This past week I had a conversations about what it meant to be “tough”. I was a bit taken off guard by the questions and I am pretty sure that I rambled out an answers. Afterward, I went home and really thought about what I was asked.
Everyone has their own versions of what it means to be “tough”. Most, often define being tough as having strength, but personally I think the two are different.
The definition of the word “strong” is having the power to move heavy weights or perform other physically demanding tasks – in which we are obviously looking to achieve in the gym. While, the definition of the word “tough” is that a substance or object is strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or rough or careless handling. So, reciting these two definitions back to you may not be the most compelling argument, but stick with me.
The difference between being “strong” and being “tough” is patience in adversity. If you are strong you will force your way through a situation without thinking about the consequences and reactions. You will use brute force to will your way to your goal or destination. This can cause adverse reactions from peers and actually lead you to a set back or cause another problem.
The difference lies within how you respond to an adverse situation. If you are “tough” you will understand that there will be many failures before you find true success. If you are “tough” you will understand a setback is just an opportunity to work on something else. If you are “tough” you will have the ability to commit and dedicate yourself to a goal without wavering. If you are “tough” you will understand that you are the only person that is in control of what happens to you.
So whatever we are looking to achieve we need to be tough, not just strong.
Great group of people came out for the memorial WOD for ANDY!! Thank you Laura for representing the Schwiesow family.
EVERYTHING PUMPKIN NOW PLEASE!!
Pumpkin is not only good in out latte’s, but also in our nutritious food. Here is a great stove top soup recipe in which you could switch the Bison meat with any other meat you prefer. This recipe comes to us courtesy of the local Steve Parsoneault, you can see his blog here
BUFFALO PUMPKIN CHILI
Ingredients
2 lbs ground bison 1 Qt Tomato Juice 28 oz Can of peeled/diced tomatoes 1 large onion – chopped 1 large portobello mushroom – chopped 1 large green pepper – chopped 15 oz canned pumpkin 2.25 oz canned sliced olives 1 TBS pumpkin pie spice 1 TBS hot sauce 1 TBS chili powder 1/4 tsp smoked paprika 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Directions
Brown the bison in a large pot then add onions and mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Add everything else, bring to a boil then back off and simmer for 1 hour. DONE.
Andrew “Andy” Schwiesow with his kids Bella and Charlie.
The Andy Schwiesow memory WOD
Today we are hosting a memorial WOD in honor of one of Verve’s members who unfortunately passed away one year ago. Andy Schwiesow had been a member of Verve since April 2011. His favorite classes to attend were either the Barbell Specialty class or any WOD that contained the Olympic lifts and movements that favor the tall. Andy’s first workout as a member of Verve was 4-21-11 and Andy’s birthday is 8-28-85. Today’s workout was written and designed for a tall man with an enjoyment for throwing around a barbell.
Today’s memorial workout is open to anyone that would like to join. If you are newer to CrossFit we ask that you allow us to scale you appropriately. We want you to be able to enjoy the WOD and remember Andy is the best and safest way possible, we promise the intent of the workout will still be met.
If you are living in another state, are unable to make any of our class times, or for any reason cannot be at Verve today but you plan on doing the workout elsewhere, please post about it. You can go to Verve’s Facebook page and share your favorite Andy picture, memory, and your time. Use the hashtag #WodingForAndy in any social media outlet, Andy’s family would love to know about everyone that is involved.
Today is a day that we as members of the CrossFit community get to show off how important that community really is. Today is a day that we can lift people up, we can show our support to those that may find doing this workout more emotionally difficult than physically, and we can carry them through to the end. Whether you knew Andy or not, everyone can identify with loss and grief, which means everyone can push themselves in honor and memory of someone they love. So stop in today and show off what makes CrossFit and all of it’s communities so great.
Back Squat
1 x 8 at 65% of 1 rep max
1 x 8 at 70% of 1 rep max
1 x 6 at 80% of 1 rep max
1 x 6 at 85% of 1 rep max
Front Squat
1 x 5 at 60% of 1 rep max
1 x 5 at 70% of 1 rep max
1 x 5 at 80% of 1 rep max
1 x 5 at 85% of 1 rep max
Broday was pretty happy about Elissa and Chelseys’ matching outfits and killer OHS’s!
BURPEE EFFICIENCY!
In the workout Tuesday in which you had to complete 100 kettlebell swings AND perform 5 burpees at the top of every minute, some of you were left asking “How can I burpee any faster???”. Well, lucky for you, Carl Paoli put together a video about burpee efficiency/speed about that exact topic when 7 minutes of burpees came up in the CrossFit Games Open.
VERVE UPDATES:
-END OF SUMMER PARTY SATURDAY!!! Punchbowl Social!! 2:30PM!!! The number of exclamation points should indicate the level of awesomeness. Wear your drinking pants and get ready to play some games!
6:30am crew getting ready to crush a mile run during a beautiful Colorado morning.
#TBT to the 1,000 Rep Problem (Not originally by, but brought to your attention) By Courtney Shepherd
CrossFit has a mantra, Mechanics, Consistency, and then Intensity. We want to nail down the mechanics of a movement first, we want to maintain those mechanics consistently, and then we want to add some intensity into the mix. Intensity doesn’t just mean doing it harder or faster (that’s what she said), intensity refers to adding weight, adding reps, adding volume, and yes, adding speed. These are all forms of intensity, they are all a way to make a workout that much harder or more difficult. A problem for most of us is we can put these types of intensities ahead of our consistent mechanics. We want to have the “RX” by our name, we want to see if we can beat that guy or this girl, we just feel like we should be able to do that weight or all those reps. Do any of those statements sound familiar? We can say a lot to justify adding intensity but what we need to realize is that we have to first earn the intensity. How you ask? Consistent mechanics.
Seriously though, why do we need to be consistent? This just seems like a way to “harsh my gig” or “waste my flava”. Well, do we really only want to be able to perform a lift perfectly once? Well, maybe, if we are in a 1RM contest and we plan to retire immediately following that one perfect lift. But I don’t see that being the case. Instead I foresee a WOD in which we will have to perform a lift upwards of 50 times. We want to make sure we can make that lift 50 times with good form, because unfortunately there is a price to be paid for lifting with poor form, a debt that is not always collected in the moment but often down the road. It is not enough to have good mechanics, we NEED to have them consistently.
There is an idea known as the “1,000 rep problem”. Matt Foreman wrote an article about this for the Catalyst Athletics website, you can click here to read the whole thing. This is what Matt has to say:
“The 1,000 rep problem is the situation that exists when a lifter has finally found the correct technique of the snatch or clean & jerk. After tons of work and coaching, they’ve done it right. But now they have to do it right another 1,000 times to memorize that correct movement.
We’re talking about things like muscle memory, nervous system memorization of a specific movement, motor learning, that kind of stuff. Some people think of this as learning correct technique and then making it a habit. I don’t really see it as a habit. I think of it as learning correct technique and then continuing to do it right until you basically don’t know how to do it wrong anymore. Habits are just recurring behaviors, like peeing in the shower. You can stop doing those things any time you want. I’m talking about a more fanatical level of performance, where your body just instinctively executes a certain movement because that’s all it knows how to do.
I think you have to do a massive number of correct lifts before you’ve got that kind of muscle memory. I picked 1,000 for the name of this concept because it emphasizes long-term development and it sounds cool. I know there’s no set-in-stone number.”
Fanatical level of performance? This article specifically targets the Olympic lifts but we can have a fanatical level of performance in anything, from the kipping pull-up to making our bullet proof coffee in the morning. It simply means taking the time to do something right and continuing to take the time to keep doing it right. What’s the rush? When we position our body correctly and move it through space maintaining that right position what results is correct form and highly efficient movement. The question becomes, how do we maintain correct form and highly efficient movement? Answer: Repetition. Even better answer: Repetition of the correct form and highly efficient movement. Anything that’s worth doing right is worth doing right a lot, like 1,000 times.
Some final thoughts: – We only get the 1,000 rep problem after we’ve done it right for the first time. Our first correct rep is #1. There is the possibility some of us haven’t even had this rep yet. That’s okay. Our goal is to get that first good rep and work from there.
– Bad lifts don’t count towards our accumulated total. So if we’ve done 287 correct lifts and then we have a workout where our technique is lost, we make no attempts to correct it, and we wind up doing thirty sloppy snatches, we are still at 287 at the end of the day.
There is a word used in CrossFit that has become a favorite of mine, virtuosity, doing the common uncommonly well. Lighten the load, slow the pace, master the technique, strive to be virtuous.
For time: 1 Power clean 135#(95#) 1 Muscle up 3 Push ups 5 Air squats 2 Power cleans 135#(95#) 1 Muscle up 3 Push ups 5 Air squats 3 Power cleans 135#(95#) 1 Muscle up 3 Push ups 5 Air squats
Continue for 10 rounds adding a power clean to each round
Final round is: 10 Power cleans 135#(95#) 1 Muscle up 3 Push ups 5 Air squats
The 6p class showing us what they really thought about the 1 mile run to start.
A BIG TOBACCO MOMENT FOR THE SUGAR INDUSTRY – By James Surowiecki
In May, 1994, a large FedEx box arrived at the office of Dr. Stanton Glantz, a public-health expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who specialized in tobacco research. Inside the box were four thousand pages of internal memoranda and correspondence dating back to the nineteen-fifties from the files of Brown & Williamson, which was then the third-largest tobacco company in the United States. The documents, which became known as the Cigarette Papers, showed that research funded by Brown & Williamson and the tobacco industry had demonstrated the addictive qualities of nicotine and the health hazards of smoking years before these things became public knowledge, and that tobacco companies had nonetheless embarked on a public campaign to deny what they knew to be true, from their own research, and to cast doubt on the dangers of cigarettes.
In contrast to the cloak-and-dagger manner in which the Cigarette Papers came to light, this week’s revelation that Big Sugar engaged in dubious machinations to hide the potential health effects of sugar consumption came about from slogging through document archives in libraries around the country. But the implications of that work, performed by Cristin Kearns, a postdoctoral fellow at U.C.S.F., and published this week in an article titled “Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research,” in the American Medical Association’s journal of internal medicine, are similarly dismaying.
The documents Kearns uncovered show that the Sugar Association, in the early sixties, began a systematic effort to change public opinion “through our research and information and legislative programs,” with the goal of getting the public to consume more sugar and less fat. As part of that effort, John Hickson, a sugar-industry executive, funded research by Harvard scientists that was intended, explicitly, to exculpate sugar as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and to cast blame instead on saturated fat. That research resulted in a 1967 article in the New England Journal of Medicine making that exact case. One of the scientists Hickson funded eventually became head of nutrition at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he helped author a draft of what would become the government’s first official nutritional guidelines—guidelines that recommended a low-fat diet.
It is true that there was no consensus in the sixties—and, indeed, there’s no real consensus today—about exactly how much the consumption of either sugar or saturated fat contributes to coronary heart disease (though most health authorities these days suggest both may be important). But the fact that the science of the time was uncertain doesn’t let the sugar industry off the hook for its influence-peddling, since what the Sugar Papers show is that the industry was essentially uninterested in science. Instead, it was interested in getting people to eat more sugar by painting sugar consumption as anodyne in its health effects and, just as important, by painting fat consumption as dangerous. As far back as 1954, the president of the Sugar Research Foundation, Harry Hass, gave a speech in which he explicitly said that the challenge for the “carbohydrate industries” was getting Americans to eat less fat, so that they could then eat more sugar. In that speech, Hass talked of teaching “people who had never had a course in biochemistry . . . that sugar is what keeps every human being alive and with energy to face our daily problems.” The sugar industry’s research and public-relations campaign—costing what would amount to some $5.3 million today—sought to make that happen. It was powerfully effective.
Of course, it’s possible the sugar industry both funded research that completely suited its interests and that it believed that the research was true. (In Hass’s 1954 speech, he concluded by saying that the consumption of more sugar, and less fat, would lead to a “tremendous improvement in general health.”) But Hickson didn’t commission the Harvard research in order to discover the truth about sugar and fat. He commissioned it in order to make fat look bad. And that’s what he got. It wasn’t unreasonable for the Harvard researchers to suggest that the link between sugar and coronary heart disease was unproved. But they discounted studies suggesting that reducing sugar consumption could help with coronary heart disease, while overstating the evidence blaming saturated fats.
Ironically, the Sugar Papers were made public the same week that Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, has been holding hearings on Exxon’s suppression of its own research into climate change. Actually, to be more accurate, Smith is holding hearings in an attempt to quash further investigations into what Exxon did. After a big exposé in InsideClimate News, last fall, showed that Exxon’s scientists knew for decades that there was a connection between fossil-fuel consumption and climate change, and that the company hid that research, a number of state attorneys general opened investigations into the possibility that Exxon’s public denials of the science of global warming had, in effect, misled and defrauded investors. Smith, a climate-change denier and water-carrier for Big Energy, has painted those investigations as political attacks on Exxon’s First Amendment rights (even though the First Amendment does not protect knowingly false statements). The Big Sugar revelations make Smith’s charges look even feebler than before, serving as a reminder of how willing big companies are to suppress inconvenient information in the pursuit of their economic interests.
Indeed, in at least one respect, Big Sugar went a step further than the tobacco and fossil-fuel companies. Big Tobacco and Big Energy sought to create uncertainty and doubt about the science, in order to diminish public support for meaningful regulation (and keep consumption high). Their goal, ultimately, was to prevent the government from regulating their industries. The sugar industry, by contrast, wasn’t just interested in creating uncertainty. It explicitly sought to villainize fat, and to place sole blame on it for coronary heart disease. In doing so, it was looking to reshape the scientific discussion, but it was also, ultimately, trying to enlist the government to carry out its work, by reshaping Americans’ diets. The result was the proliferation of low-fat, high-carb diets, which many researchers argue has helped fuel the recent obesity boom. Big Sugar’s campaign may have started in the sixties, but we’re still paying for it today.
Don’t forget that team registration for the Turkey Challenge is tomorrow (Monday) at 9am!
“I know exactly what I have to do, but I still cannot seem to lose any weight.”
Is this something that you hear yourself saying? Well, it’s not too uncommon. Most people have a pretty good handle on what they should and shouldn’t be eating. It’s not too often you hear about someone eating cake and pop tarts for breakfast while thinking that they have their diet pretty dialed in.
So, if you know what foods you should be eating, why can’t you seem to lose those stubborn pounds? Yes, there is the quantity component which definitely comes into play. However, I am going to be honest, you typically don’t hear too many people who are overweight from simply eating kale and strawberries. If you are eating the right foods, 9 times out of 10, things fall into place.
From an early age we begin to believe “caring isn’t cool” and that self destructive behavior is what is normal. It’s what we watch on TV, read in the magazines and listen to on the radio. The problem with the “caring isn’t cool” model is that our innate behavior is to care and to care deeply in fact. We care about everything that has to do with ourselves, from our appearance to the energy we give off. So what’s the problem? What’s the deal with this self sabotage?
Self sabotaging behavior creates problems and interferes with our long-standing goals. In the gym, and life, we typically hear of forms of self-sabotage in the form of procrastination and comfort eating. The reason we self sabotage is typically in the form of a lack of self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence because we don’t feel as if we are worthy of what we are trying to achieve. We typically set ourselves up to fail before we even start because it is much easier to not try at all rather than fail at something we care about. Below are three ways to stop yourself from yourself:
“If only…”
If only I didn’t have a full time job. If only I didn’t have any kids. If only my knees didn’t hurt. These are just some of the things I get to hear everyday. Rather than creating a negative experience in your mind, change it to something that you can accomplish.
“I’ll start tomorrow.”
I had a pizza for lunch, so there is no point in starting a diet today. There is a great quote that I like to refer people to: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Don’t let one action spiral into your next decision. Just because you did “X” does not mean you have to do “Y”.
“It’s not that big of a deal”
This brings us back to our “caring isn’t cool” culture. It would be a tragedy to let others know what we really think and feel. So rather than saying no to going out for a drink or happy hour you don’t really want to be at, you just say yes because “you don’t care”.
There are many obstacles that we will face in our pursuit of health and fitness. Most of the times we have to ask ourselves, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” Figure out what you want and work until you have it.
In teams of 2 complete the following 15 Clean and jerks 115# (75#) 15 Clean and jerks 135# (95#) 15 Clean and jerks 155# (105# 15 Clean and jerks 185# (125#)
*Each person must complete all 15 reps in the first 3 rounds before other partner can go. For the final round, partners can alternate however they want.
Sunday September 18th will be 1 year ago that Andrew Schwiesow passed away far too early in life. Andrew was a member of Verve, a father of two, a supportive brother, a wonderful son, and for many a great friend. We chose to honor Andrew’s memory with a workout and we would like to honor it again this year. Next Saturday, September 24th, we will be hosting Andrew’s memorial WOD:
“Andy” 4 Rounds for time: 21 Calorie row 11 Power clean, 85# 28 Wallball shots, 20# 8 Power snatch, 85#
Andy Schwiesow had been a member of Verve since April 2011. He regularly came to classes, with his most favorite being the barbell focused specialty classes. And his most, most favorite being the classes focused on the Olympic lifts. Andy’s first workout as a member of Verve was 4-21-11 and Andy’s birthday is 8-28-85. A workout built for a tall man with an enjoyment for throwing around a barbell.
We would like to open this workout up again to anyone interested in honoring Andy, we simply ask that you sign up in MBO to reserve your spot in class. If you are a CrossFit newbie, we also ask that you allow us to scale you appropriately, we promise the intent will still be there. If you can not join us on Saturday, perhaps you can fit this workout in wherever you are. If you are able to do the workout, please post a picture and perhaps your favorite Andy memory, use the hashtag #wodingforAndy so we can see everyone.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.
#tbt to 2014 CrossFit Games Regionals in Salt Lake City, UT. Nate crushing overhead squats during the final workout of the weekend.
Fitness, Luck and Health By CrossFit Inc and Greg Glassman
In 2002, we observed that almost any health parameter sits well ordered on a continuum of values that ranged from sick to well to fit. Take high-density lipoproteins (HDL cholesterol), for instance: At less than 35 mg/dL you have a problem, 50 mg/dL is nice, and 75 mg/dL is a whole lot better. Blood pressure: 195/115 mm Hg you have a problem, 120/70 mm Hg is healthy, and 105/50 mm Hg looks more like an athlete. Triglycerides, bone density, muscle mass, body fat, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c, aka glycated hemoglobin)—all can be plotted relative to these three values.
The significance is that these are the predictors, the cause and the manifestation of chronic disease. Chronic diseases include obesity, coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer (to include breast, colon and lung, but my theory is this will include all the positron-emission-tomography-positive cancers eventually, which is 95 percent of all cancers), Alzheimer’s, peripheral artery disease, advanced biological aging, drug addiction, among others.
It is very likely that if you have any chronic disease, you have deranged markers. If you have Alzheimer’s, you would see your HDL suppressed, your blood pressure up, your triglycerides up, your body fat up, your muscle mass down, your bone density down, your HbA1c high, etc. The same is true with diabetes. The same is true with most cancers.
Medicine has no effective treatment for chronic disease: It is symptomatic only. The doctor gives you a drug to bring your cholesterol down, a different drug to raise your bone density. You might need bariatric surgery if you have morbid obesity. If you have paved-over coronary arteries, they can do bypass surgery. If you become glucose intolerant, the doctor can put you on insulin. But all of these are not fixes. They are masking the problem. If you have persistent malignant hypertension, you should take an antihypertensive if you cannot get your blood pressure down otherwise. But how would you get it down otherwise?
CrossFit Inc. holds a uniquely elegant solution to the greatest problem facing the world today. It is not global warming or climate change. It is not the worst two choices imaginable for president. It is chronic disease. The CrossFit stimulus—which is constantly varied high-intensity functional movement coupled with meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar—can give you a pass on chronic disease. It is elegant in the mathematical sense of being marked by simplicity and efficacy. It is so simple.
Seventy percent of deaths in the United States are attributable to chronic disease. Of the 2.6 million people who died in the United States in 2014, about 1.8 million died from chronic disease. This pattern of increasing deaths due to chronic diseases also holds in countries that are ravaged by infectious disease. The numbers are rising, and when we finally add the positron-emission-tomography-positive cancers in, the number might be 80-85 percent in the United States. It is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that the United States could have up to a hundred million diabetics in 2050. That will affect everyone. You will not go into the emergency room for something as simple as a broken arm: You will be seeing heart attacks on every corner. Medicine has no solution; you do. CrossFit—with meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar—will help you avoid all of this.
Doctors are like lifeguards; CrossFit trainers are like swim coaches. When you are drowning, you do not need a swim coach. What you need is a lifeguard. We will teach people how to swim. . .
Come to tonight’s free introductory swim lesson. . . I mean nutrition lecture. Learn the importance of what you eat and how you are in total control of your health and longevity. Please sign up in MBO to reserve your spot, it is open to anyone and everyone.
Don’t forget there is no 7p Class on Thursday for a FREE nutrition seminar!
Here is a great article that CrossFit.com reposted from Inc.com on why entrepreneurs do CrossFit. Have a read for yourself!
“CrossFit…the word itself is divisive in fitness circles, immediately calling up either impassioned praise or accusations of some level of fitness cult-dom. The mantra of constantly varied, functional movement at high intensity hits a home run with some while striking out with others.
As a bona fide CrossFit geek approaching five years of cult membership spanning multiple gyms (“boxes” in CrossFit lexicon), I am admittedly Exhibit A of the annoying CrossFit advocate type. For me, and many like me, this approach to fitness is a meaningful and important part of my day and a fulfilling way to develop on both personal and physical levels.
Interestingly, my CrossFit community contains a disproportionate number of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and executives. Demographics are undeniably a part of this – these groups are often more financially qualified to invest in this type of training. But there are other significant factors at play here that make CrossFit attractive and fulfilling for business leaders, namely:
Accountability Breeds Results
In a CrossFit gym, the results of your workout are written on a whiteboard for all to see. Whether the goal of your workout was an effort for time, for total weight, for distance, or whatever the measurement…it’s there, on the record. This creates both accountability and competition. You don’t phone it in when you know everyone is watching.
Inevitably, you’ll find someone you like to chase (and someone will be chasing you) – and while this level of competition makes the daily work fun, you quickly realize that in every challenge, it’s ultimately just you versus you.
Stress Relief
This type of activity is intense enough to require your complete attention for the one hour you are present in the gym. It’s a complete physical and mental effort.
As awful as that may sound to the uninitiated, it’s actually a great way to clear your mind and step away from your work identity for a little bit to focus completely on yourself, and what your body and mind are capable of doing.
Grit is Good
CrossFit gives new challenges to chase every day. Unlike monostructural exercise programs like running, cycling, and the like, CrossFit programming varies between gymnastics, endurance, strength training, skill work (rope climbs, jump rope double-unders, Olympic lifting, etc.), speed, and other modalities to breed a well-rounded athlete. This means that you will not initially be great at a lot of what you’re asked to do.
Pushing yourself to develop strength and skills in areas where you’re not naturally gifted (even if it’s outside of the office) helps you push past your own belief systems around what you’re capable of doing. It breeds fortitude and mental strength.
Over time, this type of thinking becomes a pattern that carries over to how you approach business. On a daily basis, you learn how to quiet the voice of doubt and embrace the voice of possibility and capability.
Community Brings Support
Any CrossFit geek will quickly tell you how much the support of the member community has played a part in his or her progress. We push each other in friendly competition, celebrating our wins and consoling each other in our moments of discouragement.
It’s respect, stewardship, and camaraderie – the same characteristics that help strong teams thrive in the business world.
Variety is the Spice of Life
A hallmark of CrossFit programming is the varied nature of physical challenges to master.
Not knowing what you’ll have to tackle on any given day brings a sense of adventure to fitness that closely parallels the necessary mindset of an effective entrepreneur or executive. It’s an adrenaline rush, whether that’s because you’re killing it at something you excel in, or because you’re dialing in every resource available to your body and mind in an effort to perform and improve at something that’s not yet in your wheelhouse.
Just as in running a business well, in CrossFit, you’re never simply going through the motions. You’re pushing, failing, analyzing, fixing, pushing more, and growing. This process develops thought and behavior patterns that carry over into our general way of thinking and will serve any executive or entrepreneur well, inside or outside of the gym.”
