When one of you is doing a kid exchange and one of you is doing a “kid” exchange.
What’s the word hummingbird?
Last week we posted about the CrossFit Games Open. It starts February 22nd. We are putting together the logistics for Verve’s 2nd Open Team Cup as we speak. We want you folks to get excited to participate in this annual event and get excited for some friendly in house team rivalry. Stay tuned to the next several Thursday blog posts for all the details.
To participate in the Open Team Cup you need to be registered in the Open. You can do that now! Click here to register. **When you register please be sure to select CrossFit Verve as BOTH your TEAM AND AFFILIATE.**
The Bod Pod will be returning to Verve on February 15th. Mobile Body Metrics is coming back to give some of you a look into how things have been going over the past few months or take some baseline measurements for comparison later. It’s a simple way to get out body weight and body fat % measurements. The test is $50 is this is the first time and $40 for any retests. Click here to schedule your time on the calendar.
The new year is upon us!!! Such an exciting fresh start with new goals. But what good are goals without specific action and progress tracking??? Whether you are in the nutrition challenge, competing in the Open, or just have some general improvement goals you would like to achieve, tracking your progress is the BIG step in achieving them.
We have many new members and this information is always relevant. Take a minute, read through this article, and if you have any questions talk to one of the coaches!
ARE YOU KEEPING TRACK? – CrossFit Invictus
“So, I would like to take a poll. How many of you know your numbers? You know, like how much is your one rep max back squat? What is your heaviest clean and jerk? I am sure some of you can tell me instantly your numbers or can head over to the red cabinet and look through your logbook to tell me your numbers. As for the rest of you, my question of knowing your numbers may be a foreign concept. Alas, we shall change this! Soon we will live in an ideal world where everyone knows what they are currently lifting. I guess I should state that this isn’t just about numbers. Keeping a record of your lifts is important, but keeping a record of your workouts is just as important, for many reasons.
1) Keeping a workout logbook can help measure your progress! If you don’t know how much you lifted or what your time on the workout was previously, then it is hard to measure any progress. Instead, write down exactly what weight you used and in what time you completed the workout. That way, next time the workout comes up you can see how much stronger and faster you are!
2) A workout logbook can help you set goals. Say a workout, like Fran, comes up on the board. If you have been keeping track of your workouts then you will know what your old Fran time is (if you have done it before). Say your old time was 5:45 with the prescribed amount of weight. That was 4 months ago. You can now set a new goal, say 5:15. By keeping track of your workouts, you can set realistic goals.
3) It will help you to continue to make progress. Often, a lift will come up that says something like ‘Deadlift x 3 @ 85% of your 3-RM.’ This is going to be an awful hard prescription to follow if you have no idea what your 3-Rep Max on the Deadlift is. You have no idea if you lifted 205 x 3 or 225 x 3, a big difference in numbers when trying to make progress in your deadlift. Keeping track of your workouts will also be handy as we continue with the testing days in the group sessions. We can only have re-testing days if we have something to re-test!” – see full post here
Now, this may be a reminder for some of you or new news for many but, along with belonging to one of the most awesome gyms with the most awesome members, you ALSO get a free membership to Beyond the Whiteboard when you sign up!!
What is Beyond the Whiteboard (BTWB)?? – BTWB is a website or phone app that gives you the capability to track ALL of the work you do in and out of this gym. You can track 1RM, WOD’s, Hero WOD’s, Girl WOD’s, water intake, weight, etc. You can also compare your performance to others in the gym or across the world. BTWB will track your input and analyze the data, give you graphical analysis, and so much more. Here are a few screen shots of the website:
Beyond the whiteboard Log in screen!Log your workout screenAnalysis screen
How do you sign-up? E-mail eric@crossfitverve.com; he will then send you a log-in to get your account set-up. Play around for a while to figure it out. If you have any questions, feel free to ask one of the coaches, and we are happy to help.
#tbt to Sarah working through 17.1 during the CrossFit Games Open, with Adam as her judge.
It’s that time of year again, it’s the CrossFit Games Open time!!!
What does that mean? We have several new members to Verve and beyond being new to our community, they are new to CrossFit. So I want to take a moment to explain, that which is, the CrossFit Games Open. (No dangling preposition happening here, for all you grammar police)
Every year CrossFit crowns one man, one woman, and one team the fittest in the world. This crowning happens after a week long competition that takes place over the summer. But one cannot simply just show up to the CrossFit Games, one must first win the opportunity to go. And that all starts with the CrossFit Games Open. The Open is a weekly competition lasting 5 weeks. Every Thursday starting February 22rd a workout will be announced. Anyone in the world can sign up to participate in the Open, they will have 5 days to do the workout and submit their score. At the end of the 5 weeks, the top men, women, and teams in each region will earn their spot at the CrossFit Games Regionals. Regionals takes place in May, and it’s at this weekend long competition where the top 5 men, women, and teams can earn a trip to the Games.
Woh. . . that’s a lot of information. I’m still not sure I understand.
Verve loves to participate in the Open and we love to get as many of it’s members involved in the Open too. It’s as simple as going to the Game’s site and registering, total cost is $20. And now you have the opportunity to compete against hundreds of thousands of people across the world in weekly CrossFit workouts. The best part about the Open? Every workout has a scaled version and there are various divisions based on age, all of which make the Open possible for anyone and everyone to compete in. But there’s more. . .
The Open Team Cup is back for it’s 2nd year. We will once again be making the Open become a big in house competition. Verve will be made in to 4 teams, able to earn points based on how many people do the workout, top RX and scaled finishers in each workout, passing the judge’s course, and more. The winning team at the end of the Open will get a Verve sponsored social event to celebrate. So for those of you on the fence about whether or not to sign up for the Open, now’s the time to hop over to the side that gets you registered. It’s no longer about where you place in the world, now it’s about how much smack talk you can back up when you get to go head to head with your WOD buddy. We want to stress, ANYONE and EVERYONE can sign up and participate. Don’t do WODs RX at Verve? That’s cool, not a lot of people do. But just your participation each week will get points for your team. I’ll be signing up and my goal is to at minimum attempt the scaled divisions, knowing that may not even be possible, but it’s all about the experience.
There is only one prerequisite to participate in this fun filled competition. . . you have to register for the Open. We are super excited to do this. We want you to be as excited. The Open is meant to be such a fun time of the year but this will surely guarantee that for us. So get pumped and get registered. Registration went live the first week of January, click here to go to the site.*Verve’s team has not been registered yet, please pick Verve as your both your AFFILIATE and your TEAM when registering. As soon as our affiliate is officially registered, you will be added to the team.*
Wait!! What Verve Open Team Cup team are you going to be on?!?! Don’t you worry about that right now. . . that party has yet to start. Over the next few weeks we will continue to give you updates about our in house teams, so stay tuned.
Such an awesome turn out for Verve’s Holiday Jam Saturday night. Thank you to everyone that came and thank you to everyone that helped put it together.
Who’s got two thumbs and is super excited for the Nutrition Challenge to start??
Today’s workout is our benchmark workout for the challenge. This workout will be repeated 6 weeks from now to retest and see how changes we make to our nutritional intake effect our performance.
If you have not yet signed up for the challenge, now is the time to do so, here’s what you need to know:
When– Starts Monday January 22nd – Thursday March 1st
How much– $25 buy in (all money goes towards prizes)
What are the winning categories?– *Most compliant individual (points based) *Most compliant team (points based) *Most improved (physical measurements) *Most improved (workout score)
Requirements– *Statement of plan choice & specific amounts / targets (hand-eye, macros, etc) *Submit “before” photos (front, side, back) *Submit “before” measurements (weight, waist, hips, chest) *Complete and submit WOD score by end of Week #1
PLEASE HAVE ALL THIS INFO IN ONE EMAIL, SENT TO courtney@crossfitverve.com. In the subject line type “Your Name, Nutrition challenge” (but actually put your name not the words “your name” ;))
What the what??
You may sign up as an individual or as a duo wishing to be on the same team. Teams will be made up of three people, but we will not allow any group of three to sign up as their whole team. Singles or doubles only. The remainder of teams will be put together at random (we reserve the right to split up a duo if registered late). The point of the team is to act as an accountability group/ motivational group. If you keep each other on track enough, you could be the winning team for compliance.
A spreadsheet will be shared with all participating to keep track of points, they should be logged daily. So how do you get points? For simply being compliant for the day. Yup, that’s it, one point per day per person. Compliant with what though? This will be person dependent. This is a nutritional challenge, so we need to have a nutritional goal, they can be as precise as weighing and measuring food to hit macros or zone blocks, they can be hand/ eye quantities, they can even be as simple as “I need to have a vegetable at every meal”. These goals will be incredibly dependent on where you currently are in your nutrition journey. Our goal is for you to be successful in these 6 weeks. If you have never weighed and measured your food before, and you have never addressed the quality of food you eat, it may be far too much to take on both in the next six weeks. The best starting place is quality food sources, the next step would be basic hand/ eye, and after that we can start busting out a scale and getting really precise.
Have no fear folks, because before the start of this challenge we would love to help you establish what your 6 week goal is. I will be at Verve Monday night during the evening Open Gym (7:30pm-9pm) to answer any and all questions. If you cannot make that time, please email me.
It’s go time folks! Get signed up today and start getting those daily compliance points!!
When you have a feeling someone is watching you, and come to find out, you were right. #SexyFaceSunday, courtesy of the amazingly creepy photographer Gaby.
100 Dumbbell push press, 40#(25#), while partner holds a handstand against wall 75 Dumbbell squat cleans, 40#(25#), while partner holds a wall squat at parallel 50-50-40-40-30-30-20-20-10-10 Double unders, while partner holds a ring support
*Partners may switch as needed for the first two exercises and partners must alternate sets of double unders. Reps may not be accumulated if the static hold is not being held. **All reps completed before moving on to next exercise ***There is a 20 MINUTE CAP on the workout!
(if your pecans aren’t already toasted, then simply heat a large skillet over medium heat, toss your pecans in, and toast until fragrant, being careful not to burn)
In a large sauté pan or skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan, saving the bacon grease (if you have loads of bacon grease, pour some off and save for future use). Crumble up the bacon and set aside.
In a small bowl whisk mustard, vinegar, and lemon juice together
Using the 1/8 or 1/4 inch slicing disk on your food processor, slice the Brussels sprouts.
Heat the skillet (the one with the bacon grease) over medium heat, and add the sliced Brussels sprouts, sautéing until softened and slightly browned.
Pour the mustard/vinegar/lemon/olive oil mixture over the sprouts, stirring to combine. Mix in 1/2 the pecans, bacon and scallions. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place slaw in a serving dish and serve with the remaining pecans on top.
**To make this recipe more macro friendly, you could decrease the olive oil and elminate the pecans, but DON’T eliminate the bacon because why would you do that??**
Kristy working her way through that 40 minute EMOM!!
It’s Nutrition Challenge time!!
We have not had a nutrition challenge in a while and we made sure to wait until after the holidays AND after Verve’s big party, so there are no excuses to give it a shot. Here are the details:
When– Starts Monday January 22nd – Thursday March 1st
How much– $25 buy in (all money goes towards prizes)
What are the winning categories?– *Most compliant individual (points based) *Most compliant team (points based) *Most improved (physical measurements) *Most improved (workout score)
Requirements– *Statement of plan choice & specific amounts / targets (hand-eye, macros, etc) *Submit “before” photos (front, side, back) *Submit “before” measurements (weight, waist, hips, chest) *Complete and submit WOD score by end of Week #1
What the what??
Starting tomorrow you can begin signing up. You may sign up as an individual or as a duo wishing to be on the same team. Teams will be made up of three people, but we will not allow any group of three to sign up as their whole team. Singles or doubles only. The remainder of teams will be put together at random (we reserve the right to split up a duo if registered late). The point of the team is to act as an accountability group/ motivational group. If you keep each other on track enough, you could be the winning team for compliance.
A spreadsheet will be shared with all participating to keep track of points, they should be logged daily. So how do you get points? For simply being compliant for the day. Yup, that’s it, one point per day per person. Compliant with what though? This will be person dependent. This is a nutritional challenge, so we need to have a nutritional goal, they can be as precise as weighing and measuring food to hit macros or zone blocks, they can be hand/ eye quantities, they can even be as simple as “I need to have a vegetable at every meal”. These goals will be incredibly dependent on where you currently are in your nutrition journey. Our goal is for you to be successful in these 6 weeks. If you have never weighed and measured your food before, and you have never addressed the quality of food you eat, it may be far too much to take on both in the next six weeks. The best starting place is quality food sources, the next step would be basic hand/ eye, and after that we can start busting out a scale and getting really precise.
Have no fear folks, because before the start of this challenge we would love to help you establish what your 6 week goal is. There will be several coaches holding “office hours” on the FB Verve Social Group throughout this week, answering questions. Not on the book of faces?? Do not fret my pet, just simply email me (courtney@crossfitverve.com) and I will help you out, or point you in the right direction.
Got questions? Post them to comments for all to see, as some of you may be having the same ones. We will continue to update on this and get you guys excited for this challenge!!
*After each set do 3 Kneeling jump ups *Rest 3 minutes between sets
Post loads to comments and BTWB
Got mobility?
Man oh man do we have some stuff coming up. Are you ready for this?
This Saturday we have a Verve “holiday” party, if you will. Here’s what you need to know:
When: Saturday January 20th, 6pm-10pm
Where: C Squared Ciders, 2875 Blake Street Denver, Colorado 80205
Who: Verve members!! (Significant others are welcome)
Dress attire/ Theme: Fitness through the decades. That’s right, we are dressing up. Get creative, show us your favorite exercise gear from a past era. (Dressing up is not a requirement, we just want you there, but there will be prizes to the best dressed)
Speaking of prizes, we will be having a Dessert Off!! **Enter your best made dessert (much like our chili cook off) and let it be judged by your peers. We will have a voting box to cast your choice, Best Baker will be crowned at 9pm.
****To enter a dessert, please email courtney@crossfitverve.com by Thursday at 5pm****
There will be a selfie stick area with props for amazing pictures, trainer trivia, and Athlete Superlative Awards. There will be drinks and appetizers. So put your fancy exercise pants on and get ready to party.
**There is an event page in our Facebook Verve Social Group, please use that to RSVP. Didn’t know we had a Facebook Group, well now you do, It’s a closed group, send in the request and we will add you. Not on Facebook?? No worries, please email courtney@crossfitverve.com with the RSVP for you and any significant other, should you choose to include them in the fun. RSVPs will help us with food and drinks.
This weekend we are hosting a Level 2 Seminar. Verve will have a 7am WOD on Saturday and Sunday, the gym will be closed for the remainder of the weekend. CrossFit Kids will also be Saturday at 7am, so if you are coming in early, bring the little ones too!
See MBO for the schedule and to sign up for class.
Monday January 22nd we start a Nutrition challenge!! We planned it for you folks to enjoy the Verve party without regret, #noragrets. Stay tuned for more details.
