5 Rounds for max burpees: With a 3 minute running clock, 100m plate pinch carry, 35#(25#) With time remaining perform as many burpees to stacked plates as possible Rest 1 minute
*Score is total number of burpees from all 5 rounds
Bridget, Anahita, and Erin building their pulling power with strict pull-ups.
There are a lot of activities on the horizon, get your calendars out and start marking ’em up.
*Verve is closed this weekend to host a Level 1 Seminar. We will have one WOD at 7am on both days, sign up on MBO.
*Saturday November 14th Jake’s is hosting the DeVito Strong Fundraiser and Party, from 5pm-8pm. For more details click here.
*Saturday & Sunday November 21st & 22nd MBS CrossFit is hosting the Turkey Challenge in Broomfield. Verve has 7 teams signed up for the event as well as a handful of individual competitors. Grab your cold weather gear and head up there to cheer our peeps on!! For more details click here.
*Thursday November 26th is Thanksgiving Day. Verve will have an abbreviated schedule on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Be sure to check MBO for class times and get signed up.
*Sunday December 6th Josh Wrede at Til Death Tattoos will be hosting the DeVito Strong Tattoo Fundraiser. Pick from a selection of set designs and get inked for $100 by one of Denver’s best. All proceeds go to the DeVito Strong Fund. For more details click here.
*Saturday December 12th Verve is hosting it’s first competition!! The “It Takes A Team Challenge” is an all day team competition. All 32 teams sold out within 27 hours. We will be posting a sign up sheet soon for volunteers to help with the event. Otherwise head on down to watch, have a few beers, and even get in on some fun spectator challenges. For more details click here.
What is the valgus knee? By Ryan Pye and Tabata Times
The picture above should explain what “valgus” means. In science-y terms, it is the combination of hip adduction and knee internal rotation. Basically that means your hip turns in and your knee also turns in. This can happen during all sorts of movements but shows up frequently during squats, jumping, and landing (here you see the far right image also shows a valgus position while running). To be clear, we do NOT want to see this position.
What causes valgus collapse?
So now that we know what a valgus collapse looks like, we need to figure out “Why?” it is occurring. This answer can be somewhat more complex and varied, so the options below will only represent the most common reasons it occurs. Additionally, it can be multi-faceted and be a combination of a few of the reasons listed below (or other reasons).
Mobility issues, specifically a lack of ankle mobility/ROM
Science-y stuff first. The three main muscles that could lead to “tight ankles” are the soleus, gastrocnemius, and anterior tibialis. The soleus and gastroc comprise your “calf” and connect your knee to your ankle (via the Achilles tendon) and the anterior tibialis (remember, anterior means “in front”) is the muscle in your “shin.”
If any of those muscles lack sufficient ROM, you will compensate for it — usually by pronating your feet — which will compensate for the lack of ROM by internally rotating your hip and forcing you into a valgus knee position. Your knee needs to be able to track past your foot — making an acute angle at the knee. While I have seen different numbers, you definitely need to be able to get your knee past your toes to have appropriate ROM (5 inches is a good number).
Weak glutes and/or hip external rotators
Your glutes are comprised of your Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Minimus, and Gluteus Medius. These muscles help you do almost every lower body athletic movement (to varying degrees). Your glutes help with hip extension, hip external rotation, and hip abduction, among other things. If your glutes are not very strong, you tend to compensate. This might mean your adductors kick in to help during a squat and, because of that, your knees shoot in.
Your glutes provide assistance with hip hinge movements and stability with other movements. While deadlifts, squats, and lunges all help with glute strength, lesser-used movements like hip thrusts, glute bridges, clamshells, and bird dogs are all awesome (maybe better?) exercises to strengthen your glutes.
We need your glutes to — at minimum — help keep your hip externally rotated so you don’t go valgus. Additionally, the glutes provide stability.
Your hip also uses a bunch of other muscles to rotate your hip externally (must be important if all these muscles do it!): Piriformis, Gemellus Superior, Obturator Internus, Gemellus Inferior, Obturator Externus, Quadratus Femoris (and for the record, I didn’t know every one of those off the top of my head…thanks, Google!). While these muscles have other functions as well, they work as a unit to externally rotate your hip. So how do we strengthen these puppies? My soccer girls definitely know the answer to this: BANDS! Banded walking (Monster Walks), banded lateral steps/shuffles, squats with band around knees, and clamshells are all great options. Of course bands aren’t the only way to strengthen these muscles, but they are an efficient way to do so (and require no fancy equipment).
We tend to train (in a weight room setting) what we can see. This often leads to an imbalance between our anterior and posterior (front and back) halves, which can further increase injury risk. Don’t be that guy (or gal); train your glutes!
Insufficient hamstring and quad function
There are three muscles that make up your hams: Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus, Biceps Femoris. Without going too deep into the weeds, let’s just say your hammies help stabilize your knee during many athletic movements. On the flip side (literally), your quad is comprised of four muscles: Vastus Lateralis, Vastus Intermedius, Vastus Medialis, Rectus Femoris. Intuitively it probably makes more sense that your quads are used to stabilize your knees, so that’s not a tough sell.
So about now you are expecting a list of things to do to strengthen both of these muscle groups (and that would be helpful), but it is a little more complex than that. Many times field sport athletes (and CrossFitters) have overdeveloped quads relative to their hamstrings. Depending on whom you ask, there is a specific ratio or threshold you want to have between your quad and hammies. While talking about what is the correct ratio is beyond the scope of a blog post like this, I do want to get across the point that many of us need to increase our hamstring strength in relationship to our quads. Yes, we want both stronger, but we tend to neglect the hammies, either due to the demands of the sport or sheer vanity (you can see your quads but not your hamstrings).
So get to strengthening that posterior chain (back, hammies, glutes). It will help keep your knees out where they should be (not caving in) and will help decrease the risk of an ACL injury. Oh yes, and it will also make you a better athlete.
While the debate will forever rage on about the “knees out” cue many coaches use and the exact optimal position of the knee when squatting, jumping, landing, and running, I hope this post gave you some insight on why you hear coaches arguing about it all the time. Proper knee position is an indicator that your body is operating properly and balanced. So next time you squat (or jump), have someone check out your knees. You might just find something you can improve on!
**This article contains both photos and videos of the tests, stretches, and exercises mentioned. Click here for full article with additional links/ resources.
How many East coasters does it take to fix CrossFit equipment? Thank you to Clancy and Paul for keeping Verve’s equipment in working order. #CheckOutThoseTools #ThinkAboutIt #WeKid #ButReally
8 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Stronger By William Imbo of BoxLife Magazine
I hear it at Verve often, “I just need to get stronger”. Getting stronger seems like it would clearly be the answer to solving our of our weaknesses. And to some extent it is. If we follow a squat program, it will help me move weight better in workouts involving any variation of a squat. Yes and no. Isolating specific training programs can sometimes be the reason we don’t get stronger. We can begin to fall into the trap of working on something we like and avoiding the things we don’t. These and several other reasons are brought to light in an article in BoxLife Magazine, that may help us understand, that even through all our hard work, why we still aren’t getting stronger, why the PRs have stopped, and why we seem to simply stall out. (Click here for full article) Your mechanics are broken
There are many ways in which your movement patterns and technique can break down: bad posture, poor form, improper weight selection, bad coaching (though I hope that’s not the case) are all possibilities. At first, you may be able to literally ‘muscle’ through a movement and build some initial strength, but there’s no way you’re ever going to be able to move as much weight overhead when you consistently hyperextend your lower back instead of tightening your core and keeping a neutral spine (just one example). This can also lead to other musculoskeletal issues and a high risk of injury, which means that you’d actually be regressing in your overall strength, not growing it. The fix sounds straightforward but requires consistent work. First and foremost, check your ego and lower the weight on the bar so that you can perform the movement efficiently—surprisingly enough, learning how to move the barbell properly will allow you to put more weight on it over time. Spend time working on your mobility and enlist the help of your coach as frequently as possible so that the proper mechanics of the lift are engrained in your mind. Once these foundations are locked in, you can start to progressively add more weight, eventually blowing past your previous PR. The perfect example of this is the clean. A lot of athletes struggle with getting under the bar (due to poor flexibility, technique or fear—or all of them), so they power clean it instead. Unfortunately, there’s going to come a time where they simply can’t power up the weight that’s on the bar. It’s at this point they’ll have wished they learned how to perform the clean as it was intended, so they’ll have to go back to the drawing board while the athlete who took their time to learn the particulars of the lift surpasses them.
You’re only doing what’s fun, not what you need
Every athlete has a favorite lift, and they’ll never miss a class when it’s programmed into the day’s WOD. But by that same logic, everyone also has a lift that they despise and/or they’re weak at, and avoid it like the plague. Well you can’t avoid the truth. Being good in one or two lifts is only going to take your strength so far. Your split jerk is nothing without your push press, it’s going to be difficult to get out of a heavy clean if your front squat is weak, and so on and so forth. These lifts are more closely linked than you may think, and each builds strength in different areas of your musculature that you’ll need in order to break through a plateau. Of course, no one enjoys performing a movement they suck at, but that’s why practice, mobility, technique and accessory lifts are so important.
You’re not performing accessory lifts
There is an infinite myriad of accessory lifts that you could work into your training to not only help improve your big lifts (squats, jerks, etc.), but also beef up your smaller synergists—your helper muscles—resulting in bigger strength gains overall. For example, the GHD raise is an excellent way to increase muscle mass and strength in the back and the posterior chain, which will come in handy for any exercise that requires squatting and/or jumping. So if you’re still struggling with increasing your strength, consider spending more time working on your accessory lifts.
You’re not giving yourself time to recover
When you perform resistance training, your muscles undergo microscopic trauma—the fibers of the muscles tear as you move weight. When you stop working out, the fibers begin to repair themselves and the body adds more tissue to the muscle so that the risk of repeat damage is reduced. This is how your muscles grow and become stronger, but is also why progressive overload is essential to continued improvement, as the body adapts and becomes more resistant to stress. However, for all this to work effectively you need to allow time for the body to repair itself. This is where things like proper nutrition, sleep, mobility and active recovery (to ease the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) which is a side effect of muscle fiber damage) come into play. These are vital elements of your recovery—and therefore your strength development—that can’t be overlooked. If you want to get stronger, put your body in the best position to be able to.
You’re not focusing enough on your mobility
We already know how important good mechanics are to being able to move weight efficiently—the better you can move your body around the bar (or with the bar), the more weight you’ll be able to lift. The problem is people forget that our flexibility and mechanics are intrinsically linked. The overhead squat requires good mobility in the shoulders, wrists, hips and ankles. If your lacking in any one of these areas, you’ll have a ceiling as to how much weight you can lift—if you can perform the movement in the first place. So then, it is imperative—IMPERATIVE—that you dedicate time to increasing your mobility and learning how to move your body effectively EVERY DAY.
You aren’t placing an emphasis on strength
CrossFit is all about being skilled across multiple areas of fitness (speed, coordination, flexibility, etc). The aim is to be a balanced athlete, but sometimes people will naturally drift towards improving certain skills at the expense of others, either intentionally or unintentionally. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to become a more mobile athlete if you can’t put yourself in the correct positions to move heavy weight (as explained above). But if you’re spending the majority of your time working on your flexibility without actually moving heavy loads, your strength will stagnate. The same goes for people who want to improve their cardiovascular endurance. Yep, there is a thing as too much running, rowing and double-unders. While your engine may be improving, your muscles aren’t being put under (heavy) stress and they aren’t moving heavy loads; which means your muscle fibers aren’t undergoing micro-trauma and repairing themselves as they should be. Of course the flipside to this argument is that if you spend too much time working on your strength you’ll decline in other areas. So the name of the game is balance—which can be tricky, especially for newbies.
You fear failure
I have a good friend at my box that’s a strong lifter, but he could be even stronger. His problem? He’s scared of failing a lift. Part of it is his discomfort with bailing when he can’t get out of the hole in a squat, the other half is his head telling him that he won’t be able to stand the weight up. Those are two powerful factors that are limiting his development, and I daresay a lot of other people’s development too. How can you ever grow in strength if you’re too scared to put intimidating weight on the bar? You might actually lift that weight if you had the confidence to try, but the thought of failure means that you’re always going to be lifting 10, 20lbs less than you should. I understand that for many athletes the idea of hitting the deck after a failed lift is a scary and embarrassing prospect. But no one is going to judge you for trying to hit a lift and failing, it’s a sign that you are stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing yourself to find new limits in the hope of becoming a better athlete—especially if you keep trying and trying. A great way to develop your confidence is by learning how to bail effectively with light weight. Once you’re confident that you can drop the bar safely, you can tackle those more intimidating weights with more bravado. You shouldn’t be fearful of not making the lift—you should be more concerned as to why you are afraid in the first place. When you find the root of the problem (be it bailing, feeling embarrassed or lack of technique), then you know what to work on.
You’re not eating properly
Part of the process of increasing your volume, adding poundage and letting your body recover is adding more fuel into your system. When you have an intense workout session your metabolism is increased for hours after you leave the box, so you need to provide your body with the proteins, carbs and fats it needs in order for your muscles to repair themselves and grow stronger. If you don’t, then your body will start burning both your fat and your existing muscle tissue, which obviously isn’t very good, you need to eat in accordance with your goals. If you’re having trouble breaking through a plateau in your strength, consider adjusting your diet to allow your body to handle heavier loads.
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I know there are several athletes following squat programs or lifting programs during open gym hours. We encourage athletes to work on their weaknesses or simply work on the things they enjoy. With that said, beware of your volume. If you are squatting 4 days/ week in a program, it is not a good idea to add more work below parallel. Joining a WOD with 100 wallballs is an absolute way to get injured due to overtraining. If you aren’t sure how to appropriately follow a lifting program and continue to incorporate CrossFit WODs safely, please email me, I would be happy to point you in the right direction, courtney@crossfitverve.com.
David helping Jordan through some weighted push-ups.
I like activities. Activities are my favorite.
*Saturday November 14th- Jake’s will be hosting the DeVito Strong Party and Fundraiser starting @ 5pm. It will be featuring a silent auction, raffle and drink specials. All of the money raised will go towards Sarah DeVito’s fund. Click here for the Facebook event page for more details.
*Saturday & Sunday November 14th-15th- Verve will be hosting a Level 1 Trainer Course. We will provide an early morning WOD and then be closed the remainder of the day. Stay tuned for reminders.
*Saturday & Sunday November 21st-22nd- CrossFit MBS is hosting the Turkey Challenge in Broomfield. Verve has 7 teams registered to compete. Start dusting off your cold weather gear and get ready to scream loud.
*Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday November 26th-27th– Verve will be hosting classes over Thanksgiving, however we will have an abbreviated schedule. Please see MBO for a list of class times. Be sure to sign up sooner than later to claim a spot in class and earn your Thanksgiving Turkey.
*Saturday December 12th– Verve will be hosting a 3 person team competition as a fundraiser event for Sarah DeVito. Stay tuned for Monday’s blog post with all the details. Mark your calendars now!!
Register and compete! Support and amazing organization
This Friday is the first Everyday Warrior Battle Series workout.
Everyday Warrior is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded with the primary mission to inspire, empower, and financially support individuals in the CrossFit community who have been diagnosed with cancer and are currently undergoing treatment.
There is no better way to show our warriors that no one fights alone than to go to battle with them. The Everyday Warrior Battle Series is an opportunity to WOD for a cause. It is a 4 week online competition that starts tomorrow, Friday November 6th. You can still get registered for the competition and see how you place on a leaderboard amongst other warriors. There are several divisions, RX/ Scaled/ Masters/ Teen. All proceeds benefit CrossFitters currently battling cancer. There are prizes packages for top individuals in each division as well as prizes for top participating gyms.
Here’s the deal, if you already plan to come to Verve on Fridays to join a WOD, then you mine as well get registered for this competition. Verve is hosting the Everyday Warrior workouts every Friday for the next 4 weeks. Click here to register.
This year an estimated 1.66 million people will be diagnosed with cancer. For many of them, the financial burden of medical bills, co-pays, and deductibles coupled with the inability to work during treatment will make it nearly impossible to focus on the fight at hand. Everyday Warrior helps to ease, if not eliminate this financial burden.
Unlike may cancer-based charities, money raised by Everyday Warrior goes directly the individual or family affected by the disease and subsequent financial burden. This allows these individuals to spend funds however they see fit, whether it’s mortgage or car payments, buying groceries or simply breathing a littler easier each month.
WHEN: EVERY Friday November 6th – 27th. PLEASE READ: We will be opening up the gym to ANYONE from any gym competing in the Battle Series EVERY FRIDAY at 6pm to add to the exciting environment that comes with these workouts.
WHY: We all know someone who has been affected by cancer. I implore you to check out the website www.everyday-warrior.org to see how and why the organization was created. You will also be able to read some of the stories of the CrossFitters that have received support from the organization.
Paul Buono is the newest addition to Verve’s training staff.
Over the last few weeks some of you have had the opportunity to meet Paul. Paul recently moved to Colorado and has become the newest member of Verve’s training staff. We are excited to have him and his wealth of knowledge about all things CrossFit, injury recovery, and how to handle living with Clancy. If you have not yet had the chance to meet him, here’s a little background on Paul:
Hello All,
My name is Paul Buono and I want to play two truths and one lie, so here we go: • I have been coaching CrossFit for the past four years. • I am Eric Clancy’s first cousin. • I recently was a member of team CrossFit Milford, which took 2nd at the 2015 CrossFit Games.
So, now that you all know that Eric and I were pretty much separated at birth, I’m here to introduce myself. Some may recognize me as the creepy shirtless guy walking around Verve the past couple weeks or riding the Assault Bike in a corner by myself, while others may recognize me from past summers.
“The Matt Chan” was my first remote coach. When I was in college at Penn State. I would come out and train to either get ready for a regional event or just to come and do some exercise and hang. During these visits, I fell in love with Denver and Verve. Since then, it has been my goal to move out here.
I recently moved from Milford, CT where I lived and coached for the better part of 2015. Before then, I was a Civil Engineer for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Philadelphia and coached part time at CrossFit Center City.
Over the coming weeks, I will be doing a bunch of part-time coaching and “second-manning”. During this time it would be super awesome if people would keep coming up and introduce themselves to me! I’ve already met a ton of awesome people and would really like to get to know the whole gang a little better.
With this, I will also be doing some personal training for any one that is interested in that type of thing. Over the years of competing in various regional events and most recently the 2015 CrossFit Games, I have had the opportunity to deal with some pretty radical injuries. The two doozies that I’ve dealt with are both a Bankart and SLAP tear in my left shoulder and as of recently two bulging discs, one in my L4-L5 and one in my L5-S1. During this time I’ve gotten to know some pretty good tips and tricks to keep training and eventually get back to doing CrossFit as prescribed.
It has been quite the journey and learning experience. Along with the experience gained, I have had the privilege of getting to work with some of the best coaches in the game. I would love to help share what I have learned, whether you are interested in refining skills, help with working around injuries or just looking for some more individualized attention, I’d love to help. Some of my certification and seminars include:
• CrossFit Level 1 • CrossFit Level 2 • CrossFit Endurance • CrossFit Weightlifting • CrossFit Gymnastics • Power Monkey Fitness Camp 4.0 • OPEX: Assessment and Program Design
If there is anything else you would like to know just e-mail me at paul@crossfitverve.com.
CrossFit Milford finishing 2nd at the 2015 CrossFit Games.
Air Force Senior Airman Bryan R. Bell, 23, of Erie, Pennsylvania, assigned to 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base, died January 5, 2012 at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. Today we will do a workout named after this Hero. We workout to honor his sacrifice. This is not the first, nor will it be the last, Hero WOD Verve has posted. Most may not even realize these workouts are, in fact, Hero workouts named after a man or woman, written to honor them.
“CrossFit’s Hero WODs are challenging tests of fortitude—but they also represent something greater.”
Here is a little insight into where Hero WODs come from and why they are an important part of the CrossFit community, as written by Russell Berger (click here for full CrossFit Journal article):
On June 28, 2005, four Navy SEALs on a reconnaissance mission in the Kunar province of Afghanistan were ambushed by an overwhelming Taliban force. Team leader Lt. Michael Murphy, unable to call for help from his location, walked into the center of enemy fire, where his satellite phone might work. He punched in the numbers to HQ and calmly requested reinforcements.
Even after being knocked to his knees from a gunshot wound to his back, Murphy calmly sat back up, steadied himself and continued the call, knowing that it was the only way he might save his men. Once the call for reinforcements had been completed, he returned to the fight with an MH-47 Chinook helicopter on the way.
Outrunning its escort of attack helicopters, the Chinook rushed into the battle for a daring daylight rescue. Attempting to set down in tremendously rugged terrain filled with hostile militia, the Chinook was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. The eight SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers aboard were killed, leaving Murphy and his men to continue the fight. When the battle ended, Murphy and all but one of his men had been mortally wounded.
Murphy was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day. Among those killed in the rescue attempt were Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor and Lt. Michael McGreevy. Both SEALs were posthu- mously awarded Bronze Stars for Valor and Purple Hearts. These men were fathers, husbands and sons. They were brothers to their fellow SEALs. They were also CrossFitters. In their actions, these men embodied the values and spirit of true heroes, and to immortalize their courage, bravery and self-sacrifice, the CrossFit Hero workouts were created.
A Community Honors the Fallen
To the average CrossFitter, Hero workouts are symbolic gestures of respect for our fallen. CrossFitters from all over the world, regardless of country or allegiance, throw themselves wholeheartedly at these intentionally gut-wrenching workouts that serve as a tribute to our lost protectors.
Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, commander of the 20th Engineer Battalion from Fort Hood, has a unique understanding of just how important the CrossFit Hero workout can be as a memorial to the friends and family of the deceased. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Islamic terrorist gunned down four of Andrysiak’s soldiers at Fort Hood in an attack in which 13 were killed and 30 wounded. Andrysiak’s soldiers were members of Lumberjack CrossFit, a military affiliate in Fort Hood, Texas.
Teaming up with CrossFit Headquarters, Andrysiak set out to create a brutal test of fortitude to honor his men, a workout based on a template they had previously used as a readiness test for Lumberjack soldiers. It became known as the Lumberjack 20. One month after the attack at Fort Hood, the workout was posted, and in a simultaneous showing of support, the community raised over $50,000 for wounded warriors.
“My soldiers (friends of the fallen) really appreciate what the CF community did,” Andrysiak recalls. “We will do the Lumberjack 20 on 5 November this year, and the leadership in this organization will make it a tradition. Forever, these kids will remember the Lumberjack 20 and what it represents.”
What Andrysiak and CrossFit created was a way to immortalize the fallen and remind ourselves that even in their untimely deaths these fellow CrossFitters were committed to the safety and freedom of the rest of us. The Lumberjack workout gave the community a way to show its support and perhaps help ease the pain of a terrible tragedy. But Andrysiak also noted that the Lumberjack 20 played an important and often undiscussed role for those with personal connections to the victims: assisting with the healing process and helping friends and family grieve.
Sharing a Soldier’s Story
The Hero workout McGhee, first posted on CrossFit.com on April 15, 2010, was submitted to CrossFit headquarters by Staff Sgt. Brendan Souder to honor his friend, Cpl. Ryan McGhee, after the Army Ranger was fatally wounded by small-arms fire while operating in Central Iraq. It’s hard enough to wake up in the morning and find another Hero workout posted on CrossFit.com. It can be unimaginable to think of seeing the photo and name of a friend or loved one above that workout.
Souder, like Andrysiak, is connected to Hero WODs by something more than patriotism and community.
“It was about telling Ryan’s story,” Souder explains. “Guys that don’t even know Ryan, if they knew his story, they would love him … . The point is to let everyone know that he did something for them, and the least you can do is complete this workout to honor him.”
Souder and McGhee had been good friends, and Souder had been the recruiter when the high-school football star had decided to pass up college scholarships for a chance to get into Ranger Regiment. Souder helped McGhee fight for weeks to secure the difficult-to-attain Ranger contract that allowed him the chance to attend selection into Ranger Regiment.
After McGhee’s death, Souder knew he needed to honor the soldier by submitting a Hero workout—something for Ryan, those close to him, and Souder himself.
“Every time you do that workout,” Souder said, “you try to think about what it was like to be in that guy’s shoes, everything up until the point he died … . Once you get over it, you need an outlet to let loose some of your frustration.”
Souder also reminded that these sorts of gestures and tributes are neither new nor unusual.
“Everybody gets it,” he said. “We already say, ‘One for the Airborne Ranger in the sky,’ and this is just one more thing.”
In similar fashion, many members of the military wear KIA (killed in action) bracelets in memory of fallen comrades, and police officers often emblazon their vehicles with the badge numbers of officers killed in the line of duty. CrossFit Hero workouts are just another expression of this sense of brotherhood, and they are uniquely suited to a unique community. Even close friends and family members of the victims who have never heard of CrossFit understand a Hero WOD to be a tremendous honor.
Lest We Forget
For those of us who undertake these physical tests, the psychological effects of performing a Hero workout are tremendous. It’s easy to treat these prescriptions as any workout of the day, but for those who take the time to learn about the heroes they honor, the WODs can become as spiritual and emotionally demanding as they are physically grueling.
When keeping the stories behind the real-life heroes in mind, slowing down during a Hero workout becomes harder to justify. When the pain of pushing harder becomes too great, I am reminded of the sacrifice these men made for my freedom, and my struggle becomes laughable. And when I compare my temporary suffering to the lifelong sorrow felt by the grieving families of these men, dropping the bar becomes an embarrassment to my country.
The Hero workout is more than a test of physical ability. It bridges the gap between the body and the mind, emotion and experience, and gives us the chance to do more than just remember our soldiers. It gives us the chance to sweat, bleed, suffer and grieve for our fallen heroes one rep at a time.
Verve yoga is happening this Sunday. Get signed up on MBO and get bendy with Molly Sunday @ 8am.
*Halloween is today. Wear your favorite costume!! I’m looking at you Scotty!
*Mark your calendars, November 1st is Daylight Savings time, we get to set our clocks back 1 hour and get a little extra sleep.
*November 14th Jake’s will be hosting the DeVito Strong Party and Fundraiser starting @ 5pm. It will be featuring a silent auction, raffle and drink specials. All of the money raised will go towards Sarah DeVito’s fund. There is also a clipboard with info regarding purchasing DeVito Strong apparel on Verve’s front desk.
*November 14th-15th Verve will be hosting a Level 1 Trainer Course. We will provide an early morning WOD and then be closed the remainder of the day. Stay tuned for reminders. If you are interested in attending the course, click here for more info and to register.
*November 21st-22nd is the Turkey Challenge hosted by MBS CrossFit in Broomfield. Verve has 7 teams registered to compete. Start dusting off your cold weather gear and get ready to scream loud.
How Does Alcohol Affect Your Athletic Performance? By William Imbo of BoxLife Magazine (Click here for full article)
I’m not a very big consumer of the adult beverage, but I went to a wedding over the past weekend and gave my best effort at making up for lost time. That was Saturday. . . come Monday when it was time to get back to training I still wasn’t feeling quite like myself. Man are those college days of drink & rally long gone. Truth is I’m probably preaching to the choir. Not that I think you all are a bunch of alcoholics but I do know many of you enjoy a nightly glass of wine or bottle of beer to unwind from the day. I also know that many of us live by the motto “work hard, play hard”, which can translate to awesome parties on the weekend or elaborate trips to far away places. Following those awesome parties and pretty sweet trips, when we get back to the gym, some of us can’t quite put together why we may not be performing to our optimal standard. Well luckily I’ve stumbled across an article that may tell us why. This is not a blog post mean to give a lecture or guilt trip, enjoy your beverages. This is merely meant to give some answers to why, following that enjoyment, we may have some negative effects to our performance.
How alcohol works When you consume an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol (ethanol) makes its way to your stomach where around 20-25 percent of it gets absorbed into your blood stream immediately. The rest of it continues to your small intestine where it is later absorbed by the blood stream once more. Once it’s in your blood stream, the alcohol makes its way to the liver where it is metabolized (broken down). Alcohol is metabolized by a normal liver at a rate of about one ounce (one shot, a normal beer, a regular sized glass of wine) every 90 minutes. There are a number of varying factors that can affect this rate. These include body fat percentage (lower the body fat, lower the blood alcohol level) and gender (women typically process alcohol slower than men). Any amount of alcohol over the one ounce per 90 minutes ‘quota’ doesn’t get processed right away, and instead saturates your blood until your liver is able to process the excess alcohol. Since alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, the first couple of drinks you have can help you relax. But as the amount of alcohol in your blood increases, the effects become more and more apparent: this is officially known as getting drunk.
So now that we know how alcohol works, it’s time find out why drinking too much, too often, can really hamper your progress as an athlete.
It negatively affects protein synthesis Alcohol disrupts your body’s ability to absorb protein, impacting protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process where amino acids are joined together to form complete proteins. If you expect to see your muscles grow and become stronger, you must have a positive muscle protein balance. Which means that a lack of exercise or protein intake could mean that your muscle breakdown would exceed your muscle growth. This would lead to a catabolic state in which you are losing muscle tissue. A study published in Alcohol and Alcoholism in 1991 found that consistent intake of alcohol halted protein synthesis and caused myopathy in many cases. Myopathy is a condition in which muscle fibers do not function properly, resulting in muscle weakness or loss of movement.
It lowers testosterone levels Testosterone is a key hormone within the body that allows muscles to grow and repair. Low levels of testosterone (or decreases in the hormone) are linked with decreases in lean muscle mass and muscle recovery, which is obviously bad news. The presence of alcohol in your body triggers a multitude of chemical processes, including the release of a toxin from your liver that attacks the amount of testosterone you have. A 2009 study published in Bonefound that frequent drinkers in the armed forces had significantly low testosterone levels, as well as high estrogen levels. This is important because estrogen lowers the amount of testosterone in the body, and yep, you guessed it, alcohol slows down your ability to process estrogen, allowing it to build up in your blood stream.
It causes dehydration and depletes your energy Alcohol is also a diuretic: A substance that promotes the production of urine. This means that the kidneys have to work overtime in order to filter very large amounts of water in order to break down the alcohol you consume (through urine). And depending on how much you drink, this can actually lead to severe dehydration. While dehydrated, you’re at a greater risk of sustaining musculoskeletal injuries such as cramps, and muscle strains. Furthermore, your appetite will decrease, despite the fact that you still need to be consuming the same amount of food as before to fuel your body for training.
Once alcohol is absorbed through your stomach and small intestine and moves into your cells, the water balance in your body is disrupted. This makes the ability of your muscle cells to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that much harder. ATP is a fuel source that is crucial in helping your muscles contract. A reduction in your body’s ATP can result in a lack of energy and loss of endurance. In addition, water plays a crucial role in the muscle-building process, as muscles alone are 70 percent water. So even if you are just slightly dehydrated, your muscles will suffer for it.
It depletes the body of vitamins and minerals, if consumed in large amounts We all need vitamins and minerals to keep our body healthy and functioning properly. Unfortunately, alcohol consumption causes vitamins A, C, the B’s, calcium, zinc and phosphorus to all be drained at rapid rates. It’s essentially like taking one step forward and two steps back. Which is probably how you’d walk when tipsy, ironically enough.
It increases fat storage Alcohol has about 7 calories per gram, meaning that you could be drinking a hefty meal on a night out without even realizing it. Unfortunately, your muscles are not able to use these calories for fuel, as instead of being converted to glycogen (a form of stored carbohydrate) your body treats alcohol as fat. As a result, alcohol consumption increases fat storage and can adversely affect your percentage of body fat.
Alcohol negatively impacts muscle recovery After a strenuous workout, your muscles need time to recover and repair the tears in the muscle fibers. This is how your muscles grow and become stronger. One of the best ways to recover is through quality sleep, but because drinking alcohol negatively affects your sleep patterns, your body is robbed of a precious chemical called human growth hormone, or HGH, that is released during sleep. HGH is vital in the growth and repair of your muscles, but alcohol can decrease the secretion of HGH by as much as 70 percent! Unsurprisingly, the studies back this up. In 2012 a group of researches at Massey University in New Zealand published a series of studies showing that the consumption of alcohol post-exercises severely restricts an athlete’s ability to recover from delayed-onset muscle soreness.
But it’s not all bad news when it comes to booze! In addition to its stress-relieving effects, certain types of alcohol contain beneficial antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. For example, red wine contains a chemical known as resveratrol that reduces your blood pressure, and consequently protects your cardiovascular system. Of course, one could get the same benefits from a host of healthy food options, but where’s the fun in that?The role of alcohol within your diet should not be underplayed, but I don’t think you should ignore it all together. Understand that it may be a reason you’re struggling to progress in your fitness goals, so cutting back is probably a wise decision. But at the same time remember that you only have one life so you should live it to the fullest! If that means having a nice brew once in a while then so be it.
Joe and Dan experiencing the joy that is max calories on the assault bikes.
5 Training Traps You Need To Avoid By William Imbo at BoxLife Magazine (click here for article)
We often write that training in CrossFit is a never-ending journey. You strive towards achieving your goals, but even when you meet them, you immediately set yourself new objectives for the future. There’s always more weight to be moved, more reps to be hit, you can always move faster and for longer. Fitness is a never-ending journey. But because it’s a journey, it’s easy for a traveller (or an athlete) to get snared in various pitfalls along the way that stop them in their tracks, send them down the wrong path or even make them regress in their fitness. As such, we must be wary of these common training traps that athletes fall into.
1) Jumping from program to program
Legendary powerlifter Ed Coan once said that his ‘program’ was called ‘getting stronger’, and that was the only program he ever followed. If the programming you’re following is getting you positive results, why change things? Keep doing what you’re doing! Of course, many CrossFitters will stick to the programming on offer at their box, and trust in its variance and effectiveness to help them reach their goals. However, many athletes take advantage of open gym hours and choose to follow different programs that are easily accessible online. And there are a plethora of programs out there: squat programs, gymnastics programs, Olympic Weightlifting programs, running programs, swimming programs—the list is endless. Now, sometimes having too many choices is a bad thing. Like a kid in a candy store, it’s easy to get distracted by all the programs that are available to you. Ideally, you’d identify one program that best suits your current objective. You have to give yourself—and the program—some time before you start seeing progress. If you get frustrated after one week of work and jump to a new program, then you’ll never break through a plateau. Similarly, if you are seeing improvements through following the program week on week, then why change anything? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Follow the program through to the conclusion (whether that’s the end date of the program or you reach your goal), then move on to a new objective and a new program (remember to keep your fitness balanced—don’t constantly follow squat programming!).
2) Setting yourself bad goals
When it comes to setting goals, we all know about the acronym S.M.A.R.T. This is in reference to good goals being specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. If one of these elements is off, then you’re going to struggle to reach your goal. For example, a good goal should be grounded within a time frame—otherwise where’s the sense of urgency to complete it? Yes, some of the more complex movements of CrossFit may require longer deadlines—but you should still have a deadline. “Someday” is a word that should be stricken from your vocabulary. The best goals are the ones that keep you motivated and excited to train every day. You shouldn’t set yourself a goal just for the sake of having one—you’d never follow through with trying to achieve it! Nor should you set yourself one that is completely unrealistic. You may crave that muscle-up, but if you can only do pull-ups with a resistance band, is it smart to make the objective to get up on those rings? Of course not. Setting yourself a goal that is unrealistic will sap your desire to train (as it will take forever to get there) and put you in a bad mood. A more effective and enjoyable game plan would have you make the right jumps towards the over-arching objective. So instead of immediately trying to transition from pull-ups with bands to muscle-ups, first set yourself a goal of hitting one strict pull-up without a band. Then hitting pull-ups consistently. Then a bar muscle-up. And THEN a ring muscle-up. Each of these benchmarks builds upon the previous one, they are realistic attainable, and moving through them will make you happy as you know you’ll be en route to achieving the main objective.
3) Ignoring a gaping hole in your fitness
CrossFit’s definition of fitness is as follows: increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Broad time and modal domains is an important part of that definition. Basically, we as CrossFitters want to be balanced across the board—we want to be able to move heavy weight quickly, and light weight for long periods. We want to be able to run for long distances, but be good sprinters as well. We want to be efficient gymnasts and great Olympic lifters. We want to be able to move well. Being too proficient in one area at the cost of being highly inefficient in another is to be avoided. If you spend all your time trying to move as much weight as possible, your cardiovascular endurance is going to suffer. Similarly, if you focus on long-distance running, the loads you’ll be able to move in the clean and snatch will be limited. Ignoring such blatant holes in your fitness is a cardinal sin. As an athlete, you should strive to have a good base level in all 10 skills of fitness (strength, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, balance, agility, accuracy, coordination, speed, power and stamina).It’s a constant battle to try and raise your capabilities in all these areas simultaneously, but it’s better than being a one-trick pony. In addition, choosing to ignore your limiting factor—that element of a particular movement which gives you the most problems—can be just as damaging. Let’s say that you have excellent strength, but you are lacking in your level of mobility, and you are well aware of it. That’s good, but you need to go deeper in your analysis. Is your shoulder mobility the problem, or is it your hips? Perhaps it’s neither, and the real limiting factor is the strength and mobility you have in your ankles. The amount of dorsiflexion you have in your ankle is directly linked to your efficiency in performing the squat, but you may have never considered it to be your true limiting factor. You need to take the time to go beyond that initial assessment of, “Yep, I have bad mobility in the squat” to realize that that’s the case. Otherwise, you’ll be spending countless hours of mobility work trying to tackle multiple areas when there is one pressing area that needs your attention. Fixing a weakness in one area will invariably lead to success in another, because success in CrossFit is founded on the principle of balance in multiple areas.
4) Trying to mimic elite athletes online
Those of us who follow Games-caliber athletes on social media will often see them post videos of their ridiculous feats—such as doing muscle-ups with a weight vest and med ball, or completing X rounds of a monster workout in no time at all. While we can get great tips from following these coaches and athletes online, we have to remember that for the most part, their experience in CrossFit is completely different to what you and I are going through. The programs they are following are specifically designed for them to get to the Games and are tailored to improve their weaknesses. The volume and loads these athletes use is far higher than anything we will see, and they have to perform high-level skill movements and often work with odd objects. In short, it would be unwise to attempt to replicate the training regimen of the elite athletes. Stick to the program that work for you as they are better suited to help you achieve your goals.
5) Ignoring the intangibles (rest, diet, mobility and active recovery)
You must be bored of hearing it, but that’s only because you know how important these elements (rest, diet, mobility and active recovery) are to your fitness. It can be so easy to leave the gym straight after a workout without spending time on your mobility. You might get away with it here and there, but eventually your muscles are going to become so tight that your efficiency of movement is going to start spiraling downwards. Make no mistake, your mobility is integral to how much weight you can move, how quickly you can move it and how often you can move it. Don’t think your workout is over once the clock hits 0:00. Equally criminal (perhaps more so) is not placing high value on your nutrition. What you put in your body has a huge impact on how you perform in CrossFit, so why would you intentionally sabotage yourself by eating crap, not eating enough or eating too much? We’re not saying that you have to go on a diet immediately, but find a meal regimen that works for you (which includes a cheat day here and there—we’re not monsters) and stick to it. Lastly, don’t make the mistake of training all day every day. That’s a sure-fire way to get burnt out and injure yourself. You may feel like it’s the best way to improve, but your body needs rest and recovery days so that it can heal from the high-stress, high-impact work it goes through in a typical CrossFit workout. These are the days when the muscles actually repair themselves and get stronger, so choosing not to rest is a massive trap to avoid.
