Our “Best Shape of Your Life” Nutrition Challenge is wrapping up, with final measurements, vitals, bloodwork and benchmark workouts finishing up this week.  We’ve seen some amazing changes in people in a mere four weeks.  Now, how to keep up with it?  We’ll have some follow-up materials available at Verve soon to help you continue your healthy habits as part of your lifestyle.  Are you gonna stick with it?  Why or why not? 

Also, our next Verve Nutrition Workshop will be held on Sunday, February 26th at 9am.  As always, it is free to all, so bring yourself, bring your friends, bring your family.  We’ll be discussing the why’s behind what goes on in your body with fuel and how to improve your performance.  We’ll also be having some yummy treats of fish oil (think vanilla, chocolate, mint, lemon and tangerine) from StrongerFasterHealthier available for you to taste test.  These are highly concentrated EPA/DHA doses from excellent sources that we are excited to be carrying very soon–so come try them out!
 

April 28th $299  9am to 5pm

This one-day seminar is a performance oriented workshop for athletes and coaches wishing to develop effective mobility and flexibility strategies, improve ideal athlete positioning and movement set-up, and implement whole-body maintenance practices. Attendees will understand how to: Improve force production, increase work outputs, avoid common and preventable movement dysfunction and injury, and understand how to address simple performance related myo-fascial and joint mobility issues.

What does this seminar really mean to me?

• Improve Your Fran Time
• Squat More
• Improve Your Overhead Capacity
• Remain Injury Proof,
• Increase Your Area Under the Work Capacity Curve
• How to Understand and End Your Athletic Pain

Who has two thumbs and can mobilize you?? This guy!

Seminar Goals:

• Improve understanding of key anatomical elements as they relate to functional movement, and as performance limiters.
• Increase awareness of “best-fit” biomechanical set-up and movement strategies for optimal work and force outputs.
• Understand movement compromise strategies for specific movement outcomes.
• Develop an understanding of common movement dysfunctions and a systematic model for addressing common problems associated with strength and conditioning training.
• Develop effective abdominal/spine stabilization strategies
• Understand and apply neuro-muscular stretching methods
• Understand methods to improve overhead positioning and efficacy
• Develop methods to address common myo-fascial pain/dysfunction
• Understand how to treat soft tissue injuries
• Develop better movement preparation strategies

All I can teaser.

Coming to Verve Sunday January 15th at 6pm is movie night.

The first showing will be: All.I.Can.  This film was 2 years in the making with unrivaled jaw-dropping time-lapse cinematography.  Even if you are not a ski buff, this movie is worth the watching.   “Producers Mossop and Crossland’s nature shot opening sets the tone for a film that aims to make apparent the connection between the sport of skiing and the environment of which it takes advantage.  The film doesn’t open up with a heavy-handed “green” message, it just shows the world for what it is in all its natural glory.  Nature, urban landscapes and industrial shots worthy of Edward Burtynsky all whip by, startling in their intense clarity.  And after that stunning prelude, the Sherpas let loose with some of the tightest, sickest ski footage seen to date in a ski movie.” – Mark Quail

So bring your camping chairs, a pillow, your family, or a friend and come join us for the show. 

“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