partner to be a flag ‘holder’ and the other partner to be the flag ‘runner’.  I ended up being a flag holder and my partner Doug was a flag runner.  Once these roles were established, it was then time to rehearse over and over our positions and our ‘moves’…

Stay tuned for Part 4 of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’ next week!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

Now it’s January 2010.  Only one month until the Olympics would be arriving here in Vancouver. Thinking that my chance of taking part in the closing ceremonies was all over for me, I had forgotten about the whole thing for weeks.   Then, in early January, I get an email back from the casting crew saying that they were still in need of performers.  Great!  I quickly replied back and told them that I was all in.  

A day later, I had my rehearsal schedule sent to me.  In all, I would have 8 four-hour rehearsals from February 18th, until the final performance on February 28th.  Seems like a lot of time to commit to, but I had a friend also performing in the closing ceremonies (a mountie), and he had been rehearsing since November!  So comparatively, my rehearsal schedule was a joke!

So it’s February 18th now, and it’s time for my first rehearsal.  This was held a the Ceremonies compound near the Plaza of Nations and right across the road from BC Place Stadium.  This rehearsal compound was a massive tent with a huge open floor.  As massive as it was, it was still smaller than the ‘field of play’ at BC Place.

So I arrived at the compound along with about 30 other guys.  Just outside the entrance,  we were given a green bib with a number on it, a pocket-radio with earphones, and a quick introduction from one of the stage managers.  Then we entered.  I walked in to the compound only to see a group of Russian performers maneuvering around in these massive plastic spheres.  This, then, would be my first introduction to the Zorb…  

Stay tuned for Part 3 of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’, coming soon!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com 

Well it’s been over a week since the Olympics have ended. What a fantastic two weeks it was for me. I attended multiple hockey games, mainly the Canada games. If you’ve never been to an international hockey game with your home country playing, there is nothing else like it. The atmosphere, the energy and anticipation from the time they step on the ice for the warm ups till the final buzzer goes. It’s an experience that is indescribable.
Just imagine all the years these athletes have trained, all the sacrifices, all the excuses they could’ve come up with to not reach their goals, but they were determined and motivated and in the end were on the biggest stage.
Along the way, I’m sure they had plenty of personal trainers and advice and suggestions on what they should be doing. Somewhere along the line it just clicked, hard work pays off!
So every time when you think the extra rep or the extra metre or the extra 10 seconds is just too much or it’s beyond what you’re comfortable with, just remember what these athletes go through and look where they ended up.
Everyone can step up and achieve higher results, dig deep. If you can’t push yourself to go the extra step, we at stayfitanywhere surely can!
What’s your next goal? Set it and get it!

~joe - jcheng@stayfitanywhere.com

As per usual I started off the week by teaching our 6am WinterFit class at our studio and then I met up with a client for a workout at her home gym.  During the two workouts I instructed and my commute around the city I got to thinking about a few things and I would like to share them with you.

·         My group class this morning did a warmup of standing on one foot and throwing a ball back and forth.  As they woke up and got warm I began to introduce some new challenges, catching with one hand, catching and passing left handed, and finally adding more balls.  The group of 4 was able to progress to left handed throwing on one foot with 2 balls with few drops so I decided to introduce a 3^rd ball and see how they did… and the balls began to bounce all over the place.  At first there was laughter but as the balls started to drop more frequently frustration set into place and it was at that time that I had to regress the drill.  So we finished with standing on two feet one handed passing and catching with 3 balls, and SUCCESS!!  There are times when it is great to introduce a new challenge to the body and mind, however as an instructor you have to be prepared to modify the exercise/drill in order to give your participants a developmentally appropriate challenge.  We have all been asked to do something that was either physically or mentally beyond our abilities and those tasks can cause even those with the strongest will to be discouraged but if we break down a task to simple pieces we can eventually achieve what seemed to be impossible.  Oh yeah the laughter came back when the 3 balls started whipping around the circle!

·         A second thought arose when throwing balls around this morning, and it came from the statement “why am I not better at this?”  I replied to this with “when was the last time you threw a ball around like this, I bet it was the last time we did this exercise,” I saw 4 heads nod “yes.”  Quite simply put the only way to get better at something is by doing it!  Want to throw and catch a ball better?  Spend more time throwing and catching a ball.  Want to be a better lacrosse player?  Practice playing lacrosse more.  Want to be a better runner?  Run more.  Want to be better at Deadlifting?  Perform more Deadlifts.  Those are the simple answers, however to be better at something you need to do more than just doing it, you need to do it PERFECT!  Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfection.  If you were to practice Deadlifting with improper technique you are going to get really good at doing Deadlifts with improper technique, same thing with running, throwing, catching and playing sports.  That is the amazing thing about your nervous system it is incredible at remembering patterns (good and bad ones).  This is precisely why it is so important when exercising that you focus on proper technique and nothing else, once technique is in place you can begin to play with other variables!

·         Breathing during exercise is a very important skill, and I call it a skill because it needs to be practiced along with technique in order to exercise perfect.  As I have seen many times with my clients is that they forget to breathe when performing exercises, especially when they are focusing on engaging their “core.”  I like to teach my clients who do this that it is very much possible to contract a muscle and breathe at the same time; I do this by having them put their hand out and resist the pressure I put on it while they tell me a story.  At the end of the story I ask if their arm is tired and if they felt like they had to work hard during story time and the answer is always “yes.”  We then work on learning how to consciously engage the “core” while breathing (usually counting aloud from 5 to 1).  This is a great way to prepare the body for other “core” bracing techniques that are necessary for lifting.

·         Finally as I was driving around the city this morning I saw two signs that read: Thank You for Supporting the Games, Please Keep Walking.  Sadly I saw these signs while I was driving in my car.  I had spoken with many people in the past week about how the Olympics games proved how easy it is to walk around the city and that I hoped people would continue to do it.  I walked around the city before the Olympics came, I walked around the city a ton during the games, and I have increased my amount of walking  in the past week (walked to and from the movie theatres, and for a few errands I would normally drive, etc.) and plan to keep walking more.  It is great to see that the city of Vancouver is taking the initiative to promote active green forms of transportation (Dunsmuir viaduct is now a bike lane like Burrard St bridge), and it is now up the citizens of the city to participate.

Throw balls, breathe when you exercise, walk/bike around the city, and make sure you do it perfect!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

The 17 days of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone.  For Vancouverites, this was a very special time of incredible athletic events and celebrations.  For myself, I had the unique opportunity to participate in not only all the event viewing and celebrating, but also in the performance of the closing ceremonies at BC Place Stadium.  Back in December, I received an email through a friend from the casting crew of the ceremonies.  The cast was short men and they needed more to apply.  I thought this would be a pretty unique opportunity, so I went ahead and applied.  

A week later I received a phone call to say that they would like me to come down to the ceremonies compound where I, along with many other men, would be partaking in an audition.  The audition was lead by the ceremonies head producer David Atkins (David Atkins Productions).  He lead us through this silly little dance & movement routine.  He wanted to see how we moved and followed instructions.  In essence, it was a movement screen- similar to what we do in our assessments except without all the music & dance moves

After the audition, we were told that they would call us back within 1 or weeks.  I never heard back from them after 2 weeks, and I and thought it would never happen…  But it did happen- find out how next week in Part 2 of Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies.  Same Stayfit time, same Stayfit channel…

From February 12, 2010 to February 28, 2010 the City of Vancouver and the resort of Whistler was home to the biggest sporting event the world has to offer and those 17 days are filled with memories I will never be able to forget.  I would have to rank the 2010 Winter Olympics as one of the best experiences of my life.  The 3 things that made the games so memorable for me were the athletes, celebrating with family/friends/strangers, and the unity shown by a nation: O CANADA!  Each of these 3 things ties in with the other and I can’t express enough gratitude to all of the athletes from around the world (especially the Canadian ones, couldn’t be more proud) because without their dedication to training and competition I wouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity to celebrate with those that I love and sing our national anthem with people I don’t know.

National Unity:  It is so very rare that such a large group of people can be brought together by one event, and the 2010 Olympics did just that.  Everywhere I looked there was someone wearing a team Canada Hockey jersey, a Canada toque, or a Canadian flag draped around their neck.  Every time I walked down the street I could find at least a dozen people to give a high five while chanting Go Canada Go.  As amazing as these things were they were nothing compared to hearing the National Anthem being sung again and again… and I am sorry for subjecting so many people to hearing me sing, I gave it my best (there is a reason why I choose athletics over arts).

Celebrations with Family/Friends/Strangers:  I watched Olympic events from a number of living rooms/bars/outdoor screens with my sister, my girlfriend, my best friends, and complete strangers.  I went and saw great Canadian artists perform.  I saw the Olympic torch and cauldron.  I took some Swedish guys out for a Molson Canadian.  I witnessed people flying over my head at Robson square.  I soaked in all that Granville street had to offer.  And none of it would have been the same if it wasn’t for so many great people!

Athletes:  It was the goal of the Canadian Olympic Committee to Own the Podium in 2010 and did our athletes ever deliver.  Alexandre Bilodeau eased the tension of a nation as we awaited our first Gold and then melted our hearts as he embraced his brother.  Mellisa Hollingsworth bore all of her emotions as she gave it her all sliding face first down an ice track and on the same ice track Jon Montgomery slid his way to one of the most exuberant Gold medal celebrations of the games (pitcher of beer included!).  That same course also brought Canadians a Gold, Silver and Bronze in the last few days of the games in Women’s and Men’s Bobsleigh.

Over at Pacific Coliseum there were some incredible moments had on the ice for Canadian Figure Skaters and Short Track Speed Skaters.  Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were electrifying and amazing.  Joannie Rochette’s performance can be summed up with one word: courageous.  Hamelin and St. Gelais earned Gold and Silver respectively and seeing them cheer for each other so enthusiastically was just as special.

Cypress Mountain didn’t disappoint in the medal haul for Canada as we saw Jeniffer Heil capture Canada’s first medal after watching her Gold slip away to an American skier who skied a flawless final run.  It was ok though Bilodeau made up for it the next night.  Ashleigh McIvor proved why she was the best ski-cross racer in the world as she cruised to a Gold medal and Jasey Jay Anderson finally clenched the only world title that has eluded him.  Even though Mike Robertson is from the prairies he showed he knows his way down the mountain going elbow to elbow with the pack to earn a Silver medal.

The 2006 Olympics in Turin belonged to the long track speed skating team, but the Richmond Olympic Oval proved to be a difficult place for team Canada athletes to pick up medals.  Although they didn’t match the performance in 2006 they still took home 2 Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze medals at the ROO.  Clara Hughes snagged another medal to add to her summer/winter Olympic medal tally in a tremendous effort that she claimed to be “pure excellence”.  It took the Canadian men’s speed skating team 16 days to capture their first and only medal and they did it  in complete unison as they crossed the finish line to beat the USA by 0.20 seconds to win the team pursuit event.

Hurry Hurry Hard!!!  Cheryl Bernard’s rink was a shot way from claiming Gold, but had to settle for Silver.  Then the following day Kevin Martin, of Edmonton, and his team continued to dominate men’s curling by winning Gold and finishing the Olympics without a blemish on their record.

Finally over at Canada Hockey Place Canada proved to be the dominant force in both Women’s and Men’s Ice Hockey.  The Canadian women proved to be the class of the tournament as they earned their Gold medal by setting a new goals scored record and only allowing 2 goals against.  The Canadian men didn’t take quite the same path to the Gold medal as the women but did they ever do it in dramatic fashion with a shootout win over the Swiss, a loss to the US in the round robin, a decisive victory over the Russians, and an Overtime thriller against the US which saw Sid the Kid score the biggest goal I have ever witnessed.

These past 17 days have provided me with memories that will last a lifetime and inspirational tales to tell for decades to come.  Next time you are thinking of skipping out on a workout think of Sid the Kid going hard to the net, Bilodeau hugging his brother, Montgomery jumping on top of the podium, and Joannie Rochette meeting adversity head on, then decide if you really want to miss a workout.

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic games have been going strong for 10 incredible days.  If you have had a chance to take part in the festivities or are going to you can use these two terms when describing your experience. 

Olympic-ing: Taking part in anything that has to do with the Olympic games.  Examples are watching an Olympic event (live or on TV), visiting a pavilion or a national house, going to The Bay, etc.  I have spent the last 10 days Olympic-ing and need a day to rest and recover.

Olympicising: Any form of physical activity that has been inspired by the Olympic games.  Examples are walking all over Vancouver, standing in a line with perfect posture, and pretending to perform like an Olympic athlete after seeing your country win a medal.  I have been Olympicising like Christine Nesbitt and my legs are killing me, I don’t know if my body can handle another Canadian Speed Skating medal.

There is one week left of events, festivals, and celebrations and I am looking forward to doing more Olympic-ing and Olympicising (especially if it is encouraged by Canadians winning gold medals!).

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere