For time:
Run 1600 meters
150 Double-unders
50 Burpees
Run 800 meters
100 Double-unders
35 Burpees
Run 400 meters
50 Double-unders
20 Burpees

Post times to comments and BTWB.

Fall Rowing Power Challenge – Maddie Berky 

Rowing! After the 5 x 500m WOD a week back your feelings towards that machine are likely binary: yay or big freaking nay. Either way, we have a challenge for you. If your relationship with the Erg isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, that machine isn’t going anywhere so why not master it before it crushes your soul completely. If your relationship with the rower is currently all sunshine than you’re going to love this. Enter CrossFit Verve’s Fall Rowing Power Challenge! This challenge is going to involve two quantitative tests on the rower, tested and then retested 4 weeks apart. 1) Max Power Test. 2) 15 Minute Test.

One of the things that drew me to Verve originally was how adaptable in regards to that ever-changing and organic entity that is fitness. As a gym, Verve is always trying to make us better, stronger, and more adaptable. If you look across our schedule, there is a range of specialty classes (alongside our WODs) aiming to enhance us as athletes. This principle of General Physical Preparedness is at the heart of this challenge. 

Here’s the deal: you will improve on both of these tests if you come consistently to rowing every week. Rowing is a skill and the better you get at it the faster you will be. However, both tests (especially the max power) will be affected by how strong you are. If you get stronger, your max power will go up; lifting heavy things = speed on the Erg. Which classes specifically (in addition to WODs) will help your strength? Olympic Lifting and Hot Dogs & Cupcakes are now your new best friends!  For the purpose of this challenge, specialty classes will be considered any program other than the WOD (including Rowing, Running, Olympic Lifting, HD&CC, and Competition Crew), Skilz will be considered a WOD.

We also spend a tremendous amount of time in CrossFit working in and around the 15 min mark. Thus, the more time you spend training that system on the rower, the more that will translate into your everyday performance. Win-Win! 

Here are the three categories to win (each is worth $75 Verve credit):

• Most Improved Max Power Test on Erg
• Most Improved 15 Minute Test on Erg 
• Most Points Accumulated for attending WODs (1pt each) and Specialty classes (2pts each)

Classes must be signed in/attended on MBO and logged on BTWB or in a logbook to be checked at the end of the challenge.  

Initial Test times/Sign-ups (Cost is $20/member and includes weekly email with rowing homework)

• Sunday, Sept. 22 at 12:15PM
• Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 12:30PM
• Thursday, Sept. 26th at 5:30AM, 1:15PM, 5PM and 6:45PM

Final Test: Sunday, Oct. 27 at 12:15 PM or Thursday, Oct. 31 at 5:30AM (additional dates/times will be announced for that week)

This challenge is all about getting you comfortable and generally bad ass on the Erg with the added bonus of diving into the wide range of specialty classes we have here at Verve – all the while working to improve your overall performance. Let’s do it!  Are you IN?!

“Tyler”

Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Sumo-deadlift high-pull 95# (65#)

Post time to BTWB.

More and more CrossFit competitions are happening every weekend.  This past weekend was the Colorado Open and on September 28th around 15 of our female athletes are participating in the Girls Gone RX competition.

One of the best courses I’ve been to is the CrossFit Competitors Course.  The course is taught by high level athletes that know what it takes to advance your training and your coaching to the next level.  If you’ve thought about competing in CrossFit but aren’t quite sure you have all the knowledge on what it takes to compete as far as nutrition, game day preparation, mental preparation, and training leading up to the competition, the CrossFit Competitors Course is for you.

The course is very thorough and covers all aspects of being a competitive athlete and coaching competitors.  Over the two day session I was tested both physically and challenged mentally.  I walked out of the course a better athlete and more importantly a better coach.  The lectures are very informative and energetic and the coaches that put on my course had so much collective knowledge into what it takes to prepare as an athlete and coach an athlete.  

If you’re looking to take your competition performance or competition coaching to the next level, this is the course you MUST attend.  Check out the video above for a more thorough overview.

The course will be held November 16th and 17th at our very own CrossFit Verve.  Click HERE for more information and to sign up.  

Prerequisites:
• Completion of the Level 1 Trainer Course (Trainer Certificate or Certificate of Attendance).
• Personal interest in competing, or coaching athletes, in CrossFit competitions.
• Knowledge of and ability to perform the movements foundational to the CrossFit program; i.e., the 9 foundational movements, basic gymnastics (including all variations of pull-ups), muscle-ups, toes-to-bars, all variations of the Olympic lifts, the slow lifts, rowing, and running.

Hang squat snatch
1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

Then, every minute on the minute for 8 minutes:
2 Hang squat snatch (70-80%)
10 GHD sit-ups

Post Weights to BTWB.

One of the websites I visit most frequently has a great article about food hacks.  Basically ways to make you more efficient around the kitchen as well as other things such as keeping fruit and vegetables fresher longer.  The article provides tips on everything from food storage, cooking and baking, to reheating leftovers.

Here are a few of the tips that I’ve already applied to my kitchen behavior.

Slow down rotting by storing tomatoes stem down.  Also storing them at room temperature also slows down rotting.

Adding baking soda or vinegar to the water you boil to make hard boiled eggs will make separating the shells from the eggs easier.

Use stale bread to clean your coffee grinder.  When you grind up the stale bread those stubborn coffee grounds will stick to the bread crumbs.

When your wooden spoons begin to look and smell old, simply boil them in a pot of water and let them dry out in the sun.  Did this yesterday and the results were great.

To keep carrots crispy in the fridge, store them in water.  Make sure to change the water every 3 days or so.

There are many other great tips.  See the full list HERE.

For time:
Run 400 meters

then five rounds:
10 Kettlebell swings, 32kg (24kg)
10 Right arm hang dumbbell snatch, 70# (50#)
10 Left arm hang dumbbell snatch,  70# (50#)
10 Push-ups
10 Ab-mat sit ups

then run 400 Meters

Post times to comments and BTWB.

Stop by Front Range for the second day of the Colorado Open to cheer on Coach Maddie!!  She’s in 14th place after Day 1.  Her heat times are 9:40am and 1:48pm.  Follow all the latest action here.  Address to FRCF is 1338 S Valentia St  Denver, CO 80247.

Upcoming fun at Verve:

• Zink will be holding a Gymnastics session on the parallel bars on Monday Sept. 16th at 1:30pm.
• Luke will have a Goals Workshop on Thursday Sept. 19th at 1:30pm.
• Courtney will be hosting a Nutrition Workshop on Saturday Sept. 21st at 1:30pm.  Free to the community!
• Verve Night Out at Mile High Spirits on Saturday, Sept. 28th at 7pm.  

As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes:

50 Double-unders
10 Power clean, 155# (105#)

Compare to 130523 

Post rounds and reps to comments and BTWB.

If you need some more excitement in your life tomorrow, stop by Front Range CrossFit to cheer on Maddie in the Colorado Open.  Here are the WOD’s for tomorrow:

Open Division Workout #2
For time:
20 deadlifts, 255 lbs (155 lbs)
20 power cleans, 165 lbs (105 lbs)
20 power snatches, 115 lbs (75 lbs)

Time Cap:  8 minutes

Float Workout
For time:
500 meter row
At the 5:00
500 meter row

Maddie’s heat times will be 10AM and 2:40PM.  If you would like to see the entire heat schedule, click here.   Address to FRCF is 1338 S Valentia St  Denver, CO 80247

Reminder of upcoming Athlete Interests at Verve:
Zink will be holding a gymnastics session on the parallel bars on Monday Sept. 16th at 1:30pm.

Luke will have a goal setting session on Thursday Sept. 19th at 1:30pm.

Courtney will be hosting a Nutrition Workshop on Saturday Sept. 21st at 1:30pm.

Be sure to sign up on MBO for these sessions, and all of these are free to Verve athletes.

5 rounds
1 min per station of:
Row for calories
Rest 30 secs
Handstand Walk for meters
Rest 30 secs
Bar Muscle Up for reps
Rest 30 secs

Post totals to BTWB

Hey Verve athletes, we have been invited to submit a team for a unique competition.  48 gyms across Colorado have been invited to participate in Conquer! Denver.  The two day competition will take place on Friday December 13th and Saturday December 14th. There will also be a party after the competition wraps up.

The team will be made up of 5 Men and 5 Women.  We are inviting all athletes who are interested in competing to try out for the competition.  We will have an in house competition on a Saturday on a date to be determined to decide the 5 Men and Women. Most likely we will have the in house competition at the end of October so we can have some time to train the team.  The trainers will program workouts that will test your overall fitness and we will decide the team based on the outcome of the in house competition.

The competition is at the Douglas County Event Center in Castle Rock.  This is the same location that hosted the Southwest Regional two years ago.  The cost for the competition is $100 per person, so $1000 per team.  There will be prizes awarded to the top 10 finishers.  The competition will begin Friday evening at 7 PM and continue Saturday at 12 PM.  The final workout will be at 9 PM Saturday and right after there will be a concert and party to celebrate the event.

If you are interested in participating send me an email at eric@crossfitverve.com so I can get an idea of how many people are interested.  We have to RSVP by Saturday so we need an answer pretty quickly.

For more information click HERE. 

Look forward to hearing from you if you’re interested.

Three postion power snatch (floor, above the knee, home base)
1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

Then, 
Three rounds for time:
15 Power snatch 75#(55)#
15 Overhead squat 75#(55)#

Post loads and time to BTWB

Injuries- By Chris Slaughter, part 3

CrossFit – The safest most effective training I’ve ever seen – CrossFit, when done correctly, is quite safe. A coach that tells you to do a workout with a weight you’ve never touched before is probably a bad coach. If you have never driven a car before, I wouldn’t start you off on the freeway. CrossFit is the most effective way to slowly build a capacity of physical functionality I’ve ever seen. And very few people will argue with you that the stronger you are the less prone to injury you are. Any training style must be built up slowly, using small incremental increases to continue to stimulate the body to adapt, you don’t make 25% work-load jumps; you make 5% work-load jumps. It is important to rest when form starts to break down. When you know you’re falling apart, stop take a quick breath, shake out the limbs, compose and continue. Perhaps this is where most of the fear of “finish as fast as you can” happens. Safety is paramount, there is no compromise here.

One thing that is missed by a lot of CrossFitters, and more recently brought to light by K-Star, is flexibility and joint mobility. You should be spending AT LEAST a quarter of the time you work out stretching and doing mobility. If you work out 4 times a week, that means in addition you should be doing an hour of stretching and mobility. If this is a yoga session – awesome, but ending a workout with 2 minutes of lackadaisical foam rolling on your hamstrings because it’s “not that bad” and you can socialize while you’re doing it is half-assed. And if you’re reading this and you say “you’re right I should stretch more” then stop whatever you’re doing and stretch, stretch at lunch, stretch when you wake up, stretch in the shower, stretch and mobilize all the time.

Me – Why Am I so screwed up

CrossFit has significantly reduced the rate of injuries I’ve incurred. In high school I played football lineman, had significant knee problems, multiple concussions, & tore my MCL in a basketball game. In college I fell at about 50 mph racing snowboarding super-G and did my first labrum tear in my shoulder, the same year I went off about a 10 foot cliff downhill mountain biking and separated my right AC joint, a year later the left AC joint also. 2 years later I tore my right meniscus snowboarding dropping a 25’ cliff at Jackson Hole. This time I got slammed into the indoor skydiving tunnel wall and tore my labrum again. I’d probably fall into that “ungifted limit breakers” who has a major addiction to adrenaline. Notice how none of these mention CrossFit, squats, high rep Olympic lifting, pull-ups, etc. I’ve been doing CF since 2008, and made incremental gains over those years. But it is statistically one of the safest things I’ve ever done. 

A Last Note: The Comeback

The evidence is fairly obvious, and Courtney’s recent post is a great example. Recovery from injuries is entirely possible, and we also learn a lot from them. Sometimes it’s therapy, sometimes it’s surgery, sometimes it’s easing off of it for a while. But the takeaway is that the body can and will come back from injuries, and a lot of times it takes a lot of work. I lost count of how many times I saw Courtney in the corner doing shoulder exercises when she could have blown them off. Take steps to deal with your injuries, and come back from them. Leaving them “lingering” for too long will only make it worse, trust me I’ve had over 200 internal stitches and over half a dozen bone screws/tacks put in me. Get more mobile, get stronger, get more flexible, and listen to your body.

Five Rounds for time:
15 Deadlifts (185#/125#)
15 Toes-to-bar

Post times to comments and BTWB.

Injuries~ by Chris Slaughter, Part 2

Competitors – Life is Training/Competing – This supersedes comfort and rational reasonable fitness. These people are the Matt Chan style; they are going to rise to above-average expectations of themselves because they can, and are passionate and driven to compete and win. Competing takes precedence, not comfort, not what’s rational, and often competitors will try to do whatever it takes within reason to win. If you look at Olympic or even elite level athletes, all have suffered injuries because they are listening to the voice that says do what it takes, and subduing the voices that say this sucks. It sounds extreme, but it’s encoded into our DNA and generally we look at these people as inspiring. Injuries occur statistically higher here than in the average populous because the body and mind (the same one as above) is stimulated harder. It’s kind of like running the throttle at 90% all of the time instead of at 50%. More demand leads to more wear and tear, it’s pretty much that simple. There’s some gray area here of whether or not the competitive person is with ones-self or with others. There is a lot of cross-over.

Limit Breakers – Individuals who will ignore logical signs subconsciously for that little bit more extreme next phase. – Danny MacAskill, Jeb Corliss, Jeremy Jones, Ken Block, Sarah Burke, Travis Pastrana, Tony Hawk, Ashley Fiolek, Shane Bonifay, Felix Baumgartner. If you haven’t heard of any of these people a quick YouTube search will yield some amazingly jaw-dropping video of extreme sports in action and people who have pushed themselves and limits to see what the limit really is. It’s important to understand this is life for these people, they cannot eradicate the thought or desire for the “next” level of progression. “That was fun” generally doesn’t satisfy, it’s “I wonder if I could shave a couple of seconds off my time”, or a little bit higher, a little bit bigger. These people have different perceptions of reality and have radically changed what was once conceived of as possible. 

These are just a few examples but they are everywhere. When going into uncharted territory, unforeseen things happen. Injuries occur here usually in the highest statistical percentage of physical endeavors. Extreme is a relative term, just like intensity in CrossFit. The vehicle land speed record in 1899 was 41.4 mph, which was extreme in 1899, now it is 768 mph. It’s also not only action sports. People that crochet as a hobby usually start off with something small and then wonder if they can do something bigger, and eventually usually try. To some degree this stuff is a genetic part of us.

High Rep Olympic Lifting – The Safety & Reasoning. – I’ve seen a lot of blog posts pop up about high rep Olympic lifting and its safety and functioning. First off, you don’t do high-rep Olympic weightlifting with near max weights. That is dumb. Since Olympic lifting is demanding neurologically and muscularly, form can and will break down once exhaustion is met, but like Pat Sherwood has eloquently elicited; it also begins to break down under near-max loads of singles while totally fresh. The same thing happens with marathon runners, with rowers, with chess players, etc etc… Even mechanical systems like your car will begin to break down if you push them past what they are currently capable of. High-rep Olympic/power style lifting can be incredibly useful, both for muscular stamina and phosphocreatine and glycolytic energy pathway stimulation. It does have its place in an all-around general physical preparedness programs. Imagine running an 800 as fast as you can; a sprint. You know that last 200m is going to suck and your form is probably going to break down a little bit. It takes about three minutes, give or take. Now imagine doing Randy (75 power snatches @75#/55#), it also takes about three minutes, and the last 25 reps or so are going to suck and not look as pretty as the first 50. Honestly I’ve done them both at least half a dozen times, and they feel VERY similar in all aspects. And nobody ever said “oh an 800 meter run was never meant to be done fast”, and you also don’t run one step, stop, reset, and repeat for 800 steps. Both are safe and effective as long as you’re smart.

Part 3 to come  Thursday…

For time:
1200 M Run
20 strict pull ups
20 strict HSPU
800 M Run
16 strict pull ups
16 strict HSPU
400 M Run
12 strict pull ups
12 strict HSPU

Post times to BTWB.

Hey folks for the next three days we are going to be posting a great article by our own Chris Slaughter.  The posts overall theme is injuries and overcoming them, but there are many great points along the way.  Be sure to read the next three days and post your thoughts to comments.

Injuries by Chris Slaugher:

Recently there has been a lot of talk about injuries, and some pretty gnarly ones, Courtney, Clancy, and myself have or probably will be going under the knife. I wanted to touch on this, safety in general, CrossFit, and other random thoughts from a brain full of random shit. Be prepared for psycho-science.

A friend of mine posted on my Facebook profile “a lot of people at Verve are getting injured!” and it’s a coincidental connection, but a valid one. People who are accepting of CrossFit are willing to push just a little bit harder than the bottom half of the bell curve, which makes them statistically more prone to injuries, but generally not from doing CrossFit.  Statistically Verve has a quite low rate of injury. I have only had 1 injury while attending Verve and it was doing stupid shit swinging on the pull-up rig and smacking my kneecap into the steel upright. Some might remember that day. That’s it – every other actual injury (not tweaks) I have suffered has been outside of the gym, I’ll elaborate on this later. Think of how many workouts you’ve done, and how many injuries you’ve had in the gym. Take the injuries, divide by total workouts done. That is your statistical injury rate at Verve, mines around 0.15% and getting lower every day. I’ve talked to lots of other members who have injured themselves outside the gym and have used the gym to recover… Weird right.
There are many types of people, and guess what, all of them get injured once in a while, and really think about what drives these people as you read, and put their values in your mind as context for decision making.

The Human – A non-perfect, beautifully advanced machine – It’s no secret how amazing the human body is. But it’s important to note that it’s not perfect. Our bones are not made of reinforced carbon fiber like in Avatar. Our cells are not immune to diseases and viruses like the common cold. The physical (and mental) portions of our bodies have limits and they’re fairly well definable. There are trillions of connections between cells and hundreds of types of enzymes, hormones, eicosanoids, cell types, and dozens of systems like electrical conductors (nerves & brain), mechanical systems (heart / muscles), structural systems (bones), chemical systems (organs & molecular interactions). If you really think all of these are going to always work perfectly – you’re kidding yourself. Have you ever woken up because your arm was asleep; that’s an adaptation so you don’t lose a hand by doing something stupid like subconsciously rolling over asleep to get comfy and end up cutting off circulation to an extremity. It is a system to deal with the things that happen. The best way to avoid injury all together is to sit in a chair all day in a house with controlled temperature with no external influences. You are guaranteed not to get injured; you are also guaranteed to become decrepit. It is virtually impossible for nothing to happen to you; I have tripped over a curb because I was looking at my cell phone, and also knocked myself unconscious because I was going down the stairs too fast.

To be continued Wednesday and Thursday.  

1 1/4 Front Squats
5-3-2- 1-1-1-1-1
then
EMOM for 10 Minutes from racks or ground
(2 ) 1 1/4 Front @ 70%
30 Double Unders 

Post weight and rounds to BTWB.

A great post and topic that warrants another post and read.  Post your thoughts to the comments.

What derails you?

There are so many things that can send a well intended train right off it’s track.  It’s simple enough right? You wake up and say to yourself, “Self, today I will stay on track with my diet, eat enough veggies, get enough water, exercise, fish oil, spend some quality time with my family or friends or self and get to bed at a decent hour.”  But somewhere along the day our well intended train can fall off its track.  How and why does this happen?

I’ve come up with a few things that derail me, maybe you can relate.  Travel; this is the worst because I have no kitchen and am on somebody else’s schedule.  Sleep: all to often I don’t go to bed early enough.  This is sure to start the next day on the wrong foot.  I get busy and overwhelmed, which creates lack of planning, anxiety and impatience, a vicious cycle.  When you are busy, who has time to take care of themselves, there are other things to be done?  I go to long without eating, if I pass that five hour mark before having a meal, watch out! What derails you?

All of these things are common enough and easy predictable. So why do we perpetuate these cycles?  It’s biological and know as the Second Law of Thermodynamics – Entropy

The second law of thermodynamics concerns the transformation of potential energy into heat, or random molecular motion.  It states that the disorder (also known as entropy) in the universe is continuously increasing.  In other words, disorder is more likely then order.  For example it is much more likely that your bedroom will become messy overtime, then that it will spontaneously clean itself up, or that a mountain will crumble instead of build itself higher, order turns to disorder spontaneously, but not vis versa.

Entropy is the measure of the disorder of a system.  When the universe formed, it held all the potential energy it will ever have, it has become progressively more disordered ever since. (“energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only undergo conversion”). 

So let’s apply this to our biological lives, disorder of our systems is inevitable, as we age entropy begins to take over.  I say fight entropy!  Fight the urge to allow disorder in your life.  Entropy is our biological ticking clocks.  How many people do you know that have become lazier as they get older (I have), less inclined to get off the coach and on the trail, slopes or gym?  This is the natural order, fight entropy!  Fight the urge to allow disorder, don’t roll over instead create routines, get stronger and defy your natural tendency.  Be a biological rebel!