Scott L. in Motion during Sectionals WOD #3

Lax Balls are Back!

You asked for 'em, we got 'em!  A new box of lax balls just came in today!  Just $2 gets you your very soft tissue tenderizing tool.  Great for work, the car home and even your own private jet!  Ask one of the coaches to grab you one or three next time you are in the gym. 

Scary Movie Night is Saturday!

Just cause you're strong like an ox doesn't mean you can't scream like a child!  This Saturday come see two great fright flicks for the price of NONE!  The Descent starts at 8pm and Ils aka "Them" starts at 10pm!  Bring drinks, bring snacks, bring a change of underwear!!

No one under 18 admitted without parent or guardian.

Civilian Military Combine

Adventure races are all the rage these days and now there is the Civilian Military Combine which claims to be the most challenging yet.  4 lifting events, a 7 mile run and an intense obstacle course await participants.  If you're interested check out more details here!  The race will be held September 10th, 2011 at the Camel Back Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.  Any takers?

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We got lax balls, we got t-shirts, we even got a flippin sink!  What else would you like us to offer the gym? 
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CFSBKer Matt Ufford Makes Some of TVs Greatest Culinary Creations Warming Glow
ALWAYS ride in the bike lane Youtube
Muslim Weightlifter's Wish to Wear Modest Clothes Triggers Rules Debate CNN

Carlos does the Running Man

It's going to be even hotter today.  Stay hydrated during the day, and keep water with you throughout the workout! 

Open Gym: A Refresher

As most of you know, CFSBK programs a WOD 5 days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This leaves Tuesday and Friday as rest days. Of course, sometimes your schedule doesn't line up with ours, so we run classes in order to let you get your workout in when you can.

All classes on Tuesdays and most on Fridays are lead by a coach. You have wiggle room in that you are free to ask a coach if you can work on something in particular. But generally, you'll find the structure pretty much the same as regular days in that you'll go through a lead group warm up and workout together. If you are new to group classes, we encourage you to attend regular classes or On-Ramp, but you'll definitely be taken care of in these classes.

Friday nights operate a little differently. I mean, it's Friday, right? People need to be able to chill after the long work week. So we run Open Gym from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. This is a two hour block of time for you to do what you need to do: make up a workout, stretch, practice a skill/movement, get in some lifting. The SBK coach is there to bounce ideas off of, give an eye to your form and make sure you don't kill yourself. But otherwise, it's your space. Since Open Gym is not a lead class, we think it's best to have been a member for 2 or 3 months before using it. If you want to come in to stretch or hop on the erg, that's perfectly fine. But we'd like you to be familiar with movements and able to workout safely without too much assistance before we let you run wild.

We know this is not news to most of our members, but with the constant flow of new folks into our community, we thought it'd be nice to give a little refresher.

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Stand Up While You Read This! NY Times
Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk LifeHacker
5 Songs for Sharks that Like AC/DC NPR (Via David Mak!)
This Woman Treats Every Week Like It's Shark Week The Mary Sue

AMRAP in 20 Minutes:
Run 400 meters
10 Handstand Push Ups*/**
*2 AbMat max for partials
**Push Press 135/95 otherwise

Post rounds and Rx to comments.

Coaches Chris & Jess Fox at this past weekend's CrossFit Endurance Cert

A Great from the Crate: Beat the Heat

This is a repost of an article from last year.  The next two days the temperature will be in the 90s so we thought it was worth reposting in full.  We want you to continue to train over the next few days and the coming summer months and we want you to train healthy and smart.  Here's how:

Beat the Heat!
You've no doubt noticed that it's getting hotter in the gym as we creep deeper into our first summer at Degraw Street.  This change of environmental conditions comes with some new responsibilities that we all need to be aware of.  The two biggest risks when working out in high or humid temperatures are dehydration and heat stroke.  Dehydration occurs when your body loses more water than it requires for normal functioning and heat stroke occurs when your body temperature rises faster than you can regulate.  Both of these conditions are very serious and can lead to sickness and even death in extreme cases.  That being said, you can do a few simple things to make sure you're safe while working out:

1. Hydrate! Drink cold water before, during and after you exercise.  We have water pitchers in the fridge for everyone to help themselves to.  We encourage everyone to bring their own reusable water container but also have cups available if you forget yours or don't own one.  Try to drink water at regular intervals, you want to be taking in more water than you're losing so don't wait until you're thirsty to start chugging.

2. Listen to your body  If you're feeling lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous, begin to cramp or display anything resembling fever symptoms, it's time to stop, cool-down and hydrate.   Sometimes during hard workouts we try to "push through the pain" but remember that putting yourself at risk in order to shave off an extra :15 seconds is both dangerous and contrary to why you're here in the first place. (to get fit!)

We also have ice in the freezer available in both cubes and cups that you can grab to eat, rub on your body (head,neck,chest, armpits..) put in your drinks or throw at Shane.  Additionally, I've ordered two industrial fans which should come in later this week.

If you've got any questions don't hesitate to ask one of the coaches or post to comments.

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Preparing for Masters: Jacinto Bonilla CrossFit
How to Wake Up and Feel Alert Mark's Daily Apple

There's more than one way….

Qualifiers are almost here! Help Wanted!

Regionals are set for June 16-19th at fancy the Reebok CrossFit facility in Canton, MA,  . This is the final Qualifier before the CrossFit Games in July.

Coaches David and Margie are on staff to organize and oversee the Judges and Athletes, as they have done for the past 2 years. We are looking for more Level 1's to join our volunteer Judging staff. We need folks who can uphold strict standards, work hard and give 100% focus. This is probably the most exciting job of the weekend since you get to be out on the competition floor in the middle of some fierce athletes.

Interested? Click here to learn more and register: http://cfnortheastjudges.eventbrite.com

Not a Level 1, but still want to be part of the weekend? Great! We need plenty of volunteers for important jobs such as scorekeeping, handling the athletes and set up/break down. Use the link above to sign up.

In the gym, No One Can Hear You Scream!

This Saturday, June 11th it's scary movie night at CFSBK! The Descent starts at 8pm and Ils starts at 10pm. 
Feel free to bring treats and drinks!

RSVP to Maggie G. at maggie.giorgio(AT)gmail.com

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What's your favorite thing to do in (or out of) the City in the summer? 
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What is America's Fittest City The Atlantic (via Hunter-Gatherer.com)
Mark Zuckerberg's New Challenge: Eating Only What He Kills CNN (via Hunter-gatherer.com)
How to Stay Motivated T-Nation

In teams of 2 complete the following for time:

100 Wall Ball 10' Target 20/14
100 Burpees
100 Box Jumps 24/20
100 Double Unders

Only one partner can be working at a time. Must be done chipper style.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Jack L. doing big things on the platform!

June's Athlete of the Month: Jack Levavi

It was only a matter of time before we got around to recognizing our most senior member, Mr. Jack
Levavi, aka, “Jackie-Boy”. Once I got him to believe that he actually was Athlete of the Month I found out he had a lot to share, so without further adieu…Jack!

Fox – So we’re sitting down for the interview now, do you finally believe me?

Jack – I guess. I thought you were pulling my chain. So now you ask me questions? Ok. Let’s go.

Fox – Alright, the beginning. How did you start CrossFit?

Jack – I had been doing the regular gym thing at an Equiniox for a while. I used to take spin classes which
I was really into for a while, and then I started taking this guy Eric Von Frohlich’s class called “Practice”.
I remember taking that class for the first time and being a mess. After the class Eric walked past me and
just told me to keep coming back, so I did. I did that for a while and really got into it and along the way
developed a relationship with him. That class taught me how to push myself. I still refer to him as “the
man who changed my life”. I eventually asked him what he did to stay in such good shape. He told
me, “the mother of all workouts, CrossFit”. I looked into it and found that there was a CrossFit gym here
in Brooklyn so eventually I gave it a shot. I forget what it was but that first workout over at the Lyceum
was a doosie. It was harder that I thought a workout could ever be (Shane confirms that it was Eva!!!). I remember Charmel, Allison, Jacinto, Jeremy and Shane being there cheering me on and probably
hoping I wouldn’t die on them! I didn’t come back for a while but when I did it was to stay. I was done
with “regular” gyms.

Fox – You in tights on a spin cycle, that’s all I can see right now… What was it like for you coming to
CrossFit after having been a gym regular for a while? Why did you stay?

Jack – CrossFit seemed like the right challenge and the vibe was great. I saw it to be much more effective and fun than my previous routines. It was cool to see all these super fit and nice people. I remember my first impression of Jeremy, that he was like some creature who was let out of his cage every once in a while to lift heavy weights. The lifting always impressed and intrigued me. I have to say that I think the skill set back then was simpler. We didn’t do muscle ups and handstand push ups and all of that stuff, and we did a LOT more burpees from what I can remember. When I first started I felt like a warrior all the time! One day I remember being on a pull up bar and feeling this rip in my shoulder. That was a scare. When I took a look at what was going on, with David Osorio’s help, I realized that I was being stubborn. I had joined this 100 day burpee challenge (1 burpee day 1, 2 on day 2, etc…) that folks were doing and David didn’t like it. I mean he didn’t like it for anybody. He explained to me that it was too much stress to put on the shoulders with too little recovery time and that it would lead to injury. This happened at about day 35 of the challenge. He pointed to Rob (Maldonado) who had recently had
shoulder surgery (after ignoring pain) and asked if I wanted to be that guy. I got the point and I listened
up. That’s also a big reason I stayed. I understood how much the coaches cared about us.

Fox – (hmmm…we must need more burpees in the programming…)Well that’s a good segue. You
eventually landed in Coach Jeremy’s Strength Intensive and haven’t really looked back. Talk to me about that.

Jack – Jeremy is such a good coach, I never question him. I just do what he tells me to. He’s passionate
about lifting, he shows up, and he’s never condescending. My time with him has showed me that the
barbell can be a valuable character builder. Like I said I always enjoyed the lifting. Maybe “enjoy” is the
wrong word but it IS satisfying. Being under that bar is tough but the numbers are absolute. Either you
move the weight and get stronger or you don’t, and then you can learn from the failure. It’s like the
barbell is a cursor, you know, like in the old DOS program? Remember that cursor that would just sit
there and blink, waiting for you to do something? That’s the barbell. It just sits there waiting. It’s really
satisfying when you conquer it.

Fox – I really like that analogy, I’m stealing it! What goals do you have from the Strength Intensives? Any more meets?

Jack – I don’t know if I’ll do another meet. It’s weird, being the only guy in my weight/age group means
I’ll medal every time. I’m not really competitive with others, more so with myself. My first meet I PR’d
all my lifts. In my second meet I missed all my lifts and STILL got a medal. That was a shitty day. Who
knows, maybe I’ll come back to group and do some more conditioning sometime soon to lose this belly.
First though I want to hit a 1000 lb CrossFit Total. That’s my current goal. I need another 40 lbs on my
squat and my deadlift. I’ll get there.

Fox – No doubt you will, Jackie. That’s an awesome goal! What about outside the gym. Any interesting pastimes, past or present?

Jack – I have another passion- I love fly fishing. There’s this whole sub-culture of people who fish in the
wee hours of the night and I used to do that. I’d get home from work and nap until about 10pm, head
to Jamaica Bay and fish until 7 or 8am, run home to shower and head to work. You meet some real
interesting characters out there in the middle of the night. Eventually I had to give up the nighttime
thing. Trust me, it doesn’t go well with working out. I still fly fish, but only by day, like a normal person.
Also, you won’t believe this…I used to teach yoga! When I was a rough-and-tumble young man I wound
up working in a program that used yoga as part of its treatment protocol for drug abuse. I learned hatha
yoga and I taught yoga for about a year to inmates at the Queens House of Detention. My real true
passion though is my family. I’m very family oriented and am fortunate to have been a large part of my
children’s lives. I have a lovely wife, Belinda, who has stood by me through thick and thin. Really I’m just a lucky guy to have such a wonderful family. And, in August we’re expecting our first grandchild. I truly enjoy my life.

Fox – Wait, first spin and now yoga???…That’s great stuff. It’s nice to hear someone truly happy. Alright, Jack, any sage advice from SBK’s elder statesman?

Jack – Listen to your coach. And listen to your body. Learn the difference between soreness and injury.

Fox – Great advice. Last thing. What do you think we should look for in a future Athlete of the Month?

Jack – Someone who’s willing to leave it all on the floor, and keeps coming back when it works and even
when it doesn’t. There are some really amazing people here in this gym, it’s a really special place. I’m
continually impressed with the people here and the things they do, amazing stuff.

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Thanks again to Jack for sitting with me and also for all the entertainment and goodness he provided the gym throughout the years. If you didn’t know Jack Levavi before I hope you feel as if you do now. So, next time you hear that howl coming from the crazy old Jewish guy squatting with Jeremy at his side feel free to yell out “UP JACK, UP!!!”. And then give him a high five.

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CrossFit Games Regional Update 2.1 CrossFit
Muscle-up and Wall Ball Prep Mobility WOD