David Gets Back Handsprung
Yesterday’s WOD was a doozy! Congrats to Scott L, Ryan P and Mcdowell for finishing it Rx’d under the 15:00 cap. Check out this photo album to see pictures from this WOD’s debut in 2009. How many SBK’ers can you spot?
CrossFit Total Pictures
David B (the guy with the 1,255 Total) posted some pictures from the Hybrid Athletics CrossFit Total to his Flickr page. Click here to relive the magic.
Jump Rope Progressions
Want to work on your jump rope skills? Check out these three videos from Coach Carl Paoli over at Gymnastics WOD and see if you don’t pick up some helpful pointers.
Jump Rope Progression Pt. 1
Jump Rope Progression Pt. 2
Jump Rope Progression Pt. 3
CrossFit South Brooklyn offers a unique training experience relative to most health clubs. Describe the facilitie (or facilities) where you used to train and what it was like.
________________
Annie Thorrisdottir Talks 2009, 2010 and 2011 Games CrossFit
“Scaling The WOD”
The Home Gym: Jim Agens CrossFit
Yea so my old globo was pretty bad. At one point we had a "mad shitter" who would leave floaters in the hot tub. God bless Staten Island and nowhere else.
I've certainly been in plenty of terrible gyms, but I did go to some that I loved. The Adonis Gym, on Webster Avenue, in the boogie down bronx. Two of us were sick of lifting in the little gym at Fordham and wanted a different environment. This place was awesome. Beat up, holes in the walls, duct tape all over all of the benches, etc., but there was plenty of weight, and big boys doing big things. We did a bulgarian strength program in there and I put on 25 pounds in a few months. I got strong in there. At first, when we walked in, I think that the music may have stopped. The owner of the gym said "hey, I saw you walking down the street yesterday dressed in a suit. I almost mugged you." ha ha ha he was a cool dude a bodybuilder and it was a cool spot.
world gym on mercer was actually unique, because it had a boxing ring in the basement, and the Frank Brothers training guys there. (Just google Raul Frank, Ronson Frank, Steven Frank. the real deal.) A lot of great sparring.
Flex's gym in Norristown was good, a bunch of muscle heads, and we did our heavy lifts, but we also used all of the machines. Hack squats!
I love our place, there's no question that it's got the best sense of community of any of the places that I've worked out, and I think I've found some good ones over the years.
@Coaches: The press on Saturday seems to have caused a painful spasm in my neck and shoulders, which was aggravated last night by pressing again. I did some theracaning, and then did some heat/ice this morning. Its still pretty painful and stiff. Anything else I could do? Thanks!
Wow, not sure why I congratulated an "Eric" for finishing the WOD last night when I really meant Scott. Sorry about that! Great work again to the 3 that finished!
Before I started Crossfit 3 years ago, I worked out at a well-known gym in Chelsea a block from my job. They had 3 Concept 2 rowers no one used. And let's just say most of the "community-building" happened in the steam room or in the bench press line, which meant the squat racks were always free. Glad I eventually found Crossfit (and very happy to have recently joined the lovely CFSBK community) but I won't deny missing the nice showers and warming up on the stationary bike next to Anderson Cooper.
Before CFSBK I had been going to Body Elite on Court and Union for about 3 years. It was highly…functional. Most importantly, when I started to get back in shape (In fall of '08 I was desperately out of shape), it was close to home, reducing the cost of getting started and making a change in my life. I think in Summer 2009 my friend got me into Crossfit and I started trying to do metcons around the gym. Since I was a student and could go at off hours this tended to work out well, but once I started working and having to go at "normal" hours it became a disaster.
I stopped doing Metcons for the most part and focused in on barebell training since there was a squat rack, and I wanted to get stronger. I could use it most of the time. There was also a c2 rower which I would use, and space for some heavy carries. I used to see Dave Brooks there a good amount, and am glad he converted to CFSBK with me.
I liked the community on the whole, and I actually got excellent squatting advice from a patron (as in, "hey asshole, you're doing it wrong, get your ass below your knees and explode up, you'll thank me later.").
While it definitely wasn't perfect, and was mostly machines/treadmills/ellipticals, it got the job done for that time period.
Samir,
A muscle spasm is an involuntary contraction of your muscles in response to stress. Essentially, the muscle tightens up as a protective mechanism against perceived danger. Your 1RM attempt triggered it (why is unclear, could have been a technique issue, existing tightness or maybe not enough warm-up) and then pushing that same muscle group again before it fully recovered would have re-aggravated it. For the first 2 days, Ice is the best treatment, after that, switch to heat. Also, you'll need to loosen up the muscle so that it knows to chill out and return to normal tonus.
You can LAX, Theracane or do some other gentle DIY soft tissue treatments on your upper back and traps on it to help relax the muscle. You should also try to gently stretch your upper traps a bit, this video has a decent stretch for these muscles:
http://www.ehow.com/video_4398169_trapezius-muscle-stretch.html
Give it a couple days to calm down, if it doesnt seem to be getting noticably better, talk to me about what else you can do. I'd also avoid pressing until it's resolved then gently reintroduce the movement.
I used to go to New York Sports Clubs, where I mostly did cardio (and waited in crazy lines for treadmills in the winter). I fairly rarely did weight training, and that mostly with machines. Fortunately several friends who've had great success with CrossFit got me interested in looking for something new, especially once I moved to Prospect Heights and there was no NYSC nearby. I'm a pretty solitary person, so the lack of community at NYSC never bothered me, although now after 6 months of SBK I would miss it if I had to move.
My main "gym" remains the park, although now it's Prospect Park instead of Central Park where I used to run. Although I do miss the more varied routes in Central Park, I certainly do not miss the herds of tourists walking five abreast down the running path. People in Prospect Park for the most part understand which lanes belong to which exercisers, which is SO nice!
David:
Thanks very much for the tips and pointers. I'll keep plugging away at it. Hopefully, it will calm down in time for tomorrow's benching.
Cheers,
Samir
What's on tap for comp class?
I second that question…whats in the cooker for comp class? Would love to see what I'm missing for a dang soccer game, booo 🙂
And now for way too much information:
Season's Glen "Fitness Room"
I started "lifting" in the clubhouse of my housing complex in new jersey during early high school. It was basically a small carpeted room with one of those multi-station pin loading units. Lots of lat pull-downs, leg presses, crunches and preachers curls happening back then. There was never anyone there.
Roxbury High School Weight Room
A significant improvement in training quality happened here. Still your typical 3 sets of 10, back and bis, chest and tris, quarter squats but I finally had access to free weights. This was a lot of fun because the sports teams would train here and I would try to emulate whatever they were doing and we could take the dumbbells outside which was nice. This was also a pretty small room with dirty and rusty equipment.
Randolph NJ, YMCA
Your run of the mill YMCA. I would lift here with friends from high school and get "swimming lessons" from my friend who swam on the national level. It was mostly him just shaking his head and telling me to stop embarrassing him. This was also fun because I knew a lot of people who worked out there so it was a pretty social environment.
West Chester U weight rooms
For the most part, I worked out with 2-5 friends consistently at the University Fitness Center. This place was also pretty small but we had a nice routine worked out and I got to do an hour of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after most training days. Typical University fitness center, also a great place to meet girls!
I also had some dumbbells and would do workouts on the roof of my apartment or run trails with some friends. (I hated running then too) Later I began working out at the YMCA I worked at which was again, your standard YMCA. (That's where I discovered CrossFit!)
Chuck Mound Performance Training
This was a speed school in NJ I worked at. It was a little bigger than SBK and was mostly an indoor turf field with a weight training set-up along the right. I LOVED this facility. We would start our by lifting for about half an hour and then do sled drags, overspeed drills, plyometric circuits, sprints and sandbag work. I had enough autonomy to do my own thing and train whenever I wanted, even the middle of the night which was always fun. I got a LOT fitter training here.
Equinox Columbus Circle
I basically lived in this building for about 2 years. We had about 60 trainers on average so there were always people to work out with. I had a few really good training partners there that liked to lift heavy and do difficult conditioning. The set-up was great, a platform, bumper plates, kettlebells, dynamx balls, high pull-up bars, squat racks, rowers etc. I was able to follow mainsite programming while I worked out here and always had all the equipment (except ropes) and space I needed. I really enjoyed training there.
Comp Kids:
It was the WOD I did on Sunday (Squat Clean, HSPU, Run) but Fox changed it to:
For Time:
Run 1 mile
30 Squat Cleans 155/105
30 Handstand Push Ups
Can be broken up any way desired
(runs can be any mix of 1600/1200/800/400/200/100 meters)
So it could be done essentially exactly how I did it or you could devise your own plan of attack.
here's my fitness history, if i could be so bold to call anything i did before crossfit 'fitness'.
high school: i was fully sedentary from childhood through 10th grade. in 10th grade i joined the tennis team essentially on a dare, and ended up becoming the most improved player of the year, and captain by my senior year. i haven't played tennis since then but i miss it.
college: i sporadically 'worked out' at the college gym. i took my first weight training course there where i learned to strap myself into about 20 different nautilus machines, but after the course i didn't continue with that.
post-college: i spent the last 3 years before crossfit in various NYSC gyms. i came in to watch my TV stories while zoning out on the elliptical or treadmill or one of those satanic stairmasters. i did some pointless weight training with the leg press, bicep curl machines, etc., and never made any progress. i was bored, listless and miserable there.
i finally started foundations in crossfit in march of this year after considering it for years and i couldn't be happier. i've gained skills, lost body fat, and have actual meaningful benchmarks of fitness that continue to improve. and of course i've met some really great people!
also, david, that is a really cool pic. i'd love to be able to do some back handsprings — i should check out those classes at chelsea piers. i forgot to mention i did gymnastics as a kid before i got too fat to continue. good times!
First Time Poster, Long Time Reader.
I was a high school and college wrestler, afterwards let my fitness slide for years. I joined NYSC to get back in shape but was not a fan of the machines and classes. An old teammate told me about CFSBK and I started in January and really enjoy the community aspects as well as the workouts.
My last gym a 'trainer' and I use the term lightly told me that girls should not touch free weights cause they would just hurt themselves or start to look 'weird' – sigh. Glad I found CFSB!
My first "training" was in a small ass weight room in high school about 1x week for softball. We didn't know what we were doing and I think we just quarter-squatted and bench pressed. I just remember us all trying to lift more than each other.
During my 1yr at Ohio University, I would occasionally work out at a pretty fantastic facility with an indoor track, swimming, basketball courts, squash courts and I believe a weight room. I wasn't adventurous though so I think I played basketball once and then spent my other few exposures on the track.
When I came to NY, I knew no one in college and was therefore too scared to check out the school's gym on my own. I imagine it was pretty nice place but I spent all of my time eating, drinking and getting real fat.
The first real exposure to a gym (i.e. paying for a membership) came when we were living in the Bronx. The then boyfriend Mr. Fox and I joined Urban Total Fitness on the Grand Concourse just south of Fordham Road. We paid a total of $99 for the both of us…and we got a year free! I was always kinda scared walking into this place. The main room had cardio machines, cable machines, maybe 1 squat rack but plenty of incline/decline bench pressing options. There was an upstairs which I believe was a freeweight room, but no way in hell I was going up there to find out. The treadmills usually had "full-figured" women walking along in full make-up with their hair "did", definitely looking to get picked up. This was a place that I tried not to go to alone so I followed Chris and did whatever he was doing. While not ideal, this gym served its purpose. It got me to be Active again and it led Chris to pursue a career in Exercise Science.
We eventually moved to Brooklyn and I joined NYSC. I loved that there were so many locations and that I could go during my lunch break at work (I ended up taking almost 2 hour lunch breaks but don't tell). I also loved that they had all kinds of classes and I think I tried everything at least once. When I wasn't taking classes, I was either on a cardio machine watching America's Next Top Model or going through their "express line" where I could bang out some leg extensions like crazy. It was also fun to be running on the treadmill and then have a personal trainer come up next to you and start a conversation…trying to get you to buy training with him…yeah, now's a great time, thanks.
Then came Crossfit, July 2009. After Foundations, I started with 2x a week, quickly went to 3x, then officially quit NYSC and became unlimited. Although I'm just hitting my 2 yr anniversary now, it really feels like I've known you all for so much longer than that. And yes, that's a good thing. 🙂
I grew up in southern NH and was a super active kid and teenager, always outdoorsy stuff. I worked at a ski shop all through high school, and now as a grownup city slicker, I cry at the thought of how many days I used to get on snow each season. I was so fortunate that my training "facilities" growing up were the mountains, the beach, the river, the barn…but I certainly never considered myself an athlete, or even athletic due to some evil P.E. teachers and the like.
Cue the college years of awful, lazy habits (though I did wait tables and bartend, so I wasn't a total couch potato). I played some intramural sports — flag football, broomball — and did some social running with friends, but I think I went to my school's gym once during the first week and got totally intimidated and overwhelmed.
I moved to Brooklyn the fall after I graduated from college, and got my first career-type gig (read: desk job) a few weeks after moving. I joined an NYSC soon after because I needed to find a way to tire myself out since I wasn't on my feet waitressing 10 hours a day any longer. I seriously couldn't sleep at night after sitting on my (expanding) bum all day. I was a member there for almost six years and it served me well, especially in the beginning, because the whole gym-going experience was pretty new to me and I liked trying all the classes. About a year ago, I had this moment while on the elliptical machine watching Teen Mom or something, thinking, "Holy crap. Do I have to do this for the rest of my life?" Around that time, my friend in NH was raving about CrossFit, but I was in a demanding grad program back then, and couldn't really dedicate the time to it.
I did a teaser class back in January a few weeks after I finished grad school, and then Foundations in February. I'm really loving my CFSBK experience so far — looking back on when I've been happiest and most motivated in terms of fitness, it makes total sense: I gravitate towards things that are super social and part of a larger means to an end (whether it's reaching a goal of lifting a certain weight or getting in shape for ski season) as opposed to solitary, hamster-on-a-wheel means-to-a-mean type stuff.
I also can't say enough about how awesome CFSBK is in getting ladies psyched to get strong, and supporting us as we do so. Most women I know (myself included) have shied away from co-ed weight rooms at big gyms where the vibes toward ladies are not always so posi (refer back to Mel's story). One or two sessions into Foundations, Fox made this great remark about never calling modified pushups "girl pushups," which made me feel like I had found my people.
And that is the whole gory story.
My most frequent training facility of the past several years was Prospect Park, which I circled around endlessly like a frantic hamster in my effort to train for bike racing. I love the park, but man did I get sick of the park drive.
Dance studios. Mirrors, barres, floor. That's pretty much it from eight to twenty eight. Otherwise everything has been outdoors and very unstructured. I'm so grateful for the environment at CFSBK where it feels like play even when it's hard.
haha running 1 mile in this heat and humidity? Have fun comp class.
*secretly cries that he can't do most comp class WODs*
In all seriousness make sure you guys hydrate. I rode my bike to work at 9am and was already feeling toasty. Then I ran some errands at lunch and it was blazing.
On the more gross TMI front (which is where I thought David was headed when he first said TMI) *mental note to self* Doing GOMAD always know your nearest bathrooms. I took the bus to run errands and barely made it back to my office in time. Sad thing is im not even in full GOMAD yet.
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I actually haven'thad too much experience at other gyms.
I played a lot of sports growing up Basketball, football, baseball, swimming, tennis, and while I was never a star athlete I always enjoyed playing and competing. Our idea of fun on my block was running races in the street , using a broom as a running high jump stick, playing tennis under the streetlights (with no nets) playing basketball or doing these stupid relay races where the 1st leg around the block was skateboarding, lap 2 would be rollerblading, and lap 3 would be on the BMX.
When I played HS sports we'd use the athletic weight room but I was doing the standard 10 rep sets of curls, preacher curls, bench, calf raises, leg press, etc. We had like 3 squat racks but I think only the big time Football players used them. Most the time in the weight room us basketball guys would just screw around get as much in as we wanted and leave.
More basketball players should do a crossfit type routine. I find in general basketball players rely a lot more on natural athletic ability and sport specific practice–than a lot of other sports. I'd like to see some young basketball players get some more crossfit or crossfit type hiit and strength training.
After graduation I was in decent shape I continued to play pick up basketball at local parks and joined a 24hr fitness. I started to go pretty regularly for about 2 months (again doing standard globo stuff) and messed up something in my elbow. To this day I still get elbow pain from time to time that originated there. So after the injury I got a doctors note, cancelled the membership, and stopped going. I still played basketball but that started to reduce in frequency.
Fast forward a couple years to when I moved away to college in Atlanta…
I had maybe a year off and decided to start working out again. Awesome right? NOPE/
What I did those 3 years in college set me back like 12 years. If only I had found crossfit then….
So in college, the off campus housing I lived in had a small weight room with a bunch of machines. I didnt even use those. Every night without fail I would hope on the Treadmill (sometimes when I was bored the stairclimber) for 30-45 minutes a night 5-6 days a week.
I did all this while eating a lot of cheap college food which I thought at the time was healthy.Rice and beans, Lots of pastas, lots of rice, lots of juice.
I ate lots of chicken–but no beef/no pork ( I still don't eat pork but thats a different story). But way more rice, pasta, bread, tortilla chips.
When I was at my natural physical peak after hs I weighed about 155-160. I remember being a pretty strong guy for my size and could hold my own on the basketball court with anyone. After college, the poor eating, and chronic cardio I weighed about 145-150 and had lost a lot of what muscle I had from my hs years. I found myself trying to do a lot of the same things on the basketball court but then just getting out muscled or bouncing off people.
from 2003-2009 I stayed relatively active without a gym. I worked at columbia so would lollygag in their gym, or play pickup basketball. I also commuted to work on my bike so that kept me from gaining 25-40 lbs like most my hs and college friends.
Then in 2009 I joined crossfit. For the last 2 years Ive been trying to gain back some of the weight I lost during the cardio years. Things are finally taking shape and making sense.
And that folks is a long ass entry before I head home from work for the day.
NYSC cobble hill bleacch eliptical blasee, tribal belly dance/lounge on the sundeck and waved at the climbing wall from a-far (bosu ball? what?!) at chelsea piers (@$120 a class as per my attendance – but "free lime/green tea shower products"), k2 boxing queens gold chain trainer anchored my sit-ups, church st muay thaied and broken – strip sideways next to yellow rusty lockers behind curtain, NY San Da SHAMED MY SOUTHPAW n' reeked like sulfuric human hell, harassed at the YWCA after cardio kickboxing by the instructor, made an appearance at YMCA McBurney (it's clean?) and Greenpoint YMCA (Punk Rope!), fancy-pants EQUINOX for kettlebells (arms wrapped with hand wraps & towels by my trainer to avoid bruising blush), club h got my vinyasa side plank into Dr. Oz video clip – which never aired.
For you anatomy geeks: check out http://www.biodigitalhuman.com/ for wicked cool 3D interactive full-body experience (wish for kettlebell swings instead of golf!)
3rd and last post, I promise.
Warm-Up
21-15-9
Kettlebell Swing, 20kg
Sit-Up
Deadlift (worked some needed grip strength and stayed double overhand)
(60kgx5, 80kgx5, 100kgx5)
120kg x5x3
Unilateral RDLs with 16kg, 5×3 each side
Cool down:
45 minutes on the phone with Verizon (not a PR)
3 Hour back and forth with Action Carting about when they're going to pick up our trash finally (PR)
3 Hour wait around at gym for equipment to be delivered, extended because they brought it to the wrong gym then had to go back and pick it up. At 1:15 they called me and said they were on their way. They showed up at 4:40 (PR)
Best gym ever was the 60 acres of forest, swamp and streams I grew up on (to include the barn, especially the hay loft). I was way too shy to sign up for any organized sports until I ran track in H.S. That forest was my playground, gym, fantasy land, etc. Endless hours of running, jumping, climbing, vaulting, building, throwing, blowing shit up (I used to make my own explosives), it was great. I once saw my H.S. gym, but don’t remember it (I think it was a small room with one of those multi-station machines).
That was followed by one year in college where the sum total of all exercise consisted of beer “runs”.
13 years in the Army exposed me to a wide variety of work out facilities and environments (probably the one I remember best was in Uzbekistan where the military unit we were training had a “gym” consisting of stuff they found that was heavy).
Last gym before I found the wonder that is CFSB was the gym on Ft. Hamilton, here in Brooklyn. At the time it consisted of a bunch of weight and cardio machines that first saw service in Vietnam. There were some old barbells and some free weights as well. I would run into Billy Blanks’ brother who was a SGT stationed at Ft. Hamilton and would introduce himself as such (“Hi, I’m Billy Blanks’ brother!”). They have since gotten a new director, put a ton of money into the place and it’s a top notch gym, as our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen deserve.
I don't know why I'm so interested in reading about everybodys fitness backgrounds prior to crossfit but I am. Keep em' coming.
@DMak: You used to make your own explosives? Awesome. My brother and I used to be pyromaniacs too! We stole gunpowder, ammonium nitrate, dynamite and detonator caps from my uncle's mine's explosives store and fooled around with that, experimenting with setting off explosions in the surrounding forests. Thankfully, we didn't blow ourselves up. My bro also raided the school chemistry lab and we put together a few interesting concoctions from that. And then, of course, the perennial favorite, molotov cocktails! Spectacular!
Low Bar Back Squat: 165x3x5. This felt lighter than I expected. Nice and quick. The main thing was to keep from hyper-extending and get a bounce out of the bottom. Occasionally I fail to bounce and then it is sticky and slow.
Press: 75x3x5 – this was very quick and smooth. Glad of that – I was afraid I had lost a lot of pressing strength.
Accessory work: 3×5 strict pull-ups – starting out with an easy series and adding as I go to see how far I can get, hollow holds, press-up handstand practice.
a hot and sticky 6am with coach D.O.
WU
tabata row increasing intensity
droms
wod prep
WOD
reverse ladder of doom!
15 min cap. made it to 4
rx'd cleans and kb
scaled to strict pull ups.
i liked this one.
REDHOOK POOL LAP SWIMMING
TOMORROW 7AM
BRING ID AND A LOCK FOR A LOCKER
gyms in ireland. mostly based around the swimming, so it had some form and supervision.
gym in berlin. was there for a year. tried a place that was packed with beef. all taking stuff. big pants, singlets. i went for a while, but decided to drink beer instead.
gyms in nyc. world gym lincoln square. that was just bizarre. more of a who's who when we worked out there. looking back, why?!
then new york sports. again looking back, why?! the lack of attention to people there was INSANE. no one cared. NO ONE.
hooray for CFSBK!!!
1974-79 I played football and soccer in high school and was in decent shape, but was afraid of the weight room because there was no one to tell me what to do. My cousins called me "Stick."
1980 I killed bushes with a pulaski and dug ditches for cattle drinkers in the Cleveland National Forest in California for the Young Adult Conservation Corps after high school. I could go hard for 10 hour shifts at altitude with attitude. Then Reagan thought the $2.65 an hour he was paying us was way outta line and they shut down the YACCs and replaced us all with convicts @ $.60 an hour.
1981-1986 Did tens of thousands of 12 ounce curls and got a BA in African History.
1987-88 Lots of pick-up basketball in the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. Tapeworms had me at around 135 until cheeseburger therapy in Taiwan bulked my up to a very sloppy 180.
1989-2002 I had a regular 4 on 4 half court basketball game every Friday in the gym @ JHS258 that went until we couldn't lift our arms to shoot. But that was all I did.
2002-2007 Hagen Dasz and cable TV.
2007-2008 Chris J. had the "great idea" to trudge around Prospect Park a couple times a week. The first couple times I couldn't even finish and cut across the grass to meet Chris @ 3rd Street. Soon I was regularly under 30 minutes and hating every second of it.
2009-Present Chris J. had an actually great idea to try out this thing called Crossfit. We hit foundations w/ Dan, Charlotte, Tal and some other guys @ the Lyceum. We had our lives changed forever. Now I have a (nearly) fully equipped box in my garage in Wisconsin and live an 86.3% paleo lifestyle with my beautiful wife. I owe it all to CFSBK. Thanks!
Made up yesterday's workout, which mainly turned into a math clusterf**k.
Did the cleans at 115#, the pull-ups were of the non-chest-to-bar variety, and the kettlebell was Rx'd.
Managed to do 10 cleans and pull-ups in the 2nd round, so did 7 of each in the third round to get back on track. Finished four pull-ups in the round of 6 when time was called. I have a sneaking but probably unjustified feeling I might have done the 6s twice.
so much to say but utterly lack the energy.
i am glad strength cycle is back.
After procuring a 1/2 day off from work,I fully intended to workout in the AM today (a first), but when the alarm sounded, all that I could think of was more sleep. Got another 2-3 hours of it and it was most needed.
As for old gyms, I'm way too old to go over the history– seriously long and boring, but I will say that I actually have fond memories of NYSC in Cobble Hill, my previous gym prior to CFSBK.
@Peter – Ha, swinging a pulaski with the Young Adult Conservation Corps! Josh learned what a pulaski was with the Student Conservation Corps in Crater Lake a couple of years ago — for $0 (but a great experience)!
My experience is very similar to Stella's. I was a member of the NYSC for about 10 years-I would mainly go for their spin classes…but even that was hit and miss.
I started running about 5 years ago and I love it….no treadmills, those are pure torture!
Love Central Park and Prospect Park. One of my favorite long runs is over the Brooklyn Bridge, the views never get old.
I find that crossfit compliments my running and helps balance my fitness routine.
Thanks, Fox, for the fun comp class tonight! Great job to everyone that gave this good one a go. I liked learning about how each person chose to approach the WOD.
1 mile run
30 squat cleans 155#
30 handstand pushups
partitioned as needed
17:40 rx
broke it up:
10 HSPUs — 10 squat cleans — 1/3 mile run
5 HSPUs — 5 squat cleans — 5 HSPUs — 5 squat cleans — 1/3 mile run
5 HSPUs — 5 squat cleans — 5 HSPUs — 5 squat cleans — 1/3 mile run
Broke up tonight's Comp class as follows:
10 Squat cleans @ 95#
10 HSPU @ 1 abmat
10 Squat cleans
10 HSPU
10 Squat cleans
10 HSPU
Run 1 mile
Time = 18:28
I really didn't think about how to break this up until Melissa spoke up. Intended to run a lap (1/3 mile) after each set of cleans/hspu's but then thought it best to finish these weaker movements of mine to then finish with the mile. Perhaps could have pushed myself a little harder. I was so sweaty that I was losing my positioning in the hspu which was kinda scary. Didn't want to go with 105# cleans because of how I looked/felt yesterday. Very happy with that decision as my low back started tightening up during my last reps. BUT, I feel like today was the first time I was actually able to "brush" my thighs!!! You guys don't know, but this is huge progress for me. I'm an early arm puller so everyone single one that I do correctly is big news for me. 😉
If all goes well, I'll be swimming at 7am!!!
Comp class: 16:30 Rx'd, got soft at the bottom but it's an overall strength thing I need to work on.
High School I swam competitively both High school and USS Regionaly, coming from a swimming background and being a distance swimmer, we rarely touched weights. Our drylands back in the day were basically rowing and core movements.
College proved to turn a different route, played Water polo, still never went to the gym as most of our activities outside of the pool consisted of conditioning drills.
Ended up joining a CrossFit gym in King of Prussia due to my friend getting in shape for BUDS. Was a really great experience for those last 6 months. Would totally recommend anyone travelling down in Philly to check out Aimee Lyons gym, great place.
Moved up here in 2009 and went to CFNYC since then until recently joining at SBK…I'm really excited about the strength aspect of SBK as that is one of my weaknesses and was missing that element at NYC. Stoked about all the training tips and the great community so far!
P.S. Joel's backsquat's bodyweight to weight beats Dan Baileys and Josh Bridges from their stats on the games page…GNARLY
Before moving to NYC I was a member of Bally's for years in L.A. where I spent mindless hours on the treadmill, elliptical, and weight machines. And I did yoga. Lots of yoga: Hatha, Vinyasa, Iyengar, and Bikram. And I also dabbled in a bunch of other über-random stuff: kickboxing, karate, rollerblading at the beach, swimming and even African dance.
Fast forward to present-day NYC: more mindless hours on the treadmill, elliptical and weight machines at the Prospect Park YMCA. Until the day (one year ago!) when my friend Jenna came into work telling me about "some craaazy workout called CrossFit" and that we should try it. We started at CF Virtuosity-straight into group classes since they had no Foundations courses then-yikes!! After our first class we went to Kellogg's Diner where we "ate like men" and promptly took turns getting sick in their restroom. Welcome to CrossFit girls, welcome to CrossFit. I eventually switched over to the kinder, gentler ( & much closer) CFSBK for a proper Foundations training and have been here pretty much ever since….
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