2024 Empower Awards Gala and Premiere Screening

2024 Empower Awards Gala
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdDTo9nITg4

Thank you to the Empower members and guests who joined us at the Dunbar Theatre Saturday for

Big thanks to Dunbar Theatre for hosting us and to Shades and her events team for organizing and executing another amazing Empower function!  From red carpet to balloons to catering to photography, they made sure everything ran smoothly.  Thank you Shades, Savitar, OG, Silk and Hardrock!

We would also like to thank our event sponsors Pallucci Furniture and Simpatico Restaurant , who like Empower, are small locally owned businesses.  As they have contributed generously to our community we hope that next time you are in the market for furniture or a great place to eat out, that you will consider giving them your business.

84 Empower members showed up to celebrate with us.  For those of you who could not be there to celebrate with us, this blog is for you:

Attendance Awards
As most of you know, the secret to results in any endeavour is consistency.  With that in mind we began our awards ceremony by recognizing members who have demonstrated outstanding consistency in their group class participation starting with members who have completed 500+ Empower classes.  Congratulations to the newest members of our 500 club:

Klassy

Bobo

The Assassin

MK

Spartan

Divinus

Organa

Cypher

Swan

Shaft

Congratulations on your hard work and consistency!

Next we recognized Empower members who have exceeded 1000+ Empower classes:

AV

Electric

Big Cat

Jedi

Rockstar

Mr. Fantastic

Think of it.  1000 classes!  That is amazing!  Congratulations.

Finally, we presented awards to Empower members who have exceeded Zen Planner’s tracking capacity by logging over 2000+ classes!

Shine

Smash

HHH

Hardrock

These four now join Shades, Motor and Dauntless in our select group of members with unrivalled attendance!

Unstoppable Awards
And speaking of consistency, each year at Empower we issue the Unstoppable Challenge inspired by superstar member Fierce and her unstoppable feat of 2019.  This challenge requires participants to attend no less than 20 Empower group classes per month for all 12 months of the year.

In 2023 we had 5 Empower athletes earn the designation of Unstoppable through their hard work and dedication.

Completing his 2nd consecutive Unstoppable year: The Assassin

Back for a fourth year after earning their Unstoppable Hat Tricks in 2023: HHH, Shades, Smash

And in her third consecutive Unstoppable year, earning the coveted Hat Trick: KMT!

Congratulations to these athletes for overcoming everything life has thrown their way in order to remain totally committed to their health and fitness in 2023!

5 Year Empower Members
Continuing on the theme of consistency, we next recognized the dedication of members who have completed 5 years at Empower.  From our class of 2018:

Whisper

Methodman

Radar

Badger

Jedi

Swan

10 Year Empower Legends
At Empower we are playing the long game and we celebrate athletes who embrace fitness as a lifelong journey.  When you enter your 10th year of training at Empower, you achieve Legend status and your picture is hung on our gym walls as an inspiration and an example to our membership.

This year we inducted the following Empower Legends to our wall of fame:

Class of 2009: Big Boss

Class of 2013: Skipper

Class of 2014:

Big Cat

Hardrock

HHH

FeProf

Motor

Doc Disc

Peril

Dangers

Magnum

MK

Mr. Fantastic

Shades

WinterFit Challenge
As you already know, nutrition plays a pivotal role in optimizing your health and fitness.  To that end, Empower’s nutrition coach Shades has run several successful nutrition challenges leveraging the power of our InBody scanner to precisely measure changes in muscle mass and body fat.

This month we wrapped our first nutrition challenge of the year and Coach Shades presented the award for our 2024 Winter Fit Champion to 5-0!

Great work!

Intramural Champions
The CrossFit Games is an annual competition to find the fittest person alive.  The first stage of competition is the Crossfit Open which, with well over 300,000 participants, is the largest sporting event by participation in human history.

This year Empower had 49 athletes compete in the 2024 CrossFit Open with 9 placing in the top 25% worldwide and advancing to the Quarterfinals.

But just as important as athletic excellence is the spirit of fun and community that competition provides and at Empower we celebrate the CrossFit Open with our Intramural Team competition with teams scored on the fun, colour, enthusiasm and creativity they bring to each week of Open competition. 

If you have not witnessed the joy of an Empower Intramural event before, you will soon get a peek in our documentary Celebrating Heroes.

This year 4 amazing teams participated in a very close and competitive Intramural season, each team bringing amazing energy to the 2024 season.

A huge thank you to the folks who made this year’s Friday Night Lights and Intramural Team competition a resounding success:

Coaches Motor and Shades took on the big task of organizing and running our 2024 Empower Friday Night Lights and the Intramural Team competition.  Thank you coaches!

Our intrepid Intramural Team Captains played a critical role in organizing their teams and bringing fantastic energy every week making 2024’s competition very fun and close: DT, Spice, Doc Disc, McBeal.  Thank you amazing team captains!

Intramural Team Champions
It was a close battle but when all the scores were tallied, one team had edged out the competition.  This year Spice became only the second Empower team captain to win the championship twice.  Congratulations to her 2024 Empower Intramural Championship team: Chalk Dirty to Me!

Spirit of the Open
The Spirit of the Open is Empower’s most prestigious award.  It is presented to the Empower member who best exemplifies Empower’s community spirit whether through the support they give other members, the positive energy they bring to our community or the effort they put into their performance.  The Spirit of the Open winner is based on the votes of our members.

Our past Spirit of the Open winners are:.

Motor

Dangers

HHH

Silk

Steel

PomPom

Sprite

Fierce

DT

Shades

Doc Disc

Enigma

In 2024 the following Empower members earned Spirit of the Open nominations for the amazing energy they brought to our community:

Pepper - Has dedicated all her time and energy to be part of the Open and her team this year.   She has also successfully encouraged her family to be a part of the Open.  She has told me 100 times how important and fun this has been for her.   She really focused the past year on being ready to compete and help her team, even before the teams were chosen.  

DT - Exemplifies the Spirit of the Open - and the Spirit of Empower - all year round. She is quick to celebrate others’ success, always welcoming to new members and persistent in her pursuit of health and wellness. This year, she stepped up to captain an intramural team and helped to rally her Beyonslays through a slow start to become real contenders! She was in the gym for Friday Night Lights and back judging members of her team on Saturday mornings. 

Spice - Has been a huge source of spirit this open. She captained a very spirited (and slightly raunchy) intramural team to a well deserved victory. She was always around during Friday night lights encouraging and cheering people on. Of course she also led charge to gather at The Legion for Friday night post competition celebrations. But don’t let all the cheer and good spirit fool you — she is also a fierce competitor and finished in the top 20% worldwide in her division. 

Thorn - She surprised herself in lifting the heavy thrusters of 24.3 and she gave her all in the workout right to the end.  It was so inspiring to watch.  

Zed - He was the last person going in the last heat of 24.1.  You could tell he just wanted to give up in that last minute, but then everyone started clapping and cheering and then he just put his head down and raced through those final burpees giving it his all.  

Shades - She worked tirelessly to create an amazing experience for all who participated. The heats ran smoothly, everyone knew what to do and she orchestrated everything with a huge smile on her face. Music and lights and awesome decorations, she made it all happen. I was just so appreciative of all of her hard work.

Our 2024 runner up with the second most nominations:

McBeal

• Not only did she put in some impressive athletic performances with some great personal bests, she embodied the spirit of the open from Day 1. She signed up for the open, volunteered to be featured on our documentary AND to be an intramural team captain all without ever having done the open before. She was an exceptional team captain keeping her merry band up to date with information and bringing the fun and joy that the intramural team competition is all about. I swear, if you look up 'Spirit of the Open' in the dictionary there would just be a picture of McBeal!

• She said yes yes yes before even knowing what the open was. She hyped up her team and brought in important people from her life to enjoy the community and spirit. Not  to mention rxing every workout in her first open.
  

  

  
  And, our 2024 Empower Spirit of the Open winner:

• Every Friday night lights she jumped in to be a judge to anyone and everyone who needed it. She is always warm and excited and radiates that warmth. I am not often in group classes with her but her energy during Friday Night lights was uplifting! 

• I don’t know if anyone judged more athletes. She is always a bundle of energy and joy. So glad she stepped up for her first open.

• She was so enthusiastic! She was very encouraging to everyone and went out of her way to come in to judge numerous people even when she wasn’t in class at that time. Her joy was absolutely contagious and I really enjoyed getting to know her a little more :)

• This was her first Empower Open, and true to form, she was running full throttle straight out of the gates. Her infectious energy kept our team going, and smiling, too!  She committed to each weekly challenge and dedicated her days to stalking members at the gym to complete our contact list, then stalking the iDance studio to secure our rehearsal time. 

• She showed up and sparkled her enthusiasm everywhere.  She judged for athletes on all teams at all hours, and she encouraged and empowered athletes before, during and after workouts.  Knowing she’d perform better in 24.2 without her team costume weighing her down, she still chose team spirit over personal performance, and killed the workout anyway, in full Beyonslay gear.  

• From not letting Mustang disappear with his back injury to showing up day to day to support, encourage and empower fellow athletes, to sporting all the Beyonslay-spirit she could find, she was the epitome of the Spirit of the Open. If only we could bottle her energy, we could rule the world!

Congratulations to Empower’s 2024 Spirit of the Open winner: Viper!

We are very clear that our winners and nominees past and present are the heart and soul of our community and the energy they bring is the reason why Empower is such an amazing place to train!  We thank you all for your love and awesomeness!

Celebrating Heroes
This year we followed the training progress of Empower members competing in the 2024 CrossFit Open in order to tell their stories.  The road to competition is filled with obstacles, setbacks, disappointment and heartbreak but there are also triumphs of the spirit, breakthroughs, friendship and love.

We set out to capture as much of this as we could. 

The following Empower athletes volunteered for this documentary:

Jedi

The Force

DT

Sable

Spice

Timberwolf

Doc Disc

McBeal

Organa

Shades

Pebbles

The Touch

Spartan

Maxim

Pepper

Ironman

Electric

It is our pleasure to invite you to join our athlete’s journey to the 2024 CrossFit Open featured here in Empower’s first ever documentary film Celebrating Heroes:

https://vimeo.com/933391501?share=copy

Thank you to the Empower members who volunteered to participate in this documentary and to the Empower team members who diligently captured their training and competition footage!

But it is our producer who deserves the biggest credit because her task was truly heroic!

For many years we have dreamed of creating this documentary.  Last fall I sat down with Coach Savitar and pitched my vision and after a moment’s consideration she said “Yeah, OK!”

And from then on it was out of my hands and into her much more capable hands. Our team helped capture footage for her but from start to finish all the hard work was hers.  You cannot imagine the long hours of editing that went into creating this documentary and to be honest, neither can I because it was all Savitar. 

Today, she is the real hero!

The Awards Gala and Screening were a huge success.  And I received a lot of credit despite having done little of the work.  Savitar did the heavy lifting supported by Shades’ events team.  I put on a nice shirt and jacket, showed up, shook some hands, gave out hugs and said a few words.  But it was our amazing team that is owed the credit for this win.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Monday
We will be running today’s workout in two heats with partners counting for one another.  Randy is supposed to be completed quickly.  Pick a weight that allows you to complete at least ten snatches per minute.

Warm Up
1 min each:
Shoulder Pass Throughs
Romanian Deadlifts
Bradford Presses

Tech
1 min each:
Hang muscle snatch
Hang power snatch
Power snatch

WOD
Randy
75 Snatches