Five rounds, each for time, of:
135/95 pound Power clean, 5 reps
135/95 pound Front squat, 10 reps
135/95 pound Jerk, 5 reps
20 Pull-ups
Rest 90 seconds

If you’re a beginner and havent developed a solid technical foundation with the Power Clean, substitute 10 deadlifts each round.  The 20 pull-ups in this workout presume a mature kipping pull-up, any sort of assisted or strict version should have the volume cut in half to 10 per round.

Post rounds and Rx to comments.
compare to 4.25.11

The Voice Of The People, Mobina H!

Congratulations to CFSBK team “Supple Leopard” who WON the Trivia Challenge at Pacific Standard last night!!!

Happy Birthday, Justin Z!

Murph Day is 1 week away…..

The CFSBK Softball Team!

Interested in putting that functional fitness to use?  Dan H. is in the process of recruiting a few more members for a CFSBK softballteam as part of the YMCA Adult Co-ed League. Games are usually held once a week around 7pm at the Red Hook fields.  A small league fee of $40-50pp will be expected to participate for the season. ALL levels are welcome.  If you’re interested or have any other questions, please contact Jess at Jessica (at) CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com. We’ve already got about 22 people signed up!

Zen and the Art of Crush Week!

In traditional meditative disciplines you aim to cultivate mindfulness in a physically neutral setting. Often the practitioner sits in a comfortable position and tries to bring attention toward their breathing.   In Yoga, we see a more dynamic approach where rhythmic breathing becomes interwoven with a controlled flow through a series of postures .  In both of these instances, the intention is for the pilot to become more tuned into the “now”.  At CrossFit, we achieve something very similar through a very different approach.   During an intimidating lift or difficult conditioning piece you’re forced to deal with the moment at hand. The high discomfort level of what we do takes that moment and amplifies the physical inputs to the point where you can’t help but focus on what’s happening. You know this intuitively and it’s why you get nervous before a 500m erg test or 3 rep max Back Squat attempt.  You know that once you start you’ll be forced to deal with the “now” until it’s all over. Every second gets dragged out and every moment to rest or doubt yourself becomes amplified against what needs to get done.  Take this opportunity to set your intention for the approaching workouts.  Whenever you find yourself deep in the agonizing “now” embrace it and stay on task.  Don’t look around the room to see where everyone else is, don’t check the clock to see how much time has gone by and don’t make excuses to try and avoid what your feeling. Just keep fighting the barbell up or chipping away at reps until you’ve completed the task.  If you lose focus and get derailed, don’t let it mess with your head, just come back pushing harder. Remember, you’re here to get stronger, both physically AND mentally.
Enjoy Crush Week! 

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
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Scaling the Pull-Up with Ring Rows CrossFit
How Do You Choose Your Accessory Lifts? CrossFit Invictus
How To Be Diplomatic wikiHow

For time, Row 2000 meters

Please read Coach Nick’s article on “How to Row a 2000m Race” before coming in today.

Post time to comments.
compare to 12.11.10

Terrified or Excited about Running?

Good Luck CFSBK Pub Quiz Team

Taking Antibiotics?

We recently stumbled upon this gem of information from the Paleo Solution Podcast with Robb Wolf and Greg Everett. A question came up about taking Cipro and the related side effects the person was experiencing.  During their answer, Robb mentions that people taking antibiotics are at a higher risk for soft tissue injury.  If you’re on an antibiotic or ever find yourself taking one, please let us know so we can best help you modify the workout.  Thanks!

“One deal with Cipro and related antibiotics is that you are at extremely high risk for tendon and ligament rupture, particularly tendon rupture. It can destabilize the integrity of the tendon. So if you go on Cipro and related antibiotics, you need to really ramp up your exercise very, very incrementally after you come off of it, and this is for like six or eight weeks afterwards. You can pull the Achilles tendon off of the calcaneus. You can pop your quadricep tendon off of the patella, a host of things like that. So that’s one thing that is not on the radar for folks. You need to really ramp up your activity level very slowly and carefully after that.” – Robb Wolf

Trivia Question: Of the chemical elements between #95 and 100, three are named for humans. Name the three.
(The answer has to come straight from your brain piece. No searching allowed!)
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Mark Rippetoe Interview About the CrossFit Total Elite FTS
All About Mercury Precision Nutrition
Securing My Mask Before Helping Others Paleo Periodical

Work Up To A Heavy Single

Goal is to go a bit heavier than last week’s doubles.

Post loads to comments.
(e4/4) compare to 5.12.12

Rope Climbing 101

Wear long socks or pants today!!

Did you get to the top?

When Lauren B started with us she couldn’t do a single push-up, let alone a chin-up.  Yesterday, she got 3!

Cooks Needed For Murph!

Do you know how to operate a grill? We’re looking for grill masters and masterettes to help cook some steaks and burgers for Murph Day.  We’ll provide all the meat/charcoal etc we just need 2-3 people to help cook.  The gym has one grill in house (Thanks JR!) but wouldn’t mind running two grills at a time.. CrossFitters tend to enjoy their meat. So if you’ve got a grill and/or would like to lend a hand cooking, please email Christian (AT) CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com

Mark your calendars! Memorial Day Murph is happening on Monday, May 28th. As always, we’ll be doing “Murph” and then finishing off with some Beers and BBQ! What’s “Murph” you ask?

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.

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

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. Post side dish or beverage you’re bringing to comments.

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A Day In The Life with Rich Froning Jr. CrossFit

Bev W Gets Ready For a 1RM Test  

Thanks to Eric L for shooting the last Total and colorizing some of the pictures. To see more, check out the CFSBK Flickr Page

Join the CFSBK Pub Quiz Team

Got lots of facts swimming around your brain? Like to eat and drink with other interesting people? Stella Z is organizing the CFSBK Pub Quiz team to dessimate the ever popular Pacific Standard Triva Night. Peep the Deets:

Date: Sunday, May 20
Time: Paleo dinner 6 PM, pub quiz 8 PM
Location: Paleo dinner at Stella’s apartment (email for address), pub quiz at Pacific Standard, 82 4th Avenue, Brooklyn
Dinner info: Main course and side dishes provided by Stella; others are welcome to bring apps, drinks, and/or desserts as the mood strikes.
How to RSVP: Send an email to stellavision (at) gmail and you’ll be added to the Evite.

CrossFit and Strong Women

Guest Post by Samir Chopra

A singularly positive aspect about being in a Crossfit space–like the one at Crossfit South Brooklyn, which, in point of fact, is the only one I’ve ever spent any time in–is the many opportunities that arise to see strong women in action. Women can deadlift, squat, clean and jerk, run fast, do muscle-ups, pull-ups–you name it, they can do it. Many women lifters at my gym are among the most technically proficient in the major lifts; to watch them execute these lifts properly is a genuinely aesthetic and awe-inspiring experience. (I wonder if there is something interesting to be said here about the seemingly greater ability of women to internalize coaching cues about technical lifts. Do men, perhaps, resist coaching cues more, convinced that they can figure it out by themselves?)

So CrossFit, whatever its merits as a fitness training program–and debates about that have provoked some wonderfully informative discussions–has at least ensured the creation of a space where stereotypes about women being weak go to die. Anyone that spends sufficient time at Crossfit South Brooklyn will see women indulge in feats of athletic ability that are wonderfully disruptive to any reductive,  long-held opinions about the athletic incompetence of women. But stereotypes of ‘women can’t lift’ are not just held by men, they are very frequently entertained by women themselves. So witnessing ‘Crossfit women’ may provide  a salutary lesson to women too that dominant, culturally transmitted and reinforced, conceptions of what you might be capable of are very often mistaken.

Here on the gym floor, the lifting platform, under the pull-up bar, too, are spaces thus, where men can learn valuable lessons in humility and in assessing how confident they may be about their  masculinity. After all, if women around you are faster, stronger, more limber than you, then what kind of man are you? Are you–to deploy a particularly ugly word sometimes thrown around by men in gyms–just a ‘pussy’? An educational moment for a male Crossfitter presents itself when he looks at the specifications–or prescription–for the assigned workout of the day, and realizes he can ‘only’ do a weight that is just above or sometimes even below the prescribed weight for women. I have had many moments like these, and it was a little galling, so well had I internalized the spoon-fed mantra of reassurance, “At least I’m stronger than any girl out there!” But often, that simply does not happen. There are women, constantly, around me, that, shall we say, kick my ass. And to have to deal with that is a wonderfully educative experience.

But there is an opportunity here to be seized, if one insists on making comparisons. As my friend Malcolm said to me as I agonized over what weight to choose for a workout, secretly not wanting to dip below the ‘ladies prescribed weight’: “Remember, if you can do what a strong woman does, you’re pretty damn fit!”

So there you have it, guys, this is what I really want to be: a strong woman.

Post thoughts to comments.

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The Most Astounding Fact Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson On Twitter

Work Up To A Heavy Single

Goal is to go a bit heavier than last week’s doubles.

Post loads to comments.
(e4/4) compare to 5.10.12

Alternate the following two movements for :20 of work followed by :10 of rest repeated 16 times:
Deadlift, 275/185
Burpee

Go heavy on the deadlift, prioritize your alignment. Make us proud.

Post load and total reps to comments.

Play Time!

Ragnar Relay Part Deux, “The Adirondacks”

Do you enjoy running?  Do you enjoy testing your endurance (both physical and mental?)  Have a penchant for staying up all night?  If you answered yes to any of these questions.. Ragnar Relay should already be on your bucket list.

When: Sept 28-29, 2012
Where: Near Lake Placid/upstate/etc – NY

More Race information
Runner leg info
Runner distances

Adirondacks is going to be a beautiful course and quite challenging (check out the elevation changes on the course map).  You’ll also notice it’s a longer race (overall) than Cape Cod. 

Early registration closes June 20th!

Contact: Asta Fivgas at astafivgas(AT)gmail.com

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Mobility, Pregnancy, and the Hypermobile Mobility WOD
Torque and Trunk Stability Part 1: How to Stand Mobility WOD
Pushing Into Muscle: Are We Really Doing What We Really Think We’re Doing? Massage St. Louis