Tomorrow (Saturday 19 December) we continue a long-held tradition at CrossFit GEO – the 12 Days of Xmas WOD.

It’s a long workout comprised of 12 different movements which you work through in the same format as the way the “12 Days of Xmas” song is sung (see below).

In past years it has been a single huge session where everyone came in and knocked out the workout together. There was a bit of waiting around, but that was cool. It gave us time to chew the fat and bond over the year that was. We then ended the session with a drink and a heap of food that everyone kindly brought in. It was a workout that we all looked forward to each year.

This year, because of COVID, we are restricted with how many people we can have training at any one time. That is why 3 sessions are being put on – 7am, 8.30am and 10am. Each class is capped at 15 people. Bookings are essential. Unfortunately, no drop-ins for these sessions.

Also, due to COVID, we are changing the format of the workout slightly so that there is minimal sharing of equipment. There will be two versions of the workout available. Both can be scaled and modified further, but one version is more challenging than the other.

Please ensure you hand sanitise upon arrival. Enter via the main front garage door and exit via the side door. If you are showing any symptons of cold/flu/COVID, please do not come in. With the recent COVID cluster in Avalon, we need to ensure everyone’s safety and well being. Thank you.

Here are the workouts:

OPTION 1

For time:

1 Clean & Jerk 60/40kg
2 Ring Dips
3 Box Jumps 24/20″
4 Hang Power Snatch 40/30kg
5 Bar facing Burpees
6 Push Press 40/30kg
7 Squat Jumps
8 Straight Leg Raises
9 Wall balls
10 Pull-ups
11 Wall Climbs
12 Front Squats 60/40kg

NOTE: Normally you would do 1 C&J, then 2 Ring Dips + 1 C&J, then 3 Box Jumps + 2 Ring Dips + 1 C&J, and so on. This year you will start with the Ring Dips and save all of the C&J to the end which you will do with the Front Squats. That way you are not chopping and changing weights constantly throughout the workout. Feel free to scale further.

OPTION 2

A little bit more challengingThe Outlaw “12 Days of Xmas”

For time:

1 Clean & Jerk 100/70kg
2 Muscle Ups
3 Box Jumps 30/24″
4 Hang Squat Snatch 50/35kg
5 Bar facing Burpees
6 Push Press 50/35kg
7 Pistols (alternating)
8 Toes to Bar
9 Wall balls
10 Chest to Bar Pull-ups
11 HSPU
12 Front Squats 100/70kg

NOTE: Normally you would do 1 C&J, then 2 MU + 1 C&J, then 3 Box Jumps + 2 MU + 1 C&J, and so on. This year you will start with the Ring Dips and save all of the C&J to the end which you will do with the Front Squats. That way you are not chopping and changing weights constantly throughout the workout.

XMAS/NEW YEARS CLASS SCHEDULE

Monday 21 Dec – normal

Tuesday 22 Dec – normal

Wednesday 23 Dec – normal

Thursday 24 Dec – 7.30am Open Gym, 9.30am class, 4.00pm class

Friday 25 Dec (Xmas) – closed

Saturday 26 Dec (Boxing Day) – closed

Sunday 27 Dec – closed

Monday 28 Dec (Boxing Day Public holiday) – closed

Tue 29 Dec – 7.30am Open Gym, 9.30am class, 3.00pm Open Gym, 4.00pm class

Wed 30 Dec – 7.30am Open Gym, 9.30am class, 3.00pm Open Gym, 4.00pm class

Thu 31 Dec (New Years Eve) – 7.30am Open Gym, 9.30am class

Fri 1 Jan (New Years Day) – closed

Sat 2 Jan – resume normal class schedule……………..

CrossFit Geo – XFIT

View Public Whiteboard

Weightlifting

Front Squat (1RM)

Front squat 1RM: Build up over 20 minutes

Build up;

2 x 3 at 50%

2 x 3 at 65%

1 x 3 at 70%

1 x 2 at 78%

1 x 2 t 85%

1×1 at 90%

1 x 1 at 97%

GO FOR IT

Metcon

Kawabunga (Time)

Kawabunga – 15 minute CAP

30-20-10

DB Snatches 22.5kg/15kg

60-30-15

Double Unders

30-20-10

Airsquats

Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

Did you know that the history of the Aboriginal people of Australia dates back to 65,000+ years – the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

That is something that should be acknowledged, and it is something that we should be proud of as a nation.

Today marks the start of NAIDOC week.

NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Australians.

We thought it was well overdue for us to acknowledge the land on which CrossFit GEO has been built.

CrossFit GEO is located on Wallumedegal land.

“……..Aboriginal people lived for thousands of years in what we call the City of Ryde. When the first Europeans settled at Sydney Cove in 1788 the traditional owners of this area were the Wallumedegal. That name was told to Captain Arthur Phillip, first governor of the convict colony of New South Wales, by Woollarawarre Bennelong who came from the clan called the Wangal on the south side of the river.

It is likely that the name Wallumedegal or Wallumattagal was derived from wallumai the snapper fish, combined with matta, a word used to describe a place, usually a water place, as with Parramatta and Cabramatta. That would mean they were the snapper clan and the fish was their totem, just as burra (the eel) was the totem of the Burramatta or Boromeda-gal or clan at Parramatta and cobra (the white grub of the shipworm) that of the Cobragal at present Liverpool and Cabramatta. 

Wallumedegal territory followed the north bank of the Parramatta River from Turrumburra (Lane Cove River) in the east to Burramatta at the head of the river to the west. The northern boundary would logically be the Lane Cove River and the northern neighbours therefore the Cameragal or spear clan. Further east, opposite the Cameragal, were the Cadigal, a harbour-dwelling clan, which occupied the present Eastern Suburbs and City of Sydney, from Inner South Head to Darling Harbour. 

Bennelong with armorial bearings published in 1798

The Wallumedegal survived for generations in a rich environment of river flats, creeks and mangrove swamps, fishing with pronged spears and handlines, feasting on shellfish, hunting birds and small game, and collecting a variety of edible bushfood plants. They spoke the same language as the Port Jackson and coastal clans, from Botany Bay to Broken Bay. The dialect of the sea coast, wrote Marine Captain Watkin Tench, was spoken at Rose Hill (Parramatta). The dialect of the same language west of Parramatta is now called Darug. 

The first encounters between the foreigners in boats and the river people in February 1788 were friendly, with laughter and mimicry on both sides. Their lives changed forever the following November when armed marines built an earthwork fort at Parramatta.

Dispossession

This action displaced the family of the Burramattagal elder Maugoran and his wife Gooroobera, who were forced to move down the river to The Flats, near Meadowbank. Then in April 1789 came the smallpox epidemic, which Bennelong said killed half the Indigenous population. Smallpox might account for the fact that no Wallumedegal are identified in history, unless, which is possible, either or both of Maugoran’s wives, Gooroobera or Bidgee Bidgee – mother Tadyera who died of dysentery, were Wallumedegalleon (wallumedagaliang), or women belonging to the clan.

Significant Aboriginal People of Ryde

The most enduring symbol of the Aboriginal presence in the City of Ryde is the grave of Bennelong and Nanbarry, two key figures in the history of early Sydney. 

Bidgee Bidgee 1803

Bennelong, who was captured late in 1789 on the orders of Governor Arthur Phillip, escaped after six months. In October 1790, one month after Phillip was speared at Manly Cove, Bennelong came in peacefully to the settlement at Sydney. Phillip built him a brick hut at Tubowgulye, now Bennelong Point, and took him to England two years later. 

Bennelong died in 1813 and was buried in the orchard of brewer James Squire at Kissing Point (Ryde) where he had lived for some time. When Nanbarry, nephew of Colebee the Cadigal elder, died in August 1821 he was buried at his request with Bennelong and his last wife, who might have been Boorong, sister of Bidgee Bidgee. They lie together somewhere overlooking the river close to Bennelong Park. 

For twenty years the most prominent leader in this district was Maugoran’s youngest son, Bidgee Bidgee, made chief of Kissing Point in 1816 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who also gave him a brass breastplate and a fishing boat. Bidgee Bidgee meant a river flat. 

Bennelong, Nanbarry and Bidgee Bidgee went on long sea voyages in English sailing ships, but they spent their last years at Kissing Point. Bundle, was another key figure in the area who tracked robbers for Squire in 1804 when he was district constable……”

This section is an abstract from the paper, Wallumedegal : An Aboriginal History of Ryde, written by Keith Vincent Smith who was recommended by the Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. Since 1993 he has established a track record as a researcher and author of Aboriginal history and anthropology.