Fitness: 3×5 Work Sets Across
Add 5lbs from last week’s exposure.

Performance: Work up to a heavy 2 rep set on the Front Squat
Go a little heavier than last week’s heavy 2. Don’t miss any reps

Post loads to comments.
FSQ e4/6
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Fitness
Three Round For Time Of:
15 Thrusters, (Dumbbell or barbell)
15 Ring Rows or 8 Strict Pull-Ups

If you’ve been CrossFitting for 6 months or more you can also substitute 15 jumping pull-ups per round. Use a Dumbbell for the Thrusters if you have mobility restrictions racking a barbell for Thrusters. There is a 7 minute cap on this workout.

Performance
Three Round For Time Of:
15 Thrusters 95/65
15 Kipping Pull-Ups

7 min cap.

Post time and Rx to comments.
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Squat Queen Jessica B Warming Up

Dumbbell Thrusters

The Thruster is a common CrossFit exercise that requires you to squat below parallel with a load on your shoulders then thrust it overhead in one fluid movement. It’s commonly used as a potent conditioning tool and less commonly used as a strength developer.  Today’s workout has two versions of the Thruster, one with Dumbbells and the other with a Barbell.  While more total weight can be moved with a barbell, mobility limitations can make it very uncomfortable for many people to rack the barbell on their shoulders.  If you have a really hard time keeping your elbows up as you descend and find the movement stressful on your wrists, Dumbbell Thrusters are probably going to be your best bet.  Dumbbells also require more shoulder stability and are excellent at developing muscle symmetry. 
A common issue with dumbbell thrusters is that as you fatigue your weaker side may begin to collapse inwards at the rack position or fail to lock out overhead. Often the dumbbell will begin to drop toward your chest during the ascent and then barely make it to lock out.  This is a clear indication that you’ve got underdeveloped external rotators in your shoulder.  To get through the workout, you’ll have to either slow down significantly or reduce the weight of your dumbbells.  Trying to gut through a collapsing rack support is ill advised as it could put excessive stress on the soft tissue in and around your shoulder. Below are a few different things you can do pre/post workout to help develop this weak link:

We recommend you do them 2-3 times per week for 3 sets of 8-20 reps. 
Joe Defranos Shoulder Health Circuit

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Squat Therapy: 4 Drills That Will Improve Your Squats Breaking Muscle
Bodybuilders Through The Ages Smithsonian
Pursuing Excellence and Creating Value by Greg Glassman CrossFit

Matt K Front Squattin

Partner Stretch & Thai Massage

Let’s face it: after a workout it’s so much better when someone helps you stretch.  In a Partner Stretch workshop, you and your partner will learn Thai Massage techniques to increase range of motion, mobility & flexibility, decrease soreness, and to just plain ‘ol feel good.  

In these unique Partner Stretch & Thai Massage sessions, you and your partner will experience both giving and receiving bodywork.  You’ll feel relaxed and more connected to each other, get a full body stretch, and have tons of fun.  Plus, now you’ll always have a partner who knows how to give you a fabulous massage!

Date: Saturday, Febrary 23rd
Time: 2:30-4:00pm
Price: $75 per Couple
Space: Limited to 12 couples

More info here

Olympic Lifting: The Power and the Glory

Guest post by CFSBKer Samir Chopra

Olympic weightlifting might just be the sexiest sport there is, a near-perfect blend of strength, agility, complexity and grace that if done right, brings the lifter face to face with an acute combination of the strong and the beautiful.  When an Olympic lift comes off, body and mind come together.

An Olympic lift–the clean and jerk, and the snatch–is not a simple lift in the original sense of ‘simple’. It is not one thing. It is complex–and complex things, as Aristotle told us, require analysis into their constituents; it has many parts and all its individual components need to be drilled extensively. The barbell and PVC drills that precede an Olympic lifting session then, are tedious but essential. They are tiring. (Many is the time when my shoulders have ached from just the pre-lifting drills.) In the case of the snatch: the high scarecrow pull, the muscle snatch, the drop under; and then incredibly enough, you combine them into, hopefully, one indivisible movement, and realize how they come together. At lighter weights the drill works; all is well in God’s world. Then, despair, for at heavier weights the lift starts to break down. Here is where grace under pressure is required, a struggle to fight, to remember the drill, to maintain fidelity to form.

Coaching tips for Olympic lifts can thus attain shadings of both the poetic and the everyday. Consider the question of how you should have your knees and hips bent for the ‘jumping position’ as you move into the ‘hip-opening’ position. Well, how would you flex them if you wanted to reach up and touch the ceiling? Think of that position, that flex, that partial squat, poised to head upwards, which every kid, every human perhaps, knows instinctively.  That’s how you want to be when you are in the hang position. Or you will hear Olympic lifting described as ‘jumping with barbells.’ Think about it:  ‘jumping with barbells.’ Would you ever have imagined weightlifting described in those terms? Once you connect that dynamic motion with moving weight, which ordinarily conjured up visions of slow grinding movements, you begin to glimpse the heart and soul of Olympic lifting.

To do well in Olympic lifting is to overcome your sense of disbelief at the sheer unlikeliness of it all: How is that motion possible? Is it really possible to throw that barbell over your head? Of the two Olympic lifts, the snatch is especially improbable: How does the barbell unfurl like that over your head even as you seem to jump up and then down under it? But it can happen; if you pay attention and don’t let frustration get the better of you. And that is where paying attention to the component movements is crucial–they are what make the lift possible–they are what enable the overcoming of the sheer physical improbability of it all.

But the true beauty of the Olympic lift is to realize that this is a strength movement that requires you to have the grace and balance of a ballet dancer, the explosive muscle recruitment and deployment of a sprinter and the strength of a…weightlifter. Because you must concentrate on the lift and its components, you can teach yourself the vital skill of zoning in on a task at hand, an act of concentration and living in the moment that if cultivated, transfers well to life off the lifting platform. And because many attempts at lifts will not come off you will learn patience.

So in learning an Olympic lift you do more than train your body, you train your mind too. And how useful is that?

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Headlock Talk 101 with Tony Blaur CrossFit
200kg Overhead Squat Cathletics
Histories Past
“When You’re Feeling Low, Just Remember I’ll Be Dead In About 15 Or 20 Years” by Donald Trump

Fitness: 3×3
More heavy triples this week. Add 5-10 lbs to last week.

Performance: 9×2 Dynamic Effort 50% (plus bands) x 2 reps every 30 seconds for 4 minutes
Take 2-3 quick warm up sets to get to work weight (45%) then add bands. Focus on moving the bar fast, and being aggressive at the hips and quads with a tight finish position, no soft knees or hips. Dead start, no touch and go.

1RM Chart
250-325 Red Band
325-400 Blue Band
400+ Green Band

Post loads to comments.
DL e4/6
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4-5 Rounds NFT of:
5ea 1 Arm OH Lunge (heavy)
10 Ring Row, as difficult as possible
12 Side Plank-Ups, hold at top for a 2 count

*For the lunges work contra-laterally. i.e., DB in right hand + left leg forward lunge. The “working” leg in the lunge should be opposite the dumbbell. Sub front rack or hanging for mobility issues.

2012 Reebok CrossFit Games: Pendleton 1 & 2

Habit Formation Check In

Over the last month many of you guys have been working on developing better habits to promote more healthful behaviors. What is one thing that’s been “working” for you throughout the challenge? How did it evolve? Did it replace another behavior? Do you plan on continuing it post-challenge?

Post experiences to comments.
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Using the Sun to Make Music Vice

Snatch Deadlift + Below the knee High Pull + Below the Knee Power Snatch

Post loads to comments.
Snatch e4/6
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2:00 Max reps:
Wall Ball Shots 20lb-10’/14lb-9′
Rest 2:00

2:00 Max Reps
5 Burpees
10 Kettlbell Swings 24/16
Rest 2:00

2:00 Max Reps
Calories Rowed

Post 3 scores to comments.

Saturday Afternoon at CFSBK: Rope Climbing Clinic, 2K Row with digital display, Gymnastics Class

Functionality and Wall Ball by Greg Glassman

New Equipment

2 New low Wall Ball Targets for the R3 stations
A Pair of 90lb Dumbbells
A Pair of 100lb Dumbbells
3 New Erg Monitors

CFSBK Training Videos

Check out some of these training videos from CFSBK!

Jeremy Goes For A Heavy Single On The Bench Press  David Osorio
Christian Reiss Goes for a 1RM Deadlift David Osorio
Kettlebell, Pull-Up WOD Demo with Josh and McDowell David Osorio
CFSBK Collected Training: V1 David Osorio
Matt Ufford: Fight Gone Bad 2010 Ari Bassin-Hill
David Slow Motion Snatch Malcolm Spittler
David 2 Methods Kipping Muscle Ups Malcolm Spittler
Brian D Clean and Jerks 280lbs
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The importance of Olympic Weightlifting for the “Sport of Fitness” Part 1 Part 2 The Outlaw Way
Low Bar vs. High Bar Back Squat for the purposes of CrossFit Outlaw North
The Power To Change Lives CrossFit

Fitness: 3×5 Across
Add 2-5lbs from last week’s exposure.

Performance: 87.5%x1, 92.5%x1, 97.5%x1
If you’re not feeling 100% today then work a few lighter singles.
Get two spotters if you’re not totally confident in your attempt. One coach and your rack partner.

Post loads to comments.
BSQ e4/6
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4 Rounds, Each for time of:
40 Double Unders
Row 400m

– Rest about 1:1. There is a 20 Minute cap on the entire workout.
– The Doubles or chosen sub should take no more than 1 minute and the row should take no more than 2 minutes, scale accordingly.

Post rounds to comments.

mmmm… Partner Stretch

• Good Luck to Michael R who will be running the Marathon in Florida this Sunday!
• Tonight is Mel’s Rest Day Dinner, have fun all attending! 

Partner Stretch & Thai Massage

Let’s face it: after a workout it’s so much better when someone helps you stretch.  In a Partner Stretch workshop, you and your partner will learn Thai Massage techniques to increase range of motion, mobility & flexibility, decrease soreness, and to just plain ‘ol feel good.  

In these unique Partner Stretch & Thai Massage sessions, you and your partner will experience both giving and receiving bodywork.  You’ll feel relaxed and more connected to each other, get a full body stretch, and have tons of fun.  Plus, now you’ll always have a partner who knows how to give you a fabulous massage!

Date: Saturday, March 23rd
Time: 2:30-4:00pm
Price: $75 per Couple
Space: Limited to 12 couples
Register Here

About Elyse & Sparkes Wellness

Elyse developed Sparkes Wellness to help ignite health in as many people as possible.  She does at home personal training, yoga, and Thai massage in Brooklyn, NY.  Elyse has taught Partner Stretch & Thai Massage workshops at lululemon athletica, international dance events, and New York yoga studios.  She has an ACE certification in personal training, an OM Yoga 200hr RYT, and many certifications in Thai massage.  Elyse is currently continuing her anatomy studies at The Breathing Project with Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews.

Thai Massage certifications include:

• Studied with Thai massage master Pichest Boonthumme, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2012
  

• Osteo-Thai workshop (fusing Osteopathy with Thai massage) with David Lutt. Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2012

• Chi Nei Tsang (Chinese abdominal massage) with Doris Kolling at the Sunshine School. Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2012

• Advanced Certification in Thai Massage from the Thai Massage Sacred Bodywork Center in NYC, with Ananda Apfelbaum (author of Thai Massage Sacred Bodywork). 2009

Meet Molly Metz

1,434 Unbroken Double Unders in 10 minutes
153 Double Unders in one minute
100 Unbroken Triple Unders
Molly talks jump rope technique and progressions
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Amazing 13-Year-Old Boxing & MMA Prodigy
How Long Does It Take You To Warm-Up? 0-600lb Squat in :30