Hey folks, Saturday’s schedule is a little different this week:
8am- Kid’s WOD
8am- WOD
9am- Sprint
9am- WOD
10am- 11am- Open Gym *** This is an hour earlier than usual AND it only lasts an hour. This is for this weekend only***
And starting at 11am is the Here To Slay Ladies Only WOD!! Ladies can come to workout, hang out, and shop. This event is open to all ladies, not just Verve members. The workout is easily scaleable for your non CrossFit friends. Click here for the Facebook event page for more details.
Gentlemen, don’t feel left out. We have an event for you next month!!
Long time Verve member from the 5:30am crew Dan, and his wife, have welcomed the newest member of the family in to the world. World meet Colin. Congratulations to Dan and his family!!
Scale more, more often By Courtney Shepherd and The CrossFit Journal
We need intensity in our workouts. Intensity is what gives us the results we want. If you have ever attended a CrossFit Level 1 Seminar, during the opening lecture, “What is CrossFit?” there is the discussion of relative intensity. Intensity is relative to the person and their physical and psychological capabilities. Whether you are an elite athlete or an elderly grandparent, you can get the intensity needed from a workout. The needs of the elite athlete and the grandparent differ by degree, not kind. The elite athlete seeks functional dominance while grandma seeks functional competence. There is no need to change the program to help these people get their personal needed intensity, we simply need to scale the workout.
When we introduce workouts at the board, trainers give their expectations for the workout. If the expectation is 10 rounds in 20 minutes, that should be a goal everyone shoots for.Some of us may have to make changes to the workout to achieve this, AKA scale the WOD. Scaling is not a bad thing. It does not make us weaker or less of a human. Scaling is a necessary thing to get the necessary intensity. Because if you are the person who avoids scaling at all costs and then gets 5 rounds in 20 minutes. . . while you may be sweaty and out of breathe, you did not get truly intense. What you did is exactly half the work. And the questions becomes, can we expect to get 100% of the results doing 50% of the work? You can wish it to be true, but as my dad use to say, you can wish in one hand and poop in the other, see which one fills faster. It is the person that refuses to scale accordingly and does 50% of the work that often finds me several months into their CrossFit journey and asks me why they are not seeing improvement? Intensity gets results. Period. If you avoid intensity because you think having an “RX” next to your name is more important and way cooler, then you don’t get results.
The CrossFit Journal published an article titled “Scaling: How Less Can Be More. There’s no shame in scaling a WOD. Here are some ideas on how to do it effectively” by Clea Weiss (click here for full article). It is an amazing read for those of you who want a bit more insight into scaling. For some of you science geeks out there that enjoy putting numbers to concepts, the article gives examples of how scaling a workout actually yields a higher power output, AKA intensity.
“There are various ways to scale. How to elicit the most effective response is both subtle and complex. You don’t always scale by reducing the duration of workouts, for instance. Scaling correctly will increase work capacity more efficiently than attempting to complete workouts as prescribed before you’re ready for them. Properly lowering the weight and achieving a faster time will actually yield a higher level of power.
The work and power output calculator on the Catalyst Athletics website shows that a 5-foot-10, 180-pound athlete who completes Fran with 95 pounds in nine minutes has a power output of 98.2 watts. If the same athlete scales the weight down to 75 pounds and completes the workout two minutes faster, his power output actually rises to 115.7 watts. So using less weight can sometimes be better.
Here’s another example of how using less weight can be the right thing to do: a five-foot- five athlete who weighs 130 pounds and completes Fran in nine minutes using 65 pounds has a power output of 64.3 watts. If the same athlete scales the weight down to 45 pounds and completes the workout two minutes faster, her power output rises to 72.9 watts.”
I often have athletes that tell me “it’s not the weight, that weight is light for me but it’s all the other stuff.” To be clear, it’s the weight. If asking you to hold on to a weight for many reps gases you so much that you can’t do the other stuff or doing the other stuff makes it hard to hold on to the weight for many reps, it’s the weight.
“If the WOD calls for 30 clean and jerks at 155 pounds, it’s clearly a met-con WOD. If you turn the workout into 30 single reps with a minute rest between them, you’ve missed the point.”
We don’t just scale weight. We can scale rounds, reps, rest, and even the movement itself. We have another saying in CrossFit “scale more, more often”. If you over scale a workout that was suppose to take 12 minutes and get it done in 6 minutes, the benefits to that are far greater than taking 17 minutes to do it. If that happens, if you just crush a workout. . . write that stuff down. Start paying attention to what your new limits are. Keep track of your accomplishments and use that information to achieve even more.
“If you’re just starting out and can’t judge whether to hold back or push harder, hold back. Once you’ve been doing CrossFit for a while and learn what your real limits are, push harder. Careful scaling works—but it takes planning and experience. Track your progress, evaluate the results of your scaling and correct your mistakes.Talk to other coaches and athletes and ask for advice. Think, plan and educate yourself.
Most importantly, keep at it. While it may seem that you’re always scaling or just completing basic movements day-in and day-out, you’ll eventually start cranking out impressive CrossFit performances. The day will come. Just keep hitting the scaled workouts with all you have: blood, sweat, tears and patience.“
Don’t run from Monday. It’s happening whether you like it or not.
Folks, we have so much stuff coming up at Verve, so get out your calendars. . .
In the month of May Yoga- Sunday 6th and Sunday 20th
Ladies only workout and social event- Saturday 12th
Memorial Day “Murph”- Monday 28th
In the month of June Cherry Creek Triple Threat- Saturday 9th
Gentlemen only workout and social event- Saturday 16th
OUTWOD- Saturday 23rd
Stay tuned for more details about each of these events!! As a hint, we usually post all the info on Mondays. . . and sometimes other days, so you should just read the blog everyday. 😉
The timer beeps, signaling the end of your workout.
You normally feel pretty exhilarated after it’s over, but this was one of those workouts. One where there wasn’t a single movement you could come close to performing.
The rest of the athletes had hung from the rig, doing variations of toes-to-bars and hanging leg raises. Unable even to hang, you were on the floor with a medicine ball between your knees, trying to raise it to your chest.
When the coach saw your frustration with single-unders and quickly switched you to calf raises, you swore the whiz of all the double-unders in the room was even louder than the Metallica blaring overhead.
Shaking arms perched on the edge of a box, your performed “dips” that were barely perceptible. Across the room, your classmates looked far steadier as they moved up and down between the wooden rings.
Trudging toward the wall, you dread the novel you will write to describe your modifications when you log your workout.
All the fist bumps don’t change that feeling. That feeling that you’ll never get “there.” That it’s taking too long to see any improvement. That maybe you are actually in over your head.
I had more than a few of those days early on. A lot of it was due to my own unrealistic expectations.
I had been trapped in the binge-diet cycle and thought anything could change drastically in 30 or 60 days. Even though I started CrossFit morbidly obese, I initially imagined I’d have things like pull-ups and double-unders in a few short months if I came three times a week.
Of course, I quickly realized my imagination had to do some negotiating with reality.
That didn’t mean days like the one described above didn’t sting. After one particularly trying day, I seriously considered asking the owner if he could please, please make sure there was at least one thing I could actually do in each workout. I just couldn’t muster up the boldness to admit how crushing it was to me to modify a workout to the point it was unrecognizable from my perspective.
The first time I heard the phrase “leave your ego at the door,” I didn’t apply it to myself. I assumed that advice was for the strapping bodybuilder who just suffered through Nancy for the first time or the spin instructor who paid tribute to DT.
But the phrase was absolutely meant for me. And it’s also meant for you.
It was during one of those early pity-fests that I found myself reading the words below on the wall at Cross Fixx, and they can probably be found somewhere in your box, too:
I’d seen those words for weeks, and it finally dawned on me that the list didn’t include muscle-ups, pull-ups, double-unders and handstand push-ups. It didn’t say a thing about Fran, Cindy, Angie or Jackie. Those movements and workouts provide the constant variation that produces fitness and the benchmarks that test it, but mastering a movement or workout isn’t truly the end goal.
We want to live longer, avoid chronic disease and be able to thrive when faced with a challenge. In the gym, that challenge might be Fight Gone Bad. In real life, it might be racing to get help or pulling someone to safety. It could be as profoundly simple as setting an example that keeps your children from becoming obese or makes your aging parents rethink what a healthy meal looks like.
After this realization, things changed dramatically for me. CrossFit had already educated me on the importance of record keeping so I could identify any and all metrics that were improving. I just needed a personal set of benchmarks to record and—hopefully—crush on a regular basis.
Endurance improvements were easy to measure: Row or run/walk for a set period of time and try to go further each week. Or I could run or row a set distance and then re-test to see if I could complete it faster. Sound familiar? These are your basic AMRAP and for-time workouts.
For accuracy, I would see how many wall-ball reps I could complete in a row before a no-rep appeared. When I increased the height of the wall-ball shot, that was a strength PR for me.
For stamina, I would regularly multiply the total reps completed in a WOD by the weight I was using, then divide it by the total minutes to get a weight-per-minute number to try and beat. Yeah, I’m a numbers geek, but seeing the upward trend was motivating and made me care less and less about being able to click the Rx button.
Five months into CrossFit, I did get to click the Rx button.
I remember being almost dismissive of the accomplishment initially: “Of course you Rx’d this. It’s an easy one.”
It was 10-minute AMRAP of 10 kettlebell snatches at 26 lb. and a 10-calorie row. That day it was easy. Five months prior, I hadn’t been able to strap myself into the rower because my belly blocked me and I lacked flexibility. I hadn’t been able to squat below parallel. In May 2014, when I walked in the door of CrossFit Fixx, there was no way I could have squatted down and pulled a 26-lb. kettlebell to my side. Never mind using the power of my hips to throw it overhead 50 times.
I felt like a freaking rock star.
You will, too—as soon as you realize that you only need to compare yourself to the person in the mirror. No one else. It’s not that hard to become a little better every single day. A little stronger, a smidge faster, slightly more coordinated.
You can only build the body of your dreams with thousands of good nutritional decisions and hundreds of workouts that make you utter phrases such as “pain cave.” There is nothing fast or easy about the process. But it’s not hard, either. Hard is living obese. Getting fit gradually is glorious compared to that. And living fit? I maintain that an entire year of working out and eating clean is easier than any single day of living in the obese body I had for over a decade.
Instead of focusing on all the things you can’t do today, start celebrating the ones you can. Start challenging yourself to add to that list every week until all the can’ts are in the rearview mirror.
The CrossFit Games Open has been over for 4 weeks now, but we have yet to party like it is. . . . until now.
Folks, this weekend we celebrate the end of the CrossFit Games Open, we celebrate the two amazing athletes that made to the round of online qualifiers, and most importantly we celebrate the winning team in the Verve Open Team Cup.
Here is what is going down:
When- Saturday April 28th
Where- Rino Beer Garden, 3800 Walnut St, Denver, CO 80205
Time- 6pm for Team Sex Panthers, 7pm for everyone else
You read that right. If you are a member of Team Sex Panthers your party starts at 6pm. For the first hour you folks can enjoy drinks on Verve’s tab, hoist the Chanly Cup, drink from the cup, and overall enjoy celebrating your team’s victory. Starting at 7pm we would like to invite everyone else, whether you were on a team for the Open or not, to join in the fun. Perhaps you folks can start the smack talk for next year. Get ready to have a fun Saturday night out with friends!!
Before the party starts Saturday night, we will be kicking off the weekend with another “Bring a Friend” to Verve day. If you missed out two weeks ago. . . or you have more buddies you want to bring, this Saturday is your next chance. Introduce the people in your life to the thing you haven’t stopped talking about since you started. We have classes at 8am, 9am, and 10am. The workout can be scaled to meet anyone and everyone’s needs. Simply get you and your friend signed up in MBO.
For time: Row 1000 Meters 50 Ab mat sit ups 50 Double unders Row 750 Meters 40 Ab Mat Sit ups 40 Double unders Row 500 Meters 30 Ab Mat sit ups 30 Double unders Row 250 Meters 20 Ab mat sit ups 20 Double unders Row 100 Meters 10 Ab Mat sit ups 10 Double unders
21-15-9 Reps for time: Chest to bar pull-ups Kettlebell front rack walk, meters 70#(53#) Back squat 185#(125#) Kettlebell farmers carry, meters 70#(53#)
Jen and Margot working through yesterday’s hang power cleans.
The following post is courtesy of CrossFit Roots. I read this blog they posted last week and loved it. A very small amount of the content is specific to CrossFit Roots and their coaching staff, however, the overall theme is something that we at Verve share a belief in.
We’ve posted on this topic before, but it warrants a yearly check-in and reminder.
The conversation is all too familiar with the coaching staff. An athlete returns to the shop after some time away, say 1-2 weeks, and a coach asks them, “where have you been?” The athlete replies that they haven’t been in because they suffered a tweak – inside or outside the shop – and they didn’t want to be a burden by coming to class.
In a second example, the athlete attends class for a period of a few weeks and asks for modifications at each class to work around a tweak. While they may walk away from the day with a good workout, the tweak continues to annoy them and it’s just not getting better, even with some targeted modifications.
In the first example – not wanting to be a burden in class – we’ve heard many variations – not knowing how to modify for injury, not wanting to take a disproportionate amount of the coach’s time, not wanting to scale or modify around the injury, or not wanting to stand out to the rest of the class, to name a few. The second example is sometimes less pronounced as the athlete requests modifications to manage the situation on their own but without a dedicated plan of attack, the problem can seem to drag on.
Staples of the Athlete Coach Relationship at Roots
We wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone of a few staples of the athlete and coach relationship at Roots;
First of all, it’s 100% encouraged for you to come to class when you have a limitation or something you need to work around. Not only is it encouraged, but the coaches actually expect you to continue coming to class.
Fitness is gained, in part, through consistency. Breaks away from the gym to allow one area of the body to heal, while the rest of your body is completely capable of fitness, is not a recipe for long-term consistency. Not to mention, many have found that exercising the parts of the body that are 100% helps the problem area to recover faster. It’s also a great time to address weaknesses!
In addition, we firmly believe that modifying a workout to get IN a workout, is far more beneficial than simply not working out. For many, a tweak can be a show stopper to fantastic momentum. A week spent skipping workouts and all of the sudden it’s hard to get back into that great routine you had just a mere 7 days prior.
When a Tweak Becomes a Nag
When you have made an attempt to work around or modify workouts for a specific tweak and it’s just not getting better, it may be time to reach out to a coach and ask to meet with them. During a 30 minute session, a coach can help identify the problem, provide rehab or prehab work to be done outside of class, and come up with a plan for how to modify workouts in group class. This information is then passed on to the coaching staff such that they are prepared to work with you the next time you come to class and in a focused and informed way. It brings continuity and a dedicated plan to your group class attendance.
We’ve scaled, modified, and rehabbed for (to name a few):
A cracked rib from mountain biking
Plantar fasciitis
Shoulder pain
Rotator cuff surgery repairs
Sprained, strained, twisted, torqued, tweaked, etc. of nearly every joint
A strained or tight low back
A neck that was slept on in a funny way
Ankle, neck, back, knee, shoulder, and wrist surgeries
A pulled hamstring from an overzealous stretch from first base during an intramural softball game
So, how do you put this into practice?
The next time you pull, tweak, strain, or run into something that causes you to question whether or not you should come to class, start by signing up for class.
When you arrive to the shop, check-in with the coach so they can ask you any needed questions and start to make a plan for the workout modifications for that day.
IF the problem is not resolved in a week or becomes a nagging issue, email a coach to set-up a session to come up with a dedicated and integrated plan of attack.
Tweaks and injuries are part of life. Remember that you have great resources to work through them and stay active!
As I mentioned earlier, a small amount of this content is VERY specific to CrossFit Roots. The portion I’m referring to is their specific policy on meeting for 30 minutes to discuss the tweak. More simply put from us, please send Eric, myself, or the main email inbox (info@crossfitverve.com) an email regarding the situation and we can begin the process of addressing it. Do we need to meet? Do we need to refer you to our in house PT Zach? Do we simply need to continue with the scaling or the modifying, meaning are we on the right track already? We are more than happy to work with you to keep you coming to Verve and keep you happy and healthy.
Throughout our day, we have so many tasks that come up it is hard to know what to do first; on the other hand it is easy to get overwhelmed, shut down, and do nothing. The Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin spent an episode talking about the 1-minute Rule, a great way to prioritize and handle tasks that come up OR that you have been putting off…… Turn this on while you are making breakfast or driving to work.
