Thanks to everyone who came out to our TWO snow shoe trips this weekend. Special thanks to cruise director Mare L for organizing yet again!
More photos can be found on our Flickr account

• Reminder that there is NO Active Recovery tonight!

14.1 in the Books

The first week of the 2014 CrossFit Open is officially over. 14.1 was a test of basic work capacity and coordinationg with the jump rope. Congratulations to all who tackled it.  Please let us know about your experience with 14.1 and what you think next week will be in the comments section.

Week 1 CFSBK Men’s Leaderboard
Week 1 CFSBK Women’s Leaderboard

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN –Your Help Needed!

Coach Nick’s brother has made a short psychological thriller called “Harmon,” and he needs under $10,000 to defray some costs associated with post-production, promotion, getting into festivals, etc. Check out his Kickstarter page and watch the trailer – and the pitch – to learn more.

Every little bit counts! Even if you just give $5 – ONE dollar – it’ll make a difference. Part of the game is simply getting as many participants as possible.

Thanks for considering it!

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Thank you to everyone who voted for Inside the Affiliate in Breaking Muscles Best Fitness Blogs of 2014 Contest. We made the top 20! Winners will be announed on March 10th. CrossFit your fingers that we make the cut to the top 10.

90%x2x5 of last weeks heavy double.

Work on cycling these and not resting in the rack position. If 90% is too heavy to cycle then work at a lighter load. If you didn’t hit last week’s push presses, find a heavy double and perform five sets across there.

Post loads to comments.
PP e5/6
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For Time:
40 Wall Ball Shots
400m Run
40 Burpees
400m Run

Post time and Rx to comments.

The Brooklyn Get Down at CFSBK

CFSBK is hosting a party/fundraiser for the Brooklyn Community Foundation. The proceeds from this event will benefit local non-profit organizations. The event will honor CFSBK for our Fight Gone Bad contributions to the local community. All are welcome to attend for drinks, food and dancing. BCF is offering two levels of tickets — $30 “Rookie” admission which includes 2 tickets that can be used for drinks or raffle entry and $55 “Pro” admission with 10 tickets for drinks/raffle entry.  Both levels are specially discounted for CFSBK members. 

Purchase Tickets Here

NEW Fish CSA! Sign Up Info Below!

Performance: 5/3/1 “5 Week”
65%x5, 75%x5, 85×5+

Loss of a neutral back position will automatically end your rep out.

Fitness: 1×5 Linear Progression
Add 5-10lbs from last week’s exposure.

Post loads to comments.
DL e4/6
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Row As Many Calories as Possible in 10 Minutes

Post total calories rowed to comments.
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Ring Inversions or Skin the Cats 101


2013 CrossFit Games Champ Sam Briggs gets 472 reps on 14.1. That’s 10 Rounds + 22 Double Unders

Sunday Updates and Notes

• Today at 2:00pm Coach Jeremy’s Strength Cyclers will be competing in the CrossFit Total! Come see some big iron move!
• The Foxes are on vacation! There is No Active Recovery today or this Tuesday evening.
• CFSBK OG Sarah LR will be leaving New York for San Fran to embark on a career as a primary care clinician this week. All are welcome to her going away party today at the Whole Foods indoor roof today from 2-6pm. Bon Voyage, SLR!!!! CFSBK will miss you!

TODAY! Village Fishmonger at CFSBK for Fish CSA Meet & Greet

As many rounds in 10 minutes as possible of:
30 Double Unders
15 Power Snatches, 75/55

Post rounds completed to comments.
compare to 10.3.13
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4 Rounds NFT of:
20 Russian Kettlebell Swings
10 Goblet Squats
10 Ring Rows

Whiteboard Review

• Happy hiking to everyone going on the snowshoe trip today!
• Don’t forget we have Yoga with Whitney H at 10am and Active Recovery at 11 and 12pm.

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Rich Froning got 444 Reps on today’s workout.. after deadlifting 530×3

Alan L Overhead Squatting during the recent Frostbite Challenge
See some more cool pics on our Flickr account

Programming Note at 14.1 Reminder

As you may have noticed, 14.1 is basically what we programmed for yesterday’s conditioning work (conspiracy, coincidence or collective unconsciousness phenomenon?).  In any case, folks who are coming in today to do yesterdays Clean and Jerk and want to do 14.1 on Saturday will be given the alternate programming option of:

15 Minutes NFRs of:
Row 250m
25 Weighted Sit-Ups
5-10 Strict Chin-Ups

Also, if you’re registered for the Open, please review the movement standards from the Games site and please make sure a coach knows you’re registered before attempting a workout. We need to make sure people have judges, the judges understand the standards and that you’ve got an official score card which can be picked up at the Front Desk.

When you complete your workout, please tear off the bottom half for yourself and leave the top half with the Front Desk. Submit your scores to the games site no later than 8pm on Monday night otherwise you will not be able to present a score.

There are currently over 190,000 competitors registered for the 2014 CrossFit Open. How will you stack up?
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Watch Garret Fisher and Marcus Hendren taking on 14.1

Fitness:
15 minutes to work up to a heavy single Power Clean + FSQ + Split Jerk

Performance:
15 minutes to work up to a heavy single Clean & Jerk

Post loads to comments.
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For Time:
25 Double Under
15 Hang Power Snatch 95/65
50 Double Under
10 Hang Power Snatch
75 Double Under
5 Hang Power Snatch

Post time and Rx to comments.

Erin M with a GOOD REP overhead

• Watch Coach Fox on Buisness Insider talking about a 4 minute workout folks can do at their office!
• As we mentioned earlier this week, CFSBK is running a follow up challenge through June 1st for anyone who completed the LFPB challenge and wanted to continue their progress. To that end, superstar Ryan K created the 2014 Bonus Challenge Tracker to help you track your behaviors for the next few months. Get on it!

NEW Fish CSA! Sign Up Now, or Come to the Info Session Sunday 3.2

Village Fishmonger will hold an Info Session at the gym this Sunday, 3.2 from 10:45-1

Tonight at 8:00pm 14.1 will be announced on the Games site.. any bets on what will come out of the hopper??
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When should I tackle the 2014 Open Workouts? CrossFit Invictus

Performance: 5/3/1 “5 Week”
65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+
Add 5-10 lbs to your training max

Fitness: 2×10
Linear Progression

Post loads to comments.
LBBSQ e4/6
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With a partner, alternate per round until 20 total rounds are completed of:

Performance:
10 Push-Ups
10 Dumbbell Split Cleans (5ea)

Use ~ 45% of BW as Rx for the DBs. Should be able to do 10 UB push ups.

Fitness:
5 Strict Burpees to a plate
10 Deficit Lunges (5ea)

Deficit Lunges are reverse lunges with feet on the plate, back knee kisses the floor. Be strict on the push up for the burpee to develop some body weight pushing strength.

Post time, partner and Rx to comments.

Amy and I were back in Seattle this weekend for a wedding and grabbed a workout at our old gym, Crossfit Belltown. Here’s a pic with our coach Eric. -Mike A

Did you CrossFit at a different gym before CFSBK?

14.1 Announced Tomorrow! Saturday Logistics notes

Team CFSBK currently has 101 athletes (holy smokes!) signed up for the 2014 CrossFit Open. The first live announcement for workout 14.1 will air on the CrossFit Games site at 8pm EST and will feature Games athletes Garett Fisher and Marcus Hendren going head to head. We’ll put it up on the big screen if anyone wants to hang around after their class and check it out.

As mentioned previously on the blog we’ll be running the Open workouts on Saturdays which means you’ll be able to get your score validated on Friday during group classes, Friday night at Open Gym, Saturday during Group classes or Sunday during Open gym. We will not be able to accommodate folks doing the WOD at other times due to space and time constraints. If you have an extenuating circumstance please let us know but the schedule above should provide ample options for anyone serious enough to sign up for the Open.

Also depending on the workout logistics, we may require anyone NOT officially registered for the Open to do a different or modifed workout based on what comes out of the hopper. Some of the Open workouts require intricate set ups and more equipment so we’ll play it week by week and let you all know what the plan is.

Good luck to everyone registered! There is also a new Games app that will allow you to track your progress via your smart phone!

Curious about meditation? CFSBK can help!

Vajradhara Meditation Center in Prospect Heights will be conducting a special meditation workshop upstairs at CFSBK on Sunday, March 23 from 2-3:30pm.  The class will include teachings, a guided meditations and a Q&A session. Taught by a qualified Western teacher, the meditation class will be easy to understand and emphasize how to meditate and practice in our NY urban environment.  More info HERE.

Help Inside the Affiliate Win a Contest!

Breaking Muscle is having their 2014 Top 10 Fitness Blog contest, and we want to WIN. Well, that might be a stretch, but we’d love to get nominated. If you haven’t nominated ITA yet and feel so inspired, we would love even more of your love! Please visit this link to nominate Inside the Affiliate. Thank you so much to everyone who already nominated us! You guys are amaaaaazing!
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Fashion Vs Function Power Athlete
The Human Loop with Damian Walters
Svend Steensgaard, 91 Powerlifter Deadlifts 268lbs

Bekka Palmer

We’re introducing a new mini-series on the blog today called Behind the Lens, about our intrepid and freakishly talented photographers. Photographs don’t grow on trees, and our Flickr account is populated by the art of a number of wonderful CFSBKers. They’re so good at shooting us while we sweat that we sometimes even forget they’re there! Our first photographer is the lovely Bekka Palmer. See some of her favorite photos and her interview with Kate below.

Behind the Lens: Bekka Palmer

Candid Shots

Where and when were you born? Denver, Colorado on December 28, 1985 at 8:15 a.m.

What is your theme song? Eye of the Tiger

If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be? My other dream was to be a C.I.A. agent

Weird fact: Both of my parents are aerospace engineers.

Do you believe forks evolved from spoons? No way! Okay, maybe now that I think about it, but I think a fork is more of an evolution of the knife than the spoon.

Favorite photographer? Do I have to pick just one? How about one living and one not living. My favorite living photographer right now is Lauren Randolph, and my favorite departed photographer is Walker Evans (who has an exhibit at MoMA right now if you are interested).

Longer Exposure

Kate: So, how did you start down the CrossFit journey and how did you find SBK?

Bekka: I started CrossFit almost five years ago when I was living in San Diego. I started watching some videos from CrossFit SoCal and decided I wanted to try it. I was so nervous going in my first time, I think I sat in the car for 15 minutes before getting the nerve to walk in the door. My first few weeks I could barely move a 22 pound bar, but I was hooked. I stayed there for a while and then got really into the CrossFit Endurance program and started coaching for the CrossFit Invictus Endurance team. I was working out probably 8+ times a week including the CrossFit Endurance programming. I loved it and fell into a crowd of ultra marathoners who were all doing it the CrossFit way. I tried one 50k and it was miserable, but also incredibly gratifying. After than I continued running and doing CrossFit, but realized one day I needed to leave San Diego for my career.

I moved to New York and haven’t run more than a mile since.

I had a friend of a friend that was going to SBK when I moved to Brooklyn. Conveniently, I moved just 16 blocks south of the gym so I started at SBK in November 2011. 

Kate: Tell us about your journey with your camera. Do you remember your first photograph? What did you shoot with? 

Bekka: The last time I was at my mom’s house she dragged a bunch of old boxes out of the garage and asked me to go through them and get rid of anything I didn’t want anymore. While I was looking through the boxes I came across two things: my first camera and my first photography project. I was in fifth grade, and was in a special arts program through my elementary school. I don’t think it was the first time I had ever used a camera, but it was definitely the first time someone handed me a camera and basically told me, “This is a tool which can be used to tell stories.” 

The camera was an all-plastic Vivitar, which is currently sitting on my desk.

Kate: What do you shoot with now? 

Bekka: My main camera is a Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm lens. Occasionally, I’ll bust out my Polaroid for fun, but that film is pretty expensive.

Kate: What’s your favorite photo that you’ve taken?

Bekka: That’s tough, I’m pretty hard on myself, so I’m rarely satisfied with my work, but right now it’s a photo I took during a family reunion last summer on the Gasconade River in Missouri. 

Kate: When your photographs are seen as a whole, I feel like a really clear, crisp, and lovely aesthetic emerges. You’re so excellent at composing your photos in an interesting and fresh way, and at drawing attention to things that most people might overlook. What captures your eye over everything else? 

Bekka: Oh wow, thank you! In my life, I can be focused almost to a fault. If I get my mind set on one thing, I’ll let everything else fall by the wayside to see it through. That probably translates a lot to my photography work. I pick the subject of my photo and everything else just falls away. I think it’s probably about 10% intuition and 90% practice. For every good photo I take there are at least 100 bad ones.

Kate: If you had to spend the rest of your life photographing one thing or one type of scene, what would you choose?

Bekka: I think it would be behind the scenes of film shoots. I did my first behind-the-scenes gig recently and was completely enthralled by the amount of energy and equipment it takes to make a movie. 

Kate: Do you have a philosophical approach to your art, or does it seem more intuitive and organic? Or both?

Bekka: I definitely am the type that shoots with my gut more than with my head. If I overthink something, it never turns out well. Often it’s a game of patience, and it’s more about being there with your camera ready than about planning great shots ahead of time, especially when you’re doing documentary photography. The genuine moments can’t be staged.

Kate: Tell us about your life outside of the gym. How do you spend your days beyond barbells and skulls?

Bekka: Now that I’m freelancing full-time, I spend about 90% of my waking hours working. I have a lot of emails to write, estimates to build and I spend a lot of time writing pitches to companies I really want to work with. I’m also very lucky to have a lot of freelancer friends, so we can sit together and work and it makes it more fun to do the admin side of things. When I’m not working I try to kick back with friends and have a few beers. My sister lives in Northern New Jersey, so I like to head out there and visit with her, my brother-in-law and my nieces.

Another of Bekka’s favorite photos. Click the image to learn more about Frank.

Kate: Talk to me about shooting athletes and people who are sweating all over the place and often not looking their conventionally “sexiest.” How do you capture CrossFit in your photos? What’s the hardest part about shooting athletes?

Bekka: I guess I go into it expecting to get shots that maybe aren’t the most flattering, but the ones where people are making crazy faces are the most genuine. Like, yeah, that 200 pound deadlift was a challenge for that athlete, and it should look that way in the photo. I’m not trying to get fake smiles during difficult movements. However, I do understand that not everyone is into having their most intense faces on the blog, so sometimes after class people will come up to me and ask to see their photos, and if they really hate them I won’t post them. 

The hardest part is catching them at just the right time. If you look at someone who makes their living taking photos of professional athletes, they have four cameras that each can take 15 frames per second. They’ll have them all rigged together so they can push one button when Shaun White is doing some half pipe trick and can grab 60 shots at 4 angles in just 4 seconds. To me that’s kind of cheating, it’s a numbers game, if you take 60 photos you are almost guaranteed to get one good one. For me, since I have a slower camera and only one of them, it’s about having the intuition to wait until the perfect moment.

Kate: What’s your favorite event or day that you shot at SBK? 

Bekka: My favorite day so far was Memorial Day Murph last spring. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had the garage door open. I went in one of the first heats so I had the rest of the day to hang out and take photos. It’s nice to not just be an observer, but be able to participate and take photos at the same time. I really enjoyed the vibe at the gym that day, most people hung out long after their heat to have beers and eat that delicious chicken Fox was grilling. I caught a photo of David sleeping on the wrestling mat that day too, which is a great one for the archive.

Kate: Where can we see more of your work? Can I hire you? 

Bekka: My portfolio is at bekkapalmer.com and I update my photography blog at look.bekkapalmer.com pretty often. You can also follow me on Instagram.* Yes, I’m available for work. Mostly I’m sticking to documentary work, but I enjoy doing portraits or more collaborative projects as well. If you have some idea, but aren’t really sure how to do it, I would love to help!

*She humbly didn’t mention it, but Bekka also happens to have over nine million followers on Pinterest. Follow her here.

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If you feel inspired, please remember to nominate Coach DO’s blog Inside the Affiliate for Breaking Muscle’s Top 10 Fitness Blogs contest. Have the best Tuesday ever, CFSBK! 

Work up to a heavy double in 12 minutes.

Goal is no failing. Work on creating an active, rock solid rack with the shoulders shrugged up and pushed forward slightly to support the bar. Try to focus all of your leg and hip drive through a rigid torso straight into the bar.

Post loads to comments.
Push Press e4/6
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As Many Rounds as Possible in 8 Minutes of:
15 Kettlebell Swingsm 53/35
10 Push Presses 115/75
5 Toes to Bars

Post rounds completed and Rx to comments.

Check out our new “events wall” next to the Front Desk

Yoga for Athletes at CFSBK

Do you consider yourself too inflexible or inexperienced to try yoga because you’re not one of those “naturally” bendy-kinda-people? Are your tight shoulders keeping you from finding a good overhead squat position? Are your hips and hamstrings begging for a bit of attention? Do you sit in a chair for long period of time? You get where this is going…

These ongoing Yoga for Athletes classes, designed and taught with the CrossFitter in mind, will allow you to start exactly where you are and build a foundation that supports your WODs, weightlifting, and overall quality of life. We’ll learn and practice basic postures, focusing on the alignment and action of the body. Through a variety of standing, seated, kneeling, prone/supine poses, and even some inversions, the whole body will be stretched, moved, challenged, and restored. With consistent yoga practice over time, you can expect to increase your balance, improve coordination, develop more range of motion, create control of your breath, and calm the mind.

All payments will now go through Zen Planner. Please sign in at the Front Desk before coming upstairs to class!
Class is open to CFSBK members and non-members.

People with previous yoga experience are encouraged to attend, as modifications and variations will be provided for all levels.

Help Inside the Affiliate Win a Contest!

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What Your Deadlift to Squat Ratio Can Tell You About Your Olympic Lifts Breaking Muscle
The CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide

Performance: 5/3/1 “1 Week”
75%x1, 85%x1, 95×1+

Loss of a neutral back position will automatically end your rep out.

Fitness: 1×5 Linear Progression
Add 5-10lbs from last week’s exposure.

Post loads to comments.
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As Many Rounds as Possible in 7 Minutes of:
25 Double Unders
3 Thrusters, 155/105

Today’s thrusters should be strictly, jerking is a no rep!

Post rounds completed and Rx to comments.

Coach Nick Coxwains Robert F in a solit Paleo Chair at CRASH Bs

Potluck, LFPB and a New Challenge

Thanks to everyone who came out to the potluck yesterday! We had about 90 folks come through the gym and brought lots of tasty food and tastier booze. Big thanks to cruise director Mare L for organizing the potluck and Coach Fox for organizing and seeing through the entire LFPB Challenge. We even had farmer Jerry from Herondale there to talk CSA with interested members.

2014 LFPB Winners
1. Nick F & Shaye L
2. Dave & Sarah E
3. Evan E & Elyse B

Also shout out to CFSBK Hoodie recipient and serious CFSBK OG Steph P who was in our FIRST foundations cycle ever in 2008 and has brought countless new CFSBKers with her.

Follow up Challenge
Everyone who filled out the post challenge write up is entered into our follow up challenge which extends through June 1st. Essentially we want to see how well people can adopt long term healthy behaviors from the challenge and continue onwards with their progress. The challenge will be judged on another set of “after” pictures and a write up indicating how they implemented and stuck to their new plan. Top prizes are one free month of training for top male and female.
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The “Knees Out” Cue