Twenty-two people participated in our January paleo challenge. Congratulations go to Victor Jackson and Darcy Kimmich, who were voted by the rest of the participants as having the best overall results! I don’t think anyone would argue with me when I say that everyone who participated in the diet experienced phenomenal results! Weight loss, increased energy, positive changes in body composition/appearance, and just an overall ‘better/cleaner’ feeling. I think most of us are going to continue the diet. We will have another paleo challenge in early summer, but if you’re interested in trying the diet, feel free to ask Steve or Randy about it. Or for that matter, anyone who did the challenge.

Monica Zaltsberg, who is a yoga instructor in addition to being a member of CrossFit Denver, has agreed to start teaching a yoga class at the gym!  The class will be once a week, Thursday nights 7:30pm-8:30pm, and is free for all active CrossFit Denver members. If you’re interested, please bring a towel and water (water bottle) with you.  A mat is a nice thing to have.  Monica has a few extras, but if you’re going to participate reguarly, I would suggest you buy your own.  They are inexpensive and can be bought at Target, Wal-Mart, Sports Authority, etc.
Wear something comfortable, you’re going to be sweating.  At risk of being indelicate, shorts may not be the best option for what to wear due to some of the poses you’ll be in.

In January, we purchased an additional 30 mats, extended the mat all the way to the back wall, and repositioned the squat racks to maximize the space we have to work out in. We also purchased 6 more powermax bars and built 6 more light PVC bars. We’re pretty happy with the results. If you have any comments or suggestions about gym organization or shortages in equipment, please post a comment below.

CrossFit Denver is going to have a team at this year’s ‘Anthem Fight for Air Climb’, formerly the ‘Run the Republic’ (http://www.lungcolorado.org/RunTheRepublic/). If you want to participate in the run, register here: https://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/reg/preform.jsp?id=2863 Its $35 plus $56 minimum in donations. Just find CrossFit Denver in the drop-down of teams.

If you’ve joined recently and haven’t gotten your free ½ hour massage yet, call Kristin and set up an appointment. You can reach her at 720-297-6905. You’ll be glad you did!

Thanks to John Smidt, we have mounted the rings in the ceiling! So now you have plenty of room to do muscle ups without fear of hitting your head. We’re going to attach some longer straps so the rings can be lowered all the way to the floor, they’re limited on how low they can go right now.

If you weren’t aware, the Denver Harlequins rugby team is training at CrossFit Denver one night/week in preparation for their upcoming season. They all have great things to say about CrossFit Denver and some of them are going to join up with us.

The team is having a bowling tournament/social fund raiser benefiting breast and prostate cancer research. It will be on February 27^th, 2-5pm at Crown Lanes, 2325 S Federal Blvd. There will be drink specials, great food, prizes, and more! Drop by and say hi.

As an active member of CrossFit Denver, you are more than welcome to comment on any and all posts on our site, so feel free!  I’ve heard from some people that they don’t feel that they’re “allowed”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If you want to talk about how you like a WOD, what you’d like to see in future workouts, etc.  Make your feelings known!  Let’s just keep it positive.  Well…unless its about Chris D, then feel free to say whatever.
If you need a userid on the site or forgot your password, just send Steve a note here

Glue down turf – We’re going to glue down the turf in the back, so we can do agility drills back there. Its currently loose, and a little difficult to exercise on.
Lockers – I know I (Steve) say this every month. The lockers aren’t done yet. My bad.

Changing Rooms
At long last, we have changing rooms!  There are two, located in the apartment area (to your left as you walk in the front door).  The light switch on your right as you walk into the apartment controls the lights in both changing rooms as well as the main light.  If you have any suggestions for improvements, please add a comment below.

New smaller grip pull-up bars are installed
For those of you with a smaller grip, we now have 1 1/4″ diameter bars installed on the pull-up station.  There are four, three of them are in the stalls closest to the door, the last is on the far end in the center.  Thanks to Rage Fitness for getting those together for us.

Sunday evening workout?
If we started a 5:30pm sunday evening workout, would you make that a regular part of your workout routine?  Please reply in comments below.

CrossFit Denver Field Trips
We’ve got a few ideas for field trips, and we’d love to hear your ideas for more.  Right now we’ve got the following:
1)  Party/workout at Jump Street — trampoline gym – http://www.gotjump.com/
2)  Xtreme challenge — like the old american gladiators TV show — http://www.xtremechallengearena.com/
3)  Indoor Skydiving — http://www.skyventurecolorado.com/(a little pricey, but sounds fun!)
4)  Hike a 14-er (or two..or more… this spring/summer)
5)  The Incline – in Colorado Springs.  We did this last summer, it was a great workout — http://www.crossfitdenver.com/2009/07/saturday-7182009-incline-colo-spgs/
6)  Warrior Dash at Copper Mountain — http://warriordash.com/register2010_rockies.php (August)\

The Paleo Challenge is underway!!
As you’ve probably noticed, we started the Paleo Challenge  last Sunday.  If you’re not involved but interested in progress, you can snoop on our blog here:  http://www.crossfitdenver.com/2010/01/crossfit-denver-paleo-challenge-2010-blog/

Lifting Platforms
Take a look at the far end of the mat at our new lifting platforms!  we now have two, for heavy olympic lifting — deadlifts, clean & jerk, etc.

CrossFit Denver ‘Anthem Fight for Air Climb’ (formerly ‘Run the Republic’) Team
CrossFit Denver is going to have a team at this year’s ‘Anthem Fight for Air Climb’, formerly the ‘Run the Republic’ (http://www.lungcolorado.org/RunTheRepublic/).  Enough of you expressed an interest, we’ll have information on how to sign up in the next few days.  You can read specifics on the event in last month’s newsletter, below.

Coming Soon
Extending the mat – We’re going to purchase some additional mats and finish the floor to the back wall.  We’ll also move the squat cages against the wall and the rowers onto the turf.  That should give us a ton more mat space.  I actually put the order in today, so we should have these out by the weekend.
Lockers – We’re working on the lockers and they should also be ready for use…ummm…soon…