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We’ve teamed up with our friends over at Vega Fueled for 4 weeks of giveaways, but you’re going to have to show us your moves to score some swag.

Every Friday, we’ll toss up a post on Instagram with an exercise for you to do on the spot. When you see the post, give the person nearest to you your phone and get them to film/snap a pic of you completing the exercise.

We’ll be picking our favourite and sending the winner a RYU Quick Pack filled with $100 of Vega product along with an RYU gift card.

Try not to rip your suit pants at your desk though, ok?

To enter, follow these 3 steps.

1. Follow @ryu_apparel & @vegafueled
2. Challenge your friend to the workout in the comments
3. Upload a photo or video of your completing the workout and tag @ryu_apparel, @vegafueled & #VEGAxRYU

Contest Dates:

Friday, August 19th, 2016
Friday, September 2nd, 2016
Friday, September 9th, 2016
Friday, September 16th, 2016

*Vega products may vary from the above image

Top: CorLayr Racerback Tank

“Good enough” is never enough in sport. Complacency is like death. This mentality keeps you driven, keeps you hungry, and keeps you performing. At the same time, it is important to remember that you as a person are enough.

It is important to separate the person from what he or she does. I find this hard to do at times. I have measured my worth based on my performance. Looking back at my journey with the perspective I have today, I can see that I am so much more than the athlete who participated in two Olympic Games.

If I had gone to two Olympics, then the next athlete had gone to three. If I won one medal, then the next athlete won two, or even six! Records are being constantly set and broken. Hardcore-ness is obtained and then some other crazy specimen of sport comes along and shatters expectations and sets the bar even higher. Very few records and accomplishments sit unchallenged for long.

Top: CorLayr Racerback Tank
Bottom: TecLayr EveryDay Short

It is humbling to know that there is always someone achieving more. This can also breed a culture and a way of thinking that believes nothing is ever worthy of being sufficient. Mostly I realize that my achievements in sport were more than sufficient, but when I am being hard on myself, I don’t think that way. I can tell by things other athletes have said to me that they don’t feel that way about themselves either. I hear things like, “Well, my sports career wasn’t as big as yours” or “I never got to the level you did.” Regardless of our achievements, sport teaches us all similar lessons that we can speak to universally. Let’s think of ourselves as athletes as we would think of our own child. If it were my child who brought home a silver medal and did what I did, I would be endlessly proud. Why am I not as gentle and proud of myself as I would be with my child (who doesn’t even exist yet)?

Top: TecLayr Tech Tank
Bottom: HardWear Compression Capri

When your internal voice starts to gang up on you, turn it around. Ask yourself how would you talk to a younger version of yourself. Would you tell her she is beautiful and deserves unconditional love and support despite her flaws, or would you belittle her and break her down for every little nit-picky thing you can find? The answer seems obvious when I think about it, but it’s not as easy when my internal critic is in charge.

For instance, do you think you are beautiful? That is a hard question for me to answer. I have never thought of myself as beautiful. I have moments when I feel self-confident that I am attractive, but I have other times when I feel hideous. A bad image at a horrible angle can quickly turn into evidence that I am utterly unsightly. Why do I focus on what’s outside of myself to answer this question? We live in a visual world filled with access to all sorts of images. Current day cameras and photographic software used to enhance images unfortunately alter what we see and can make us feel less adequate in comparisons to others. What I have learned through my experiences is that things are not as they appear. From the outside, my life looks a certain way. I have great photos on my Instagram and a list of achievements that are impressive, but I don’t feel inside what you might expect if you reviewed my Instagram account. I have struggled with self-esteem since I was a young girl; the struggle was more intense in my school years. Retiring from rowing brought back much insecurity to the forefront of my daily life.

Top: TecLayr Tech Tank
Bottom: TecLayr EveryDay Short

There was never a time I can recall when I felt more empowered and confident than I did when I was rowing. It became a great arena in which I could push myself and build confidence. I found strength in belonging to a group of like-minded women. We were like-minded, as well as being alike in body type and skill set. Outside the rowing world, I am always one of the tallest women around, which has always made me feel mammoth. Instead of appreciating what has become a gift, I loathed it. In rowing, I was one of many tall women and sometimes even the shortest.

Being five foot ten made me short, relatively speaking, in a pool of athletes. I remember standing tall, even wanting to be taller! This was such an astonishing shift in mindset and it came simply from being around others like me. I no longer felt as though I stood out; I didn’t feel insecure about my height: I owned it.

Top: TecLayr Tech Tank
Bottom: HardWear Compression Capri

The camaraderie and understanding I received from my teammates gave me strength. The safe place I found in the world of rowing allowed me to explore who I am and who I want to be. Being empowered and confident, I began to see what I was truly capable of.

Leaving rowing and re-entering a world where I am once again the tallest female, sometimes the tallest person in the room, brings back many a demon for me. Now I have the armor of a silver medal and a purpose for which I use this height, but it doesn’t mean that my feelings of wanting to hide away from standing out have disappeared.

Written by Krista Guloien

This excerpt is from the new book entitled “Beyond The Finish Line” by 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Krista Guloien. In it, Krista takes us from the elation of winning an Olympic Medal to the roller coaster ride of transition to life after sport. But this is not just a book about sport. It’s about a women’s journey to discover who she is, what is most important in her life and how she can contribute.
It can be purchased here: Amazon and Amazon(CA) 

Krista's Faves: TecLayr Tech Tank, TecLayr 2N1 Training Short, HardWear Compression Capri

Krista Guloien is a hard woman to keep up with. Inspiring athlete, empowering role model, author, mentor, coach and Olympic Silver medalist, Krista truly embodies what beautiful tough is all about.

RYU recently caught up with Krista for a sweaty session at Movement 108 in Vancouver last week and got a glimpse of what she’s up to. From launching her must read new book – Beyond The Finish Line, to teaching spin classes and volunteering to educate and push young athletes to their potential – it seems Krista has no intention of ever slowing down.

Before she ran off, we wanted to know what she threw in her bag before heading out to train.

Take a peek:

1. RYU Locker Pack. It’s your locker on the go and it’s nice enough for both the gym and work. Shoe compartments, space for everything you need and a laptop sleeve on the outside so there’s extra space taken up. Your go-to everything bag.

2. RYU Teclayr Tech Tank. It’s lightweight, sleevelessand gives me the cover up I need. I don’t really like this half shirt business - I want to be covered and secured for my workout. The Teclayr Tank is great for my sweatiest workouts.

3. RYU 2n1 Shorts. These shorts! I love that I can lift heavy and deadlift without worrying about my butt coming out. I feel “securely packaged”.

I love this outfit combo because I’m comfortable when working out - the last thing I want to feel is my outfit.

4. RYU Shaker Cup + Protein. I need protein in me as quick as possible. It’s great for on the go and it’s quick access for me post workout.

5. Advil. Anti-Inflammatory. Enough said.

6. Tiger Balm - It’s great for my muscles and it just smells like I’m instantly healing.

7. Lifters - These give me stability and a solid foundation - necessity for my lifting.

HardWear Compression Tight

Compression gear. Athletes swear by it. But what does it do and how did we make it better?

The compression tight is an essential piece of training gear that gets tossed into your gym bag. It can be used for any activity and helps with the recovery and support of your hard working muscles during training and competition.

HardWear Compression Capri

Creating a compression collection was a no brainer for our design team, but before we did that, we went right to the source. Our athletes. We wanted to hear first hand what was missing from their current gear and how we could engineer something that better facilitated their performance.

What we discovered surprised us. We found out that no one was creating compression gear specifically for lifters. Our athletes showed us pants that were worn down and ripped in the shin and thighs from heavy bar action. So we created the toughest compression gear on the planet. In fact, it is the only compression collection that has abrasion resistant panels strategically placed where lifters need it most.

HardWear Compression Tight

Our HardWear Compression Collection allows you to train harder and recover faster. They are engineered to increase blood circulation, reduce lactic acid build ups and lessen muscle cramps all with a technical design that incorporates abrasion resistance and support. It's all the benefits you've come to rely on from compression without the wear and tear.

INNOVATION FROM THE GROUND UP

In a revolutionary experiment where raw athletic talent meets technical design superiority, RYU pioneered a new process for bringing tailored innovation to market. It began with the formation of BETA\375, the Research + Development Lab tasked with inventing the future of athletic performance.

Lifts. Reps. Sweat. Sacrifice. Countless hours spent in the gym. We long for it. We crave it. We need it. But for what?  Confined to the four walls of the gym, does all that effort become little more than sport?

I’m beginning to believe that what society has now popularized as an activity in itself - training - was never designed to be confined to four walls. The gym was merely meant to be the practice arena. An area to refine the craft. To bring it back out into the world stronger, faster and better than it was before.

I realize now that the hours of training were never meant to be the end result, but what allows us to interact with the world in ways we couldn’t have before. And that realization prompted a single question to run through my mind over and over…

WHAT AM I TRAINING FOR?
From that simple question came the idea to find ways to play, practice and move the way I do in training, anytime, anywhere, with anything available to me.

My goal became to redefine “training” from in a gym to anything I would interact with out in the world. And to incorporate anything I want to do in the outside world, into my training.

We’ve been given this ability to move, to use our body to do things and take us places. To not use that, to not expand that, and to not push that potential into the world you interact with every day, is a shame. My goal was to not be limited in my thinking and to be able to adapt my skills, my movements, and the body I’ve worked so hard for, to any environment. To force my mind and my body to change the way it took shape, performed movements, and interacted with what was in front of it.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU
For any of you that want to push yourself in an unorthodox way, I challenge you this: View the world in front of you as if it was your only gym. Take what you wish you could do in the world and bring it into your training.

Let those neat and tidy lines that have been place in front of you begin to blur. Rather than being guided by the railings and fences the world puts up to move you as it pleases, let them become obstacles to jump over.

THE WORLD CAN BE YOUR PLAYGROUND

Let those buildings at city hall, not only be a place to pay taxes, but a playground to move, jump, sprint, and adapt to. 

Let the park behind your house transform from grass and trees to a sports arena.

Those 30 stairs in front of you. Let that be your gym for box jumps, inclined sprints, or uneven squats.

Park benches. Dips, push ups and elevated planks.

That overhead pipe in your underground. Chin ups, leg lifts, single arm hangs.

Transform your world from a concrete jungle to an endless playground. Allow everything around you become something you can navigate and play with. Limited only by what you can see, let even the simplest things, like cracks in a sidewalk, become a chance to refine your jump skills and co-ordination.

BLUR THE LINES
When you begin to blur those lines, the world around you changes. You realize that with nothing more than creativity and effort, all of those hours spent in the gym can and will go so much further than looking and feeling good. You will begin to adapt to any environment.

My challenge to you is to go to a park or any other public place and look for new ways to practice what we’ve so easily confined to a gym. It doesn’t matter if it’s push ups, squats, crawling, or trying to walk on your hands. Just find some ways to apply your current craft to the environment around you.

Find a park bench and choose three ways to play on it aside from sitting. Figure out three things you can do with a wall besides leaning on it. View your environment through fresh eyes and see what is around for you to play with.

Before you know it, you will begin to see new uses for everything around you. The bland will speak to you differently and the most boring of places will become your playground. The world around you will become your gym. And it is always open.

Written by Julian DeSchutter

Julian is the co-founder of Chasing Sunrise, a community that understands with each sunrise, we are given a choice to make. We can either stay in bed waiting for life to come to us or we can get up and get after it chasing what we want.