In CrossFit we are constantly putting pressure on our wrists. Going overhead with the presses or snatch, floor presses, the front rack, and overhead squats are all movements that put an enormous amount of pressure and weight on on the wrists. How often are we mobilizing our wrists though? I know i’m guilty of overlooking them all the time. I spend a lot of time on other areas of the body but the wrists, which I use just about everyday, never get the love they deserve. I’ve researched a few simple mobility exercises that I know will help all of us target our wrists and make sure they are flexible and mobilized the next time we call on them in a workout.
The first and most convenient way to mobilize your wrists is to simply kneel down and place your hands on the ground with the back of your hand pressed to the floor. Simply explore the range you have with your wrists. Find those sticky areas and continue to work them out. You can do this at your office or while your at home, the point is to do it.
PNF stretching is also a beneficial technique. PNF is a technique of combining passive stretching and isometric stretching, and is currently the fastest and most effective way known to increase static-passive flexibility.
Here's a video that will speak more to what I'm referencing above.
The CrossFit Games are upon us. We have two athletes heading to Carson this week. Think about that. Two athletes out of the less than 100 from around the world are from our gym. Pretty amazing actually.
Starting Friday we will have the games streaming on the televisions at the gym. Plan on coming in and staying around for a while so you can watch Matt and Emmalee dominate.
They have both trained so well, that no matter what gets thrown at them next week they'll be ready.
Good Luck Emmalee and Matt, we will be watching and rooting for you guys.
As you all know we at CrossFit Verve like to get behind a good cause. If there is a cause we can open our doors to and help contribute money or just our backing we are all for it.
On August 3rd we will be hosting the 31 Heroes WOD, A Workout to Remember.
The Cause
Honor the 31. Support the 1000s. The 31Heroes Project exists to honor our fallen heroes killed in action August 6, 2011 through fitness and raise funds for programs that provide support to families of all fallen military heroes—past, present, and future.
The Memorial Workout is still a few weeks away, but with the summer upon us and everyone making their weekend travel plans I wanted to put this on everyone's radar. We will not be charging drop in fees but would rather have the money donated to the fund. The workout is a partner workout and is as follows:
AMRAP 31 minutes (As Many Reps As Possible)
8 Thrusters (155/105#)
6 Rope Climbs (15 ft. ascent)
11 Box Jumps (30/24″)
Partner #1 will perform the work listed above. Partner #2 will run 400m with a sandbag (45/25). Once Partner #2 returns from the run, Partner #1 will grab the sandbag and begin their 400m, while Partner #2 continues work wherever #1 left off.
Score is your total # of reps
As usual we can scale everything so please invite your friends donate and come workout for an amazing cause.
A group of Olympic lifting badasses and PRing foolsCompetitors at last weekend’s CrossFit Roots’ Olympic Lifting Competition
Saturday July 13, 2013 will now forever be known as "PR Saturday".
CrossFit Roots hosted an Olympic Lifting competition that several Verve athletes participated in. Dan Watson, Cecily Watson, Chris Slaughter, Courtney Nightengale, Edie Hulings, Jamie Izzo, and James Baustch made the trek to the land of the Buffs and Boulder-ites to put their Olympic lifting skills to the test. Not only did they pass the test but they blew it out of the water, no one walked away without a PR on their lifts. Based on the Sinclair Total, which takes into account bodyweight, Edie placed 1st, Cecily 2nd, Slaughter 3rd, and James 4th. Overall everyone had an amazing finish, click here to see the Men's results, click here to see the women's results.
The results of this meet highlight the hard work and diligence these athletes have put towards working on their Olympic lifting. They took the time to work on their weaknesses with the result being amazing gains in the two most technically demanding lifts. You too can work on mastering the snatch and the clean & jerk, Olympic lifting classes are Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30 am and 5 pm. CrossFit Roots will be hosting additional Olympic lifting meets, we will keep you posted. Start your training now, sign up for the next meet and put your hard work to the test.
What's the moral of the story? Congratulations to our Verve athletes!! And go get your snatch and clean & jerk on!! (I know that sounded weird but whatevs, you get the point)
Heads up everyone,
Verve is up for Denver's A-list! When you get a moment, click here to vote for your favorite gym (Verve, Duh).
Stumbled across this amazing and entertaining blog that covers everything from fitness to nutrition to bouncing back from injury. He writes in a clever entertaining way and often quotes movies so that's right in my wheel house. Here is the link to the blog. Nerd Fitness
We all know the danger with sugar and we do a pretty good job of limiting the amount of sugar we put into our bodies, but what about our family and friends that aren't as strict with their diet? How to we tell them the real story with sugar and sugar substitutes?Nerd Fitness wrote a great blog titled; "Why Sugar is Worse than Darth Vader?" I know right, awesome title.
The article is easy to read and brings some shocking truths to the table. For instance did you know that the level of sugar intake has increased by over 16% in 180 years? Seriously here are the numbers:
1822: Americans consume 45 grams of sugar every five days, or the amount of sugar in a can of coke.
2012: Americans consume 756 grams of sugar every five days, or 130 POUNDS of sugar a year.
This is one of the reasons that almost 70% of Americans are overweight and a 1/3 of the nation obese.
The blog contains many more great facts about sugar, how it's disguised on labels, how it's made, and the nutritional values of sugar. Does it have any? Check out the full article HERE.
Trucker hat backwards? Check. Tank top? Check. Time to PR
Verve Athlete Profile: Ryan Fugate
Where are you from?
I am originally from San Bernardino, CA (AKA The Hood!) Moved to Denver last year.
How long have you been CrossFitting?
I have been CrossFitting for a little over a year
What is your favorite workout?
Roaming Diane. It was the first workout I Rx’d and handstand walks are such a challenge, it makes it a lot of fun. Not to mention Jay and O are terrified of being upside down, so its nice to have a leg up on those guys in something!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to swim whenever I can. Any kind of sports I love playing, aside from baseball – boring! I also enjoy using crossfit skills wherever I can make a fool of myself, aka jumping over parking meters (constantly varied right?)
What is one of your best/favorite goals you have accomplished since you started CrossFit?
The most cliché answer I feel I should give would be my first muscle up (which was awesome!) but honestly it is probably how far I have come in my OLY lifts and just being able to Rx a lot more workouts. I remember when I started all I thought about was how I would never be able to do one of the WOD’s Rx. Now I’m most frustrated when I CAN’T do one Rx.
Anything you would like to add?
I really want to thank the coaches. I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am if it weren’t for them. I learn new things everyday, and I will say every PR I get is probably due to something I have learned from Luke or Clancy in the AM class. Also, the community is awesome. I have made some great friends, and without them holding me accountable and pushing me, I would not have achieved as much as I have.
AND if you want the secret to being awesome at CrossFit (and just in general), here it is: WEAR BACKWARDS TRUCKER HATS AND CUT OFF T’s! BOOM
COMPETITION CLASS STARTING NEXT WEDNESDAY EVENING FROM 7 – 8:15
Alright everyone, we are starting up our Competition Class next Weds evening. Since it's the off season for most of us we will be using the next couple months to build strength, our engines, and work on our skill work.
This is for everyone. If you have goals of making it to regionals next year or want to compete in one of the local competitions that are becoming more and more common please show up. We will have an hour and 15 minutes and we will use every minute of it. We will start with our basic competitors warm up and then get right into our programming for the week.
As always we will be able to scale any of the workouts we do so don't worry about weights being to heavy or movements being to complex. The goal with this program is to work on our weaknesses and make us better athletes. We will start with some baseline metrics so we know where everyone is. Think Cindy and a 3 rep max DL. Those type of metrics will help reveal where we are strong and where we need work.
There is no additional cost for this class and we will run it on Weds night from 7 – 8:15 unless otherwise noted. Please sign up on MBO so we have an idea of how many people are coming.
Look forward to seeing you all there. Please post questions to comments and we'll get back to you or email eric@crossfitverve.com
Molly and Jason Reynolds getting their WOD on while vacationing
The “CrossFit push-up”
“It’s a push-up, it’s just not a Crossfit push-up”
A while back I worked out with a friend; we were on the road and came up with a nice little travel WOD. The WOD had several body weight movements including push-ups. My friend did not belong to a Crossfit gym. In the last year though, she had done workouts from the main site and considered herself hip to the ways of Crossfit. So the WOD began, we were off and running. During the WOD I happened to look over and noticed my friend’s push-ups were not full range of motion. In fact her chest was nowhere near touching the ground. As we continued, I alternated giving words of encouragement with words of correction: “get your chest to the deck lady, you got this!” When she finished her last push-up she stood up, looked at me, and said, “It’s a push-up, it’s just not a Crossfit push-up.” Asphincter says what?? My workout was officially done, I was now starting a new one where I attempted to wrap my mind around what I had just heard. Was there a difference between a push-up and a “Crossfit push-up”? Where did the original standard for a push-up come from? Who invented the push-up?
Well, after doing some research (i.e., looking at Wikipedia) I found there is no one person who is given full credit for inventing the push-up or for establishing a “standard”. Here is what I did find: in the dictionary a push up is described as “performed in a prone position by raising and lowering the body with the straightening and bending of the arms while keeping the back straight and supporting the body on the hands and toes.” If you take a moment to review Dr. Kelly Starett’s brilliant tome, Becoming a Supple Leopard, he makes several references to “the bottom position” without saying what said bottom position is. The same goes for my search of Carl Paoli’s GWOD site and his many videos taking athletes through the push-up progression. Mind you in both sources all demo-ed push-ups involve the chest coming in contact with the ground. I turned to the Crossfit Journal next. In an article titled quite simply “The Push-Up” by Greg Glassman, written in March of 2003 I found this little gem: “ So ‘what is an honest push-up?’ An honest push-up moves slowly from full extension to a point of maximum depth without ‘reaching’ for the ground or perturbing the body’s taut, rigid, straight-line posture, and then returns rigidly to full extension.” Later in the article Glassman also states “If performing push-ups on the floor we start our athletes from flat on the floor with nose, chest, pelvis, and thighs – as much of the body as possible – making contact and then begin.” I think we are getting closer to an answer but I guess somewhere I was just hoping I would read the words “chest to the deck” to really solidify my point.
I’m sure if I searched more exhaustively I could eventually locate some more solid, substantial answers, like what is the standard for the push up and who set it? And that’s when it hit me like a brick. The standard for the push-up was set by LIFE. CrossFit is “Constantly varied, FUNCTIONAL movement, performed at high intensity". The movement standard for the push-up is: when life knocks you on your face, push yourself up. What is more functional then that? So let’s revisit my friend’s statement about “it’s a push-up, it’s just not a CrossFit push-up”, I guess she was right. The difference between the two is the functionality of them. I’m training for life and whatever it chooses to hand me. So I guess this means I should take my push-up all the way to the ground a.k.a. a “CrossFit push-up”, as I have never known life to knock me down "close enough" to the ground. You may try to practice your push-ups with your chest hovering above the floor, but don't be surprised if you here me yelling "GET YOUR CHEST TO THE GROUND!!" in the background, I want you ready for life too. You're welcome.
New foundations program starts Monday July 15th. The program goes for 2 weeks with classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 7-8:15pm. Sign up online under the tab "schedule". Email info@crossfitverve.com with any questions.
For reps:
5 min max rope climbs, 15'
Rest 1 min
4 min max rope climbs, 15'
Rest 1 min
3 min max rope climbs, 15'
Rest 1 min
2 min max rope climbs, 15'
Rest 1 min
1 min max rope climbs, 15'
There are some amazing things about living in Denver. Yesterday me and the dog went for a great hike. We saw a deer while we were hiking and Pete was in utter amazement having never seen anything like that before. The one negative about living here is that during the summer it is super hot. I'm from the east coast and the summers are hot and humid there and grant it there is very little if any humidity in Denver compared to back east, but 96 degrees is still 96 degrees.
The hard thing about the heat is that most days I don't feel like cooking. Even breakfast has become difficult to prepare. Bacon and eggs, though delicious, are still a chore to cook when it's so hot outside. I'm certainly not going back to Fruity Pebbles so I'm always looking for simple and healthy alternatives that don't require much stove work.
Staying hydrated is also key in the dog days of summer. I came across a great blog with a bunch of different recipes that don't require a lot of cooking and preparing. Exactly what I need when the heat is high and motivation is low. Check out the full blog by clicking on the following link; 43 Healthy and Hydrating Meals for Summer.
Here are a few that jumped out at me that are simple to prepare.
Frozen Grapes: SImple right? Just toss a bunch of grapes in the freezer and you've got a delicious, healthy, cooling snack.
Strawberry Raspberry Popsicles. Easy to make and since you know what's in them they are a great alternative to the store bought version.
If you have any cool recipes or resources make sure and let us know. Post ideas to comments. Luke says frozen water is his specialty so if you want the recipe be sure and ask him.
L Schultz, lifting heavy and smiling while doing it!
Verve Athlete Profile: Lindsay Schultz
Where are you from?
Colorado Springs, CO.
How long have you been CrossFitting?
Almost 2 years.
What is your favorite workout?
Sounds crazy but any metcon with running and body weight movements
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Run, hike, camp, play with our dogs, play tennis or lacrosse. I'm always up for an outdoor adventure.
What is one of your best/favorite goals you have accomplished since you started CrossFit?
It would have to be getting muscle ups. It was haunting me, and when I finally got them I literally had dreams that I couldn't get them again! They are constantly intimidating.
Anything you would like to add?
I love that CrossFit is more than a hobby, that it is a lifestyle. Not only do you get great work outs, but you also get an awesome community, accountability, a daily challenge and nutrition advice. I am stronger, healthier and happier because of CrossFit!
