David McGrath!

DMG – Basically, I was fed up with globo-gyms. I wasn’t getting anything out of them. The short version of a long story (note: there are no short Irish stories) is this… As a kid I was a competitive swimmer for 12 years, quite a good one, My brother Jason and I tried out for the Irish Olympic swim team and fell short. After spending a bit of youth I went to school for animation, moved to Germany for work, partied and got fat and lazy. Liese and I had a blast over there. Eventually we moved to the States and somewhere along the way started running together. We first used the Galloway Method of run/walk and ran the Marine Corps Marathon and then the NYC together. I soon got tired of the one sport and decided to try triathlon. I did a sprint tri with literally no training. Figured to do the NYC Olympic distance with a little more training. That went well and I decided to do the Lake Placid Ironman next. I didn’t know him at the time, but I was actually stationed at Lake Placid right next to the fellow who would eventually introduce me to CFSBK, Rob Maldonado. He was a member of the Brooklyn Triathlete Club (BTC), as was I. I remember a thread on the BTC site saying to check out CrossFit and a visceral response by a few members who said it was dangerous, blah blah blah…Like I said I was fed up at my globo, so I gave it a shot. I started out at another CF for a spell and wasn’t enamored. That’s when Rob recommended I check out David Osorio at the Brooklyn Lyceum, said he was the real deal and there was lots of good folks over there. I haven’t looked back since.

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            Thanks again David for sitting down with me, especially at 9 pm after a grueling Strength session under the bar. We coaches are proud of what you’ve accomplished in the last few years and look forward to seeing more of it. You’re an inspiration and a fantastic presence in the gym. It will be both sad and glorious when one day your kids can squat more than you or us!

Complete 5 rounds of:
On the rings, lower from an inverted hang, slowly, with straight body and arms, 3 or 7 reps
5, 10 or 15 Ring Push-ups
Move SLOWLY and methodically attempting perfect execution. Ideally this is done with two pairs of rings – one pair hung app. 8' off the ground and the second 4" off the ground.

Post impressions to comments.
Back Off Week
Traing intensity will push back up starting next Saturday

WOD Demo at CrossFit Santa Cruz – video [wmv] [mov]

Kit Zipf placed first at our 2010 Fight Gone Bad event.  I asked Kit if he could let us all get to know him a little better and he sent me the following message.  Enjoy!

I like long walks on the beach, and puppies….oh shoot, wrong bio….I was a two sport varsity athlete in high school (squash and baseball). I was recruited and played four years of varsity squash at the United States Naval Academy, where I held team captain my senior. In my four years, I helped my team to its highest national rank in over 10 years (10th in the country) and the winningest single season record ever in college squash (27-8). Prior to doing CF full time, I learned Oly-lifts from some very good coaches while at Navy (Coach B's brother-in-law…lets just say he also knows his stuff and has an olympian child) as well as had done some CF workouts with squash skill work intermixed. In March of 2009, I switched to CF full time in preparation for my commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and my six months of follow-on infantry training at The Basic School in Quantico, VA. Currently, I am awaiting training as a Student Naval Aviator in Pensacola, Florida- aka, they're going to teach me how to fly.

My home is not 10 minutes away from CrossFit King of Prussia, and have spent a significant amount if my time home with Aimee Lyons and my friends, coaches, and teammates of CFKOP. Through CFKOP I have earned my Level 1 certification, trained for the CF Games Sectional Qualifier (23rd of 118 plus individual invitation for regionals), helped our Affiliate Cup Team qualify for the CrossFit Games 5th place performance at Central East Regionals, and helped our team to a 58th place finish at the CrossFit Games.

CF KoP is my home box, and they truely are second family to me as they have transformed my training but most importantly saved my father's life and my mother's sanity. I dragged my father into CFKoP the same week he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He could only do 3 squats to a 29" box as well as had blood sugar above 300. 15 months later he has a 295# deadlift, a 215 FGB score, and a consistent blood sugar of 100-110. Thats what a community can do for people.

My training revolves around my weaknesses, what I really want to do, what I know I really should do, and ultimately do what I really don't want to do- regardless it all usually hurts, the good kind of hurt. I have no real rest work schedule. I've done 3 on/1 off, but have found that a randomized schedule in terms of number of training and rest days in a row works best for me, and is a lot less stressful if I miss a workout. I've done 6 months of the Wendler 5/3/1 program prior to the Games coupled with WODs specifically designed by CFKoP for the athletes competing. Currently I follow the CF Football strength WODs as Rx'd, as well as do met-cons from either CrossFit King of Prussia, CrossFit Main Page, CrossFit Football, CrossFit Endurance, or from the sadistic crossfit depths of my own mind. Ultimately it depends on equipment and time available. I eat Paleo most of the time (sorry no percentage of how often I eat Paleo, that's out of my scope of mathematics), dabble with intermittent fasting, and have a general disdain for all grains…with the exception for beer…(that Bierkraft gift certificate went to very good use!)

It was a privilege to have the opportunity to push hard on such a meaningful day. It was truly one of my most memorable moments I've ever had among the CrossFit community.  The community you have developed is exceptional and seems to be a real family. When Mike Voigt said told me to come to CFSBK for FGBV, he said only one thing about it, "they do it right." You absolutely do it right. Keep it up.

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Tomorrow we unveil October's Athlete of the month!

65%x3x3

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Use 65% of 9.20.10
Back Off Week

Skill Work
Snatch technique work

Assistance Work
Turkish Get-Ups

Allison gives Tim a subtle cue

Happy Birthday, Ashley F!

Upccoming Foundations Cycles!

October Morning Foundations
10/7/10-11/2/10
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00am-8:00am
Register Here!

October Evening Foundations
10/26/10-11/18/10
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00pm-9:15pm
Register Here!

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If you went to Brutal Recess yesterday, what was your favorite part or most important take away from it?

Welcome, Chip!

There are no group or teaser classes today for our Brutal Recess Seminar with Chip Conrad.

What is Brutal Recess?
Brutal Recess is accepting that freedom means responsibility, and to embrace our freedom of movement, our freedom of strength, we must embrace intensity. It’s the fun of accomplishment. We’ve stolen from all the great movement arts: fighting, dance, yoga and even child’s play and tumbling, and liberally sprinkled them into our workouts, usually in the workload or GPP phases. Get your heavy foundation lifting going and then challenge your stamina and range of motion.

Topics:
+ The philosophy and program design of Bodytribe Fitness
+ The Brutal Recess intense mobility concept
+ Getting weird with barbells
+ Unique kettlebell and dumbbell movements and drills

For more information, check out Chip's website, Physical Subculture

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Check out the Free Live coverage of the CrossFit/USAW Weightlifting open

Willie warms up his final exposure of Overhead Squats

Want to see all the pics from Fight Gone Bad 5? Check out the photo album here!

Remember there are NO Group or Teaser Classes tomorrow while we host Chip Conrad for Brutal Recess

COME ONE, COME ALL!!!
Please join Paulie's South Brooklyn Weightlifting Club for a few fun-filled hours of odd object lifting. Impress your friends and intimidate your enemies with your fantastic feats of strength. Try your hand at stone lifting or steel yourself for the perilous yoke walk. Do you think you can handle the 9' slosh pipe? Come down and find out!  For more information and to register, click here!

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CFSBK Interviews Chip Conrad
Part 2

4.  Mobility has recently (finally) become increasingly popular in the Crossfit community thanks to things like Kelly Starrett's Mobility WOD blog.  You've been including mobility complexes and movements into your training for years now and it's a big part of of the Brutal Recess seminar.  You've taken a rather integrated approach to the subject making it almost a workout unto itself.  Talk a little bit about why mobility is so key and its role in the Brutal Recess concept.

Training has gone from movement for the sake of movement (what children and only a handful of evolved adults do), which is, as mentioned, a tension release valve for the body, to a redundant, intense event that creates permanent and potentially dangerous stress in the body. That's right… our workouts are stressful, and not in the good way all the fitness literature is spewing at us.

What everyone is calling mobility now is simply moving the body through all of the possible full and healthy ranges of motion.  Most training doesn't do that, instead focusing on a handful of incomplete movements for high loads, repetitions or both. But just tacking on some obligatory bonus moves at the beginning or end of a workout doesn't quite complete the picture either.  Why not use the body as it should be used WITHIN the workout?  Slowly some factions of the CrossFit world are beginning to understand that there is much more to overall fitness than just workload/power. 

 5.  Lastly, I'm going to give you a variation on the desert island question.  Imagine you're stranded in a traditional globo gym. Forever.  You can only take one implement (i.e. Kettlebell, barbell, sandbag, etc), one training book and have one song to workout to.  Forever.  Pick 'em. 

Implement: Barbell if it is adjustable, sandbag if it is not.
Training book: a workout log.  Blank pages to ruminate on and contribute to.  Most of us know the basics… we have to trust ourselves to get creative from there.
Song: aw, come one… just one? The best I can do for now is to narrow it down to a top three list…

For Heaven's Sake by 16 Horsepower
Victim Support by Distance
Payback by Slayer

Check out Chip's Brutal Recess Seminat at CFSBK Tomororw.
Register Here