Check out Matt U’s CrossFit Games piece from SB Nation
There is NO Active Recovery Today
Upcoming Strength Cycle Dates
A Cycle- Novice Cycle
July 30-Sept 21 (8 slots)
Monday, Wednesday at 7pm, Friday at 6pm
Register Here!
C cycle–Morning Novice Cycle
July 30th-Sept 19th (8 slots)
Monday, Wednesday 6:30am
Registere Here
Cont Ed
July 30-sept 19 (4 slots)
NYPD vs FDNY
On Friday, July 27th the FDNY and NYPD will compete in a baseball game against each other at MCU park. Tickets are $10 and all proceeds go to charity. For more information check out their Facebook page. Thanks to Danny F for the heads up!
CFSBK Book Club: Sci-Fi Edition
For this round of the book club we’re going to go with a Sci Fi theme. If you’re interested in participating, please suggest a book to comments and email Peggy at pjeanlouis1(AT)gmail.com to get on the mailing list. We’ll give you about a month to read the book and then people will submit questions for discussion at the meeting which usually happens at a local bar.
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Cleaning Up Your Chin-Up Eric Cressey
Todd Wentworth Does a Modified Cindy with Washer/Dryer Flips Language NSFW
CFSBK packed the house Monday night for the NYC premiere of the new Cheryl Haworth documentary, STRONG.
Cheryl is a three-time Olympian in Oly lifting, super heavyweight class. You may not have heard of her, but the film shows a clip of a famous coach calling her one of the greatest competitors ever, of all time. The documentary follows her through her Olympic experiences and, crucially, the time periods in between, where she continually doubts her path and vacillates between feeling strong and powerful and, increasingly, wanting to escape her extra-large body for a more "normal" feminine shape.
At the Q+A afterward, the filmmaker admitted that, before she made the film, she was sure that if *any* woman could transcend the societal expectations for normative femininity, it would be someone like Cheryl. it was extremely sobering to watch this woman admit she could not.
I am not strong nor am I an Olympian, but as a woman who lifts and whose body has changed as a result, I have had literally a hundred conversations about this issue in the past year. In a way, I wish the film had presented a more facile point of view – big girl decides being big is the shit, for example. Ultimately, that didn't happen, but the pleasure of watching over two hours of nothing but strong women fucking dominating stacks of bumper plates was incredibly validating nonetheless.
Meeting Cheryl afterward and peppering her with questions about her (post-weightlifting) life today, as well as her thoughts about the current ABYSMAL state of USA weightlifting (the women exempted) was a huge highlight for me. She was gracious, funny, beautiful, strong and charismatic all at once. I left in awe of her and rooting for her as she makes the difficult transition from THREE TIME Olympian to …. the rest of her life.
the PBS page for STRONG! is here
STRONG! is showing on PBS locally as follows:
Wednesday, August 1 — 8:00am
164 – WLIW World
Wednesday, August 1 — 2:00pm
164 – WLIW World
Wednesday, August 1 — 7:00pm
164 – WLIW World
Thursday, August 2 — 12:00am
164 – WLIW World
Saturday, August 4 — 3:00pm
13 – WNET
CFSBK packed the house Monday night for the NYC premiere of the new Cheryl Haworth documentary, STRONG.
Cheryl is a three-time Olympian in Oly lifting, super heavyweight class. You may not have heard of her, but the film shows a clip of a famous coach calling her one of the greatest competitors ever, of all time. The documentary follows her through her Olympic experiences and, crucially, the time periods in between, where she continually doubts her path and vacillates between feeling strong and powerful and, increasingly, wanting to escape her extra-large body for a more "normal" feminine shape.
At the Q+A afterward, the filmmaker admitted that, before she made the film, she was sure that if *any* woman could transcend the societal expectations for normative femininity, it would be someone like Cheryl. it was extremely sobering to watch this woman admit she could not.
I am not strong nor am I an Olympian, but as a woman who lifts and whose body has changed as a result, I have had literally a hundred conversations about this issue in the past year. In a way, I wish the film had presented a more facile point of view – big girl decides being big is the shit, for example. Ultimately, that didn't happen, but the pleasure of watching over two hours of nothing but strong women fucking dominating stacks of bumper plates was incredibly validating nonetheless.
Meeting Cheryl afterward and peppering her with questions about her (post-weightlifting) life today, as well as her thoughts about the current ABYSMAL state of USA weightlifting (the women exempted) was a huge highlight for me. She was gracious, funny, beautiful, strong and charismatic all at once. I left in awe of her and rooting for her as she makes the difficult transition from THREE TIME Olympian to …. the rest of her life.
STRONG! is showing on PBS locally as follows:
Wednesday, August 1 — 8:00am
164 – WLIW World
Wednesday, August 1 — 2:00pm
164 – WLIW World
Wednesday, August 1 — 7:00pm
164 – WLIW World
Thursday, August 2 — 12:00am
164 – WLIW World
Saturday, August 4 — 3:00pm
13 – WNET
I personally love "Snow Crash" and "Nueromancer", but I would jump at the opportunity to read anything by Phillip K. Dick because I haven't read any of his work yet. Also interesting would be reading "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", which I never finished but is a fascinating look at a future society based on social credit instead of money.
Make-up post from yesterday on TTD:
All and all, I had mixed emotions about the day. It didn’t go well for me personally (which is to be expected because I didn’t train and haven’t been taking care of myself), but I was okay with that. For me, it was more fun to watch the other competitors and cheer everyone on. I do feel like I missed an opportunity to feed off of the energy of the event and possibly hit some PR’s, but I just didn’t have it in me to train this past month. More than anything, I feel grateful to have been a part of such a special event. Thank you the judges, spotters, and other competitors, but most of all thank you Margie for planning this event and cultivating such a positive environment for the women at our gym. I can’t wait for December!
Also, great to see so many SBK-ers at Strong! last night. I was surprised by how funny this movie was.
For the Book Club, I’d like to selfishly suggest The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin because it’s currently sitting on my shelf, unread, and I think that should change.
yes to Phillip K. Dick, please! Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Then Bladerunner party after!
Not sure if this was already asked on the blog, but I just have a follow up question on last week's post about Tuesday only being for making up Monday or Wednesday wods. If I've already done yesterday's and am planning on coming in tomorrow, what should I do if I came in today? Last Tuesday I just repeated Monday's workout, but me and Annie don't really get along so I was hoping to avoid running into her two days in a row
A gal wants the recipe for that wonderful spicy potato salad from Titsday. Or at least advance notice any time Bierkraft plans to offer it, so I can buy a tub and bury my face in it.
Would love to see some sci-fi picks from more recent years. I liked Colson Whitehead's "Zone One" (a literary zombie novel) and China Mieville's "Kraken," a wormhole of a book that pictures a doomsday scenario after a giant squid gets stolen from the British Museum of Natural History. Super-geeky but really enjoyable.
I just started Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and highly recommend it. Big meaty book that winds together a story about WWII code crackers and a story about said code crackers' descendants in the 90's trying to create a "data haven."
Hey folks, I have been off a bit from el gymnasio recently, and am going away. I know that it will set me back but I'll take a running crack at it when I am back from vaca
If any of my fine feathered platform friends, or otherwise happen to be in midtown on this Thursday, around 5-7 or so, drinks are on me at the Beer Bar, to celebrate a handle change, aka the big 4-0. The Mrs will be there too. Otherwise, I'll see you in mid August.
Stay classy, San Diego!
You guys HAVE to The Dispossessed by LeGuin. The best book ever. (OK, I hyperbolize but it's amazing). It's got fake physics, politics, spiritual questioning. More than enough themes to discuss for hours and hours.
This is the 3rd and last time I'll mention this book on the blog. Just read it already.
@Doug– I Loved Cryptonomicon. The longest book I ever slogged through (I'm a painfully slow reader), and completely riveting. Is it SciFi though? Not so sure.
@Rob – valid point, perhaps "techo-thriller" is a more apt description. It did win a bunch of SciFi awards though.
enders game?
quick easy awesome?
Michele really summed up the movie (STRONG!) a bunch of us were lucky enough to attend last night. I, personally, really enjoyed that the time was taken to talk about being a woman and body/weight/expectations/issues without making the movie about THAT.. it was really refreshing because however comfortable or uncomfortable people are talking about it – it's still there and it's a lot nicer having it NOT be the elephant looming around.
If you weren't able to make it to the viewing last night, I highly encourage you to check it out on TV when it airs.
JR! Almost 4-0! The bar is pretty close to my work, will try and stop by. 🙂
I have a question about logging and tracking my work outs. This year I vowed to actually write down what Im doing. I have not been using a book, just my phone. Its starting to get a bit unwieldy. My next thought was to transfer the data to a spreadsheet. I think it would be great to quickly see what I do and I can incorporate other activities into this.
What do other people do? I know the physical book is widely used but what digital methods are people using? What has worked? or not? for you.
Thanks
Awesome video Matt.
Ken – I've been using tumblr to track my workouts since 2008. It's really just a blog platform, but I love that I can access it anywhere, search the archives, and tag posts for easy indexing. You can also follow other like-minded people if you're into that sort of thing. I never found any of the online tracking tools to be very useful (tried most of them) so I just created my own system and stuck to it.
Tiny 6am class with Nick and McDowell to make up yesterday's workout.
C&J: [45×5, 65×5] 95×8 (minutes 1-4), 105×12 (minutes 5-12)
Baby steps forward on this movement. Footwork on the jerk felt better than last week, but the focus this week was on body position and timing on the pull of the clean. Pulling early and with closed hips. Thanks, Nick, for your constant feedback today! Thinking about getting my lifts on video next week, as I find the visual aid really helpful when paired with the verbal feedback. Didn't go heavier than last week, but I felt more comfortable. And it was still tough.
WOD: 8:18 (Rx!), 25lb dumbbell
I had some sort of eureka moment on the doubles today. Coming into today I'd strung 8 ugly ones together, but managed to open the WOD with 28 in a row. The round of 40 was pretty ugly, but managed another string of 22 and did the last round unbroken. I've been working on them before class, and Fox gave me a little tip the other day that I was trying to keep in mind throughout. Weighted sit-ups were slow but manageable, I felt like I was using them more as a cool down between the jump rope.
ken,
I used beyondthewhiteboard(dot)com (beyond the white board). it's $3 a month but a lot of the workouts are programmed it. it charts your progress (lifts, girls, etc) and will take in as much info as you want to give it.
sometimes i get lazy and forget to log everything beyond a snap shot on my phone and load it all in after like a week.
Betz, Asta
Thanks for the good ideas. I know there is not 1 good system, but some good specific ones.
I started an Excel spreadsheet but Im not too happy with it. So far, I have only entered CF workouts. I broke it out into months which I sort of like but would like to be able to "see" all the dead lifts together. Maybe I just need to become a spreadsheet wiz…
Any other paperless ideas?
Ken (and MGMT):
One simple solution I've been advocating for a while is that on this blog, we incorporate a feature that allows us to a) create user accounts and b) search for posts by author/user account and tags. Viola! Logging problem solved: when we are done working out, we simply log in with our usual accounts, and log the workout in the comment space tagging them 'WOD log' (or something like that). When we want to see all our workouts logged, we simply search for our posts by username and tag. A full log would be generated.
This would keep everything on the blog, and would be a great incentive for people to comment on the blog knowing their workouts are being logged. I kinda use the blog as a log anyway (relying on the linkbacks that MGMT provides for workouts) but it is not perfect obviously as it only goes back to the last one and not necessarily all the times I've performed a WOD.
@Ken +
I am old school and use a log book. It's a really nice one that I got from CFLIC before I switched to have gym closer to home. The book is great. It has the Paleo/Zone reference material, lifting tables, strength standards, daily tracking logs, and the definition of Crossfit on the front page.
I can throw it on the ground and not feel like I'm going to break something in group class. I can write in the margins. It's kinda my favorite thing ever. I tried BTW and I tried a blog but really nothing beats this notebook for me.
Nice job Ryan on the DUs! I opened with 19 and went steeply south from there, a bunch of 6s and 7s and plenty of 3s. Was about to finish off the last 10 unbroken until Jeremy noted that everyone was watching (since I was the last one still working and the next class had started) and missed on the last one… Thanks Jer!
Clean and Jerks all @ 95# which was plenty. I got tired and thought I'd got to a push press but found it harder than the jerk… duh!
10:40
I'm off for the summer and left a quart of milk in the fridge, first come, first drink, enjoy!
Hope everyone has a great August. If you find yourself in southern Wisconsin, gimme a call. There's a WoD waiting for you in my garage or on my lawn! Just call 718-923-9009. There's plenty of room to crash if you need shelter as well. I'll Bobby Vinton out with, "See You in September."
Did tomorrows WOD
HBBS: 45×5, 115×5, 165×5, 195×5, 215×5
20# higher than last week – felt good but last rep went up slow.
Acc workout in 10:05. Very sweaty.
Hey Peter, have a great August!!! A WOD on your lawn sounds awesome, I wish I was going to Wisconsin!
Accessory/Recovery Day Strength Pre-Cycle
RDL: 225x4x5
Press: 135×3, 150×1, 162.5 x1
Superset:
DB Curls: 30x10x3
DB Triceps extensions: 30x10x3
Alec worked on my thoracic extension, internal rotation, lat stretches and other bits and my shoulder was back to being A-OK. Nice to press with a bar and feel good about afterwards. Will need to figure out how to maintain this without constant outside help…
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I thought we had user accounts? It would seem we should be able to leverage our login and A) have user search ability and B) have 'trusted posters" so that posting links doesn't send posts into purgatory. (auto-approval for known accounts).