Merry Christmas Ververs!! If you do not by chance celebrate the holiday of Christmas, then we wish you a very Merry Monday!! We have one class today, so come celebrate Christmas, or having a day off of work, with the jolliest bunch of folks this side of the nuthouse.
We have SOOOOOO much stuff starting in the new year, I want to take this opportunity to drop a little teaser of information just to make sure I get you coming back for more. . . .
Starting January 4th– Verve Barbell Club is back with a 6 week cycle. The 4th will be a test day to figure out your 1 RM snatch and 1 RM clean & jerk. The 6 week cycle will begin the following week of January 8th. It will be 3 days per week. Cost for Verve members is $40, cost for non-Verve members is $150. Stay tuned for additional details.
Starting January 6th– CrossFit Kids on Saturday mornings with coach Haley!! We will be starting a kids program on Saturday mornings @ 8am. We are working out a punchcard for purchase for these classes. Stay tuned for more details.
January 20th– Verve holiday party!! We know the holidays are technically over but all that means is all your others parties have come and gone, so you have no reason to miss this one. Put the evening in your calendars, it will be an adults only party held at a bar in the area, so plan accordingly. Stay tuned for more details.
January 20th-21st– Verve is hosting a Level 2 seminar. We will have 1 class in the morning each day, we will then be closed the remainder of the day. But don’t you worry, you got a party that weekend to think about anyway.
We hope you are all as excited as we are!!! 2018 is gonna rock at Verve. . . so much room for so many activities.
In teams of 2, as many reps as possible in 20 minutes of: 50 Double Unders per person (relay style) 50 Power Cleans, accumulated, 135#(95#) 50 Double Unders per person (relay style) 40 Power Cleans, accumulated, 165#(115#) 50 Double Unders per person (relay style) 30 Power Cleans, accumulated, 185#(125#) 50 Double Unders per person (relay style) 20 Power Cleans, accumulated, 205#(135#) 50 Double Unders per person (relay style) AMRAP with remaining time Power Cleans, 225#(155#)
What’s your (insert movement here) quota? By Courtney “notalotta squata” Shepherd
What’s your quota? What’s the max number of (insert movement here) you have in you in a day? A week? A month? What happens when you go over that quota? Do you get a bonus? Or is there a bust? What in the world am I even talking about?
Several years ago I started following a training program with some fellow Verve competitors. About 6 weeks into the program I started having back pain. I pushed through it. By 14 weeks I could not get on and off the toilet without using the assistance of walls because of the pain in my back. I couldn’t pick up my right leg to put my pants on. At the 11 week mark I sat down to crunch some numbers. Prior to following the program I was squatting (or getting below parallel) in some fashion or another (air squat, back squat, pistol, wall ball, thruster, etc.) approx 200 times per week. While following the competitor program I was getting below parallel approx 400 times per week. At the 12 week mark I stopped squatting but it was a little too late, the damage had been done. Resting for the next two weeks did not give me any improvement, in fact, the pain got even worse. This high volume of squatting left me with a strained hip flexor that took 8 months to recover from. And by “recover from” I mean the removal of all squatting and dynamic hip movement for about 4 months and the slow and methodical re-introdction of these things back in to my fitness routine while constantly monitoring volume.
My point in telling you this, is that this experience taught me I do not have the capacity for a high volume of squatting. My body, specifically my hips (because my back pain was coming from my hip, not my back) only have so much below parallel work in them, anything above and beyond that and back pain starts creeping it’s way back into my life. I have a squat quota. I’ve broken this down into a weekly quota. And that quota is about 150-200 reps below parallel per week. If I come in to Verve on Monday and the workout is “Karen”, 150 wall balls for time. . . well then my quota is full up for the week. Does that mean if Tuesday’s workout is Thrusters and rowing that I don’t come to the gym and workout? Nope. It just means I may need to make some modifications to the workout. Maybe I need to ask the coach if I can power clean & jerk instead of a thruster. Because here’s the deal, as I get older I have to ask myself a very important question some days, just because I can, does it mean I should? If Verve were to program 4 days in a row with squatting I can do that, but should I? If I do that, if I squat for the next 4 days, it may mean that I have to take the next 4 days off to let my hips recover. Was that decision worth it? That is for me to decide, and I’ll tell you now, I’d rather modify and keep coming to the gym. I prefer to choose my rest day not let my rest day choose me.
Why am I bringing this up? Because I’ve had a few conversations with people regarding some similar scenarios. It turns out, these folks have a shoulder quota. They can only do so much pushing and/ or pulling gymnastics work in a week, and then their shoulders are destroyed. Pain, true pain, not just soreness or aches, but genuine ruin your sleep, make you stop a movement dead in your tracks, cause you to wince and grab a body part pain is your body telling you something. That kind of pain should never be ignored. I ignored it. I ignored it and pushed through it and it cost me 8 months. When my body started talking to me at the 6 week mark, if I had taken a moment to stop and listen, I might have prevented that injury and the need to rehab and recover. We need be better at listening to our bodies. We don’t need to wait for that pain. When we feel extremely sore or achy, we can start listening right then and there. We can recognize we too, might have a quota, and we might be reaching it. It doesn’t mean we need to stop working out, but it may mean we need to give that body part a rest for a day. Verve members you need to know that we can modify and scale any workout to meet any needs. You don’t need to fear it, be embarrassed by it, or feel like it’s a burden you don’t want to place on us. It’s our job. It’s actually what you as a member pay for. It’s okay to get your money’s worth from us. It’s a push press day but your shoulders are smoked and you can’t push press overhead comfortably? Not a problem. Can you bench press? It’s a different plane of movement your shoulders may be okay with. Nope, can’t do that either. No arms at all please. Okay, how about some box jump and dynamic hip work sound?
Just let us know where you are at, how you are feeling, and if some part of you feels ridiculously beat up. Pass that info along and we will point you in the right direction. Ignoring the signs and not listening to our body can, in the future, cost us more lost time than we’d really like. Not everyone has a quota, but if you recognize you may be one of those people, start paying attention. Take a look back at your week and ask yourself “do I have it in me today?” And if the answer is “no”, that’s okay. It may be the best decision you make regarding what you can come back and do tomorrow.
Raise those hands up if you are ready for Monday!!
What the what??
Folks, the holidays are coming in hot. Which means this week we have some schedule changes. Starting this Saturday, we are kicking off this festival season with the 12 Days of Christmas workout. Classes have been increased to 1 1/2 hours to accommodate for the longer workout. We have also cancelled open gym Saturday.
We will have one class on Christmas Day at 9am and we resume normal operations on Tuesday the 26th.
The following week will have schedule changes as well as we get prepped to ring in the New Year. Please be sure to check MBO and sign up for classes. While we are aware not everyone checks this blog, we definitely know who doesn’t sign up for classes when they show up for ones that don’t exist on the schedule. 😉
With a partner,
10 Rounds for time of:
50 Double Unders
15 Toes to Bar
5 Bench Press 185#(125#)
*Each athlete completes 10 rounds of the workout. One person does 50 Double Unders, 15 Toes to Bar, and 5 Bench Press. Then the next person does 50 Double Unders, 15 Toes to Bar, and 5 Bench Press. That would be 1 round.
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut in cubes 4 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped 2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped 1 onion, peeled and cut in quarters 3-4 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp chili powder 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp cumin powder ¼ tsp sea salt 4 cups bone broth or low sodium vegetable broth ½ inch chunk of ginger, peeled and grated 1 tsp coconut oil Fresh pinch of parsley, pumpkin seeds & 1 tbsp Greek yogurt or coconut cream to garnish
Directions
Boil everything together in a large pot until vegetables are tender. Once you can easily poke veggies with a fork, turn off head and carefully transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth, serve and enjoy!
As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of: Row 250(200) Meters 10 Handstand push ups 2 Rope climbs 15′ **Rest 3:00 Minutes, then: As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of: Row 20(15) calories 15 Russian kettlebell swings 70#(53) 10 Burpees over the rower
I am not sure if any of you have avoided sleeping on one side or the other because, when you wake up, your shoulder is on fire!!! This video from SmashweRx contains 2 new GREAT mobility techniques to help loosen that tissue up!
Intensity given to you in full geek mode By Courtney “the geek that ain’t weak” Shepherd
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you need intensity. I’ve spent more time on more blog posts than I can truly add up talking about intensity. . . that’s how freaking big of a deal I think it is. But more importantly, that’s how much time and energy I’m willing to put in to making sure you not only agree with me, but you basically walk in to Verve with the mind set of “intensity or death”. Before I go full geek on you, I’m going to take a few steps back to remind you all just what I mean when I say “intensity”. Intensity is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing the rate of return on favorable adaptation. What the what? To paraphrase, intensity is what gets you results. What results do you want? Faster times? Heavier lifts? Less body fat? More muscle? Lower cholesterol (not sexy but we should definitely all want this)? Avoid type II diabetes? Look good naked? In the words of Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, “What do you want?” Intensity is the road to all of it.
I realize that may be very hard for some to understand. Mike Warkentin of CrossFit 204 said it best:
“Intensity burns. It tastes like a mouthful of old pennies soaked in battery acid. Intensity also brings results. Push someone out of the comfort zone and physiology adapts. Do that regularly and fitness improves dramatically. Discomfort creates adaptation, but it can be very tempting to avoid the continuous discomfort needed to keep driving adaptation—even as a CrossFit athlete who knows its rewards.
Reducing intensity can be as subtle as breaking up Fran’s 15 thrusters when we don’t have to. It’s a very minor reduction in effort, and almost no one notices—sometimes not even the athlete. Fran burns a bit less, and only 20 seconds are added to a PR time, giving him or her the opportunity to attribute the score to an off day, bad sleep or “that third burrito at lunch.”
Luckily, the athlete still stays far fitter than if he or she hadn’t done Fran, but slacking off a little can lead to slacking off a lot, which is equivalent to treating a CrossFit workout like a 20-minute roll through the sports section while plodding on the elliptical machine.
To reap the greatest benefits from CrossFit, you have to be willing to push yourself, to be uncomfortable, to suffer for reward. And most of us are most of the time. The whiteboard and the rivalries thereon are powerful motivational tools. Still, a 5-minute Fran can become a habit if you let your mind trick you into dropping the barbell well before you need to.
Remember: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, while objects at rest tend to head to the chalk bucket.”
Do these words look familiar? I’ve posted them a few times. But here’s where I’m going to head in a different direction, we will now be entering into NerdVille. I will be the driver of the bus and this thing has no breaks. Are you ready?
I want to show you what intensity looks like with math. That’s right, I am going to put numbers to words so you can genuinely understand intensity.
CrossFit is so different from other fitness programs because we strive for data. We log and record for measurable, observable, repeatable data. We use a power equation to calculate the power output of any task. And to be clear, in CrossFit power output = intensity. So we can calculate the intensity of any given task.
Intensity = power output = (force x distance)/ time
Let’s take a 6′ guy weighing 180#. His task is to complete as many air squats as possible in 1 minute.
Force = 180# (the weight he is moving) Distance = 2′ x 60 reps = 120′ *We measure from someone’s center of mass, approx just below the belly button. For an air squat for this guy, he moves approx 2′ down and 2′ up. We only count the 2′ up, because gravity is free. 2′ is for one rep. He is doing a max rep set in 1 minute. Let’s assume he does 60 reps. We now have a total distance of 120′. Time = 1 min
Intensity = (180 x 120)/ 1 min = 21,600 foot pounds/ min
Do you know the significance of foot pounds/ min? That is how horsepower is measured. 21,600 ft lbs/ min is approx 65% of 1 horsepower. To put this in more non technical terms, this person, doing 60 air squats in 1 minute, produced as much power as a weed wacker.
Now that we got a little bit of math out of the way, let’s make way for even bigger math. Let’s really geek out and get relevant at the same time. We are going to use this same guy, all 6′ 180#, and he is going to do “Fran”, twice. He is going to do “Fran” RX @ 95# and he is going to do “Fran” scaled @ 75#. Let’s see what happens to his intensity.
We are going to assume the total distance being moved in a thruster is 4′ (2′ for the squat, 2′ for overhead) and in the pull-up is 2′ (from hang to chin over bar). The RX workout takes this guy 8 min to complete. When he does it scaled it takes him 5 min. Let’s crunch some numbers:
RX- Thruster = (95# x 4′(45 reps))/ 8 = 2,137.5 Pull-up = (180# x 2′(45 reps))/ 8 = 2,025
Grand total power output = 4,162.5
Scaled-
Thruster = (75# x 4′(45 reps))/ 5 = 2,700 Pull-up = (180# x 2′(45 reps))/ 5 = 3,240
Grand total power output = 5,940
Let’s agree that both attempts at “Fran” probably hurt. I’m sure when this person was done, both times they felt like it was a good workout. The problem is that we fall into this idea that in order to get stronger, faster, better, we need to do it RX. We need to use heavier weight. But the numbers right here show you, that doing it RX, using the heavier weight, was in fact, not doing more work. It was doing far less work. And if we do less work, we do not get more fit. We do not get stronger, faster, better. It’s as simple as math. Like Mike Warkentin said, intensity hurts. We don’t always like to hurt, so we can find a way to make things just a little easier. We can drop the bar, go get chalk, go get water, break up the set again. . . . but these all add up. They add up to less intensity, less power, and fewer results. We need to get uncomfortable. Hold on to the bar, pick a weight so light you have absolutely no reason to put it down. . . and then go faster. Consistent intensity yields more intensity. As your CrossFit journey goes on, things should not get easier, ever. Because you should be getting stronger and able to push harder. If it was easy, you didn’t do it right.
The men of the morning class crew (Dutton, Nate, and Dave) coming at Monday like. . .
Ladies and gentlemen,
Last week we had an incident where an unknown man in the neighborhood had an unwelcomed interaction with a member of Verve. The Verve member is alright and the unknown man has not been seen in the area since, however, we would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Verve is located in a Downtown area. An area that does have some unsavory folks inhabiting it. Please have situational awareness of your surroundings, should you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable either leaving your car to come in to Verve or leaving Verve to go to your car, please let a trainer know. We are more than happy to walk with you, talk with, or assist in any way that helps you safely get through our doors, either coming or going. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to email me, courtney@crossfitverve.com.
Folks!! Our 2nd Annual Chili Cook Off is this weekend!! I have received emails from 4 people looking to prove their chili is the bestest. I know there are more of you wanting to throw your hat in the ring, but you can’t do it without emailing me. . . so get on your computer and type away:
*Chili needs to have a name (one that does not give away it’s maker) *Hotness level (mild, mediun, hot) *Any allergy concerns
All of this needs to be listed in your email to courtney@crossfitverve.com by Wednesday December 13th @ 7pm.
Click here for the link to the official event page. Read it for the rules (both cooks and tasters) and while you are there, be sure to RSVP. GOT CORN-HOLE?? If you have a set that you would not mind letting us use as entertainment while we dine, please note it in the comments of the event page. Thank you!!
Guess what else is going down this coming Saturday??? It’s another “Bring a Friend to Verve” day!! Thats’ right, invite your friend, family, roommate, co-worker, bestie, anyone that you would love to introduce to Verve and CrossFit, to try out a class FOR FREE!! The workout will be scaleable to meet all needs and abilities. Just be sure to sign both you and your friend up in MBO so we get a head count. And if they like chili, have them come back to Verve from 1pm-3pm to help us taste test and crown a chili champ.
*Free class does not include open gym.
While you are signing up in MBO for class this weekend, be sure to take a look at the schedule for the upcoming holidays. We will have a class on Christmas Day, but leading up to it, and after it, we will have some abbreviated scheduling. Please be sure to always sign up for classes.
Excited about doing the “12 Days of Christmas” WOD?? It’s got an all new set of movements and order this year, and we will be doing it Saturday December 23rd. Classes will be an hour and a half to accommodate, but again, PLEASE sign up for class.
