5 Rounds for time of:
10 Power cleans, 135#(95#)
15 Toes to bar
30 Double unders
Post rounds to comments and BTWB
I like working out. Working out is my favorite. By Courtney Shepherd and the experts at the New York Times
I don’t know about you but I am a fan of the inter webs. I enjoy the occasional dabble in the Book of Faces as well as the Instagram. I love the messages I get posted to my wall about achievements of Verve athletes, inside and outside of the gym. I also get some pretty funny messages sharing some silly inside joke or perhaps some new ninja moves we should try to incorporate into the Verve programming. A pretty funny post I got a few months ago was a joke a wife made to her husband saying it was possible Verve was actually really her better half. I think many of us can laugh because we know, this may not be that far from the truth. Anyone else out there find they have become obsessed with CrossFit? Maybe you don’t think you are but your family might disagree. Let’s take a little “obsessed test”, shall we?
1) Do you make sure you get a WOD in on major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s day?
2) When you travel, do you locate a CrossFit gym in the area you can visit during your vacation?
3) If you move, is one of your major concerns which gym you will go to?
4) Are your non CrossFitting family and friends tired of hearing about CrossFit from you?
5) Was your favorite birthday present the new pair of Reebok Nanos or other CrossFit related piece of equipment?
If you answered “YES”, to ANY of these questions I think you know what that means. And that’s okay, I’m not judging you. I was so obsessed with CrossFit I bought a whole CrossFit gym, I have no room to judge. The next question is why? Why are we so in love with CrossFit? I mean, it’s just working out, what’s the big deal? The big deal is different for each of us but it ranges from being the way we lost a significant amount of weight, to helping us feel good before our wedding day, to helping us eventually achieve an even bigger goal outside of the gym, like run a half marathon. We all walked into Verve with goals, most was to simply “get in shape”. But after we spent a lot of time in the gym those goals began to shift and ultimately I think most of us can say we love CrossFit because it makes us feel good. Perhaps it unleashes our competitive spirit. Or it gave us the ability to do things we NEVER imagined we could, like a strict pull-up. Either way, we leave feeling good. We have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the hour, and we just want more.
A question some might ask is, is more good? Is it possible for us to workout out too much? In an article in The New York Times titled “The Right Dose of Exercise For a Longer Life”, they actually site a recent study that not only addresses how much is too much physical activity but even more important, what type of physical activity.
“Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little, too much or just the right amount to improve health and longevity. Two new, impressively large-scale studies provide some clarity, suggesting that the ideal dose of exercise for a long life is a bit more than many of us currently believe we should get, but less than many of us might expect. The studies also found that prolonged or intense exercise is unlikely to be harmful and could add years to people’s lives.”
I think we can all agree, without having any medical credentials behind our names, that any exercise is better than no exercise. The current recommend guidelines from governmental and health organizations call for 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week to build and maintain health and fitness. That’s 2 1/2 hours per week, of moderate exercise, an example of which is walking. We pretty much knock that recommendation out of the park. Is that bad? I’ll skip through the who, what, when, where, and for how long logistics of the study and just highlight the main point here:
“Then, as with the other study, they checked death statistics. And as in the other study, they found that meeting the exercise guidelines substantially reduced the risk of early death, even if someone’s exercise was moderate, such as walking.
But if someone engaged in even occasional vigorous exercise, he or she gained a small but not unimportant additional reduction in mortality. Those who spent up to 30 percent of their weekly exercise time in vigorous activities were 9 percent less likely to die prematurely than people who exercised for the same amount of time but always moderately, while those who spent more than 30 percent of their exercise time in strenuous activities gained an extra 13 percent reduction in early mortality, compared with people who never broke much of a sweat. The researchers did not note any increase in mortality, even among those few people completing the largest amounts of intense exercise.
Anyone who is physically capable of activity should try to “reach at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week and have around 20 to 30 minutes of that be vigorous activity,” says Klaus Gebel, a senior research fellow at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, who led the second study. And a larger dose, for those who are so inclined, does not seem to be unsafe, he said.”
So there you have it folks, you can keep WODing without fear of dying young. I’m not really sure if you were fearing an early death due to over CrossFitting but if you were, you may now rest easy.
It’s okay to workout hard and to do so often. . . as long as your body can handle it. Here is my disclaimer to you obsessed CrossFitters. . . LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Working out is meant to make you feel good and help live a long, happy life. Yes, we will be sore from some of our efforts but soreness is not painful. Working out should not be painful. Taking rest days are good, they help the body restore and repair. If you are feeling excessively tired or worn down, take a rest day. Trying to lift heavy weight when our mind and body are not in the game can lead to injuries.
Make Verve, or whichever CrossFit gym you find yourself going to, the place you push yourself and find accomplishment. The place you build friendships, even of the slightly competitive nature. The place you may consider your home away from home. And if anyone gives you crap about it, just tell them it’s okay. . . it’s science, they wouldn’t understand.
*Click here for full article.
Verve Night Out This Saturday!!
Come join us at Lucky Pie Pizza & Taphouse in Denver
Saturday May 2nd, 4pm-8pm
It is a fundraiser to help send #teamverve to the South Regionals in Dallas, TX. There will be food & drink specials, a silent auction, and raffle prizes.
