Fond Farewell
Thank you to everyone who joined us Saturday to say goodbye to Fierce & Menace and The Truth & Hufflepuff.  We gathered for a short fun EMOM and for the WOD we made The Truth and Fierce each wear their parting gifts, two personalized weight vests, because every Empower gift must be earned with a little bit of suffering.  And earn them they did!  We will miss them and their contribution to our community but if COVID taught us anything, it is that everyone is only one Zoom call away from visiting us for a workout from time to time!
  
Unstoppable 20 in 2021
Unshakable AND Unstoppable, May saw all our 20 in 2021 contenders hanging on strong to their training commitment with all 15 still on track to conquer the year with 20+ attendances last month.  At the end of June they will be halfway through.  Keep up the great work KMT, Silk, DT, Sprite, Hard Rock, Jedi, HHH, Smash, Shades, Gymkata, AV, Magnum, Shine, Dauntless and Venom!

Train for Your Vaccine
And speaking of consistency, Hawkeye wanted me to remind you how important regular exercise is.  We already knew that sedentary folks are 2.5 times more likely to die of COVID than active people but it appears exercise may help boost vaccine effectiveness.  So if you are going to get your shot and wondering if you should work out, the answer is yes!

Sultan’s Revenge Results
It was super fun this past week watching teams get after Event 21.1: Sultan’s Revenge.  Credit to Team 2 Young Chicks and an Old Dog for pioneering the winning strategy used by all week one’s top scoring teams.  Smash deserves full accolades for having the good sense to adopt and implement this strategy after it had been thoroughly explained to him several times by teammates DT & HHH. Great work Smash!

The Spice Girls implemented the same strategy so that Motor could get through the WOD without doing Turkish Get Ups on her injured knee.  

Team Bombaye used the strategy to showcase Mufasa’s prodigious strength as he swung a sketchy 95lb dumbbell.

Team Huey, Dewey & Louie with Rowdy zooming in from Vancouver Island took down 5am rivals Here For the Coffee (who artistically improvised their scoresheet – you can tell it is officual because it bears the Empower logo) with losers buying the winners coffee (and fritters?) at Breka.

Sandbaggers Inc. and the Aged and Marbled Beef Boyz, struggling to connect, decided to take a 33% penalty and complete the WOD short handed with only 2 members apiece.  Though they were given only 6:40 to work, both managed to post respectable scores that keep them in the running for the next two weeks of competition.

And Team Last Minute had never even met each other before jumping into the WOD! 

Third place team The I’m Peck-Able 3 proved you could score high even over Zoom as all three team members completed the WOD remotely.

Second place finishers, The Stampeders, did the whole thing outdoors on Fierce’s lawn claiming top spot for the Spring Chicken division.

In week one it was Team Onyx topping the overall leaderboard and the 40 is the New 20 age division with an outstanding score of 6560 demonstrating how effective it is when you combine brains and beauty!

Team 50 is the New 50 demonstrated that heavy weight wasn’t necessarily the key to victory as Shades and Quicksilver used lighter weights to rocket through the Turkish Get Ups claiming the win for the Hey, Kid Get Off My Lawn! division.

The Brody Bunch dominated the Diaper Division in week one.

And the I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up champs Snap, Crackle & Pop did what they needed to do to win their division though their judge nearly mistook their total score of 911 as a post-WOD distress call!   

Stats:
21 Teams completed week one’s challenge
Diaper Division: 3 teams
Spring Chickens: 4 teams
40 in the New 20: 8 teams
Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn: 6 teams
I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up: 1 team

Week One Sultan’s Revenge Leaderboard

Points Team Division 21.1 Judge
1 White Onyx 40 is the new 20 6560 Smash
2 Stampeders Spring Chickens 5900 HHH
3 The I’m-Peck-Able 3 Spring Chickens 5655 Derby
4 50 is the New 50 Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn 4950 Smash
5 Bombaye Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn 4615 Derby
6 Old Dog & 2 Young Chicks 40 is the new 20 4160 Motor
7 Sandbaggers Inc 40 is the new 20 3472 Motor
8 Huey, Dewey & Louie 40 is the new 20 3450 Yeti
9 Aged and Marbled Beef Boyz Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn 3450 Motor
10 5pm Old Guys 40 is the new 20 3290 The Finisher
11 Team Last Minute 40 is the new 20 3280 Pepper
12 The Brody Bunch Diaper Division 2820 Sprite
13 Here for the Coffee 40 is the new 20 2800 Crusher
14 Spice Girls Spring Chickens 2780 Smash
15 Not Fast Just Furious Spring Chickens 2275 Dauntless
16 Cross(mis)Fitters Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn 2060 Hawkeye
17 Doomsday Divas Diaper Division 2035 Shades
18 Like Fine Whine Hey Kid, Get Off My Lawn 1925 Venom
19 Fit, Buff & Ready 2B Tough Diaper Division 1480 Shades
20 Bats Out of Dumbhell 40 is the New 20 1225 Silk
21 Snap, Crackle, Pop I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up 911 WF


Empower COVID Games Event 21.2: Rope-A-Dope
Teams, brace yourself for this week’s challenge!
We have emailed the scorecard to only one member of your team.  Make sure you communicate and share information so all your team members know the workout and movement standards.  Also make sure your judge has a copy of the scoresheet and comes prepared.

Event 21.2: Rope-A-Dope
8 min AMRAP
20 DU or 100 Single Unders or 100 Side to side jumps over a marker (or step overs)
1 Rope Climb at 14’ or 10 Pull Ups (RX’d or band-assisted) or 10 Ring Rows
Continuous Plank Hold

One partner working at a time.  As many rounds & reps as possible.  Score = Total reps completed in 8 minutes.  All athletes must be at least 1 foot away from all equipment at the start of the timer.  Break the work up as you see fit.  You must lay down your skipping rope, or come fully off your rope/pull up bar (step out of your band) or rings before your partner can touch their equipment.  Unless from the same household, each team member must be in a different station.
– One partner must be holding a plank position for reps to count.  You may take turns holding the plank whenever you want but any reps performed when no plank is being held will not be counted.

Teams may not borrow gym equipment for use outside the gym, please use the equipment-free options instead.
Scoresheets must be submitted by email by 5pm Sunday June 13th.
In the event that one of your team members cannot participate, the other two may complete the workout with a 33% penalty.

Good luck and have fun!

Monday WOD
Another low intensity day, coaching will be available on Zoom and in the gym!

Warm Up
3 Rounds:
1 min Romanian Deadlifts
1 min Russian KB Swings

Tech
Paused Deadlifts

WOD 
Deadlift
5-3-3-1-1-1

And this is so true!  If strength sports were people: