Saturday, March 11th
Maria, Holden, Don, Simone and a Dinosaur. Typical Friday at the Cove…. 
Open Intramural Winners and 17.4 Announcements
OPEN UPDATES & PSA
INTRAMURAL TEAM WINNERS!
Drumroll please!
17.3 WEEK WINNERS ARE…. “#RespectYourElders”
Mighty Murphin Power Lifters – xx pts total
Covies Never Say Die – xx pts total
Rusty Thrusters – xx pts total
#RespectYourElders – xx pts total
Here’s is the breakdown for each category measured:
PARTICIPATION POINTS: 25 TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS PER TEAM
Mighty Murphin’ Power Lifters: 23 pts
Covies Never Say Die: 22 pts
Rusty Thrusters: 21 pts
#RespectYourElders: 21pts
POINTS BEST TEAM SELFIE: The Rusty Thrusters
POINTS SPIRIT OF THE OPEN: #RespectYourElders
Even though the Open is “technically” a competition, it’s all about the fun factor. Mad props to Mike. D rolling in on a WHEELCHAIR and to the old folks for brining their old age to new levels. From Coach Brian’s recruitment video (check it out HERE if you haven’t already!) to cobbling around on canes and walkers, this team knows how to be OLD.
5 POINTS BEST TEAM PHOTO: The Mighty Murphin Power Lifters AND Covies Never Say Die!
This photo is a SHARED team effort. The Mighty Murphin Power Lifters win for the photo, but ONLY because of Ryan W’s comment of “A bunch of millennials standing around waiting for someone to tell them what to do…”. So, we will split the points between the two teams. That also feels very “millenial”. Everyone gets a blue ribbon!
5 POINTS BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE: Covies Never Say Die
Once again, Covies Never Say Die win the prize. Not only is their presence ubiquitous, it’s perfect meme application every time…
5 POINTS MOST INSPRING PERFORMANCE BY AN INDIVIDUAL: #RespectYourElders
For those of you who don’t realize that people do the WOD BEFORE Friday Night Lights, you probably missed an amazing performance by Brent L. He showed up on Friday to the Noon class, and as always, was doubting himself and his ability. He was prepared to “scale the scale” with 20lb dumbbells (vs. 35s). He said, “I just can’t do 35. No way.”. Joe Tito, Brent’s fellow nooner who had done the workout earlier, wasn’t going to let that happen. He took Brent’s 20’s and moved them to the other end of the 25 foot lane and said, “if you want the 20’s, go get them”. He handed Brent the 35s and told him to lunge to the 35s to get them. And he did. And he lunged back. And never looked twice at the 20’s again. AMAZING.
How did I just PR my deadlift?
Tuesday workout featured a fan favorite of the box, a heavy deadlift. Although this movement is a favorite of many we program it judiciously as it is so demanding on our muscular and nervous system. The amazing thing to note about that 5 rep test was how many people hit such big numbers and personal records without deadlifting regularly. How could this happen with so little direct training in the deadlift? This phenomenon goes to show the power of the constantly varied programming we see in CrossFit. Those increases in strength came from the other diverse movements we see as part of our regular programming. Those strength gains could have built from the different squats we do or the mobility improvements from all keg drills and couch stretches or the core strength that was developed from our recent gymnastics cycle or the explosive power we have been creating through olympic lifts. That constant variety in our programming allows us to be continually improving in so many different areas of fitness. So when the big deadlift test comes up and you haven’t hit that movement regularly you may be surprise how prepared you are to pass that test without really “studying for it”. And finally, how did I just PR my deadlift? Because of all the hard work I have been doing at the gym. Well done Covies!
Wednesday Wins!
WEDNESDAY WIN — SUSAN S.
Don’t let this woman fool you. She’s sweet as can be, a great mom and wife at home, but a total beast at the box! For anyone who aspires to be fit for life, look no further than Susan for inspiration.
“Age is just a number”
You might not know this, but Susan is 51 years old. Nope, scratch that… she is 51 years YOUNG. She’s doing things that people in their 20’s only dream of. She’s stringing massive sets of double unders and pull ups. She’s pulling solid numbers on her lifts. And her energy is boundless. “You hear about people who dread about going to the gym. I never feel that way, I want to go to the gym. It is never to late to start and don’t give up because you are over 50. FIFTY IS THE NEW THIRTY! It’s not a number, it’s a mindset”.
It’s a family affair…
You might see Susan crushing WODs with her husband Mark or when she’s home from school, with her daughter Allison. It has become a friendly family competition at times, but they use each other to discuss strategies and approaches to the workouts. If they don’t get to work out together one provides the other with the “scouting report”.
Susan is signed up for the open but Mark is not. He has served as Susan’s “guinea pig” in that he does the workout and then tells her how to approach it. He’ll beat her in some workouts, be she loves to give him a run for his money!
Allison had a great time at the Cove this summer and has gone on to continue CrossFitting at Penn State at CrossFit Nittany. They’ve always had a strong mother-daughter bond, but CrossFit has taken it to a whole new level! Allison is going to be back this week and is planning on coming to Friday night lights. Susan is hoping she can be the designated driver so she can tear it up afterwards!
“Have fun with it”…
Her philosophy during the Open is to do all the things that she has the ability to do and have fun with it. In fact, when we told her that she was ranked SECOND in the state for the scaled division for her age group in 17.2, she had no idea! She credits the pull up cycle for really helping her and she was very diligent working on the pull up cycle. But, of course, still having fun along the way.
She injured herself (herniated disk) snatching at another CrossFit years ago and had to stop there. Her job then got really busy and for years she stopped working out all together. Her and Allison decided they needed a change and they ended up doing a boot camp together. It was good exercise for them and they enjoyed doing it together but when the six weeks was over they realized there was no physical change in them. Susan knew that she saw the most change when she was CrossFitting and they decided to try that together (again).
She’s had some setbacks throughout her CrossFit journey (a weird pec injury that she’s not sure how it happened) and then tweaked a hamstring during a warm up. It was very frustrating, but mostly because she LOVES to workout. She wasn’t upset about the injuries, per se, rather because she was sidelined and felt she’d miss out on the fun. But she said to us, “I remember the conversation we had about how we can scale everything to work around the injury, continue to work on my fitness, and most importantly…keep the habit going”.
She was able to keep working out and was surprised how much she could still get done. Prior to the hamstring injury had signed up for the 100,000 meter rowing challenge so ended up doing weeks of rowing just with her arms. Her big goal this year is to really listen to her coaches, add weights slowly, so she can progress through the year injury free.
She CRUSHED the nutrition challenge…
Susan did everything “right” on the challenge. She never ‘cheated’ and did everything Coach Brittany asked of her. She lost almost 10lbs of fat and put on lean mass. Her body fat % is now deep into the “lean” category (which is less body fat than “ideal”). The Challenge made such a difference but not just in physical performance and body composition…but in ENERGY. Prior to the challenge she would come to the gym and if she got here early she would set an alarm on her phone and take a nap in the car for maybe 10 minutes if she had that time. Now she is full of energy and comes right in and starts to work on things (and we love seeing her focus on that mobility too!)
We don’t know what we did in a former life to deserve a woman like Susan to step through our doors. We are lucky to have her AND her family here. If anyone is a role model for health and fitness, it is this woman. Be like Susan.
WOD
Teresa Goodbye (For Now) Wod
EMOM for 10 minutes
Even: ____ HSPU
ODD: 12/9 Assault Bike Cals
Rest 3 minutes
EMOM for 10 minutes
Even: 7 Power Snatch
Odd: 20 Wall Balls
Fitness: (5 HSPU) 75/55
RX: (7 HSPU) 95/65
RX+: (10 HSPU) 115/75
Coach’s Tip: Yep, its another Wednesday EMOM day! We continue training some movements we may expect to see in the Open soon. Remember this is QUALITY over QUANTITY so look for full range of motion and find a rep scheme that allows you to do impeccable reps without gassing out completely.
