Our Summer Fitness Olympics have come to an end once again. It was once again a great year of training, competition, and lots of people who became better. Below is a nice recap of how everything wrapped up this Summer. It will be very detailed compared to my speech Friday as I have unlimited paper space. Many of you saw some incredible feats, but I saw nearly all of them and I would love for all of you to read about all of the great things that happened this summer that you may have missed. I have also included the coaches results of each event as well so you can see how we stacked up against you all. It was a lot of fun for us to compete this year as well. I think it pushed us to also become better to not only help our team, but also because we simply don’t like getting beat (especially me, coach Dan).
*Note: PR stands for “Personal Record” … you will see this phrase quite often. Also, click the event for a full list of the standings in that event.
This event was a lot of fun for me personally because I have not had a lot of people ask me to teach this exercise in quite some time. There was previously only a couple clients who did these regularly, but I have already been asked by nearly a dozen clients to keep them in their programs.
Men:
The start of the Men’s Power Clean started strong with Werner hitting 105 kg early in the summer just to get beat by Connor at 106kg shortly after. Connor kept the lead for most of the Summer, but was passed by Ben Avon the last week. However, Werner came back strong after being stuck at the 105 kg weight for the whole summer to hit a very solid PR at 110 kg to win the event.
Women:
This event was thought to be a run away victory by Candice Chalus who is a regular participant in olympic weightlifting. However, Meghan Shakespeare quickly learned the movement and impressively beat Candice out by 1 kg finishing with 70 kg. Candice tried for quite literally 3 hours Thursday night to reclaim the title, but just barely missed many many times. The women’s team scores also came down to the wire as many hit new PR’s Thursday night to sway the scores. The event finished with Dan and Anthony’s team exactly tied for 1st place and Coach Joey’s team only .2 kg behind (1 kg total out of the top 5).
Coaches:
Coaches Anthony and Joey both learned these exercises for the first time as well (only partially knew them before). They finished with a 60 and 85 kg score and were beat out by 19 and 11 other clients. *Note: Anthony had a wrist injury inhibiting him from going up further. Coaches Dan and Paige, who have been doing this lift for years, were unbeaten finishing with a 120 kg and 70 kg total.
This event easily proved to be the event where the most people PR’d. Those that put up big numbers early really pushed others to try bigger numbers. When people saw these numbers they pushed even harder. Honestly I would love to list off everyone who set a PR during this event, but the list would easily be 50+ people long.
Men:
This event was won by Coach Jack who called his win at the beginning of the summer. He started with an impressive 235 kg, but was passed by a few people. After some bad training days for him he finally had another good day and put up a really dominant 255 kg lift to take the lead back. Werner and Ben fought for 2nd place all the way to Thursday. Ben lost the lead Wednesday night, but took it back Thursday afternoon. Werner tried to take it back right after, but being fatigued from the day before left him just a little short.
Women:
Straight forward. Jen Smith Deadlift 160 kg and won this event. This beat out a heavy favorite of Shay who is the gym’s leading powerlifter in the deadlift. Shay finished with an also impressive 152 kg PR. I would also like to call out Emily Garcia in this event who finished in 4th place with 141 kg even though previously she had not done even 100 kg. To show how competitive this event was you should all realize that Nicole Celender, one of the all around strongest lifters in the gym and women’s gym back squat record, only finished tied for 10th place at 127 kg.
Coaches:
Coaches were all only moderately competitive in this event and were beat out by quite a few clients.
Coach Dan: 208 kg, 6th place
Coach Anthony: 185 kg (PR), 9th place
Coach Joey: 170 kg (PR), 14th place
Coach Paige: 135 kg (PR), 7th place
This event was also super competitive. Only one woman scored with a time under 4 minutes (none for men). There were some good plankers who did not finish in the top 10 to score extra points.
Women:
This event was won by Heidi Calhoun with a time of 5:30. This came as a surprise as I had not seen her do a plank close to this long previously. In 4th place I would also like to call out Lisa Talarico with a 4:32 plank time at an age of over 60 years old. Lisa is not known for her ability to push through pain, but her strength that she often forgets is there helped push her to a very impressive time.
Men:
This was an interesting one as the leader, Ed Talarico, was not OK with just winning the event. He needed to beat the coaches too (mainly coach Dan). So we had a plank off on Thursday night. I am not happy to lose, but I am very impressed once again with Ed’s determination that lead him to win our contest after my foam roller fell off at 8:30. You can’t deserve a win any more than challenging and beating the coach to do so.
Coaches:
Coach Dan: 8:30, 2nd place
Coach Anthony: 3:21, 15th place
Coach Joey: 3:13, 17th place
Coach Paige: 3:01, 17th place
This measurement was taken by recording the highest point that someone could jump and touch then subtracting from that the height that they could just stand and touch. This was a fun one to kick off the Summer since it was an easy one for everyone to try right away. Then we took those numbers as starting points and also had an “improvement” category by allowing people to keep retesting all summer and those that made the most improvement would also get bonus points.
Men:
This event was won by both Brandon Hanson and Jake Cunningham who jumped 32.5 inches. This was no surprise as they have been training with myself (as volleyball players) for many years. This event was interesting however because 4 people were tied in 5th place which drastically affected the final overall individual standings.
Women:
This event was pretty easily won by Jess Hanson another volleyball player who has been around for quite some time. The rest of the rankings were also not a very big surprise as it was full of volleyball players.
The improvement category was a little more interesting to watch. A lot of people really didn’t listen to us when we told them that they could still get points if they got better. The whole point of this was because obviously the younger clients and volleyball players would win the jump height, but those that haven’t trained volleyball/jumping would have an advantage in the improvement category because they have a lot more room to grow. Nicole Celender took this very easily after figuring out that she didn’t have to take as large of an approach and was able to increase her vertical by 6 inches.
Coaches:
This was another unfair advantage to Coach Dan as this has been his specialty for years. He easily won the guys' side with a 38.5 inch vertical. Paige also finished 2nd in the vertical for the girls with a 27.5 inch. Coach Anthony had a 22 inch vertical and Joey a 25.5 inch vertical placing them in 22nd and 18th place.
This event was the longest and therefore worth double the points as the others. Those that did it twice had a huge advantage as most people bettered their times by nearly a whole minute especially when we figured out that the order should go Rower, Ski, then Bike. It was this event that probably gave the largest point swings for the teams as well that helped determine the final standings.
Men:
As we were figuring out the technique to this event the first four men all finished within 2 seconds of each other with a time around 12:15. Then out of nowhere Brandon B. came out with a 10:37 time which I thought was impossible. The most impressive of his 3 exercises was definitely the ski ergometer which he finished in under 3 minutes. Although times got a lot better over the Summer no one could touch his time. To finish in the top 10 you needed to do better than a 11:28 time. Coach Joey and Dan finished within 5 seconds of each other for the team score as well where Team Joey received 4000 points for first place and Team Dan 3000 points for finishing 2nd.
Women:
The heavy favorites for the women were the marathon runners in the gym. However, on the final day Jenna Vogen came from 10th place all the way to first place winning by 30 seconds to edge out Liz Carr. Jenna finished with the only sub 12 minute time with an 11:48. Although the team scores were very close for most of the Summer, Team Joey took this one by quite a bit because he finished with the top 3 times for women.
Coaches:
It’s no secret that us coaches are not endurance specialists. We all struggled through this one. I (coach Dan) finished with an 11:10 time which at the time was 3rd place and I was super happy with it. However, later that day I was disappointed that I was beat out twice in a matter of a couple hours by only a few seconds including one by Jovian Smith a freshman in high school who had a very impressive 11:07 time. I finished in 6th place.
Coach Paige: 13:52, 20th place
Coach Anthony: 12:09, 21st place
Coach Joey: 12:06. 21st place
This event was also very competitive and not hard to do multiple times. There was a height disadvantage and an age advantage. The formula we used proved to be quite effective as in the top ten of both men and women had clients of all ages and all heights. Correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe the two that won the Deadhang event last year also won this event which proves the strength of their grip being able to win multiple events related to the strength.
Men:
This event was won by Ed Talarico with a time of 4:49 which beat out coach Jack. by 4 seconds. Even more impressive was that Ed had to redo this event to pass Jack back up the same last day as he had to battle Coach Dan in the plank. 2 victory’s over coaches in one day is pretty darn good.
Women:
Michelle Premoshis won this event with a 3:19 time. This event was completed a lot over the last few days of training as many were trying to move up the rankings.
Coaches:
This was by far my worst event and very frustrating for me as I attempted it many times and could never beat my first time of 2:22 which only put me in 20th place. Coach Paige also struggled with this one finishing with a 2:02 time placing her in 25th place. Coach Anthony did the best finishing over 3:04 placing him in 10th place. Joey finished in 14th place with a 2:35 time.
This event was also easy to complete multiple times. The ones that won this event proved to have a lot of patience. Many people tried different techniques to get them the longest time including single hops, double hops, skipping, or a mixture. Many entered the top 10 the last two days of the events.
Men:
This was won by AJ with a time of 6:06. AJ had the lead early on and was beat out a couple times, but always came back to claim the top spot. Also in the mix was Ryan T who finished in 3rd place with a 4:46 time. Ryan tried probably 100 times and couldn’t break a minute. His VERY last attempt he finally figured it out though to send him into 3rd place. With the help of Ben Avon who also nearly doubled his time on the last day, Coach Joey took home the victory for the team as well.
Women:
The leading spot was secured by Carolyn Kerr during her weekend home with a time of 4:57. She was almost beat by Candice who fell just 1 second short. On the final morning though, Jess Hanson came into the gym and finished with a 6:49 time to take home the victory. This time also put Team Anthony’s team total way up from where it was to barely take the victory away from Dan.
Coaches:
I thought I could win this event pretty easily. However, I was afraid to do the event until AJ left Thursday because I didn’t want to get beaten again after finishing. This strategy proved to be terrible because by the end of the night I had nothing left in my tank to put up a good number and was forced to concede with a 4:47 time putting me in 3rd place. Coach Paige also performed well and was in 1st place with a 5:20 time until getting beat out by Jess Hanson. Coach Anthony finished with 50 seconds and Joey with 1:14 putting them in 24th and 14th place.
This was a very tough event. I think everyone’s legs were probably on fire when they were done regardless if it took 1 minute or 5 minutes. This was the event this year that had a nice age advantage that made it tough for the younger clients to do well. To our surprise though many who had a little more weight to push still performed quite well.
Men:
For the third time in these events, Ed Talarico won this event with the only sub 1 minute time. Ben Avon came close to catching Ed with a 1:01 and Matt Michaels with a 1:02 time. Going into the last week there was only about 5 seconds difference from 5th-10th place. Many came in to redo this event though and most pushed their time lower to get them and their teams more points. TJ Smith and Chris Dattalo both helped my team take first place. However, in the last hour of the Olympics, Jovian Smith came out for Joey’s team to take the victory by an average of less than 4 seconds.
Women:
This event went back and forth a little between Jen Smith and Stephanie Ertel, but Jen Smith finished with the win with a 1:09 time.
Coaches:
Another event for the coaches that they did not place very well.
Coach Dan: 1:33, 11th Place
Coach Anthony: 2:39, 25th place
Coach Joey: 3:32, 33rd place
Coach Paige: 2:12, 20th place
It was tough to beat what happened last year in the Bench Press event with the back and forth that happened before Shay and Ben took home the victory. This year however we have two new champs.
Men:
Jack, Ben, and Evan all fought hard around the 120 kg mark for a bench press. However, this proved to be nothing compared to high school wrestling and track star Robbie Williams who put up 130 kg out of no where. Robbie had a busy summer and couldn’t make it in too often. He hadn’t paused bench besides a couple weeks leading up to this number and during the training he hadn’t done more than 100 kg. When it came time to max we just kept putting on more and more weight and to our surprise he completely crushed it. No one came close to his score after this.
Women:
Meghan Shakespeare took a surprising lead halfway through the summer with a surprise 70 kg score after never doing more than 60 kg before that. Shay was a heavy favorite to win this event though even with a minor shoulder injury and not doing a ton of pause benching this summer. She surprisingly put up a very nice PR of 71 kg to pass up Meghan. Meghan had another shot though to take the victory and did so with a 74 kg score which even beat out Coach Paige who finished with 73 kg. We saw many other PR’s including Jen Smith who hit 69, Claire with 64, and a ton of clients who only placed 11th despite benching 50 kg which last year would have gotten them into the top 10 when the event was a normal tap and go which is substantially easier. Gracie Gonzalez was one of these benchers who hit a solid 50 kg while only being 14 years old.
Coaches:
As I stated above, Coach Paige finished in 2nd place getting beat out by Meghan by 1 kg. I nursed a shoulder injury most of the summer which prevented me from benching, but luckily I have healed enough and was able to put up 102 kg which put me in 10th place. Coaches Joey and Anthony tied and beat me out however with 105 kg scores.
Final Team Standings:
Coach Joey: 105,366
Coach Dan: 101,436
Coach Anthony: 92,513
Coach Paige: 79,701
Candice Chalus: 6900
Jorge: 6800
(2) Ben Avon: 6800
Jen Smith: 6740
Ed Talarico: 5100
Meghan Shakespeare: 5020
Alisa Gealey: 4891
Matt Michaels: 4870
Brandon B: 4850
Claire: 4770
Many of these scores came down to the very very end. Coach Joey edged out the victory largely thanks to his free agent pick-ups of Matt Michaels and Evan who not only scored big points, but also really helped the team averages in each event that scored a lot of points and took points away from the rest of us. His team battled hard all the way to the end with Jenna Vogen scoring big points in the triathlon, Ryan and Ben in the jump rope, Meghan in the power clean and bench, AJ holding his top spot in the jump rope and working hard to put himself in the top 3 of the jump height, Jovian Smith coming in clutch on the triathlon and especially sled push where he didn’t personally score but helped his team secure the win. Liz Carr put up great times on the endurance events. Stephanie Ertel worked hard all summer on her power cleans and also scored high on 3 other events. Even sleeper picks such as Lisa Talarico and Debra scored some big points in the plank and helped with some of the bonus points for the older adults. I almost forgot A-aron Morgan who scored in a ton of events as well. Even those of you who I did not name should realize that just by participating in all the events and doing the bar math and calories every day got you 1500 points. Just a couple people like that could have swung the whole final results.
The top 10 clients were filled with a variety of ages. We had 5 women and 5 men. a few in their 20’s, a few in their 30’s, a couple in their 40’s, 1 in their 50’s and one in their 60’s. I am personally very proud of not only my team, but all of our clients who competed this year. We had at least a dozen people still here after 8:00 pm Thursday night. Many people throughout the day were there for over 2 hours trying to help their score along with their team. Sam worked hard to get himself on the board for the jump rope and the plank the very last day. Jen Smith, Jess Wooten, Joanna, Nicole Miller, and candice all were trying to better their Power clean to help their team all the way until 9:00 pm. Jorge was beat out by 1 second on the triathlon that would have given him the overall victory. He also would have tied for the victory if Ryan didn’t beat him in the jump rope during his 200th attempt in the morning. The whole Smith family including TJ competed hard Wednesday and Thursday night. Jason Blough knew he wouldn’t be super competitive, but constantly worked to improve his scores so that he could help the team averages and ended up setting a few PR’s of his own. David Kerr had a busy Summer, but was able to get in the last day to set new PR’s for himself and place him in the top ten for the triathlon with only 1 attempt. Nicole Celender hates deadlift, but got herself in the top 10 and was relentless on the power clean even though it wasn’t clicking right away. Michelle and Chris Pray only train once/week, but every week they came ready to complete an event. Fran joined the fun late, but ended up putting very good numbers up considering he hasn’t been training for the last couple years. I think the friendly competition has gotten him addicted again. Candice was a heavy favorite the whole summer, but if she slacked on just one event she would have lost the overall victory. Jess Wooten and Emily Garcia had absolute massive PR’s late Thursday night in the Deadlift. Brandon Hanson didn’t have a lot of events this year that were geared towards him, but he still learned and tried to better his score in all events. He still ended up winning the jump height and surprisingly even to himself scored in the wheelbarrow. The college kids had a harder time competing this year as the events weren’t as kind to them as last year. Still they really pushed hard and Alisa and Meghan both made it into the top 10 after religiously attempting event after event. Unfortunately an injury to Connor Anderson stopped him from doing the same. This drastically affected Team Anthony’s ability as well to score on some of the team averages. All in all it was an absolutely fantastic competition. I apologize if I didn’t call you out personally in this long recap. The point I was trying to make is that every single person mattered in this contest. And I truly thank all of you for working hard to make that happen.
Check back next week for pictures and videos along with the results of the Bar Math Test (sorry I ran out of time now)
