Halloween is this Tuesday and it’s time to put the finishing touches on your costumes.  Tuesday will be another classic CrossFit workout but those are so much more fun, ridiculous, and even a bit more challenging.  We’ll have a special themed workout and some surprises up our sleeves this Tuesday (Halloween itself).  It is a FUN day at the Cove so dress up, show up and we’ll get weird!

For the month of November, in conjunction with our Committed Club launch, we also have a fitness challenge for the gym, strict pull-ups!   We as a staff know how important strict pull-ups are for developing scapular strength and stability for injury prevention and overall good shoulder movement. A common thing that we will see is that our athletes are much stronger in pushing movements (think bench press, push-ups, and strict press) but aren’t nearly as strong pulling with their shoulders, creating a muscular imbalance. Finally, having strict strength is a huge benefit to injury particularly if you are doing lots of kipping pull-ups. A great marker is to have 5 strict pull-ups before doing workouts that involve lots of kipping pull-ups (say 30). 

Although many challenges have a specific number goal connected to them, we want to offer some flexibility in how we approach this challenge.  Everyone is coming to this challenge from a different point so we want to give some simple guidelines depending on your ability to do strict pull-ups.

YOU ARE WORKING ON YOUR FIRST STRICT PULL-UP

You don’t have pull up (yet) but want to take steps to get there. We can help you get there or at least a lot closer over a period of a month. For this challenge, we are looking to get 3 training sessions per week. We will be providing a program for those athletes looking to build that strict pulling strength. We are working on a write-up for guidance and are developing some videos for the movements.  If this is your level, just contact us at info@crossfitcove.com and we can send you the program.

GOAL: Hit a minimum of 12 training sessions for the month.

I HAVE A STRICT PULL UP OR TWO AND WANT MORE

This is a great starting point and we find that once an athlete gets one pull-up, getting to multiples happens quicker than they might expect. To help build your ability to do pull ups we are going to do a modified “grease the groove” method.  This method has you doing lots of very small sets of pull-ups throughout a training session with minimal fatigue, meaning you are always leaving at least one pull up in the tank. Let’s give an example.

Assuming you can do 3 pull-ups, here is how greasing the groove would work. You come to class, maybe do a bit of a dead hang just to warm up the shoulders. After that warm-up piece, you are going to look to get one pull-up in any chance you get. You do it throughout the entire pre-class, class, and post class period. You are doing just one and you may get another one in every 5 to 15 minutes. By the time you are done with your workout you have probably doing 6 to 10 pull ups and doing them all with tons of rest in between, so the muscular fatigue is minimal. If you have a pull-up bar at work or at home, throw some extra singles in throughout the day. Do this 3 times a week.

Week 2, same as before but try to add a set or two or if you are feeling strong, add a set of two.

Week 3, do a max rep test to start the week. See where you are at. For the rest of week 3 do just like week 2 but try to get more sets of 2 pull ups in or try to hit a triple every now and then. The same principle remains the same, don’t touch the pull up bar again until you are fully recovered and be sure you are not going anywhere near failure. Always leave one pull up in the tank.

Week 4 – continue to add some triples, doubles, and singles throughout the day but continue to ensure you are not going to failure. Do maybe one session like this, give yourself 2 to 3 days of rest and test your pull-ups. 

GOAL: Hit a minimum of 12 training sessions for the month.

RX+ COMPETITIVE CROSSFIT ATHLETE

This is the level of a competitive CrossFit athlete and we actually found inspiration for this challenge from Coach Jenna. One of the big things that helped her training was to get 75 strict pull ups in every week. We know that sounds like a lot but getting in two to three sets before and after class assuming you get to 4 classes per week should do the trick. 

If this number might seem too big for you, make it something that makes more sense like 40 or 50 pull-ups per week.

GOAL: Hit X number of pull-ups per week.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We hope that many of you will not only decide to attempt this challenge but also do it with your other Cove members. Completing a challenge is definitely a personal accomplishment but it is so much more fun when we are doing it with others. The main whiteboard in the front area of the main gym is a signup area.  So make the commitment, find some friends to do it with you, and let’s see some great gains at the gym.

This Sunday (Oct 29^th) CrossFit is sponsoring a workout to all its affiliates in memory of Navy Seal Chad Wilkinson. Chad took his life due to the effects of numerous deployments, several traumatic brain injuries,  blast wave injuries, and PTSD. He had sacrificed so much for his country and we hope to join other CrossFit gyms around the world to honor his name.

Sunday we will have an unofficial workout, which is Chad. Chad is 1000 box step-ups and those step-ups are supposed to be weighted (45/35). It is a daunting task but it is not the reps or the weight that honors Chad and others like him, but the act of doing the workout. Please scale the workout in whatever way makes sense for you. Here is a great video from Chad’s wife about scaling the workout. 

Further, if you would like to contribute CHAD 1000X organization, which provides help and support to veterans dealing with PTSD and other health issues.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us and we can look to create some times where groups of Covies can do it together.

https://chad1000x.com/collections/chad-1000x-registration