2.11.17 Anniversary Bash One Week Away!
What can I bring? We have domestic beer, wine (red and white) and will be serving a signature cocktail “The Cove Crush”. If you have something specific you drink, feel free to bring it!!! We will not be serving dinner, but will provide some really light snacks. If you want to bring something (a tray of cookies, veggies or some finger foods, you are MORE than welcome to do so!). We don’t want to be washing dishes all night, so anything you can pick up with your hands or with a napkin is great. We will also be asking for people to bring coolers as we will need places to keep all that beer and wine chilled!
How can I help? As always, we are amazed at how generous this community is and how willing people are to just pitch in. There are three ways you can help us make this party a huge success:
- We will have a few volunteers that will help us with ‘party maintenance’ oversight. They will be tasked at doing a once over of tables to rid empty bottles, restocking coolers, refilling snack bowls, etc. You might be asked by one of them to help change out a garbage or refill a toilet paper roll, so if you agree to do that, you’re already helping more than you know!
- Bring what you like. See above for what we’ll have, but if something specific will make you enjoy the party more, just bring it! We want you to have what you love, but can’t provide everything for everyone.
- Have fun. NOTHING is more important to us than you having a great time. We’ll have a DJ, a photo booth and we’ll be doing a brief ‘awards’ ceremony. Embrace the cheese. Catch up with your fellow athletes, and meet some new ones. And, as always, what happens at the Cove, stays at the Cove.
2.10.14 Shoulder health with Crossover Symmetry
HEALTHY SHOULDERS WITH CROSSOVER SYMMETRY
Ever wonder what those wrinkly bands are hanging behind the rig? Where you guessing it was some new torturous device like the assault bike or those jumbo dumbbells that keep arriving? NO! This is all about health accessory work for your shoulders.
We put a ton of demand on our shoulders (whether it’s lifting a barbell overhead or carrying a suitcase through the airport) and keeping them healthy is incredibly important for life inside AND outside the ‘box’. We often add mobility and skill sections to further hone the shoulder’s supporting muscles (think I’s, Y’s and T’s and banded pull aparts you might see in a WOD) but there is so much more we can do to keep them working optimally. Here’s a quick video of how to use the bands to further promote that shoulder health and can be done easily in a few minutes before or after class. Please try to add Crossover Symmetry to your regular routine here at the Cove. We promise it will make a world of difference! And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask!
2.9.17 Focus on the practice, not the outcome
As we continue down our gymnastics cycle, remember that skill work, drills and laying the foundation is NOT for beginners. Even the most elite athletes (Games level athletes) work on drills incessantly. Here’s a post from Ben Beurgeron about practice that really resonated with us: “Legitimate practice, he says, requires that you detach yourself from the results. “Focus on actually getting better, without worrying about the outcome.” This, he says, means that you have take a step back from your training. “I know you can do what you’re currently capable of,” he tells them. “If you want to get better, you have to take a step backwards, slow things down, and hammer the fundamentals”. _ The best example of this is the approach he’s used to improve @katrintanja’s muscle-ups. After Kat won the Games in 2015, she didn’t do a muscle-up in a workout for six months. They spent the first three months rebuilding her kip, which she would practice by doing kip swings in sets of 10. Over the following months they slowly started introducing muscle-ups back in her training. “We started with one at a time, then went to 2,” Ben tells me later. “Now we’re up to 7″. Remember that eight weeks working on drills is small sacrifice when it comes to the big picture. Focus on the skill work for the day, not the outcome.
What can I bring? We have domestic beer, wine (red and white) and will be serving a signature cocktail “The Cove Crush”. If you have something specific you drink, feel free to bring it!!! We will not be serving dinner, but will provide some really light snacks. If you want to bring something (a tray of cookies, veggies or some finger foods, you are MORE than welcome to do so!). We don’t want to be washing dishes all night, so anything you can pick up with your hands or with a napkin is great. We will also be asking for people to bring coolers as we will need places to keep all that beer and wine chilled!
How can I help? As always, we are amazed at how generous this community is and how willing people are to just pitch in. There are three ways you can help us make this party a huge success:
- We will have a few volunteers that will help us with ‘party maintenance’ oversight. They will be tasked at doing a once over of tables to rid empty bottles, restocking coolers, refilling snack bowls, etc. You might be asked by one of them to help change out a garbage or refill a toilet paper roll, so if you agree to do that, you’re already helping more than you know!
- Bring what you like. See above for what we’ll have, but if something specific will make you enjoy the party more, just bring it! We want you to have what you love, but can’t provide everything for everyone.
- Have fun. NOTHING is more important to us than you having a great time. We’ll have a DJ, a photo booth and we’ll be doing a brief ‘awards’ ceremony. Embrace the cheese. Catch up with your fellow athletes, and meet some new ones. And, as always, what happens at the Cove, stays at the Cove.
2.8.17 Wednesday Wins!
Today we celebrate one of the amazing women in our Fresh Start Challenge! Ashely M. has made incredible progress since she started and the benefits go FAR beyond a scale or how she looks (both of which are shifting dramatically, by the way). We all know that CrossFit is hard… and eating well sometimes even harder, but she is proof that massive changes can happen quickly when you put the work in. Like most of us, she was terrified to even start this journey… so her story is even more inspiring because of everything she has overcome. He asked her to tell us a bit of her journey and here’s what she had to say….
I started at the Cove in June of 2016 and I was afraid of everything. I have a few health conditions (like a lot of people) that have kept me far away from any gym. I realized that if I wanted to feel comfortable regarding safety, I needed to scale scale scale! I DID scale the workouts, but I was still afraid of the gym outside of my comfort zone “regular coaches” (Josh and Marina). “How will I quickly explain my limitations to coaches that don’t know me?” . “Will they understand?”. “What will I look like to other people doing burpees holding onto a box or only lifting 35 pounds?”.
After a few months at the Cove, I got a nasty cold which kept me away for a while. All at once, my anxiety returned. I said to myself, “I can’t do this.” “I’m going to hurt myself.” “I don’t remember the movements.” “I’m not good enough to be in these classes.” “What if I go in one day and Marina or Josh isn’t there?” I told myself that I would go back tomorrow every day and the time kept passing.
I didn’t go back until the FRESH START CHALLENGE came around. I wanted to give fitness another try by taking a class that would ramp me up again while receiving additional mentorship. I wanted to have a furious battle with my workout anxiety and win. I also wanted to go on a hike and do a push-up. 🙂 Which brings me to my goals…
1. THE HIKE: I am going to visit my brother who lives in Alaska in the near future and I want to be able to go on a hike without asking him to stop while I rest 9274829927482 times.
2. THE PUSH UP: Before the Cove, I had never done a push-up successfully. Even now, I use the bands or just kind of do the worm and struggle on the floor.
Which brings me to my gains (so far):
1. I LEARNED TO COOK: I wasn’t aware that there was an eating challenge for FRESH START until I got my welcome email! I panicked!!! I was used to skipping breakfast and lunch almost every day and grabbing whatever snack was around at work. Dinner time wasn’t much better. Paleo was a HUGE change for me. I have cooked more in the last few weeks than I have in the last few years combined.
2. WEIGHT LOSS: My personal gym goals did not include weight loss, but that has definitely happened. I lost almost 10 lbs in a little over 3 weeks. SCALING! SCALING THE HECK OUT OF EVERYTHING, in fact! Scaling more than everyone in the class every time!
3. BLOOD PRESSURE: My blood pressure has been consistently high for years. I ignore it when the doctor talks about it because I’ve heard it so many times. In November 2015 my BP was 144/93. In October 2016 my BP was 148/98. In January 2017 (just one week into FRESH START and Paleo eating) my BP was 120/76! This isn’t a CrossFit Cove ad right now, this is my real life. This happened and I was blown away.
4. FRIENDS: Everyone is SO NICE and encouraging! If I’m not laying on the ground in a pool of sweat, I’m smiling. I have met a few of the other coaches now and they are all lovely. I have no more fears about attending other classes.
And it is just the beginning for me…
You’ll see pictures of me doing that hike on the CrossFit Cove Facebook page. I already feel strong enough!I am going to do a perfect push-up at some point and it will be glorious!!!And who knows… likely, more conquering of fears and accomplishing things that I never thought I could do.
Hip Extensions and Rope Climbs
“Jackie”
1000M Row
50 Thrusters
30 Pull Ups
RX: 45lb
Push Jerk 3/3/3/3/3
(Build up in load)
1 minute of Shoulder Distraction Stretch after each set
WOD
8 Min AMRAP
6 Clean and Jerks
30 Double Unders
Fitness: 95/65
RX: 115/75
RX: 135/95
Coach’s Tip: If you want to know about how to tackle this workout, talk to the Fresh Start ladies… they did this on Monday! The barbell should be a weight that you can do unbroken for the first few rounds Or if you need to put the barbell down, it should be quick rest. We want you to hit several rounds, so pick a weight you can move. As we discussed at the DU clinic, the rope is your ‘rest’ here. But if you have some doubles, DO THEM. Just scale the volume!!!!! Once you do dubs, you don’t look back!!!
