As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
50 Double unders
40 Ab-mat sit-ups
30 Pull-ups
20 Burpees

Post rounds to comments and BTWB

Are you prepared for this. . . mentally? By Courtney “mental toughness is my middle name” Shepherd

I’m certain you’ve heard this said before but, sometimes the hardest part of the workout is the mental part. That part during a workout when your mind is telling you to quit. A few weeks ago we had a workout with 150 wall balls. Every break in the wall balls meant you had to go do a 400m run, I’m certain many of you remember this workout. I had a game plan when I approached it, I wanted to get a solid set of 50 wall balls right off the bat. Somewhere around 20 things didn’t follow the plan, I got about 7 no reps in a row with no sign of recovery. So I dropped my ball and went for a run. . . 25 reps into this workout. As I ran out the door I cussed. . . a lot. I said a lot of negative things about the stupid WOD, the stupid run, a lot of things were stupid to me. But about half way through the run I started to tell myself that I needed to turn this around, I can’t get back to the ball this angry. When I walked back in the door, I had a smile on my face, I laughed, and said “I see a lot of running in my future.” I got another 25 reps in before I headed out the door for my next run. I won’t lie to you, I was still pretty angry and frustrated. But, as I ran, I simply repeated to myself “this does not define you”. Sounds silly but it’s very true. That horribly defeating workout does not define me as a person. In 20 minutes I did not get through 150 wall balls. . . this does not make me a failure at life or CrossFit or anything else. I wanted to quit that WOD sooooooo many times, at one point I even looked at Anna and said “I don’t want this anymore”. I didn’t. I did not want to keep going after I realized early on how unsuccessful I would be. But I didn’t quit. I finished that workout no where near achieving what I set out to or adhering to any game plan I set for myself. That is what defines me. That workout helped build my mental game. Quitting is easy, changing a mindset to push through is the hard part. 

In an article title “Are You Mentally Tough?” by Scott Barry Kaufman, in Scientific American, he discusses mental toughness as a necessary character trait needed in athletes:

““Mental toughness” is a phrase that is commonly used in sports to describe the superior mental qualities of the competitor. Most elite athletes report that at least 50% of superior athletic performance is the result of mental or psychological factors, and a whopping 83% of coaches rate mental toughness as the most important set of psychological characteristics for determining competitive success.

People who are mentally tough have a psychological edge that enables them to cope better than their opponents with the many demands that sports place on a performer, and they are also more consistent and better than their opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.”

Several athletes from a variety of sports were asked to describe mental toughness, this is what they said:

1. Unshakeable self-belief in your ability to achieve competition goals.
2. Ability to bounce back from performance set-backs as a result of an increased determination to succeed.
3. Unshakeable self-belief that you possess unique qualities and abilities that make you better than your opponents.
4. Insatiable desire and internalized motives to succeed.
5. Remaining fully focused on the task at hand in the face of competition-specific distractions.
6. Regaining psychological control following unexpected, uncontrollable events (comeptition-specific).
7. Pushing back the boundaries of physical and emotional pain, while still maintaining technique and effort under distress during training and competition.
8. Accepting that competition anxiety is inevitable and knowing that you can cope with it. 
9. Not being adversely affected by other’s good and bad performances.
10. Thriving on the pressure of competition.
11. Remaining fully focused in the face of personal life distractions.
12. Switching sport focus on and off as required.

Mental toughness is an ongoing developing process. The attitudes, cognitions, emotions, and personal values that comprise mental toughness develop as a result of repeated exposure to a variety of experiences, challenges, and adversities. The more we work our weaknesses, the more will build strength, not only physically, but mentally as well. It’s easy to cherry pick a workout. To see a 5K run and think, “I hate running, I’ll skip this one”. Maybe the next time you don’t skip it, maybe the next time you say “Running a 5K will be difficult but showing up and doing it knowing the difficulty I face, makes me a stronger person”.

“Mental toughness is not only important in sports. Research has found that adolescents with higher mental toughness are more resilient against stress and depression. . . . mental toughness is important in any environment that requires performance setting, challenges, and adversities.”

Running that 5K when you don’t want to may help build a mental toughness that let’s you take on challenges at work, at school, even in our own personal lives. Funny sometimes how CrossFit and life can be intertwined. Kick that mental toughness in from the start. The workout doesn’t suck because it’s made up of everything you hate. Instead, the workout is providing an opportunity for you to work on your weaknesses. Fight for the mental toughness in the workout. Don’t think “I’ve got so much more work to do”, but rather “I’ve done so much work already, there is very little left in my way of finishing it”. When the workout is done, don’t fall on the floor thinking how awful it was but rather stand up and celebrate completing it. It’s hard advice to take, I struggle with mental toughness, these things can be easier said than done. But now is the time to try, now is the time to starting flipping our mindset and building our mental toughness, not just for CrossFit but for life. 

Click here for full article.

As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes:
10 Overhead jumping lunges, 35#(25#)
200m Row

Post rounds to comments or BTW

Orange Cashew Chicken – 3 blocks per serving.  Yields 2 servings.  Recipe courtesy of ZoneDiet.com

• 1/3 cup Orange juice
• 2 tbsps Soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsps Olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Fresh grated ginger root
• 6 oz Boneless chicken breast – cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 1/2 tsps Olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsps Cornstarch
• 1 cup Mandarin orange sections – (drained)
• 2 tsps Cashew nuts – (12 cashews)
• 2 cups Green beans

30 Rounds for time:
5 Burpees
1 Muscle-up

Post times to comments and BTWB

Q: What in the world is going on at Verve? A: A lot.

*Saturday morning @ 8am is our community WOD. Verve athletes bring a friend who’s heard you talk about CrossFit for too long and have them try it for themselves.

*The following Monday, April 20th we will start another round of foundations for the new converts.

*We will be starting a new barbell program with a focus on the Olympic lifts, Monday May 4th. The program will run for 6 weeks on Monday/ Tuesday/ Thursday/ Friday at 5pm. Stay tuned for more information in a future blog post.

*The South Regionals will be taking place in Dallas, TX May 15th-17th. Right now #teamverve is holding strong in 15th place. If you are interested in going all information regarding tickets and venue can be found on the Games site, click here.

*Verve will be hosting the CrossFit Football Trainer Course in July and the CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course in August. If you are interested in increasing your knowledge in a more specialized area of CrossFit then check out Verve’s event page for more information.  

Have a wonderful weekend!!!! 

For time:
10 Power snatch, 135#(95#)
400m Run
15 Thrusters, 135#(95#)
400m Run
20 Clean & jerk, 135#(95#)
400m Run
25 Deadlift, 135#(95#)
400m Run

Post time to comments or BTW

Box Jumps continued…

 We will continue the discussion of safely incorporating box jumps into our training.  We will discuss some of the safety issues that may come up and how to tackle them.

Safety Issue #1 – Ruptured Achilles!  Achilles ruptures generally happen during the switch from the eccentric portion to the concentric portion of the movement, meaning when we are landing and rebounding into our next jump.  If our ankles are not ready or our calves and surrounding structures are too tight, this can lead to a nasty ruptured achilles which will put you out of commission for 3 – 9 months.  Here is a great video to show you some easy techniques you can do before a workout with box jumps to mobilize your calves.   THIS VIDEO

Safety Issue #2 – Collapsed knees!  As pictured above, collapsed knees are not only NOT pretty, they are very dangerous in an explosive movement.  Knees caving in during the box jumps can be due to many reasons, such as weak hips, glutes, or hamstrings, and/or an lack of awareness of a proper squat.  Some ways to avoid this during box jumps are: (#1 – #5 courtesy of breakingmuscle.com)

• Rule #1: Be able to perform a competent un-weighted squat before trying any height box jump.
• Rule #2: Be able to perform a bodyweight weighted squat before doing depth or rebound jumps, if you jump onto a box before you can meet this standard step down.
• Rule #3: Never jump off of something you can’t jump onto.
• Rule #4: Never jump off something that you can’t absorb the landing smoothly and with confidence.
• Rule #5: Landing is more important than jumping.
• Rule #6: Strengthen the weak structures such as hips and glutes.  Monster walks and glute bridges are a great place to start.
• Rule #7:  Practice the landing of the box jump.  Start at a very low height and practice a soft landing, driving the knees out, weight on the outside of the feet, and making as little sound as possible.

Box jumps can be performed safely so achieve our training goals, we just need to make sure we don’t put the cart before the horse and practice good mechanics and mobility first!

VERVE UPDATES:

-Free Community WOD tomorrow at 8am.  Come one, come all interested in checking out Verve or CrossFit!

– Molly will be teachig Yoga on Sunday at 8am

Back squat
5-5-5-5-5

Then, 5 good mornings + 5 reverse stepping lunges per leg x 3 sets @ 50% of 5RM
Rest 2 minutes between sets

Post loads to comments and BTWB

It’s been 3 weeks since the completion of the 2015 CrossFit Games Open. In that time we’ve had a lot of questions about Team Verve. How did we do? Are we going to Regionals? Who is on the team?

Well let’s start off with who is on the team. Along with the 5 Open WODs, every Tuesday we had a special workout written to be used as a Regional team qualifier. Any athlete interested in being on the team had to submit a score for all 10 workouts. Based on the ranking of those workouts we put together #teamverve. We are excited to say our team Verve representatives are:

Trey Kubacak
Matt Schmidt
Nate Rader
Eric Clancy

Elizabeth “Lillie” Glaws
Anna Mattson
Courtney Shepherd
Nicole Hall

Team Verve ended the Open in 20th place. For now. Regionals is a little different this year. Several regions are being combined together before the start of Regionals. Our region, the Southwest region, will combine with the South Central region and the Latin America region. Together we make up the South Regionals. The top 20 men, top 20 women, and top 15 teams from each region will be invited to compete at the Regional level. Now currently Verve is outside of this invite list, however the towel has not been completely thrown in yet. As individual athletes accept their invite to Regionals, any score they contributed to their teams during the Open will be removed. As these scores are removed, there is a shift in the team standings. 

Starting today those shifts have begun. The dead line to accept or decline an invite to Regionals is at the end of the week. It is then that we will have a final answer as to whether or not Verve will be sending a team to Regionals. 

We are super proud of how well Verve did during the Open. We had some amazing displays of athleticism, some fun competitive banter (aka s@#t talking), huge firsts and PRs, and an overall sense of accomplishment and progress. We are fitter than yesterday. Our hope is that, when all the dust settles, our hard work will pay off with a seat at Regionals.  However, if it doesn’t, our plan is to train on. To make team Verve even stronger for a badass 2016 comeback.  

Team Verve is currently in training, getting prepared for whatever comes our way. We will be ready to represent Verve and it’s community this year and next. While we wait make sure to high five those that competed in the Open. It’s an amazing, and often humbling experience. To get through it takes more mental strength than physical at times. Everyone who signed up and took on each workout every week deserves a congratulations. To those that fought even harder for a place on the team, another round of high fives. It is an amazing thing to love your community so much that there is a desire to represent them. To fight for them, sweat for them, and endure pain for them. Thank you for your dedication to showing how great our gym is. 

Lastly, we do have 1 athlete getting ready to fight the good fight and earn a spot at the CrossFit Games. Jim Duwve will be competing in the Masters Qualifiers next week. He will have 4 days to complete 4 WODs. He will be competing against 200 other gentlemen for a shot at a top 20 spot. You may see him in the gym doing these workouts and video taping them, if you do, give him a shout out. We are rooting for you Duwve!!

Congratulations again to all of #teamverve. The 2015 Open did not disappoint. Even if you sit back and think, “I did not do as well as I would have liked”, that just means a fire has been lit, a spark ignited, to give 2016 some hell. Here we come.

As many rounds as possible in 9 minutes of:
10 Sumo deadlift high pull, 95#(65#)
10 Lateral jumps, 24″(20″)
Rest 2 minutes

As many rounds as possible in 6 minutes of:
10 Sumo deadlift high pull, 95#(65#)
10 Lateral jumps, 24″(20″)
Rest 1 minute

As many rounds as possible in 3 minutes of:
10 Sumo deadlift high pull, 95#(65#)
10 Lateral jumps, 24″(20″)

Post rounds and reps to comments and BTWB

Verve is fortunate to be able to host a variety of CrossFit Level 1 seminars and CrossFit specialty seminars. These seminars provide Verve trainers with knowledge from the specialists themselves, to turn around and share with it’s athletes. These seminars also provide an opportunity for you as athletes to gain that knowledge first hand. These seminars are open to any and all interested in registering. 

So what is the CrossFit football seminar all about? Well, the first question the CFFB coaches ask is “Are you serious about achieving an athletic goal?” Ummmm, yes please. 

“The CrossFit Football Seminar is an introduction to the Power Athlete concepts, movements and level of intensity required to build a “Power Athlete.” In the Seminar, attendees will be provided with a foundation for training for “Power Sports.” When we evaluate “Power” as it relates to sport we define it is the dynamic expression of absolute strength over a short period of time. That skill is transferable across many sports in addition to football, which is why this seminar is an extremely valuable event for any coach or athlete.

Over this weekend course, participants will be taught the basic movements for training, sprinting, change of direction and agility drills. They will be given information on nutrition, coaching philosophies, and programming for sport specific athletes.

The information provided in this seminar is dedicated to maximizing performance in any sport.“

Sound interesting to you? You can get signed up by clicking here. Perhaps your interest is piqued but you still want more information, please click here.

Yes, these seminars cost money. But if you have truly found yourself in love with the sport of CrossFit and want to take your knowledge and understanding of it to another level, these seminars are where it’s at, they are absolutely worth every penny. 

In teams of 2, 3 rounds for reps:
Partner 1- 50 meter pail lid walk 
Partner 2- As many cleans and jerks, 135#(95#)
Then partners switch, rest 2 minutes between rounds

Post reps to comments and BTWB

*Verve is closed this weekend while we host a Level 1 Seminar. There will be 1 class at 7am on Saturday and Sunday. If you are  sleeping in and unable to make it to class, we hope you are able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. Here’s a fun outdoor WOD you can do later in the day:

5 Rounds for time:
10 Meter walking lunge
10 Burpees
10 Meter walking lunge
10 Sit-ups

*Anna and Danni will be in Longmont, CO for the CollaBEERation 5k run starting at 11am. Race from Brew to Brew. After the race, enjoy Longmont brewed beer at the brew fest and after-race expo. Good luck to all the runners participating. For more information, click here.

Power clean
3-3-3-3

Front squat
2-2-2-2

Squat clean
1-1-1-1

Post loads to comments and BTWB

We have to learn to crawl before we can walk. We have to be pretty legit walkers before we can run. By Courtney “stands on soap box often” Shepherd

I don’t know about you but I have a soft spot in my heart for watching compilation videos of epic kid fails. You know, the ones that are videoed evidence that kids are basically like drunk adults. And when I say a soft spot in my heart, I most definitely mean I laugh hysterically out loud. Maybe this is because I don’t have kids. . . that can’t be true, I’m certain some of you parents out there find your kid’s fails pretty hilarious, otherwise who else is video taping it and posting it? My favorite though, is the kid that just learned to walk. They are still unsteady on their feet and they begin to try and walk faster. All of a sudden it’s as though they are no longer in control of their feet and they do some sort of epic face plant. I think we can all agree that if those kids would just not worry about trying to go so fast too soon but rather spent some time focusing on mastering the technique of simply walking, there would be far fewer kid fail youtube videos out there. 

But kids don’t think like that. Kids are not aware of the consequences of their actions but as adults, we are. Most of the time. I bring up the learning to walk before we run example because although kids will never put mechanics before intensity, you know, cause they don’t know any better, we can. And more importantly, we should. Yesterday’s workout had chest to bar pull-ups. When I put the programming into our trainer shared google doc, I specifically wrote that there would be no kipping banded pull-ups. If an athlete needed bands for pull-ups, they would have to be done strict. Why? Because we need to learn to support our body weight for a full range of motion pull-up before we add a dynamic kip. We need to crawl before we can walk. 

Here is a common evolution of pull-ups I see in the gym:

1) Do banded pull-ups.
2) Get tired of banded pull-ups, I should be strong enough by now.
3) Try kipping pull-ups.
4) Have managed to link a couple shady kipping pull-ups together, will now attempt to RX a pull-up workout. In doing so I will produce a huge, not fully in control of what I’m doing kip, and possibly do these in singles. 
5) Discover that I could do more of these shady pull-ups and faster if I just learn how to butterfly instead. 
6) Begin practicing butterfly pull-ups with poor mechanics and completely abandon kipping pull-ups. 
7) When asked about injuries or issues before the workout, will tell the coach my shoulder has been bothering me. 

This is real life. There is a misconception out there about how to progress through something like the pull-up and it produces one of the most common injuries I hear about in the gym, the shoulder injury. This evolution exactly describes the main issue that is: we rush to add a high volume of a dynamic movement to a structure that does not yet have the capacity to mange that volume. In the Level 1 seminars they devote a whole break out group to going through a progression for teaching the kipping pull-up to athletes. Spoiler alert, Verve coaches are pretty notorious for using this progression on Verve athletes regularly. During the seminar it is addressed that there is a certain point in the progression that some athletes may be asked not to continue forward. These athletes are those that do not have a strict body weight pull-up. The point in the progression is when full a kipping pull-up is attempted. Again, why? Because CrossFit wants to encourage individuals to avoid practicing kipping pull-ups until they have demonstrated the strength to perform a strict pull-up. Having the strength to support our own body weight for a full range of motion pull-up helps provides a  buffer of stability at the shoulder joint to handle a higher volume of dynamic movement. We want to have the basic understanding of how to activate our shoulders and keep them so during the dynamic kip. To swing from a pull-up bar without active shoulders, without a solid muscular base of support around the shoulder, it is not merely a matter of if but rather when we will begin to experience shoulder issues. 

If I were to have asked athletes yesterday to give me chest to bar pull-ups for the workout and they could use bands to do it, what would that look like? For a newer, more de-conditioned athlete that might look like grabbing 2-3 bands of high resistance. Again adding any possible kip needed to huck their body into the pull-up rig in an effort to make their chest touch it. This athlete is not gaining strength in the pulling department and they are not gaining any technical proficiency in the chest to bar/ kipping pull-up arena. And to me, neither is acceptable. Why add technical complexity to something that has yet to be mastered at a basic level. Which leads me into the talk about butterfly pull-ups. These pull-ups are a great tool to have in one’s tool box, they provide an amazing competitive advantage. . . but that competitive advantage needs to be earned. My favorite argument I have ever heard from someone trying to convince me they needed to learn butterfly pull-ups was that their limiting factor in pull-ups was their grip. They simply could not hold on long enough to do a high volume of kipping pull-ups but if they did butterfly, then they would get more pull-ups done in that small time they could hold on to the bar, henceforthly creating an overall better pull-up situation. Riiiiggggghhhhht. To prove my point I did the workout “Fran” twice in two weeks. The first time I did it with kipping pull-ups, the second with butterfly. My butterfly “Fran” beat my kipping “Fran” by 2 seconds. That’s it. I did everything the same. I broke my pull-ups once in the round of 15’s for both. The point is that it is possible to have a tight enough and fast enough kip to move dang near as fast as some butterfliers. If your grip is the imitating factor, if you can’t stay on the pull-up bar for very long, beyond working on strengthening your grip, work on perfecting your kip. 

So how would the ideal evolution look? 

1) Do strict banded pull-ups to build strength. When a class covers the pull-up progression, warm-up everything leading up to the actual kipping pull-up. (Practicing a tight, shoulder driven kip will help build shoulder strength)
2) Build to a strict body weight pull-up. 
3) Take the strength from my strict pull-up and the mechanics of the kip I’ve been practicing and attempt to put them together.
4) Right now my kip is rather dramatic, my goal is to fine tune my kip, maximize the power from my hips, and attempt to build a solid volume of linked kipping pull-ups.
5) When I find my ability to hang on to the bar and sustain several sets of high volume unbroken pull-ups exists, I will begin to find that added competitive advantage.

I could just as easily sub out the word “pull-ups” in this post for the word “muscle-ups”. What a sexy, coveted CrossFit movement. When I ask people about their goals, and inevitably one of them always revolves around getting a muscle-up, my follow up question is “Do you have a strict dip and a strict pull-up?” If the answer is “no”, then we need new goals. Rings are stable, we are not. If we are not able to support and stabilize ourselves on low rings, why would we attempt to throw ourselves up onto high rings? I said this earlier but I feel so strongly about it that I believe it is worth repeating:

Do not be in a rush to add a high volume of dynamic movement to a structure that does not yet have the strength and capacity to support it. This journey is our own and no one else’s. Find the path that builds the strength and comfort you need before you rush to have the moves you want. 

[drops the mic]

*Our apologies for any inconvenience but Verve will be closed this weekend. We will only be having 1 morning class at 7am on Saturday and Sunday. This is a change from MBO, where we originally had 2 classes listed. Please double check the schedule.

As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
10 Chest to bar pull-ups
10 Kettlebell swings, 32kg(24kg)
10 Box jumps, 24″(20″)

Post rounds to comments and BTWB

To be virtuous or not to be? A question for you to answer. By Courtney “the song bird of our generation” Shepherd

Yesterday during the morning and afternoon classes I brought up the idea of fighting for virtuosity in our overhead squats. I said that as coaches, making athletes move well is our goal. We use movement progressions to re-enforce good mechanics in a warm-up. We use verbal, visual, and tactile cues before and during workouts to continue to address mechanics. Before workouts we bring up scaling options that will allow an athlete to preform at their optimal intensity and maintain mechanics, including dropping weights, reps, rounds, or possibly altering movements all together. All of these are ways we try to keep athletes progressing forward, getting stronger, and staying safe and injury free. The problem is that’s it’s not enough for a coach to want these things for an athlete, the athlete needs to want this for themselves.

When I got home later in the day, by happy coincidence I came across an article that hit this concept home for me. In Box Magazine, Abi Reiland wrote “Understanding What Coaches Can and Can’t Do: Take personal control of your progress and experience by knowing what to expect from coaches and what things are your personal responsibility in the box.“ (Click here for full article) 

A coach. . . 

CAN: Offer instruction on movements. A good coach will carefully instruct athletes on technique and progressions, and provide corrections continuously.

CAN’T: Force perfection every time. In the middle of a workout, although coaches will almost always observe and correct, it’s up to each athlete to take the fundamentals he or she learned and apply those to a workout.

CAN: No-rep you on slack standards. As a coach walks around assisting with standards during a workout, he may make you aware that your reps are not what he wants to see. A coach will offer the appropriate correction and watch until you’re able to apply or modify.

CAN’T: Hold you accountable for every rep every day. One or two pairs of eyes on an entire room of athletes won’t catch everything. Practice ethics and give yourself the benefit of the full exercise by sticking to standards and counting only the reps you know you should.

CAN: Give you options for modifications. CrossFit is scalable in so many ways that coaches will typically cover a number of options for modification and potentially give specific instruction to those who might have unique challenges.

CAN’T: Know exactly how hard you’re working. Coaches can tell whether something is easy or impossible, but the middle ground is more difficult to determine. So it’s up to athletes to know when a modification is too easy or when Rx is just too hard. Push yourself to progress.

CAN: Program workouts to help you progress. The best gyms will give you great programming specifically designed to help you progress in overall athleticism.

CAN’T: Require attendance and mandate extra exercises. Because every athlete is unique in his or her strengths and weaknesses, there may be some areas that require extra attention. And it’s up to athletes to tackle the workouts that address their weaknesses and put time in to skills they struggle with.

CAN: Provide guidance in case of injury. When an athlete makes a coach aware of an injury, he or she will often receive a modified workout or some suggestions for substitution.

CAN’T: Read your mind or serve as a substitute doctor. Coaches can’t know what’s bothering you and how much it hurts. And coaches are NOT doctors or physical therapists, so in the event that you’re experiencing pain, it’s important to address it with a professional health-care provider.

As a coach we need to provide you a safe environment to workout. We need to provide you with good coaching. We need to be a part of keeping you moving well and avoiding injury. . . be a part of. As athletes, we need to take responsibility for our actions that may interfere with these goals. This includes not keeping coaches informed about injuries. Coaches ask, we need to communicate with them. There are times we cannot be in the gym for a long time and/ or lose consistency. Verve is happy when athletes return but returning needs to be done with some easing back into WODs. It’s not always feasible to return to doing the same things we did before we left. We need to scale appropriately. But what if we don’t know what appropriately is? Again, a time to talk with a coach. When workouts are introduced the intent of the workout is discussed. Athletes are given ideas of time frames, weights, and ways to scale but if we are still unsure, better to ask the coach then struggle through a workout. 

“Coaches provide CrossFitters with the tools they need to achieve peak performance. However, it’s up to each athlete to put what he or she has learned into play. Coaching is imperative in keeping athletes happy, healthy and successful, but where coaches lack control, athletes must hold themselves accountable. Take personal control of your progress and experience by knowing what to expect from coaches and what things are your personal responsibility in the box.”

Virtuosity is doing the common, uncommonly well. We may never be perfect but in working towards perfection we can reach virtuosity. Strive to be virtuous.

Post times to comments and BTWB

The Verve happenings:

Saturday April 4th–
Ladies only Parkour @ Urban Acrobatics at 8pm tonight. There is a Facebook event page you can RSVP to or email Anna with any questions, AnnaM@crossfitverve.com – ANYONE with 2 X chromosomes are welcome and it is FREE!

Sunday April 5th-
Yoga @ 8am, sign up on MBO.

Verve is hosting a Level 1 Seminar the weekend of April 11th-12th. Verve will have a 6:30am and 7:30am WOD. Verve will be closed the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday. Interested in signing up for the course, go to Verve’s Events Page for more details.

Saturday April 11th-
Collabeeration 5K and brew fest in Longmont, CO. For more details and to get signed up, click here.

CrossFit Football Trainer Course, July 11th-12th-
This course is an introduction to the concepts, movements and level of intensity needed to be successful in training for sport. In the course, participants are provided with a foundation for training athletes. They are taught the fundamentals of sport-specific training, including sprinting, basic movements, warm-ups and cool downs, change-of-direction and agility drills, jumping and weightlifting. Participants are given information on programming, nutrition and diet, and film study. Film study demonstrates the practical application of the CrossFit movements to football and other power sports. Anyone who trains groups that are required to be strong, agile and powerful can benefit from this course, no matter the level of athletes. Click here to register.

CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course, August 29th-30th-
Two days are spent detailing each lift (snatch on Day 1, clean and jerk on Day 2). The focus is on participants experiencing the basic positions and learning the foundational teaching points for instructing others to achieve them. The snatch and clean and jerk bring speed, power, coordination, agility, accuracy and balance to training and are indispensable to CrossFit programming and developing a well-rounded athlete. Click here to register.