Friday, December 16th 2016
GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF A JUMP ROPE!
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 rowing
Second 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: 95/65
RX: 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?!
