As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
200m Run
10 Box jumps, 30″(24″)
250m Row
5 Muscle-ups

Post reps to comments or BTW

Talk about a perfect post-WOD snack!!  For those of you that enjoy real food after your workout, then this is the simple, portable, quick-to-grab nutricious goodie.  Add a little protien and you are good to go.  Recipe courtesy of zoneappetit.com

Sweet Potato Cakes

Serves 4-5 ~ 2 cakes per serving including yogurt dip ~ 1P, 2C, 0.4F

• 450 grams Sweet Potato from 2 med-lg potatoes.  (once again measure to be more precise!)
• 1 c. Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c. Liquid Egg Whites
• 1/2 tsp. rosemary
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 6 oz. Plain Chobani Yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder

Instructions

1. Remove skins from potato and shred.
2. Squeeze all the moisture from the potatoes.  There is a lot!  The dryer you get them, the crispier your cakes will be.
3. Add parmesan, egg whites, rosemary, and pepper.  Mix well
4. Make into patties.  You want them fairly flat.  (should make approx. 10 patties per batch)
5. Place them on a greased wire rack.  Once all patties are made, put the wire rack on top of a cookie sheet.  You could also just use a cookie sheet and turn them once or twice during baking.  It’s up to you!
6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until crispy.
7. While cakes are baking, mix yogurt with paprika, garlic salt, cumin, and onion powder.
8. Serve cakes with yogurt dip.
9. Enjoy!

5 Rounds for time:
30 Kettlebell swings, 24kg(16kg)
15 Burpees

Post times to comments and BTWB

Here’s the haps coming to you live at Verve:

*Our next free intro class will be Saturday June 6th at 8am. Got friends or family that have been expressing an interest in CrossFit? This is the perfect class to bring them to!!

*Our next foundations will start the following Monday, June 8th, at 7pm. Foundations runs for 2 weeks M/T/Th at 7pm. This is for new members to learn the 9 foundational movements as well as the 2 Olympic lifts in a group atmosphere.

*Verve is hosting a Level 2 Seminar the weekend of June 13th-14th. Verve will have an early morning class and then be closed for the rest of the day. Interested in attending the Level 2, click here for more info and to register. 

*Looking for something to do on that weekend since the gym is closed? The Cherry Creek Triple Threat will be going on that weekend. Verve has several teams registered, come out and cheer them on!!

*Verve is also hosting 2 additional specialty seminars this summer:

-CrossFit Football Trainer Course July 11th-12th
-CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course August 29th-30th

Click here to go to CrossFit Specialty Courses for more info and to get registered.

In 20 minutes establish a heavy complex of:
1 snatch balance + 2 overhead squats

Then, every minute on the minute x 7 minutes:
3 behind the neck, snatch grip push press + 1 overhead squat @ 50% of heaviest complex

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Nutrition is an unending hot topic around the gym.  We ask the people who we look up to at the gym”What’s your diet like?” and “What do you recommend?”.  These are valid questions and a valid reason for asking; you see an athlete achieving the results you want, so maybe if you replicate what they are doing, you will get the same results.  Here is the kicker, everyone is different.  What works for one person may not work for another.  I recently found an article speaking exactly to this and may help you on your journey to achieving the results you want!  The key takeaway is use your own body as an experiment to see what works best.

I met Brian MacKenzie a few years back at a coaching seminar.

He made a profound statement at that event that I’ve never forgotten. He said, “If you’re going to advise people on nutrition, or help them with gaining or losing weight, then you must be willing to experiment with your diet.”
It doesn’t matter much what you know. You need to be able to give people advice based on what you’ve actually  done. If you have never been through what you are asking them to go through, it’s going to be hard for you to advise them properly. That’s the truth.
No matter what the diet -Paleo, Zone, high-carb, low-carb – you need concrete, effective advice based on real world experience. You need to try different things so you can find out what works best for you.

Here are 3 reasons why experiment is so important.

1. Everyone is different.

To fully understand yourself you must experiment with your body, and every body is different. There are ectomorph’s, endomorph’s, “hard-gainers,” slow metabolism’s and fast, there are so many different types of people. And in-turn, everyone responds a little bit differently to food. There is no “perfect” solution.
The best thing you can do is change-up the way you eat from time to time. Whatever you approach might be, change it. Shake-up your diet rules. I would even take the time to consider how you were raised, and your attitude towards food. If you’re like most people, your parents probably weren’t feeding you with optimized fitness in mind.
You have to own up to bad habits and beliefs, new and old. I’ve certainly got some experience there. For years I ate chocolate chip cookies, a honeybun, and some orange juice from the local convenience store every single morning before school. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, I just knew that my mom didn’t cook much. It took me years to break those bad habits. It wasn’t going to happen on its own.
Had it not been for my relationship with CrossFit, I would not have gotten involved in the healthy eating lifestyle and business that I have now. All it took was a willingness to test assumptions, learn from past mistakes, and make some changes.

I’ve now got the best kind of diet you could ever find – The one built through years of trial and error.

2. Recognize patterns, and take out failure points.

I have eaten many different ways, testing all kinds of diet. And I can say for certain, this is one of the hardest things to do because it taxes you mentally.
We are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to food. We get used to eating the same thing over and over, the same patterns and choices. Even if you are the type of person who experiments all the time, you will still settle back into old eating patterns. This is a skill you have to keep working on.
I think we only make things harder on ourselves with ultimatums. When you tell yourself, “I’m not going to eat bread,” or “I’m not going to eat any fried foods or sugar,” you’re basically laying down a personal challenge. You might succeed, sure. But you probably won’t. Not if previous experience is any guide.
Like just about anyone, you’re going to want the thing you can’t have. So, don’t set yourself up for failure. Do not exclude foods from your diet. Likewise, we have to break is the urge to add more and more “healthy foods” to our diets all the time. Again, I think added complexity and choice increase your risks of failure.
The hardest part of eating well is focusing on taking out the bad stuff. That focus isn’t always easy to maintain, but it will train you to make better food choices.

3. Experiment leads to real change.

The human body is a complex and sophisticated machine. It constantly adapts to stimulus, circumstance and surroundings. That’s why CrossFit is so good.
When it comes to body transformation and building fitness, it’s hard to beat the constantly changing nature of the loading, movements and time domains. Just look at the top Crossfit athletes competing today. They’ve got the numbers and physiques to back up the method. Our bodies adapt quickly when we do the same workouts over and over again. That’s why you see the same guy in the gym that’s been doing the same thing for years and he never changes.
The same holds true for our nutrition. If we continue to eat the same old things over and over again – living by the same guidelines and rules – then our bodies will adapt and we’ll be unlikely to experience any significant changes. But when you shift your diet in a big way your body goes into alarm. That’s good. If you are fueling and training your body with purpose, you will start to see big changes.

That’s how you actually make progress.  

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
2 Rope climbs
20 GDH sit-ups
10 Power cleans, 135#(95#)

Post times to comments and BTWB

Information that would of been helpful. . . yesterday. By Courtney “still learning my lesson” Shepherd and Lisbeth Darsh

Last week I programmed some workouts for Verve while sitting on a plane heading to Regionals. As I wrote 1 workout in particular, I was beyond excited to give it a try. Not because I thought it would be easy, I knew it wouldn’t, but because I thought I would simply crush it. I don’t get that feeling very often, that I will just demolish a workout. I generally go into all workouts with a mix of nerves and fear. The last time I approached a workout with the notion I would kill it, I epically failed. It was an Open workout and I got more no reps than good reps. I broke down in the middle of the workout, I cussed, I threw my barbell, I handled it quite immaturely. . . as I said before, it was an epic failure. After the Open workout I remained angered for hours and I wasn’t sure why. Eventually I came to the realization that I was so angered and frustrated because I went into the workout with such a high expectation for myself and I couldn’t believe I fell so short of it. My learning lesson from that was, it doesn’t work, for me personally, to put those kind of expectations on myself. I don’t mind failing. . . generally. But apparently I mind it a lot when I’m not expecting to.

Enter my recently programmed workout, with my name written all over it (by the way I didn’t write it so I could crush it, that just happened to be a possible bonus after I wrote it). I came into Verve today with murder in my eyes. I warmed up with purpose. I refused to look at any times on the board, they didn’t matter to me. The only thing I was focused on was how quickly I was going to move through this workout. . . less than 1 minute per round for all 7 rounds. That was my expectation. 3,2,1 go time. . . . I’ll save you the suspense, I failed. Again. For 7 rounds I could not link more than 2-3 double unders together. Now, no one get upset and be like “why are you complaining, I don’t even have double unders”. I’m not writing this to compare myself to anyone else, you should not read it and make those comparisons either. I am simply saying, as a person who feels comfortable with my double under ability, and the experience to say linking 20 together repeatedly in a workout is not a problem for me, today it was a problem for me. After the workout I found myself angry again. Angry I didn’t crush the workout I expected that I should have. This time around, however, my anger didn’t last nearly as long, because this time I had a learned lesson on my side. I reminded myself that it doesn’t work, for me personally, to put those kind of expectations on myself. 

This is my lesson to be learned, it doesn’t have to apply to anyone else. In fact there may be a number of people who thrive under high expectations, they always rise to meet them. My point in telling you this story is that we all are going to learn some valuable lessons during the course of our CrossFit career, some may even be learned the hard way. However, some can actually be learned without having to experience them for ourselves. Those might be my favorite kind of lesson. I came across an article in Eat To Perform, written by one of my favorite authors/ blogger, Lisbeth Darsh, titled “9 Worthwhile Bits of Workout Wisdom”. Like I said, who doesn’t love learning a lesson through someone else’s experience?

1. You don’t have to murder the workout each time.

You don’t have to give everything you have every single workout. Deselecting “beast mode” sometimes can actually help you accomplish your goals quicker. Ease off the throttle one day, come back stronger the next. This one is also important for psychological and physical longevity.

2. It’s okay to just lift at times.

No conditioning at all. You won’t lose your fitness overnight. Also, you won’t die.

3. You don’t have to ditch your old hobbies.

Just because you have a new fitness love, you don’t have to forsake other forms of exercise, whether that’s cycling or triathlons or basketball or whatever. You can regularly do more than just one form of exercise. Plan well and do what you like to do!

4. You should take rest days.

Don’t have “rest guilt” and burn yourself out. Don’t even feel like you have to learn and play a new sport on your rest days. You decide what you should do based on how your body feels, and sometimes your body needs to recover and watch Netflix.

5. It’s okay to follow only what your coach says or your gym recommends.

You don’t have to look at any other gym or anywhere else. You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else. Do your workout, go home, live your life. No one will break down your door in the middle of the night and enter your bedroom with snarling attack dogs because you’re not “serious enough” about working out. Well, at least I hope they don’t.

6. Just because you work out does not mean you have to be Paleo.

It’s okay not to be “anything.” Sure, you’ll have people tell you, “Nutrition is the base of the pyramid.” They’re right: nutrition is very important. But there are a lot of ways to build that pyramid, including counting your macros (or not). But even if their pyramid has washboard abs, it doesn’t mean you have to do what they say. Smile. Hug these well-intentioned people. Then do what you want. It’s your life.

7. You can pretty much wear anything you want.

This isn’t Catholic school or the military; there is no uniform requirement. Don’t like yoga pants? Don’t wear them. Ditto on high socks, bright shoes, and shirts with suggestive sayings. (By the way, does anybody really need another t-shirt with a snatch or balls joke?) Work out in a hijab if that’s your thing. Push press in a sundress. Squat in jeans. Do what makes you happy, not what you think will make other people happy.

8. It’s okay to NOT talk about working out.

Get this: there are OTHER things to talk about! (I was surprised to learn this too.) But, honestly, I used to be 95% CrossFit talk. Workouts, videos, blah blah blah. No wonder my girlfriends left me. Now I have a healthier balance, and my conversations are much more interesting. I’m not saying you have to abandon gym talk, just that broadening your outlook might be cool. Try it. You might like it — and so may the other people in your life!

9. There are no prerequisites for being awesome.

It doesn’t matter if you back squat 100 pounds or 500 pounds, you’re still awesome! 80% of Americans don’t belong to a gym, and 50% do not exercise regularly. So if you’re doing anything at all, you’re doing better than half of America! Congrats! Now keep going!

And I will add one last piece of wisdom: it’s okay to simply expect that you will get through the workout and nothing more. 

Click here for full article.

7 Rounds for time:
5 Deadlift, 305#(205#)
10 Pistols, alternating
20 Double unders

Post times to comments and BTWB

As the temperatures rise, should I be drinking more than just water? #electrolytes #whatsupwiththat

Summer is on it’s way and the Colorado temperatures are beginning to rise. And thanks to the “occasional” rain shower, lately it has also been kind of humid and muggy. To say the sweat production has increase would be a slight understatement. At this point just walking in the gym and looking at the board can generate some sweat coming down our brows. The increase in moisture in the air increases our risk of dehydration and heat related illnesses. That’s because when the air is humid, sweat can’t evaporate and cool us as quickly as it normally does. This can lead to an increased body temperature and the need for more fluids. The question becomes what fluids should I be drinking? Water is a definite but the fluid lost via sweating may need to be replaced with more than just that.

Several ions exist in the body, referred to as electrolytes, that work in conjunction with each other to aid in muscle contraction/ movement, temperature regulation, mental thought, and more. Sodium and potassium are two major electrolytes. When we sweat, we lose body fluids, the loss of fluids causes a change in the concentration of these electrolytes in the body. We can also lose some of these electrolytes with sweat. A big enough change in the concentration of these electrolytes can cause problems such has muscle cramps, excessive fatigue, slowed reflexes, nausea, and confusion, amongst other symptoms. Staying hydrated with water helps maintain this balance but if we experience excessive perspiration during long events, or events of high intensity, this can lead to the loss of sodium which may require the consumption of additional electrolytes. This can be done by adding them to the water we are already drinking.

Gatorade came into creation for this very purpose and back in the day Gatorade actually tasted pretty bad. It wasn’t meant to be a delicious, flavorful drink but rather a way to restore lost electrolytes. Over the years sugar was added to improve the taste. Sugar, unfortunately, has a side effect of helping cause dehydration. So when picking something to supplement our water we need to be careful not to pick something with too much sugar in it. NUUN tablets are electrolyte tablets that can be easily dropped into a water bottle, they come in many flavors, and no added sugar.

If you feel like you are drinking plenty of water, a good indication of this is pale yellow to clear colored urine, but you still feel kind of crummy, try adding some electrolytes. For me personally I alternate water bottles. The first is water, the second has a NUUN tablet, then I go back to just water. Don’t let the summer heat ruin your WODing good time, drink up.

Partner “McGhee”
As many rounds as possible in 30 minutes of:
5 Deadlift, 275#(225#)
13 Push-ups
9 Box jumps, 24″(20″)

*1 person works at a time. Partner 1 will complete a whole round while partner 2 rests, then switch. Partner 1 will then rest while partner 2 completes a full round, then switch again.

Post rounds to comments and BTWB

What is going down in the land of Verve, you ask.

Plenty.

*Monday is Memorial Day, Verve will have a limited class schedule, please make sure to sign up on MBO to reserve your spot in class.

*The WOD on Memorial Day will be “Murph”. We would like to invite all current/ former military personnel to join a class at no charge. If you do not have any CrossFit experience, that’s okay, please be prepared to have the workout modified slightly, however you will still get quite the sweat on!! If you have gear/ vest you would like to wear, please bring it. We ask that you show up 10 minutes prior to the start of class to meet the trainer and sign a waiver.

*Our next free intro class will be Saturday June 6th at 8am. Got friends or family that have been expressing an interest in CrossFit? This is the perfect class to bring them to!!

*Our next foundations will start the following Monday, June 8th, at 7pm. Foundations runs for 2 weeks M/T/Th at 7pm. This is for new members to learn the 9 foundational movements as well as the 2 Olympic lifts in a group atmosphere.

*Verve is hosting a Level 2 Seminar the weekend of June 13th-14th. Verve will have an early morning class and then be closed for the rest of the day.

*Looking for something to do on that weekend since the gym is closed? The Cherry Creek Triple Threat will be going on that weekend. Verve has several teams registered, come out and cheer them on!!

See? I told you there was a bunch of stuff. Have an awesome weekend everyone!!

3 Rounds for time:
14 Toes to bar
7 Thrusters, 135#(95#)

Post times to comments and BTWB

What’s the deal with the push-up? How can I make mine better?

The push-up is one of the most used movements used in CrossFit. Yet, at the same time, is one of the most commonly mis-used movements by athletes. Why? For all it’s beauty, many athletes allow themselves to get away with subpar form and technique, thereby never really advancing at the movement, and never really garnering the benefit found therein. The push-up tells a lot about our ability to recruit shoulder muscles the way we want to, in much the same way that an air squat allow us to demonstrate the ability (or lack thereof) to recruit tension and strength through the hips and knees.

Just like with any movement, it starts with the spine. Do you know how to brace your spine? Most of us would simply squeeze our belly and gluteus, right? Yes. But, for some reason, when we move the body to parallel with the ground, that task becomes exponentially harder. After that, the question becomes whether or not we have the ability to wind up the hands, wrists, elbow, and shoulder in proper positions. What we are looking for are positives cues, instead of pathological cues. Instead of saying, “I did push-ups today and my shoulder//elbow/wrist/spleen hurts,” we want to say, “While doing push-ups I felt myself in good positions.” So, let’s define these positive cues:

1) Hands at shoulder width, fingers pointing straight ahead. Your feet are together. Now, squeeze your gluteus. Have your shoulders just slightly behind your hands.

2) Imagine your hands are trying to twist a hole into the ground to the outside of each respective hand. You should notice the “armpit” of your elbow start to twist forward. As this happens, the shoulders will slide forward to being directly on top of your hands.

3) As the push-up begins, concentrate on keeping the forearm’s at vertical, and the weight centered on the middle of the hand. This helps load up the strongest muscle groups, the pecs and the triceps. Along with helping you get your swole on, the pecs and triceps, when engaged, keep the shoulder in a strong, healthy position (Again, positive cues. If you can feel the right muscle groups firing, you’re probably doing something right!)

4) As your chest continues toward the ground, keep your glutes’ engaged, belly tight, and forearms as vertical as possible. If we took a photo of you from the front, your elbow would be stacked over the wrist. Tap your chest on the ground.

5) As you drive up, all positional cues that we fought for on the way down should be maintained on the way up. Back is flat, belly and butt tight, shoulder blades retracted (squeezed together).

6) Finally, extend the elbows to complete lock-out. During a workout, you may have heard a coach advise on more than one occasion to lock your elbows. Why? Because we know what a locked-out elbow looks like, and you ain’t looking like it. So lock it up! Often times we’ll see a scenario where, during the workout where an athlete is linking many push-ups together. Then, in an attempt to bust out a couple more reps, the athlete will rest in a plank position, or push themselves back to a “pike” position, often, at this point, demonstrating a good lock out. So, we know you have it in you.

The push-up tells us a lot about your body to perform the other pressing movements, such as the bench press, shoulder press, and push jerk. Finding positive cues in this “simple” movement will help prevent you from feeling pathological cues from other pressing movements, such as, “my shoulder has an owie,” or, “I need surgery on my torn labrum.”

*Information in this post was referenced from the book “Becoming A Supple Leopard”, by Kelly Starrett.

21-15-9-6-3 Reps for time:
Strict handstand push-up
Front squat, 195#(125#)
Bar facing burpees

Post times to comments and BTWB

What’s the Verve scoop? What’s the 4-1-1? What’s the situation? What’s the info?

*The South Regionals are entering into day 2 with #teamverve sitting in 14th place. Saturday’s team event schedule is as follows:

Event 3: Heat 3 @ 9:50am

Event 4/5: Heat 3 @ 11:35am

You can see the rest of the day’s event schedule by clicking here.

*Memorial Day is approaching. Monday May 25th we will have a limited class schedule. Please see MBO and be sure to get signed up for classes early. And yes, we are doing “Murph”. 

*Verve is hosting several CrossFit Specialty Seminars this summer:

-Level 2 Certificate Course June 13th-14th
-CrossFit Football Trainer Course July 11th-12th
-CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course August 29th-30th

Click here to go to CrossFit Specialty Courses for more info and to get registered.

Deadlift
5-5-5-5-5

Then, 2 x 20 unbroken dimmel deadlift @ 40% of 5RM
Rest 3 minutes between sets

Post loads to comments and BTWB

What do we want? Our toes to touch the bar! When do we want it? Now would be great.

By Courtney “I prefer to think of it as the bar gets to touch my toes” Shepherd, and the fine people of Eat To Perform

Toes to bar is not a technically demanding movement but yet it continues to be one that can cause many of us frustration. Whether it’s that we can’t get our toes to the bar, we can not figure out the kip to do it fast and efficiently, or maybe we simply can’t hold on to the pull-up bar long enough to get in a bunch of reps. Either way successfully completing them can be far harder than they look.

While not technically demanding, the T2B does have some demands that athletes need to be able to complete them in any capacity. We need grip strength, lat strength, and core strength. Any deficiency in one or more of these areas will impact our performance. The bonus is, if we take the appropriate steps to work on T2B, that can in and of itself be the way we build strength in the above mentioned areas. Working the right positions builds strength and capacity in the right positions, which builds a movement.

In an article by Eat To Perform titled, “Toes To Bar- 6 Tips For Beginners“, they address several steps to help build T2B (click here for full article). While the title may say for beginners, really these tips are for anyone that struggles with T2B.

1. Start at the floor. Work on perfecting the hollow and “Superman” positions. Staying tight in these positions will allow you to transfer more power into the bar so you can move more efficiently.

2. Take those two positions and put them together on the pull-up bar. Practice transitioning between the hollow and Superman positions and get into a rhythm to perfect your kip. If you start to flop around, take a break and get back to it.

-This is simply addressing the kipping swing. A shoulder initiated swing with minimal, to no, work from the legs.

3. Work on your grip strength. If your grip is giving out, you’re not going to last long. You need to work on specific grip strength on the pull-up bar. Simply hanging from the bar for time – 30 seconds is a great place to start – can address a deficiency.

4. Knees up. Work on knees to elbows. This is a remedial/scaled version of the exercise that’s great for people with mobility issues as well as folks who just want a way to make the exercise easier and work on developing core strength.

5. Activate your lats. When you come behind the bar at the top, focus on engaging the lats. Push down on the bar and descend quickly.

6. Work on small sets. To develop your technique without ingraining bad habits, keep the reps low and focus on perfect form. If you push until your form begins to break down/loosen up, or even until you fail a rep, you’re just making it harder on yourself in the long run. Quality vs. quantity!

*In addition to these tips, you might also want to work on your hip mobility during your warm-ups. Stretch those hamstrings too!

This may not look like new information, in fact it may look similar to the progressions we use in class to warm up the T2B. Again, the reminder is, breaking the T2B into these pieces and focusing our energies on these pieces can help build the movement as a whole. My favorite tip is #6, work on small sets. Some of us can find the rhythm of T2B for a few reps but eventually fall off. Rather than focusing on trying to get as many done as possible, what if we change our goal for a workout to only work in sets that allow us to maintain form and technique. And the next workout that comes along we increase that set by 1 rep only. Before we know it our working sets our in the double digits. Anything worth having needs to be worth working on and building capacity in. We can’t expect to go from zero to 60 over night.

Another article worth reading is one written by CrossFit Roots several months ago. They breakdown the T2B in pictures. . . and you know what they say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Click here to get to the article.

Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. – Kelly Starrett

*We will have the South Regionals playing on the TV at Verve all day Friday. Saturday Mas and Joylyn Godinez have lovingly opened up their home to a viewing party for anyone interested in watching and cheering in a fun group. Here is the post from Facebook:

If you are not on Facebook, simply comment to this post with your RSVP. Sunday we will have Regionals playing from 12pm-3pm following yoga. Come, sit, enjoy some adults beverages, and cheer loudly. Wear your Verve shirts!!

As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
7 Hang power snatch, 95#(65#)
14 Box jumps, 24″(20″)
21 Double unders

Post rounds to comments and BTWB

Was it RX or was it not RX, that is the question. By Courtney “you may not like the answer” Shepherd

Several weeks ago a workout was posted involving rowing for calories and chest to bar pull-ups. When the workout finished, as athletes were cooling down and shouting out their scores, the trainer writing those scores on the whiteboard asked 1 particular athlete, “was that RX?”. The athlete responded back, “maybe”. I heard this exchange take place and was immediately prompted to ask the athlete, “what do you mean by “maybe”?”. Seriously, what does that mean? It either was or it wasn’t RX, there really isn’t room for a maybe. Here is the remainder of the conversation between myself and the athlete:

Athlete: Well it depends on what you guys count as RX.
Me: Did you do the calorie row and chest to bar pull-ups?
Athlete: Yes, but I don’t know if you count the ones where you told me to get my chest to the bar.
Me: Did you touch your chest to the bar 10 times every round as the workout called for?
Athlete: Well some of them didn’t quite touch.
Me: Okay. Well when your chest didn’t quite touch, did you call that a no rep and work to re-do the rep until your chest touched. . . or did you still count it as one of your “chest to bar” pull-ups and continue on?
Athlete: I just kept going.
Me: Then no. You did not do the workout RX.

This is a concept that can be hard for some of us, especially those of us that perhaps do not compete outside of the walls of Verve and may not truly understand the idea of a non counting repetition, a.k.a. the “no rep”. When we are in the middle of a workout, when we are pouring our heart and soul into moving as fast as we can, just trying to finish in a certain time, and we throw a medicine ball up in the air towards the wall but it doesn’t quite hit the 10 foot mark, it hits just below the 10 foot mark, we continue moving as though it did. We put the work in and we want to give ourselves credit for that work. When asked, we then call that RX work. The problem is, that’s not RX work. It’s really just RX effort. And to be even more blunt, there is no such thing as RX effort.

Let’s talk about a “good rep” vs. a “no rep”. Every movement we perform has a range of motion standard. Wallballs hit 10 feet or higher, toes physically touch the bar, push jerks end after we have stood up all the way and then bring the bar back to the shoulders. These range of motion standards are not random or made up on the fly. These range of motions come from putting our joints through their full ranges of motion as well as achieving the ultimate goal of the movement. The standards are addressed during warm-ups when we review the movements. These standards are constantly re-enforced throughout the workout in the form of coaching, cueing, and correcting from the trainers. If we complete the movement, through it’s full range of motion standard, then that my friends is a good rep. If we do not do the movement to the movement standard, then that is a no rep.

I don’t squat below parallel, it’s a no rep. My chin does not get over the bar in a pull-up, it’s a no rep. My chest does not touch the ground in a push-up, that’s a no rep. The workout calls for a squat snatch and I do a power snatch. . . that is a no rep. I’m certain you get the point.

Well, what do I do with a no rep? You don’t count it towards your collection of reps. If the workout calls for 10 toes to bar per round, during one of the rounds you get tired and on rep #5 your toes don’t touch the bar, you are still at 4 reps. Even if your toes are close, you did like 98% of the toes to bar, it still is not a good rep. We want a 100% toes to bar. You rest, you get back up on the bar, you start swinging, and you complete rep #5 the next time your toes touch.

Here’s the crux of the situation. . . you can count that “close enough but not quite there” toes to bar as a rep towards your total rep count but you can’t call that RX. In fact, perhaps that was a scale for the workout, to get your toes as high as you can without worrying about touching the bar. Cool. Keep on keeping on. We can change a lot of things when we scale workouts, weight, distance, reps, rounds, and even sometimes but not nearly as often, range of motion. And when we scale or modify, we already know we have taken that good old “RX” off the table. Well, how do I get it back on the table? If we complete every repetition called for of each movement, through the movement’s full range of motion standard, at the prescribed weight, height, distance, etc., then that my friends is how we RX a workout.

I will give a personal example. A recent WOD called for handstand push-ups in increasing degree of difficulty and 30 pull-ups per round. I am new to doing butterfly pull-ups in a workout and I chose this opportunity to work on them. Now I am very certain, if someone is not watching me, verifying my range of motion on my butterfly pull-ups, that many of them do not meet the range of motion standard. I did 30 butterfly pull-ups per round but because I’m not really good at telling which ones counted and which ones did not, I did not worry about it. I did not worry about no repping myself, I just focused on moving and working technique. I did all the HSPUs RXed and when the coach asked me if it was an RX workout, I said no. It was a great workout for me. I got to work on a skill and do some pretty hard HSPUs but that was not RX work. And I am okay with that. It is easy to get caught up in doing a WOD RX. We want those RXs as much as we want muscle-ups. But it’s okay to take a step back and just focus on whether or not we got a really good workout in and call it that.

Here’s the deal, it is not my job to watch all of your reps and count all of your reps. I can’t do that for every person in class. Which is why we ask you, at the end of the workout, “was that RX?”. Now it’s easy for someone to count their RX effort as RX work and get that RX by their name without fully earning it. You won’t get struck down by lightning where you stand. Here is the down side to giving yourself credit where credit is not due. . . you don’t actually know what it takes to get that work done. If you have to do 10 chest to bar pull-ups and your chest only really touches 7 out of 10 times and you still count them. . . you and your body have not built up a capacity to do 10 chest to bar pull-ups. Strength and endurance wise, you still do not know physically what it takes to do 10 chest to bar pull-ups. That’s it. In a nutshell, you only cheat yourself and cheat your progress. 

The moral of the story is this, it either is RX or it is not RX. If you get asked and your first response is to say maybe. . . the actual answer is no. But I would put money down you still got one butt kicker of a workout in.