Clean and Jerk

Every other minute for 24 minutes (12 total reps): 1 Clean and Jerk
Start at about 60% and go up from there. Goal is to add weight every 2 minutes. Attempt to end up near or beyond your current 1RM, if you’re feeling good then go for it. 

Post loads to comments.
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4 Rounds, Not For Time:
400m Jog
20 Hollow Rocks or V-Ups 

Post time to comments.

Come get your clean and jerk on today, for the eighth exposure of the movement in our eight-week cycle! You ready for Crush Week next week?!

• Want to try something other than group class today? Check out Yoga for Athletes at 10am, Active Recovery at 11am, or Open Gym from 2-4pm!
• SCHEDULE CHANGES: Active Recovery is CANCELLED tomorrow as Coach Fox is out of town.
• GOOD LUCK/BREAK A LEG/BUT PLEASE DON’T to Steph M. and Linda H. who are competing in Hail to the Queen at CrossFit Queens today! Let us know how it goes, ladies!

GET ROLFED: A Note From CFSBKer Jessa Z.  

Jessa Z. has been a certified Structural Integrator since 2006. Before that she was a certified Anusara teacher running around the city teaching yoga, hosting retreats, teaching anatomy, and generally just geeking out on the body. She loves to move and challenge her body. She runs, swims, dances, and plays. She was a competitive athlete as a kid and had injured herself repeatedly throughout her teen years. It took a lot of trial and error, but with a toolbox of yoga, Pilates, weight lifting, and Rolfing, she has been able to live pain free despite playing hard.

What is Rolfing/ Structural Integration?
Rolfing was developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf, a biochemist hailing from Brooklyn NY (for real). She called her work Structural Integration (SI). SI’s premise is that gravity can support the body if the body is organized properly on its vertical line, the generally accepted position for “good posture.”  

RSI re-educates the body, improving its organization through a progression of sessions that manipulate the fascia. This reorganization of the fascia releases compensatory patterning and frees our soft tissue allowing the body to adopt a more efficient posture. The result is increased range-of-motion and movement differentiation, increased metabolic support, and higher functioning proprioception. Translation: you work more efficiently!

Jessa is offering a super discounted rate, only for CrossFit South Brooklyn! Try it out for $100 (reduced from $175), or three sessions for $375, (reduced from $525).

Contact Jessa and Brooklyn Rolfing at 917.597.8597 or info [at] brooklynrolfing.com. 

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The Limit Christian Wiman, for Harper’s

Enjoy the last few weeks (days?) of the open gate! 

• At long last, there’s a new article on Coach David’s blog Inside the Affiliate, called “CrossFit Preschool: 5 Things I’ve Learned From Working With 5-Year-Olds.” It’s all about Coach David and Coach Janelle’s experience running CFSBK’s CrossFit Preschool. Oh, and there are lots of really cute photos of really cute kids. Check it out!
• Flynn Dog Millionare needs your help with his startup, Kard! From Ryan F.: “Kard is a startup in the credit card rewards space that is trying to help consumers reclaim the lost dollars that are available to them nearly every time they shop online. We will be able to tell consumers what card to use and where to use it to maximize their reward points in a seamless fashion. We are running this survey to focus our market research and create some use cases for the product as we are in the early development stages.” Help Ryan out and take the survey here!
• NEW BATCH OF LOST AND FOUND: Check it out.  

Fight Gone Bad Fundraising Update (T-15 Days!)

Congrats everyone! We’re almost at $7,000—which is 42% of our fundraising goal for Brooklyn Community Foundation. Allie C. and Matty C. are crushing it! 

Once we hit our goal of $15,000 Brooklyn Community Foundation is going to match match contributions dollar-for-dollar. You or your friend puts in $10? Their Board puts in $10, doubling your impact on Brooklyn’s communities. We’re so close! 

Congrats to those teams and individually topping our leaderboards on CrowdRise! Below are our top fundraisers from both the individual and team divisions (as of 8pm Thursday 10/1):

Top Five Teams:

1. I’m Not a Player I Just Squat a Lot: $1,975
2. Fight Gone Bad 2015: $505
3. Awesomesauce: $500
4. Fight of the Living Dead: $480
5. The Buck Furpees: $448

Top Five Individuals: 

1. Allie C.: $1,175
2. Matty C.: $500
3. Michael A.: $425
4. Jay-Star: $400
5. Greg A.: $350

Don’t Miss Out on Running/Walking a 5K to Raise Money for Miles for Midwives

Colleen M.’s sister is on the board of the organization Miles for Midwives, and they are raising money through a 5K race to improve maternity care and community wellness. The organization does a great job of educating and providing resources for maternity health and healthy childbirth.

The 5K is TOMORROW at 10:00 followed by a Community Birth and Wellness Fair.

The entry fee is $25.00 for an individual and $10.00 for a child. Learn more here.

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Louis C.K. Hates Cell Phones 

Snatch

 1-1-1-1-1
Up to 5 Attempts at a new 1RM Snatch. Misses count as attempts. 

Exposure 8/8
Post loads to comments.
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For Time:
100 Burpees 

Post time to comments.
Compare to 2.22.2015 and 1.5.2015. 

Samir C. and Noor A. getting it in at open gym on Sunday night. The family that squats together…

Upcoming Schedule Changes

• Active Recovery is CANCELLED on Sunday, October 4th.
• Yoga for Athletes is CANCELLED on Saturday, October 17 (for Fight Gone Bad 2015.)
• Active Recovery is CANCELLED on Saturday, October 17 (for Fight Gone Bad 2015.)

Strength Cycle Still Has a Few Spots Open, Register Now!

We all want to get stronger. That’s because we implicitly understand that building strength is the foundation for increasing overall physical capacity. It has been proven again and again that lifting heavy primes our bodies to be more effective and efficient at metabolic conditioning workouts. Strength is the only mode of training that supports everything else we do in the gym and in life. Plus: it’s pretty badass. 

Upcoming Cycle Times and Dates:
A cycle: Beginners, 7pm Mon/Wed and 6pm Fri | Wednesday Oct 7th – Friday Dec 4th  
B cycle: Intermediate, 7pm Tues/Thurs and 10am Sun | THIS OPTION IS FULL
C cycle: Morning beginners, 6:30am Mon/Wed | Wednesday Oct 7th – Wednesday Dec 2nd
D cycle: Continuing Education, 6pm Mon/Wed | Wednesday Oct 7th – Wednesday Dec 2th
E cycle: Late morning, all levels, 10am Mon/Thurs | THIS OPTION IS FULL
F cycle: Noon with Margie, 12pm Mon/Thurs | Thursday Oct 8th – Thursday Dec 3rd

Each cycle will culminate in a CrossFit Total on Sunday, December 6th.

Class Sizes: Space is limited to 4-8 participants
Class Length: 90 minutes 

Cost: 3x Per Week Cycles:
$300 paid upon registration and then another $300 at the halfway point
Cost: 2xW Cycles:
$200 paid upon registration and then another $200 at the halfway point 

If anyone is confused as to which cycle they belong in or has any questions, they can contact Jeremy directly at Jeremy [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com to discuss placement. 

Catching Up With CFSBK Classifieds

The Classifieds section still isn’t working. If you have something to post, email it to our Managing Editor, Kate R. at Katharine [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com. 

• Gowanus art studio needed: After 12 years, the management of Saul M.’s art studio building is kicking out all the artists. He’s looking for a 400-600+ sq/ft space in the Gowanus area by December 31. He is a sculptor that works in a variety of media. If you have a space or know of someone who might, please let him know, saulmelman [at] gmail.com. Thank you! 

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Salman Rushdie on Creativity and Criticism Harvard Business Review
No Vanity Project: At Art Center, Baryshnikov Tells Artists, ‘You’re the Boss’ NPR 

Front Squat

1-1-1 or 3-3-3
Three attempts at a new 1RM. If you’re new to the lift then test a 3 rep max instead. 

Exposure 8/8
Post loads to comments.
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AMRAP 15 Minutes:
15 Thrusters 115/75
30 Kettlebell Swings 53/35
45 Double-Unders

The thrusters should be medium heavy, something you could do 15 unbroken of when fresh. The sub for double-unders is 20 attempts + makes. 

Post time and Rx to comments.

Past Athlete of the Month/The Tallest Man on Earth Michael C. hit muscle-ups again on Sunday night at Open Gym. More on why this is a big deal below!

Michael C.’s Journey with Muscle-Ups

In May, I got muscle-ups for the first time, and celebrated as you would expect—a mixture of fist bumps with folks at the gym, texts to bemused friends, and all-caps Facebook posts. I felt I had worked hard to get to that point; now, surely, my life was to be much different, right? Soon Dave Castro and I would be best buds, and my ascent to the loftiest peaks of fitness could truly begin!

Things didn’t quite work out that way. For the next few weeks I made attempt after attempt after attempt, and couldn’t quite seem to get myself over the rings again. Exasperated at open gym one day, I asked Coach Ro for advice, and he told me the last thing I wanted to hear: that to prevent myself from reinforcing bad movement patterns, I should refrain from making any attempts for a while, and instead refocus on the progressions that got me there in the first place—kip swings and hips to rings, box humps, and transitions. 

After being so excited to have finally performed a complicated movement for the first few times, it was tough advice to hear. It felt like I was starting over. That feeling, coupled with my newfound inability to demonstrate a movement I had told a bunch of people I could actually do, made me feel like a baseball player who had suddenly lost the ability to throw to first. What the hell was going on?

Ultimately, though, I got over myself. Skills, movements, and badass weights are earned, not given, so I swallowed my pride and invested in the process. I swung. Then I tightened the swing. I did transitions, and lots of them. Determined to burn the patterns into my brain, I slowed them down, and got to the point where I felt like I could do them in my sleep.

I tend to go in waves as far as my perception of my own ability—some weeks I feel like I am crushing it, and others I feel hopeless, like I have no business being in a gym attempting anything. Such is life, I guess. But at Flex on the Beach last week I hit a pretty unexpected snatch PR, and it gave me a shot of confidence. I remember deliberately thinking less about what would happen if I missed my attempt, and more on just being in the moment and moving correctly, like I knew I could.

Therein was the cure to my yips. Instead of just assuming I would keep failing, I came into open gym on Sunday determined to make it happen. I had practiced. I had focused. So I warmed up, and decided to make a few passes at another muscle-up. And I failed. Three times. I knew I was close, and with a heaping dose of encouragement from all in attendance, managed to finally get back up on attempts four and five. After a long summer break, the muscle-ups came back to me.

I know now this is probably far from over. I demonstrated to myself that muscle-ups aren’t a fluke—they are something I can clearly do. But the trick now will be taking them from an occasional thing to an on command thing. I’m ready to continue doing the work, but more importantly, I know not to beat the crap out of myself if the road to mastery ends up being a little longer than I want.

Fight Gone Bad Fundraising Update (T-16 Days!)

Congrats everyone! We’re almost at $4,000—which is 23% of our fundraising goal for Brooklyn Community Foundation. Matty C. and Jay-Star are crushing it! 

The best part? Once we hit our goal of $15,000 Brooklyn Community Foundation is going to match match contributions dollar-for-dollar. You or your friend puts in $10? Their Board puts in $10, doubling your impact on Brooklyn’s communities. We’re so close! 

Congrats to those teams and individually topping our leaderboards on CrowdRise! Below are our top fundraisers from both the individual and team divisions (as of 12:30pm Tuesday 9/29):

Top Five Teams:

1. I’m Not a Player I Just Squat a Lot: $950
2. Awesomesauce: $425
3. Artisanal Fitness Coop: $400
4. Fight of the Living Dead: $400
5. Fight Gone Bad 2015 tied with Who Let the WODs Out: $225

Top Five Individuals: 

1. Matty C.: $500
2. Jay-Star: $400
3. Michael A.: $350
4. Bob S.: $300
5. Morit S.: $225

Send an email to your friends and family! Maybe something like this?

Dear ______ [insert name],

I know you probably think I’m bananas for doing CrossFit, but I love it so much—largely because my gym, CrossFit South Brooklyn, is so freaking awesome and doesn’t just care about getting “swole” (defined by the Urban Dictionary as the state of being very muscular and/or buff and in good shape), but we also care about helping our neighbors in Brooklyn.

That’s why I need your help! Through this fun competition we’re doing in a couple weeks, we’re raising money for a local organization called Brooklyn Community Foundation. BCF supports tons of great and important programs in Brooklyn.

Donate here, and I promise to send you a photo of me drenched in sweat after I crush this workout on Saturday. Also, I’ll love you forever!

XXOO _______ [your name] 

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What water on Mars can teach us about scientific ‘breakthroughs’ The Washington Post 
Glowing sea turtle discovered: Mutant, maybe, but definitely not a ninja Christian Science Monitor 

Coach Whitney and bar partner Lauren B. watch Chris deadlift

• Want to try something other than group class today? Check out Vinyasa Flow Yoga at 7am, Active Recovery at 6:30pm, Pilates with KH at 7:30pm, or AntiGravity at 7:30pm.

Chasing Rx: When To Scale and When To Go Heavier

An interview with David Osorio and Jess Fox, edited by Kate Reece
Originally posted on 3.17.2015

If you don’t know why workouts are named after women, Greg Glassman, the founder and President of CrossFit, explained it like this: “I thought that anything that left you flat on your back, looking up at the sky asking ‘What just happened to me?’ deserved a female’s name. Workouts are just like storms, they wreak havoc on towns.” 

Regardless of whether you welcome or abhor that feeling of being wrecked (particularly when it doesn’t happen in your bedroom), we all know what it’s like to approach a nasty WOD from the mindset of wanting it to be over before it even starts. But sometimes, the desire to cruise through a workout can cause us to take shortcuts, maybe not go as heavy as we could, and ultimately sacrifice our long-term strength goals on the altar of feeling like a beast in the moment. Hopefully, we all do want to get stronger. In that case, it’s important to realize that the lifting segments of group classes are not your only opportunities to achieve your goal. You should aim to get stronger through the conditioning portion of class as well.

Maintaining excellent technique should always be your priority, but if you want to close in on the Rx-ed loads for a WOD, you need to gradually increase your base numbers—which might involve surrendering a bit of the metabolic stimulus of some workouts. (“Rx” refers to the prescribed, standard weights for a workout, or those scary numbers written after each weighted movement on the blog and whiteboard.) Simply put: you need to lift heavier and go slower so that you can eventually lift heavier and go faster. 

I sat down (i.e. emailed a lot) with Coach David and Coach Jess to ask them everything you wanted to know (but were too scared to ask) about chasing Rx in workouts. The bottom line: don’t be complacent about the weights you choose for any given workout. Getting stronger is a process. Here are David and Jess’s experiences with exactly that.

CFSBK: When did you start Rx-ing all the WODs? What did your journey look like to get there?

David: When I started CrossFit, I was self-teaching myself the movements, so I did what I could and then practiced the movements that I didn’t know how to do yet. It took me about a year before I was doing almost everything Rx-ed. I definitely was biasing a heavier weight and slower times in the beginning, which helped me develop the requisite strength to be able to eventually move the Rx-ed weights faster. I still occasionally scale some of the weightlifting loads in WODs when appropriate 

Jess: I’d say the first things I could Rx fairly quickly were workouts with deadlifts, double-unders, box jumps, and kettlebell swings. I knew my road to Rx-ing weights in the Olympic lifts would take some time, and honestly we weren’t doing as much of those when I started. So, I chose to target kipping pull-ups as my first big goal, since they tend to come up in so many WODs—and what girl doesn’t want to do pull-ups! My road to getting them meant practicing them EVERY time I was in the gym. I started out with thick green-band but over the course of a few months, I was able to get my rhythm down enough to get a few unassisted kipping pull-ups in spurts. They weren’t consistent enough though so I always resorted back to the band for workouts.  

However, that changed when I visited my other “home” CrossFit in Ohio. The WOD was “Cindy” and although I knew that I could get a few rounds Rx-ed, I still set up a band. During the workout, when I started to slow down on pull-ups, I reached for the band. The coach there stopped me and just told me it was okay to move a little slower. Sure, I didn’t get a high number of rounds but it allowed me to continue to work on that skill and it gave me a baseline for “Cindy” Rx-ed. After that experience, I got rid of the band. That didn’t mean I did every pull-up workout Rx-ed right away though. Until I got better at them, scaled volume was my friend. 

CFSBK: If I’m moving fast and getting a good workout in the WODs, why should I worry about what weight I’m doing? 

David: The balancing act between performing workouts with their intended metabolic stimulus, versus going heavier or sticking to a calisthenics version that slows you down considerably, can be somewhat nuanced. Ideally, you want to be able to keep moving at a somewhat reasonable pace. If you’re shuffling your feet, looking at the pull-up bar for a minute, you’re probably not getting the most out of your time on either end. But if you’re not at the Rx-ed weights and want to start pushing toward them, you’ll just have to accept that you’re going to be slower and the workout probably won’t be as spicy. In my opinion, that’s fine. Recently, I told a member that would have rather her go with a heavier dumbbell and get capped versus going lighter and getting a good time. As long as you can perform about 3/4 of the workout before getting capped, you should be fine. If you want to get stronger in the WODs, you’re always going to have to bias a little heavier and slower, technique permitting. 

Jess: As CrossFitters, we’re all a little Type A and want to move fast through workouts. However, our training should include different stimuli and heavier weights—higher skilled movements can provide that. As I mentioned before, it took a little nudging from coaches, and a little/lot of swallowing my WOD pride to not scale those pull-ups in “Cindy.” Looking back though, I’m so grateful for that intervention. Not just because it was my first Rx-ed “Cindy,” but because I didn’t really realize that I had the strength and skill to do it. I see this a lot with push-ups in workouts as well. Though I see many of you work your strict push-ups like a boss in our warm-ups and even start a workout with strict pushups, as soon as the going gets tough, the knees drop down. Sometimes you just have to gut it out (provided your movement is technically sound), knowing that you might need to scale volume and accepting that you might be the last person to finish.   

CFSBK: How do I know when to go heavier during WODs?

David: When you feel like you “own” a weight that is below Rx-ed, then it’s time to bump it up. Don’t get complacent with certain loads. For example, if you’re a guy and you always do 65-pound thrusters, even if it still feels difficult, you need to start gradually adding five to 10 pounds to push your strength and comfort level with the movement and load. If you always swing the 16 kg kettlebell, start voyaging out to heavier territory. As long as you feel confident in your technique, which might mean going a bit slower or breaking up reps more, then the weights or your modification should feel heavy.

Jess: This is where logging your workouts comes into play. Early on in your CrossFit life, you will and should start lighter than you think. Use the warm-up time to pick a load that you know you’ll be able to move consistently well through. Then, take note of how that felt in your logbook so that you know what to aim for next time. Also, listen to the advice your coaches give you. I think we do a pretty good job of talking about the intention of the workout and providing scaling options or percentage markers to help guide you in determining an appropriate weight. If it’s ever not clear, just ask! 

CFSBK: If I want to set a goal to get to Rx or heavier weights (and I know I should!), what should my battle plan or strategy be?

David: As Jess mentioned, make sure you’re logging and writing down both qualitative and quantitative data! You’ll never remember to go heavier on that barbell if you can’t refer back to previous experiences. Focus on writing notes specific to how heavy things felt and if you think you could have gone a bit heavier and kept your technique together. You’ll have to dip into loads or movements that intimidate you a little if you want to get better.

Jess: Be consistent in your practice. If it’s barbell lifts, then aim to make each rep at lighter weights perfect and slowly increase the weights from week to week or from WOD to WOD.  If you did the past three thruster workouts at 75 pounds and flew through them, then go for 80 next time. If you’re training a skill, then lay out a specific plan to help you get there.  Also, tell a buddy and have them help keep you accountable, or better yet, have them join you! Note though, that skill is singular. Don’t be the person that has a list of 10 skillz and can never really devote enough time to any one of them. 

CFSBK: Any parting thoughts?

David: Use your coaches as a resource! We want you to improve and always will let you know how a movement looks and whether you should scale up or back down. Let us know you’re trying to get stronger and we can give you some thoughts about how to modify your workout intelligently.

Jess: Know that for most of us, this stuff doesn’t come naturally and that some of us might never hit Rx-ed weights. We’re now in the CrossFit Open season, so now you can compare your WOD scores to people around the world. But just remember that ultimately you’re competing with yourself. In the beginning, focus on establishing your baseline. Keep a good logbook, set realistic goals, set time aside to practice, and then use your training to beat yourself. 

(An important caveat: Rx is not an advisable goal for all athletes. It can serve as a point of reference to make the process of choosing your weights easier, and enables our coaches to help you scale appropriately at the whiteboard.) 

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Your Phone Is Helping and Hurting Your Weightlifting Technique Catalyst Athletics