"Fran"

Three rounds, 21 – 15 – 9 reps for time of:
Thrusters, 95#/65#
Pull-ups

Post time to comments. 

Trainers learning to be better trainers at the Coaches Prep Course.

What’s all the hub bub with Grass-fed beef?!?

For years, we have let the beef industry feed us an inferior protein from grain-fed cows because it is cheaper and easier to process.  What they do not tell you is how much you are missing out on when you choose grain-fed over grass-fed.  

Let’s just look at a couple of comparisons between the two:
The calorie count: If you are on a calorie restricting diet, you will be glad to know that grass-fed beef has less calories than a grain-fed beef.  Example, for a 6oz steak, the grass-fed and 100 fewer calories than that of a grain-fed steak.  

Fats, good and bad: Grass-fed beef is on the same line of healthy eating as skinless chicken.  Grass-fed has half to one-third less fat than that of grain-fed.  In fact, it has about the same amount of fat as a skinless chicken.  Being that it is a more lean meat, it helps lower your LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol).  

Omega 3’s in beef??
That’s right, it’s not just in fish.  Grass-fed beef contains two to six times more Omega 3’s than grain-fed.  The little moo-moo’s get their Omega 3’s from the green grass they eat on a daily basis.  Sure, a grain-fed cow will have Omega 3’s.  But, the longer the cow is in a feed lot, the lower the level of Omega 3’s that are contained in the meat and the higher the levels of Omega 6's.

These are just a few benefits from consuming grass-fed beef instead of grain-fed.  Now here is a question for you: who would be interested in ordering some grass-fed beef?  You will need to find a way to store your cut.  We will be making an order very soon, so if you would be interested please email me at mas@crossfitverve.com  We will be ordering from Searleranch.com for roughly $3.25/lbs which is about half the price at Whole Foods. 

Head to CrossFit Roots for the CrossFit 11.3 WOD

  

CrossFit Open Workout 11.3

Sign-up for a heat here! or just show up and we’ll get you in a heat.

Have questions?  Call us!  303.807.5295

As a team of four, complete as many reps as possible in 12:00 of:

Prowler push 20m
Dumbell push press, 40#/25#
Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood/1 pood

In this workout, the pace is set by the team member pushing the sled.  The next team member is accumulating as many reps as possible of push press.  The third team member is accumulating as many reps as possible of KB swings.  The fourth team member is enjoying a rest.  

Post team members and total reps of KB swings and push press to comments.

Tim Keefe working through injury and leaving no doubt about ROM.

The Hip Extension

The GHD machines at CrossFit Verve are being used more and more everyday by athletes searching for answers regarding improved midline stability.  But where do we start? Improved midline stability through control of the erectors, hamstrings, and glutes would be a safe bet… and what better exercise to start with than the GHD hip extension?

The hip extension requires postural strength by holding the trunk in full extension for the duration of the movement.  The dynamic nature of the hips in this movement provide a potent response from the glutes and hamstrings, while the erectors are contracting hard against the abdominals to maintain trunk extension. This is the exact same position that we require from a deadlift, squat, or press.

Begin by trying three set of eight to ten reps with a partner watching your lumbar spine for any deviation from extension (i.e. loss of lumbar curve).  When developing a capacity at this movement, start with slow controlled movements and add a little speed as you improve over time.  Shoot for 25 reps without stopping.  

On a 10:00 (12:00) running clock:

Row 2k
Then, with remaining time reach a 3RM weighted dip

Post dip weight (including bodyweight) to comments.

Jamey doing speed deads, plus chain at HD&CC

What About Supplements?

We hear this question all the time.  Sometimes our answers are not what people really want to hear either – "fish oil and that's it."  So let me explain what I take and why and maybe that will help alleviate some of your curiosity on the subject.  

First, let me start off by saying that I do not recommend taking any supplements without visiting your doctor and having some blood work done.  Next, consider that I weigh 210# and my dietary needs may be (probably are) completely different from yours – including supplement dosage.  When trying a new supplement, start with the recommended dosage and tweak it based on your results.  Remember, more does not equate to better in the world of supplements.

Fish oil: 10-15 grams of EPA/DHA daily depending on my physical condition.  Fish oil boasts too numerous of benefits to name here.  Some of them are; decreased inflammation, increased cardiovascular health, improved brain function, and decreased incidence of depression and psychosis.  I recommend starting with 5 grams daily, spreading that dosage out over the three main meals of the day.

Some days require more fish oil than others

Creatine Ethyl Ester – 3 grams post-WOD.  Creatine is shown to increase muscular endurance, increase muscle mass and strength, and improve recovery time.  A benefit of CEE over creatine monohydrate is that it is more absorbable to the cell.  This eliminates the dreaded "creatine bloating".  Taking Creatine Ethyl Ester is a no-brainer.  The benefits will assist you on your path to elite fitness (or even moderate fitness).

Vitamin D: 5,000 IU's daily.  Low levels of Vitamin D are linked to a decrease in athletic performance, poor insulin sensitivity, increased inflammation, and a whole host of metabolic pathologies.  During the summer months, you can get adequate Vitamin D by exposing 40% of your skin to direct sunlight for 20 minutes a day.  

ZMA: 1 dose (450mg of Magnesium, 30mg of Zinc, 11mg B-6) daily before bed.  Research has shown that a ZMA supplement for athletes decreases cortisol levels in the bloodstream and boosting testosterone production.  Now, I'm not talking about women waking up with "man voices" or beards, but enough that it could benefit strength gains.  It has also shown to improve deep sleep, which benefits us with improved recovery and positive metabolic benefits.

Lastly, Whey protein: 22 grams (3 blocks of PRO).  I have a whey protein powder shake (powder in water) after every workout.  I use it as my PWO snack and I balance the meal with three blocks of carbs and three blocks of fat.  Whey has the dream amino acid profile to improve athletic performance and enhance recovery.  On the downside, it is a dairy product, making it a non-paleo food.  Who cares, it's benefits far outreach the boundaries of eating like a caveman.

First, ask this question: is my diet dialed in to the point at which I would truly benefit from adding these supplements, or should I address what's currently entering my piehole?  

CrossFit Games Open 11.3

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
Squat clean & jerk, 165#/110#

Post rounds and reps to comments.

Chris K. Battling with WOD 11.1 of the Open.

Sign-up Information for Workout 3 at Roots

This is going to be fun!

The workout: 
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
Squat clean (165lb men / 110lb women)
Jerk (165lb men / 110lb women)

How to sign-up?
Click here to reserve a spot in a heat for Saturday’s workout. Simply click the “Sign-up Now” button for your desired time slot, and follow the on-screen instructions.  As the heats fill-up, we will add more time slots to the schedule.

How much does it cost?
There is a $20 drop-in fee for visiting athletes.

How will the morning run?
We will run every hour like so: 
:00 – :20, athlete warm-up
:20 – :30, Heat 1
:30 – :40, Heat 2
:40 – :50, Heat 3
:50 – :00, Heat 4

Please plan to come warm-up for your time slot in the :20 minute warm-up period at the start of each hour!

Who can participate in the workout? 
EVERYONE!  In other words, even if you did not sign-up for the CrossFit Open, you should still come take part in the fun. We hope that all Roots athletes will take this opportunity to come and do the workout just as you would on any Saturday. We will scale as needed. AND all athletes that participate in the workout will be entered to win a prize from the Lululemon Boulder store!

What’s going on afterward?
The Roots Community Day!

What is Community Day, you ask?

Community Day is about celebrating CrossFit and the great community of athletes we get to workout with on a daily basis. Bring the family, bring a lawn chair, come watch some of the heats, participate in the workout, and stick around for some mingling and food! We’ll start-up the grill at 11:00am and host a barbecue and social event. We’ll have lots of burgers, compliments of Yampa Valley Beef, Boo Bars, and Silk Pure Unsweetened Almond Milk from Whitewave Foods.  Our favorite coffee shop in town, The Cup, will provide coffee throughout the day.  Roots athlete, chiropractor Dr. Jason Orowitz, will be there with his adjustment table to talk shop and give athletes a once over. We’ll also host a “Show a Friend” workout where you can take a non-CrossFitting friend through a workout.  We’ll host that around 12:00pm after the heats are completed.  AND the CrossFit Headquarters media team will be on-site to film the action and get everyone’s reaction to workout 3!

Roots hopes to see you there!

"Jack"

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

10 Push press, 115#/75#
10 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood/1 pood
10 Box jumps, 24"/20"

Post rounds and additional reps to comments. 

Robyn rockin' push-ups at MBS this weekend.

It’s not the ingredients in the peanut butter we don’t like, it’s the peanuts themselves.When peanuts grow, they can harbor carcinogenic mold called an “aflatoxin“. This goes for conventional and organic peanuts. They longer they sit (during shipping, for example), especially in warm temperatures and high humidity, the more mold grows. And as it’s nearly impossible to buy peanuts “local”, as they are only grown in a few Southern locations, more likely than not that even your organic peanuts are suspect.

The far bigger concern, however,is that peanuts contain lectins which are believed to have inflammatory and atherogenic potential.  Most plants contain lectins, some of which are toxic, inflammatory, or both. Many of these lectins are resistant to cooking and to digestive enzymes, and some have been scientifically shown to have significant GI toxicity in humans. Lectins from grains (especially wheat) and legumes (including peanuts and soybeans) are most commonly associated with aggravation of inflammatory and digestive diseases in the body. (As an aside, dairy from cows fed grain-based diets can also contain these grain-derived lectins.)

Recent research by Dr. Cordain has suggested that these lectins may effectively serve as a “Trojan horse” allowing foreign proteins to invade our natural gut defenses.Cordain reports, “An experiment conducted by Dr. Wang and colleagues and published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet revealed that PNA got into the bloodstream intact in as little 1-4 hours after subjects ate a handful of roasted, salted peanuts.” (Unfortunately, the abstract of this study is not available without a subscription.) The lectins can cause damage well beyond the gut – commonly in joints, brain, and skin of affected individuals. Continued exposure of the gut by these toxins leads to a persistent stimulation of the body’s defense mechanism in a dysfunctional manner, i.e. autoimmune disease. (Allergies fall into that category as well.)

Excerpt from: "The Peanut Manifesto" – Whole9Life.com

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

Post time to comments.

Tired of the same old breakfast? Real food, real zone delicious waffles. 

Ingredients:

2 Egg whites (1P)
1 Whole egg (1P)
1/2 Apple (1C)
1 Tablespoon almond meal (2F)
Cinnamon to taste
1/2 Cup frozen blueberries (1C)

Preparation:

Put egg's and cinnamon in the blender, slowly add all ingredients.  Pour into waffle maker.  Cook for approximately four minutes. Use a waffle maker that flips for best results.  Take blueberries and microwave them for 1 to 1.5 minutes.  Pour onto the hot waffle devour in seconds.

Zone: Recipe is for 2 block breakfast add or delete to recipe as blocks call for.

CARPOOLING FOR MBS

Competition crew and supporters, if you are planning to carpool to MBS this Saturday, please meet at Verve at 8:30am for the caravan.

Bench press 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 reps

Post loads to comments.

Addie has a bit more work to do than most when wall ballin'

Olympic Lifting with Coach Luke

I remember the first time I tried a clean. I was at 24 Hour Fitness with my brother Matt.  I had told him about these "cleans" I had seen on the CrossFit website, but I continually had to skip those workouts, since I had no idea what they were. So, he tried to show me.  I got one thing, and one thing only out of that session: stomp my feet on the ground as hard as I could. Thus, my most-awesome donkey-kick was born.  

Fast forward a year, I'm still struggling with cleans and barely ever try its companion, the snatch.  The whole movement of the clean feels awkward.  Every time I try one, I change something, but I don't know if what I'm changing is right.  With no feedback, and no instruction, my progress was at a snails pace.  How I wished that I could have had someone knowledgeable to show me how I could improve.  

Some four years have passed since I began doing CrossFit, and now I'm the one teaching others these movements.  The progress I've seen out of the athletes at Verve is remarkable.  It's taken me these four+ years to reach my PR's; I see others challenging or exceeding those numbers in months.  

But do the olympic lifts intimidate or confuse you?  Have you not seen a PR in the Snatch or C&J in awhile?  I urge you to try one of our Olympic Lifting classes.  These classes are designed to help people of all levels to focus on the particulars of these fantastic lifts.  What's the correct starting position for a clean or a snatch? Where should your shoulders line up?  What's the difference between an Olympic squat, CrossFit squat, and a power-lifting squat?  What's the difference between a clean, hang clean, power clean, and hang power clean? These are things we have an opportunity to discuss during this one-hour class that we may not always be able to go over during a normal WOD.  

The way most classes will work is like this:  
Achieve 1RM for Snatch for the day
then…
Snatch balance: 5×5 @ 65%,75%,85%
Snatch pull: 5×5 @ 95%, 105%, 115%.
Cookie: max rep OHS @ 50% of 1RM.

These movements build athleticism by developing speed, agility, balance, flexibility, power,… each of the ten physical traits of fitness.  They are incredibly rewarding when the skills are mastered and the improvements in your lifts are reflected across many of the movements we perform.  Plus, they’re fun and are a nice change of pace.  So come join us for an Olympic lifting class and see what you’re capable of.  

CrossFit Open WOD 11.2
Complete as many rounds and reps as poosible in 15 minutes of;

9 Deadlift, 155# (100#)
12 Push-ups
15 Box jumps, 24" (20")

Push-ups are hands released at bottom and a rigid body through out.  Elbows must be less than a 90 degree angle on the push-up.  Step-ups on the box jumps are not allowed for an as RX'd WOD.  Hands must be outside the knees on the deadlift, with hip open fully at the top.  No bouncing on the deadlift down, arms must be straight at the bottom of the deadlift. 

Post rounds and reps to comments. 

Thank you Mary Dyk, for this generous gift.

We are serious as heart attack when we say THANK YOU!!  We want to thank Mary D., a CrossFit Verve athlete who graciously donated an AED to our gym.  This is by far one of the most thoughtful donations that we have ever received and could make the biggest difference. 

Studies have shown that patients who experience a cardiac arrest will benefit most from early electricity and continuous movement of their oxygenated blood by CPR.  We had the CPR part down, as all of your Verve trainers are CPR certified, but now we have Mary to thank for bringing some electricity to our gym!  

New Endurance WOD's.  You've requested them and now they are here.  CrossFit Verve is introducing the Endurance WOD.

WHAT IS CROSSFIT ENDURANCE? The CrossFit Endurance has two fronts, 1. To allow CrossFit Athletes to CrossFit and compete in endurance sports all while getting faster and stronger. 2. It gives a unique opportunity for endurance athletes to learn another significant way to effectively train for any event they wish to compete in. It also provides a unique opportunity for them to have a life outside of training. Something most endurance programs will not allow for with the sheer volume demand of these programs.

It brings to light the reality of LSD/Oxidative training and why it is ineffective and extremely unhealthy. It gives you the ability to understand training endurance athletes and how to make strength and conditioning a major part of the program and not a supplement.

Why should I use CrossFit Endurance for my endurance training?

Are your times CONSISTENTLY getting faster at ALL distances (what was your last 5k time compared to a year ago)?

How high can you jump? (Many marathoners cannot jump onto a 12 inch box.)

How many push-ups/pull-ups/squats/etc. can you do?

Have you, or are you, suffering from chronic-use injuries (plantar fasciatis, IT Syndrome, runners knee, etc.)?

How many hours do you train per week? How many hours does your spouse/family wish you trained? (This program only requires 6-8 hours per week to COMPETE at Ultra/Ironman distances.)

Why are there no long runs/rides/swims (aerobic training) in this type of training?

Long runs/rides/swims fall into the category of training we term “long slow distance” (LSD) and is solely aerobic in nature.

Aerobic training has the following benefits and drawbacks:

It is apparent that the many drawbacks of LSD training easily overpower the limited benefits. It is our contention that limiting an athlete’s exposure to LSD training will allow them to remain not only functionally competent in other areas of fitness and competitive in aerobic endurance pursuits, but DOMINATE in ALL areas of fitness.

– Re-posted from CrossFit Endurance.com 

There will be two WOD's per week, starting next week.  Every Tuesday at 8am and a second in the evening.  Each week the second Endurance WOD will rotate days/times, just like Oly and HD&CC; due to trainer availability and the programming of the WOD.  These WOD's will be limited to 9 people and we will need all athletes to be compliant with this request.  If it becomes uber popular we will add more class times.

PLEASE BE WARNED CF ENDURANCE recommends  three plus hours between a WOD and and Endurance WOD for best results.  If you would like to add more Endurance WOD's to your training check out the link here.

Seven rounds for time:

3 Front squats, 185#/125#
7 L-pull-ups

Post time to comments. 

Ross with a rock solid knees to elbows while rope climbing.

Hot Dogs & Cup Cakes Update

Hot Dogs & Cup Cakes, or HD&CC, has been full steam ahead for nearly three months now at CrossFit Verve. We've seen some really great changes in not only capacity, but also in form and ability. The program itself is a spin-off of Westside Barbell programming, loosely based on the conjugate method. The idea behind this practice is that if you constantly complete the same exercises, you'll eventually stall out and stop adapting to stimulus. Sounds like CrossFit (constantly varied, functional movements, high intensity) doesn't it?!? 

Want an example of a HD&CC WOD?  Here is just one workout we completed this week:

Dynamic effort bench press, 9×3 reps @ 50% + bands
Triceps rollback extensions, 3×12 reps w/ chain
On the minute, every minute for 12 minutes: complete 3 strict muscle-ups
V-outs, 3×8-10 reps
Strict toes-to-bar, 3x max reps 

Now you may be thinking "WTF?!?" What we aim to do in this workout is increase your capacity at pressing movements by focusing the first half of the workout on movements that develop a stronger press (bench, shoulder press, push press, push jerk, push-up, dip…).  By using sub-maximal loads at maximum speed, we teach the body to accommodate resistance with speed, which requires less force. We then switch gears and develop the pulling group of muscles by focusing on a couple of terrific and difficult gymnastics movements.  Finally, we strengthen the core using another gymnastics movement.  But, the next time we press will be an entirely different set of exercises, reps, and loads…

So if you'd like to give HD&CC a shot – please do!  The HD&CC program is excellent for athletes looking to improve strength, practice advanced gymnastics movements, and do a short CrossFit WOD that utilizes advanced movements not commonly used in CrossFit Verve WOD's.  This program is by no means a replacement for the workout of the day! If your time in the gym is limited, you WILL get the most bang for your buck by doing the CrossFit Verve workout of the day.  Check the schedule for HD&CC class schedule.

If you've been to HD&CC, sound off – what do you think?