"Murph"

1 Mile run

100 Pull-ups

200 Push-ups

300 Squats

1 Mile run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed.  If you have a twenty pound vest or body armor – wear it! 
Last done  September 19th, 2009 and May 9, 2009.

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Amber focusing on her good mornings.

CrossFit Journal 51 -Jim Decker

Forging Mental Fitness

I believe the WODs that become significant emotional events, the real suck-fests, have a far greater benefit than the physical improvements they inflict.They require and reinforce mental strength. All WODs, require these attributes. But Linda, Murph, Fight Gone Bad, and some of their cousins really require you to dig deep to get through them. Whether you are feeling strong and are headed to a personal record, or you are supporting a big fat boo-boo lip and are in the middle of your own pity party, the clock continues to run. It is only over when you finish that last quarter-mile, the last pull on the rowing
machine, the last clean. You must find a way to get from start to finish, as best you can, solo. No one can give you a cup of fortitude, a neatly packaged perseverance bar. It must come from within.

I am endlessly fascinated and impressed by civilians who CrossFit. All the military, law enforcement, firefighters, MMA champions and the like—we CrossFit to survive. Train
hard=fight hard=come home safe. Got it, no ambiguity there.  But what about the teachers, the businesswomen, the engineers, website designers, and all the rest who don’t (on a literal level) engage in mortal combat? What drives them to put themselves through the grueling events?

It seems to me that no external stimulus could be the answer.  CrossFit is hard. People quit (some even before they try) every day because it is hard. I think the drive must be internal, a competition with oneself, a continual test of one’s own limitations. This is where mental strength is born. External competition, while good and healthy, will only make you work
just hard enough to beat the competitor to your left and right. Internal competition will push you farther, faster, and harder than any opponent ever will.

In the past two years, I have had the opportunity to watch most of the elite CF athletes in action. In all of those workouts, I can’t think of a single time, not once, that they looked to
the studs working beside them to do anything but cheer for their “opponents.” Even when gasping for breath like a fish out of water they will use that precious air for words of encouragement. But don’t be fooled: there is competition going on. You can see it when the eyes glaze over, when they stop talking, hearing, even feeling. You can see them internalize.  They are looking inside, calculating, strategizing, trying to control their breathing, going to their happy place…whatever you want to call it. They are forging mental fitness.

– Come today prepare to challenge yourself and be a stronger version of you!

Five rounds for time:

10 Power snatch, 115#/75#

20 Wall ball shots, 20#/14#

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Joe Cruz, overhead and lovin' it!  

The Power Snatch

The snatch, when executed under heavy load, is normally received in a full squat.  The power snatch on the other hand, is received in a quarter squat with feet close to hip width. Let's review the set-up and execution details of the power snatch.

When setting up the snatch, go through this mental checklist.  First, set your feet at hip width with your body weight settled in the heels.  Next, reach down and grip the bar in your normal snatch grip, which includes a hook grip (right?).  Drop your hips to a level where your shoulders are over the barbell.  Lastly, flatten out your back to maintain the neutral s-shape of your spine and squeeze your chest up nice and high.  

Ready to pull?  Let's do it!  Start the first pull by deadlifting the bar and maintaining your back angle until the bar passes the knees.  To do this most effectively, think about pulling your knees back as you deadlift.  Next, as the bar passes the height of the knees, begin the second pull by violently extending the hips and reaching a long and tall position with straight arms.  You've done the hard work at this point.  Now you simply need to shrug and pull your elbows high and outside.

Here's where the snatch and the power snatch are different.  Instead of dropping under the bar and receiving it in a full squat, you simply pull a little harder and drop under the bar in a quarter squat.  Your feet do not need to change position, but you do need to stand up with the bar to complete the movement.  Make sense?  Something worth mentioning is that this is not a muscle snatch.  If you know what differentiates a muscle snatch from a power snatch… post to comments.  

Five rounds for time:

20 Back squats, 135#/85#

20 Inverted burpees

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Mike Leet, CrossFit Verve athlete and…… member of 3 other gyms (2 of which are CF gyms).  This guys is dedicated when he travels. 

For time:

Row 500m

150 Double-unders

50 Burpees

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Affiliate Cup Tryouts

Well here they are;the workouts that decide which 3 men and 3 women will represent CrossFit Verve at the 2010 CrossFit Games North Central Regional Affiliate Cup.  This is going to be a blast!  Starting at 1330, the women will compete first in WOD #1, followed immediately by the men.  After a short break both the men and women will be given their chance to rack up some bonus points in the Skills Test.  Finally at 1530 the women will compete in WOD #2, followed immediately my the guys. 

WOD #1:
100 Reps for time of:
Burpees and thrusters, 95#/65#
The 100 reps may come in any combination of burpees and thrusters.

Skills Test:
Unbroken chest-to-bar pull-ups, 12/6
3 Touch and go clean & jerks, 185#/125#
:20 Second L-sit hold
100 Double-unders in 2:00 minutes
Muscle-up, 3 (linked)/1

WOD #2:
Three rounds; 21-15-9 for time of:
Deadlift, 235#/165#
Toes-to-bar
Box jumps, 24"/20"

Specific rules and range of motion standards for each movement will be described prior to the WOD.  Scoring for WOD's #1 and #2 will be as follows; first place receives 100 points, second place receives 99 points, third place receives 98 points…  The Skills Test is for bonus points.  For each test passed, the athlete receives 1 additional point – equating to an additional 5 points if all tests are passed.  Highest number of points at the end of the day win and the top 3 slots for men and women earn a spot of the CrossFit Verve Regional Team!

FYI: You do not have to compete in the Regionals if you earn one of the top 3 spots, but you cannot compete in the Regionals competition unless you earn one of the top 3 spots (make sense?).  If you won't be around during the weekend of Regionals or are not interested in Regionals, but you'd still like to come do these workouts – by all means, please come.  Even if you'd like to come as a spectator, please do – we'd love to have you.

Run 1600m

Rest 3:00 minutes

Run 1200m

Rest 2:00 minutes

Run 800m

Rest 1:00 minute

Run 400m

Post times to comments.

Doug Michaels CF Verve amazing sectional athlete.

CFV Mountain Sectional Athlete Profile: Doug Michaels

Doug has been doing CrossFit with Verve for over a year now.  This was Doug's first competition and did an awesome job with all WOD's completed as rx'd!

WOD results: 

Row/Swing/Run 16:33 Rx 112th place
Snatch/Muscle-up 135#, 2 MU, 124th place
Squat clean/pull-up/box jumps 3.11 rounds Rx 109th place

Doug landed 119th place overall with a total of 345 points.  We are super proud Doug and LOVE having your smiling face and infectious positive attitude on the Verve team.

Congratulations Doug!

Thruster 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 reps

Followed by:

Complete sixteen intervals of :20 seconds of work, followed by :10 seconds of rest alternating between L-sit holds and good mornings.

Load for the good mornings should be kept light and the movement should not be completed to the limit of your hamstrings.

Post thruster and good morning loads to comments.

Matt and Mas, 3 rounds: 15 C&J, 150m sprint up hill w/ sandbag (80#)

Travel WOD's

Traveling is a part of life. Whether it's for work or for play, we find ourselves in far away lands from time to time.  In these times away from our homes, working out may be problematic, especially considering our equipment preferences.  Still, we've committed ourselves to our fitness and constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity – we will find a way.  Here are a couple of options that we find useful.  

First, CrossFit affiliates can be found all over the world now.  To find an gym, use the CrossFit Affiliate Blog which lists CrossFit gyms by state and city on the left side of the page.  As an exercise, check to see if there's a CrossFit gym in the city in which you were born.  We recommend visiting as many affiliates as possible, as it's an instant group of friends that have a similar interest.

Second, travel WOD's can be completed in almost any hotel or house with relatively little equipment.  Of course body weight movements can be completed just about anywhere.  But you can also fashion yourself some weights by filling a backpack with something heavy, like a couple of gallon bottles of water.  Toss the backpack on your back and run some stairs.  Take the pack off and do 10 backpack squat cleans at each landing – yikes!!! Hotels often have dumbells and treadmills too… imagine the possibilities!

Cherie and I always travel with rings and jump ropes – two staple items that make for great workouts.  One pair of rings allow us to do ring rows, dips, ring push-ups, muscle-ups, pull-ups, as well as skills practice.  We just added sandbags to our arsenal of equipment that we travel with – and they double as suitcases!  Remember, you're only limited by your ambition and creativity.  Traveling is not a reason to allow your training to suffer.

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:

12 Unbroken push press, 95#/65#

15 Unbroken box jumps, 24"/20"

Post rounds to comments.

 
Say WHAT!

CFV Mountain Sectional Athlete Profile: Daniel Young

Dan has been doing CrossFit for years, we aren't really sure how long, but we'd gues he came out of the womb doing deadlifts. This was not his first CrossFit competition and we suspect there will be many more. 

WOD results: 

Row/Swing/Run 13:41 Rx 37th place
Snatch/Muscle-up 175#, 36 MU, 27th place
Squat clean/pull-up/box jumps 5.07 rounds Rx 21th place

Dan finished in the top 30, landing 22nd place overall with a total of 85 points and is qualified to compete in the CrossFit Regional Games this May.

Congratulations Dan!

Overhead squat 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 reps

Followed by: “Randy” 

75 Power snatches, 75#/55# (35% of 1RM)

In honor of Randy Simmons, 27 year LAPD veteran and SWAT team member who was killed February 6th, 2008 in the line of duty.

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Affiliate Cup Tryouts

Are you interested in competing in the CrossFit Games?  Do you think it’s too late to try? Wrong!  This year CrossFit Verve is sending a team of 6 (3 guys, 3 girls) to the Regionals to try and qualify for the CrossFit Games Affiliate Cup.  So now’s your chance – don’t pass it up!

This weekend we’re holding the tryouts for the Regionals Affiliate Cup team. Workouts will be held on Saturday at 1:30pm and will last approximately 3 hours. Two workouts will be completed within that time frame and they will be exhausting – what else would you expect?!?  You will have roughly one hour of rest in between workouts.  We will be testing each of the 10 physical skills as best as we can in two workouts.

By earning yourself a slot on the Regionals Affiliate Team does not guarantee you a spot on the World Games team.  Of course there will be a second tryout for that event, should the CrossFit Verve team qualify.  The tryouts and the competition will cost you nothing – we’re taking care of that.  So come one, come all – test your fitness among your peers, or come and watch.  It’s going to be a blast!

"DT"

Five rounds for time of:

12 Deadlifts 155#, 95#

9 Hang power cleans 155#, 95#

6 Push jerks 155#, 95#

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Joylyn and Cherie doing a travel WOD, Playa Carmen, Costa Rica.  

Spicy Shrimp and Broccoli Stirfry

• 4 cups broccoli florets (4C)
  
• 2 large red bell pepper, chopped or sliced (4C)
  
• 1 cup onion, chopped (4C)
  
• 4 cup chicken or veggie broth (low sodium)
  
• couple of garlic cloves (freebie)
  
• 18 oz large shrimp, peeled and deveined (12P)
  
• 4 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (freebie)
  
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds (16F)
  
• Crushed red pepper to taste
  

Preparation:

Place your veggies in a pan and saute with chicken broth.  When the onions become soft, add the garlic and ginger.  Stir for a couple of minutes, then add your shrimp and almonds.  Add your red pepper to spice it to your liking.  Cook it up till the shrimp turn pink and then chow down!

This will make 4 meals: each has 3P, 3C, 3F.

For time:

50 Pull-ups

50 Wall ball shots, 20#/14#

35 Pull-ups

35 Wall ball shots, 20#/14#

20 Pull-ups

20 Wall ball shots, 20#/14#

Bonus: If anyone completes all rounds unbroken and in less than 15 minutes, they receive a brand new CrossFit Verve hoody!!!

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CrossFit magic.