While we DO have many pregnant women at the Cove right now, the “girl” we are having isn’t a baby… it’s a benchmark WOD!
Today we will tackle Helen, so get ready for some fun. Over the last few weeks you’ve probably noticed a bit more running, lots of pull up work and KB swings. Think of all of that as ‘practice’ and today we put that work to the test with one of the most famous Girl WODs!
Then on Tuesday we start our new strength cycle — FRONT SQUATS! Should be a great week at the Cove…
NEW YOU CHALLENGE
Also a reminder that we start our “New You Challenge” tomorrow. We have 50 women signed up for this and we couldn’t be more excited to introduce them to what we do everyday here at the Cove. They are an extension to this family we be sure to treat them as such! Introduce yourself, give a high five or a word of encouragement — and remember back to when you started…all of those things go a LONG way. The New You team will be doing different workouts but we will post them on this page as well; so for the next six weeks you’ll see two WODs posted.
And we are excited to bring lots of other things to the Cove in the coming months. Gymnastics, weight lifting and endurance (running) clinics are all in the works. Stay tuned for more details!
NEW YOU CHALLENGE
STRENGTH/SKILL WOD
500M Row “Buy In”
Deadlift
Work up to a heavy 3 rep deadlift (no score)
WOD
21-15-9
Deadlifts
Box Jumps or Step Ups
3 Rounds
COVE REGULAR WOD
“HELEN”
400 M Run
21 KB Swings
12 Pull ups
3 Rounds
-For Time-
Fitness 35/26
RX 53/35
COVE SKILL WOD
(Core work– A repeat from about a month ago — but today we go longer)
For 7 minutes
20 Second Hollow Hold
20 Seconds of Flutter kicks
20 Seconds Rest
Coach’s Tip: Getting to a good Helen time is all about efficiency. For example, when you step to your kettlebell, stand about an arms reach away. That way, when you bend down to grab the KB, you have to pull it back towards you (flat back as aways). As you pull it back to you, what happens? You eliminate that partial rep before you are ready to start your first swing and you are off to the races.
Helen can be a forearm burner between the pull ups and swings, so loosen up that death grip. Relaxing your grip won’t save you second by itself, but that forearm strength saved may be the difference between completing all your swings or pull-ups unbroken versus having to break because your simply couldn’t hold on any longer.
If you are a strong runner and weaker on pull ups (and will need to take breaks anyway), run fast and hard and break up the pull ups as you normally would to get that rest. If pull ups are your jam but you are a weaker runner, perhaps dial back on the run effort so you can still do that set of pull ups unbroken. A run that is 10 seconds faster is great, but if it causes you to have to break up the pull up or KB reps when you normally wouldn’t, don’t worry about making it your fastest 400 ever.
New member Suzie W. making box jumps look easy! First time out of the gate and she rocked 19″ of the WOD…
Hope to see you all for some skill, mobility or WOD work. A head’s up that we are starting our “New You” Challenge (see below for more information) and you might see some new faces around the gym starting tomorrow. As always, say hello and give a warm Cove welcome to these women who are about to embark on a whole new kind of fitness journey!
So what is the New You Challenge? It is a 6 week challenge designed to transform what fitness (and good nutrition) means for a group of almost 50 incoming women. We will have special classes just for them starting April 18th and they will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6am, 1pm and 7pm. Obviously there will be crossover with regular classes, but they will follow different programming with a greater emphasis on teaching movements (think super-sized foundations). But again, please introduce yourself and give them a word of support as most of them have never tried CrossFit before!
Our WODfather Geo Rockwell rocking some box jumps while Coach Marina tries to keep up…
It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend some come on in and get your sweat on! The garage doors will be up, the music will be blasting and it will be a great time. If you can’t come in, enjoy the weather and get in some active recovery. Go for a walk, hike or bike ride and enjoy the spring (finally!) weather.
STRENGTH WOD
Back Squats 3/3/3/3/3
(Build up in weight)
WOD
Every 2 minutes for 12 minutes
12 Step ups
24 Double Unders
Max Hanging Power Cleans
Fitness: 95/65
RX: 135/95
RX+: 155/105
Coach’s Tip: Steps up are not something we do very often, but they are great for building leg strength. Focus on driving up on the box with your quads and legs while keeping an upright torso position. When you get to the cleans you should have about a minute to string together a few reps. There is no rest between rounds so your time will get shorter, but make sure you have at least 30 seconds on the barbell.
Our WODfather Geo Rockwell rocking some box jumps while Coach Marina tries to keep up…
We have typically called Fridays “Bring a Friend Friday”… and that is still true! You are always welcome to bring a buddy to work out with you for the partner WOD (and know we can scale them appropriately). Or come on in and make a new friend here at the Cove!
PARTNER WOD
40 Push Press
40 Front Rack Lunges
50 Push Ups
50 High Five Sit Ups (face each other and slap hands every sit up)
2 Rounds
Fitness: 75/55
RX: 115/75
RX+:135/95
Coach’s Tip: Break up the reps however you would like, but the reps need to be in consecutive order. If your shoulders are feeling rested, feel free to go heavy! You’ll have a partner that will give you rest and if you split the reps evenly it’s only 2 sets of 20. Challenge yourself on the weight! If you are thinking about doing Fitness, think about using a training bar and loading the barbell so you can drop it from overhead (remember the rule of thumb; if the weights ON the barbell weigh less than the barbell itself, don’t drop it!). But feel free to load up a light barbell so that you CAN!
Coach Maria watching the noon class to make sure box jumps are on point. Maybe if she stares down Clint longer he won’t leave us and move to California?!
We have noticed a number of our members (particularly the women!) retesting their deadlift one rep maxes pretty regularly lately. We love that everyone is looking to get stronger in one of the most demanding exercises there is but we want to caution you in supplementing personal programming with too many heavy deadlifts (we are talking about doing a 1 to 3 rep max on a weekly basis). The deadlift puts a tremendous amount of strain on your hamstrings, spinal errectors, glutes, and your entire nervous system — and too much of it can be detrimental of your training from both a performance standpoint and injury potential. Any time we put deadlifts in the workout we will tirelessly debate about the reps and weights that are suggested — and as a coaching staff even more vigilant about technique.
CrossFit Football’s (and those guys love to deadlift) strength programmer prescribes deadlifting heavy once every 10 days. Ever notice that we rarely deadlift on Mondays and usually it is on Thursday (or even Saturday)? The logic behind this programming template is that if you deadlift early in the week it will hurt performance for the rest of the week.
Let us be clear that we love deadlifts as much as you do, but we want you to take a much more long term approach to them. Before you decide that you want to rip three to four hundred pounds off the floor think to your self, “When was the last time I deadlifted? How am I feeling? How many consecutive training days have I done?” and lastly “When was the last time I did a HEAVY deadlift?”. We love the ambition, but if you are unsure if it’s right for you, always feel free to ask a coach for advice. That is what we are here for!
WOD
400 M Run
21 KB Swings
15 Box Jumps
3 Rounds
Fitness: 35/26
RX: 53/35
RX+: 70/53
Rest then
100 m Farmers Carry (as heavy as possible) x 3
Rest 2 minutes between sets
Coach’s Tip: Make sure your calves and ankles feel super warmed up before jumping into the metcon today. This is like Helen with no pull ups. It should be fast and aggressive from the start. All unbroken and done in under 12 minutes.
Robyn Z. dominating the barbell while her Delta Flight class finishes up on the rowers.
One of the best things about what we do is that we are constantly evolving. We are moving better, more efficiently and finding new ways to build work capacity. Toes to Bar is something we do in WODs, but also something we’ve been working on during Skill portions.
Today we ask you to put what you’ve learned to the test. If you have one or two, focus on stringing. If you do bent legged, try for straight legged. In 16.2’s announcement, you see two VERY different styles of toes-to-bar being done. We’d argue that Dan Bailey’s version is more of a progression and that Gudmundson is what we are trying to attain. If you’ve ever seen a gymnast move, you’d note its much more similar to the guy on the right!
Go to 33:20 into the video to see a perfect view of the side by side…and here the commentary from the announcers about the different approaches:
Coach’s Tip: We have had two weeks with toes to bar in skill work. Now we put that to the test. Your toes do not need to touch the bar for this to be a successful day. A better option would be a straight leg kip with your legs getting as far above 90 degrees as possible. The important points would be maintaining a kip, holding a hollow body position on the back swing and getting your toes as high as possible. Avoid just swinging around on the bar with no control just to get your toes to touch.
Coach Chris making sure the after noon class gets… and stays… low!
Attention all Cove ladies! Mark your calendars for Friday 29 April! We’ll be taking over the 6:30pm class for a little WODing and Wine (or whatever else you decide to consume). We also want to use this as an opportunity for you to get some of your girlfriends to give this Crossfit thing a try. Many of you have said you have friends who are intimidated… and no boys coupled with a small bribe of booze and snacks might help entice them to give it a go! We will be putting together a newbie-friendly WOD for the evening so keep an eye out for an official event posting with more details in the near future. Until then, follow any news and chatter on the FB event page!
Coach’s Tip: The focus today is on the skill work. Nail down your rope climb technique. Use your legs and focus on good position with your wall walks. They are great for building strength and stability in the shoulders.
Another great moment from 16.5. The power of community pulling Andy through to the end!
We’ve all heard the expression that “how you look is 80 percent what you eat and 20 percent what you do in the gym”, right? Well, we’re not sure that’s true exactly, but the spirit of the expression is spot on. Eating is a BIG part of your overall fitness and can significantly impact how you look as well.
Many of you have asked about supplemental nutritional services (above and beyond the regular challenges we implement) and we are thrilled to announce Coach Brittany is launching “F.L.E.X Nutrition” right here at the Cove. As many of you know, Brittany works incredibly hard in the gym, but she’s also an expert in finding a balanced approach to nutrition to support her goals and lifestyle.
As coaches, what drives us to do what we do every day is simple: helping people get better over time. And this program is no different. Through 1-1 sessions, regular check ins and on going support (and accountability) we want to help you get to that next level. She’s taking on 15 clients over the next few months and spots are already taken. If you’re interested, jump on this opportunity. All the details can be found on our website and here’s the quick link!
We had a huge turnout for last weeks CrossFit 101 classes so we are going to do another one next week. The classes will be April 18th, 19th, and 21st at 5:30 PM. We are going earlier this time to make the class available to more athletes. If you are looking for a refresher or you know someone who might want to try CrossFit let us know at info@CrossFitCove.com
STRENGTH WOD
Front Squat 5/4/3/2/2
WOD
30 Burpees (touch a target)
30 Front Squats
30 Pull ups
-For Time-
Fitness: 105/70
RX: 155/105
RX+: 175/115
15 Minute Time Cap
Coach’s Tip:Challenge yourself with the load on the front squats today. Go heavy, but push to finish this workout in under 12 minutes…
There are few things more inspiring than watching a pregnant woman destroy a WOD! Here’s a double dose as Sam Y. and future member Liz B. work their cleans!
Come on in and get in a good workout! Or just mobilize and work on skills. We’ve seen a lot of breakthroughs from people who put in the extra time to practice, so if you’re looking to nail that movement or learn a new one… Open Gym is a great time to practice!
Or if you’re looking for an inspirational day, head over to the MAAC (Mid Atlantic Affiliate Challenge) and watch Coach Brittany and Coach Matt rock day two of the competition!
Some of you have asked about some advertising you have seen lately for a 6-week challenge running here at the Cove (it was on FB this week and some of you may have seen it in your feeds). To give you a bit of background, we are doing a program with Tommy Hackenbruck from Ute CrossFit called the “New You Challenge”. Geo brought this program to our attention a while back and we thought it would be interesting to do as a trial here at the Cove. It’s a 6 week challenge meant to reach out to non-crossfitters to get them into the fold for 6 weeks (along with a nutrition plan).
It’s really a ‘couch to crossfit’ program for women (sorry fellas, women only!) who want to make a change but may have been intimidated. The “New You” team has done this at several CrossFits around the country and we wanted to test it out here at the Cove. The current expectation is to start these classes on the week of April 18th and they will run as separate classes. The plan is to have 3 sets of the New You Challenge classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 AM, 1 PM, and 7 PM. So, while they will be there while regular classes are running, they will be following more introductory programming and have a separate Coach.
BUT, they will be part of this community! Please continue to be as warm and welcoming as you are to our new full time members. It is the people that make this place so great and we want them to rub shoulders with as many of you as possible!
Lastly, if you have any questions about it or have someone you think might be interested, let us know and we can reach out to them directly!
WOD
1 Minute of Sit ups2 Minutes of Power Snatch3 Minutes of Double UndersRest 2 Minutes1 Minute of Double Unders2 Minutes of Sit ups3 Minutes of Power SnatchRest 2 Minutes1 Minute of Power Snatch2 Minutes of Double Unders3 Minutes of Sit-upsScore Doubles, Power Snatch and sit ups total reps seperatlyDoubles= 305Sit ups= 84Snatches= 70Fitness 45/35RX and RX+:75/55Coach’s Tip: Essentially you have 6 minutes with each movement. Attack each movment. You have 2 minutes of built in rest so push on each segment. Your forearms will be exhausted so make sure you hook grip.
