For time:
10 Muscle-ups
100 Push press, 75# (55#)
Row 1000 meters

Post time to comments.

John is diligent and disciplined about rehab = stronger than before.

“Best Shape of My Life!” Nutrition Challenge

From January 9th until February 5th, we’re challenging you to get into the best shape of
your life. During these four weeks we’re going to reward you for good behaviors and
punish you for bad behaviors. We’re going to require a lot in order to participate, but in
exchange you are going to earn the ability to say you gave it your all and made positive steps towards health and performance. We’ll give you the data to back it up too. Here’s the details:

The challenge will run for four weeks. In order to compete for the prizes, you must
complete the following: pre/post pictures, pre/post body composition measurements, pre/post vitals, pre/post benchmark workout and pre/post Challenge blood work (only required for specific prize eligibility and to see supreme awesomeness in your insides.) The cost of this challenge is $100, which includes the cost of blood work ($30 pre/$30 post) which is ideally following 10-12 hours fasting, but be consistent pre and post-challenge for the best results. Buy-in has to be either via check or cash (because we know you’re gonna get it back!)

Each meal has a positive, negative, or neutral value:
-2 Cheat meal: not Paleo quality, not Zone quantity. (-10 possible per day)
+0 Paleo meal that includes dairy
+1 Zone meal: standard Zone rules apply (5 possible per day)
+2 Paleo meal: all Paleo rules apply (10 possible per day)
+3 Paleo/Zone meal: Paleo quality in zone proportions. (15 possible per day)
*** PWO will be considered Paleo/Zone if it consists of Whey protein & coconut juice

“Rules of 5” bonus points:
+1 Five meals per day (1 possible/day)
+1 Fewer than 5 hours between meals (1 possible/day)
-1 More than 5 blocks per meal (-5 possible per day)

Exercise:
-10 Fewer than 3 WODs/week
+0 Three WODs/week
+10 Four WODs/week
+20 Five or more WODs/week

Bonus points:
+1 64oz of H20 in a day
+1 8.5+ hours of sleep, including naps
+1 When each meal per day includes one carb block of veggies (excluding PWO)

Deductions:
-1 For each alcoholic beverage. (-5 possible per day)
-1 No PWO meal (before leaving the gym)
-1 Fewer than 5 grams of fish oil/day.

January 9 – February 5
20 points possible per day for 28 days + 80 possible exercise bonus points = 640
possible points.

0-415 points: forfeit $ + black “Fuel” band
416-479 points: half $ back ($20)
480-611 points: All $ returned ($40) + bonus red “Fuel” band
612+ points: all $ returned + your choice of one Verve apparel item

Prize for biggest change (%) in blood work
Prize for body composition change
Prize for most increased performance

Are you in it to win it?  Only 4 weeks to the best shape of your life!

For time:
Run 1000 meters
100 Push-ups
10 Snatch, 135# (95#)

Post time to comments.

Patrick playing peek-a-boo. 

Do you have a friend or family member who’s been talking about trying CrossFit this new year?  Maybe you’ve been lurking around our website for a bit and waiting to try us out?  Well our January Foundations Program begins soon on Tuesday, January 10th through January 30th.  These 9 classes run on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday evenings at 730pm–and in addition to getting you ready to start into our group classes–are a helluva lot of fun.  If you refer a friend or family member that begins a membership, then you get your next month 50% off!

Also this weekend holds our Free Saturday Class at 11am.  This class is open to all of our athletes, but is designed specifically for new athletes as an introduction to CrossFit and to how Verve works.  While it is not the daily WOD, it is a fun, challenging workout designed to give you a taste of what we love.  Sign up here!

And finally, but maybe most importantly:  Our Free Nutrition Workshop is this Saturday at 12noon and will run for approximately 1.5 hours.  This will contain new information sure to build your brain and muscles, as well as outline our Best Shape of Your Life challenge that begins January 9th for four weeks (so totally doable, duh!) till February 5th.  Opportunities for corresponding bloodwork, measurements and pictures will be available both this Saturday and Wednesday, January 11th (sign-up at the front of the gym ASAP.)

21-15-9 reps for time of:
Power clean, 135#/95#
GHD sit-up

Post time to comments.

Welcome home, Francis! 

The Sliding Scale

We get the question “What about _______?” all the time.  You can fill in any random food name in the blank and I guarantee we’ve been asked the question.  Whether its coffee, green tea, beef jerky, agave nectar, diet soda, or whey protein – we’ve always answered this question with a question: well, how’s your diet aside from ________?

You see, too often people are worried about the silly details before they address the big picture items that affect their diet waaaay more than ________.  For instance, did you have breakfast today?  How many meals did you have yesterday?  Did you eat all three macronutrients at each meal?  Shit… do you know what a macronutrient is?!?  The simple things are what make or break your diet.

Of course, we give in and answer the question “What about ________?”.  Usually we’ll preface any answer we offer with “What about _________?”  Afterwards, we describe the concept of the sliding scale.  I’ll use the example of diet soda.  When we’re asked if drinking diet soda is a good idea, we’ll offer the idea that on a sliding scale of a perfect diet to a lousy diet, a diet soda might fit somewhere near the middle-to-bottom (closer to lousy).  But, if the individual currently drinks 4 liters of Mountain Dew (not diet) a day, we would say that on the sliding scale… it’s a step in the right direction.  

Now, if a finely tuned paleo/zoner asked the same question, we’d mention that on the sliding scale this would be a lot worse than drinking water, black coffee, tea, or flavored water (lime in a glass). Catch my drift?  Will a diet soda give a paleo/zoner diabetes and land him/her in a nursing home?  Probably not… but, it’s a place to improve the diet, health and performance.

So start with and refine the basics, from there we can work on the what about_______?’s

Three rounds for time:

30 Lateral jumps, 24″/20″
20 Anchored AbMat sit-ups
10 Hang squat snatch, 115#/75#

Post time to comments.

Nutrition workshops at Verve – always free to whoever want to address their fitness at the molecular level.

“Best Shape of My Life” Nutrition Challenge

During the week following the winter holidays, we get so many requests for a nutrition challenge that this year we decided to beat you to the punch.  We’re improving on the already hugely successful “Best Shape of My Life” challenge that we completed in 2011.  We saw decreased triglycerides, improved cholesterol levels, decreased body fat, increased lean body mass, improved fasting glucose levels, and performance improvements.

So what is the “Best Shape of My Life”challenge and how can a Verve athlete get involved?  The month long (that’s right, four weeks this year) challenge is based on points won or lost during the challenge. Points are earned by eating Paleo and Zone meals, with bonus points for meal frequency, workout frequency, adequate water and sleep, and eating mountains of vegetables. Points were lost for cheat meals, not having post-workout meals, not supplementing with fish oil, drinking alcohol and working out less than three times a week.

To begin the challenge, a participant buys in with $100, $60 of which goes to pay for blood testing before and after the challenge.  This year, you have the option to opt out of the blood work if money is a little tight (we HIGHLY recommend doing the blood work to benchmark your bio-markers, such as your triglycerides, cholesterol, fasting glucose). Participants will test their performance on the workout “Chelsea” and retest again at the end of the challenge.

This year, we’ve listened to your voices and we’ve created a week-by-week shopping list and corresponding menu, including recipes and instructions.  We’ve also made tracking your daily points easier with a spreadsheet that accepts your inputs and totals your point values for the day and for the challenge.  There’s even wrist bands that you receive when you achieve a certain number of points!

If you need more incentive in addition to a long and fruitful life, prizes are awarded for the men and women with the best changes in body composition, best improvement in performance and best overall finish. Depending upon participant’s point totals at the end of the challenge, they can win back their money (minus blood work).

Things you need to know:

Best Shape of My Life Challenge begins January 9th and is completed on February 5th

Preliminary blood work is to be completed:
@ CrossFit Verve on January 7th beginning at 8am (5 min incremental appointments)
@ CrossFit Verve on January 11th beginning at 5am (5 min incremental appointments)
Sign-up at the gym on Wednesday beginning at 5am 

Nutrition workshop @ CrossFit Verve:
Begins at noon and will cover basic nutrition topics, as well as advance topics for those who have been compliant with a Paleo/Zone diet
Will also cover point system used in challenge

Who’s in?!? 

“CrossFit Total“

Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

Post loads to comments.

Emily +1

Happy New Year!

No classes today.  However, please take five minutes and write out 3 goals related to your health and fitness this year.  We would love to help you accomplish them.

Post your goals to comments.

2012, Here we come! 

Three rounds for time of:
Row 1000 meters
Run 800 meters

Post time to comments.

Mike loves Saturday WODs, don’t you? 

Five rounds for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Kettlebell swings, 24kg (16kg)
40 Double-unders

Post time to comments.

Lindsay looking strong and serious.

READ ME!!  The end of 2011 is nearing fast and you may be wondering what’s in store for you at CrossFit Verve in 2012, eh?  Well, we recently closed our annual athlete survey (a big thank you to all of you  who participated and offered your musings) and we’ll be giving you a recap next week about what we’ve heard from you and how we’ll be making Verve even better as we progress into the new year.

Bu first, here’s a look at our upcoming holiday hours this weekend…. 

Saturday, 12/31 New Year’s Eve: normal classes
Sunday, 1/1 New Year’s Day: closed
Monday, 1/2: limited classes (9am, 12noon, 430pm) more classes as needed

As well as some class changes beginning in January (yes, next week already!)
Tuesdays:  New 6am Endurance class 
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 730am class cancelled and new 9am class (oh, yea-ah!)
Mondays and Wednesdays: New 730pm WOD (what what?!)

Are you making any New Year’s Resolutions related to your nutrition?  Well, get your butt into our next FREE Nutrition Workshop on Saturday, January 7th @ 11am.  Think you know it all or you’ve been to them before?  Well, we promise you’ll learn some important new info to put to use right away AND we’ll be outlining our Best Shape of Your Life Nutrition Challenge that will begin soon in January.  This will include bloodwork, measurements, and performance measures.  More details to be announced soon, but attend Matt’s Nutrition Workshop to find out.  4 weeks to the Best Shape of Your Life!

What are your thoughts about the new classes?  Are you ready to dial in your nutrition in 2012 and throw your name into the challenge?

For quality:
15 minutes of rope climb practice
Accumulate five minutes in a bridge
100 plank change-overs for time

These stations may be completed in any order.  Perfect your art and your strong midline.

Post time and accomplishments to comments.

Happy Ververs on the catwalk! 

Three rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Dumbbell thrusters

Post time and load to comments.

Jamey praying to the CrossFit Gods.

Thoughts for the New Year…

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.  
Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
Think only of the best, and expect only the best.
Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side,
as long as you are true to the best that is in you.
– author unknown.

So easy to type, so difficult to stay true to and so obvious when we see those who embody this.  Forget resolutions, all we can do is the best we can each and everyday and when our best disappoints us, we have tomorrow and tomorrow to continue to fight for everything we are and want to be.  Do not wait for your best self to magically emerge, work to create your best self in every decision you make.