If you have never hit the 5:30am, you’ve probably never met this man. You might not even believe he exists. But he is ACTUALLY real.
Garth leads a busy life. He’s got a big job, kids and real world responsibility. He’s a am regular and always has been good about finding time for his fitness. But something clicked inside when he did last year’s rowing challenge. He set out to row a MILLION METERS in 2016, and while we didn’t believe him at first, he quickly showed us we were wrong.
Check out Mike K. watching in awe!
He’s JUST about to make the final turn this week and we want EVERYONE to congratulate him on this amazing accomplishment. For those of you doing the rowing challenge, you can truly understand the magnitude of what he’s done. So far he’s tracked 36 session on the rower when he rowed least 10K (imagine how many selfies he could have posted on the Cove Club for coach John to photoshop?!). And way too many sessions to count under 10K. But despite all of this, he still got in his “other” workouts.
Cruising through burpees over the bar…
And “warming up” for big row with some heavy front squats…
So what does he get at the end of this? He gets a free t-shirt from Concept2. As he joking said, “Who doesn’t need another 100% cotton t-shirt???”.
But that’s the tangible piece. He says all the meters have made those rowing WODs much easier. He’d always hear experience CrossFitters say that rowing was “rest” but never felt that way until putting in so much time in on the rower.
What he doesn’t know, though, is that he is inspiring so many others in big ways. As he rounds the final turn, we are working to develop a charitable tie-in for those willing to take on a similar challenge, led by our very own Nassim E. Stay tuned for more details on this in the coming weeks!
As Garth said, “Ultimately, anyone can do this. It just takes time on the seat. Setting monthly goals, staying consistent and doing the work. Also helps that I bought a rower for myself last x-mas!”
So go update your wish list for Santa NOW and congratulate Garth next time you see him.
WOD
“The Chief”
Each year in the United States Navy, a highly qualified and elite cadre of Sailors are selected and promoted to the join the ranks of Chief Petty Officer. Since 1893, “The Chiefs” have been relied upon by subordinates and superiors alike for their personal example, technical expertise and above all, their unique leadership capabilities. As the induction process for newly selected Chief Petty Officers is now underway throughout the US Navy, CrossFit inaugurated “The Chief” in honor and recognition of all past and present CPOs. Thanks to them and their families for their self-sacrifice, ability to adapt, tireless dedication to mission and devotion to country.
5 Rounds of:THREE MINUTE AMRAP3 Power Cleans (135/95#)6 Push-ups9 Air Squats Rest 1:00 between rounds. Only full rounds count.
Coach’s Tip: The Chief is one of our favorite WODs that taxes you not only physically but mentally. The Chief is FIVE 3-minute AMRAPs with one minute of rest in between. You only score complete rounds during each one of those 3 minute AMRAPs, so if in the first three minutes you do 4 rounds + 3 cleans and 3 push ups your score is 4 rounds and you start the next round all over again with power cleans. Those extra reps were just wasted effort… so it means you have to strategize more.
Understand that early in a workout we can typically keep a great pace, but can you maintain that pace? We’ve done some interval WODs recently (wall balls, KB swings and box jump overs just last week). Did you start strong and fall off the cliff? Or were you consistent? The goal of this workout is to be always moving. It doesn’t not need to be a furious pace (in fact, it should NOT be) but you do need to more quickly as the 3 minute window closes fast (especially in later rounds). Think touch and go cleans and be sure to breath during the push ups and squats. You want your power clean weight to be something you could do 10 to 15 reps unbroken.
You may want to do a test round of 3 power cleans, 6 push ups, and 9 air squats to get an idea of what pace you can keep. This can help you strategize how fast you can push.
Mark S. showing great focus on his hanging power snatch!
Come on in and make up a missed WOD, work on some skills or tackle those mobility issues! And of course, get those meters in! The gym will be open from 9a – Noon.
In addition to things like eating right, working on mobility and taking rest days… HAND CARE can be one of the most important things to add to your CrossFit care regimen. And with the holidays here, these items make for perfect gifts! There debates around hand care and how to achieve optimum results, but everyone agrees… you MUST tend to your hands and calluses. Here’s a quick video on a VERY simple and SAFE way to care for your hands.
If anyone has other great tips or tricks, feel free to post them to the Cove Club FB page. This is not THE definitive way to care for hands, it is just ONE way that happens to work for us!
ONE WEEK UNTIL HOLIDAY WOD & POTLUCK!
If you are in town, please come on over for the 6:30p Friday class and stick around after for the Holiday WOD and Potluck! Celebrate the holidays with your Cove Family and get in a great workout! For those of you familiar with this tradition, it will be a “12 Days of Christmas WOD”. Like the song the “12 Days of Christmas”, you will complete each exercise in ascending order then work back down to 1, adding one exercise per round. Like this: 1; 2-1; 3-2-1; 4-3-2-1; etc – for a total of 364 reps. But while that’s the format, you won’t know the movements until the big day! All classes that Friday will be the “12 Days of Christmas WOD” so if you can’t make it that night, you’ll still be able to tackle this awesome workout!
WOD
40 Double Unders20 Wall Balls15 Pull ups4 RoundsRest 5 minutesMax Unbroken Wall BallsRest 1 minuteMax Unbroken Pull upsRest 1 minuteMax Unbroken Double UndersScore = Total time on first part, put total reps for second part in the notes.
Coach’s Tip: This is a great Saturday burner WOD! Think of it as two separate Metcons and go all out on each one. The work:rest ratio won’t quite be 1:1 but you will have PLENTY of recovery time! “Max unbroken” means you do the reps in continuous manner. For the wall balls you cannot pause at the bottom to rest and for the doubles, once you break, you’re done. But for the pull ups, as long as you are holding on to the bar (feet not touching the ground or a box!!!!) you can rest and continue. Once you drop from the bar, your reps are finished. Have fun with this one!
Beautiful extension Robyn! Next time she’s in, congratulate her on her nice snatch…
People have asked us our thoughts what kind of “CrossFit gifts” they should ask for or get themselves for the holidays. If you do not own your own jump rope, we recommend this item goes to the top of your list!!! And for both new and experienced jumpers, this is the ultimate ‘travel WOD’ accessory. Super easy to pack and you can even do the “Girl WOD” Annie on the road!
So, what kind of rope to get? There are so many brands out there now, but the most important factor is your experience level. Newer jumpers (learning doubles) will want a rope with more ‘feedback’. Most of the ropes we have at the gym are ‘speed ropes’ and are super light and fast and make for experienced jumpers. It is VERY difficult to learn doubles on this kind of rope.
We get NO kickback from them for saying this, but based on personal experience we recommend the RX jump rope for those learning to do doubles (or string more together). It is a quality rope (will last a long time), custom-sized so no need to cut your own rope (your height matters a LOT), you can pick your colors (flair, baby!) AND they offer a wide variety of cable weights (most important). There are plenty of alternative options out there that are great (and cheaper), but RX is a solid option. Plus, if someone else is treating, why not?!
We have so many athletes on the cusp of a “doubles breakthrough”. Getting one double every third single, stringing two or three… or even five or ten means you are well on your way to banging out sets of 50. And a good rope could help you go from cusp to pro very quickly. For those athletes, we’d recommend the “Elite 2.6oz”. Most of our ropes here are speed ropes (around 1.3oz) so this one will give you much more feedback (around twice the weight). There’s also the “Buff 3.4oz”, and while it offers LOTS of feedback, you could outgrow it very quickly. Men are typically stronger in the shoulders and the rope is longer, so they can handle more weight on a rope, so the Buff could be a great option for men (it could get heavy quickly for women and cause fast fatigue). But the Elite is great for both genders! Here’s a visual of cable widths by size for RX ropes for some context:
If you have a rope you love, great! Or if there are brands you like and want to share, throw it up on the Cove Club FB group and brag about what you and your rope could do! Again, this ‘public service announcement’ is only based on experience. We have NO skin in the game… other than helping you to master those doubles!
ONE WEEK UNTIL HOLIDAY WOD & POTLUCK!
If you are in town, please come on over for the 6:30p Friday class and stick around after for the Holiday WOD and Potluck! Celebrate the holidays with your Cove Family and get in a great workout! For those of you familiar with this tradition, it will be a “12 Days of Christmas WOD”. Like the song the “12 Days of Christmas”, you will complete each exercise in ascending order then work back down to 1, adding one exercise per round. Like this: 1; 2-1; 3-2-1; 4-3-2-1; etc – for a total of 364 reps. But while that’s the format, you won’t know the movements until the big day! All classes that Friday will be the “12 Days of Christmas WOD” so if you can’t make it that night, you’ll still be able to tackle this awesome workout!
PARTNER WOD
To celebrate the release of the new Star Wars film Rogue One (and get all of our resident nerds to show up for this epic workout), we’ve designed a new Cove benchmark Partner WOD “Vader“. While we are not all rebel fighters off to obtain the schematics which show the reactor core vulnerability of the Death Star, this workout does require teamwork, strategy and focus. Think of the Cove as your galaxy… far, far away… and find your way here to get it done!
‘VADER’5,000 M Row (First 2,500 one partner must hold plank while other partner is rowingSecond 2,500 one partner must hold the bottom of an air squat)100 Box Jumps (work/rest)100 Push Press (work/rest)(One Person workouts, one person rests)
Fitness: 95/65RX: 115/85
Time Cap: 34 Minutes
Coach’s Tip: We’ve been posting all week about keeping good form and being true to movement standards. Today we will focus on the “Push Press” and really dial in to the “dip” and the “drive” of the lift. As you get fatigued, we often see people start to “jerk” the bar (meaning, ‘re-bend’ of the knees to drop below the bar on the catch). This is not considered a Push Press. We will be watching for that today, so make sure you keep to a ‘press’, not a ‘jerk’! Because you are holding a plank while your partner rows, you will be switching often. Even though the row is long, row at a good pace. If your partner drops from the plank to rest for a moment, that’s ok. But you need to stop rowing until they are back up!
Maybe the Storm Troopers will make an appearance?!
We hope everyone had a chance to read Tuesday’s blog about the Cove being a ‘culture of improvement, not comparison’. If you didn’t, please scroll down and read it! In the spirit of improvement and tracking real progress, ensuring quality of movement becomes even more important. Banging out 50 air squats at half depth in a workout will likely be fast and get you top of the WhiteBoard, but won’t be a good measure of comparison when you need to do them to full depth (let’s say in the Open!). We’d rather you take your time or cut volume and work on FORM FIRST so you are building data with an apples to apples comparison. We, of course, love to scale volume, weight and movements for each individual athlete, so this won’t change AT ALL. Our job is to help you get to that movement standard EVENTUALLY, and that journey is different for everyone.
But speaking of the Open, it’s right around the corner! February will be here before you know it, so we’re going to start preparing for it more overtly. That means coaches will be on you to dial into that form, hit movement standards (and ensure you know what those standards are!). We’re not trying to be hard asses, we are just trying to get you prepared! We’re sorry. And you’re welcome.
BABES BARBELLS AND BRUNCH!
On Saturday, January 21st (at 11am) we will be holding our second annual Babes Barbells and Brunch! It will be in lieu of the regular 11am WOD, so if you are not a Cove Lady, you’ll have to hit the 10am or 9am classes that day! Lovely ladies of the Cove! We will WOD then munch on breakfast foods while sipping on Mimosas, Bloody Marys, or your beverage of choice. Once we get a good head count we likely will post some sort of sign up sheet so no one is bringing too much (think, a small side or a gallon of OJ). An awesome opportunity to get to know those fierce females you only ever see crushing it on WODIFY. More details to come! Obviously, this is a no boys allowed thing (unless they are serving us alcohol and treating us like the Queens we are)!
If you are in town, please come on over for the 6:30p Friday class and stick around after for the Holiday WOD and Potluck! Celebrate the holidays with your Cove Family and get in a great workout! For those of you familiar with this tradition, it will be a “12 Days of Christmas WOD”. Like the song the “12 Days of Christmas”, you will complete each exercise in ascending order then work back down to 1, adding one exercise per round. Like this: 1; 2-1; 3-2-1; 4-3-2-1; etc – for a total of 364 reps. But while that’s the format, you won’t know the movements until the big day! All classes that Friday will be the “12 Days of Christmas WOD” so if you can’t make it that night, you’ll still be able to tackle this awesome workout!
STRENGTH WOD
8-10 Ring Rows10 RDLs4 Rounds
WOD
3 minutes on 1 minute off for 12 minutes12 Power Cleans15 Sit UpsMax Slam BallsFitness: 95/65RX: 115/75RX+: 135/95 (GHD Sit Ups)
Coach’s Tip: For the strength work today use a moderate load on the deadlifts. Something you can do 10 RDLs with unbroken with a good position. The focus is not on weight, but on position. For the WOD the cleans should take 1 minute or less, then sit ups 1 minute or less. Athletes should have over 1 minute for Slam Balls in the 1st round. But know it will go down from there!
Today we shine a light inward and celebrate one of our great Coaches… Josh H! Josh has been doing some amazing things, both as an athlete and as a Coach and we wanted to do some bragging on his behalf and take a moment to recognize “The Hip”!
If you don’t know Josh, get to one of his class NOW. While he’s typically motivating the morning crew, he’s starting to pick up some evening hours too. In fact, spending more time at the gym and building stronger and better athletes is his primary goal — so much so that he’s looking to buy his first home in the area to be closer to the Cove!
He’s usually the loudest voice in the room, but also the kindest. His caring nature (even when shouting VERY loudly) is remarkable. He sincerely wants and wishes nothing but the very best for the people in this community, both inside and outside the box. He knows when to push you and when you need lifting up. He’ll get you to do the most ridiculous things in a warm up (hello, partner carries?!) but will also drill you to perfection on an Olympic lift.
As an athlete, he’s on a trajectory that’s pretty unfathomable for some. Sure, you could argue that he’s young, a former college baseball player and should be fit. But no one works harder at this than he does… and he’s earned every PR badge and low time on benchmark WODs. And it’s fun to watch him take what he does to the local competitors. Not only is he always a top performer, just like here, he quickly becomes a fan favorite.
We’re not sure what we’ve done in a former life to deserve people like Josh, but we feel lucky as hell. When you see him, give him a fist pump (if he didn’t already get to you first) and tell him to keep up the good work. He’s the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off of his own back — that is, if he ever wore one.
HOLIDAY WOD AND POTLUCK NEXT FRIDAY!
If you are in town, please come on over for the 6:30p Friday class and stick around after for the Holiday WOD and Potluck! Celebrate the holidays with your Cove Family and get in a great workout! For those of you familiar with this tradition, it will be a “12 Days of Christmas WOD”. Like the song the “12 Days of Christmas”, you will complete each exercise in ascending order then work back down to 1, adding one exercise per round. Like this: 1; 2-1; 3-2-1; 4-3-2-1; etc – for a total of 364 reps. But while that’s the format, you won’t know the movements until the big day! All classes that Friday will be the “12 Days of Christmas WOD” so if you can’t make it that night, you’ll still be able to tackle this awesome workout!
WOD
25 Overhead Squats
25 Bar Facing Burpees
35 Front Squats
35 Burpees over the bar
45 Back Squats
45 Burpees
28 MINUTE TIME CAP
Fitness: 55-75-95/15-35-55
RX: 75-95-115/35-55-75
RX+: 95-115-135/55-75-95
Coach’s Tip: For any of you who did Saturday’s workout, you know what high repetition squatting feels like. BUT, today’s starts out with a much lighter weight and gets progressively heavier with each barbell movement. We will spend plenty of time warming you up and getting those hips and quads ready, but don’t let the burpees fool you. This will quickly become a burpee WOD, with three different flavors of them totaling 105. PLEASE SCALE VOLUME AND WEIGHT ACCORDINGLY! For the first set of burpees, your shoulders will be tired from the OHS (even though the weight is light). The second set is “bar facing” so they not only take more time, they take more effort to step to the bar and jump with two feet. And burpees over the bar can be done laterally, so time is saved with a quick, low jump… but by the end of this workout they will feel very difficult. Let us say this again… PLEASE SCALE VOLUME AND WEIGHT ACCORDINGLY!
Besties Melissa G. and Angie B. take part in some of Coach Josh’s shenanigans!
As we continue to grow as a gym and get stronger… faster… fitter… it is fun to see those gains represented every day on the Whiteboard. When PR badges light up the screen like holiday lights at Christmas time it can be fun and exhilarating, but if what if there’s no icon next to your score? Or what if you think you should’ve beat someone’s time in a Metcon because you are ‘better at burpees’ than they are? It’s way too easy to look at the Whiteboard as a giant SCORE board. It’s not. In fact, looking at it that way can be dangerous. It isn’t a scoreboard for the gym… it is a scoreboard for YOURSELF. We firmly believe data tells a story. But it is not a ranking of ability or effort of the day’s attendees. The data is only there to tell your individual story. Your HISTORY.
Competition can be wonderful thing. It pushes us that extra bit when we might not have done it ourselves. It pokes at those nerves that make us feel excited for what’s coming — and stirs a feeling most of us haven’t felt in a very long time. But competition can become toxic if you let it. If you’ve ever looked at the person next to you while doing air squats and said “well, their depth on the squat isn’t past parallel and mine is”. That’s fine. BUT if you look at someone next to you and think “well, their depth isn’t past parallel and mine is. I can’t believe they are going to have a higher RX score than me because they didn’t even technically do RX because those should be ‘no reps'”… well, that is NOT fine. We’ve probably all been guilty of thinking this way at some point. As coaches, of course we want everyone to go to full depth on those squats (and do every other movement up to the highest of standards!) but if you worry about how that positions you on the Whiteboard, we ask you shift your thinking.
We want to be a culture of improvement, not comparison here at the Cove. The journey is not to be the top of the leaderboard but rather to be a better version of you everyday. Your job is to do the best YOU can do. That might mean less weight than some one next to you or finishing with a slower time, but if you are seeing progress (in any of the numerous variables we look at here (weight, time, form, mobility, speed of recovery, and on and on!) you are doing the right thing. And if your data doesn’t reflect that now, it will. Many of us have been using Wodify for years and looking back at our times, weights, and scales this tells us the story of improvement that motivates and gives us confidence. As we are approaching the end of the year we hope many if you reflect back on how far you have come and the proof is in the numbers. YOUR numbers. Not anyone else’s.
FRESH START CHALLENGE IS BACK
We are excited to announce that we will be running another round of the “Women’s Fresh Start Challenge” to start the new year. The challenge will 6-week total body transformation challenge limited to 12 women who are looking to make a change. Expect to work hard and expect results. It doesn’t matter your starting point, it only matters that you commit to the full 6-weeks! If you know anyone who’s on the fence or looking to shake things up, now’s the time!
Here’s an inspiration video from the amazing women of our first “Fresh Start Challenge”.
The program will start on January 9th with classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 PM. If you know someone who might be interested in participating please email us at Info@CrossFitCove.com. Once again, we are going to limit this to only 12 spots.
STRENGTH WOD
OTMEM for 8 minutes6-8 Pull Ups
WOD
30 Toes to Bar50 Double Unders15 Power Snatch2 RoundsFitness: 95/65RX: 115/75RX+: 135/95
Coach’s Tip: For the strength portion, try to find a number that you can stick to for each round. We don’t want you starting at 8 and ending at three. And don’t feel beholden to 6 or 8– we’d rather have 4 or 5 great reps each round than 8 with your chin below the bar. For the Metcon, you should have the capacity to do 5, but you can do small sets as long as you can move the bar quickly. It should take no more than 2 minutes to do each set of 15.
We are excited to announce that we will be running another round of the “Women’s Fresh Start Challenge” to start the new year. The challenge will 6-week total body transformation challenge limited to 12 women who are looking to make a change. Expect to work hard and expect results. It doesn’t matter your starting point, it only matters that you commit to the full 6-weeks! If you know anyone who’s on the fence or looking to shake things up, now’s the time!
Here’s an inspiration video from the amazing women of our first “Fresh Start Challenge”.
The program will start on January 9th with classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 PM. If you know someone who might be interested in participating please email us at Info@CrossFitCove.com. Once again, we are going to limit this to only 12 spots.
STRENGTH WOD
Split Jerk 2/2/2/2/2
(build up in weight)
WOD
15 Push Jerk50 Air Squat1,000 Row50 Air Squat15 Push JerkFitness: 115/75RX: 155/105RX+: 175/115
Coach’s Tip: We are not looking for a two rep max during the strength portion, rather just find a very heavy load. This should warm you up for the METCON and help you determine a weight you can pull for multiple reps on “Push Jerk” (no splitting). The push jerks should moderate to heavy, but something you can do for big sets (you should be able to do the first round in two big sets). The last round will feel heavier, but aim for at least three sets of five. If you are doing sets of two and three from the onset, lower the weight! If you took class on Saturday your legs will likely still be sore, but go steady on the air squats and you’ll be fine!
Come on in and make up a missed WOD, mobilize a bit or just hang out. We’re open from 9a to Noon! If you’re looking for a buddy to workout with, just post something on the Cove Club FB page and find a friend! The rowers are awaiting as well… 20 more days left to the challenge!
Coach Chris hitting one of his famous (or infamous?!) sunrise rows…
We are excited to announce that we will be running another round of the “Women’s Fresh Start Challenge” to start the new year. The challenge will 6-week total body transformation challenge limited to 12 women who are looking to make a change. Expect to work hard and expect results. It doesn’t matter your starting point, it only matters that you commit to the full 6-weeks!
Here’s an inspiration video from the amazing women of our first “Fresh Start Challenge”.
The program will start on January 9th with classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 PM. If you know someone who might be interested in participating please email us at Info@CrossFitCove.com. Once again we are going to limit this to only 12 spots.
HOLIDAY WOD AND POTLUCK:
Another reminder that we are holding our annual Holiday WOD and Potluck on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23rd at 6:30PM (lieu of the regular 6:30pm class). For those of you who are on the blog awaiting the workout every night at 8p (or who did this last year), we CAN tell you that this one will be a “12 Days of Christmas WOD”. Like the song the “12 Days of Christmas”, you will complete each exercise in ascending order then work back down to 1, adding one exercise per round. Like this: 1; 2-1; 3-2-1; 4-3-2-1; etc – for a total of 364 reps. But of course we won’t reveal ALL of it. The movements will be a secret and taunt you for the next month — just like that wrapped present you’re not allowed to touch until the big day!
STRENGTH/SKILL WOD
Bottoms up KB carry 50 M (25M with one hand, 25M with the other)25M Foot Broad Jump (one length fast)25M bear walk (return length slow)4 Rounds
WOD
80 Front Squats
10 Toes to Bar every time you drop the bar
(15 knees to waist if you are scaling the toes to bar)
Fitness:95/65
RX:135/95
RX+: 155/105
Time Cap= 15 minutes
Coach’s Tip: Your entire workout is not meant to be doing toes-to-bar so pick a weight you can do in at LEAST sets of 15. Or scale the volume to 60 reps. And if you are newer to toes to bar and want to do them in the WOD (which you should!) scale the volume to 5 or 8!
