As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:

3 L pull-ups

4 Handstand push-ups

5 Overhead squats, 95#/65#

L pull-ups must be completed with feet higher than hips.

Post rounds and fractions to comments.

Nicole, Jim, Ed, and HP enjoying a little early morning light at 6am.

Paleo Potluck!!!

Sunday March 14th, Sarah Levenhagen will be hosting a Paleo Putluck at her house from 2pm – 5pm.  Come check out how creative your fellow Verve athletes get cooking with Paleo foods.  I must admit, I'm a pretty boring cook, so eating other's creations is super exiting!  So make a dish and get me excited!

Mark your calendars it's going to be paleo crazy.

Six rounds, 21 – 18 – 15 – 12 – 9  – 6 for time of:

Deadlift, 185#/120# (35% of 1RM)

Wall ball shots, 20#/14#

Compare to: November 6th, 2009

Post time to comments.

Buddy Zac, back for a visit in a couple weeks… book your classes now!

Scallops are filled with healthy Omega-3's and a full 1.5oz per protein block.  Besides, everything tastes better with a little bacon.  Here's a quick meal that will look and taste like you slaved over it!

Ingredients:

• 4.5 oz scallops –they are usually 1-1.5oz apiece (3P)
• 2 strips of bacon from the deli
• 12 asparagus spears, chopped into halves (1C)
• 1.25 cups red bell pepper, sliced (1C)
• 1 cup green beans (1C)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (3F)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place all the veggies in a casserole dish, drizzle with the olive oil, and season with pepper

Place the veggies in the oven and cook for approx 20 min, stirring occasionally

Meanwhile, slice the bacon strips in half lengthwise and wrap around the scallops.  Secure them with a toothpick and cut off any extra.  Place them on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 min or until the scallops are firm.

Voila!  A masterpiece meal of 3P, 3C, 3F.

"Death by 10 Meters"

Run 10 meters on the first minute, 20 meters the second minute, 30 meters the third minute… continuing as long as you are able to complete the required length in one minute.

Post completed minutes to comments.

A typical spicy treat that you get to experience at the Level 1 Cert. 

The Level 1 Experience

CrossFit introduced the Level 1 Certification years ago due to high demand from it's loyal followers.  Back then it was Coach Glassman himself who gave each of the lectures and had his CrossFit Santa Cruz trainers as demo subjects and breakout group trainers.  They were small and much less formal than L1 Certs of today. 

For some, the L1 Certification is a step towards becoming a trainer– whether it's to train in a CrossFit affiliate or to train a middle school gym class.  For others, the L1 Cert. is their first exposure to CrossFit – yes, meaning they have never done a workout before, but came to learn from the best.  Some even think of the L1 as a right of passage.  They've been following CrossFit.com for years, participating in the message boards, reading journal articles, and watching the Games unravel in videos.  The L1 Cert. simply solidifies their dedication to the CrossFit community.

Any way you look at it or approach it, the L1 is a fantastic exposure to the CrossFit community in two action-packed days.  Among other things, you'll learn how to answer the question, "What is CrossFit?"  You'll learn the science and programming behind our workouts, as well as experience some of those workouts.  Of course you'll also have the opportunity to get coached in small groups on the nine foundational movements of CrossFit.  Hopefully you'll walk away moving better AND knowing how to see and correct these movements.  You'll also have the opportunity to make some new friends.

I can't recommend that everyone go and drop $1k to go attend a L1 just for fun.  But what I can recommend is that if you've ever thought about it, you should do it – you won't be disappointed.  I can honestly say that I remember my L1 like it was yesterday and have nothing but fond memories.  Some of the friends I made I see very regularly (Paula and Jordan of CrossFit By Overload) despite living quite a distance from them.  Still, every cert. I attend – I learn something new or pick up something that I hadn't heard before. 

Have you been to a Level 1 Certification?  What did you think?

"Olympic Total"

Snatch 1 – 1 – 1 reps

Clean & jerk 1 – 1 – 1 reps

Warm up to an opening weight that you're comfortable making (80%+) and then let'r rip. 

Compare to: Thursday 100107

Post loads and total to comments.

Gerson about to pull under the snatch aggressively, right Gerson? 

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence" -Lombardi. 

As I sat and read this I was in the weight room at the University of San Diego.  I had to read it twice because my brain didn't quite process it the first time.  As I read it again, I immediately became calm and let out a sigh of relief.  Why had I never thought of this before?  I have been punishing myself for not being perfect for years.  How many of you have been doing this?  What a waste of my time. 

I began to think of examples where this quote has been applied in my life.  The first example that came to mind, was my marriage.  You expect to say your vows and then magically you have this perfect relationship.  I mean you're married, right.  This of course is silliness, and we've let our imagination (and maybe many romantic comedies) talk ourselves into this fairytale.  After sometime several people become disillusioned and think maybe they made a mistake (this could be the reason for such high divorce rates).  But the reality is that our imagination is just that, our imagination.  It takes a conscious action of continuing to strive to perfect your relationship in order to wake up one day and realize you have something excellent.  But the journey CAN'T stop once you've realized excellence.  If you stop then you've stopped chasing perfection and excellence will again elude you.  You must take active pursuit, consciously and continuously in the things you want perfection in.

Now apply this concept to your third week in the Paleo Challenge.  Are you beating yourself up over something you've eaten?  Let it go, learn, and keep chasing perfection, you will find that though you may not be perfect, somewhere along the journey you will find yourself in excellent health. 

Congratulations to Nat Ridder who completed his Level 1 certification this weekend, check out his picture here.  Thanks for representing Nat, we were proud to call you our athlete.

"Nate"

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

2 Muscle-ups

4 Handstand push-ups

8 Kettlebell swings, 32kg/24kg

Post rounds and fractions to comments.

 
Marsha looking strong in her overhead squat.
 

Ten intervals of :40 work and :20 rest, alternating exercises:

Dumbell push press, 40#/25#

Burpees 

Post total score to comments.
Many things make this picture very cool, Alan's lats (bat wings), Craig's glove, and most of all Sarah's concern for Amy's back while doing banded rollouts. 

Have you turned in your logs?  Get them to me!

Box squat 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 reps

All rounds will be completed with 55% of your 1RM back squat. The focus will be on acceleration off the box.

Post thoughts to comments.

Geez, I wonder who's going to win this match… I'm guessing the CF'er in blue. 

Week two of the Paleo Challenge is coming to a close.  How do you feel?  Do you notice and positive physical changes?  What about your performance, has it improved?  Bring your logbooks in for inspection (i.e. another pair of eyes to find room for improvement). 

We tend to keep people off the scale unless it's been a few months and curiosity gets the best of us.  Why?  Well, a couple of reasons stick out.  First, we're not in the business of making people into stick figures.  We'd like to see you at your best, which in our eyes means lots of lean muscle mass and happy.  If we chase numbers, let's chase the one's that are important – our benchmarks for performance.

You see, weight means very little to us.  When an athlete comes in and says "I'd like to lose 10 lbs", we generally laugh it off and say something like "no problem".  We know that once you start to build some lean body mass, your body fat will get burned up as fuel.  However, your body weight might not go down… uh… that's right – it might even go up!  But as your lean body mass eats that fat for fuel, eventually you'll see those numbers go down.

For now, ask yourself: do I look better, do I feel better, do I perform better?  Eff the scale.

Seven rounds for time:

10 Hang squat cleans, 115#/75#

10 Chest slapping push-ups

Post time to comments.

Kim Brown, back in action! 

All proteins are not created equal.

Obviously, certain cuts of meat have a much higher fat content and therefore more calories ounce for ounce.  Used sparingly, these meats will suffice, but should not be a staple of your diet.  Other protein sources such as fish, eggs, shellfish, poultry, and some dairy (not paleo) should make up the majority of your weekly protein intake.  Save cuts of red meat and pork for when you find yourself eating outside the confines of your kitchen, where options are limited.

Did you know that haddock and ground beef are both approximately 18% protein, yet haddock only has 22 calories/oz, while ground beef contains 80 calories/oz?  And did you know that Icelanders have some of the longest lifespans in the Western world, which may be because their staple protein is cod?  What about lobster?  Not only do you get more of it (1.5oz per block, compared to 1oz of beef or pork per block), but you also get a healthy dose of Omega-3 fatty acids which help decrease inflammation. 

If you are celebrating a special event, or simply have some friends that are begging you to go out to dinner with them, suggest a place that serves fresh fish.  If you don't get buy in from the group, suggest a steakhouse like Texas Roadhouse, where you can get a small cut of high quality of meat ("The 6oz Dallas Fillet") and swap the sides for extra veggies.  Don't let others deter you from your goal. 

Three rounds for time:

400m Run

12 Sumo deadlifts, 255#/165#

21 Toes-to-bar

Post time to comments.

Zercher must have been strong, nice work Jack. 

This is the month of food.  So 9 days down, 20 days and 22 hours left.  How is everyone doing?  I received over 30 food logs this weekend and was impressed on how strict everyone is being.  Keep it up you're almost through it.  In order to keep everyone eating at least a bit of variety, I have another super easy, will feed you all week, recipe.  You can add fresh veggies and make this a little more gourmet, but based off of all your food logs, the easier the better.

"If I wanted to cook, I would have been a chef, chicken curry"

Ingredients:

30 oz Chicken breast (30P)
15 cups frozen stir fry vegetables (15C) 
1.25 cups lite coconut milk (15F)
2 TBSP Curry powder 

Preparation:

Cook the chicken, this can be grilled, pan or broil.  Dump the veggies into a large skillet and start sauteing.  Chicken and veggies will get done around the same time, drain the water our of the veggies.  Cut the chicken into cubes and add to the veggies.  Add the coconut milk and curry powder.  Boil, stir and done! 

Zone Exchange:

1.3 cups is equal to 3P, 1.5C and 1.5F.  In the above picture I added 1 plum (1C), 0.25 orange (0.5C), and 5 almonds (1.5F) to make a complete 3 block meal.  Put the whole container the fridge.  0.45 is equal to 1P, 0.5C and 0.5F, enjoy!

   

"Lynne"

Five rounds for max reps of:

Bench press, BW

Pull-ups

Rest 3-5 minutes between efforts.

Post time and strategy to comments.

Warm-up with those crazy 6 amer's.

Lynne is your classic "push-pull" workout.  These two movements prove to be a dynamic combo each and every time we complete this workout.  Yet despite the pain, the end result is still exactly what we're after: measurable, observable, and repeatable.  After tackling Lynne for the first time, you're left with a score and a specific amount of work that you've completed.  The question is, are you going to be fitter the second time around?  The load hasn't changed much (your body weight) and the distance you are moving the load is the same (unless you grew or shrunk).  The only thing that may change… is your ability to do work.  Have you increased your work capacity lately?