Olympic/PL Gym in Montreal, QC?

I may be moving to Montreal from Richmond, VA sometime soon, and have had a hard time finding a place to train up there. I will most likely be living near downtown.

There seem to be a ton of Crossfit places, but I want a place with lifting platforms and squat racks, strong man implements and some mobility tools would be a plus. I know of that place epicenter training, but I called them and they said there membership is full. Any ideas? Thanks.

[quote]LordDelicious wrote:
I may be moving to Montreal from Richmond, VA sometime soon, and have had a hard time finding a place to train up there. I will most likely be living near downtown.

There seem to be a ton of Crossfit places, but I want a place with lifting platforms and squat racks, strong man implements and some mobility tools would be a plus. I know of that place epicenter training, but I called them and they said there membership is full. Any ideas? Thanks.[/quote]

There is the club Les Geant at the Centre Gadbois… George Kobaladze who is the best lifter in Canada coaches there.

5485, chemin Cote St-Paul,
Montreal H4C 1X3

It’s only opened from 16:30 to 19:30

The club in Point au Tremble has Pierre Roy for coach, but the training hours are 18:45 to 20:45

Club Pro1 is a Crossfit gym but also a weightlifting club. Two of my friends coach there (Roch Proteau and Karim El-Hlimi)

6789, rue St-Jacques
Montreal H4B 1V3

Several crossfit gyms allow you to train only for weightlifting… for example the one I coach at has platforms that you can use at any time even if there is a WOD. Evgeny Romanov coaches at a Crossfit with a fully functional weightlifting room, no sure about their hours though…

http://www.crossfitmontreal.ca/en/crossfit-montreal-team … they have an open gym option so I guess that you can do your own thing during the opening hours

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]LordDelicious wrote:
I may be moving to Montreal from Richmond, VA sometime soon, and have had a hard time finding a place to train up there. I will most likely be living near downtown.

There seem to be a ton of Crossfit places, but I want a place with lifting platforms and squat racks, strong man implements and some mobility tools would be a plus. I know of that place epicenter training, but I called them and they said there membership is full. Any ideas? Thanks.[/quote]

There is the club Les Geant at the Centre Gadbois… George Kobaladze who is the best lifter in Canada coaches there.

5485, chemin Cote St-Paul,
Montreal H4C 1X3

It’s only opened from 16:30 to 19:30

The club in Point au Tremble has Pierre Roy for coach, but the training hours are 18:45 to 20:45

Club Pro1 is a Crossfit gym but also a weightlifting club. Two of my friends coach there (Roch Proteau and Karim El-Hlimi)

6789, rue St-Jacques
Montreal H4B 1V3

Several crossfit gyms allow you to train only for weightlifting… for example the one I coach at has platforms that you can use at any time even if there is a WOD. Evgeny Romanov coaches at a Crossfit with a fully functional weightlifting room, no sure about their hours though…

http://www.crossfitmontreal.ca/en/crossfit-montreal-team … they have an open gym option so I guess that you can do your own thing during the opening hours[/quote]

Good info.

How is the lifting getting on?

Koing

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]LordDelicious wrote:
I may be moving to Montreal from Richmond, VA sometime soon, and have had a hard time finding a place to train up there. I will most likely be living near downtown.

There seem to be a ton of Crossfit places, but I want a place with lifting platforms and squat racks, strong man implements and some mobility tools would be a plus. I know of that place epicenter training, but I called them and they said there membership is full. Any ideas? Thanks.[/quote]

There is the club Les Geant at the Centre Gadbois… George Kobaladze who is the best lifter in Canada coaches there.

5485, chemin Cote St-Paul,
Montreal H4C 1X3

It’s only opened from 16:30 to 19:30

The club in Point au Tremble has Pierre Roy for coach, but the training hours are 18:45 to 20:45

Club Pro1 is a Crossfit gym but also a weightlifting club. Two of my friends coach there (Roch Proteau and Karim El-Hlimi)

6789, rue St-Jacques
Montreal H4B 1V3

Several crossfit gyms allow you to train only for weightlifting… for example the one I coach at has platforms that you can use at any time even if there is a WOD. Evgeny Romanov coaches at a Crossfit with a fully functional weightlifting room, no sure about their hours though…

http://www.crossfitmontreal.ca/en/crossfit-montreal-team … they have an open gym option so I guess that you can do your own thing during the opening hours[/quote]

Good info.

How is the lifting getting on?

Koing[/quote]

Just an add-on… these are “coaching hours” or “team training hours” the gyms might be opened at other hours. I know that George trains almost 5 hours a day and some lifters train at the same time, so it might be worth checking that out.

Lifting was decent (went up to a 120kg snatch from blocks for example) , then I add to take a short hiatus because I started to have bleeding hemorhoids again (last time I lost so much blood that I couldn’t send oxygen to the heart and went to the hospital). So I stayed light and didn’t do any squats for about 6 weeks. Started again “all out” this monday.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Lifting was decent (went up to a 120kg snatch from blocks for example) , then I add to take a short hiatus because I started to have bleeding hemorhoids again (last time I lost so much blood that I couldn’t send oxygen to the heart and went to the hospital). So I stayed light and didn’t do any squats for about 6 weeks. Started again “all out” this monday.[/quote]

That sounds pretty awful, glad to hear you’re back on the right track. Are we going to see your name on some results sheets this year?

Hey, I’m from Montreal so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

IF you will be downtown, check out L’Usine, its a crossfit gym, so it’s pricey but they have plenty of racks and parking is near by.
www.lusine.ca

Also just around the corner from there is blackout Fitness, it is more of a commercial gym, but they have power racks and are often free. Also they have bumper plates and don’t really care if drop your weights.
blackoutfitness.net/blackout

As for Olympic lifting, I would recommend Cross fit Montreal.
www.crossfitmontreal.ca/en/program-olympic-lifting
I have a friend who trains Olympic lifts there and he enjoys the environment, the coaching and the price.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Lifting was decent (went up to a 120kg snatch from blocks for example) , then I add to take a short hiatus because I started to have bleeding hemorhoids again (last time I lost so much blood that I couldn’t send oxygen to the heart and went to the hospital). So I stayed light and didn’t do any squats for about 6 weeks. Started again “all out” this monday.[/quote]
That sounds pretty awful, glad to hear you’re back on the right track. Are we going to see your name on some results sheets this year?[/quote]

Not sure yet… I was aiming for it, but that incident took me back a bit. I just hit a 140kg power clean double while being super sick for the past 3 days, so it’s not that bad.

However I am coaching quite a few Crossfit athletes that want to compete in weightlifting and qualify for nationals. There will be one qualifier left (march 20th I think) I might postpone me competing to next year because since it will be their first competition and I could have anywhere from 4 to 7 people it might be hard to compete too.

I have 7 girls who could fairly easily make the qualifying standards and 2-3 guys but since Canada East regionals will be around the same time I’m not sure if they will all come.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Not sure yet… I was aiming for it, but that incident took me back a bit. I just hit a 140kg power clean double while being super sick for the past 3 days, so it’s not that bad.

However I am coaching quite a few Crossfit athletes that want to compete in weightlifting and qualify for nationals. There will be one qualifier left (march 20th I think) I might postpone me competing to next year because since it will be their first competition and I could have anywhere from 4 to 7 people it might be hard to compete too.

I have 7 girls who could fairly easily make the qualifying standards and 2-3 guys but since Canada East regionals will be around the same time I’m not sure if they will all come.[/quote]
Yeah, the classique halterophile quebecoise is on March 28th, same day as western canadians and the ontario championships. Also right at the end of the crossfit open, I think. Are there any qualifying standards for the classique or can anybody lift?

Yeah, Canada East regionals are a week after weightlifting nationals, if I’m not mistaken. Tough to do both, I’d imagine; I know a girl who tried to do nationals this year after doing regionals the week before and she didn’t wind up making weight.

Regardless of how things shake up re: your competing, hopefully you can stay healthy.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
Yeah, the classique halterophile quebecoise is on March 28th, same day as western canadians and the ontario championships. Also right at the end of the crossfit open, I think. Are there any qualifying standards for the classique or can anybody lift?

Yeah, Canada East regionals are a week after weightlifting nationals, if I’m not mistaken. Tough to do both, I’d imagine; I know a girl who tried to do nationals this year after doing regionals the week before and she didn’t wind up making weight.

Regardless of how things shake up re: your competing, hopefully you can stay healthy.[/quote]

There are qualifying standards for the classique as for any provincial competition. As the season progresses the standards become higher…

I’ll give you an example with the 85kg class…

Provincials (october 25th): 230kg
Quebec Qualification (december 20th): 235kg
Classique (march 28th): 243kg
Nationals (may 16-17th): 245kg

I will likely have one girl in the 53kg, two in the 58kg, two or three (one could make the Regionals) in the 63kg. What “helps” is that this year they have a “super regionals” and only 20 people from the Canada East region will qualify for the “Regionals”.

The national standards for my girls are:

53kg: 130kg (with her training lifts that she hits 9/10 she would be 139kg and that is after a WOD and always in a fatigued state… lousy conditions)

58kg: 140kg (same as above, one is at 156 and the other one is at 145kg)

63kg: 145kg (same as above, the best one would be at 189kg but she will like get to regionals, another one is at 165kg and is a possible longshot for Regionals, the third one is currently at 155kg)

We still have a few months and we are in an intensification phase, so I would expect numbers of about 3-5kg more in the total especially in a rested state, but there is still the matter of doing the lifts on the platform.

I have a 85kg guy who already qualified, one who could qualify… he would need 245kg, right now he does 240kg), another 85kg who can make the lifts if he stays healthy (he lifts like an elite chinese lifter) but he always pulls something.

A third one was a total beast in the 105kg class, big snatch at 130kg, but can seems to keep his knees healthy and he will likely do the regionals in team.

I don’t have many videos. I’m old school and when I coach I get in the zone and rarely think about filming.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
There are qualifying standards for the classique as for any provincial competition. As the season progresses the standards become higher…

I’ll give you an example with the 85kg class…

Provincials (october 25th): 230kg
Quebec Qualification (december 20th): 235kg
Classique (march 28th): 243kg
Nationals (may 16-17th): 245kg[/quote]

Ah, okay. Western Canadians is a provincial team event and I knew you had to qualify for the Ontario championships but had never heard about the classique. Interesting though, here in Alberta I believe last year was the first year they brought in qualifying totals for the provincial championships. Just never had the membership Quebec does and no reason to limit it until recently, I guess. Provincial qualifying total is pretty low though, I want to say provincials class 2, but don’t quote me on that.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I will likely have one girl in the 53kg, two in the 58kg, two or three (one could make the Regionals) in the 63kg. What “helps” is that this year they have a “super regionals” and only 20 people from the Canada East region will qualify for the “Regionals”.

The national standards for my girls are:

53kg: 130kg (with her training lifts that she hits 9/10 she would be 139kg and that is after a WOD and always in a fatigued state… lousy conditions)

58kg: 140kg (same as above, one is at 156 and the other one is at 145kg)

63kg: 145kg (same as above, the best one would be at 189kg but she will like get to regionals, another one is at 165kg and is a possible longshot for Regionals, the third one is currently at 155kg)

We still have a few months and we are in an intensification phase, so I would expect numbers of about 3-5kg more in the total especially in a rested state, but there is still the matter of doing the lifts on the platform.

I have a 85kg guy who already qualified, one who could qualify… he would need 245kg, right now he does 240kg), another 85kg who can make the lifts if he stays healthy (he lifts like an elite chinese lifter) but he always pulls something.

A third one was a total beast in the 105kg class, big snatch at 130kg, but can seems to keep his knees healthy and he will likely do the regionals in team.

I don’t have many videos. I’m old school and when I coach I get in the zone and rarely think about filming.[/quote]
Those are some pretty decent lifts; a female totaling 189@63 is huge. I’m assuming the guy doing those front squats is performing the concentric slowly on purpose? Your 105 with the 130 snatch, what’s his clean and jerk look like? Not sure who’s active in the 105s domestically right now but there aren’t many who can snatch that, I don’t think. And I would think your athletes would appreciate you focusing on coaching them and not filming them.

Anyways, sounds like you should have at least a couple athletes lifting at nationals this year. Should see you there, I got my total in November so I’ve punched my ticket for western canadians and nationals.

Yes, he is doing it slowly on purpose. A method I learned (and learned to hate) from Pierre Roy to strengthen the positions when you lift.

The only drawback with them is that I don’t have that much control on their whole training program. They are first and foremost crossfit competitors. I get them 1-3 times a week and can plan what I want at those sessions. But most of their time is spent on training for crossfit. When one has a big crossfit competition coming up they can spend 2-3 weeks without doing weightlifting to focus on their metcon.

The good thing though is that their coach is amazing. He is actually a friend of mine and has more of a strength-coach mentality than a crossfit one. He has them do plenty of strength, mobility and even some bodybuilding work. They do have 3-4 metabolic conditioning sessions but emphasis is on quality, not speed.

It’s still not a perfect situation but it’s workable.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Yes, he is doing it slowly on purpose. A method I learned (and learned to hate) from Pierre Roy to strengthen the positions when you lift.[/quote]
Ah, okay. I try to stick to a slower/controlled eccentric but explode on the concentric, getting a huge bounce out of the hole doesn’t make much sense to me but I still want to train to be explosive. Do you ever use pauses during the pulls to help strengthen the positions?

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
The only drawback with them is that I don’t have that much control on their whole training program. They are first and foremost crossfit competitors. I get them 1-3 times a week and can plan what I want at those sessions. But most of their time is spent on training for crossfit. When one has a big crossfit competition coming up they can spend 2-3 weeks without doing weightlifting to focus on their metcon.

The good thing though is that their coach is amazing. He is actually a friend of mine and has more of a strength-coach mentality than a crossfit one. He has them do plenty of strength, mobility and even some bodybuilding work. They do have 3-4 metabolic conditioning sessions but emphasis is on quality, not speed.

It’s still not a perfect situation but it’s workable.[/quote]
Maybe not perfect, but you’re obviously getting some results out of those guys. Helps that their crossfit coach knows what he’s doing, but I wouldn’t figure you to be working with a glorified babysitter who just puts the mainsite WOD on the board.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
Ah, okay. I try to stick to a slower/controlled eccentric but explode on the concentric, getting a huge bounce out of the hole doesn’t make much sense to me but I still want to train to be explosive. Do you ever use pauses during the pulls to help strengthen the positions?
.[/quote]

Note that we don’t always (or often) squat that way. But since I rarely do videos and wanted to see his positions, that’s the only video I had.

I’m a big fan of pauses below and above the knees for snatches and clean. As well as at the bottom of the dip for the jerk. In fact, my 53kg girl fixed her jerk in one session simply by using paused jerks.

True, and we work together. So if I want something specific added to their program outside of my sessions, he adds it.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Note that we don’t always (or often) squat that way. But since I rarely do videos and wanted to see his positions, that’s the only video I had.[/quote]
Fair enough, looks exhausting though. Only time I’ve ever passed out I was doing front squats with an 8 second eccentric and a 2 second pause in the hole, hard to imagine going slow on the way up too. And I’m no coach, but the positions in those videos look fairly solid.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I’m a big fan of pauses below and above the knees for snatches and clean. As well as at the bottom of the dip for the jerk. In fact, my 53kg girl fixed her jerk in one session simply by using paused jerks.[/quote]
I’ve used pauses in the past but had the most success using them on pulls and on jerks within complexes, I’ve tried them on snatches/cleans in the past and my lower back blew right up. Granted, I’ve made strides since then in trying to make sure my core and hips are actually engaging and working together properly (hip flexors and low back like to tighten right up). Plan to try them again over the next few months here.

Yes doing it on the competition platform is another thing. I had this one girl nearly spectacularly almost disintegrate at student champs. Things didn’t look good so I lower her CJ openers. Miss, Miss, just about got. wtf?! I was to expecting that as she was fine at the other comp we did to qualify her.

CT looks like you got a good bunch of athletes there!

You always mention things from the hang and not from the floor. You don’t do much lifting from the floor?

Koing

[quote]Koing wrote:
Yes doing it on the competition platform is another thing. I had this one girl nearly spectacularly almost disintegrate at student champs. Things didn’t look good so I lower her CJ openers. Miss, Miss, just about got. wtf?! I was to expecting that as she was fine at the other comp we did to qualify her.

CT looks like you got a good bunch of athletes there!

You always mention things from the hang and not from the floor. You don’t do much lifting from the floor?

Koing[/quote]

What do you mean? I almost never do lifts from the hang myself and almost never with my athletes. I use lifts from the hang only with hockey and football players.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
What do you mean? I almost never do lifts from the hang myself and almost never with my athletes. I use lifts from the hang only with hockey and football players.[/quote]

You mentioned you block Sn 120kg. I just don’t really recall you mentioning your lifts from the floor often on here.

Koing

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
What do you mean? I almost never do lifts from the hang myself and almost never with my athletes. I use lifts from the hang only with hockey and football players.[/quote]

You mentioned you block Sn 120kg. I just don’t really recall you mentioning your lifts from the floor often on here.

Koing[/quote]

Well I don’t mention lifts often period :slight_smile: I mentioned the lift from blocks because that was the last thing I did prior to posting and it was fresh in my mind. In reality I almost never do lifts from blocks because I don’t have blocks in my garage (where I do most of my training). I can stack old tires but I can’t drop the bar confidently so I don’t go heavy. I only go from blocks when I train at the Crossfit gym where I coach, which is maybe once a month.

My training template is fairly simple:

DAY 1 - SNATCH

  1. Snatch (normally working up to a max or near max double)
  2. Snatch pull variation (right now it’s mostly snatch deadlift to power position) working up to a max or near max double or triple
  3. Back squat I stay fairly conservative for sets of 3 reps
  4. Half back squat from a deadstart (from a 110 degrees knee angle) working up to a max for 6 reps

DAY 2 - CLEAN

  1. Clean (working up to a max or near max double)
  2. Clean pull (same as snatch)
  3. Front squat (working up to a max or near max triple)

DAY 3 - JERK

  1. Push press (working up to a max or near max triple)
  2. Jerk (working up to a max or near max double)
  3. Half front squat (knee angle 110 degrees) working up to a max or near max for 4 reps
  4. Power snatches 4-5 sets of 3 with about 75%

DAY 4 - OLYMPIC TOTAL

  1. Snatch
  2. Clean & jerk

And I have 1 or 2 bodybuilding days.