Our CrossFit Kids might all be stuck against the wall in Mario Kart, but in about 10 years, Coach David will have a team of eSports stallions | Photo by Ben S. (Thanks, Ben!) 

This Week at CFSBK in Review

1. We’ve added another Short Circuit class on Saturdays at 10am. Check it out tomorrow!

2. For the 3rd year in a row, Iron Maidens lifters will raise funds for the Stay Strong Scholarship, which supports students at the Bronx-based nonprofit Grace Outreach. On Monday, we told you all about this awesome scholarship. Show some love by donating to your favorite lifter(s) through the 2018 Crowdrise campaign here.

3. The big highlight of this week on the blog was definitely “The Long Haul,” a 2-part series on Coach Whit’s reflections on her 6th year of competing in the Open. In case you missed them, read Part I andPart II!

4. Missing something? It might be in our most recent lost and found dump! You can also now see photos of our lost and found clear outs via the link under Member Resources. Be sure to claim your stuff at the front desk before we donate it to CHIPS!

5. On Saturday, May 5th, CFSBK will host an afternoon of friendly Spikeball-de-Mayo competition. Haven’t played before? Don’t worry! It’s pretty simple. All are invited! Head over to the event page to learn more Spikeball and to sign up…

6. Abbotsford Road Coffee (right around the corner on Sackett between 3rd and Nevins) is offering CFSBK members and employees a free upsize (e.g., a large for the price of a small) on their excellent coffee! Just show your membership scan card at the register. (You do have a scan card, don’t you?)

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Snatch | Front Squats, Double-Unders
To Slash Your Risk of Heard Disease, Keep Moving NY Times
3 Situations When You Shouldn’t Push Through Pain Girls Gone Strong

Snatch Complex

Every Other Minute on the Minute x 7:
1 Snatch Deadlift + 4 Second Lower to the Floor + 1 Power Snatch + 1 Overhead Squat

Keep this complex relatively light today (70-80% of Power Snatch 1RM) and focus on executing perfect positions on each movement.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 3 of 8

_____________________

5 Rounds for Time:
10 Front Squats 115/75
30 Double-Unders

The barbell comes off the floor and should be light for you, unbroken on the fast end. Scale the Dubs to 3x Singles or 1/2 attempts as needed.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Saturday, May 5th: CFSBK Spikeball Tournament!

What?

An afternoon of friendly Spikeball de Mayo competition. Haven’t played before? Don’t worry! It’s pretty simple, and this video explains everything. All are invited! Please sign up below if you plan to participate. Teams (of 2) can declare beforehand, or we’ll pair you up the day of the tournament. The top 3 winning teams go on the leaderboard until the next tournament!

When?

Saturday, May 5th at 4:00pm. We’ll start with about 30 minutes of practice and organization. The tournament proper will begin at 4:30, but please be at 597 by 4:00 so we know how many people are participating.

We’ll also be running practice sessions on Sunday, April 22nd from 3:30 to 4:30pm and Saturday, April 28th from 4 to 5pm.

Go here to sign up for the tournament and practice sessions!

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Back Squat / DB Row | Handstand Walking
Getting the Bar Past the Knees in the Snatch and Clean Catalyst Athletics
Your New Diet in the Real World CrossFit Journal

BACK SQUAT / THREE-POINT DUMBBELL ROW SUPERSET*

A1) Back Squat:
4 x 8-10

A2) Three-Point Dumbbell Row:
4 x 8-10

Use a heavy load for the rep range that allows you to move with perfect form. Keep rest to a minimum, 30-60 seconds between movements.

*Warm up and then perform a set of Back Squat, followed by a set of Dumbbell Rows. Repeat for 4 work sets of each, resting 30 seconds to a minute between movements.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 3 of 8

_____________________

Handstand Walking/Balancing

Choose one of the following scaling options, and spend 15-20 minutes developing your hand balancing:

A) Hand Walking (free or 2′ from wall)
B) Wall Inverted Hip Shifts with Hand Release (from a Wall Walk or Kick Up)
C) Box Piked Hip Shifts with Hand Release
D) Floor Piked Hip Shifts with Hand Release

Rest after each set or attempt and don’t turn it into a 20-minute AMKAP (As Many Kick Ups as Possible). If you’re not spotting someone, you can use the rest periods to do some light stretching or light rowing, jogging, cycling, etc.

Post work to comments.

The Long Haul: What I Learned from My 6th Year in the CrossFit Open, Part II

By Whitney Hubbard

Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd part of a 2-parter on Coach Whit’s 6th (!) year of competing in the CrossFit Open. Part I was posted yesterday.

As I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post, focusing on getting stronger in certain areas for the 2018 Open meant a few other things temporarily fell by the wayside. The Open has a way of reminding you of what you’ve been neglecting. Let me show you what I mean:

2017 Best Regional Placement: 350 (17.2, the one with Bar Muscle-Ups)
2017 Worst: 824 (17.5, the one with Thrusters)

2018 Best: 194 (18.2, the one where you go as fast as possible)
2018 Worst: 1629! (18.2a, the one where you try not to die lifting heavy weights after going as fast as possible)

So, obviously I have some questions about my strategy on 18.2a, but it certainly shows a weakness—lifting heavy under fatigue. That one score took me way down. And the Deadlift/Handstand Push-Ups workout, which also featured picking up heavy things after a whole bunch of other work (Diane!), was my second lowest placement.

But this year I also had two more scores under 350 on the leaderboard: 18.1 (aerobic capacity at it’s finest) and 18.3 (ALL of the skillz). And the Thruster workout was not the thing that destroyed me! Not to mention that I made it pain-free through 45 Handstand Push-Ups without having done a single kipping rep in the past year. So the areas that I specifically trained this season markedly improved. And that’s something I really need to pause and acknowledge. My plan worked! I got better! And the best part is that I stayed healthy—sleep, nutrition, and not repeating workouts went a long way for me there. The tradeoff is that I wasn’t ready for the heavy Deadlifts and max Clean under fatigue, and it showed in the scores.

The challenge is how to blend it all together now, to keep my strengths and start to fill in the holes. This is where the fun and magic are for me. I’ve said it many times, but one of the big reasons that I’m still doing CrossFit after 8 years is because there’s always more to learn, skills to refine, strength to gain, and greater virtuosity to chase. “Working out” always sounded like a really boring thing to do, but engaging in this multi-faceted process of improvement keeps me interested. It’s a never-ending opportunity to learn about myself (not to mention the athletes around me and the awesome humans I get to coach). It’s daily self-discovery and self-reflection. It’s approaching those larger, daunting dreams we might dare to consider and asking, “How could I get just one step closer to that, today?”

So it’s possible that all those numbers up there just bored the hell out of you. That’s okay. I don’t need you to care about my scores and results. But I encourage you to dive into your own. To acknowledge where you’ve put in the work and made improvements, no matter how small they may seem. To reflect on what you might have been avoiding this past year, and what you’ll set out to do with what’s left of 2018.

Maybe you’ve been coming to CFSBK for years already. Maybe you’re just a few weeks or months in. When I walked through these doors for the first time, I certainly never thought I’d still be coming to classes 8 years later, much less making my living here. In a lot of ways, I think the process is the goal. I’m grateful to have found a place that makes room for a long journey. And I’m so happy that I’ve created a lifestyle I can sustain, and that will sustain me.

Every year The Open reminds me of how I’m not just in it for the competition, I’m in it for the long haul. I’m in it for hours and hours of practicing a more efficient kip swing and fixing my bar path. I’m in it for those many conversations in my head where something says, “I can’t,” and I respond with, “I will.” I’m in it for the many years of a healthy, happy life ahead. I hope you are, too.

News and Notes

• Great news! We’ve added another Short Circuit class on Saturdays at 10am. Another great chance to reprogram your body in the spring! (It is spring, isn’t it?)
• Missing something? It might be in our most recent lost and found dump! You can also now see photos of our lost and found clear outs via the link under Member Resources. Be sure to claim your stuff at the front desk before we donate it to CHIPS!

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Rest Day
The “Pedestrian” Who Became One of America’s First Black Sports Starts Atlas Obscura
Scaling Back & Saving Dogs: Why This Games Athlete Cut Her Training in Half Athlete Daily

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these awesome shots of Coach Whit, Coach Katie, and Bethany E. by Kate R.! 

The Long Haul: What I Learned from My 6th Year in the CrossFit Open, Part I

By Whitney Hubbard

Editor’s Note: This is the 1st part of a 2-part feature on Whit’s 6th (!) year of competing in the Open. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.

We’ve felt it. We know it. The Open creates an exciting energy and buzz in the gym every year. It’s only been a few weeks since our annual 5-week test finished up, but it already feels like the distant past. I’m fond of saying in group class sometimes that every workout we do is an opportunity to learn about ourselves. Well, in that spirit of self-awareness and future growth, I wanted to share what I’m taking away from this year’s competition in hopes that you might reflect back as well. It’s easy to focus on what we want in the future. Maybe it’s less obvious to look back just a bit and remind ourselves of what we’ve accomplished, to acknowledge the things we’re proud of, to take note of how and where we’ve already been successful.

In the past several weeks, I heard about people’s first (and second and third) handstand push-ups. I watched women do bunches of Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups after telling me they didn’t think they had more than one. I witnessed Allie B.’s triumphant return to the top of the high rings and then cried with her in celebration of all of those minutes, hours, days, and months of practice that led her to that moment. And that’s really what it’s all about.

The Open is a fantastic time to surprise ourselves. We might push the limits a bit further than we usually dare. We may add more weight to the bar than we’re typically comfortable with. Or we truly give that high-skill obstacle in our path every ounce of energy we can muster, just for that moment.

But the Open is also the time of year when we catch a glimpse of how our daily habits and efforts, as monotonous or boring as they can sometimes feel, are paying dividends. If we look closely, we might find that we have been becoming—slowly and surely, little by little—that stronger, better, faster, or more confident version of ourselves that we envisioned in the past. Maybe it was the first time we put the bar on our back to squat and felt the potential of our future strength. Or perhaps it was when we saw one of our coaches or peers walking on their hands or propelling themselves on top of the rings with power and grace and said out loud, “Wow… someday.”

Whatever the case, it can be hard to notice how far we’ve truly come. Despite ourselves, we might be a bit upset that we “only” did three handstand push-ups in the workout. We saw the other scores. We wanted more. But then we might step back and acknowledge the legitimate success of having kicked up to the wall fifteen times in the WOD just to make all those other failed attempts—when last week we couldn’t even kick up at all! Those are the wins that don’t get marked on the leaderboard. And they are everything.

I highly recommend that you celebrate them yourself and with others. Post them on the blog. Tell your friends in class. Share with your coaches so we can acknowledge you! Those seemingly insignificant, incremental improvements in our skills and strength are the exact things we should be celebrating and valuing regularly. That is the way we build towards our big, outrageous goals.

It’s easy to celebrate results. Results are sexy and obvious and associated with intoxicating ideas like “I’m good.” And I’m certainly not bashing anyone’s well-earned results. But they also have a tendency to be fickle and hard to control. So when we don’t achieve the outcome we were aiming for, it might sound more like, “I’m bad at that. I’m a failure.” That seems like a not-so-fun way to hang out in your brain. And it’s a distorted storyline that certainly doesn’t motivate me.

Of course, what we do have command of is our actions and behaviors. And if we get in the habit of praising ourselves and others for hard work, earnest effort, and daily commitment, instead of just the end result, we won’t be so easily labeled by good or bad. We might instead have a couple of running tabs along the lines of:

A) Skills I’ve acquired, stuff I’ve gotten pretty good at so far, areas in which I now excel (after days, weeks, months, and maybe years of committed effort)

and

B) Things I want that I will spend time on and get into action about (today, and for many days to come after that)

And that’s where I’m personally at right now. I had a few moments of self-pity in the Open this year when I realized I wasn’t going to achieve one of those scary, outside-my-control stretch goals. I’ve been making my way up (or… down, numerically, you know?) the Regional leaderboard through these years, and it’s a great feeling. 1045th in 2015, 720th in 2016, 402nd in 2017. So with that pattern I’d obviously be like… WINNING the Northeast Region in 2018, amirite?!?!

Just kidding. But I did set a quiet goal of being in the top 300 women in the Northeast Region this year, which I knew would be tough. And guess what? It didn’t happen (421st). But I’m still alive! I could take those numbers at face value and get bummed out that I actually went down in ranking this year. Even though I worked really hard, it might be tempting to say, “What did it even get me?” But that would be foolish. With that outlook and attitude, I wouldn’t learn anything, wouldn’t know where to go from here, and wouldn’t have much motivation stored up for those days ahead when I just don’t feel like training.

Instead, taking a closer look at my scores and a bit of reflection on my performance gives me the insight I need to keep improving and the confidence to know that I’m already on the right track. This year I had some clear focal points:

• Improve my wrist/shoulder function after some injuries in the spring/summer
• Build more absolute and relative/gymnastic strength in my upper body
• Create more tolerance (mental and physical) to high rep thrusters and squat pattern
• Increase my aerobic capacity
• Be as healthy and injury-free as possible through the season!

My results show me that I did well to improve those things (more on that below). But focusing on these areas meant a few other items temporarily fell by the wayside. The Open has a sneaky way of putting you on the spot, of showing you the edge, and sometimes of pushing you off that edge and shouting after you as you plummet from the cliff of your fitness dreams, “HEY! YOU FORGOT ABOUT DEADLIFTING, DUMMY!”

Check back tomorrow to read the rest of Whit’s reflections!

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Arnold Press / RDL | Row, KB Swings, Floor Levers
How to Self-Assess Movement Pathologies Breaking Muscle
Eishiro Murakami Squats 360kg (794 lbs) With a Crazy Walkout BarBend

Arnold Press / Romanian Deadlift Superset*

A1) Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Arnold Press:
4 x 8-10

A2) Barbell Romanian Deadlift:
4 x 8-10

Use a heavy load for the rep range that allows you to move with perfect form. Keep rest to a minimum, 30-60 seconds between movements.

*Warm up and then perform a set of Arnold Presses, followed by a set of Romanian Deadlifts. Repeat for 4 work sets of each, resting 30 seconds to a minute between movements.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 3 of 8
_____________________

5 Rounds or 20 Minutes (for quality):
14/10 Calorie Row
14e Single-Arm Kettlebell Swings
7 Floor Levers (3 seconds down)

Begin each row with 5 “Legs Only” strokes + 5 “Legs and Hips” strokes before moving into the full stroke. Use today to prioritize mechanics over speed, and to stay efficient and connected to the machine. Scale the Floor Lever to the tuck as needed, but be true to a slow decent.

Rowing For Calories: Pick Drill

Post work to comments.

Iron Maidens and the Stay Strong Scholarship

You probably know that The Iron Maidens Raw Open, a women-only powerlifting meet slated for Saturday, June 2nd, is one of our most anticipated events of the year. 60 women, from CFSBK and beyond, will test their strength at Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. Save the date!

For the 3rd year in a row, Iron Maidens lifters will raise funds for the Stay Strong Scholarship, which supports students at Bronx-based Grace Outreach.

Why should you support the Stay Strong Scholarship? Here’s a message from CFSBK’s very own Danae McLeod, Executive Director of Grace Outreach:

Nearly four years ago, I started working at Grace Outreach, an incredible non-profit in the South Bronx that works with women to get their high school equivalency degrees, go to college, and get jobs. I met so many smart, talented, and motivated women who wanted to improve their lives through education. The problem was that a bunch of them couldn’t afford to go to college. They were DREAMers and undocumented women who had come to the U.S. as children, and they weren’t eligible for financial aid.

I started looking for ways to help financially support these women’s dreams of getting a college degree. At around that time, Margie Lempert, the Iron Maidens Meet Director, told me she wanted to add a fundraising component to the women’s powerlifting event she had been running in different iterations for a few years. We thought that the grit and determination that it took for first-generation, low-income women to get to college matched the strength and tenacity that women powerlifters demonstrate.

We created the Stay Strong Scholarship to support women at Grace Outreach. The money we raise pays for 80% of college tuition for undocumented students, DREAMers, and women who have been victims of predatory for-profit colleges.

Two years after Iron Maidens and Grace Outreach started the Stay Strong Scholarship, we have have raised over $65,000 and sent 10 women to college! Two students have graduated with Associate Degrees and moved on to Bachelors programs. We currently have five students making their way through CUNY community colleges with GPAs over 3.0.

We know that now, more than ever, the undocumented community needs our support. The Stay Strong Scholarship positively contributes to women who are determined to change their lives through education.

This year, our goal is to raise $40,000 to continue supporting these students. How can you get involved? Show some love by donating to your favorite lifter(s) through the 2018 Crowdrise campaign here.

News and Notes

• Great news! We’ve added another Short Circuit class on Saturdays at 10am. Another great chance to reprogram your body in the spring! (It is spring, isn’t it?)
• We don’t mean to brag, but we’re the number 1 rated Brooklyn CrossFit affiliate and in the top 10 of all Brooklyn gyms on Yelp! Got an extra minute? Yelp us out with a review!

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Clean and Jerk | Partner WOD
Man Walks on Hands for 6 Hours a Day boingboing (video)
When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen Atlas Obscura