Empower Weekly WOD: Week Beginning September 29th 2025

Monday, September 29th 2025

5x 3-minute rounds of:
20 GHD Sit Ups
20 Hip Extensions
Max rep Front Squats @Bodyweight
3 min rest

Score = total front squats completed.

Let me start off by saying that more is not always better. For masters athletes, recovery is key. This being my 34th WOD in 34 days I opted to complete 3 of the 5 rounds favouring intensity over volume. This allowed me to hit each round hard and still walk away ready to perform the next day.

With only 3 minutes to work with, it was essential to get through the GHD sit ups and hip extensions in unbroken sets, a bit of a stretch but doable. Bodyweight for me means 205lbs. I squat cleaned the barbell competition style. It would be a mistake to finish the sit ups and hip extensions too early or to go too light on the front squats. More volume = more pain. I finished the first 2 movements with 1 minute remaining on the clock. I used 30 seconds to chalk and belt up and recover my equilibrium after all the explosive upside down movement leaving about 25 seconds for lifting. I scored 4, 4 and 5 lifts before time ran out and honestly would not have wanted many more reps. HeeHee went lighter and ended up in double digits for the squats and paid the price for it. In some workouts lighter is not easier!

With a 3-minute rest interval, splitting the class into heats A and B is straightforward with A going while B rests and vice versa. In classes with more than 6 people, however, it will still be impossible to get everyone through the GHD machine, so V-Ups and Good Mornings may be necessary substitutes.

Tuesday, September 30th 2025

5 Rounds:
15 Kettlebells Swings @2pood
15 Deficit Push Ups on 25lb plates
400m Run

Plane landed at YVR 8:30am. Last meal 10 hours earlier. 14 days since my last CrossFit workout. Rest assured, I took this one easy, just a way to loosen up my body after hours sitting cramped on an airplane. A chance to combat jetlag by exercising out in the sun. Took my 45lb kettlebell and rower out on the back deck and completed 3 rounds of 15 kettlebell swings, fingertip and knuckle push ups and 500m row. In truth, I had planned to do all the push ups on my fingertips but found this much harder than deficit push ups and much harder than I remembered. We used to do these all the time in Judo but that may have been back in my UBC days. I managed sets of 6 and 2 each round before my fingers hurt too much, and I finished off the set with 7 knuckle push ups.

The trick to surviving your post-holiday return to CrossFit is to ease your way back in.

Want to up your push up game? How about the no-hand push up?

Wednesday, October 1st 2025: Make Up Day

See Previous WODs

Thursday, October 2nd 2025

Randy
75 Snatches @75lbs

Not so long since we last did Randy, so you will have some current data on this one. I love to approach this type of workout as an EMOM. A couple years ago, I posted a personal best doing this one with the noon crew with 15 unbroken reps per minute for 5 rounds finishing at about 4:50. It left me on the floor wrecked for 15 minutes. This level of intensity is not sustainable physically or psychologically. If every workout left me crushed like this, I would quickly lose the will to go to the gym. I’d probably also suffer from tweaks or overuse injuries, fatigue, burn out, etc. Once in a while, it is good to remind yourself what it feels like to test your performance threshold, but too much intensity can be poison.

In the more recent Randy, I opted for a more measured 10 reps every minute for 6 rounds with 8 and 7 reps respectively in rounds 7 and 8 to finish at about 7:30. It was still hard. Hard enough that after the final set, I needed to go take a walk outside the cold, bracing morning air for a few minutes to cool off and get my breathing back under control. But it didn’t leave me crushed. In fact, after a few minutes recovery, I felt refreshed and energized for the day in fine form to come back and hit another WOD the next day. This is the sweet spot, the training stimulus we are seeking: intense but sustainably so.

Pick a weight that allows you to finish in under 10 minutes and get a friend to count your reps and keep you on task, it really helps. You want to be able to hold a pace of at least 8 reps per minute for the first 8 minutes (64 reps) so you can finish with sets of 6 and 5 in minutes 9 and 10.

Friday, October 3rd 2025

Tommy V
21/12-15/9-9/6
Thrusters @75/115lbs
Rope Climb

I like Tommy V because I love rope climbs. But this time, I got no love in return. I was sick and jet-lagged with a head cold made worse by two consecutive sleepless nights. Only 12 hours earlier, despite my poor condition, I tested a team chipper workout with my cousin and her boyfriend, who were in town visiting. Both are 20 years younger than me, and she is an elite rugby player. He was a varsity athlete not too long ago. They set a savage pace that totally wrecked me. The catch up pace both at work and in my personal life since our return has been relentless, and my body is struggling to keep up.

With the first Fight Fit class scheduled for the afternoon following Tommy V, I knew I was pushing an already tattered envelope. I dragged myself through the first round before realizing that to go any further would jeopardise my ability to do a second workout later the same day, so I opted for discretion. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

Saturday, October 4th 2025

Team WOD

Sunday, October 5th 2025: Make Up Day

1) Randy

2) Tommy V

3) Chipper:
1 mile Run
50 OHS @95/135lbs
100 GHD Sit Ups
150 DU
100 Box Jumps @20/24”
50 SDHP @95/135lbs