Radhika being “Unladylike”
I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who came out this Saturday for my performance. I love our gym and all the people there so much and it was just so much fun. We raised $430 for Womens Education Project – which is almost enough to send two women to college. If we didn’t have enough Indian fans, we do now!  –Radhika Vaz

Jonathan Schleifer’s Testimonial

Wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for having my back when my foot was injured. A little more than 6 weeks out of the boot I completed an 11 mile Tough Mudder at starting altitude of 8k. The overall conditioning from CrossFit at CFSB and in particular your support when I was in boot enabled me to finish strong, not necessarily fast, but strong. I completed all 20 obstacles and was the only one on my team to take them all on. The rest had been training with the Tough Mudder program or with personal trainers.

2007 Greg Glassman Interview

Check out these two interviews taken during a 2007 Pittsburgh Level 1 cert. (This is the weekend David O got his Level 1). Some interesting insight into a young Glassman and CrossFit.

Glassman Interview Preview Part 1
Glassman Interview Preview Part 2

What will your caffeine intake probably be today? Note times and types.
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This Is Your Brain on Coffee NYT

Work up to a heavy set of 5
A “paused” Bench Press means that the lifter must wait for the “lift” command before pressing the bar off the chest. This is how powerlifting meets are contested and prevents hard bounced off the chest. We’re using it today to develop some positional strength at the bottom. Bench Pressing will be on for Mondays in the upcoming cycle.

Post loads to comments.
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18 Minutes, NFRs of:
8e Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead squat
Run 400m
Max Set of Unbroken Hollow Rocks OR 20 Reps

Try to get about 3 rounds. Go as heavy as you can organize well on the OHS, if mobility restricts you from performing the overhead portion, carry the dumbbell in a front rack position.
Go hard on the run, take your biggest rests before and after it.

Post experience to comments.

CFSBK Movie Night

When: Friday 6/21. The film will start at 8:15pm, please show up around 8:00pm
Where: CFSBK
How much: Free!

Celebrate the first official day of Summer with Movie night at CFSBK. We’ll be screening the comedy cult classic, “Wet Hot American Summer“.  Please RSVP in the event page so we know how many to plan for. All are welcome, non-members included.

CFSBK will be providing free beer for the event, all are welcome to bring their own alchohol as well as (ideally paleo) snacks.  This movie is not appropriate for minors. It’s also hilarious.

Plot Description
The setting is Camp Firewood, the year 1981. It’s the last day before everyone goes back to the real world, but there’s still a summer’s worth of unfinished business to resolve. At the center of the action is camp director Beth, who struggles to keep order while she falls in love with the local astrophysics professor. He is busy trying to save the camp from a deadly piece of NASA’s Skylab which is hurtling toward earth. All that, plus: a dangerous waterfall rescue, love triangles, misfits, cool kids, and talking vegetable cans. The questions will all be resolved, of course, at the big talent show at the end of the day.

View the trailer here.

CSA Members: RSVP Now for the June 30 Farm Visit!

On Sunday, June 30, our farmers from Herondale and Sol Flower farms will be hosting CSA members (and their families) for a daylong farm visit in upstate New York. We’ll tour the farms, visit with Herondale intern Margie Lempert, and enjoy a pig roast. If you have tasted Herondale’s incredible pastured pork, you know how exciting this prospect is!

We are working out transportation details with the idea of combining a scenic train ride with a quick bus trip from the station to the farm (so nobody has to drive.) In order to plan the transportation and meal
details, we are asking those who want to come to RSVP by Saturday, June 22.

If you are coming, please email Michele at mignyc (at) gmail.com. Don’t forget to say how many will be in your party.

RSVP now!

Inc Magazine at CFSBK this Wednesday

Inc Magazine is doing a story on the business of CrossFit and will be shooting video for the online segment of the piece this Wednesday during the 12pm Group Class. If you don’t want to be on film, please let us know day of and we’ll communicate that with the crew. Burt Helm si writing the article and started with CFSBK about a month ago. After completing Foundations with David and taking regular group classes, Burt also did interviews with tons of people associated with CrossFit, including spending 3 days with Greg Glassman.  We’re excited to see how the article turns out!
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Do You Pee During Workouts? CrossFit

7 Rounds For Time of:
3 Deadlifts, 315/205
7 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups
21 Double Unders

Post time and Rx to comments.

Coach Melo working on her Back Walk Overs

• Today is the last day of Crush Week!
• Happy Father’s Day to all our amazing CrossFit Dads! Here is a special video for you
  

Alan Lynch wants you to check out this charity event

On March 6th, 2013 3 1/2 year old Cameron King was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Cameron has so far undergone 4 rounds of chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC with many more treatments on the horizon. Cameron’s parents, Eve and Christopher King , were recently told that Cameron needs a bone marrow transplant. After weeks of searching, a donor was found and Cami is awaiting final tests and a green light to receive the transplant.
On Sunday, June 23rd we are running, walking, and partying to raise money to offset Cameron’s medical bills and hope you will, too… Read more and sign up here!
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Graham Holmberg in 2013
The Power Of The Crowd with Rich Froning
New Study Finds It Is Impossible To Lose Weight, No One Has Ever Done It, And Those Who Are Trying Should Give Up

For Time:
Row 1000m
75 Kettlebell Swings, heavy
50 Toes to Bar
25 Dumbbell Thrusters, heavy
Run 800m

Post time and Rx to comments.

Ryan goes Overhead

• Want something to do tonight? Theres still room for Radhika Vaz’s one woman show, Unladylike: The Pitfalls of propriety happening tonight at the gym

Massage By Inka

Sip For The Sea

What do sustainable seafood, 20 top chefs, Ariel Kalishman, The Wildlife Conservation Society, Hurricane
Sandy relief Brian Scott and The Hess Collection winery have in common?

One great night to help rebuild the NY Aquarium!

Ariel’s company Sea to Table and Brian’s company The Hess Collection have teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Society and created a food and wine pairing event which will raise funds specifically for NY’s only Aquarium in Coney Island.  The Aquarium has just partially reopened after being severely damaged during hurricane sandy.

On Thursday September 12th, 20 of NY’s best chefs will be pairing sustainable sea to table and farm to table dishes with with sustainable wines from the Hess portfolio at The Central Park Zoo.
How can you help you say?

Brian is looking for a graphic designer to help put together the program that evening. If you would be interested in donating your efforts for a great cause, 2 VIP passes (valued at $500 ea) and some wine, please send Brian a note: bscott(at)hesscollection.com He can give you all the details.

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3 Steps To Fix A Broken Diet Precision Nutrition

Radhika Vaz Performing for Charity at CFSBK This Saturday!

You may have seen Radhika Vaz around; she tends to hang about the lifting platforms but is occasionally known to stray. The people who have suffered her most are members of Coach Fishers strength intensive program, she clings to that class like her life depends on it and we hear that she will not shut up between lifts.
And so we have decided to give her an opportunity to speak uninterrupted for just one hour on JUNE 15 @ 8PM when she will perform her one-woman comedy show for CFSBK members and friends.
Radhika’s show has sold out shows in New York, LA, and several Indian cities that white people have not heard of. Except for Dave Turnbull who has heard of everything.

Unladylike: The Pitfalls of propriety.
Some women just don’t have the heart, mind or body to be a lady. Presenting one woman’s struggle to achieve propriety from adolescence to about now.

Written and performed by Radhika Vaz, directed and developed by Brock Savage.

“…the Indian Wanda Sykes…” The Huffington Post.
“Vaz looks like an angel but is a rebel in disguise.” Time Out Mumbai.

For tickets. $10 per ticket at the door or online here.

All proceeds benefit Women’s Education Project so they may continue to develop resource centers for young women from the poorest families in India to succeed in higher education.

Just so you know $250 sends one woman to college for a year. That means just TWO tickets pay for ONE full month of school. It also means you will have fans in India. For more information email radhikavaz(AT)gmail.com OR cfsbkinfo(AT)gmail.com

Born This Way

Coach Nick’s brother Josh edited a documentary called “Born This Way” that will be screened at the Human Rights Film Festival on Friday, June 21st (9:15 PM), and Saturday, June 22nd (7:00 PM). The film, which provides “intimate access to the lives of four young gay Cameroonians…steps outside the genre of activist filmmaking and offers a vivid and poetic portrait of day-to-day life in modern Africa. Lyrical imagery, devastating homophobia, the influence of western culture and a hidden-camera courtroom drama mysteriously coalesce into a story of what is possible in the global fight for equality.” Check out the trailer and get your tix here!
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Beer & Biodiversity
The Final Nail In The Cardio Coffin TNation

Teams of 2 alternate rounds to complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
3 Power Cleans 185/125
6 Ring Push Ups
9 Squats

The ring push-up is a far more advanced version and requires high levels of shoulder strength and stability. Perform a standard push-up if you can’t organize the ring version perfectly.

Post partner, Rx and rounds completed to comments.

Izzie hitting Squats at the gym

CrossFit In The Dark

Izzie is our first visually impaired athlete at CFSBK (he describes his level of sight as looking through a coffee straw in the dark) and Gais is his friend and CrossFit partner in crime. Izzie is using CrossFit to improve his game in a sport called Goal Ball. Below he talks about what its like to take Group Classes at CrossFit.

I hear coach Fox say “lean towards your right side and actively push your knee over the toes of your right foot from this bottom of a squat position” and my nerves start to fire. He then goes on to lead us with more ballistic stretches and before I know it, he accompanies three chimes of a timer with a “3, 2, 1”, count down. Before I know it, I am amazed at how quickly my imagination of the childlike contour of his body vanishes. Almost instantly Gais starts dragging me to help carry the bumper plates from the front of the gym to our assigned rack. Time passes and warmup sets are completed. I ask Gais to read me how much time is left on the clock and he says “9 minutes”. It’s at that very moment when my Goalball instinct starts to kick in. For you see, in Goalball, all players are blindfolded and therefore cannot read the scoreboard. Therefore, players must rely on their time management skills to help them make favorable decisions on the court.

I think to myself “9 minutes, its crunch time”. In fact, almost every minute spent at the box is crunch time. Soon after our work sets are complete, we move on to a WOD where I start to tell myself that this is where my endurance for Goalball will come from. It’s in these next 10 minutes of double unders bounded by blindly following Gais around the block that I’ll become the best Goalball player New York can offer. The exhilaration of running feels amazing to say the least. Every crack on the street and and every change in texture feeds a my body with an unparalleled sensation of information. I never imagined being able to run around south slope with my visual impairment. Nevertheless, after nearly running into a tree and off a tangent on Degraw, the WOD is finally finished. My lungs burn and remind me of the time I played against the Russian Goalball team for the Bronze Medal in 2011. That game made it to overtime and with barely any energy left, , USA scored the winning goal in the last minute of OT.

This is what a day at CFSBK is like for me. It reminds me of every loss and win I experienced on the Goalball court. It reminds me that there’s still a ton of things for me to learn about my own fitness and capabilities. In fact, a few days ago coach Jessica guided me to do a cat skinning. (Forgive me if I misquoted the exercise name). Never in my life did I think I would be able to make such gains in strength, mobility, flexibility and endurance both in the Crossfit box and on the Goalball court. I would like to thank the coaches at CFSBK for their patience and support in my athletic and weightlifting endeavors. A couple of weeks ago, my team brought the gold medal home for New York in the Western regional competition. It has been over 10 years since New York has brought home a gold medal from a regional tournament and I believe that Crossfit deserves much appreciation for this accomplishment. I am now preparing for my last competition of the season, the Goalball Nationals, which will be held in Vancouver Washington through the dates of June 20-23. I will be competing with my team the New York Knights and hope to contribute towards bringing home another gold medal.

In conclusion, Crossfit has brought me to a profound realization about my visual impairment and it’s that my blindness is nothing more than a nuisance. it’ll sometimes make things more difficult for me, but it’ll never make them impossible. So thanks to all the CFSBK members and staff who choose to light a new candle with me instead of blindly cursing away in the dark.
– Izzie
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Check out the trailer to “A Shot In The Dark” a documentary about Goal Ball Featuring our own Izzie

4 Rounds For Time of:
500 Meter Row
5 Back Squats, 225/135

Today’s workout has a 15 minute Cap. Scale the squats to no more than 65-75% of your max, even less for beginners. The sets should be done unbroken and un-belted. Go hard on the row, then take your time setting up and executing each squat as perfectly as possible.

Post time and load to comments.

Coach Fox making corrections

• Attention CSA Members! Don’t forget that your vegetable and egg pick-up is today between 6-8:30pm

So Long Grant!

Grant Werle will be leaving Brooklyn on June 14th and heading to  LA for a new job. We wish him the best of luck moving forward!

“Thankfully the timing works well and in true CFSB nature, I won’t be missing this cycle’s Crush Week, and will be sent off soar but in shape!

Thank you CFSB for everything… the fitness knowledge, the support, the callus’ and resulting sweaty t-shirts. In only one year, I felt so at home in the Box and have made numerous friends for life.” -Grant W

Samir Chopra in the CrossFit Journal

I was recently contacted by the CrossFit Journal to see if there was anyone in our community who could possibly wax poetic about the parallels between writing and CrossFit. I knew just the man, “The Professor”, Samir Chopra.

Check out the free CrossFit Journal article, “The Written Word” where Hilary Archer discusses writing and CrossFit with two authors. As an added bonus, CFSBK photog Asta Fivgas shot the pictures of Samir for the article.

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See the worldwide rankings comparing results at this years CrossFit Regionals (One guess who won the men’s division..)

This Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Matt Katz and I completed the GoRuck Challenge. We worked as a team with 40 other people to complete Special Forces-based drills, fitness challenges, dips in the East River and treks around the city — all with about 50 pounds of bricks on their back. Brotastic!! -Dave Fung

Avi’s Testimonial

Skills Class: The Kipping Pull-Up

Noah’s Kipping Pull-up workshop will be Sunday, June 16th at 5pm

Kipping pull-up require a significant amount of integrity in the shoulder girdle and as such this class requires a buy in of  1+ Strict Pull-Up (women) or 3 Strict Pull-Ups (men).  The class will be a $15 drop-in and space is limited to 8 participants.  Email Noah(AT)crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com to sign up, make sure to mention your max number of dead hang pull-up and issues you’ve had learning/perfecting the kip so he can better prepare to get you swinging smoothly.

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Lingua Fran-ca CrossFit
How To Do A Perfect Handstand

For Time:
Run 800m
30 Burpees
Run 550m 
20 Burpees
Run 400m
10 Burpees

Run hard and fast, chip away at the burpees without taking any long rests.

Post time to comments.

Thanks to everyone who particpated in and volunteered at the LGBT WOD yesterday!

• Front Desk Maven Lisa F took a bunch of shots at the Total yesterday. Check out our Flickr page to see them!

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!
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MLB Unsure Why It Ever Agreed To Hold League-Wide ‘Teeny Tiny Boy Shorts Day’
Weightlifting Tips – Staying Back on the Snatch California Strength
Mark Bell Discusses Rippetoes Squat Style
CrossFit WOD 100623 Demo with Miranda Oldroyd

Back Squat 1-1-1
Press 1-1-1
Deadlift 1-1-1

This is a CrossFit style powerlifting meet in which you have three attempts to find a 1 rep max in each lift listed. Your CrossFit Total is the sum the highest successful lift in each section. For a detailed explanation on the event and standards for each movement, please read Mark Rippetoe’s CFT overview here.  To see how you rank, check out these strength standards.

Don’t forget to show up during your scheduled sessions. If you haven’t registered yet, there are plenty of spots left in the 8:00 and 12:30 slots.

Post loads to comments.
Compare to 12.11.11

Coach Laurel and Max

CFSBK LGBT WOD Today!

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After Stonewall