Verve is hosting the CrossFit Powerlifting Seminar this weekend. WODs on Saturday will be held at Green Mountain, (William F. Hayden Park).Warmup will take place near the parking lot off Rooney Road, WOD will start at the trailhead, over the bridge for C470. Directions: Take I-70 West from Denver for about 9 miles to C470-East exit (exit 260). Go about 2 miles on C470 East and take the Alameda Parkway exit. Turn right onto Alameda Parkway, then take your first right onto Rooney Road. Go about 1.5 miles and the trail head parking lot will be on your right.
James, making post-WOD therapy look… rather dashing.
The Protein Balance
There seems to be a protein pendulum today. On the one side, you have people who focus their diets on calories, as opposed to macro-nutrients. The idea is, limit your calories, and weight loss ensues. So, the person eats whatever they want, so long as a certain ceiling of calories isn’t reached. Often, this strategy is carb-rich. To be fair, I get it. I don’t want to be over-weight, either. People are to be commended for at least trying something to improve themselves. But a low protein/high carb diet will force the body into a high-insulin, low-glucagon state. Bottom line, this is state of body that lends itself to obesity, and diabetes, among other things, regardless of caloric intake.
On the other side, you have individuals who are so pro-protein, you’d figure that there is no other food on this planet. They have found the latest, greatest protein supplements. They drink egg-whites out of the carton (Gross. Though I have done this.). Protein is king because they want to gain muscle. It’s all about muscle. And hey, I get it. I want to be huge too. I then want to buy shirts that are one size too small, and contort myself into flexy poses throughout the day to show off my hugeness. But eating too much protein with few carbs does us no good at all. Excess protein in converted into fat. So… you go off on protein to get your hugeness on, but your body says to you, “Sweet mother this is a lot of protein. Whatsoever shall I do with this?” It responds to itself in kind, “Ah. I shall store it as fat. For later. Cuz who knows, right?”
Obviously, these extremes don’t cut it. Number one, they are not practical, number two, they often don’t work.So something must be missing here. If limiting protein in the name of calories doesn’t make me lose weight, and eating protein in excess doesn’t make me gain muscle the way I want, then what’s the answer?
You probably could guess, it’s somewhere in the middle.
We prescribe the Zone Diet. The Zone prescribes a protein intake as being 30% of your daily munchiness. It also prescribes not eating protein by itself. Protein, carbs, and fat, all eaten in ratio’d quantities, which leads to hormonal balance, which leads to the body being able to accept and process the food you eat the way you want it to be accepted and processed. Which means the protein you eat will actually go to muscle building and restoration. BOOM! Moderation leads to a better existence.
If you have any questions about the Zone diet, be sure come to our next nutritional lecture, on Tuesday, Oct. 2nd at 7pm. Free to everyone who wants to join us!
The movements we choose in CrossFit are Compound Yet Irreducible
Functional movements are multi-joint, whole body movements. Rather than isolating movements to any one or two joints, functional movements take a system of joints through a full range of motion. These movements are found everywhere in life, which is what makes training them so crucial to independent living. For example, lie on the floor and count the number of joints you use to lift yourself to a standing position. This is why we rarely use isolation exercises – the sum is greater than it’s parts.
Last week one of our amazing women asked the question, “I know it’s good to lift weights but I have a hard time explaining it to my friends”. So here you go.
Lifting heavy has an amazing amount of benefits. I’ll list my top four top reasons.
Burns more fat then aerobic activities and defines the muscle
Increases bone density thus decreases chances of Osteoporosis
Builds self-esteem
Prevents injury
Now, it’s important to notice the word “HEAVY” in the equation. The research (in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise) indications that load needs to be 65%+ of 1RM to contribute to the above benefits. When you look at the list above, hopefully you can see that NOT lifting heavy weights is actually be more dangerous then lifting heavy. Common myths regarding lifting heavy is that it will make you look “bulky” or will cause injury. Let’s talk about the “bulky” first.
The reason this ever became a concern is the huge body building craze of the nineties. Where women grew their muscle to sizes that quite frankly grossed people out. I’m not sure why people think that if you lift a heavy weight you will inevidibly look like that, but I’m here to tell you it takes those women not only years of specific training, but also doses of illegal drugs to make that happen. Also, you don’t just wake up one day bulky. If you do have a genetic disposition to build massive amounts of muscle, it takes years. A very small amount of women have this ability, especially if they haven’t lifted weight from a young age.
Another common misconception is that lifting heavy will injure you. This just isn’t true and there is no evidence that suggests otherwise. Can you get injured? Sure you can, just like you can in anything else in life, that is why we emphasis form so much at Verve. What’s important here is the vast majority of humans are getting injured because they don’t have the strength they need to withstand basic human function. The body needs to have a minimum amount of muscle to support daily living and healthy joints. The truth is, we have built a society that sits and sits and sits, the human body is not meant to do that and thus most people no longer have the basic strength to support their body through lifes challenges.
Many negative opinions about lifting heavy are just that opinions, and most have no factual evidence to back up their distain. The reality is it’s hard and uncomfortable. Most people don’t like pain. There is a price for a strong and healthy body. You will be uncomfortable, you will have to focus an extreme amount of energy on your own kinesthetic awareness in movement patterns,
and that will at times be frustrating. However, the benefits FAR out weigh the bad. Look hot, feel better about yourself, perform better. Prevent bone decrepitude, have something to hold that skin to your skeleton, and prevent common injuries! Yeah, I’ll take a little uncomfortable moments for that!
Take Vitamin C Post-Workout to Lower Cortisol and Recover Faster – Charles Poliquin
Include vitamin C in your post-workout shake to help clear cortisol from the body and speed recovery. Vitamin C is often used only for immune protection, but studies show that it plays an integral role in helping to remove cortisol and minimize the catabolic stress response in a timely fashion.
For example, a study published last year in the European Journal of Applied Physiology tested the effect of giving physically active men 800 mg of vitamin C for six weeks and perform a session of high-intensity shuttle running for 90 minutes. Results showed that the vitamin C produced lower cortisol levels post-workout than a placebo group, and the vitamin C group cleared cortisol much more rapidly with significantly lower cortisol at 1 hour of recovery.
Other studies show similar effects of vitamin C as an anti-catabolic supplement:
A 2008 study had untrained men take 1,000 mg of vitamin C pre-workout and do 30 minutes of moderate exercise. Post-workout cortisol levels declined much faster than a placebo group and the effect was evident immediately after exercise, and at 2 and 24 hours post-workout.
Another 2008 study had trained men take 1,500 mg of vitamin C for 8 days and perform 120 minutes of cycling at moderate speed in a humid, 93 degree environment. Cortisol response was 57 percent lower after exercise in the vitamin C group compared to a placebo.
A 2006 study tested the effect of giving 1,000 mg of vitamin C a day for two weeks to trained men who performed a 2.5 hour run at 60 percent of maximal. Cortisol was significantly lower post-workout than a placebo group.
All of the studies mentioned also tested the effect of vitamin C on various other inflammatory biomarkers and found no significant differences on these measurements. Researchers are still unclear why vitamin C is so effective at lowering the cortisol response to intense training, while not having much effect on inflammation. However, we do know that vitamin C is released from the adrenal glands during physical stress when cortisol is also released. The purpose of vitamin C may be to quench the oxidative biomarkers produced when cortisol is elevated, or some other unidentified effect. Researchers write that the data indicate that vitamin C may actually have “hormone-like” properties, indicating the overwhelming value in getting more of this nutrient.
A few things to note: All of these studies tested the effect of giving vitamin C for different periods of time and not immediately post-workout. The first point is to take it everyday or for an extended duration, and you might as well take it post-workout because that will help clear any excess caffeine or other stimulants left in your system. Best results will come from a 2 gram dose, which is slightly higher than those seen in the studies above.
Another benefit of taking a large dose of vitamin C daily is that over time it will also elevate testosterone. Human studies into the effect are sparse, but two recent studies show vitamin C supplementation for 30 days can improve testosterone levels in diabetic rats. Testosterone is typically very low in diabetics, and in one studies, the vitamin C totally restored testosterone levels and the rats recovered normal reproductive function. In the other, vitamin C partially restored testosterone and reproduction.
These results are impressive and suggest an even larger daily dose taken at multiple times throughout the day is preferred. Consider taking 10 grams of vitamin C spaced throughout the day.
Start by taking 10% off 1RM back squat, then add 20# (no box)
Back squat 75% x5 reps 85% x3 reps 95% x1 reps +
Then complete, Death by 10m shuttle sprint and burpee: On the first minute run 10m and do one burpee. Second minute, run two 10m sprints touching both hands to the floor, then do two burpees, etc until you are unable to finish within the minute. Finally, take a two minute break and do 50 burpees for time.
CrossFit means “can do” to me. It means I can say, “Yes” when friends invite me to go hike a fourteener, or mountain biking, or cross-country skiing. It means “Yes, I’d love to ___.” CrossFit’s specialty is not specializing, and I love that. I’m in it for the long haul, to keep up with my husband, to keep up with my kids, to keep up with my dogs, to be able to say “Yes” to whatever life asks of me, whether it’s monkey bars at the playground, skydiving, scale a wall, whatever!
I may not be able to do everything I want to in the gym, but in life, I’m darn happy with it all and that’s why I do it. Every year, I think it’s important to step outside of my comfort zone in the gym and participate in a competition. I love the community, I love the reminder of how friendly and fun CrossFit is, I love the camraderie with strangers as we all push ourselves. I love how I always surprise myself with what I can do when I push those boundaries. It gives me a goal, another focus and another motivation. It’s a day, or a weekend, to go laugh, get some great workouts, and see what my training has done for me, and what I can do this time, that I couldn’t do last time. I can’t wait to see what CrossFit means I can do next time too.
Are you looking to participate in a local competition? Here’s a couple of upcoming events that Verve athletes will be joining and we’ll have support crew attending:
And it’s the Vervettes for the win! Way to go ladies!
Lots of fun for everyone today from those competing to those cheering! Wanna give it a go? The MBS Turkey Challenge registration opens 9am sharp Monday and sells out fast. Who’s in or needs a teammate?! Post to comments so we can put together an awesome support crew.
Exercise is good for you. Duh. There are many expressions in use to help remind us of the benefits of exercise, such as, “no pain, no gain,” or, “use it or lose it.” And these are true. There are benefits to be gained. However, when you exercise, not only do you see tangible health benefits (decreased risk of heart attack, improved cholesterol, less fatigue, less depression, weight loss, just to name a few), but you build potential. Why? Through exercise, metabolism increases. As metabolism increases, your myofibrils (strands that contract inside of muscle cells) increase in number. When this happens, your fat cells decrease in size. As fat cells decrease in size, they are more prone to release energy than to store. That is potential. Now, the more you exercise, the smaller your fat cells become, begetting more energy, and your myofibril expand, begetting more strength. All of a sudden, you notice a jump in the execution of your workouts. Would you like this process to happen even faster??
I believe you would.
If you lift weights, and contract your muscles forcefully enough to make your muscles work to at least 75% of their capacity, your myofibrils increase even more, and metabolism gets even faster (sounds like Crossfit, eh?). When you do this, a phenomenon known as hypertrophy occurs. Hypertrophy is muscle tissue growth that contributes to strength and increased metabolic capability. You get stronger, your potential grows, your workouts continue to improve.
So, remember that with every workout you, you build potential. Especially with workouts that involve weightlifting. We were always admonished as kids to reach our potential. But how many opportunities do we have to actually increase that potential?? The question becomes: What is your ceiling in Crossfit? The answer: As high as you are willing to make it.
The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals.Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals. Unit for the row is calories.
Nutrition is on everyones mind. If you spend anytime reading health and fitness literature you’ve noticed that the “Paleo” diet is becoming more and more main stream. It has many names, with slight variations, caveman diet, primal, etc… We like to call it just plan real food. If you could kill it or grow it without the use of machinery, it’s good to go!
It also starts off CrossFit’s 100 words of fitness: Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. ~Greg Glassman
Another great resourse for nutrition information is Mark’s Daily Apple. Today he posted his 8 Key Concepts which are the following:
1. Yes, You Really Can Reprogram Your Genes 2. The Clues to Optimal Gene Expression Are Found in Evolution 3. Your Body Prefers Burning Fat Over Carbohydrates 4. 80 Percent of Your Body Composition Success Is Determined by How You Eat 5. Grains Are Totally Unnecessary 6. Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are Not Your Enemy 7. Exercise is Ineffective for Weight Management 8. Maximum Fitness Can Be Achieved in Minimal Time With High Intensity Workouts
For this workout, one rep of a bear complex consists of a squat clean or a power clean to a thruster. From the overhead position, the bar is loaded onto the back, where the athlete performs another thruster. Complete for 5 consecutive reps.
Do you remember a time when you felt like fit people knew a secret that they weren’t telling anyone? You’d see them in them in the gym and in the grocery store and you tried to mimic their workouts and eat what was in their shopping carts, but it never added up to fitness. Do you remember wondering “What am I missing?”
One of the great things about CrossFit is that we lay it all out on the table for you. There’s no secrets or magical drinks that are going to equate to elite level of fitness. Nope, it takes constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. But that’s not all, you must have solid eating habits where your meals are made up of lean meats, veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar or substitutes. These foods must be eaten at levels which support muscle gains, but not fat.
Does this sound familiar? Have you heard this over and over again? Then you are in on our secret… which we apparently tell every person that walks into our doors. If you want to know more, ask us, we’re happy to share everything we know with you. But, in order to be one of the fit people you used to wonder about, you must take action! The time is now!
