Fitness: Push Press 5 x 3 Linear Progression
Add 2-5 pounds to last week’s weight.
Performance: Rack Jerk 5 x 1
Hit 5 singles between 80% and 90% of your recent 1RM. If you’re feeling good then work at the 90% end, if you’re feeling off then work at the 80% end. Your work reps must be no lighter than 80% and no heavier than 90%.
Post loads to comments.
e5/6
____________________
Fitness
15-12-9-6-3, for Time:
Deadlift 115/75
Push Press 115/75
Burpee
Performance
5-4-3-2-1, for Time:
Push Jerk 205/135
Muscle Up
Post times and Rx to comments.
Oly lifting Coach Frank Murray at the 2013 Senior Nationals
LAST CHANCE FOR THE OLYMPIC LIFTING PROGRAM
**We won’t be able to run the cycles if we don’t get enough participants. The deadline for the PM cycle is 12pm today and the AM cycle is at 7pm tonight. Read a couple testimonials below, and even more in the comments on yesterday’s post (including a hilarious little Q&A by Jay)!**
Here’s a testimonial from Front Desk and Social Media Strong Man Matt K.:
“Frank helped me work on all the tiny nagging issues with my snatch and clean and jerk, showing me how to overcome all the issues I’ve had for years. I look at Olympic lifting in a completely different way now, and I’ve already seen Frank’s coaching make my lift more efficient during WODs. Sign up for this class, you won’t regret it.”
And another testimonial (and mild threat) from Funny Strong Man Jay R.:
“SIGN UP FOR THE OLYMPIC LIFTING CLASS. Personal coaching from two national-level lifters (the man can clean and jerk like 400lbs or something). You will develop a deeper understanding of all of the lifts and and be able to show off to your friends. I don’t know of anyone who did not improve after finishing a cycle. Plus you get to mock the 8:30 class. If you are on the fence DO IT–or else you will have to see more of me in gen pop for the next eight weeks . . .”
What: An 8-week Olympic lifting cycle meeting twice a week with Coach Frank Murray and/or Heather Farmer in addition to 2 Open Gym or group class per week.
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30am to 12:00pm from 10/28/14-12/18/14 or Mondays and Wednesdays 8:30pm to 10:00pm from 10/27/14-12/17/14. (see full details below)
Price: $300 per 4 weeks, first bill due at sign-up and second bill charged automatically to the card on-file 4 weeks later.
AM Cycle
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30am to 12:00pm from 10/28/14-12/18/14
REGISTER HERE
PM Cycle
Mondays and Wednesdays 8:30pm to 10:00pm from 10/27/14-12/17/14
REGISTER HERE
Learn more about Frank’s background here.
A Parting Love Letter from Gina G.
Dear CFSBK,
I’ve been composing this love letter to you in my head for a while now. It’s really all your fault that I’m leaving. Now, that makes it sound like this is not a love letter at all but it is I promise. A little over two years ago I moved back to Brooklyn. I was bummed that the commute was too far to my old Bikram studio and decided I had to find a new way to work out. Maybe something not so repetitive. I was never really great at hot meditation anyway. At that same time I was physically and mentally not feeling great. I was slipping into my 30s. I was an accountant and auditor and didn’t want to be one. My body was in a shape, but just a shape that was all wrong. One day walking up the last block to my office, probably after the subway steps really kicking my ass, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Well I guess this is what getting old feels like and the best shape I’ve been in, in my life is now behind me’. Like a door had shut and an air-lock vault had sealed and I was sucked out into the void of space in some sort of Battlestar Galactica themed metaphor that I now don’t know my way out of. Anyway I was feeling bad and very stuck. And then I heard about CrossFit. And then I booked a teaser at the Black Box. And then I came across CFSBK before that Black Box teaser and the rest is the history of why you’re reading this right now instead of bizarro you over at the Black Box.
I don’t think I could be doing what I’m doing right now, which is moving to Austin, TX (look me up!) for a part-time job (totally out of my comfort zone) at a little film production company, if I hadn’t build up the physical and mental strength I have over the last two years as a member of Crossfit South Brooklyn. And I never would have shown up to amass all that strength if it weren’t for all of you kick-ass individuals who make up this community, because a lot of what we do is seriously awful, it’s torture you guys, but it’s ok because we all seem to think it’s ok to do that to ourselves as long as we’re doing it together.
So, I love you Crossfit South Brooklyn. Thank you for being so strong and making me strong and helping me find the strength within myself to start living out some dreams in my life. That dream being, getting my Friday Night Lights namesake cats to Austin, TX where I’ll obviously just live off of the fame of being the human to cats named after FNL characters. You know that’s my real plan. (Yes, both cats are coming with me, those beasts are mine forever and ever.)
Thank you David for bringing these great people together under one roof. Can my life be complete without Saturday morning AR? Maybe, but it will be difficult. Fox, you better not ever have another Foundations better than we were, not ever, never. Aileen, you may be married to Fung now but you’ll always be my Crossfit soulmate.
Everyone who comes to Austin better look me up! (Take that as a friendly threat.) I leave behind my max taco-eating legacy and you know that game is only going to get stronger where I’m going.
GG Gatto Out!
We miss you already, Gina! You’ll always be a CFSBKer in our hearts. Come back and visit!
____________________
An Extraterrestrial Time-Lapse, As Seen From the International Space Station The Atlantic
Revised Nutrition Labels Still Won’t Tell Whole Story New York Times
News About CFSBK’s Old Home, The Brooklyn Lyceum DNAInfo
Putting Your Dumbbells Away—What You Think v. Reality NorCal Strength & Conditioning
If you went Trick-or-Treating as a kid, was there any kind of candy you didn’t like to get?
6am with Nick and McDowell
Partnered with Peter on the rack jerk and worked up to 215# again (same as last week). I have a nasty groin pull from soccer yesterday and I used that as a forcing function to work on my split jerk leading with my right (non-standard) leg. It worked out surprisingly well.
The conditioning piece was fun. I scaled the perf version to 185# so I could hopefully keep the jerk stable given that my leg was pretty sore. Did it in 7:06, managed to do all the MU's unbroken.
I was going to do the cash-out at Rx but BK was practicing his physiological warfare on me. 😉
After debating it for far too long I decided to sign up for the Oly Class. I'm not looking forward to missing so many 6am group sessions but definitely excited to fine tune these lifts. Who else will be there at 8:30 tonight?
GINA you will definitely be missed. Austin has no idea.
Bon voyage, Gina! Austin is lucky to have you.
Candy I didn't like: Smarties and Dum Dum pops. My parents gave those out because they were cheap, and I'm sure so did a lot of other people in the '80s. (And people still do it now, I'm sure!) Even as a kid I preferred to have some fat with my sugar. The best houses were the ones that gave out the full-sized Hershey bars.
I wish I could hand out Halloween candy this year because I'm an absolute sucker for little kids in Halloween costumes. Unfortunately I will be spending Halloween with old people and not kids, since my choir is rehearsing (HINT HINT…come to our concert on Monday night!).
Jerk work at 115. I probably could have been less conservative, but honestly I considered getting into the gym at all today a win, since I was a total insomniac last night. Given that the last time I tried to put a barbell overhead on not enough sleep, I clocked myself on the chin during warmups, I was not inclined to go crazy.
WOD in 8:00 Rx (okay, at 73#). The deadlifts were easy and the push presses were not bad at all. Burpees were horrible and always will be.
PS: Farewell Gina! AR will never be the same.
@Matt – I signed up for PM Oly as well! See you tonight 🙂
6am with Nick and McDowell.
Push press 160x3x5. I was worried that I might fail some of these but I managed to get all of them up pretty well.
WOD 8:34 Rx. Push press was tough. Sets of 15,12, and 9 were broken into 2. Probably should have tried to hit the set of 9 unbroken.
6:30am Strength Cycle (woop woop!)
What better way to come back to the gym than to a burpee WOD -and not be in group class 😀
LBBS: 85lbs 5 x 3
I was supposed to hit 100, but I started losing my form plus I haven't squated in over two weeks so Jeremy kept me at my warm up weight. Mea culpa.
Press: 45lbs 5 x 3
OK, I noticed I'm not really bracing myself when I get overhead. Note to self: brace yourself.
Deadlift: 145 x 4
These felt heavy -again, haven't lifted anything but donuts for the past couple of weeks so I guess I had it coming. Failed the last rep, I just didn't have it in me.
PS: Happiness is lifting heavy shit at the crack of dawn
gina <3 <3 sad to lose an awesome gym catlady! definitely want to visit one of my favorite cities ever in the future again, and obv will let you know when we go!
QOD answer: that hard bubble gum (dubble bubble) so gross.
6am. Rack jerks: 205, 205, 215, 225, 225. Bar felt poppy again today, but I didn't feel like I was getting particularly low on the catch. Perhaps because I didn't need to. Metcon Rx in 7:09. Didn't put the bar down for the push jerks, but they slowed down towards the end. First 2 rounds felt good and then the jerks deteriorated into something closer to a push press. MUs went: 3-2, 2-2, 2-F-1, 2, 1.
Tootsie rolls. Still ate them, though. Candy is candy.
Good luck in Austin, Gina.
8am with McD. Jerks at 115#, which is 90% for me. These have been feeling GREAT the past couple of weeks. I am really glad we had a whole cycle to work on them because I was able to really fine tune them a bit. Then the WOD rxed in 9:46. Almost 2 minutes behind my wonder twin, who I was hoping to beat. Dear god, those push presses got heavy fast. Thought I was blazing through the workout, but as it turns out, I wasn't. Then the cash out, right up my alley with some #madabsyo.
Gina, what a beautiful letter. You will be missed around here – best of luck to you in Austin!
I hated getting any candy that wasn't chocolate. Seriously. There was one house in the neighborhood that gave out FULL SIZED Milky Way bars and obviously, I always hit them up first. To this day, I still don't know exactly what nougat is but it doesn't really matter.
6:30am Strength Cycle! It was a little bittersweet to watch from the sidelines as the 6am crew worked out, but I am so excited to be getting stronger!
LBBS: 165#x3x5
Press: 55#x5, 65×5, 60×5
Deadlift: 185#x5
QOD: raisins or raisinets. As an adult I can see why you might want to give out something other than pure sugar, but as a kid it was always disappointing.
Good luck Gina!
Black licorice, Necco wafers and those wax lips/fangs that have a vague cherry taste but are essentially flameless candles – basically a way to punk little kids because they look like candy BUT THEY'RE NOT!! How much fun can you have with a pair of fake wax lips at age seven (yes I recognize that there may be SOME use for them once you reach the age of consent for all of the dirty-minded people out there – don't ask me to demonstrate).
Yesterday's WOD. Disappointed that I only managed 123 doubles in 4 minutes. Finished with 3 rounds + 8 KB swings at 20kg.
Good luck Gina!
Gina!! You will be greatly missed! Best of luck in Austin! Xxx
QOD- black licorice.
10AM class
Jerks
195
205
215x1x3
Performance WOD Rx'd
6:42
Was anxious about repping this weight overhead but was able to do all the sets unbroken and cycled except for resting at the shoulders between the 2nd and 3rd reps in the 3rd round. Receiving the bar from overhead definitely drove me further down on my dip than I would have liked.
Muscle Ups in 3/2, 2/2, 2/1, 2, 1
—
Peace out, Gatto. BK is a bit less fun today with you in Texas. I'd say good luck but I don't think you'll need it, so I'll just say be amazing.
A few things from the weekend + today:
Heavy C&J 5×1:
115, 115, 135, 145, 150#
These felt pretty good. 150# is 5 lbs below my PR which was about a year ago. Stopped at this weight, wanted to wait til I was feeling supa-fresh before going for any new PRs. Need to practice my footwork. Gotta focus on getting a wider base of support in the split.
Heavy snatch 5×1:
78, 83, 83, 88 , 88#
Feel like I'm digressing in this area. For some reason recently I've been nervous/overthinking the movement. Stayed at my 80% range so there were no failures.
Push press: 97# 5×3
WOD: fitness 7:30 RX
Deadlifting with a hook grip was helpful for this one. Made the transition to push press much smoother. Broke the 15-12-9 push presses into sets of two. Everything else unbroken. Was happy with the pace I chose, ended the workout feeling tired but still fresh. Gotta LOOOONG day ahead of me!
10am
Push Jerks at 100lbs again. They felt better than last week, but still need to work on staying straight and getting under.
WOD: Scaled to 63# because of PP, good decision! 7:56. Deadlift was easy, PP was hard – had to break them up more than I had planned. Not much to say about burpees.
Excited to start the OLY program tomorrow!!
And QOD: Mary Jane, Good and Plentys.
Also, I put a job post in the Classifieds for Chameleon Cold Brew- check it out if you are looking for something new, great company!!
http://www.crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com/cfsbk-classifieds/post/2372232?lastPage=true
Gina – Lets Facetime your cats and my dog. Just because. PS: Austin is epic lucky to have you. Gonna miss you something fierce! Crush that town.
QOD – nothing. I loved, and still love, all the candies.
For DO and others, I'm just going to put this Dawson's Creek remake with dachshunds right.. here:
/www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/heres-dawsons-creek-but-with-dauschunds
Three things:
– Gina rocks
– I am super-excited about the introduction of the Oly program at CFSBK and hopes it grows to be the staple that the Strength Cycle has become. This in mind, the times are tough I think for some of us, especially parents who work. I also suspect there is a market for 2 day strength, 1 day oly program (or vice versa) — I would sign up for that in a heart-beat.
– I am running the marathon Sunday and I'm certain I'm not alone from CFSBK (Eric, for example, I know is running). Here's my post about it on FB page … curious who else is running and also who will be cheering and where. https://www.facebook.com/robunderwood/posts/10153506409471393:0
Also, thanks again to Chris Fox for encouraging me to do the Starting Strength Iron Fest. It was a lot of fun, and general good practice the week before the marathon is to do a power lifting meeting, so the timing was good.
Summary: Who is running Sunday? And who is cheering where? And Gina rocks. And Fox. And Frank. And Jeremy. And you.
Au revoir Gina! We'll see you down in Texas!
I'm jumping back into the AM Oly cycle again. Come have fun with me and Leo and whoever else is in for this round. Let's PR together!
Speaking of, didn't post my Fri OG session which included an unplanned CF Total:
High hang > hang snatch (pause in the hole)
40×1,1 50×1,1 60×1,1 70×1,1
Power clean, push jerk, jerk
50 60 70 80 90
HBBS
135×5 185×4 225×3 275×2 315×1 335×1 (PR) 350×1 (PR) 360xM
Press
45×5 95×4 115×3 135×2 145×1 155×1 (PR) 165xM,M 160×1 (PR)
Deadlift
135×3 225×2 315×1 345×1 (PR) 355×1 (PR)
Gaining weight again while squatting 3x a week really worked for me. Also glad I can deadlift again without any trouble, now it's time to train it and get it more than 5# over my HBBS! (And I really had to fight just to get that).
Now to hone technique during the Oly cycle and do some conditioning again (I feel like I keep saying that but it never happens…)
Linda: Soon enough you will learn to point and laugh from the platform while your 6 AM colleagues (and 7 AM colleagues, too) are doing burpees.
A quick write-up about the October IronFest with Fox, Rob U., and Mike (G?) this weekend:
I hadn't competed in a strength event since 2001, and it was a blast to be back at it again, especially with a fun crowd from SBK, and really the whole field was full of great (and strong!) folks. I will do something like this again soon.
Went 3 for 3 on both Back Squat (High Bar) and Press, setting PRs on both in the third attempt at 410 and 165 (BW!!). Deadlift was a different story. I opened with 395 and everything was smooth, and then failed at 420 and 425 in the next two attempts (PR is 415 and I thought I had gotten stronger). I feel like they were both close to going up but I let my weight drift forward ever so slightly and it was all over. Pretty disappointing to finish on two failed attempts, but now I know where I stand. I think I'll be creating some deadlift programming for myself during OG on Sundays for the next several weeks to work this lift. It's been a while since I've seen it in a cycle as I opted for the performance programming when it was last programmed as the fitness option.
Anyhow, I can't say enough how much fun the event was. Fox's 3rd attempt at the press was about as exciting as it gets, even if he did get red lighted by the narrowest of margins.
Good Luck Gina!!! The photos of your FGB team this year will be a lasting reminder of your awesomeness.
Both Oly cycles are on! And still some room in each for any procrastinators. 😉
Great news! I call dibs on the Eleiko bar.
Jay’s post convinced me to sign up for PM Oly. Thanks, Jay.
Lots of great stuff to comment on.
GG Gatto,
I'm so so sad to not be having you around the gym on the regular, but you'll always be a part of the community and we look forward to stalking you on Instagram. Austin is an amazing city, I've only been once but could see myself living there. Thanks for the kind words in the write-up. This is not goodbye, it's smell ya later!
OGJB,
Holy shit. I only wish I had ever watched Dawson's creek if only to understand any recreations. Still amazing, like, above and beyond.
Thanks for the push Rob, Jay and for everyone else rallying behind the oly cycle. It's here to stay guys! More scheduling options are going to become available over the next couple months.
QOD: I'm not a big fan of candy, i prefer to indulge in a good sugary starch. As far as Halloween bounty goes, Snickers were usually my favorite.
Also more people need to be talking about the bathroom renovations for me to feel validated. thankyouverymuch
Make-up from Friday (random lifting sesh after OG). Haven't worked out since then because I've been crappily sick (as anyone who took Saturday classes or Sunday open gym heard me complain profusely about). I'm only putting up with this for one more day.
3×3 Front Squat @ 165. Hard, but doable.
3×5 Bench Press at 105
Worked up to heavy set of 5 deadlifts at 235. This is probably why I get sick. 😛
and then some bicep curls for good measure.
Re candy: I honestly think I liked the raisins best. I was always a little uptight.
Also–Gina! I am sad to see you go. I know I didn't have a chance to spend that much time with you, but I did enjoy getting to know you a bit! I totally hear what you're saying about CrossFit giving you the strength to take a chance and move some place new. Besides giving you faith that you'll be able to find a community of like-minded in a new place–there's something about accomplishing really hard shit in the gym on a regular basis that makes you feel better equipped to handle challenges outside the gym as well. Good luck with the next chapter in your life, and enjoy those warm Texas winters! #texasforever
David- the bathroom is fucking amazing; you have outdone yourself. You are an artiste.
Yay to the Oly Cycles happening. Very excited! I really hope I can get my shit together over the next eight weeks because it was either admit I would never be able to do these lifts because my brain isn't wired that way and I just don't have the required mobility, or give it everything I've got and use all of the available resources to try to get over these things. Let's see what happens. I have high hopes!!! Thank you DO.and co. for providing this option to expand our training and skill set.
12pm with Fox and Arturo.
Push press.
45 x 5, 75 x 4, 90 x 3, 100 x 5 x 3.
!!!!! This is pretty awesome as it was a 5lb jump and I was so scared of this lift for the first few weeks. Felt heavy but pretty solid today. Not sure if I will be hitting the last exposure but I'll be adding 5lb of I do. Very happy with how this went today.
WOD-Fitness Rx. 8.40… The push presses were very heavy. I had to break them up more than was recommended by the coaches beforehand, but I got through them. Failed my very last one which was GRRRR!!!!! Unfortunately I made the silly mistake of using the blue bar as I wasn't thinking straight and I now know why we use the yellow one!!! All the same, I'm glad I did 75#… Because it was almost the right weight!!!
Planks were not pleasant but ok. I worked on kipping swings, strict pull-ups and some sort of hybrid of the two afterwards, followed by DU practice. I got 34 in a row!!! PRby 6!!! I did not breathe for the duration though – must work on that 🙂
Brad D- thanks for posting your experience. I love reading this stuff.
I hit the school gym today, misread the workout and did 21-18-15-12-9-6-3-1. LOL. Can't. Move. My. Arms.
Billy is a beast!
6:30 class, jerks @ 145. It happened, they went OK, I'm not really thrilled about it but it was fine.
WOD – I misremembered and went through the day thinking this was push jerk @ 115 and fantasizing about how I was going to RX this workout in record time! And then I came in and saw it was push press and my heart turned dark, and lo I did not RX it, nor did I crush it in record time. But verily did I push press @ 95# and so did it take me 9 minutes flat.
Make-up post for yesterday: went to Planet Fitness again with my wife. Got a hearty workout in under the "no lunkheads sign," suppressed all grunts:
5 x { 10 db reverse lunge, 20 pushups }. lunges w/50, 50, 55, 60, 60# dbs. Pushups very broken. Took too much rest. If we go again next week I'll break up the pushups less to increase the intensity, these should be much harder since I'm not very good at them.
5 x { 10 db row e, slow 20 count hollow hold}. rows felt lame, holds were murder though.
3 x { 20 db goblet squat, slow 10 count side plank e }. 60# across. No grunting, but I wanted to. Made today's cashout seems easy!.
550m run
Warm up 2×2
Rack Jerks
120x1x5
Finally some successful jerks. These felt solid, wo forward dip or donkey kick
Less than 90% but after the way these have been going, I'm real happy about this
Alternating side planks
15-12-9-6-3
Dead lift 75#
Push press 75#
BurpeeS
8:43
All the best to you Gina!
I was proud to finish the workout under 10:00 as I was pushing pretty hard. I'm amazed by y'all with the 7-9 minute times!! Fun workout!
The bathroom looks amazing!!! I agree, Charlie!
As for the QOD: smarties and tootsie rolls (and those weird flavored tootsie rolls) were the WORST. Or those Palmer chocolate coin things in foil. Yuck! Stella, I agree… the ballers who passed out full-size candy bars were definitely the best house on the block.
Like DO said, so many good things. The bathroom is indeed great. Gina, you're hilarious, and I hope you come stalk the blog and leave us random funny posts. JB, your post was very funny. Rob U, your summary at the end of your post was really great. I also just saw KH perform tonight in Manhattan with a bunch of other CFSBKers and she was AMAZING.
I, on the other hand, sucked at all the fitness tonight (besides the planks, I was great at planking). 4:30 with Noah. I hit 145 easily on my jerks last week, but failed at 135 twice today. I didn't eat enough to recover after last night or before class, so I'm blaming that. Fitness WOD in 9:21 Rx. If I redid this with more gas in the tank, I know I could have shaved two minutes or so off my time. Also practiced my handstands again and could barely get two steps, after getting seven for the first time last night! Boo.
But like I said, planks. And rest day tomorrow.