Ring Inversion/Skin the Cat 101
30min NFRs:
2 Skin The Cat or Inversions
3 Bar Muscle Ups or 10 C2B Kipping Pull Ups or 10 Kip Swings
20 Calories Rowed
30 Second L-Sit
_____________________
CFSBKers reinventing the wheel
- Thanks to everyone who came out for our Bike Maintenance Class yesterday! Mare reports that they learned to change a flat and adjust their own brakes (by finding the barrel adjuster and twisting it in quarter turns). If anyone is interested in a future class, email mare [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com. Please wear a helmet out there, we love your brains.
- Back in December, David reviewed our programming cycles and offered advice about how to maximize Back Off Week, which started yesterday. Check it out, so you too can be all you can be.
- There’s a new post on Inside the Affiliate sharing even more of your favorite Questions of the Day. Check it out to relive some old favorites. Consider stealing a few to ask your coworkers, friends, and family in the interest of spicing up their mornings in the way only CFSBKers can.
- Happy, happy Monday!
Rings Strength Class-April/May
Join guest gymnastics coach Ken H. as he takes you through four weeks of gymnastics strength training. This 1.5 hour-long class will incorporate different facets of body weight strength training and movement. Specifically, each class will be composed of three to four distinct areas: warm-up and active mobility, rings skill work (muscle ups, levers etc), body weight strength conditioning, balance (on hands and feet) and flexibility. Students will be asked to have a goal or intention to focus on for the next six weeks. Students can then focus on that goal outside of class.
Saturdays from 2:00pm – 3:30pm
4/12, 4/19, 5/3, 5/10
*Please note that this class skips Saturday 4/26.
Price:
$80 for 4 Weeks
Hurry, only eight spaces remaining!
REGISTER HERE, YOUNG (and old) GRASSHOPPERS!
Ken Haller’s Bio
Ken was a nationally competitive gymnast in Newton, MA and at the University of Michigan. After graduating, Ken coached for eight years at Capital Gymnastics in Northern Virginia where he coached regional and national champions. His students have gone on to be NCAA champions and members of Cirque du Soliel. In searching for an activity to replace gymnastics, Ken filled the void with rock climbing and yoga for the past ten years and recently found CrossFit to round out his training.
Can you remember where you were and what you were doing 10 years ago today?
__________________
The World’s Biggest Tetris Game New York Times
Women Are Not Small Men: Essential Info for Female Athletes Breaking Muscle
I think the link to the ITA post is broken. Anyone else seeing that?
http://www.insidetheaffiliate.com/blog/2014/4/6/whats-your-favorite-taco-questions-of-the-day-for-crossfit-a.html
@Mike: Should be all set now, thanks!!
Another fun play day! Although I suspect everyone else was having fun watching me be terrified of the rings. I did make it to full inversion without a spot, which I think is better than I've managed before, but I screamed like a toddler (or like a cat being skinned?) when I tried to do skin-the-cat.
Hey, I'll take full inversion for once. Hopefully now that I've done it a couple of times and didn't fall, my limbic system will know not to stop me every time I get upside down.
6am with Fox and McDowell
I feel like this last crush week plus the tension associated with the Open has everyone feeling a little worse for wear. So today's work was a much needed break and a great excuse to work on some cool complex movements.
Great tips from Fox on the Skin the Cat. For some reason I thought these were supposed to be done a lot slower than they are resulting in a lot of time inverted.
Bar muscle ups are a helluva work in progress. Shout out to Michael A. crushing them next to me though.
today sounds awful.
we might just stop by and watch, for shits and giggles.
no shits please. giggles ok.
6am with the gang
The last few weeks of the Open + Crush Week have left me feeling like a bag of rusty tools. I'm looking forward to "relaxing" a bit this week and focusing on some technique.
Fun day today with the gymnastics and bar work. Fox gave me some great tips on the Skin the Cat and I feel like I'm slowly improving. I'm always super impressed when the coaches demo that movement perfectly and slowly while talking at a normal pace the entire time; it's all I can do to keep breathing while I'm going upside down. 🙂
Fun working with Alex and Matty on BMU's together today.
I had 10 blissful hours of uninterrupted sleep last night and feel like new human being.
Really looking forward to what's on tap for today's structured play-time! Been wondering about this bar muscle up business.
Nice little ride in the time machine courtesy of today's QOD:
10 years ago today I was at a happy crossroads. Just submitted my resignation at Burson-Marsteller and was shifting into the non-profit sector at an amazing foundation called The Atlantic Philanthropies. I had just moved in to my own apartment. I had a regular yoga practice. It was spring. Things were looking up!
fish cooking class this sunday!
if you're interested in learning more about cooking fish, please come to the FREE class this sunday, co-led by yours truly and Carolyn from Village Fishmonger.
it's 2-5 PM in the Slope – address will be sent to you once you confirm. so email mignyc at gmail dot com to RSVP!
6am with McDowell and Fox
Bar muscleups are way harder than I thought. For some reason I thought I'd be able to do a few. Probably because I watched that video of Samantha Briggs doing sets of 10 as a way to like, limber up, or something. Note to self, Samantha Briggs is not a useful reference point for the rest of humans except maybe as a way to scare aliens away from attacking the earth.
So, no bar muscleups, but fun to try. Something to work on. Skin the cat went pretty well, I think, although I needed a few pointers on form and speed from Fox. Like Matty, I thought these were supposed to be slow somehow.
Really love the new training template that was posted yesterday. Excited about all the O-lift work!
Also, makeup post from Saturday: Morrison in 27:03 with a 28 kg kettle bell @ Russian Swings (couldn't find a 24kg bell).
Ten years ago, in April 2004, I was excited and looking forward to getting married very soon to Noor. I was sick and tired of trying to finish my first book. My workouts consisted of biking 100 miles a week in Prospect Park.
10 yrs ago today…April 7th, 2004: 17 yr old junior in high school, starting lacrosse season
Fun 8am with Funk Master Fox and McDiesel. My pull ups have gotten worse (wtf?), and for someone with mad abs yo, I kinda suck at L sits. But I love me some back off week.
Ten years ago today, I was living with a roommate on the upper east side, where you could sit on the couch (read: futon) AND grab a beer from the fridge without getting up (that is not a joke). I was bartending in times square and babysitting part time for a wealthy family to pay the bills, and regularly waking up at 6am to attend gigantic cattle call auditions for musicals, which I never booked. My college boyfriend and I were in a long distance relationship and I used to fly out to Seattle and then Denver to see him. He didn't have a cell phone and his dad used to pick up the phone when I called. I was in a very different place, that's for sure!
10am with Noah.
Fun day at the gym. I never used rings other than for ring rows or assisted ring dips so really enjoyed playing on them! Thanks to Keith for all the pointers and spotting me. L sits were another first and they are much harder than I thought they would be, couldn't do them at all.
10 years ago this month (bc I cannot remember the exact day) I was living in downtown NYC,working as a tech writer for a small software company, in the midst of getting my MBA, planning my wedding, just got back from a trip to Curacao with my girlfriends and was getting ready for a trip to India to meet my fiance who was working over there for a few months. Pre-kids. Ahhh life was good back then!
Hi – boyfriend and I are finding ourselves suddenly looking for an apartment. 1 or 2br, outdoor space, dishwaser, washer/dryer at least in building, ~$3200. If anyone knows of anything please email me amy.leigh.ward at gmail dot com Thanks
Strength cycle at 6:30am. I can now say I've lifted heavy things at CFSBK to 1) "My Sweet Lord", 2) Fleetwood Mac, and 3) "And I Love Her." I'm missing a few I know, so 6am and 7am help me out. It was a light classic rock day.
Numbers:
LBBS: 220 lbs 3 x 5
Shoulder Press: 115 lbs 3 x 5
Deadlift: 290 lbs 1 x 5
10 years ago I was selling shampoo and beauty products in the West Village and eating a bagel a day.
2004… I was a mid-level project manager at yet another large, shitty advertising agency. I had to dig out an old resume to determine which one exactly, although truth be told, it doesn't matter a whit. They all sucked my whole asshole. I was in the same apartment where I live today, but I was subletting a spare room to a rotating cast of short-term roommates in order to afford the rent.
I was salsa dancing most nights into the early morning.
April 2004, I was on my last month of military service, it was also the month I broke the news to my parents that I would be leaving the country for grad school and quite possibly never come back. The look of pride followed by sadness on their faces still haunts me.
Super fun morning on the rings and the bar, got some really good pointers from Mcdeez and FOx, I can honestly say I am optimistic about linking kipings in the near future.
Pigeon: JEALOUS! We graduated from remedial handstand school together, but I think you might beat me out of kipping pull-up school.
10 years ago I had been back in NYC for 6 months, after having left for a short, sad period that I spent in Pittsburgh because I followed a guy there. When I dumped the guy, I also dumped Pittsburgh. Wise decision. I called off my wedding, moved back to the city a month later, and met my now-husband a few days after that. Makes me feel old to say he and I have been together for more than 10 years!
10 years ago I was about to graduate from high school!! April means prom, so I was probably excited about that. Or not excited about it because I was just that cool.
Crush week felt good and now I'm looking forward to the next cycle!
Fun 6:30 with Jess and Arturo, really glad to be back in the gym after a week of mostly just running!
I thought I could kip, but evidently all I can do is muster enough drive with my knees and hips to get me over the bar. I think maybe because my lats are only vestigial twigs I can't figure out how to do these the way Arturo demonstrated, so today I was just swingin' on the bar and doing a few strict c2b. Haha almost wrote t2b, good times hanging from the bar in 14.4, I want a rematch!
Hmm 10 years ago, let's not wonder. I like it here in 2014.
Wow, these are really fun to read!
5:30pm group class tonight was lots of fun. Love these kinds of days.
-skin the cats feel great. started to get the lift up into the rings with straight legs, which i couldn't do last time! and I remember a couple years ago I was flailing around a bit and had no strength to get knees up and over on my own.
-bar muscle up attempts: used a box under my feet to false kip swing up and over. pretty scary the first time, but a great feeling once you're up there! was nice to get practice in with this method. I still have a lot of work to do with my kip and getting consistent C2B without supinating one arm. but, seeing as we had playtime… i took the chance to work a good kip swing (which i've been breaking) and then do the assisted bar MU's.
to integrate into my own warm ups and accessory work: perfect kips, C2B pu's, and dips.
2014 will be the year of the muscle up!
10 years ago… I was 17. A senior in high school. AP Physics, Calculus, and Modern European History were amongst the ranks. I was ready as hell to graduate and head off to University of Illinois for a degree in dance. I think I had just chopped off my hair to donate to Locks for Love, and also because I was playing Sandy in our high school's production of the musical Grease. Would've also been the last year of dancing at my home town studio, getting ready for our spring performance. I was dating a guy who was a year older and already in college at Purdue, so there were many roadtrips in a black Chevy Blazer to go visit (and attend parties), which I'm sure my parents loved.
-Jerk: Max for the day, then 80%x1x3 of that max
220
264
286
308
319
330
264x1x3
-Max Muscle Snatch for the day
143
-Power Snatch: 80%x1x3(232)
176
198
220
225
232(went below parallel, miss)
232X
232X
**80% power snatch was really hard for me
-Push press 84%x3x3
232
6:30 – took it pretty easy today, but it felt good to move my sore, busted up body around some. I did 1 successful kipping pull up, but just the 1. Skin the cats were kind of ugly, I need to practice those more.
10 years ago, I was a junior in high school. I had recently stopped smoking pot and was focused on being a killer student so I'd get into a good college far away from my California 'burb. I was definitely listening to a lot of Bright Eyes.
Fun 5:30 class with Jess and Ro. I like getting the opportunity to spend some time working on these type of movements (except L-sits – hate those).
The question is timely for me – my daughter turns 10 in two weeks, so there's a good chance that 10 years ago I was in the pool at the Eastern Athletic Club in downtown Brooklyn trying to alleviate the discomfort of my incredibly large existence.
Ten years ago I was still working at Random House. Pretty miserable. I think. My wife had broken her ankle bad that winter which sucked. Took her into the city each morning for work and picked her up for a ride home for several months. She had some excellent pain killers which we both enjoyed with ice cream. And I added beer. Kinda porked out.
5:30 p.m. Today was fun and reminded me a bit of old CFSBK programming. Did a few bar muscle ups which are technically challenging for me. Ro had good pointers. Wrenched shoulder so didn't go bananas with reps. Watching Silence of the Lambs on tv as I type. Jody Foster is about to shoot someone!!!
Loved reading these answers. April 2004 puts me in my senior year of high school. I had just broken up with my boyfriend (my first love! so dramatic!), was working at both a tanning salon and a boutique called Babe's, and was contemplating whether I should convert from atheism to evangelical Christianity. We'd recently sold the llama farm and moved into "town," much closer to all my friends. My parents were traveling for work and family stuff all the time so I was also partying a significant amount. It was extremely fun and I was quite unprepared for the lack of fun I had when I started college… especially since there weren't any boys at Wellesley and I had become rather religious. The good ole days.
Wow, I am old. 10 years ago today was my dad's 61st birthday. He'd survived a dissected aorta 13 months before so I'm sure we were celebrating this birthday extra hard. He's 71 today and doing pretty well, although 2 open heart surgeries (he later had to replace the graft he got in 2003) and the attendant weirdness (did you know your vocal cord nerve wraps around your aorta? So if you get a graft there you lose your voice?) have taken its toll.
I was about to get surgery on my shoulder which had dislocated 9 times in 9 years. Nick and I had been married almost a year. We lived in Washington Heights and I ran for exercise, plus did Iyengar yoga 1x/week.
Very excited for the next cycle. I might actually make it into the gym for 4 weeks in a row.
Make up post from this weekend:
Dropped in on Crossfit Balance in DC. Was skeptical because its a CF gym inside a larger globo, but it was pretty decent. Coach Allison was pretty solid, straightforward cueing and knew her stuff. Class had a warmup, Oly work (hang snatch + 2 OHS) and a WOD. A little light on actual instruction and more cheerleading than CFSBK, but still Top 5 of away gyms I've visited. Worth a shot if you are near Dupont Circle.
Today decided to test a OHS 1RM since its been a long time and I want to incorporate some into extra work this cycle.
185-195-205F (depth, according to Jess "The Gimlet Eye" Fox) and then 215, which is a 30# PR I'm pretty sure. Felt solid, with room, especially if I can get comfortable push jerking from the behind the neck snatch position.
Bench 185x8x4. Thought about doing some conditioning, but who am I kidding. Ate on of David's KBK meals instead, much more my speed.
Big shout out to the 8:30PM class of dudes, a fun low key group to end a long day coaching. Thanks David for teaching me the world's worst way to get on top of a bar, and Neil for the flutter kick escape plan.
Also, 10 years ago I was a Junior at the Great State University of Wisconsin. I drank a lot, bullshitted my way through classes, and spent lots of time doing stupid things at the university gym that made me no stronger. It was incredible.
I rather not talk about what I was doing 10 years ago yesterday. Instead I will talk about how amazing my family is for all their support and love through all my highs and lows in life.
liked the skin the cat. My shoulder is telling me no bar muscle ups. Its tired and needs a break.