Toronto Strength Workshop

Sunday September 20th, 2009
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Bang Fitness, 610 Queen St. West, 2nd floor
$50 ($40 for Precision Nutrition members)

In association with Stumptuous.com, Bang Fitness is pleased to offer a workshop on strength and conditioning fundamentals. This workshop is designed to answer common questions on exercise technique and format.

Please click here to register.

For more information, please contact us c/o

info [at] bangfitness [dot] com

OR

mistresskrista [at] stumptuous [dot] com

Spaces are limited, so register now. This workshop will be co-ed.

I visited a commercial gym tonight. After a full year of existing exclusively within performance-oriented facilities, it was . . . an experience. More specifically, it was an abrupt reminder of the state of the union.

In the hour or so it took to work out, I witnessed a lot of badness, ranging from arbitrary and inefficient to downright wrong. I saw classes that were designed to meet expectations, not goals. I saw trainers who ranged from indifferent to hilariously confused. And I found a distressingly small proportion of useful equipment (not that it was in heavy rotation).

It’s no big surprise that commercial gyms are behind the times. The industry is unregulated and this is understood. It’s fuelled by a management who doesn’t care and staffed by people who seldom have anything beyond a basic personal training certification. Certifications, in case you’re wondering, range in quality from from a good start to woefully unhelpful. The most common certifications you’ll come across in North American gyms fall into the latter category.

As someone making a legitimate effort to do things right, I’m sometimes frustrated when I meet people who need help but just can’t bring themselves to take it. At this point, I can’t blame them. If I didn’t know how to approach my training goals, I would have a very hard time taking the advice of someone in the industry too.

The one ray of light in all of this is the body of research slowly accumulating. There’s some science going on behind closed doors. And even though very few gym chains seem to have acknowledged this, I have confidence that it will continue to chip away at a defunct paradigm. If that means never having to hear advice on drop-set arm curls from a guy with frosted tips then it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Geoff

People find it pretty novel that we work with the Gore Gore Rollergirls. It’s a campy fledgling sport that is modeled on an even campier fledgling sport from the late 1970s. We find it novel too, since most of the girls are hilarious. However, they’ve also got a ton of fight in them. More importantly for us, they’ve also seen how a proper strength and conditioning program can pay off.

We went to watch the girls compete last weekend and witness first-hand how their game is improving. Jam after jam, the ladies out-maneuvered, out-paced and out-conditioned their opponents. In particular, I could see how their increased power helped them stay on their feet when getting shoulder checked. There were several occasions where the women on the other team looked legitimately confused as to why their opponents weren’t going down.

Way ahead by the final period, the Gore Gore Rollergirls continued to push themselves. As tired as they were, they knew that they had strong recovery mojo. Using this newly developed attribute to their advantage, they  further increased their lead, ending the game with a score of 151-71. For the mathematically challenged out there, that’s more than double. What I’m trying to tell you is that they kicked ass.

Next stop: the finals.

Congratulations to our sponsored athlete, Alaina Hardie, who dominated at not one, but two grappling events this past weekend.

Alaina took gold in the 67 kg women’s division at the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association Team Trials. The event, held this past Saturday in Ottawa, featured some of Canada’s top grappling talent. Anyone who’s competed knows that these types of days can be extremely draining. Apparently not the case for Hardie, who piled into a car to drive back to Toronto immediately. The next morning she was up bright and early to fight her way to another gold medal (and award for most technical female) in the Toronto Jiu Jitsu Classic. Rumor has it that she’s now considering roaming from town to town solving problems with jiu jitsu.

Congrats, Alaina!

Bang Fitness is pleased to be hosting a strength and conditioning workshop for participants in the upcoming Women’s Grappling Camp. This event will be hot on the heels of the Women’s Grappling Open.

The tournament will be taking place on Saturday, August 22^nd. Please be there to cheer on the women making this sport a reality.

The workshop will be held as part of the grappling camp and will be on Wednesday, August 26^th, from 1:30 to 3:00. We’re looking forward to the future of women’s grappling and faster, stronger more ass-kicking ladies!