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CrossFit Undeniable

We guide people to better health through fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle coaching.

Coach's Notes

Meet The Coach: Dave Danaher

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Today, we’re excited to welcome a new coach to CrossFit Undeniable! Many of you have probably already met Dave either in class or recently coaching. We’re excited to have him on the coaching schedule more in the upcoming weeks!

With that in mind, we wanted to share a bit more about how he got into coaching in the first place.

When/how did you find CrossFit? What was your first workout?

I found CrossFit in college in 2011.  My health had really fallen apart my freshman year in the fall of 2009. My first ever CrossFit workout was Murph! In May of 2012 I joined my first CrossFit box and have not looked back since!

What drew you to CrossFit Undeniable? What do you enjoy about our community?

In 2018 I took a break from the gym.  My wife and I were saving money for a down payment on a house at the time.  Shortly after we bought our house in Westminster I discovered CrossFit Undeniable just down the sidewalk from Kokopelli!  My time out of the gym made me realize that I had taken the community aspect of CrossFit for granted.  I was immediately drawn to the Undeniable community that welcomed me with open arms. Its one of my favorite things about our gym!

What is one moment that has stood out to you amongst your CrossFit journey?

A moment I vividly remember was back in 2013. I was participating in a team workout on a Saturday.  Saturdays at my home gym back in Columbia, MO always drew a large group.  I was doing burpees with the fiery gusto of a 21 year old college student paying no attention to whether I was in control of my body.  Since I was simply going as fast as possible I smacked my chin on the cement floor and proceeded to bleed everywhere and had to hang my head in embarrassment as I exited the gym to get 5 stitches.  

What motivated you to become a coach? What do you enjoy most about coaching?

I have had so many excellent coaches throughout my time in the CrossFit community.  I have looked up to coaches and the personal relationships they are able to develop with their athletes and knew that was something I wanted to be a part of.  My favorite part about coaching is pushing people to get outside of their comfort zone and helping to make their hour in the gym the best hour of their day!  

What are you up to outside of the gym (hobbies, etc)?

Outside of the gym I love anything Colorado has to offer.  I love skiing, hiking, and golfing. I am also doing Jiu Jitsu!  I love to spend time with my three dogs, my wife, family and friends! Fun Fact: If my wife would allow me to, I would go bankrupt buying Colorado Avalanche tickets!

Introducing New Leadership at CrossFit Undeniable

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Today, Zach and I joined a Facebook Live session with our members to share some big news. As of December 1, we’re excited to welcome a new leader and sole owner to CrossFit Undeniable.

This was a huge decision that both Zach and I took seriously. When we decided to look for a new owner, we knew we had to find the right person, not just any person.

We entertained many conversations and left feeling like it wasn’t the right fit. We wanted to feel confident that the new owner would continue to lead CrossFit Undeniable in the right direction and would be a good fit with our community.

We first met the new owner, Danny, in early October. After some initial phone conversations, he flew out to see CrossFit Undeniable in person and take a few classes. Over many hours of conversation, it’s become very clear that he is the perfect fit.

Danny brings 5+ years of CrossFit coaching experience (most recently at Peak360—a powerhouse gym—in Miami, FL). He has a tremendous amount of knowledge on top of his formal education in Exercise Science. Equally important to us though, he has a true passion for helping others and cares deeply about helping members improve in all aspects of their lives.

Zach and I are both very excited to see where Danny takes CrossFit Undeniable in the future, and don’t worry, we’re both sticking around as well. You’ll see us both in classes regularly. We value this community deeply and still want to remain a part of the magic at CrossFit Undeniable, just in a different role.

As for Danny, you’ll see him in the gym quite a bit as he gets to know all of the coaches and members. When you see him, please introduce yourself! He’s an amazing person that’s sure to take CrossFit Undeniable to new heights.

Many thanks for everything over the years! We can’t wait to see what’s next for this amazing community.

– Zach and Jeremey

If you’d like to watch the full recording of our live session, you can do that here!

Recapping the Fall 2020 #800gChallenge®

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In mid-August, CFU hosted a nutrition challenge that ran through mid-September– you probably heard me talk about it, as I personally was very excited to kick this one off! The 800g Challenge has gained a lot of popularity over the last year and a half or so in the CrossFit community, and for good reason.

This challenge is different. Unlike many other nutrition challenges out there that focus on removing or restricting certain items (no sugar, no processed foods, etc.), the 800g challenge focuses only on ADDING in more certain things to your diet — specifically, more fruits & vegetables. The goal is to eat 800g of fruits and vegetables (about 6 full cups) of your choice every day in addition to what you’re already eating.

This challenge is super approachable because it doesn’t restrict anything — your ice cream isn’t being thrown away, you’re not told you can’t have the everything bagel with cream cheese, and your nightly glass of wine isn’t off-limits or deemed “bad”.

With the addition of more nutrient dense fruits & veggies into your daily diet, chances are you’ll be fuller & more satisfied and won’t want to reach for the extra snacks. The best part? The items you eat are up to you — if you only want to eat 800g of strawberries, great! Want to eat only veggies and no fruit, or vice versa? That works too. The goal is simple: eat more fruits & veggies each day.

We had 17 participants in the 4-week challenge, and I want to take a moment and acknowledge how consistent everyone was! Participants got points in four different areas for daily diet/lifestyle categories: hitting their 800g daily, eating a variety of foods (more than 6), getting in a workout/daily movement, and on Mondays & Fridays could receive a bonus point for keeping a food journal (taking photos, including amounts of each, and sending them to me). Participants also received weekly email content that helped keep them motivated, accountable, and strategies to keep up the momentum after the challenge concluded.

At the end of the challenge, we had a 4-way tie for first! Not only were people able to maintain these habits in a variety of scenarios (traveling, with kids, at work, different dietary preferences, etc.), but the majority of people said that they plan to continue to eat this way going forward. Because the focus was on addition versus elimination, this challenge is great for people who have either been overwhelmed or stressed by the thought of bettering their nutrition — plus, everyone could use more fruits & veggies in their diet!

Here’s what some people had to say about participating in the challenge:

I honestly am loving this challenge. It’s keeping me aware of what my fruit and veggie levels are through a given day or week. I also am happy that it’s not a death sentence to miss 800g one day, and pretty easy to make an effort the next day to get back on track. 

I’ve been sleeping well, and feeling full / having a normal hunger level through the day too!

I have actually been liking this challenge, it seems easily sustainable long term! Even though everything has been remote it has all been super clear and easy to follow.

“All in all I’ve liked it a lot — I’m eating less other stuff, full almost all the time, having a healthier digestive system.“

I’m really liking this challenge so far! For the most part I’m finding it relatively easy to fit in the 800g within my day. I’m really impressed how it has caused my cravings for snacks and desserts to go down drastically. Having done two nutrition challenges now, its safe to say that I will never go hungry when I’m eating the right foods 🙂 So. Much. Food!

Feeling good, good energy. I really love that this is something that just isn’t hard to do.  I feel fuller longer, and I don’t need to eat as much at dinner. This has been great all around – and because it’s so sustainable, it’s going to be my plan after we’re all done.

I am definitely enjoying it and feel good with all the intentional fruit/veggies. I will likely continue it to some degree to keep that intentionality in my diet.

I’m so happy that I did the challenge. It helped me feel the difference overall. I’ve made a lifestyle change.

We hope to run more nutrition challenges in the coming months, and I want to thank everyone who participated for their effort! I am very proud of you all, and am so happy that you plan to continue these habits going forward.

800g Challenge Winners:

  1. Lisa Sporte
  2. Gina Mercado
  3. Sarah LaFasto

The Difference Between Practice, Training, and Competing

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I don’t know about you, but certain workouts give my stomach a queasy feeling. Approaching the bar before Fran, hearing the clock countdown before an Open workout, and approaching a 1RM deadlift would all qualify as examples.

That uneasy feeling typically pops up when I’m trying to hit a certain time or weight or when I’m racing against someone else. AKA when I’m competing.

Competition, against yourself and/or others, can be a helpful motivating factor. Reviewing your past performances or watching someone smash an Open workout can provide just the spark you need to go a little harder or lift a little heavier.

But, we shouldn’t always have the competition mindset when we walk in the gym.

For one, it can easily lead to burn out. Putting that much pressure on yourself every single workout is a quick way to suck out all the fun. It’s also not sustainable for your body to push 100% every single day.

On one of our podcast episodes, Zach and I broke down the difference between the practice, training, and competing mindsets, but the distinction is worth making again because it’s critical if you want to be doing CrossFit for many many years to come!

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What Goes Into Our Programming

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Last month, we brought our programming back in house. After a few years of relying on programming from various services, we ultimately felt it was the best move for both our athletes and coaches to write the workouts ourselves.

For our athletes, we’re able to plan farther ahead, provide more context around the specific programming, and ultimately ensure we’re providing a balanced program.

For our coaches, they now have more space within a class to coach technical movements and provide individual feedback. This is only possible when a class time has some breathing room, and you’re not rushing from one thing to the next.

Today, we wanted to share a peek at how the programming comes together. Why? Because we want you to understand the intention behind what you’re doing in the gym! By understanding the WHY, you can get the most out of every workout.

We’ll break this down going from the macro (yearly) view to the micro (weekly). Let’s dive in!

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Taking Back Control Over Our Programming

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Starting Monday, July 13, you’ll see a shift in our workouts at CrossFit Undeniable. We’ll be bringing the programming back in-house, and we’re incredibly excited about the benefits this will offer to our coaches and athletes.

We began to outsource our programming at CrossFit Undeniable two years ago, initially starting with Train for the Win and then moving to NCFIT. Many gyms outsource their programming, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Programming workouts is a skill that takes time to develop, and it often makes sense to pay professionals to program for you.

In our case, we relied on external programming so we could devote more time on other aspects of running the gym. Both programs were effective. But during and since returning from quarantine, both Zach and I had time to reflect on where we want to head as an organization and the type of training we believe in.

We believe good programming embraces:

  • GPP training. “General physical preparedness” is a cornerstone of CrossFit training. This means we don’t specialize in a single area but strive to make constant progress across the 10 general physical skills.
  • Varied, not random. CrossFit programming is often mis-represented as being “random.” In actuality, it’s not random at all; it’s varied. This means you’ll encounter a variety of rep ranges, time domains, intensities, and modalities across a given week.
  • Effectiveness. Meaning, it causes favorable adaptations as measured against repeatable tests, benchmarks, and body metrics.
  • Heavy days. It takes time to truly go heavy on a given day. Heavy days require a thorough warm-up, adequate time for building up in weight, and time to rest between sets. This is difficult to achieve when combining strength and metcon days.
  • Single element days. Some days should be spent on a single modality whether that’s weightlifting, gymnastics, or “cardio” elements like running and rowing. These single-focus days are often where you see the most progress and finally breakdown barriers (first pull-up or muscle-up, etc).
  • Adequate time in a class setting. Coaches need adequate time in an hour-long class to actually coach participants. When a class is packed full of content, coaches have little time to help athletes with progressions and cues.
  • Fun! Okay, maybe it’s not always “fun” to tackle 400m repeats or Fran, but good programming does reduce boredom and keep you coming in regularly. We want you training consistently 4-5 days per week!

Next week, we’ll be elaborating more on specifically how we lay out the programming on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. Our weekly previews will also begin to include more specifics on the focus of particular workouts so you know the exact intention behind any particular day.

The workouts are already in Triib for next week so go have a peek. As always, we’re open to any feedback. Just drop us a note at info@crossfitundeniable.com!

Two Quick Updates Starting July 6

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We officially re-opened CrossFit Undeniable on Wednesday, June 10th. It’s been AMAZING to see everyone in the gym crushing workouts over the past three weeks.

Early last week, we put out a call via Facebook and email to get some feedback on the re-opening and what our community would like to see next. A big thank you to everyone that took the time to send us their thoughts!

We’re making two changes to the schedule starting Monday, July 6th given the feedback we received and how classes have run thus far—re-adding the 8AM class and expanding class caps.

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Our Revised Plan for Re-Opening on June 10

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It seems like forever ago that we published our tentative plans to reopen on April 27. Following that notice, we learned that gyms would not be able to open during the safer-at-home guidelines. We then put those plans on pause, awaiting additional guidelines from Governor Polis and Jefferson County.

CrossFit Undeniable has been closed for going on 12 weeks. We’re incredibly grateful to our amazing members that have supported us thus far even with our doors closed. We’ve been anxiously waiting and advocating for guidance specific to boutique gym like ours because we feel we can resume business operation in a safe manner.

Yesterday, Governor Polis announced that the safer-at-home guidance would be extended to July 1 in Colorado. However, draft guidance has been put forth that would allow gyms to have up to 10 people per room indoors. We should know whether that guidance is finalized by Thursday, June 4. Regardless, we’re planning to reopen on Wednesday, June 10.

Please see the full details of our plan below. We’re excited to get everyone back in the gym!

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