Skin the Cat 101 

5 Rounds Not For Time:
8 Strict Handstand Push Ups or Dumbbell Presses
8 Goblet Step Ups (each leg)
8 Log Roll to V-Ups

Post loads to comments.

• Check out Yoga for Athletes with Coach Whitney at 7:30pm tonight, but please note that Saturday’s 10am session is canceled, since Whit is competing in Hail to the Queen IV.

CFSBK Loses One of its Own: Erik Kolb

We are devastated to announce the death of one of our members, Erik Kolb, age 34. He and five other climbers tragically died on an expedition to Mount Rainier at the end of May. Erik had been a regular at CFSBK since mid-2012 and many of you will remember sharing a rack or bar with him, especially during the morning and weekend classes. Along with being a CrossFitter, Erik was a finance manager for American Express, an avid hiker, world traveler, and Park Slope resident. In his family’s statement, they wrote, “Erik was a smart, gentle and generous man whose warmth and kindness touched the lives of all who knew him. We will miss him sorely every day, and he’ll always be in our hearts.” 

He is survived by his wife Lisa and a number of family members. Please keep them in your thoughts during this difficult time.

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This Always Ad Asks What It Means To Do Something “Like A Girl” CoCreate
Your Genes Affect Your Betting Behavior UC Berkeley
The Sister of Second Chances New York Times

Fitness: Hang Clean + Jerk
Focus on having your weight over your mid foot at the mid hang position.  

Performance: Hang (knee) Clean and Jerk (1+1) 1-1-1, then High Hang Clean and Jerk
Work up to a heavy single on today’s complex of a clean from the hang plus a jerk. Then back off to 80% for three singles from the high hang. 
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Front Squat

Fitness: 3 x 5 Linear Progression
Add 5-10 pounds to last week’s weight. 

Performance: 82.5% x 4 x 4, then 80% x 4 x 4
Rest less than two minutes between sets. 

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Wanna learn to paddleboard? We thought so! Learn more below!

• Happy birthday, Luanna S., Front Desk frontman Mirko B., and Endurance Wonder Coach Michael O.! 
• Come get your fish, veggies, eggs, and flowers! The CSA deliveries are today from 6-8:30pm sharp.

Get on the Water This Summer with CFSBK

What: Stand-up paddleboard lesson and tour
Where: on the Hudson River, launching from Croton Point Park in Westchester County  
When: 2-4pm, Saturday, Aug 16
$99 per person, cost drops to $89 per person with 6+ participants
Sign-up: email Mare at mare@crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com by Saturday, July 26 

This two-hour lesson and guided tour is geared toward first-timers and beginners. Instructors will talk about on-the-water safety, decision-making, essential safety gear, selecting the appropriate size and type of board, paddle selection, and basic accessories. The skills covered during this lesson include standing up on a board for the first time, lifting and carrying a paddleboard, launching and landing, paddleboard stance, the forward stroke, basic turning strokes, and stopping. No experience is necessary for this lesson but the conditions of the day (wind, waves, etc.), will determine the difficulty level.

For more information, check out our event page!

Become a Dog Whisperer: Training Your Dogs at CFSBK

Cesar Millan hasn’t got anything on Anthony Newman of Calm Energy Dog Training. Newman was New York magazine’s pick for Best Dog Trainer of 2013, and he’s visiting CFSBK to train your beloved pooch!

When: Saturday, August 2, 2014, at 2:15pm
What: a 90-minute workshop will meet at CFSBK and include obedience exercises in real-world situations, techniques for calm city walking (including a packwalk down to the local dog park), and followed by a Q&A
Where: your favorite gym
Cost: Specially-discounted cost for SBK: $55 per person/dog, which will drop to $45 if at least 10 people sign up

This event is open to CFSBK members and their friends and dogs of all sizes, provided they are basically social and non-aggressive. The deadline to sign up is Saturday, July 12! Email Mare at mare [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com to sign up, and include any specific topics you would like to see covered.  

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27 Places Straight Out Of Nightmares eBaum’s World
The Death-Defying Origins of Bungee Jumping The Atlantic
7 Myths About The Brain You Thought Were True ASAPScience 
“Sonder” Unused Words

Christanna S. deadlifting at dusk with David

• Happy birthday, Nolan G. and Chris P.! 
• Wanting those mad abs for your time at the beach? Check out KH’s Pilates class tonight at 7:30pm!

Returning After a Layoff, or “How Barbella Got Her Moves Back”

By Noah Abbott

Stupid, pesky life. Just when you’ve gotten on a roll—hitting PR’s, mastering new skills, dropping or gaining some weight—life has a way of barging in the door like Cosmo Kramer, and knocking everything askew. New jobs, new babies, injury, vacation, the beginning of football season, great happy hour specials—the road is littered with temptation and obstacles that seem purpose-built to knock you from your lofty perch of swoledom.  

So what to do? First and most importantly, get your ass back in the gym. Email us. Just show up. Walk through the door. Follow the programming and do what you’re told, even if you feel listless or without a real plan. Like Ol’ Greg Glassman likes to say, “The magic is in the movements.” Don’t worry too much about your time off, and just start moving again. 

Of course, this wouldn’t be much of an article if the only advice was “Come back to the gym.” It certainly isn’t always that easy, so here’s some additional stuff to think about:

A Unique Opportunity
Instead of obsessing over rustiness, lost gains, or WODs unWODded, let’s reframe your “extended rest day” in a positive light. Any nagging injuries or fatigue you may have been dealing with have most likely resolved themselves. Did you have any bad habits or movement patterns before your time away? You now have an opportunity to reprogram your body and reestablish good motor patterns. Commit to eliminating that early arm pull in the clean, scarecrow arms during double unders, or soft deadlift setup. Years ago, as a BJJ athlete, whenever I came back from time off, while I would feel undeniably rusty, my Jiu-Jitsu would always be more creative and explorative when I resumed. Old patterns, tendencies, and strategies would have fallen away, replaced by a sprawling menu of possibility. Zen Buddhists call this shoshin, or beginner’s mind—“an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.” Use your time off, and harvest that shoshin, intrepid Crossfit samurai. 

You Don’t Own Anything
One of the worst things you can do, both in terms of safety and your in-gym confidence, is to try and pick up right where you left off. It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially if your numbers were trending upward, and it is incredibly tempting to try and resume your lifting progressions approximately where you left them. While you probably haven’t lost a significant amount of strength (most suggest somewhere between a 10-20% drop in 2-4 weeks), and you could probably will the weight up on grit alone, your body is most likely not prepared for the load, and the risk outweighs the benefits. “But I own 225#!” you say? Sadly, we don’t own anything in the gym. Strength and skill are perishable qualities, and at best we are renters, subject to the whims of those cruel and unforgiving landlords. (This should be a pretty familiar feeling for anyone who has ever rented an apartment anywhere in New York.) 

Similarly, it’s tough when being paired with classmates for racks to try and keep up with the same “crew” you had previously been lifting with and benchmarking yourself against. Unfortunately, while you’ve been out having babies or shooting your movie or whatever, they’ve been steadily plugging away, and at this point in time, they are likely stronger than you. Realize this is only a temporary situation, check your ego, and you’ll be reunited once again.

So, treat your layoff like a reset after a failure in a linear progression, even if you were cruising along smoothly beforehand. Take 90% of your last documented lift numbers or less—you really can’t go wrong starting lighter and having things be “easy” for a while. Don’t worry, they’ll quickly get hard again. Start climbing back up that hill, Sisyphus!

With conditioning work, things are simpler. You’ll feel pretty gassed for the first few workouts, and then progressively better. Take it easy for a week or two, and consider scaling movements to slightly easier alternatives until you feel like you’re fully “back.” If you are a heavy hitter athlete, who consistently RXes workouts and has taken significant time off, be especially wary of jumping right back into the deep end. Remember, in that deep end lurks Rhabdo—often ballyhooed, rarely seen, but perfectly suited to laying low deconditioned fit people with big egos. 

Welcome Back! 
Now that you are a little more equipped, come on back to the gym, we miss you! Remember, puhleeeeeze do not hesitate to ask the coaches about any component of your illustrious comeback tour, especially if its due to injury. We love that you are tough cookies and stoic, steely-eyed warriors and all, but we are happy to work out scales, subs, and other quandaries of the anatomical, theoretical, philosophical, and metaphysical variety. We want to be your co-pilot on your road back, but we can’t read minds (YET), so please let us know what’s been going on so we can do our best to help.

See you in the gym.

How have you relocated your groove after some time away from the gym?

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The Importance of Celebrating your Success Catalyst Athletics
The Overhead Squat CrossFit Journal
Stressed Out: Americans Tell Us About Stress In Their Lives NPR
≤ kg Radiolab

Fitness: 3 x 5 Linear Progression 
Add 2 to 5 lbs to last week. 

Performance: 82.5% x 4 x 4, then 80% x 4 x 4
Rest two minutes between sets.  

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Partner WOD
AMRAP 21 Minutes (one partner working at a time): 
3 Strict Press 115/75
6 Push Press 115/75
3 Strict Pull Ups
6 Kipping Pull Ups
200m Sprint 

Post Rx and time to comments.

McD and David installed a Big Ass Fan to keep you cool this summer

News and Notes 

• BREAKING NEWS: Not really, but there is a cool new post over on Coach David’s blog Inside the Affiliate called “This is What You Need to Know About Choosing the Right CrossFit Gym.” Since you’re hopefully already happily training at an affiliate (CFSBK!), we’d love if you sent the article to friends and family considering starting CrossFit in a different region.
• Another two weeks, another new batch of Lost and Found itemz. Collect your stuff by July 15, or we’re giving it away.

CFSBK Classifieds

Have you checked out CFSBK Classifieds yet? No, there isn’t a Missed Connections thread, but there’s all sorts of other neat stuff. This new forum will allow CFSBKers to connect with each other on the level of services, housing, employment opportunities, items for sale or giveaway, lessons and classes, programs, etc. It’s a result of our desire to find a better way to localize all the resources within our community. Head over there to play around and post (responsibly) to your heart’s content! 

Travel Gym Recommendations 

We also wanted to find a way to save all the recommendations we make to each other about other gyms while people are traveling, hence the new tab Travel Gym Recommendations (it’s also in the left-hand column under Member Resources). This will be a great place to keep everyone’s notes about their experiences at other affiliates, both good and bad. The United States West thread is currently in the lead with the most entries, but we know you guys regularly gallivant to the far corners of our globe and CrossFit, so fill up those other regions!

If you have any questions about either of these new additions, please email Kate at katharine [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com.

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The Secret of Effective Motivation New York Times
Burpee Equivalents: Junk Food in Terms of Your Favorite Exercise Spartan Blog
Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health, and Life w/ Ben Greenfield Barbell Shrugged
This Aerobic Video Wins Everything

Fitness: Mid Hang Snatch + Knee Hang Snatch
Work up to something heavy on the complex.

Performance:
1) High Hang Snatch 1-1-1

2) Knee Hang Snatch 100% x 2 x 2
Work up to a heavy single from the high hang, then perform two doubles from the knee.  

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Back Squat 

Fitness: 3 x 5 Linear Progression
Add 5-10 pounds to last week’s weight. 

Performance: 77.5% x 6 x 5
Rest less than two minutes between sets. 

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Kevin R. never ceases in his search for that perfect location for an impromptu L-sit. Here he is on top of a stone wall that surrounds the 13th-century San Michele de Murato church in the hills of the Nebbiolo region of Northern Corsica. 

• Happy birthday, Dave F.! It’s tough to choose, but we think this is our favorite photo of you.

Bend, Stretch, and Mobilize

• Yoga for Athletes with Coach Whitney is at 10am.
• Active Recovery is at 11am and 12pm with Coach David.

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Psychedelic Mushrooms Put Your Brain in a “Waking Dream” Washington Post
Think Like a Doctor: Sugar-Free New York Times

K. Harpz dropped in on K. Starr, the King of Mobility

• Happy 50th Birthday, Jason H.!

Scheduling Changes Today

• Open Gym is from 8am to noon. 
• Classes are canceled. 
• There is a floater WOD programmed for people who showed up yesterday and are coming to class tomorrow.

Today is Your Last Chance to Sign Up for the 2014 Subway Series

The 2014 Subway Series is right around the corner, and we know you’ll be sad if you don’t sign up! CFSBK will have one 4-person competition team, and any number of additional 3-person open teams. For more details on the event, check out our post last week. If you are interested in participating in the Subway Series either as a member of the Competition Team or an Open Team, please fill out all fields in the following form by TODAY. Coaches will review the list of interested athletes and their availability and assign everyone to a team. Your team will then receive an email notifying you to register for the event.

2014 Subway Series Registration Form

Don’t delay! It’s your last chance! If you have any questions, hit up Melissa [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com. 

Happy Fourth of July, CFSBK!

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The Pursuit of ‘Radical Acceptance’: Mental Health and the NFL ESPN
The Push-Up: Why is This So Hard? Catalyst Athletics
Wrong! Deconstructing 5 Famous History Stories Radiolab 

Fitness
Perform each segment for time and rest until the next 10 minute segment begins.

At 0:00
800m-ish (1 lap starting towards 4th, plus 4th and back) 

At 10:00
40 DB Squat Clean Thrusters

At 20:00
3 Rounds:
15 Kettlebell Swings
15 Push Ups 

Performance
Perform each segment for time and rest until the next 10 minute segment begins.

At 0:00
800m-ish (1 lap starting towards 4th, plus 4th and back) 

At 10:00
3 Rounds:
10 Dumbbell Thrusters
10 Handstand Push Ups

At 20:00
3 Rounds:
15 Kettlebell Swings 72/53
5 Muscle Ups

Post times and loads to comments.

Kevin M. with an excellent split jerk recieving position. Note his vertical torso, active shoulders and the overall balance in the system.

Scheduling Changes for Tomorrow

The gym will be open for Open Gym from 8am until 12pm. There are no other classes scheduled for that day and we will have a floater WOD on tap for anyone interested. Classes are on as normal for Saturday

Sign Up for the Subway Series! Friday is Your Last Chance!

Another year has gone by, and it’s time once again for an NYC affiliate throwdown: the 2014 Subway Series! CFSBK will have one 4-person competition team, and any number of additional 3-person open teams. For more details on the event, check out our post last week. If you are interested in participating in the Subway Series either as a member of the Competition Team or an Open Team, please fill out all fields in the following form by TOMORROW. Coaches will review the list of interested athletes and their availability and assign everyone to a team. Your team will then receive an email notifying you to register for the event.

2014 Subway Series Registration Form

Jump on it, CFSBK. You’ll be sad if you miss this chance! If you have any questions, hit up Melissa [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com. 

Travel Gym Recommendations 

Along with CFSBK Classifieds, we’ve also added a tab to fix the often weekly request for recommendations re: other gyms while people are traveling. The tab is Travel Gym Recommendations, and it’s also in the left-hand column under Member Resources. This will be a great place to keep everyone’s notes about their experiences at other affiliates, both good and bad. Post away!

June 2014 Articles in Review

June was a busy month full of fresh articles from our coaches and repurposed articles from Inside the Affiliate. In case you missed any of them, we’ve included this list for your Thursday reading pleasure (starting with the latest):

Bodyweight Workouts for Traveling David Osorio
The Organic Affiliate Growth Model Inside the Affiliate
How to Be a Good Bar Partner Chris Fox
Global Flexion and Extension David Osorio
Active Recovery at CFSBK Inside the Affiliate
Notes from Jason Fidler, D.C.: Moving Smart and Increasing Performance
The Underlying Philosophy Behind Programming at CFSBK Chris Fox
Why We Love to Blog at CFSBK Inside the Affiliate

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I Don’t Want to Look Like Her Average2Athlete
Tim Howard Just Taught Me to Love Soccer The Atlantic

News and Notes

Sun’s out, guns out: Nan getting low on her air squats

News and Notes 

• CSA Update: Village Fishmonger is on vacation this week, so the July fish delivery will be Wednesday, July 9. Meat, eggs and vegetables will arrive as scheduled tomorrow. Email Michele with questions: mignyc [at] gmail.com. 
• Happy birthday, Eric E., Landis K., and Rachel S.!

PurePharma is Hiring!

Know and love PurePharma’s fish oil, Vitamin D, and Cal/Mag supplements? Well, they’re hiring! PurePharma is looking to hire talented, full-time Territory Managers in New York. The ideal candidate loves CrossFit and has a passion for health and wellness. Sales experience is a bonus. PurePharma is a fast-growing Danish nutraceutical company headquartered in Denmark. Their ambition is to provide the purest and highest quality health supplements available in the market. Their products are naturally produced, scientifically proven, and are designed to improve health and athletic performance. 

To learn more and apply for this position, please send a cover letter and resume along with a 30-60 second video clip (why you’re the best candidate) to: Kerri [at] purepharma.com

CFSBK Classifieds

You may have noticed a neat new tab in the bottom left-hand column under Member Resources called CFSBK Classifieds. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a specific forum for all CFSBKers to connect with each other on the level of services, housing, employment opportunities, items for sale or giveaway, lessons and classes, programs, etc. 

The Classifieds idea is a result of our desire to find a better way to localize all the resources within our community. Typically people write about these things in the comments section of each day’s post, but if someone doesn’t see the post that day, they won’t necessarily hear about it. Feel free to continue posting in the comments, especially in the interest of drawing people over to the Classifieds tab, where your information will be visible for much longer. It will also be a great way for us to learn more about what you’re up to beyond your time at 597 Degraw Street!

Head over there to play around and post (responsibly) to your heart’s content! If you have any questions, please email Kate at katharine [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com.

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Retirement Home or Workout Park? Ross Training
Secrets of the Creative Brain The Atlantic
Vasiliy Polovnikov Snatch 190 kg (419 lbs) at 105 kg bodyweight Catalyst Athletics
All Hail the Pink Helmet Posse The Hairpin