Turning the Curve

Joel Zayas • May 10, 2022
Kayakers paddle on a river under a stone bridge, surrounded by trees.

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet. Makes you wanna move, your dancing feet…

Bob Marley; Sun is Shining

Here we are, we’ve arrived at the warmer weather months (finally!). While the pollen is in full throttle, and my budget is now geared toward purchasing antihistamines. The optimist in me is excited for more sun around these parts, which usually means there’s an opportunity to get up and get out more often — even at the cost of a few sneezes along the way!

My most nostalgic moments always occur during the warmer seasons. The opportunity for taking on new hobbies and exploring new areas in the northeast; discovering new places I never knew existed, or taking on challenges I never thought to do.

Sometimes I wish I took more advantage of these things when I was younger. For example, I’ve only recently gone kayaking on the Charles River after years of seeing people out on the water having fun. Have I been living under a rock all these years? What’s prevented me from exploring and doing more? Why does it seem like something always comes up when I try to make time for myself?

Kayaking on the Charles. Tip: keep 6ft away from the swans. They bite!
Kayaking on the Charles. Tip: keep 6ft away from the swans. They bite!

Becoming opportunistic

I’m sure there are some folks out there who can relate and if you are anything like the old me (past tense, but I am old), you’ve probably passed up on many opportunities to take on new challenges because there seems to be always something going on.

Jim Carey giving the thumbs up

Have you ever seen the movie “yes man” with Jim Carey? If not, spoilers ahead… but the one thing I took away from that film was how sometimes our defenses can interfere with the potential for being the best version of ourselves. In the movie, Carl (Jim Carrey’s character), has gone through a lot of tough events in his life and his outlook and energy becomes increasingly negative. That is, until he visits a conference where the speaker convinces the masses – in cult-like fashion – to always say “yes” to every opportunity that presents itself.

Obviously this is a dry witted, humorous film and I’m not suggesting that you say “yes” to everything, but if there’s something to take away from the film, it’s the chance to allow more fun and adventure into your lives especially now, given all that we see going on in the world and having gone through an era of limited human interaction.

Hiking trip with the R3VIVE crew!
Hiking trip with the R3VIVE crew!

As I sit here today, moments before I take a mini-vacation to Puerto Rico (which almost did not happen due to all the excuses I constantly play out in my head), I think of all the things I want to do this summer and beyond, such as:

  • Continuing with swimming lessons;
  • Continuing with Salsa dance lessons;
  • Lose 10lbs over the course of the summer by eating healthier;
  • Go on longer walks and hiking with my dog, Olaf;
  • Read more books, especially outdoors;
  • Play more outdoor sports…

In closing

Rather than avoiding the chance for new experiences, I’m going to allow myself to be open to what may come, rather than overthinking and / or expecting the negative. Can you relate to being this way at times? If so, I hope that I have motivated you to make a small change in your life and allow things to come by saying “yes” more often.

Not to toot the horn of my gym, but a majority of the new things I want to try have all come via the motivation of others, mainly from our gym. As an owner, I’m extremely proud of the community we have cultivated at R3VIVE. We don’t only change lives for our members, we inspire extended change beyond our facility!

To those listening, whether you are a member or not, I challenge you to do the same!

The post Turning the Curve appeared first on R3VIVE FITNESS.

By Derek Saffold December 26, 2025
Hey R3VIVE Athletes, The Apex training cycle, going from January 5th to April 3rd, is our next training cycle! This will be the firt training cycle of the new year! this is a chance to refocus and get in some good work to help you reach your goals! lets all work together to crush this training cycle! Functional Fitness: The Apex Cycle is designed to make your year-long strength work truly functional, focusing on controlled, powerful movements, complexes under fatigue, and mandated touch-and-go reps to prepare you for mixed-modal workouts. Our strength culminates in the classic CrossFit Total and the "R3VIVE Other Total," while conditioning features a wide variety of time domains, movement volume builds (like wall balls, toes-to-bar, and burpees), and regular Friday retests of past workouts to track your progress and ensure you perform your absolute best. Build: Designed to bring together all your training from the past year and prepare you for your strongest performance yet. Our strength work will focus on controlled, powerful movements, building you up to test your limits with both the classic CrossFit Total and the "R3VIVE Other Total," which challenges your skill and strength balance. Expect a well-rounded program including unilateral strength, skill work, and core stability, with dedicated days for deadlifts, squats, gymnastics, and varied accessory work to keep you healthy and constantly progressing. For conditioning, we're tailoring the work to challenge you in new ways, featuring a wide variety of time domains and movements, and a specific volume build on common movements like wall balls, toes-to-bar, and burpees. Instead of a standard test/retest, we'll be performing regular retests of past workouts on Fridays, allowing you to easily track your progress and see how far you've come. Our weekly template balances intensity—with short, fast metcons on Mondays—with recovery, incorporating lower impact endurance work on Thursdays, and a strategic taper toward the end of the week to set you up for success on Friday! Partner workouts will wrap up your week every Saturday, bringing the whole community together.
By Derek Saffold October 30, 2025
Hey R3VIVE Athletes, The Ultimus training cycle, going from November 10th to January 2nd, is our next training cycle! Functional Fitness will be launching into a blend of olympic lifts and diverse strength progressions. Including more intense conditioning and gymnastic strength and skill development. Functional Fitness: We're taking the solid foundations from all our Machine work (which we know you loved) in the Persist Cycle and launching into a blend of olympic lifts, foundational strength, and diverse strength formats. Prepare for tough but fun challenges, gymnastic strength and skill development, and an intensified focus that will push your limits and build your confidence further than you ever imagined! Build: This Build cycle is your blueprint for forging general strength with a rock-solid, consistent split. While we will have linear progressions of Front Squats, and Bench Press, we will also be embracing varied, dynamic strength orgressions. That will not only keep delivering results but also keep our strength fun. Our gymnastics focus will be on pure, raw strict strength, helping you build capacity with both external loads and the incredible power of your own bodyweight. Prepare to feel incredibly stable and powerful! Conditioning will focus on unleashing your engine, that we built in the Persist Cycle . We will Shift gears to a fastermore intense "for time" AMRAP and Chipper style workouts, moving beyond simple interval work and aerobic base building. These conditioning workouts will rotate dynamically throughout the week to maintain variety and deliver a fun and powerful exeriance. our cycle test, "Super Bario Bros.", is a chipper that will progressively challenge your kettlebell/dumbbell and gymnastics movements, demanding peak intensity and absolute confidence in your strength.
By Derek Saffold September 22, 2025
Hey R3VIVE Athletes, Our next programming cycle runs from September 15th to November 7th. It's an 8-week cycle that will continue to see strength progression carrying from what we did last cycle in Functional fitness. While Pump will begin working unilateral strength progressions. Functional Fitness: This cycle will continue our progression from the skill and lifts from last cycle, while trying to integrate them into more of our conditioning. We will do this by focusing on different portions of the lifts during our strength portion then performing smaller sets of gymnastic skills in our conditioning. You will also see conditioning that is purely focused on our aerobic capacity and working mainly on monostructural elements, such as running, rowing and biking. Build: This A-B week cycle is designed to build foundational strength through consistent progression, with a strong focus on Back Squats and Strict Presses, including variations for balanced weekly training. Conditioning will have some longer aerobic pieces and begin to include more skills like strict Toes-to-Bar, and Pull-ups from last cycle. See the chart below for details.
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