by Henry Gould – Dec 2nd, 2020

If you’ve traveled through Mexico, you’ve likely seen the roadside stands of chickens cooking, either whole on a rotisserie or in pieces on a charcoal grill. They always look amazing, but sometimes it can be intimidating to order food you’re not familiar with, especially if you don’t speak the language.

The good news is Mexican “Roadside Chicken” is a secret many cooks have been happy to share, and is incredibly easy to make at home. Some recipes call for a complex marinade of lots of ingredients. Those are fine, but this is easier. It also leaves you time to make the quick green salsa in a mortar and pestle, or a blender.

Feel free to cook this on a barbecue, but be careful of flareups as the fat from the skin renders. Ideally you want a low and slow cooking time of about 40 minutes with lots of turning to ensure it cooks through completely without burning.

Serve the chicken on its own, over a salad, or with warm corn tortillas.

Mexican Roadside Chicken w/ Quick Green Salsa

• 8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on
• 1 tbsp smoked Spanish paprika
• 1 large pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• Sea salt
• Extra virgin olive oil
• For the salsa
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 5 serrano peppers
  • Sea salt
  • 1 pinch oregano
  • 2 limes
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 2 dried chile de arbol (optional)

Put the chicken in a large bowl and season generously all over with sea salt, making sure to sprinkle each piece. Drizzle with olive oil then add the cinnamon, cumin seeds and smoked paprika and toss to coat and combine. Allow to marinate for anywhere from 15 minutes to overnight.

Preheat your oven to 425F with a large roasting pan in the oven, which you will cook the chicken on. You want it to be hot when you put the chicken on it.

Once the oven is heated, take the pan out, drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and spread around so the whole surface is coated. Add the chicken thighs skin side DOWN, leaving some room between each piece. Put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the pan out and drain away some of the fat that has rendered or mop up with a paper towel. Turn the chicken over skin side up and put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes until the skin is crispy (but not black or burnt).

To make the salsa in a blender, chop the green onions and serrano peppers into pieces and add to the blender. Sprinkle with salt, oregano, the juice of the limes and the garlic cloves. Add a little water and blend until combined. Add more lime juice, salt, or water to get a nice salsa consistency. If you have chile’ de arbol on hand (who doesn’t???) add two of them to the finished salsa to soak and infuse.

To make the salsa in a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic cloves with salt and oregano until a paste. Then add the chopped serrano peppers (1/2 at a time) and pound until you make a paste. Then add the chopped green onions and pound again until consistent. Squeeze in the juice of the lime and some water if needed. Adjust the seasoning… it should be very spicy, salty and limey.

The post RECIPE – Mexican “Roadside Chicken” w/ Quick Green Salsa 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 17th, 2019

Since the early days of Yard Athletics (who remembers the text message group??) there has always been a strong relationship between Ilan Cumberbirch and lululemon. What started as lululemon’s Robson employees coming to train at Yard, blossomed into an amazing ambassadorship program that has helped support local fitness talent to grow and prosper in the Vancouver community.

lululemon has also been a proud sponsor of our Yardwork events, the most recent of which was at Thunderbird Stadium this summer. Without them none of it would have been possible, so any chance we get to say thank you is one we take!

We wanted to learn a bit more about the lululemon brand, so we put together a few questions for Christina Adamson, Assistant Store Manager from the Robson flagship store in Vancouver. Take a read below!

For someone who doesn’t know, tell us a bit about the lululemon brand?

lululemon was founded in Vancouver in 1998 as a yoga inspired technical athletic company. From the start the goal has been to create more than just quality gear for your sweaty endeavors; it’s been about connection and community. It’s been about the people: the people who work here, the people who come here, the people in our communities.

How does lululemon’s ambassadorship program work?

One of the things that we love about our Ambassador Program is that each partnership evolves in its own unique way. We work with each ambassador to create and define what being an ambassador means to them. That’s because our ambassadors come from all walks of life. They’re runners, trainers, athletes, yogis, entrepreneurs, artists, and creatives who share our core values. Our ambassadors are not just in partnership with the lululemon brand, they are an extension of our brand. They represent lululemon in their community in a way that is authentic to them.

Ilan Cumberbirch and Yard Athletics have been lululemon ambassadors for several years; can you tell us more about how that relationship started?

I remember being brought to a basement gym on Granville Street a few years ago to checkout a workout with some big guy. The class was small, but Ilan’s energy was out of this world. Brand new to the type of workout we were about to go through I had no idea what to expect. I loved it and I kept going back and bringing more people. Soon a lot of the Robson team knew Ilan and were going to his gym regularly. We asked him to be our ambassador because we saw the community he was building and we wanted to be apart of it.

What does lululemon look for in a local ambassador? What are the responsibilities / goals / roles they play in the community?

Again, this looks different with each of our ambassadors. There’s no one specific type of person we’re looking for, there’s no checklist.

What’s new in the lululemon catalogue? Anything new and cool  in terms of clothing?

There’s always something new and cool, we get new product every week. We’re particularly excited about our outerwear right now. Come see us and we’ll make sure you get what you need.

The post Yard Athletics x lululemon appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – Sept 12th, 2019

This recipe might sound like something you made in college when there was quite literally 2 items left in the cupboard. But never fear! This is a delicious meal you can make week in, week out.

Do you like healthy lunch / dinner ideas you can make in ~30 minutes? Do you like food that is super cheap to prepare (~$6 for 2 people), can be done with minimal ingredients, and will help refuel sore muscles following a grueling #YARDHARD workout?

***huge cheer of people saying YES erupts***

AWESOME!

Fried rice is a blank canvas. You can throw almost anything in and it will likely be good. Use this recipe as a guideline and adjust as your taste dictates, or as you have things in the fridge that need using before they go bad.

Try to opt for tuna canned in oil (Rio Mare Tuna in Olive Oil being one of the best).

If you’re a real fancy pants, you can obviously use fresh tuna, or salmon, or even cod, chopped up very fine, then added to the pan at the same time as the tuna below.

Tuna Fried Rice

• 1 can of oil packed tuna (~150-200g), drained
• 1 cup of cooked and cooled rice (jasmine or sushi rice)
• 4 green onions, sliced finely
• Soy Sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 eggs
• 1 leek, green part removed, white part chopped finely
• 1 carrot, chopped finely
• 1 jalapeno, chopped finely
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 1 pinch of sugar
• Olive oil
• 1 bunch Thai basil (optional)
• Dried Bonito flakes (optional)

First things first, get everything prepped. I mean, everything. Take the soy sauce out of the fridge, chop all the vegetables and put into bowls, crack the eggs. It will make cooking much easier.

Get a large frying pan over medium heat, add some oil, then add the leeks and carrots. Fry for a few minutes until they start to turn brown. Add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno, stir for a second, then add the tuna. Break up the tuna with a spatula until there are no big chunks left.

Crack both eggs into the hot pan, then add the rice. Use your spatula to scrape everything off the bottom of the pan, then do little “chop” motions downward to help break everything up and mix it together. The egg will start to cook with the rice, coating each grain.

Keep cooking, scraping the bottom (so the rice doesn’t stick) then mixing around. After ~5 minutes, sprinkle with a small pinch of sugar, then drizzle over soy sauce; probably more than you think. This is the main seasoning for the rice. Keep stirring, stirring, stirring until everything looks evenly coated. Taste a little bit… does it need more salt? Add more soy sauce.

Turn the heat off, add the green onions and Thai basil (if you’re using it) and stir around just so they begin to wilt a bit. Sprinkle with the Bonito flakes and serve with lime wedges.

The post RECIPE – Tuna Fried Rice 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 Henry Gould – June 5th, 2019

You know when you go to a great Mexican restaurant or taco spot, and the salsas are so good you can’t control yourself, so you end up completely soaking your food in them, resulting in potential discomfort a few hours later? Yaaaa… me too.

The great salsas at restaurants are usually a result of a healthy amount of salt (the “sal” in salsa comes from the latin word “salt”) in addition to lots of chilis (dry or fresh, or both) and acidity from lime, vinegar or something else.

The below salsa is amazing on any kind of Mexican food, but honestly it’s good on anything. It will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

The dried chilis can be found at South China Seas (Granville Island & Victoria Drive) or Los Guerreros Latin Foods.

Roasted Chili Salsa

• 4 dried guajillo Chilis, stems removed and seeds dumped out
• 4 dried chile de arbol, stems removed and seeds dumped out
• 2 fresh jalapenos
• 1 pinch cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 4 tomatillos, husks removed and washed in cold water
• 1 tomato
• 1 lime
• Sea salt

Turn your broiler on high and set the oven rack to the closest level. Get a pan that can go under the broiler and put on your tomatillos, tomato, garlic cloves and jalapenos. Stick under the broiler and roast until the skins are dark brown, even blackened a little. Once done, peel the garlic cloves and throw into a blender, along with the tomato, tomatillos and jalapenos (stems cut off).

Put your dried chilis in the same pan and stick under the broiler for 10-20 seconds. Be careful as these can burn very quickly. Take out and add to the blender.

Add a little cold water to the blender along with a healthy pinch of sea salt and the pinch of cumin. Blend until smooth, ~30 seconds. If it’s not blending, add more water.

Add the juice of half the lime, blend again then have a taste. Adjust with more lime juice and salt as per your taste. Remember, it’s a condiment (not a soup) so it’s OK if it’s well seasoned.

Enjoy on everything.

The post RECIPE – Roasted Chili Salsa appeared first on Yard Athletics.

by Henry Gould – May 31st, 2019

It’s Friday morning! Instead of waking up and checking your phone for angry client emails and 1 million group chat notifications (no? just me?) why not browse a few interesting links from around the internet? All the news that’s fit to print, or rather, stuff I came across that seemed interesting and relevant to the lovely #YardHard community. Let’s gooooooooooooo.

“Why frozen fruit and veggies may be better for you than fresh” – CNN

You got my attention! Interesting read… it seems freezing is actually a very effective means for preserving plants, especially in terms of nutritional quality. Since many are picked at the peak of ripeness vs. being picked unripe and allowed to ripen during transport, freezing can often times be best.

“Vaping: how safe is it really?” – British GQ

Maybe I’m a normie, but I find the creeping popularity of Juul’s and other vape devices a little unsettling. If it seems too good to be true, generally it is (I’m looking at you, “bulletproof coffee”…) so this article grabbed my attention. It’s written by the GQ Doctor, answering a variety of questions on the subject. TL:DR, they might be better than a regular cigarette, but will likely lead to increased nicotine addiction, thus leading you to want a real cigarette. Evil genius…

“Persian Cantaloupe Drink” – Saveur

In North America we basically drink the juice of a handful of fruits (orange, cranberry, apple), and although most processed juice can have more sugar than pop, every once in a while it’s a nice treat, especially on a hot day. And cantaloupe… who doesn’t love cantaloupe?? This drink looks delicious, and apparently goes well with gin… summer cocktail party anyone?

“6 Mistakes You’re Making When Doing Squats” – Cosmopolitan

Unless you haven’t been paying attention when Ilan, Sam and Joce run you through a workout, Cosmo is here to set you straight.

“Burnout Classified as Legitimate Clinical Syndrome by World Health Organization” – Men’s Journal

Ahhhh, so we’re not supposed to feel completely run over by the world every waking hour of the day? Interesting! Now, I’m not sure doing an hour of expense reports qualifies as burnout, but the three aspects they do count (exhaustion & low energy levels, cynicism towards ones job, lowered productivity) definitely seem worthy of further exploration.

The post Health & Wellness Links From Around The Web! appeared first on Yard Athletics.