crossfit batteraof

YOGA-MOBILITY

Hello Batteroaven,

We would 🖤 to inform you about our new class Yoga-Mobility.

The name Yoga sometimes evokes crooked toes, but unknown is unloved.

Yoga involves more than just moving with a spiritual touch. Almost all mobility, stretching and gymnastic exercises originate from a 5000+ year old science of body and mind.

Within Batteroaf we will offer and develop a Yoga-Mobility form to improve your mobility, flexibility, balance, body awareness and mindset.

Body awareness is crucial for a CrossFitter, often we only become aware of our body when a problem or injury occurs. And by body we mean the skeletal structure, the muscular system, diaphragm and breath, organs and your mental and emotional state. Increasing attention to the details in movement and how breath naturally supports movement make you gain more control over your movements. This increases the balance and flexibility.

Why is flexibility important, put simply; strength exercises shorten the muscles and the flexibility decreases. For a CrossFitter it is crucial to maintain the balance between strength and flexibility because you are an all-round athlete and the gymnastic exercises require mobility of your muscles and skeleton.

To support those muscles and provide them with oxygenated blood, breath is important. Functional Breathing is one of the most underestimated elements in sports and our daily life. You cannot breathe incorrectly, your breathing is an indicator of your condition. So if you are tense, or your mindset is pessimistic or you are not there with your attention, it will immediately translate into your breathing pace and rhythm. So instead of breathing incorrectly or correctly, we speak of functional or non-functional breathing that also serves as an indicator of how you feel. In addition, with targeted breathing exercises, we are able to increase our lung volume and strengthen our diaphragm, it can help us regulate tension and increase mobility in the rib cage and back. This is a discipline that will not only support you in sport but also in your daily life.

From breath we automatically enter mindset, when we learn to read our breath, we become more aware of how we are doing. Your sports performance requires you to be aware of your body, you learn this by increasing your flexibility and working with the limitations you encounter in it. So do not push, wanting and ignoring your limitations, which only provokes resistance, but develops attention / awareness for where the space is in your body. A mindset or a different way of looking at performance is a crucial element in this. In our western thinking we are focused on action, result, perseverance. Great attitude, but that mindset is exactly what often gets in our way to bring your performance to a higher level. Because here comes mental stress and frustration.

Yoga-Mobility awareness increases your attention to neutral attention, observing, without purpose, intention, only perceiving both positive and negative sensations in body and mind. Your mind is also a muscle that you have to train, in CrossFit perhaps the most important one.

And finally we will pay attention to the usefulness of relaxation. Recovery processes can only take place at rest. You can’t refuel a car when it is driving. In addition to sleeping, conscious relaxation is an important element to make your own. Doing nothing is making sure that your muscles, organs, cells have the opportunity to put things in order. Doing nothing is not doing nothing.

Josepha and Monique, together with Richard and Marjan, have the intention to bring Yoga-Mobility to a higher level within Batteroaf.

Josepha and Monique will regularly go deeper into the functionality of Yoga-Mobility through Facebook posts. And we hope you take up this challenge and see you on Sunday 13.00-14.00

L1 TRAINER INTRODUCTION

Dear Batteraoven!

I have to disappoint you: I am not the gifted with Shakespearian writing as my fellow back-up babes! Ok, now we got that out of the way.

Let me introduce myself, I am Christophe aka Xophe! I am a proud Batteraof since January 2015 and just been Batteraoffed a bit more as back-up babe.

On a personal note:
· Residence: Maaseik, Belgium
· Date of Birth: some time when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were leading the charts, singing “I Love Rock ‘n Roll”
· Work: I am a constructional engineer, have a great passion for sewage technology and water treatment. So in 2012 I founded Cofrax. At Cofrax we specialise in all things concerning sewage and water. For now we mainly work in Belgium, but somewhere this year we also hope to cross some borders…
· Sport: this has always been a big part of my life. I spent most of my youth on a tennis court, in college I also did a lot of skeelering and cycling. You could also find me at the local gym, chasing “tha pump”.
· CrossFit: My fascination started late 2013, after seeing a youtube video of Chris Spealler and Heather Bergeron. So you can imagine my excitement when Marjan and Richard opened up Batteroaf! Ever since then I have tried to work hard in – and outside of the box to become a better person and athlete.

Backing up @ Batteroaf:
I am thankful for the opportunity to now share the (little) knowledge I have and passion with you guys. I have a thirst for knowledge if I am passionate about something, so I followed the L1-course as well as some other courses. Other than the courses I followed, I don’t really have any coaching experience. I can only promise to give my all when I am in front of a class and try to infect you with some of my energy while we all work to be better than yesterday.

Most nights you can find me at the box, so if there’s anything else you want to know à holla at me!

Xophe

L1 TRAINER INTRODUCTION

As the box is expanding in members so is the Batteraof crew to help you reach your fitness goals! We would like to introduce to you one of our four new Level 1 Assistant Trainers.


Hi guys,
For the ones that don’t know me yet, I am Myrthe, recently promoted to back-up babe @ Batteraof (and proud of it!).

Let’s first get some facts straight:
CrossFit addict since 3 years
• Sports fanatic since… like ever
• Business Controller in my day to day job
• A little high in energy (my nickname is "stuiterbal")
• Love to coach and help people get better, stronger, faster and reach their goals (was already doing that quite some years before I joined Batteraof)
• Really bad at remembering names… so, sorry for that already

So, what about me in general…
I’m working my way up to becoming a master… getting closer and closer at almost 34 years old… omg, don’t want to talk about that.

I live in Maastricht (Malberg) with my cute ass boyfriend Peter (who I am still trying to get into CrossFit) and some animals. Next to my day to day job, I don’t really have a lot of time for any other hobbies than training, because that is what I do on a daily base – not always CrossFit, I also like Thai boxing a lot (been doing that for 15 years almost), Krav Maga and recently started MMA. I really like fighting…

When I have some spare time (in the weekends) I love to see my family… especially play with my sisters kids, they are so cute!

Before I started CrossFit I worked as a functional trainer for some years, really liked the coaching, really missed the challenge… so CrossFit was EXACTLY what I need!! Challenge, competition and a great community! Got my Level 1 a few years ago.

“Only” back-up because as much as I like coaching, it is too much of a burden for me next to my regular job and private life (and I don’t want to mess up my own training either). So this way I get the best of both, I can proceed my own training, but also still get to do some coaching…

My goals for next year are...
Attacking my weaknesses (yes, I do have some)…
Running and just about all my gymnastic movements need to get to the next level!

If you want to know more about me, just ask me at the box!

Cheers,
Myrthe

BEYOND THE WHITEBOARD: LOGGING YOUR WODS

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas present and playing around with Beyond the Whiteboard for the last 3 weeks! Let me explain some basics and go over how you log your workouts and you scaling results on Beyond the Whiteboard. It's crucial that you're putting in exactly what you did during the WODs, the more comprehensive and accurate the information you put in, the better it can help you (and us coaches!) track your progress.

Let’s get started!
• Log in to your Beyond the Whiteboard account either on your phone or desktop.
• Once you've logged in, your profile with your training calendar should come up. Click on 'Log' in the sub-menu on the upper left of your computer screen or the bottom of your phone screen (iPhone)
• From here, select 'Your Gym's WODs'. This will bring up all of the WODs that we have done at CrossFit Batteraof

NB: we have 4 different programming tracks. Box WODs / Powerlifting / Weightlifting / Gymnastics. Be sure you are looking at the correct track when you go to log your WOD!

One of the best things about CrossFit is it's universal scalability. We can modify the movements so to suit anyone's capabilities. This means that rarely all of you will be doing the exact same movements or weights in a class, so it is important that we account for that in Beyond the Whiteboard.

Let's say that you did this WOD in 7:05. The Rx weight was 45kg, but you scaled to 40kg. To log your results, you click on 'Log Result', which then brings up the workout. First, you need to adjust the weight that you used from 45 to 40 kg, press save, type in your time and click 'Modified' since it was scaled (if you used 45 kg, you would click 'As Prescribed'). The notes section can be used to point out anything that you noticed during the workout that you'd like to remember).

Now, let's say you need to scale a movement, instead of just a weight, i.e. ring rows instead of pull-ups, singles in place of double unders,  what do you do then? 
Bring up the WOD on your profile, click show more, and then click on the movement you want to adjust. Click in the 'Find Movement' search box and type in whatever movement you did for the workout. Click save, put in your rounds, mark it down as 'Modified' and you're good to go!

When logging a result, you'll have the option of choosing between "prescribed" or "modified". Your selection is important to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of our leaderboards and rankings.

OCTOBER CHALLENGE

No Stress Bench Press September is over and we got a very obvious challenge winner in the men's category and a not so obvious winner in women's.
In the men's category Remco E. won with +50kg.
In the women's category Rosalie S. won with +7.5kg.
Come and get (order) a Batteraof t-shirt at the box.


OCTOBER CHALLENGE

This month we got a great challenge for all of you! You can choose between A. As many toes to bar as possible in 1 min or B. As many UNBROKEN Toes-To-Bar as possible. You have to choose between A. or B. Male and female are in the same category.

Toes-To-Bar (TTB) is a movement that is designed to test your abdominal and arm strength as well as your grip strength.
The movement is simple enough; Start in the hanging position on the bar with the heels starting behind the vertical plane. You then get both toes to touch the bar at the same time in between your hands.
Get a judge to count your reps and/or time your minute.
You can do strict or kipping TTB.
Rest while hanging on the bar (without letting go) is still considered unbroken.

Cannot do a TTB yet? Practice Toes-To-Rings! And who knows you get your first TTB this month!

Happy TTB'ing

SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE

The August Challenge ended in an epic battle between Danielle and Juan fighting for the best FRAN time. Juan won with 2 min and 58sec beating Danielle with just 41 seconds.
Jeroen caused some confusion during the challenge with his INVISIBLE FRAN time of 1min and 57 sec. but he unfortunately could not get the same FRAN time with 43kg on his bar...

The SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE is a completely different Powerlifting beast. No high intensity workout but pure raw power! 1 rep max BENCH PRESS minus your bodyweight.
Some rules:
• Stand on the scale just before or just after you do the challenge and take your shoes off but keep your clothes on!
• Keep your butt and head on the bench
• Touch your chest with the bar
• Full extension at the top in the beginning and end of the press
• No help. When you cannot lift the bar make sure you have a spotting buddy
• Yes your score can be in the minus, just lift more weight!
We got 2 categories this month, male and female.

NO STRESS BENCH PRESS!