Tag: Gym

Owning your dream amid a pandemic: the hard way up to a functional rock climbing gym

A look at new bouldering gym/cafe Café Bloc on Saint-Laurent Boulevard

The story of Café Bloc begins with a dream about comradery, a sense of community and a tasteful amount of the main ingredient: a passion for rock climbing. After two years in the making, what started simply as an ambitious concept has recently turned into a reality for young entrepreneur Sébastien Aubé. Alongside his now-business partner Jean-François Gravel, the duo managed to pull off a fully functional bouldering gym in the heart of downtown Montreal at a time that does not respect any uncalculated boldness in developing new business models. Some may call it a shot in the dark but for Aubé the coronavirus comes as “an outside event that we have no control of. The only thing we can change about it is the way we perceive it.”

Sébastien Aubé, co-owner of Café Bloc

Just like the sport itself requires from its enthusiasts, you need to overcome obstacles to make your way to the top. As Aubé puts it, “A key element to motivation is to keep yourself active towards your goals even when you don’t feel like it.” The current situation definitely affects the business negatively but it does not put an end to the adventure.

“It is challenging,” agrees Aubé, “but not to the extent where I am going to sit in the corner and give up.” Hardships were what defined the journey of the place as it took two long years for the project to come into existence.

After a rock climbing trip in June 2018, the exciting idea to create an environment where people can simultaneously sweat it all out on the climbing wall and relax with a cup of coffee and friendly company began to grow.

At last, the moment they all had been waiting for was here. On Feb. 9, 2020, Café Bloc welcomed its first rock climbing customers and for six weeks, the dream of a community united under a mutual passion carried on. Working at full capacity, the place easily became a hotspot for those eager to solve “problems” (that is how climbing routes are referred to in a bouldering gym). No extra equipment is needed — just you and your climbing shoes. To ensure the safety of all participants, the gym follows basic security standards. There are big bouncy mats under the boulders that will catch anyone’s fall, regardless of their position on the wall.

According to Aubé, there are different challenges and they are all rated with a level of difficulty. For example, “six moves, using only blue holes, from the ground to the top can be a warm-up for someone more experienced or a good beginner problem to start with.” For better engagement and constant physical stimulus, the gym is designed to change the style of the walls regularly, thus providing new problems almost every week.

“We were open for six weeks and then we had to close on March 15 like everybody else,” Aubé vividly remembers. Despite the successful launch, COVID-19 did not spare the bouldering gym and jeopardized all the effort put into the place. However, Café Bloc learns to adapt to the changes as they come.

“We are running at a 25 per cent capacity,” says Aubé, “and we lack our main demographic of the people who work in the downtown offices and would normally swing by for a session after-hours.”

Their routine now consists of pressure washing the climbing holes every week, which adds to the accumulated business losses. Aubé’s team has also put hand sanitizers everywhere to accommodate the health regulations and the climbers’ needs. However, it’s up to everyone to have the responsibility of adhering to disinfecting before and after an exercise.

“It’s all about the energy everyone brings into the place,” says Aubé.

Indeed, prior to the coronavirus restrictions, the gym was running smoothly. According to Aubé, before the pandemic, they would have “people come in and overstay their welcome beyond the staff’s shifts, simply soaking in the atmosphere.” Now, Aubé wishes for nothing more than to have the gym run normally. Yet, the co-owner reflects on the current social implication as a mental challenge. Apart from technique, rock climbing represents an inner battle of overcoming your own limitations and doubts.

“Similar to rock climbing, this is just another problem we need to face and persevere, so that we can come out of it stronger and better.”

 

Photos by Yordan Ivanov and Kit Mergaert

Categories
Sports

Martial arts are back

Quebec allows the resumption of combat sports in gyms, with additional health measures.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial arts discipline that is considered a staple in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) for its effectiveness and reliability in both grappling offence and defence. At its core, the practice involves controlling opponent posture in numerous wrestling situations, and utilizing leverage and momentum in order to minimize energy consumption.

The discipline enables high-level practitioners to neutralize much larger unskilled opponents. The best are able to turn a compromising situation into a submission (victory by way of surrender) by catching opponents in chokeholds or joint locks.

The combat sport requires constant application of techniques to instill learned concepts, and requires at least one sparring partner. As a result, public classes of up to 20 students were commonplace before the shutdown.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, martial arts gyms face unique challenges in reopening to the public. Unlike other activities that can be practiced independently, BJJ and grappling — by nature — does not adhere to social distancing protocol.

On Sept. 1, the Quebec government allowed combat sports gyms to reopen, so long as they follow public health standards. For passionate BJJ instructor and decades-long practitioner Vittia Thong, owner of the Jiu-Jitsu school Studio Momentum in Brossard, the announcement was a pleasant surprise.

When the announcement came out for weight lifting gyms to reopen earlier in the summer, the government [put] it in effect the week after,” Thong said. “I was shocked to learn that we could open the day after the announcement.”

On top of his love for BJJ, Thong is a trained kinesiologist and osteopath. During the gym’s shutdown, the facility was temporarily re-designed to better accommodate his clients seeking physical aid. Things now have to be rearranged again, a process which has already delayed the gym’s reopening by a week.

Despite the reopening announcement, there are a number of limitations that martial arts gyms must heed. Members in such clubs must train in organized bubbles of up to four people. Individuals within these bubbles train exclusively together, and cannot swap groupings without proper justification. Each member must sign a consent form acknowledging the health risks, and no more than 10 people can be in the facility at any given time.

Junior Education Minister Isabelle Charest made it clear in the announcement that reopening these institutions does not permit care-free behaviour, as combat sports are dangerous from a transmission standpoint.

Luckily, Studio Momentum’s premise is large enough to accommodate two bubbles while maintaining social distance under the latest government guidelines. Thong’s plan for the future involves expanding the gym to the studio next door for additional space that could be used for his clinical work or for BJJ classes.

I really want to expand but I think it’s most important now to be smart about the virus situation,” Thong said. “I’ve wanted to expand the business since last year, but you never know these days.”

Before the shutdown, members would attend classes on average twice a week. Thong has been working on a structure that would separate his students into bubbles that would have strict individual schedules. Each grouping will have two specific weekly time slots of classes.

Thong has also invested in training dummies that will serve as backup in the event of absences, or if a student is uncomfortable with being in close proximity to another person. While masks are highly encouraged, they can be omitted if everyone in a given bubble consents to doing so.

In theory, learning the discipline will remain the same, as the techniques and strategies taught are unaffected by these new training conditions; however, Thong believes that the biggest change will be felt in practice.

Students will build camaraderie within their own bubbles as they will continuously be training with the same partners. As a result, Thong envisions his students to pick up on each other’s habits and make the necessary adjustments. The education that comes with observing multiple people in larger varied groups will be eliminated, however.

“A student’s knowledge will expand as he or she will encounter more different experiences,” Thong said. “That’s why learning amongst 20 peers versus three is a big drop off, but we have no choice but to accept these conditions and live with the consequences.”

While the new procedures may represent a challenge at first, passionate martial artists will happily embrace this new hindered training reality after being away from their gyms for nearly six months.

 

Photo by Liam Sharp

Categories
Opinions

Gym intimidation: pitting women against women

Our own body hate not only hurts ourselves, but each other

I went to yoga for my body and my mind that morning. And I left thinking about every other woman’s body there. Which ones were more toned, prettier or had the nicest clothes.

The entire point of yoga is to find the balance between your body and your mind. Any teacher will say so. Focus on your breath, forget anything else you have to do that day or week, and prioritize yourself.

I took that a little bit too literally. Starting in the downward dog position, I noticed my belly. The one I took time to build with beer, sweets and delicious pasta.

Thank God I went to yoga, right? I need to lose that belly fat. Why? Losing it for myself might be 40 per cent of why I am truly trying to have a fit body. The other 60 per cent belongs to looking good in front of men and women. I am putting more importance in the way other people see me than how I see myself.

Rather, I see myself through how others see me.

This is not simply an issue of not being comfortable at the gym or at yoga because of other women. The issue relies in women hating on other women. Women judging one another, and that needs to stop. We need to find solidarity.

Dr. Gail Dines once said, “if tomorrow, women woke up and decided they really liked their bodies, just think how many industries would go out of business.” I think it would be more than simply the businesses. If women were comfortable, would they still tease others for their bodies? Would I still feel uncomfortable at yoga?

Let’s go back one hour before, I went to yoga that day. I picked my clothes very carefully. Lululemon shorts, a pink sports bra, and a crop top. I felt confident in that outfit. Giving power to my image was giving me self-assurance.

Once I had noticed my pregnant-looking belly, I lost my focus. I could only notice its cellulite and its unattractiveness. I stared down every woman in the hot room. Were their outfits better? Did they look ‘hotter’ than me? I was judging all of them.

What I really saw, behind the clothes and my insecurities, were women. Women doing an exercise for themselves. Nobody was looking at me or at my body. We were a group of people, united in that one hour, with the same purpose, following the same norms, and that’s when I knew body differences and judgment had no place in this room.

I wondered if men carried around the same self-doubt in their everyday life and in their work-out environment. They compete as much as we do for the best body. Exercising is no longer about remaining healthy. It is instead turning into complying with the notion of “hot” that we have.

I believe that little imperfections are the perfections of our body. And the biggest imperfections are heightened by our insecurities. Women have built eating disorders because of other people referring to them as “cows” or laughing at their body. There should not be a norm for the body, and women and men should not reinforce that standard.

We are putting in an extra effort into dressing ourselves for a work-out simply for those that surround us. That is the main problem. We value how others see us more than how we see ourselves.

I will love my belly filled with the deliciousness I have eaten. I will stop comparing myself to other women at the gym. The starting point is to stop judging and begin accepting.

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