Video of the Week: CrossFit HQ recently released their Behind the Scenes video from the 2015 games. Here are parts 2 and 3.

This Week at CFSBK in Review

1. We reposted Coach Noah’s “Thoughts on the Absolute Necessity of the Hook Grip,” a fun read and a great refresher at the beginning of this programming cycle.

2. To much fanfare and many positive vibes, we announced the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place winners of the Look Feel Perform Better Challenge. Congrats to Francine, Mo, Jenny, Evan, Erin, and Chas!

3. Have you signed up for our CSA with Common Hands Farm yet? Get on it and secure your veggie supply for the Spring/Summer/Fall!

4. The first Iron Maidens Lift & Learn session will take place on Sunday, May 1st. We want to keep the Iron Maidens energy and community connected between competitions, so we thought it would be fun to get together semi-regularly to train and learn about lifting (and maybe other stuff!) from women achieving great things. Here’s everything you need to know!

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Clean and Jerk | C&J, Run
Warm Up with Chris Hinshaw CrossFit
Prince Performs “Purple Rain” at Super Bowl XLI NFL
Prince Made Me Free MTV

Clean and Jerk

Warm up to a Clean and Jerk weight slightly heavier than the one you’ll use in the metcon.

Be patient and don’t rush the pull from the floor.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 3 of 8

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5 Rounds for Time:
10 Clean and Jerk 135/95
400m Run

Should be a weight you can power clean and jerk with ease, possibly being able to do unbroken sets in the first few rounds.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Matt E. pulls a heavy Deadlift | Photo by Thomas H.

Common Hands Farm CSA: Sign Up Today!

Happy Spring! Getting fit and eating well starts now. We have your direct hook-up to fresh produce grown upstate, and its time to sign up to reserve your membership today!

In its fifth year, Common Hands will deliver CSA shares right next door to 575 Degraw (Brooklyn Boulders) on Tuesdays from 6 to 8:30pm.

What is a CSA Share?

It is a membership to a farm where you get an exclusive deal on fresh organically grown vegetables delivered straight from the farm to you! Once you pay the upfront membership fee (payment plans available) you receive a weekly delivery from the farm starting in June through November.

Why Should You Join?

Beyond receiving freshly harvested and health-giving food, grown cleanly with no pesticides or herbicides, you are also putting your money where your mouth is, and supporting the local food economy. This is food from real farmers, and by buying a share you are supporting small organic farms. We grow food for you, period. We are not a distributor or large conventional farm with lots of employees, but real down to earth people. On our farm, a team of less than ten people work to grow food for upwards of 200 members each year… and we care what you eat!

We offer Full and Half Vegetable Shares that can be paired with the optional Full or Half Fruit & Egg Share. A Full Share picks up weekly, while the Half Share picks up bi-weekly. Veg shares are $615 for a weekly (“full”) share or $375 for an every-other-week (“half”) share. Fruit and eggs can be purchased in addition to Veg Shares and are bundled together: a full share is $280 and a half share is $140. Pending interest, Flower Shares may be available as well.

Remember, your pick-up location is just down the block at Brooklyn Boulders!

Go to CommonHandsCSA.com for details or click here to sign up directly!  Questions? Email the farm at commonhandsfarm [at] gmail [dot] com, or the gym’s CSA coordinator, Michele, at mignyc [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Squat | 1-Arm KB Swings, Reverse Lunges, C2B Pull-Ups
Muscle-Up Transition Tips WODprep
Can Mindfulness Reduce Mindless Eating? NYMag

Back Squat

Performance
3 x 12

Add weight to last week. Use a full range of motion and control.

Fitness
3 x 5 Linear Progression

Add 5-10lbs to last week’s work weight.

Deadlift

1 x 10

Warm up and perform one heavy (and perfect) set of 10 reps, heavier than last week. Touch-and-go is permitted.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 2 of 8
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5 Rounds NFT:
10 1-Arm Kettlebell Swings, Left
10 1-Arm Kettlebell Swings, Right
10 Goblet Reverse Lunges, Left
10 Goblet Reverse Lunges, Right
5-10 Strict Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups

Keep the shoulder of the swinging arm packed down and back and the entire upper back engaged. Work up to a challenging weight for the Swings and Lunges. If you want to spice things up a bit, then perform all the swings and lunges as a complex (i.e., without putting the bell down to rest). Use a prone grip for the Pull-Ups. Focus on fully engaging your lats by lulling your shoulders and elbows down and back on the way up. Scale to regular Pull-Ups and/or Banded Pull-Ups or Ring Rows as needed.

Post work to comments.

Coach KHarpz and a team of Maryland CrossFit friends recently competed in the Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Challenge. Team “MAAC to the Future” took 10th place out of 46 teams! #gottabethepants

The Look Feel Perform Better Challenge Winners: 1st Place!

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the Look Feel Perform Better Challenge, our 12-week  collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, three women and three men stood out to us as winners. Yesterday we announded the second place winners. Today we’re pleased to announce the 1st place winners: Erin and Chas! Tell us how you did it, guys!

  Erin M.

  Before (L), After (R)

“Wow, this is very flattering! There were several factors that contributed to my success, but I’ll try my best to keep it to 3 sentences. (Ha! I should just apologize in advance for being long winded.) Having the structure of macros and logging everything I ate via My Fitness Pal really left me with nowhere to hide, providing a clear picture of what I was doing wrong or right and therefore holding me accountable. The tracker also kept me focused by having a place to put some notes about how I felt along the way, progressions, and all the gainz (and losses!).

The motivation really kicked in once I started seeing the scale move in a downward direction and my clothes fitting looser, but also small wins at the gym like more strict Push-Ups strung together, going down a band in Pull-Ups, finally getting kick-ups to the wall, and holding myself at the top of the rings for longer than a half second.

What really contributed to my success though, was the amazing support system we have at CSFBK. From the challenge talks, to the online forum, to our wonderful members – some of whom I’m lucky enough to call friends (like Jenny who was always sure to call me out!), I don’t know that I would have lasted 6 weeks let alone the full 12! Thank you Fox and DO for always putting on such a great program year after year. I’m sure it takes a lot of hard extra work and it does not go unnoticed.”

  Chas C.

  Before (L), After (R)

“The process of tracking was what kept me on track. I used MyFitnessPal to track my daily macros and the spreadsheet to track not only my points, but also my progress on lifts/metcons, general well-being, and daily soundtrack. The process kept me accountable to both myself and the greater CFSBK community, without whom I’d never have the strength to do “just one more rep,” let alone this 12-week marathon. Now I’m still tracking to help ensure that the positive changes I’ve made thanks to the challenge remain a part of my life going forward.”

Did you take part in the Challenge? If so, what lessons about nutrition, fitness, and recovery did you take away from it?

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A Conversation with Whales NY Times
What We See and What We Think We See Pacific Standard

Lots of fitness happening in this great photo by Thomas H.

• Schedule change: Tonight’s 6:30pm Active Recovery class is cancelled.
• CrossFit HQ reposted our CrossFit Kids Rules on Instagram. It’s adorable. Check it out, and hey… follow us, too, while you’re at it!

The Look Feel Perform Better Challenge Winners: 2nd Place!

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the Look Feel Perform Better Challenge, our 12-week  collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, three women and three men stood out to us as winners. We annouced the 3rd place winners yesterday, and we’ll announce the 1st place winners tomorrow. We’ve also asked them to tell us a bit about the “secrets” to their success. Today we’re pleased to announce the 2nd place winners: Jenny and Evan.

Jenny M.

Before (L), After (R)

“Consistently tracking and hitting my macros was a huge part of my success in the challenge. My Fitness Pal helped me learn exactly what I could eat on my mostly vegan diet so that I could hit my macros and still enjoy my food (yes, even protein!). The app and tracker also helped to keep my accountable: if left to my own devices, I’m much more likely to skip the protein shake or have a bunch of sweets. However, allowing myself to enjoy life and exceed my macros on certain days helped to make these dietary changes sustainable–I can only stay away from pizza for so long! Having a great group of friends, including my challenge buddy Erin Musni, to help me celebrate my successes and laugh at my failures was also invaluable.”

Evan H.

  Before (L), After (R)

“There were really 2 primary aspect that helped contribute to my success, a supportive wife and how I felt. My wife decided to take on the dietary portion of the challenge with me, so we would work together to plan our meals, which we found to be essential to changing our eat habits. It is also nice to partner with someone for group accountability, this is especially true when scrounging for snacks (i.e.,  I’m much more likely to grab an apple & peanut butter instead of chips if the boss is around). The other reason was when I followed the guidelines of the competition, I ALWAYS felt better. After a couple of weeks the urge to eat the wrong foods or skip my active recovery was almost completely removed…oh yeah, I forgot about the cheat meal…god bless the cheat meal. (But only 1 per week.)”

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Ring Dips | Wall Balls, Box Jumps
Is Strength Training for Kids Safe? Fitness HQ
Trippy Images Reveal What Brains on LSD Look Like NY Mag

Ring Dips (or Close DB Bench Press)

Performance
Tempo Ring Dips (32X1):
4  x 6-12 Strict, 1 x Max Reps

Perform 4 sets across to 2 reps shy of failure, then 1 max effort set to failure. Perform a full range of motion on all reps. Rest as needed between sets. Goal is to add total reps each week by increasing the sets across and/or the max set.

Fitness
Tempo Close Dumbbell Bench Press (32X1):
4 x 6-12, 1 x Max Reps

Perform 4 sets across to 2 reps shy of failure, then 1 max effort set to failure. Rest as needed between sets. Start with a load that feels almost easy for 12 reps. Keep elbows in close to mimic the bottom of a dip.

The tempo note (32X1) means control the eccentric (down) portion for a 3 count, pause at the bottom for a 2 count, contract concentrically (up) as fast as possible, then hold the top for a 1 count before beginning the next rep.

Post loads/work to comments.

Exposure 2 of 8

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5 rounds for time: 
12 Wall Balls 20/10, 14/9
12 Box Jumps 24/20

Post time and Rx to comments.

Steve L. demonstrates a good landing position at the top of a Box Jump

• Schedule change: Tomorrow night’s 6:30pm Active Recovery class is cancelled.

The Look Feel Perform Better Challenge Winners: 3rd Place!

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the Look Feel Perform Better Challenge, our 12-week  collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, three women and three men stood out to us as winners, and we’ll be announcing them over the next three days. We’ve also asked them to tell us a bit about the “secrets” to their success. Today we’re pleased to announce the 3rd place winners: Francine and Mauricio. 

 Francine D.

  Before (L), After (R)

“So excited to know that I was one of the top 3! This challenge was so much fun to do because I was doing it with a group of like-minded people. It was so helpful to have the daily tracker. Tracking macros was so much easier than counting calories or eating strict Paleo, where, in my case, I just found myself eating tons of fat and meat because I could. I also ate more frequently, which I believe proved better for me than the intermittent fasting I had been doing previously. And while my diet remained essentially plants and animal proteins, counting macros was actually liberating instead of confining because it helped me to realize how out of balance my consumption had been prior, and I finally allowed myself to eat a larger variety of clean foods with greater frequency. I also cut out alcohol pretty significantly, reserving it for special occasions, and it was awesome to learn how to drink moderately again. I never felt deprived and am motivated to keep eating for performance.”

 Mauricio A.

  Before (L), After (R)

“It’s hard to believe I made it to the top 3! Woohoo! I started this challenge as any other competition, with a goal to win it. After a few weeks, I realized this was ALL about having to change old habits and focusing on healthier choices. The challenge provided the necessary tools and the right amount of time for me to truly change everything I was doing wrong. The group meetings and lectures provided the guidance, the gym and members provided the motivation, and the tracker put it all into place. It is amazing how different I feel after 3 months. I lost 16lbs by the end of the challenge (and counting). I feel stronger and happier. I’m keeping up with the life style change and I cannot wait to see what 6 months, 9 months, 12 months will do to my body and mind. Thanks CFSBK for putting all together and thank you to all of the people who participated! You guys ROCK!”

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Snatch | Power Snatch + OHS, Bar Muscle-Ups, Burpees
Understanding Training Stressors Training Think Tank