3 Rounds NFT of:
20 Wall Ball Shots 20/14/10  10’/8′
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls 75/55/35
Run 270m with a sandbag

Break up the SDHPs into sets of 5.

Did you know that when we demo movements, people often assume a crossed arm stance. I’ve noticed this trend for several years now. What does it mean?!

• There is No Teaser Class or Comp Class today.

• Heat Assignments for Fight Gone Bad will go up Monday

Fight Gone Bad Scaling Options

A: Mens Rx’d
B: Women’s Rx’d
C: Additional Scale

Box Jump: Demo Video
A/B: 20″, C: 16″, D: 12″
SDHP: Demo Video
A: 75lbs, B: 55lbs, C: 35lbs
Wall Ball: Demo Video
A: 20lb/10′, B: 14lb/10′, C: 10lb and/or 8′ or 10′ target
Rowing: Rowing Strategy For Fight Gone Bad from Concept2
No Scales
Push Press: Demo Video
A: 75lbs, B: 55lbs, C: 35lbs

If anyone has orthopedic conditions please let us know ahead of time and we can scale movements altogether too. email David(at)CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com and we’ll let you know how to modify a movement.

3 Rounds For Time of:
Run 400m
21 Kettlebell Swings 24k/16k
12 Kipping Pull-Ups

Post time and Rx to comments.
compare to 8.22.11

Sadie says, “COME TO THE BABY MUSTER TODAY!“

• We’ve got about 10 families RSVP’d for the Baby Muster starting at 1:15pm today.  The age range goes from fetus to about 5 years old, all families and children are welcome!  Erica will be bringing some fruit and seltzer, feel free to bring some snacks and blankets if you’d like.

• Fight Gone Bad is 1 week away and we’re currently at $17,827, which is actually $25,654 when you count the $$ the BCF board directors are matching us on their “1 to 1 Challenge”  Please send and resend those emails out, talk to friends at work, tell you family and get your team organized and ready! Back Off Week will be focusing on FGB Prep.

Raffle for Janelle R, FGB and Apple Seeds

My company (Apple Seeds) is offering a membership raffle to sponsor my Fight Gone Bad fundraising efforts.  We are raffling off two memberships (one at our Chelsea location and one at our UWS location) and tickets just are $5 each and can be purchased by calling our front desk at 212.792.7590, they also made a special page for me here!

About Apple Seeds:

We live in New York City and we love it.
Raising our kids here is no problem. Well…almost no problem. It can be a slight problem in the dead of winter. It can also be a problem on a rainy day. Come to think of it, it can be a problem on a hot, humid one as well. Two days in a row confined to an apartment and we all go a little stir crazy.

We wanted a place to go for a change of scenery. We wanted a space that offers classes and allows our kids to run around and play with others. We also wanted a space where we can see some friendly adult faces. And…we wanted it in our neighborhood.  So we created apple seeds.

apple seeds operates all-in-one play spaces for families with children newborn to five. We are located in New York City, Mumbai, India and Dubai, UAE with a location opening in Mexico City, Mexico. We have incredibly unique indoor playgrounds designed by well-known children’s museum designers, over 100 classes a week – from music classes like songs for seeds, to art, cooking, science, construction, ballet, tap, movement, gym, soccer and language. We host weekday and weekend birthday parties, playdates and corporate events. We have an award winning day camp, a kids’ hair salon, a toy and bookstore and a healthy snack bar. We strive every moment of every day to be a safe, clean, fun place for our community to gather, socialize and play.

_________________
These Brooklynites Are Exercising Their Giving Muscles Brooklyn Community Foundation

A typical workout description on the old white board

•  The CFSBK Baby Army Muster is tomorrow!!! Get stoked!
• There is NO Active Recovery, Comp Class or Teaser this weekend.

Beasts of The Southern Brooklyn

Best of luck to Coaches Fox and Josh as well as Whitney E an Jacinto B this weekend at “Beast of The East“. BOTE is a three day event offering 8 different types of competition.  Coach Fox will be lifting in an Olympic Weightlifting meet, Coach Josh and Whitney will be competing in CrossFit individual event while Jacinto will be bringing the storm at the Masters division.  Everyone has been working hard for this weekend and we can’t wait to see it pay off.  Coaches David and Jess along with Teresa B will be the sea (pond?) of black supporting our athletes. To stay in the loop, check out our instagram (crossfitsouthbrooklyn) or Flickr account which will be getting regular updates from the event.

Triple Canopy

CFSBK’s Poet Laureate Strikes Again

Here is something new. I guess it goes in the column of “what its like being a CrossFit athlete”.   I struggled alot over the title. Then, caught the Eastwood film “The Outlaw Josey Wales” about a week ago. The title is taken from the Chief’s monologue. It seemed perfect. -Dr. Mike

“Endeavor to Persevere” 

It comes down to this.

Constant learning.

Limitless possibilities

            for bending the curve

of the body

around numerous obstacles

large and small.

Feeling like a snake

            with a lithe, supple, tightening grip,

or a pretzel

            unceremoniously bent around

some rigid object of desire.

No matter what, always the pain.

In the end, make it your friend.

The pain of knowing

the pain

will start again

when you come back.

The pain that creeps up on you

            at odd moments the next day,

as you lean over just a little too far

at the water cooler,

or when you pick up the dog,

or that breaks thru your silent musings

            on the bus to work.

Ah, but how sweet those moments

            of unadulterated victory,

when we surpass everyone’s expectations,

            including our own.

This understanding in our heads

comes along with those

new muscle cells. Twin children

born of this gargantuan effort

of body and mind.

We need to feed them both.

____________________
Samatha Briggs Talks About The CrossFit USA vs. EUROPE Invitational

For Time:
Row 2000m

Post time to comments.
compare to 5.20.12

Related Links:
Olympian Nick Peterson reviews his 2K strategy
Olympian Erin Cafaro talks about how to warm-up on the erg
MWOD: Better Compression for Faster Rowing
MWOD: Better Rowing

Underneath The Hoodie: Margie Lempert

Vital Stats:
Height: 5’ 1” and a lil’ bit
Weight: 140 pounds
Born: September 4, 1977, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Skoolin’: Smith College, Psychology Major, but…basically Theater.
Favorite Way to Eat an Egg: Fried duck eggs in bacon grease (!!!)

In 1984, a small indie film took the world by storm.  Hatched in the academic, “Jewy”, suburb of Cheltenham, PA, “An Actress At Seven” was written and directed by its precocious child star, Margie Lempert, a captivating wunderkind of (you guessed it) seven years old, who chose that year to elbow her way into cinematic relevancy.  Buoyed by strong supporting performances from her neighborhood friends and a elegiac, focused, and winning performance by her grandfather (respectfully described as a “More Jewy Mr. Miyagi,” referencing fellow 1984 Oscar nominee Pat Morita)  “An Actress at Seven” was Lempert’s first major film production.  After a promising career as a young actress, involvement in several prestigious collegiate theater programs, and jobs at Roundabout Theater Company and the New York Foundation for the Arts, Lempert has seemingly fallen off the map.  Rumors have circulated about her becoming involved with an underground movement centered around carnivorous barbell routines, raw milk, and breast toughening seminars.  

It’s true, mostly.  Long before the first Tough Titsday or group class WOD performed to a soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel, Margie was a fledgling thespian, growing up in suburban Pennsylvania.  An only child, from a young age Margie would record herself telling stories.  Whether they were of her own creation, or a recording of the entire script of her pre-K school play (naturally playing all of the roles,) Margie was a born storyteller.  In Cheltenham, a smart, racially mixed suburb, these stories were great entertainment for an only child, but quickly developed into something more.  In the summers, Margie began attending an arts camp, concentrating in theater, and began taking acting classes when she was ten, continuing through high school.  In high school, Margie would always act in the fall play, but skip the spring musical, since she didn’t like to sing.  Like everything in high school, the drama program was shot through with politics and jockeying for status, which Margie largely ignored.  This led to her often being cast as wacky, quirky characters, but rarely the ingenue, despite her peers widely accepting that she was a very good performer.

Margie was a late bloomer in high school, somewhat lackadaisical academically, prone to procrastination, and not yet secure in her self.  This began to change when she had the opportunity to attend the Alexander Muss High School in Israel during her Junior year.  Margie spent 8 weeks participating in a program for American high school students.  Living in a dorm, and attending classes on site while still responsible for her coursework from back home, Margie had her first taste of the intensity and independence of a college environment.  School came alive for her there, aided by spending half of every day visiting the historical sites and landmarks they were studying.  Margie returned to the US inspired, albeit with some very strong culture shock.

Margie left for Smith College better prepared for the pace and rigors of college life, but didn’t anticipate some of the unique issues attending a women’s college would bring.  Freshman year was tough, and Margie seriously considered transferring, but upon returning for her Sophomore year, she found a more comfortable niche in campus, and finally felt like she had a “place” within the greater student body.  This was aided, no surprise, by a heavy involvement in the theater scene.  While Margie enjoyed her collegiate acting opportunities, her real passion was for organizing and developing theater with her peers. She was heavily involved in the leadership of the Student Theater Committee and a member of the “Sikos,” a campus improv group.  

Margie’s first inkling that a life on stage might not be for her came during her Junior year at a semester long program at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.  Despite being located on beautiful oceanfront property, a trip to Russia and London, and high level instruction, the program was a crucible of critique, self-obsession, and interpersonal drama.  In what seems like a scene from a movie, the program was capped with each student going alone into a room.  Inside, all of the program’s instructors sat around a table, and proceeded to deconstruct the students strengths and weaknesses while the student sat mutely and embraced their shortcomings.  While extremely powerful, the whole experience was also “somewhat horrible,” and changed Margie’s sense of self in regards to theater specifically, and life more generally.

Returning to school, Margie began focusing more energy into directing theater, as her prior experiences had turned her off the fishbowl world of being an actor.  The behind the scenes work agreed with her more, and upon graduation she left for New York City, and a job at the Roundabout Theater Company.  During this time Margie was directing as well, but began to get even more involved in the administration side of theater, and started to work in production, stage, and company management.  After an amazing but stressful turn as the company manager with a troupe travelling to Romania, Margie landed at the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she worked for eight years.  

It’s in this eight year period where the heroine of this story began to think about exercise, healthy lifestyle, and making changes to a diet that was self-described as “notorious.”  Make no mistake, this was not an overnight change, but a slow march towards self-realization, with many bumps and twists along the way.  Even after Margie began to think that exercise should be something she should try it was “a year or two” before she set foot in a gym.  Every night, Margie would set an alarm, ostensibly to wake herself up in the morning and propel her towards the gym.  Every morning Margie would turn her alarm off and simply not go.  For the sake of narrative, it would be convenient to say that one day trumpets blared, angels sang, and the ghost of Jack LaLanne kicked Margie in the ass, but it didn’t happen that way.  On this one particular day, she just went.  

Slope Fitness was Margie’s new arena, and after getting her feet wet Margie became a fixture, firmly ensconced on the treadmills and hogging 10 lb dumbbells 5-6 days a week.  Margie created programs for herself, culled mainly from magazines, but sensed that there was more out there in the world of fitness that she was missing.  

As her interest in fitness grew, and her interest in theater waned, Margie began to approach food in ways she never had before.  Always a bit on the chubby side, Margie’s classic diet consisted mainly of a mix of pizza, chicken sandwiches, muffins, chinese food, and french fries.  Chicken sandwiches in particular were Margie’s calling card, and became a bit of an inside joke among her friends.  What else would someone who had never eaten fish, ate no red meat, and was basically “half a vegetarian” turn to for sustenance?  Slowly though,
as she read more and worked out harder, Margie began to expand her culinary repertoire.  If it all began when she realized she liked broccoli (!!!), the piece de resistance was a meal at Nobu, the chic Tribeca mecca of sushi fusion.  Margie had a meal of foods she had never had before- rock shrimp, lobster, cod, and more.  The meal poked the final holes in Margie’s definition of herself as a picky eater, and she began to harness an adventurous and “cavalier” spirit in regards to trying new foods.  

Still, Margie was looking for someone who could answer her larger fitness questions, and like most searches, this story involves some few dead ends.  Margie met a trainer, a woman with a background in competitive bodybuilding, who agreed to help her improve her body composition.  Starting by having Margie go into the bathroom at Slope Fitness, take her clothes off and pose, the trainer put Margie on a diet restricted to 1100 calories a day.  This began a tailspin of sorts of disordered eating, issues with body image and self-confidence, and a general case of someone getting their “head all fucked up” by someone who should have known better (and saw Margie only once!).

Reeling from this experience, but committed to finding a fitness and diet lifestyle that worked for her, Margie was at Slope Fitness one day when another trainer sidled up to her.  Maybe he recognized a diamond in the rough, a student in search of a teacher, or maybe he just wanted someone to torture.  He taught Margie the elements of an air squat- weight in the heels, proper depth, a flat back.  Soon thereafter, he had her do something he called Tabata Squats.  They continued to train together, although for a while Margie didn’t realize that what she was doing was called Crossfit.  Slowly it became more clear that there was a distinct method to this madness, and after the trainer left town, Margie dabbled in Main Site workouts, then finally made her way to Crossfit NYC.  Through the (well-muscled) grapevine, Margie heard that there was “some guy in Park Slope” and promptly began to investigate.  

It had only been a month after David had found CFSBK a home at the Brooklyn Lyceum when Margie and he began to exchange emails.  Soon they met, and Margie was surprised to find David to be “small, and nice.”  Margie quickly became a regular- one of the few consistent females.  Margie began to hang out with some of the other “believers” – namely Alumnus Coach Extraordinaire Shane Williams, and some guy named Jeremy.  They all grew close, with each other, with David, and with the community that became the CFSBK we know today.  Margie began to take on some coaching responsibilities, and also acted as an ambassador, making her Crossfit Hajj to California (with Shane and then David) to meet and train with the likes Robb Wolf, Adrian Bozman, Jason Khalipa (reportedly a total bro) and Pat Barber, in an impromptu guest workout in Tony Budding’s infamous shed.  Later, Margie also did media coverage for the International Powerlifting Federation’s World Championships in India and South Africa, contributing commentary and interviews of the athletes and board members.  More importantly, she got to watch a LOT of people from all over the world lift a LOT of heavy weight.

As Margie progressed more and more as a coach and athlete, lifting weights and physical culture spurred an iconic evolution. Margie describes the transformation from a cigarette smoking, chicken sandwich annihilating, theater junkie to a strong and fit athlete, coach, and role model as “a path to self-possession.” As she began to understand more about her body, her physical capabilities, and her community, Margie also began to think more deeply about food quality, yearning for a deeper understanding of where her food came from, and how it was made. She began to visit local farms and thought briefly of farming herself. She dismissed that idea quickly when she realized that she was more interested in animal husbandry (probably because thats where they keep the deliciousness). Margie left NYFA as she became more deeply integrated with the gym, and after a year of “sitting around” had a revelation that she absolutely had to go to school. A year later, and she’s a happy resident of the greatest college town on earth, Madison, Wisconsin, once again chasing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how the world works, and how to work with the world.

____________________
CFSBK is now on Instagram! find us at crossfitsouthbrooklyn
Happy Birthday to the best Coach and Admin in the world, JESSICA M. FOX!!!!! <3

For time:
21 Back Squats
30 Burpees
15 Back Squats
20 Burpees
9 Back Squats
10 Burpees

There is a 15 minute cap on this workout.  Choose a weight that will allow you to complete the first round of squats in 3-4 sets, the second in 2-3 and the last in 2-3. The weight should feel heavy, but something you aren’t really intimidated by. We rarely do Back Squats in a timed environment, pace this so that you always leave 3 reps “in the tank” before racking the bar to rest.  The Back Squat is not a movement you want to grind out under duress. Know thyself

Potential Weight Options
Rx+ 225/145
185/125
155/105
135/95
115/75
95/65
Post load and time to comments.

Hannah Weaver (right) ran her 1st 5K with me this am with a time of 35:28. The plan had been to run the first mile then walk the second and run the third. We walked for about 90 seconds after the first mile then H decided she wasn’t slowing down again. By mile 2 she was definitely my pacer and we passed a number of legitimate runners. She cruised up the big hill! I definitely would have been slower if she hadn’t pushed me! Picture below–H got the adult medal!
Sadie (left) rocked the peewee race.
So very proud!
-Jess G

News and Notes:

• There is NO Active Recovery, Comp Class or No Teaser  this weekend.
• We just passed 15K raised for charity! Go Team CrossFit South Brooklyn!!
• CFSBK has started a Movie Club! See the 10.18 Post for more details
• On October 27th CrossFit Virtuosity is hosting the Trick-or-Treat Team Throwdown. More information here. Interested? Post to comments!

Baby Muster This Weekend

CFSBK parents! You’re awesome! Your kids are cute! We should hang out more often.

Come join us for a CFSBK Baby Army Muster and Picnic on Saturday, October 13th at 1:15pm

Let’s all get to know each other better and watch our cute little ones roll/toddle/run around on gym mats. And, of course, plot baby army world domination.

Babies and children, parents and parents-to-be, friends and pets welcome. We’ll have some fresh fruit for everyone, and you’re welcome to bring some snacks to share if you like.

RSVP to organizer extraordinaire Erica N at erica.nofi(AT)gmail.com

___________________
“Squat To Love, Live To Squat” How Anthony Bainbridge took his squat from 425 to 495 at a bodyweight of 165 pounds in 61 days CrossFit Community
Fighting For Greatness CrossFit Community
The Virtuosity Series: The Hollow Hold