Many times as CrossFit coaches we are asked, “Should I be doing anything on my off days?” And honestly it depends on the person. If you have the time or the energy the answer is yes. But something that everyone could do at home every day is training their core and the best way to train it is with a plank. The plank is a great core exercise because it uses an isometric hold to keep you in the proper position. The benefits of this range from shaping up your midline for the beach in the summer time to building the proper strength you need to max out your front squat or hold a hollow position on a muscle up. The best part about the plank is how easy is to progress this movement. Just as you would add five pounds to your 3×5 Back Squat sets each week you...

As athletes, we seek to better ourselves both inside and outside of the gym.  We are the kind of people that push ourselves just a little further because that’s where we feel we should be.  We also tend to do so in our training, which is great, but we should be equally vigilant about our rest and recovery.  Adding rest and recovery to our training regimen can help push us to that next level. During rest and recovery, the body also goes through adaptation to the stress caused to the body.  As the body recovers and adapts, it replenishes spent energy lost due to exercise.   Rest and Recovery added to any training program can greatly increase an athlete’s ability to see consistent progression.  During exercise, we tear down muscle fibers which need time to repair.  When muscles fibers rebuild themselves, they increase in size and capacity.  This is the...

The start of a new year is an opportunity for us to start fresh and improve our lives.  My first experience with making successful new year resolutions was back in 2011.  I made a huge list of ways to better myself and I managed to attain ALL of the goals I wrote for myself back then.  As a matter of fact, working out with you fine people at Bayway Crossfit is part of one of those resolutions.  Seven years and still holding strong!  So let me provide you with some tricks I learned while keeping my new year resolutions. Be in the right frame of mind.  You have to really want to see the changes in yourself if you want these resolutions to stick.  Admit to yourself that you will be tempted to fall back into old habits, and occasionally you will succumb to those temptations.  It’s OK!  Each day...

CAFFEINE………that invisible life force in the world that keeps all life on planet earth moving forward…without it, we would spiral into a post-apocalyptic decaffeinated nightmare. Just kidding…on a serious note…lately the newest caffeine/pre-workout craze are these BANG energy drinks that have 300mg of caffeine or what is equivalent of 3 cups of coffee. I am going to do my best not to be super technical and complicated but I do want to go into a little bit of detail about what caffeine is and the effects it has on the body. First and foremost, what is caffeine? Well to put simply, caffeine is a natural stimulant most commonly found in tea, coffee, and most exercisers cases, their pre-workout. Caffeine works by stimulating the brain and the central nervous system, helping you stay awake and preventing the onset of tiredness. Once consumed, it absorbs quickly into the gut and into the...

Aaron has been a member at our gym for almost four years now, but has been doing CrossFit for about five. There is a stigma on CrossFit that it is dangerous or that it is for young, in-shape people, but Aaron is proof that both are not true. Aaron is by no means old, being barely in his forties, but the fact that he has come to almost 200 hundred classes this year and set over twenty personal records is a testament to his hard work, the program, and his outlook on exercise. Aaron has a motto that he says often as advice to new members, “I go at my pace so I can still be doing this pace next year.” His thought is if next year he hits twenty more personal records he is defying time itself. Most people deteriorate as they go from forty to fifty years old...