Barbara K Goes To Work On Deadlifts During “JacintoStorm”

Happy Birthday to resident “Wine Guy” Brian S! Join Brian at the 3rd CFSBK Wine Wasting coming up. Only 4 Spots left!

There is No Teaser Class this weekend due to the Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet!

New Equipment!

CFSBK Has purchased the following equipment recently:

• 55lb Rubber Hex Dumbbell, 1 Pair

• 60lb Rubber Hex Dumbbell, 1 Pair

• 65lb Rubber Hex Dumbbell, 1 Pair

• 12″ Steel Plyo Boxes, 3 Boxes

• Burgener and Rippetoe Men’s Bars, 4 Bars

• 16kg Kettlebell, 2 Bells

• 20kg Kettlebell, 2 Bells

• Rogue Steel Plate Rack Storage, 3 Racks

We purchased the DBs to help bridge the gap between our 50lb and 75lb DBs. These can be used for heavy pressing, rowing, shrugs, snatching and farmer’s carries.  The three 12″ plyo boxes were purchased for box squatting days which often uses up all available boxes and causes people to have to stack bumpers.  We also got 4 more B&R bars to replace a few barbells that are in rotation but are warped or don’t spin.  The 16kg and 20kg bells help round out the most popular bells for large classes.  Finally, the steel plate rack storage will live between the platforms and accompany the 940lbs of plate we recently purchased. Once the equipment comes we’re going to update the platform area to be more user-friendly.

Reebok CrossFit at Union Square

This upcoming Tuesday, July 24th at 11:30, 12:30 and 2:00pm Reebok will be hosting a free WOD at Union Square. All levels are welcome to attend as there will be hands-on coaching for the entire workout.  Just bring a good attitude and comfortable workout clothing.  To RSVP, please email CrossFit(AT)Paragonsports.com

DOT Looking For Help

Does anyone know anyone who might be interested in an internship at the NYC Dept of Transportation? Coach Nick is looking for independent, detail-oriented people to work with their City Bench program. It’s indoor/outdoor – a lot of fieldwork, but also office work. It’s a great opportunity for aspiring urban planners/designers and landscape architects – having public-sector experience in those fields is a major plus, and NYC DOT is one of the best public agencies in the country. Candidates can be grad or undergrad, in school or not. The internship is unpaid, but Nick’s group exposes interns to a lot and they have a great experience. He needs people who can commit to 20–40 hrs a week, for at least three months. Please forward people to him at npeterson [at] dot.nyc.gov.

Design a Workout that would take about 15 minutes and incorporate the following movements:
Rowing
Burpee Box Jumps
Power Cleans
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Get Strict (Pull-Ups) CrossFit Virtuosity
Stay On Your Heels Technique WOD
New Study Finds Americans Need 6 Hours Of Sleep At Work
Bulgarians 88′ Trailer
Pat Mendes Blind Snatch

Fitness

3 Rounds for time of:
400m Run
21 Overhead Squats
12 Kipping Pull Ups or 6 Strict Pull Ups or 12 Ring Rows
If you can’t perform an Overhead Squat due to mobility, substitute a Front Squat instead

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Performance

3 Rounds for time:
400m Run
21 OH Squats 75/55
12 Pull-Ups or 4 Muscle Ups

Post time and Rx to comments.

This is me standing in front of one nameless moai (mo-eye) that is part of Ahu Tongarki, which is Easter Island’s largest ceremonial platform consisting of 15 restored moai.
All of them would have had the ‘red hats’, which are known as topknots.  This ahu represents the very pinnacle of the Rapu Niu stone carving period and the sheer effort and expense involved in having created such an extravagant ceremonial altar is considered beyond belief.  It is the largest ceremonial structure anywhere in Polynesia with a length of 220 meters from the end of one wing to the other.
All of the moai on the island were at some point thrown down.  When the first Europeans landed on the island in 1721 the moai were all standing, but by 1838 none were left standing.  No one knows why. There are many theories.  This platform was restored between 1992 and 1996.
– Kevin R
(Kevin has been training with David since years before CFSBK existed!)

Happy Birthday, Sarah H

Summer Soiree

From Dom R:
On Thursday, July 26, the Prospect Park Junior Committee is hosting its annual Summer Soiree in the Prospect Park boathouse. The party features cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music, a silent auction, and more. All proceeds support the Prospect Park Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works in partnership with the Parks Department to maintain and restore Prospect Park. Buy your tickets here and show your love for the park!

Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet

Come watch SBK’s strong women move big weights! Sunday, July 22nd at 2pm is our second Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet, where the ladies will be testing their one rep maxes in the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift. Spectators are encouraged and welcome! Post event celebrating will happen at about 5pm. For more details and to see the competiors, click here.

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Spirit Of The Games Award: Deborah Cordner Carson
Marathons are Yawn 70’s Big
The CrossFit Games Analysis 70s Big
AJ Roberts – From Strongest To Fittest ATG

Fitness

Perform 3 sets of the following:
A) High Bar Back Squat x 8 reps. Start light in anticipation of adding weight over 8 exposures.
Rest 30 seconds
B) 5 Lat Activations
Rest 90-120 Seconds

3 Rounds For Time of:
50 Double Unders or 25 attempts or 150 Single Unders
30 Sit-Ups
If 30 sit ups are no big deal for you add weight via dumbbell
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Performance

Spend 15 Minutes working up to a heavy 5 rep High Bar Back Squat. No failing, no bailing. Leave room to go up for 5 reps next week.

3 Rounds For Time of:
50 Double Unders
20 Kipping Knees to Elbows
If you can’t perform a kipping knee to elbow, scale the volume to 10

Post results to comments.

Kate B during FGB5

Athlete Of The Month
Kate Brash

This AOM has been a long time coming and I’m very proud and excited to see her under the spotlight.  Kate Brash has been an outstanding member of our community from the start and someone I’ve always wanted to feature for AOM.  Kate showed up pregnant at CrossFit with kind of a hazy idea of what she was getting herself into. Regardless, she stuck with it through and through and impressed everyone on staff with her dedication to smart training and her encouraging and approachable nature.  Lets all get to know a little more about KB..

David O: Hi Kate, congratulations on earning the title of July Athlete of the Month!

Kate B: Thanks, I’m excited.

DO: So lets start from the beginning, can you tell me a little bit about your athletic background before CrossFit?

KB: Well I grew up in the DC suburbs and loved sports but was never a “good sport”.  I was a really sore loser and would get into fights with umpires, curse at people and get kicked out of games.  It was not a pretty scene, I just really hated losing.  When I was about 14 I became exposed to Kayaking at summer camp and searched out a program with my twin sister back near our home.  I was a competitive kayaker for about 5-6 years.

DO: Getting into fights?? That seems very uncharacterisitc of the KB I know, but kind of hilarious. Also, you’re saying there’s a KB2 walking around somewhere?!

KB: Well we’re fraternal, so not exactly but I do have a “twin” sister.   I’ve gotten a lot more mature about competition since. Well, maybe I’m just better at redirecting it..

DO: So what happened with Kayaking?

KB: Well the kind that I did was really focused on racing, so when I realized that I wasn’t olympic bound it didn’t make for the best recreational activity.  It was also logistically a tough sport to keep up with, lots of long drives, early mornings and expensive equipment.

DO: I see. Any other athletic endeavors pre-CrossFit?

KB: Back before getting pregnant I ran the 2007 NYC Triathalon.  I actually really loved training for the event but was less excited about the race itself.  I got pregnant right after that Tri but still signed up for another sprint Triathatlon in Montauk before having Gus.  After having my first kid I found it really hard to keep up with exercise, especially triathalons which were really time-intensive. Beyond that I would try and take classes at commercial gyms which were okay.  I enjoyed spin classes but that’s about it.

DO: So what brought you to CrossFit?

KB: I heard about it through my friend Charlotte Kaiser, we were close in High school and kept in touch evern since.  I saw her Facebook post about Fight Gone Bad which really intrigued me.  At this point I was pregnant with my second (Sadie) and I knew Charlotte had trained with you guys while pregnant so we talked about her experience and she put my mind at ease.  I figured Charlotte is pretty level headed and wouldn’t lead me astray.  I also had been getting sick and not feeling well in general throughout this pregnancy and thought exercise would help me through it.

DO: Tell me about starting CrossFit while pregnant.

KB: Well I did 1 on 1 Foundations with Fox since I wanted to take things a little slower at first.  I was happy to see how well things could be modified for me and how supportive and encouraging everyone was.  My goal was to keep my shit together until the upcoming Fight Gone Bad, which I successfully competed in. 

DO: You’ve mentioned to me that you weren’t that clear about what CrossFit was all about when you started.  What was your initial reaction when you came to the gym?

KB: I loved it!  Back when I was training for Kayaking we would do basic calisthenics, barbell training and hard workouts in this awesome rickety clubhouse on the banks of the Potomac in DC.  When I walked into CrossFit I felt like I had found what I was looking for. It felt like the same down to earth rugged fitness I had loved as a youth.  I did feel somewhat conflicted with my training intentions as CrossFit is focused on increasing performance and I had to prioritize general health above metrics at this point.

DO: I remember people using you as a rallying point for not having any excuses to not train.  It was a really fun experience for the staff and community to see you CrossFit as you kept getting bigger and bigger.  Very inspirational!  So why have you stuck with CrossFit?

KB: Well it’s a more substantive experience than any other gym.  It’s not just sets and reps at a place that has weights available for me to use.  Theres more context to the experience, if I stopped coming, I feel like I would be missing out on seeing friends I’ve made, being pushed hard and feel like I was letting people down.

DO: You’ve also had some knee issues you’ve worked around, right?

KB: UGH, yes.  I’ve had knee issues for seemingly no apparent reason since college.  I had orthoscopic surgery in my early 20’s but didn’t do PT afterwards which I think really hurt me. I could barely bend my knee for about a year after surgery.  I also tore my ACL in 2005 while skiing in Switzerland.  It was horrible, I was with my husband (Benet) and I was really hesitant about skiing in the first place.  On our first run he took off and I fell and hurt myself at the top of the mountain.  No one spoke English and I was in agony.  Eventually Bennett came back when I didn’t turn up at the bottom of the mountain and I had to go to the hospital. I had it reconstructed and did a bunch of PT after that.

DO: You also re-aggravated it while doing lateral jumps at the gym.  I remember that we had been scaling for you as a pregnant special population which included avoiding plyometics and running. Post partum, we overlooked that you had significant knee issues and were rolling you back into regular training.

KB: Yeah I was really mad at myself for that, I knew I shouldn’t have done it. It didn’t feel so bad right afterwards but got worse and worse as time went on. I ended up doing some personal training with Shane but when it wasn’t getting better I decided to get surgery in June of 2011. I did PT for about 6 weeks and then came back to CrossFit.  It’s been good since then and I’ve recent been adding some modest running to see how it feels.

DO: A cautionary tale no doubt.  What else should we know about KB outside of your fitness life?

KB: Well I went to Haverford and studied anthropology.  It seemed like the least focused major that I could really do whatever I wanted with. After college I moved to San Francisco for a while and then back to NY to go to Grad school at NYU to study environmental policy.

DO: Why environmental policy?

KB: In college I spent about 4 months on an Alaska trail crew. We would Kayak around Alaska in the national parks and clear trails and upkeep the facilities.  Since you’re in protected land no motors were allowed so everything we did was manual labor.  It was a really significant experience for me and one of the most beautiful and rewarding things I’ve ever done.  The following summer I did the same thing in Payette, Idaho, except we were hiking, not kaying, obviously.
  I really fell in love with he outdoors and wanted to help protect it.  I’ve worked for the last 8 years on climate change policy, trying to help educate the public.

DO: That sounds amazing. So just a few more questions.  First, what advice would you give a new CrossFitter?

KB: Don’t worry about ramping up the weights or intensity too soon. Just developing proper technique is plenty of stimulus in the beginning.  I sometimes see people wanting to get aggressive with their numbers too soon.  It takes a really long time to get good at this stuff, take your time and enjoy the process.

DO: Kate B for president!  Great advice.  Next, what should we look for in a future AOM?

KB: I really think anyone could be an AOM.  I think it’s really informative and interesting to learn about people and their backgrounds. I’d want to know about everyone we train with.

DO: Okay, but what qualities do you think make someone stand out to you?

KB: I think it’s important for people to be thoughtful about their training. To know why they’re here, what their current strengths and weaknesses are and how they’re trying to gradually improve.

DO: Spoken like a true champion.  Finally, where is your head at training wise right now?

KB: I just finished the Tough Titsday classes with Coach Margie which I would Highly recommend to anyone. It was great to really learn more about the lifts and how to approach them.  I feel like I learned how to plan my weights and not be so intimidated by heavy loads.  I’m considering doing an upcoming Strength Cycle.

DO: Kate picks things up and she puts them down.  Thanks so much for spilling your guts, Kate and congratulations again.

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Women’s Obstacle Course

Happy Birthday, Coach Laurel!

New Classes!

Effective June 1st we will be adding 4 new CrossFit Group Classes.  Afternoon CrossFitters can rejoice for Tuesday and Thursday 12pm classes and evening members now have more options with Tuesday and Thursday 8pm Group Classes.  This is part of a larger programming shift where we’ll be phasing out On Ramp and expanding the scalability of all our Group Classes.  More details on that this week…

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Unpacking the Hero WODs Blakemaster
Thin Air, Thick Bonds CrossFit

For Time:
Run 1 Mile
100 Pull-Ups
200 Push-Ups
300 Squats
Run 1 Mile

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

There will be a number of movement and scaling options available so whatever your level of fitness is we’ll find the appropriate challenge.

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.
To read more about “Murph” click here.

Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a special holiday where we honor and remember the men and women who died while serving our military.  Today’s workout was one of Michael Murphy’s favorite WODs which he called “Body Armor”.  Each year we come together to do this workout and celebrate those who have given the ultimate sacrafice for our country as well as recognizing those still with us who continue to serve.  CFSBK would especially like to thank members from our gym who serve in the armed forces and related fields.  Your efforts are appreciated and respected, this workout is for you!

The gym will open at 9:00AM and we will be starting the first heat of folks exactly at 9:30AM.   We’ll be starting new heats of up to 20 people every 45 minutes and recommend that you arrive 15 minutes early for whichever heat you’d like so that you can warm-up and do any movement prep you’d like.   The last heat will run at 11:45AM so make sure you’re here before then if you want to complete Murph.

The BBQ itself will start by 12PM. If you can, please bring a side dish or some beverages so that everyone can eat their fill.

Happy Birthday to Carlos G., Marian L. and Avi S.!

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – John F. Kennedy
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Portraits of War NY Times
Jim Comes Home NY Times