5 sets x 3 reps
Like the previous cycle, we’ll be squatting heavy triples on Saturdays. Check your records to see where you left off last cycle then drop 10-15 lbs and start a new linear progression.
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compare to 8.20.11
3 Rounds NFT of:
:30 second Handstand Hold* against a wall
20 Heavy Kettlebell Swings, Unbroken
:60 Couch Stretch each side, holding good lumbo-pelvic position
If you can gracefully kick up to the wall and stay hollow, go for it. Otherwise do a wall walk-up.
Focus on a tight hip and knee extension with Kettlebell Swings. When you hit full extension you should feel the bell go weightless, if it’s not then you’re not efficiently transfering force into the bell. Watch the video at the bottom of this post to see Jeff Martone perform a mature swing.
Lana Z learns that what goes up must come back down
Good Luck, Spartan Warriors
Best of luck to Maurya, Melissa L, Paul R, Keith W, Marc M and Yitzy S on today’s Super Spartan Race. These guys will suffer 8 miles of obstacles, mud and endurance to claim the title of Super Spartan Warriors.
Maurya has even been blogging about her CrossFit adventures with Coach Shane leading up to this event. To catch up on her progress, compete with video blogs at the gym, click here!
New Equipment!
To better serve your needs, we’ve added some new equipment recently. Some of it is already at the gym and some of it is en route:
– 4 New Pairs of “Indy Stands”: The old grey racks weren’t cutting it so we ditched them and beefed up our mobile racks with these much heavier stands. Not only are they more resilient, but they’ve got more pins for finer height adjustments.
– New Plyo Boxes: We got 2 Rogue Games Boxes which are adjustable from 20″, to 24″ to 30″ simply by flipping them. 3 new steel 12″ boxes were also added recently.
– New Medicine Balls: Look out for one more 14lb ball, three 16lb balls, two smaller diameter 6lb balls and one “Big Monster” 30lb Wall Ball.
– “Jerry Cans”: You saw them at the CrossFit Games this year and you’ll see them at the gym soon! They’re 115lbs each filled with water and even heavier with sand or lead. Hello grip strength!
– Barbell Weights etc: We got 5 pairs of 15lb bumper plates, 5 pairs of 2.5 and 5lb steel plates and a new weight tree to hold all the loose change coming soon.
What is your favorite piece of equipment, not including a barbell? (calisthenics don’t count!)
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Jeff Martone Demos the Kettlebell Swing CrossFit
The erg. More of a love/hate type of relationship. I'm in the market to buy a used one for mi casa. When are we getting a yoke?
I box squatted–2 reps OTM x 10 min @ 155. Then did the accessory work with KB swings at 62#. Heavy!
A good way to start a weekend is with a generous serving of humility.
Squat triples @225. Good fun squatting with Max.
Hey hey nice picture! You can hardly tell how miserable I was at that moment 🙂
My favorite equipment… probably the rings.
Soooo good to be back in the gym. Felt like it's been awhile. Nice to see everyone!
WU#1: 15 hollow rocks, 15 squats, 10 push ups, 3 strict pull ups, multiple rounds
LBBSQ 5×3 at 95# work wt.
Totally comfortable weight
Nice to meet Sarah (sp.?)
3RNFT: handstand kick ups, 20 KB swings (1pd, felt good), couch stretch
Haven't done triples in a while, so worked my way up from 225 to 245. 245 felt great! We'll definitely have to pair up again on the squat Samir, that was fun.
I'll second the rings, they are my favorite non-barbell equipment.
275 work weight – a little beat up from the last couple of days since I missed Weds and made got pushed back a day. Felt pretty good as a start to the cycle though.
Squat
295x3x5
Happy that the weight felt like I had 'hoped' it would. Would like to go to 305 next week. No time for acc work, again (boo).
My favorite piece of eqiupment is the barbell. What? Oh, I guess I choose the rings as well. Or the soft black skull mat. Yup, that's it. I've spent a lot of QT on that thing, foam rolling, doing yoga, lax balling, chatting with members , napping, welcoming people to Foundations, and just laising about. I love mat.
Back Squats
Warm Up Sets
5 × 135
5 × 165
3 × 200
Work Sets
5 × 250
3 × 280
8 × 315
Metcon
Barbara
38:40
Haven't written in a while, will have to write a catch up post that includes experiences from FGB and other training.
Promised McGrath I'd make the early class today, so gunned it over for an 8AM. Have felt beat up this week, and yesterday's deadlifting did not go at all well (6×325 vs the prior week's 15×310). Stress and lack of sleep are eating away performance; had concerns that today's squats would also leave much to be desired, but they went surprisingly well. Margie made a good point that I'm rushing through these, and there's likely more reps in the tank if only I'd slow down.
Always awesome to work with Vincent, and very appreciative of everyone's encouragement on the rep out set.
Decided to do Barbara today as longer metcons have been neglected, and subsequently the performance has been in the toilet. Generally needed a good kick in the ass to see just how blunted they've become. First time doing my sit-ups unanchored, which was challenging in the final two rounds. Pullups and squats remained unbroken throughout. Push-ups sapped all of my energy and consequently accumulated a huge time penalty. Upper body strength is still heavily compromised, needed to drop to singles before the first round was even over, but no longer feeling excruciating pain in that plane of movement.
Still feeling great and looking forward to continuing an awesome day and catching up with folks tomorrow.
Warm-up
3 rounds
15 ghd sit-ups
10 ghd hip extensions with bands
10 body rows on the bar
Back squat
(45×5, 135×5, 165×5, 185×2)
205x3x5
Didn't feel great. Sets 3 and 5 were best. Having some balance/strength issues (not enough of either)
Stop squats
135x5x2
Had to leave to run errands before meeting my parents so no acc work today
Great AR and teaser classes today!
My favorite other piece of equipment is the GHD machine. I just really enjoy it. No other reason than that
My favorite piece of equipment are the 1.25# plates because without those, there would be no progress! A close second is the power rack which is my squat location of choice. (inside it BTW)
Made to Active Recovery class which was better than awesomo. My very first every class with David– crazy. That was fun and I sure needed it.
Dan: wish I would have been there for the rep out– freaking great!
Kettlebell. The Russian part of me just feels the connection…
225x3x5, probably could have gone heavier but it's been a while since I've squatted so I took it easy. I'm glad I did, got a lot of good pointers from Margie about improving my form, and it was nice to make the changes with a lighter weight.
Looking forward to being back in the gym a lot in the future. See you all there.
Squatted with Rickke today, and used a belt for the first time (Thanks Noah!). Went to 285, which was 90% of the last exposure. Felt great. Everything came up fast, and the belt was really helpful. I think I'm going to do this whole exposure with a belt and might take a 15 pound jump next week, we'll see how I feel in warm ups.
Kettlebell swings remain a nemesis, though at least not pain inducing. I am going to starting doing GHDs a couple times a week, which I've been meaning to do forever.
a fine 8am with coach margie
WU
3 Rounds of:

15 Hollow Rocks

15 Air Squats with mini band hold at the bottom for a second

10 Push-Ups

6 strict Pull-Ups
BSQ with the björnimal
(45×5, 135×5, 215×5)
265x3x5
harder than i thought it would be. got easier near the end. looking forward to this progression.
ACC wk
1 rnd and had to leave.
fave piece of equipment…foam roller. does that count?
Warmup-2 rounds of:
-10 v-ups
-16 alternating reverse lunges
-10 ring rows
-5 ring dips, blue band 1st set, then white band
Squat:
(45×5, 95×5, 135×3, 165×3, 185×2)
work: 200x3x5
-no bueno. all kinds of wonky. i'm shifting forward at the bottom, butt is coming up to fast, chest dropping, blah, blah, blah.
-It's also very possible that I started this too heavy. I have been HORRIBLE at keeping a log and/or blogging about my lifts so I couldn't find what I actually hit last. Stupid. BUT, I now have one of our new log books where if you don't see it near me during a lift, I promise to do 10 burpees. Call me out on this!
Accessory work:
Only 2 rounds of:
-20 KB swings at 2 pood (Russian)
-:30 handstand hold on the parallettes
-:90 couch stretch
That 2 pood is heavy! But I was able to get them all unbroken. Handstands on the parallettes feel so good. I can actually hold a freestanding one for several seconds!
P.S. I'm doing the Barefoot Run tomorrow on Governor's Island. It's gonna be rainy and yucky but I'm looking forward to it. Went to a barefoot running clinic this afternoon and will be going to the Merrick Barefoot Party tonight at the Seaport. Really this is just packet pickup with some lectures and free booze for a couple of hours. I'm looking forward to hearing Christopher McDougall (Born to Run), Barefoot Ted, Erwan Le Corre (MovNat) and Esther Gokhale speak. But, I'm going alone and since I'll be wearing shoes, I might not fit in so well. 😉
There is still space left if anyone wants to check it out. If anybody is already signed up send me an email at jessica(at)crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com so we can meet up.
http://www.nycbarefootrun.com
Jess, seeing Erwan le Corre sounds awesome.
work: 195×3 185x3x5
I think this is a bad week for me. Woke up achy: lower back, traps and upper inner thighs. Slept in an extra hour and then decided to still come in. I have several theories as to why I'm not feeling wonderful, the main one being that my diet has not been all that great. There has been some scandalous wheat&sugar consumption. I also think I went too low on the box squat on Wednesday, which is attributing to inner thigh carnage.
195 felt like too much for the first/this week. Margie pointed out my weird pause, ala box squat stylee, so I fixed that at the lighter weight. My back is feeling worse right now, so I'm icing it and using a stretch that the last chiro I saw told me to do. I really want to fix this before it's bad.
Didn't finish all the kettle bell work, it just felt like I was pushing things too far. Handstands were fun, although made me really dizzy when I would stand up.
i love the new racks – thanks!!
fave other equipment: kettlebells + sandbags.
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Active Strength Cycle Recovery today with David O. Nice to feel Rob Is and JBails suffering silently alongside me. Osorio punished our hips and hamstrings with compunction.
You know that old Van Halen song, "Hot for Teacher?" Early in the song he goes, "I don't *feel* tardy." Every Saturday when I leave Active Recovery, I stagger out of the gym and say to myself,
"I don't *feel* recovered."
Then I laugh, which hurts, so I grimace.
I brought my pencil, gimme something to write on!
@Rob: thanks man, brothers in the pursuit of strength. I hope to join you tomorrow for some prowler pushes, provided the comp class doesn't destroy me first.
Asta and I had the good fortune to run into Michelle K, David O, and Nick P while walking Milo around BK. Stoked to see Nick up and about; will bring those House of Mystery books over in the next couple of days.
Favorite piece of equipment
Well, I'm excited for that 30lbs dynamax ball (the heavy Karen that's in my future), and dig the ropes, the erg, the rings, as well as the bumper plates that make our barbells so useful…
But the physical equipment is only part of the necessities for our training. I vote for the mental machinery we bring with us each day in our continued pursuit of excellence.
worked all night again and stumbled into noon class feeling good but a bit dazed.
245, 235, 245, 245, 245
245 felt really heavy so i dropped down. then decided to go back up. tough.
accessory work at 24k. 28k, 28k i liked this combo. felt hollow/core centric. tried to look at my toes in handstands rnds 2 3 which i never saw but did see the ceiling. also curled my fingers and pused hard into finger tips which helped me rely less on the wall.
Thanks for the wishes on the Spartan Race yesterday.
I ran in the first heat at 9am, I did actually fine Shane and a few fellow crossfit people pre-race.
I ran the grueling course in 1 hour 22 minutes and 26 seconds. I find out where I placed overall tomorrow, (Monday). My elbows are all beat up form the 50 yards of barbwire crawl in the mud and rock and my left ankle took a really hard hit in the 50 yards of river we were running in from an unseen rock.
It was the longest I have ever ran in my life at one time and I really came away with a feeling of accomplishment.
Work at 255. Weight felt good, maybe a bit light. Could use a bit more depth in my squats, though. Also need to drink less red wine the night before.
Those are super cute. I like you on Facebook. tyvjvf tyvjvf – supra for boy.