We love seeing our athletes’ transformations.  Jeremy has been doing our and his before & after photos really show his progress.

Here is what he had to say about our online training program:

“I couldn’t be happier with the results I got from the 12-week athlete development program. Coming from a hockey background I wanted something similar to the training I used to do back in the day, and I found it with that program. It was the perfect starting program for me to get back into the physical shape I had been after.

I would recommend it to anyone, even without a sports background because I am overall looking better and feeling 10x stronger. I believe it would be a great program for anyone, especially an individual looking to get back into the routine

Thank you. Can’t wait to continue to use your programs to keep leveling up!”

Interested in trying out the program yourself? Check it out

The post TRANSFORMATIONS – Jeremy | 12 Week Online Athlete Development Program appeared first on Yard Athletics.

We are back with another 20 questions post. Let’s get to know our newest coach a little bit better!

1) Hometown?

This one is tough to answer since I never lived in one spot for more than a few years at a time. I was born in London, England and grew up in Istanbul, Toronto, and Paducah, Kentucky. 

2) How did you first hear about Yard?

When I first moved to Vancouver, I connected with Reece aka @whiskeymuse on Instagram and she told me about this new, awesome gym. I came in for a class and loved it!

3) What was your first experience with Yard?

Not going to lie, I felt intimidated. I’m used to dropping into new Crossfit gyms when traveling and I’ve been a competitive powerlifting athlete for years but somehow coming into this space was kind of scary! That quickly changed and I felt right at home!

4) Favorite lift?

I tend to favor things I’m good at, so toss-up between deadlift and back squat.

5) Least favorite exercise? 

I avoid things I’m not good at! Rowing, especially as a short person is really difficult for me and I just avoid it!

6) How do you stay motivated?

I lean more towards discipline than motivation. Motivation comes and goes but discipline gives you structure and a reason to show up even when you don’t feel like it. I also set goals for myself that are outside of “be healthy.” Competing is one of them. I don’t want to step out on the platform and embarrass myself so I show up for my training sessions even when I don’t want to. 

7) Best advice you received? 

The first step is always the hardest, just get started. 

8) Worst advice?

Don’t lift too heavy, you’ll look like a man. 

9) Your favorite part about Yard?

The community! It’s more than a gym. The clients and the coaches, all make you feel like a part of the team. 

10) Top 3 songs in your gym playlist?

Left Behind – Slipknot 

Scars- IPrevail 

X Going’ Give it To Ya- DMX  probably the only time I listen to DMX is at the gym 

11) Go to post-workout meal?

Cheeseburger and a beer.

12) How did you start your fitness journey?

I played sports growing up and in grade 11 my high school had a weight lifting class, which I took and fell in love with. Unfortunately, I listened to the worst advice I received and quit lifting weights because I thought I would look like a man. In University, I went to the gym and even got a trainer but I just couldn’t make it a part of my lifestyle. In 2014 I joined a Crossfit gym which then introduced me to the world of Powerlifting and I was hooked. I competed in my first meet in 2015 in San Diego, and qualified and competed in Nationals. 

13) How would you describe the Yard environment? 

It doesn’t matter who you are outside of the gym, you are welcomed at Yard. It feels like a badass community that wants to be the best version of itself. Back to basics training, no crazy movements, just solid training. 

14) The last book you read?

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Currently reading Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

15) Advice for someone coming to train with you for the first time?

We’re going to have fun but train hard. 

16) What are you doing when you’re not at the Yard? 

Pre-Covid I would take any chance to travel whether it was short road trips or going abroad. Having moved to Vancouver during the pandemic, I’ve been trying to explore within the city and surrounding areas. I love checking out new breweries, hiking, traveling.

17) Advice for someone who is starting out their fitness journey?

Everyone is so focused on themselves, no one is looking at you or judging you. If you can, invest in a personal trainer that will teach you proper technique and push you. 

18) What’s in your gym bag?

Lifting belt, shoes (Metcons & Romaleos) deodorant, dry shampoo, and a snack. Always a snack haha. 

19) Are you a morning person?

I am. I haven’t always been but I do enjoy getting an early start on my day. 

20) What’s your morning routine?

I used to be the person to roll out of bed after snoozing far too many times and feel anxious the whole day. Now I have a pretty set routine that makes me slow down and start the day right. I love taking my cup of coffee back to bed and reading. Then I’ll take my dog Duke out for a walk, come back home do my skincare routine, get dressed, and go on with my day. I have never been a fan of eating breakfast so I’m glad the popularity of intermittent fasting is making that seem less weird now. Eventhough I consider myself a morning person I don’t love working out in the morning, mid-day/early evening works best for me.

The post 20 QUESTIONS WITH COACH MELIS appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Yard Athletics – Nov 1st, 2019

Heads up to all our Yard Athletics community. As of today there have been some adjustments to the pricing for Group Training, as well as Customized Strength & Conditioning 1:1 and 2:1 packages.

Please take a look below and familiarize yourself with the new pricing. If you have any questions, feel free to email “info@yardathletics.ca”

See you in the gym! #YARDHARD

Athletic Group Training

Customized Strength & Conditioning

The post Price Adjustments For Groups, 1:1, 2:1 appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – Oct 25th, 2019

Ragu Bolognese, the slow cooked meat sauce typical of the city of Bologna, served often but not always with tagliatelle egg noodles, is well loved the world over. However, if you want to start a quick argument, try asking four Italian Nonna’s the “correct” way to make it. Questions like this are almost guaranteed to end in shouting, dramatic hand gestures, and hurt feelings.

Below is the version I like to cook, which I think would stand up nicely in any trattoria across Emilia-Romagna, and hopefully not offend too many grandmother’s. I’ve eaten ragu from Parma to Modena and this tastes just as good, if not better, so take that for what it’s worth…

There’s lots of debate around ragu Bolognese (milk, tomato, type of meat(s)). This version uses some milk, a little white wine, 3 different types of meat (sausage, beef, lamb) and a small spoon of tomato paste. If you want to add or subtract any of those, go right ahead.

Buon appetito!

Ragu Bolognese

• 6 Italian fennel sausages, uncased
• 250g ground beef
• 500g boneless stewing lamb, cut into tiny pieces
• 1 bottle dry white wine (Cono Sur Viognier is cheap and good for cooking)
• 500ml 2% milk
• 1/2 can tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground Coriander seeds
• 1 Nutmeg seed
• 1 large white onion, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, finely diced
• 2 sticks celery, finely diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Butter
• Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (for serving)

In a big pot, heat some olive oil and butter to melt, then add the carrot, celery, onion and garlic and begin to cook. Cook for 20 minutes slowly, making sure not to let the vegetables brown.

Add all the meats, season with salt and pepper, and start breaking up with a spatula or wooden spoon. This takes a while, you don’t want any big chunks of meat. Everything should be very finely broken up, so take the time to make sure it’s nice and broken up.

Ragu Bolognese in waiting…

Turn the heat up and continue cooking. Add the bay leaves, coriander, and finely grate in half the Nutmeg seed. Now, this stage takes a while… like an hour. All the water will start releasing from the meat, and following that just the fat will be left, at which point you will keep stirring and cooking the meat until it start to brown. If the bottom of the pan seems too dry, add more butter and olive oil. If there’s not enough fat the meat will scorch to the bottom of the pan, ruining the sauce. Fat is your friend…

After ~1 hour, the meat should be starting to brown nicely. Add the tomato paste and start to fry it in the fat left in the pan. Keep stirring to caramalize all the meat in the tomato paste.

Then, add some white wine to deglaze the pan (~250 – 350ml), scraping everything off the bottom of the pot. Start with about 1/2 bottle of the wine, but use more if it seems too dry. Cook until almost all the wine has evaporated.

Then, add some milk (250 – 500ml) until the sauce looks quite loose, but not too watery. It should be reddy brown, like a brick. Lower the heat, cover with a lid, and allow to cook for an hour. After an hour, check the seasoning. Because you’re probably going to be eating this sauce with some sort of grain (pasta, risotto, polenta) you want it to be richly flavored and well seasoned. Season with salt and pepper.

If serving with pasta, add some of the ragu to a different pan and put on medium heat. Cook your pasta until 1 minute under package instructions, then toss the pasta in the ragu pan and cook for a final minute together. Toss in grated parmigiano reggiano and serve.

The post RECIPE – Ragu Bolognese appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – Sept 20th, 2019

Positive thinking is more than just a catch phrase. Often times we doubt ourselves and our abilities, and we give up before we’ve really, truly pushed ourselves, or before we’ve exercised all potential options in front of us to achieve a goal. Whether this is at work, at home or at play, having a particular mindset established when you hope to complete a goal is a huge factor in whether you do it or not.

I’ll give a personal example: in the last 12 months I’ve been training every week with Ilan, Shawzo (and occasionally the godfather, Jeremy Martin @ Loaded Athletics) learning the ropes of olympic weightlifting. Outside of my 10+ years playing rugby, olympic weightlifting is the hardest physical activity I’ve ever done. Not only is it physically demanding, it is incredibly mentally demanding. For each lift (i.e. clean and jerk) you are working within a small threshold of the maximum weight you can physically lift, all the while thinking about correct form, posture, and above all else, trying not to drop 100kgs on your head.

Countless times Ilan or Shawzo has loaded the bar with a heavy amount of weight, and I fail. Usually, it’s because there was a creeping sense of doubt in my mind that I couldn’t do it. But, more often than not I will try again, and once I’ve taken a moment to regroup – perhaps also getting some encouraging words – I will eventually make the lift. I didn’t get stronger in between each lift, I just had to focus, think through everything, and trust that I could do it.

The power of positive thinking can transfer to any aspect of life, but is particularly interesting with physical pursuits. After all, professional athletes constantly rely on sports psychologists to help them get in a strong head space before a game or competition. Self doubt can be one of the most negative influences on an athlete, whereas positive thinking and visualization of winning can be the most powerful.

Below is an article about the Canadian World Junior Team, and the sport psychologist who worked with the team the entire tournament enroute to their Gold Medal win.

CBC: “How the mental skills needed to win hockey gold are used for all athletes”

We were also lucky enough to receive a great piece on the Power of Positive Belief (and the inspiration for this blog) by longtime Yard Athletics client and resident psychologist, Dr. Debbie Samsom. Debbie is running a marathon in a few weeks, and felt inspired to pen the below from her longtime hero, Terry Fox, whose annual run we celebrated on Sept 15th, 2019.

“The Terry Fox Run is happening all over the world this Sunday. This run has been an annual event since 1981, the year Terry died. That 1981 run was the first 10K I ever completed. I have been running ever since.

Terry is my hero. Every year as the Terry Fox Run approaches, I reflect upon his incredible fortitude, grit, and indomitable spirit. He ran a marathon a day for 143 days, with a prosthetic leg and in constant pain. He only stopped when cancer spread to his lungs, ultimately resulting in his death. How did he do it?  He achieved this because he believed he could. Simple as that. Belief is the most powerful tool that we have to help us accomplish our goals – physical or otherwise. 

I am running a marathon in a couple of weeks. I know it’s going to hurt (it always does). I know that with about 10K to go, negative thoughts will start entering my brain, telling me to stop running (Who cares if I walk? Why continue to suffer? ) I will fight these thoughts, and Terry will help me. It’s just one measly marathon. If Terry can do 143, I CAN DO THIS.  

So what do you believe you can achieve?  Not because it’s easy, or comes naturally to you, but because you are willing to dig deep and give it everything you’ve got.”  

“I just wish people would realize that anything is possible if you try; dreams are made possible if you try” – Terry Fox

The post The Power Of Belief appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Yard Athletics – Sept 6th, 2019

Yard Athletics is proud to announce the newest member of the team, Torin Nikiforuk, as Junior Strength & Conditioning Coach!

We couldn’t be happier to bring Torin into the fold, and look forward to him bringing a new energy and motivation to all sessions with the #YARDHARD squad.

Torin is now available on the MindBody app for all different sessions, and for a limited time all 1:1 sessions are 50% off! If you can, log onto the app and book a class with Torin to welcome him into the family.

We figured this would be a great chance to get to know Torin a little better, so we fired a couple questions at him to hear more about his fitness background on philosophy.

Hometown?

Fitness background?

What made you get into personal training?

Favorite sports growing up?

What is your fitness philosophy?

Favorite / worst exercise? 

What can people expect when they train with you at Yard Athletics?

The post Introducing Torin Nikiforuk! appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – Aug 13th, 2019

Don’t be alarmed! This might sound complicated and hard; it’s really not. It requires a little bit of time, so it’s great for a Friday / Saturday night when you can relax and prepare everything without being in a rush after work. But if you feel like whipping it up on a Tuesday, you do you…!

If you want to make the sauce without meat, you can just omit the lamb and cook everything else the same; it will still be delicious. You could also add chickpeas in place of the lamb.

The sauce recipe is also much more than you need to cook the zucchinis, so consider storing and freezing what you don’t use.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchinis in Spicy Lamb Sauce

• 500g ground lamb
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 serrano chile, chopped finely
• 500 ml bottle of pureed tomato
• 4 small zucchinis
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small package goat cheese at room temperature (easier to spread)
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1 bunch fresh mint leaves, chopped

Get the biggest frying / sautee pan you have and put on medium heat. Add some olive oil, then add the ground lamb and begin to cook. Break the lamb up with a spatula into very small pieces. Continue frying over high heat until the lamb starts to brown and fry.

Add the onion, garlic and serrano chili and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, as well as a healthy amount of salt and pepper. Continue cooking for a few minutes, then add the tomato puree. Lower the heat and cook for 30 minutes.

Cut the ends off the zucchinis, then slice in half lengthwise to give you two halves. Using a small spoon, scoop out the seeds to leave a nice little channel with which to fill with the goat cheese. Fill each half with goat cheese, using the whole package.

Remove some of the lamb sauce from the pan, leaving 1-2 cups worth. Check the seasoning for salt, then add a little more olive oil and a bit of water (you want it a little more watery to cook the zucchinis).

Turn on the broiler.

Add the zucchinis to the sauce, cheese side up, and allow to simmer on lower heat for a couple minutes. Stick the whole pan under the broiler until the cheese starts to brown.

Served with the chopped mint leaves over top.

The post RECIPE – Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchinis in Spicy Lamb Sauce appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – July 29th, 2019

Impossible to resist at happy hour, and until now (!) very hard to recreate at home. Not anymore!

Go the extra mile and make the blue cheese dip at home. It literally takes 30 seconds and tastes way way better than store bought.

Also, chicken wings are full of protein, and they’re not battered, so dare I say this is almost… healthy…?

Homemade Buffalo Wings w/ Blue Cheese Dip

• Chicken wings
• Olive Oil
• Hot Sauce of choice (Frank’s Red Hot Sauce being the classic)
• Butter
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Blue Cheese
• Mayonaise
• Black pepper
• Chives, finely chopped
• 1 lemon
• Plain Yogurt or Sour Cream
• Celery Sticks to serve

To make the wing sauce, melt some butter in a pot then add about 1/2 – 1 cup of hot sauce, depending how many wings you’re making. Add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and set side.

To make the blue cheese dip, crumble some blue cheese into a bowl, along with a little mayonnaise and yogurt. Mash with a fork and stir around until all is combined. Add some cracked black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, along with the chopped chives. Taste and adjust to your preferred consistency and seasoning.

Preheat your oven to 500F. Put the wings in a large bowl and coat with a little olive oil all over. The oil will help conduct the heat in the oven and crisp the skin up so they taste like they’ve been deep fried.

Spread the wings on a large baking sheet making sure the wings aren’t touching. If there’s too many, use two baking sheets otherwise they won’t crisp properly.

Stick in the oven and cook for 30 mins, but keep an eye on them. After 30 mins, take them out and have a look. Keep cooking until desired crispyness levels.

Once done, put the cooked wings in a clean bowl and pour over the sauce. Toss around to coat all the wings. Service with the dip and celery sticks.

The post RECIPE – Buffalo Wings w/ Blue Cheese Dip appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Yard Athletics – July 10th, 2019

#YARDWORK2019 is approaching faster than a cheetah on rollerblades. Registration is now almost 75% full, so we want to make sure everyone that’s planning to come is signed up with their team ASAP !

We’ve heard from lots of people saying they have a team together and will “sign up later this week”… if you can, please turn later this week into RIGHT NOW, and help us get things locked and loaded.

What do you need to do? It’s all very, very vvvvvvery simple.

STEP 1

Grab yourself and 3 friends

STEP 2

Sign-up >>>>> HERE <<<<<

STEP 3

Get ready to pull some chains, throw some medicine balls, listen to some music, eat some BBQ and maybe crush a few cold ones.

STEP 4

Give yourself a pat on the back, knowing that all proceeds of your team fees go towards KidSport BC, a foundation dedicated to making sure all kids have access to play team sports.

STEP 5

Get your outfit planned, start stretching, and be ready for July 20th morning at Thunderbird Stadium in UBC!

#YARDWORK2019

The post Are You Registered? appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Yard Athletics – June 26th, 2019

The time has come! Yard Athletics is pleased to officially go live with “Yard Work 2019” at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium, Saturday July 20th.

We are thrilled to once again partner with lululemon on this amazing day, with all proceeds going towards KidSport BC.

Below are all the details you’ll need, including a link to purchase tickets for your team on EventBrite. Sign up as soon as possible as teams completely sold out at Yard Work 1.0!

The post Yard Work 2019!! JULY 20TH @ UBC THUNDERBIRD STADIUM appeared first on Yard Athletics.