The 646 Weightlifting Grand Prix

The inaugural 646Weightlifting Grand Prix took place on July 9-10, 2016 at Crossfit Toronto. The 646 was a great event and there were a number of competitors who were first time lifters. 

Guelph Barbell member Tiffany Hinds competed in her 2nd weightlifting competition since taking up the sport. In fact, the women's 69 kg weight class was so large that they had their own session! Tiffany easily made weight and was pumped to test how far she had come since her last competition in November of 2015.

 

Tiffany opened her lifts at the 646 Grand Prix heavier than she had finished at her last event! After narrowly missing hitting the judges with her barbell on a missed snatch, Tiffany finished with a 136 kg total (57 kg snatch, 79 kg C&J).

The Big D & Marcy both competed in the same session. This was D's first competition since nationals in March and she improved on her previous performance by hitting a 25 kg snatch (which is just off of the Canadian record for her age division). She narrowly missed out on a 35 kg C&J - which would have been a new personal best, but had to settle for  33 kg C&J and a 58 kg total. 

Following 9 months of rehab after a shoulder injury, Marcy started out with relatively light lifts just to get back into the swing of things. Thankfully, the shoulder held up and Marcy was able to finish the competition with a 142 kg total (63 kg snatch, 79 kg C&J). No personal records were set but getting back on the platform and putting up a total was good first step towards getting back on the proverbial horse!

   

Jadon Hammill had also been out of competition mode for a number of months due to some nagging injuries. A few solid months of programming from coach Adrian had Jadon ready for action! Jadon finished with a nice round 200 kg total (93 kg snatch, 107 kg C&J). 

Overall, the 646 Weightlifting Grand Prix was a phenomenal event - the sponsors, organizing committee and hosts were great! We are looking forward to the next 646 event!  

Activism or Slack-tivism?

I'm probably going to piss a lot of people off with this post. And as Beyonce would say: "I ain't sorry"

Let me start with this - Just being educated about diseases isn't enough to make people healthier. Social media activism may "raise awareness" but there are few (if any) legitimate actions associated with sitting behind your computer and "sharing" a post.

A few years ago women were updating their status update with a color - nothing other than a color. Why? Apparently to raise awareness about breast cancer. How? I have no freaking clue. Last year, people were trying to show-up one another by posting increasingly obnoxious ways to get dunked by ice water - to raise awareness about ALS. This year, I have seen a horrifying trend of women posting photos of the underwear they are wearing to apparently "raise awareness about women's genital health". (Don't do a google image search of that one - EWW). And most recently, I have been challenged to do 22 push ups for 22 days to raise awareness about veteran suicide and PTSD.

These are just a few examples of the phenomenon of "raising awareness" for diseases. People continue to "raise awareness" of different health issues online without following this up with actions. What does awareness mean anyway, and what is supposed to come of people sharing photos, videos or bra colours? To me, these things feel very reminiscent of the 1990's chain letter phenomenon where you were threatened with years of bad luck if you didn't share the message with all your friends. Of all the recent "awareness campaigns" that I have seen, at least the ALS ice-bucket challenge involved donating money to fund ALS research. But that aside, everything else feels like a social media chain letter. "Share this if you care about _______".

To date, I have not participated in any of these social media challenges and I do not plan to. Why? Because I invest my time in energy in volunteering with the associations that I am a member of and donate funds to charities that are meaningful to me.

The 22 days of 22 push ups really bothers me. I'm not saying that the incidence of mental health issues among members of the Canadian Forces should be ignored. In fact, this is a very concerning issue that requires more resources and funding devoted to it. But sharing videos of myself doing push ups isn't going to change policy and it's certainly not going to make my veteran spouse feel like I care. In fact, my spouse is sick of being judged as being broken and damaged because of being a member of the CF but that's another issue entirely.  

There is nothing wrong with awareness - but it would be more beneficial if social media awareness campaigns were followed up with real actions. Awareness may be a first step towards changing behaviour but just being educated about diseases isn't enough to make people healthier. Perhaps "sharing" things online makes people feel like they are helping. But if this generation of social media warriors tried donating time, energy and/or funds to these issues, maybe actions would do more for these causes than just raising awareness.

So forgive me for not going online and saying: "Hey motherfuckers, look at what I'm doing"!! while posting the color of my bra, a photo of my underwear or videos of myself getting dunked with a bucket of water or doing push ups. I'll stick to continuing with the actions that I currently engage in to try and influence what I can.