Saturday, January 21st 2017
For those of you coming to the Babes Barbells and Brunch, we are so excited for an amazing day. Don’t forget to bring what you signed up for… or if you didn’t sign up, no worries! Just bring something to share. As a reminder, this is a ladies’ only event starting at 11am, so there will be NO regular 11a class. Sorry fellas!
The workout will be “Girls on Girls“! We will be doing ten minutes of THREE “Girl” benchmark WODs in teams of two. We’ll be tackling “Cindy”, (Double) “Grace” and “Jenny”.
Here’s how the day will work. At 11am we’ll get warmed up and review each moment for the three workouts. We will partner up in teams of two, with your partner ideally someone who will be able to share a barbell with you (meaning, you lift comparable loads). NO worries if you don’t have a partner or are unsure of the weight you will use… we will figure ALL of that out! We will then split the partners into one of three groups. This will be the group you ‘rotate’ with from one workout to the next.
Group One: Starts on “Cindy”, moves to “Jenny” then to “Grace”
Group Two: Starts on “Jenny” then moves to “Grace” then to “Cindy”
Group Three Starts on “Grace” then moves to “Cindy” then to “Jenny”
We will do each workout with a 10 minute time cap, so technically we will be doing “half Cindy” and “half Jenny”. We should be able to hit Double “Grace” within the 10 minute cap, so if you finish early, you get more rest time. We will have FOUR MINUTES of rest between each station so you can set up any scales you need and adjust any barbell weights for the next rotation. Total running time for the WODs will be 38 minutes:
0-10:00 WOD 1
10:00-14:00 REST
14:00 – 24:00 WOD 2
24:00 – 28:00 REST
28:00 – 38:00 WOD 3
We should have plenty of room for all the teams at each ‘station’, but we are expecting a large crowd. That means you might not get your favorite bar on the rig and you might have to share it (so no boxes right underneath the bar; keep them to the side to make room for others). This is a day about FUN above else, so worry less about the clock and more about enjoying the day.
Half “Jenny”:
10 Minute AMRAP of the following:
20 Overhead Squats (35 lb bar)
20 Back Squats (35 lb bar)
400 Meter Run (run will be a 200M done as a team to get to the 400)
**one partner works while the other rests (except for the run which is done together)**
Half “Cindy”:
10 Minute AMRAP of the following:
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Air Squat
**one partner works while the other rests**
Double “Grace”:
10 Minutes to Complete:
60 Clean and Jerks (as a team)
**one partner works while the other rests**
16 Minute Time Cap
Friday, January 20th 2017
We are super excited by the progress we are seeing from everyone with our gymnastic cycle and we hope you are as well. We are about to hit the mid-way point of the cycle and given what we’ve seen so far, we have decided to make a slight change in the muscle up group.
We initially began the cycle with the intention of building to “bar muscle up” capacity. Over the first few weeks we were purposely working on ring pulling strength, knowing that it would translate to both ring and bar muscle ups. And to start we thought keeping the focus on bar muscle ups allowed us to keep the classes together at the rig. But after seeing the athletes who chose the muscle up cycle (and the fact that many of them have bar muscle ups), we have decided to focus more on developing ring muscle ups. We also spoke to several athletes and they agreed they would get more out of it if we shifted focus more to the rings. If getting that first bar muscle up was what you had your heart set on, continue to follow this strength programing! But we know many of you are dreaming of being over the rings or linking more muscle ups together and we know this work will result in many victories in the coming weeks!
COACH’S TIP: There is a lot of rest baked in here (two minutes between rounds AND when your partner is working) so when it’s your turn GET AFTER IT!. All of the reps in each movements should be unbroken, so if you can’t string 9 swings or 7 cleans together, go lighter. If you find that this is still too much volume or you are feeling very fatigued after the first few rounds, feel free to drop the reps to 7, 5 and 3.
Thursday, January 19th 2017
Tis the season! The CrossFit Open starts on FEBRUARY 23rd! If you don’t know what the Open is, it is the pre-cursor to the Reebok CrossFit Games. And yes, we are hoping for 100% participation!
Wait? What? You want us ALL to do it? YES! Many of you may think “Why bother? I’m not here to compete. I’m surely not going to win anything or go to the CrossFit Games.” To that our response would be… “you’ve completely missed the point of the Open”.
The Open is a galvanizing event for ALL CrossFitters, but especially for us here at the Cove. For five weeks and for five workouts, any and every athlete in the world has the opportunity to participate in an event that is the qualifier for Regionals (and then the CrossFit Games) called the CrossFit Open. It’s not about getting you to the Games, it is about creating an even greater sense of community with CrossFitters around the world… but especially here at this box.
Every Friday night (the workouts are released Thursday evenings) we all get together for a “Friday Night Lights” style WOD. We cheer each other on, we act as judges (counting reps and checking movement standards) for each other so we can submit official scores but most of all… we have a BLAST. But don’t worry if you can’t make it here on Friday nights; during the Open every Friday WOD will be the Open Workout for that week (partner WODS go on hold for those weeks). Trust us, those five weeks are some of the best ever here at the Cove.
Here’s why you MUST SIGN UP NOW!:
Wednesday, January 18th 2017
To day we celebrate an awesome athlete, husband and dad of two, Kyle M. About a year ago, Kyle committed himself to his fitness, and we were lucky that he chose the Cove to reach his goals.
Among other things, he’s improved his back squat by 50lb, built quite an engine and after participating in the barbell club his lifts are not only stronger, they are better. As we all know quality of movement is more important than the loads we lift, and Kyle has done wonders with his form. And of course the numbers increased after that. He’s drunk on CrossFit Koolaid and has even installed a garage gym at this home so he can chug it all day long.
What makes Kyle’s circumstance even harder than any other multi-taking professional/family man is that he has a demanding job that requires extensive travel. As we all know, being ‘off schedule’ can destroy consistency in working out and good nutrition. He’s on the road often and the turnaround on his trips is so fast that it is hard to keep a routine.
Thankfully he’s got an amazing support system at home to help him prepare for life on the road (and helps him stay on track when he’s back at home). Caroline, also a Covie, got him a meal prep travel bag that he now packs when he’s heading out. It fits several meals and has ice packs to preserve the food during flights (and yes, apparently TSA allows you to travel with it as look as the ice packs are frozen). Now instead of booking hotels with great restaurants, he’s on the hunt for hotels with microwaves and refrigerators.
Kyle is leading by example and we are taking notes. Last year his focus was on his fitness and this year his sights are set on adding better nutrition. It’s hard to figure out everything out at once, but if you approach change in ‘bite sized pieces’ (pun intended), you’ll likely see success is much easier to find.
And he’s figured out that what works for other people doesn’t always work for him… and that’s just find. As he wisely said “It’s about finding what works for you. If I’m 80 or 90% there, I’m good. I can’t lose sleep over it. It’s a challenge across the board, but we are finding what works best for US”.
FX: 18lb
RX: 26
RX+: 35
For 12 minutes
Min 1: 7 Wall Slides – DEMO HERE
Min 2: Pigeon Pose on a box (30 seconds each leg)
Min 3: 12-15 Heavy Russian KB Swings
35 Cal Row
30 Sit Ups
25 Deadlifts
2 Rounds
Fitness: 185/125
RX: 225/155
RX+: 225/155 (20 GHD Sit ups)
15 Min Cap
Coach’s Tip: This is a fairly generous time cap, but you will still need to cruise through the row and sit ups to leave enough time for the barbell. If see you are nearing seven minutes after round one, PLEASE consider reducing the number of reps on each movement to ensure you hit all of them. Or just come out of the gate and consider doing 30/25/20 instead. Your core will be fatigued, so maintain good spine position (lock in that midsection!!) and ensure the only movement is happening at the hip. The coaches will tell you to drop the bar immediately if they feel you are in a compromised position. We would much rather cost you five seconds on your score than a week of a sore back.
