BLAC RIVER CROSSFIT DECEBER 2017 THE PANTHER...BLAC RIVER CROSSFIT DECEBER 2017 3 CLASH IN THE NORTH REVIEW This year, BRC sent an all-male RX coaches team made up of Raun, Matt and

BLACK R IVER CROSSFIT DECEMBER 2017

1

THE PANTHER

1. So Michelle you have been awarded Black River Crossfit member of the month, surely this must rack up as one of your top achievements in life?

Totally!

2. Tell us a bit about your life before CrossFit and what led you to choose CrossFit?

Honestly, I was very skeptical of CrossFit before I joined. I was more of a Pilate’s girl. I wanted Marc to join at the beginning of the year. He’d been working long hours and hadn’t been doing much exercise. I thought he’d enjoy the combination of strength and fitness training. But he was stalling so I decided to join instead. He started soon after due to FOMO!

3. Michelle, talk to us about the rivalry that has sparked be-tween you and your husband? Do you guys still talk to each other at home after intense completion in the box?

Luckily, we don’t go to classes together. I don’t think it would be good for his self-esteem. At home we keep it friendly but in the box, it’s a different story.

4. Has Marc beaten you at any WOD ever?

Nope.

5. When last did you see Westy and Trotter?

Who? Thought they were mythical creatures?

6. If you could have an 80kg snatch or a 100kg Clean and Jerk which would you choose. Why?

I would have to choose the snatch. How amazing would my shoulders look if I could do an 80kg snatch! Also, my collar-bones couldn’t handle 100kg crashing into them.

7. You really have grown from strength to strength this year. What would be a highlight for you during your first year of CrossFit?

Fight Gone Bad and the Charity Triathlon have been my high-lights.

8. Lastly, What does the CrossFit/ Black river community mean to you?

The comradery in the box has been unbelievable. Even though the motto is Me vs Me, every class feels like a group effort where we all push each other to be the best versions of ourselves.

CONVERSATIONS WITH NICNic catches up with our new member of the moment: Michelle Bernon


2

12 Eager panthers descended upon a stormy Durban in Oc-tober to compete in 2 teams at the United We Stand games, arguably one of the toughest CrossFit competitions on the local calendar.

Fridays event involved a 10km team trail run and obstacle course in the infamous “Valley of 1000 hills”. This was a brutal up and down course in a very beautiful part of Hillcrest. Jamez and Leon placed 10th and 13th respectively in the field of 720 athletes, with Hollyn placing 12th overall amongst the ladies. Our first team ladies did so well collectively that their team won event 1! FitAids and high 5’s were being dished out for free at the finish line. Our second team finished in a respectable 37th place (out of 120 teams).

Saturday morning kicked off with a 3RM overhead squat from the ground. Confusion reigned in the first team as Nic, who was supposed to be keeping tabs of the weights on his cellphone,

walked off to watch Arsenal highlights whilst Matt unknow-ingly jumped from 95kg to 120kg and almost squashed his judge. On the other side of the arena, Raun watched on as the top female athlete outlifted him by 20kg and then stood on the small piece of chalk he had been saving for the weekend. Anande and Andrea achieved body weight overhead squats which was wild.

Both teams did well in the re-maining WODs that day with the first team dominating a lifting/pull up combo and then narrow-ly missing out on a top 3 finish in

their TTB/BBJO follow up. Sunday morning started precari-ously, with the BRC ladies watch-ing the boys (and Mare) snatch heavily. This rocky start was rec-tified soon afterwards with some stellar handstand walking from Chezza, Hollyn, Matt, Leon and B. Both teams did well enough to make the final – a Frantasyland relay.

Nic putt on a muscle up show, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in many years and his heroics were enough to earn the Panthers a top 20 finish overall – an amazing result for the box!

UWS 2017 REVIEW

Highlights from the weekend:

• Getting home from the run• Hollyn’s butterfly kipping Burpee Box jump overs• Doughnuts at Gateway• Cheryls flight delay from 20:00 to the following

morning, meaning an overnight nap on the airport floor.

• Leon hiring a Fiat Uno for 5 people. The Gazets food bag took up the entire boot.

• Our waitress messing up Andrea’s breakfast order. She is still listed as “missing” at the police station.

• Matt’s judge falling in love with him during his Clean and Jerks


3

CLASH IN THE NORTH REVIEW

This year, BRC sent an all-male RX coaches team made up of Raun, Matt and Nic, as well as a mixed scaled team made up of Adrian, Ruchana and Nabeel to Clash in the North.

The comp started with a very spicy running/barbell combina-tion at Tygerberg High school on Saturday morning that got the blood flowing before the rest of the events moved on to the food court at Tyger Valley Shopping Centre. This was Nic’s first over-seas trip and he was amazed at the number of name brand retail stores and the funny accents of the shop assistants. Matt had to be strict with his allowance else Nic would have blown it all at the local supplement supplier and had no money for his King Pie.

There were 2 more WODS on Saturday and both teams put in

solid performances. Adrian and Nabeel were electric in their wheelbarrow carries and there was a second judge on standby with a fire extinguisher during Ruchana’s skipping masterclass. Nic flew through his 50lb snatch-es and Matty was sensational on the handstand walk – not breaking stride at all. The coach-es team finished in 2nd place

overall on day 1, with the scaled team just outside of the top ten.

Sunday proved to be a very tough day program-ming wise. The WOD’s were fun but taxing. The scaled team ran into issues in their first WOD, when Ruchana, aiming at a wall ball target on the second floor, threw her medicine ball into FNB and had to retrieve it amongst some grumpy customers apply-ing for caravan

financing. Luckily Nabeel was on hand to take over, but the effort was just not enough to push the team into the semi-finals. The coaches team dominated their semi-final with a relentless Matt Wynne pushing his team mates into a 2nd-place finish in a brutal 10-minute Cindy/DT combo. Sit-ting just outside of first with one final WOD to go, the team aimed to put some distance between themselves and the current first place team.

They finished the final in first place in dramatic fashion, but this was not enough to over-come the gap and the team ultimately took silver.

All athletes were incredibly appreciative of the support we received all weekend. A massive thanks to DJ, Zack, Tracy, Cher-yl, Charl, the Ferreira’s, the Van Eden’s and B amongst others for making the trek out to come and shout for us – it was the extra push we needed to finish strong.

This was a fun competition and we encourage as many mem-bers as possible to join us next year again for this throw down.


4

ANNUAL BRC HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE

So, the holidays are upon us, joy and happiness all around! So here is our an-nual holiday guide to help ensure that all our lovely members come back in January wanting to train as opposed to joining the majority and erring on the side of…” I would rather just chill today, I will start up again in February”.

Remember the whole idea is that you enjoy exercise, you crave movement, and you develop enough of a habit that it becomes a part of your daily routine. The beauty of the holidays is that you generally have more time on your hands. So, use that time to MOVE, this doesn’t mean you have to have access to all the equipment that you have at BRC, it just means be active. Get out-

side, play ball sports, go for walks, runs, kayak, learn how to handstand walk – the list is endless. Obviously after being active for majority of the day one can easily justify an afternoon siesta – the best part of any good holiday. Keep a look out for the BRC holiday WOD’s that will be post-ed on our Facebook page. They are designed to be done without any equipment at all.

We are going to be posting some BRC travel WOD’s on Facebook, so keep an eye out for them. You can get a great workout in wherever you are with no equipment at all – you just need

your own body, so no excuses. Get the family involved, maybe have a fun competition, make it a team WOD - there are plenty of options!

Tip #1 – Holidays are a wonderful time to train more, not less…

Tip #3 – You don’t need a gym to train…

Tip #2 – Try to stick to the 80/20 rule of eating and drinking…Yes, we know the festive season is full of lots of food and drink, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to throw away all the improve-ments you worked so hard to get this year. So maybe treat yourself a little more, but try stick to the 80:20 rule – and that is 80% good clean food, not the other way around! Some things to keep in mind:

• Again, holidays allow for more time to cook meals at home, so rather than spending more time out at restaurants, spend more time preparing your own food. Be in control of what you put in your body.

• If you going to afternoon drinks at friends or family – pre-empt the fact that all the food on offer will probably fall into the 20% bad category and eat something healthy beforehand or take your own snacks. Don’t waste your 20% on some food that just happens to be available, rather go and eat exactly what you are craving.

• Drinking…. well if it’s something you enjoy, then try drink as “clean” as possible. Tequila with sparkling water and lime – a good drink option that apparently is paleo…ish…


5

Given all the family commitments that come with the holidays, a common mistake is to delay your training until later in the day. Next thing the day catches up with you, you tired or ate too much at lunch and excuses start coming out. Rather start

your day off with something active, before you have even eaten breakfast. It is the best way to start a day and one can enjoy the day as it un-folds as opposed to trying to get the training in.

A cool thing to try - challenge someone who is on holiday with you to a daily exercise count. It works like this – challenge starts at 8am and finishes at 5, you both agree on a simple body-weight movement, let’s say push-ups. You have the day to accumulate as many push-ups as you

can, you can do them whenever you want, wher-ever you want. At the end of the day you reveal the score to your partner and see who got more. Brilliant, I know. Choose another exercise the following day. Good vibes.

Just trust us on this one.

The annual BRC year-end party was a grand old time. The traditional 12 days of Christmas WOD went down like a home sick mole – thanks to all that came out and threw down. The post picnic

in Kirstenbosch was equally enjoyable and was a wonderful way to mark the end of another epic year of training. Thank you all for the continued support.

Another good reason to train through the holiday season is the fact that the annual CrossFit Games Open begins in the last week of February 2018. This is the biggest international Cross-Fit event of the year and a time when the CrossFit community from around the world joins to-gether to complete the 5 work-outs posted over a period of 5 weeks. If you have done it be-

fore, you will know what a good vibe it is…if you have never done it before, it is an awesome challenge and it is worth taking part in. There are divisions for scaled and RX athletes, so it is suited to everyone in the gym. We will be announcing more details in the New Year but in the interim, keep training hard and get ready!

Tip #4 – Get the training in early, the rest of the day is yours to play with…

Tip #6 – best way to cure a hangover is to exercise, not lie on the couch…

Tip #5 – Accumulate lesser amounts of exercise over the day, it all adds up…

OTHER NEWS AT BRC: Year-end party vibes:

2018 CrossFit Games open:


6

BRC 2017 Triathlon – What a success!BRC hosted our annual Charity Triathlon in October, there was a great turn out and a lot of support was shown from the CrossFit community and offices within Black River office park. This year’s event raised funds for Heartlands Baby Sanc-tuary, they do some awesome work and it is a charity we look forward to work-ing with in the future. Next year’s event should be bigger and better – so keep an ear to the ground for details of the 2018 Tri-Athlon. Thank you to Reebok for the support and for offering all the prizes.

We were super pleased to have plenty of BRC teams representing in local CrossFit competi-tions towards the end of 2017. Man, there were some tough physical and mental challenges in both competitions.

King of the mountain especially presented some extremely tough conditions mixed with challeng-ing programming. Competitions always result in everyone exceeding their own expectations and making the BRC family super proud.

BRC represents at King Of The Mountain

What impresses the coaches the most is the ability of our members to prioritise good movement patterns, even in competition. This is so important for us at BRC so well done to everyone who participated. It was also awe-some to see so much support from other members at BRC over the weekends of compe-tition – thanks for coming out and supporting the teams.

Entering a competition really is a terrific way to challenge yourself and it gives you a goal to train for – if you interested in doing a compe-tition in 2018, please chat to a coach and let us know, we can advise on which one is best suited for you. There really is a competition for everyone, so get involved!


7

FESTIVE SEASON CLASS SCHEDULE:

Thank you for being a part of the Black River Story in 2017. 2018 will be the 5th year anniversary of the box, and looking back we have come a long way and really do appreciate all the support from each member (both new and old). We hope you continue to train with us at Black River and become a part of the next era of the box. Have a blessed festive season and enjoy spending time with loved ones.

We are looking forward to lots of hard but fun training in 2018 – onwards and upwards!

Please take note of some changes to the class schedule for the December holiday period. We have prioritized keeping the gym open every day with fewer classes over closing the gym and so, outside of public holidays, you will have the opportunity to train every day! Coach Nic is taking some well-deserved leave for some time

during this period and so we have asked Brent Shield to assist us with some of our coaching. Brent is a seasoned CrossFit coach, with over 10 years’ experience, and an awesome guy. He has coached at Cape CrossFit as well as BMC which he founded.


8

BLACK RIVER CROSSFIT BROADCAST YOUR BUSINESS…We like to promote a community whereby we support one another in BRC where possible – below are some details of business ventures by our members. Have a look and make sure you support their ventures where you can!

Tell us about what your business does?

We are a Performance Apparel company that specialises in shorts for men specifically designed for Crossfit training.

What is the story behind it – when did you start it and how long have you been in operation for?

Dark was created to fill a gap in the market, quality shorts made local-ly, to meet the standards needed for Crossfit training but sold at an adorable price. The name of the company comes from that place we have all heard of but few have been. You need to go to that Dark place in order to achieve your goals and Dark Performance Apparel is that partner to go with you.

Are you confident about the future of South Africa?

Yes, we believe that exciting times are ahead and that this country is what you make it. It is important that we become part of the solution not merely complain about this situation and do nothing.

What makes you excited about the future of your business in this country?

The fact that our sport is community based and continues to grow means that as a brand we can be a part of that growth and kit out everyonwho believes that hard work pays off.

What are some of the major chal-lenges you face in your business?

Being able to maintain consistent turn over is always a challenge for any business but also the fluctuating rand can make things tricky. Being a small start up means you are on the grind 24/7, but we embrace the challenge and can’t wait to watch it grow.

Has CrossFit helped you in any way to be a better leader/ entrepre-neur/ employee?

Crossfit is our market so being able to be a part of it and connect with our customers is hugely important to us as a Brand and would not be around if Crossfit wasn’t here. Any special offers to the BRC community of members (Nudge nudge, wink wink)?

We would love to give the BRC community the oppor-tunity to get their hands on our shorts as easily as possible and so if you order directly from the box, you

will get the shorts for R600 over De-cember and Jan. but if you choose to order online then just enter the code “Christmas” and you will get 10% off your order.

Where can we find more details about your business – Facebook page, website, twitter, insta, post office, verimark?

www.darkpa.com

Insta: @darkperformanceapparelFacebook: /darkperformanceapparel

Dark Performance Apparel by Alan Foulis

Documents

BLAC RIVER CROSSFIT DECEBER 2017 THE PANTHER...BLAC RIVER CROSSFIT DECEBER 2017 3 CLASH IN THE NORTH REVIEW This year, BRC sent an all-male RX coaches team made up of Raun, Matt and