Fitness: Halting Clean + Hang Clean Pull + Hang Clean + Jerk
Work up to a challenging load on the complex.
Performance: Halting Clean Deadlift + Hang Clean Pull + Hang Clean + Jerk
Work up to a heavy load on the complex. If you have time before class, review Catalyst Athletic’s demo of the Hang Clean Pull and the Halting Clean Deadlift.
Post loads to comments.
e5/8
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3 Rounds For Max Reps of:
1 Minute Max Calories Rowed
1 Minute Rest
1 Minute Max Double Unders
1 Minute Rest
1 Minute Max Wall Ball 20/10, 14/9
1 Minute Rest
Post reps completed for each movement and Rx to comments.
Margie at the Iron Maidens Raw Open
News and Notes
- Meet the Veg CSA Farmer Today! Tess from Common Hands Farm, our new vegetable CSA partner, will be tabling at Brooklyn Boulders today from 6:30-8:30pm. If you have questions about the new vegetable (plus fruit and eggs!) CSA program, stop by Brooklyn Boulders and introduce yourself!
- Congrats to Spirit and Jared D. on their new addition: Zev Sunny D. came into the world on April 19th, at 8lb, 6 oz. See some super cute photos here!
The Original Iron Maiden: Getting to Know Coach Margie
The Iron Maidens Raw Open was Margie L.’s latest contribution to CFSBK, but it’s far from her first. Margie was the third coach on staff at CFSBK, and she is Starting Strength-certified. Back in 2011, she created Tough Titsday, an all-women powerlifting meet. She also started the Herondale and Sol Flower Farm CSA partnerships, and she came up with the Underneath the Hoodie series, penning the first one about Coach Jess. (Coach Noah eventually turned the tables and wrote Margie’s.)
Margie is happy to return to CFSBK after a two-year hiatus, during which she earned a masters degree in Wisconsin (and wrote a series of articles for us about why you should join a CSA)—and she’s now returning to CFSBK with a bang. Iron Maidens was a smashing success, and in addition to coaching a few group classes, she will also be heading up the F Cycle of the next Strength Cycle. Since many of you weren’t around before Coach Margie left, we wanted to provide an opportunity to learn more about her. Read her interview with Kate below!
All cycles of the upcoming Strength Cycle will be posted next week, after the Strength Cycle Total this Sunday at 2pm.
CFSBK: Hi Margie! It’s been a while, but officially: Welcome back. Tell us a little bit about your athletic background.
ML: As a child, I excelled at slow swimming, mediocre tennis, and above average sit-and-reach scores.
CFSBK: Ah, the infamous sit-and-reach. May it rest in peace. How did you find CrossFit, and CFSBK?
ML: About nine or 10 years ago, I became a gym junkie for the first time in my life. I went to Slope Fitness six ays a week. I frequented the treadmill and elliptical, and religiously toted a Shape or Fitness magazine to consult with on my dumbbell routines.
One day a new trainer there approached me, asked me about my goals and if I wanted to workout. He taught me how to squat and then proceeded to lead me through a tabata squat session. I was impressed with his focus on form and how freakin’ hard it was. So, we started to work together; he kept telling me about getting certified in this thing, which is what we were doing, but I didn’t know was he was talking about. After he moved away from NY and I finally realized “this thing” was CrossFit, I got into the website and tried doing it on my own. That wasn’t very motivating, so I found CFNYC and went through their Elements class. I really loved it and worked out there for a few months until one day Court mentioned there was some guy in Brooklyn who had just started an affiliate. Turned out it was in Park Slope where I lived.
David had just moved from St. Mary’s Park to the Lyceum. After a surprisingly personal email exchange with him, I went to a class. I really dug the vibe David set, as well as the funny little group of members. As he added classes to the weekly schedule (there were only two or three at the beginning), I slowly stopped going to CFNYC in favor of SBK.
CFSBK: How did you decide to become a coach?
ML: Oh, I just got addicted. To CrossFit, to CFSBK, to the people, to the lifestyle. I was interested in movement quality—not so surprising given my theater background. I also enjoyed motivating others to discover the athletic side of themselves, as I had. I was very involved with helping David to grow and represent the gym (as were Jeremy and Shane), so it seemed like a natural progression to take on a coaching position. It was fairly informal at first, but as I learned more through attending seminars, reading and practicing, it became a serious focus in my life.
CFSBK: Tell us about starting Tough Titsday, and how that evolved over the years.
ML: When I first started at SBK, my role models included David, Charmel and, of course, Jeremy. The tone they set had a tremendous impact on the affinity I developed for barbells: push hard, go after it and do it well. I was completely one of the gang, even though I had a minimal athletic background, and often was the only female. Lifting and strongman style work made me feel like a badass. I was a lifelong theater nerd who’d always related to my body primarily as a comedic tool (and repository for chicken sandwiches). Getting stronger was a real departure, and one of the few things I’ve built for myself entirely on my own: no one can put the work in for you. That process imparted a sense of self-possession I’d never experienced before. Ultimately, strength training became more fulfilling than CrossFit.
I think the kind of transformation I went through is common among women for a variety of reasons. I wanted to facilitate, support and push other women to engage with this perhaps unknown part of themselves. Several years ago, there were few women in Jeremy’s Strength Cycle because many were intimidated and didn’t see reflections of themselves over there on the platform. I believed they just needed the right environment, so I created two mini-workshop series for novice and intermediate female lifters. We refined technique and explored the mental fortitude necessary to embrace heaviness. I was very pleased that many of my attendees went on to join Strength Cycle. Their visibility on the platform encouraged even more women to join, and now there are sometimes more ladies there than men.
The other aspect of Tough Titsday was the powerlifting meet, of course. I wrote a bit about that as wrap-up to Iron Maidens, so I’ll stop here.
CFSBK: What took you away from us to Madison?
ML: After working in the non-profit arts for about 12 years, I was becoming restless. I had developed this real passion for nutrition, particularly pastured animal products (read: former paleo zealot). I befriended some farmers, worked at the farmers markets, explored farm apprentice programs and was sort of the de facto food person at SBK.
Shortly after I left New York Foundation for the Arts in 2011, and I was working more regularly at SBK, I started the Herondale and Sol Flower Farms CSAs. It was a catalytic experience for me. I kind of woke up one morning and said to Jeremy that I wanted to go to graduate school for agriculture. I didn’t know what Agroecology was at the time, but when I found the program at UW-Madison, it really resonated with my sensibilities. In exchange for a free education, I received a project assistantship to develop a consumer education program about the benefits of pasture-based farming for a local non-profit. It was a fantastic vehicle for learning about environmental impacts, grassland ecology, animal welfare issues, the economic structure of our industrial farming system, and how different farming communities operate.
Interestingly, the original driver for my fascination with animal agriculture, nutrition, has become one of the least compelling reasons I believe in the value of pasture-based systems.
So, now I have a Masters of Science in Agroecology. If you want to hire me to develop programming for and/or communicate with your community about livestock agriculture, let me know!
CFSBK: What is about strength training that has maintained your interest for this long?
ML: I’m still weak.
Introducing: Noon Strength Cycle with Coach Margie
We all want to get stronger. That’s because we implicitly understand that building strength is the foundation for increasing overall physical capacity. It has been proven again and again that lifting heavy primes our bodies to be more effective and efficient at metabolic conditioning workouts. Strength is the only mode of training that supports everything else we do in the gym and in life. Plus: it’s pretty badass.
We are adding a new time slot for Strength Cycle, taught by Margie. This class will run concurrently with the other morning and evening Strength Cycles, beginning May 18. The noon cycle is open to all levels, and will follow the standard barbell program: squat, bench press, press, deadlift, and some assistance lifts. It will culminate in a Total to test your one rep maxes in the squat, press, and deadlift. Limited to 6 participants.
When: Monday and Thursday at 12PM | Monday May 18th – Thursday July 9th
Cost: $200/4 weeks; $400 total. You also have the option to add on a 2x/week Group class pass for $100/4 weeks.
The cycle will wrap up with a CrossFit Total on Sunday, July 12, 2015.
Questions? Contact Margie [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com
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Have you taken Strength Cycle before? If so, what did you gain (besides your gainz) or learn from it?
Margie! I was one of those for whom Tough Titsday class became a gateway drug to Strength Cycle. At first when Margie came back, I hoped she was going to start that class again. And now I've realized that SBK has so many strong female role models that novice female lifters can look around them and see badass women lifting all over the place as their encouragement to get comfortable under a heavy bar. So maybe it's not that we need a ladies-only lifting class, because women are so well encouraged to get strong throughout SBK, and that is in large part due to Margie's efforts.
I have taken one Tough Titsday class and four Strength Cycles and I cannot recommend it enough. I'm also SO BUMMED to be injured right now, because I really wanted to sign up for the next B cycle — for intermediate lifters, I also can't say enough good things about where those insane squat ladders in the B programming will get you!
There are the obvious physiological gains, but there are also mental gainz to be had. I've told this story a million times but it's still true — when I really learned what I was capable of was when I was benching the heaviest load I'd ever done (I think it was 107.5), I gasped "help!" thinking I couldn't make that last rep…I got no help, I made the lift, and Jeremy said, "Don't ever ask me for help again!"
Jeremy and Margie will, of course, help you when you truly need it. But they have trained eyes, and they can tell the difference between what you can do and what you can't. Now I know that, and I believe in my own abilities so much more than I did before that day. (And I can bench more like 125 for my 3×5 now!)
6am with JB and DO
Clean Complex: Partnered with MattyChm and worked up to 215#. This felt snappier than last week, and Matt gave me some good feedback about keeping my arms straighter during the pull. This helped when I was doing the clean from the hang.
WOD: 368 total reps, split was 72,224,72 (Row, DU, WB). The WB's were tough as my legs were smoked from the mini-Murph we did the other day.
6am with JB and David. I worked up to 125 on the clean and jerk complex. For some reason, the jerks felt less crisp today than they have lately, though they weren't terrible. David noticed on my last rep that I was going a little soft and allowing my elbows to drop at the bottom of the dip – that probably explains it. Also, I feel like today was the first time I really got what a good clean pull was supposed to feel like, so that's progress.
229 total reps in the WOD, Rx'd. 104 double unders (first round was pretty good, second round stunk, third round somewhere in the middle); 66 wall balls (25, 25, 16); 59 cals rowed (20-19-20). This was tough. I don't think it helps that my entire respiratory tract is inflamed from pollenpalooza or that I did Murphlet yesterday, but I think this would have sucked pretty hard no matter what.
6am with David and JB
Clean and Jerk:
Hit 205#. This felt much better than last week when I only hit 185# for the same complex.
WOD
314 reps (I'll let Peter post his score but I'll give a hint. It was 313.) Round 1 was 108, round 2 was 98 and round three was back to 108.
I have never done Strength Cycle but I always marvel at the weight these people are able to move by the end of the cycle. It is on my list for sure.
6am. Clean&jerk: 135, 165, 185, 205, 215, 225, 235. Jerk at 225 was a little unstable. The rep at 235 was much better. Metcon: 313 reps. Rows were: 23, 22, 23. DUs: 51, 55, 52. WB: 29, 29, 29. Consistency. Stopped on the final round of WBs with 3 seconds left. Could have had another rep there. And certainly could have found another DU in one of the rounds. DUs were better than they've been recently. Was using my wrists much more than my shoulders.
I have not taken Strength Cycle but it is on "To Do" list
I love this article on Margie! I had not really known her prior to Iron Maidens and it was really great to get to know her/get her sage advice and she is truly awesome/badass as everyone has said (not that I didn't believe it in the first place!), and I am so glad she is a part of CFSBK again! Yay Margie!
Glad you are back Margie.
Not much to add to Stella's remarks about Strength Cycle. It works (period). Breaking mental barriers that held me back from getting Swole-ified was the most beneficial aspect of the class. Jeremy is a brilliant coach and f'ing hysterically funny.
Strength Cycle changed everything for me.
Very excited to sign up for Margie's F cycle. Great interview; great woman. And her husband is pretty cool too 🙂
Worked a lot of reps at lowish weights for me over the last few weeks on the C&J – feeling like I'm really dialing in the movement.
Today I worked up to 89kg ~196# Everything felt solid on almost all reps. Shorted my front foot on the jerk at 85kg the first time but other than that was happy with my positions.
Metcon:
Row – 30/27/24
DU – 87/90/73
WB – 29/28/23
Total was 411. This was way harder than it sounded. There was really nowhere to hide.
hi blog! it's been a while!
margie is awesome! i have several times considered quitting my job in the last few days in order to do her noon cycle (jeremy says i can do this after i get into grad school).
as a solo female weightvangelist back in the day, it was so awesome for me to come to cfsbk and see other women who wanted to lift heavy. reading that margie was such a huge part of creating that culture makes so much sense given how encouraging she is of all women lifters.
Margie! So happy you are officially back and giving up the "emeritus" status. Yay!
I basically have the same sentiments as Sam P. Margie is awesome and amazing. If I could schedule my workday around this noon cycle I would be all over it. Definitely throwing in my vote for a future evening cycle.
Beyond stoked to see her back. Yeah Margie!
Reading over all of the posts I have come to the conclusion that there are just too many chicks in strength cycle now. Talking about hair, makeup and clothes and stuff. But more importantly not talking to ME about these topics. Like my opinion doesn't count for anything? So just because I am anatomically different means that I can't have views on peasant skirts, smoky eyes or Jeremy Scott!. Well let me tell you my view is – I am over Jeremy Scott! Its like the same joke over and over again and it wasn't even funny the first time.
I am pretty damn judgmental overall and would appreciate both some respect and the opportunity to judge and be judged by all of you. Thank you very much.
7am Oly Cycle
Cleans from the mid hang: 33, 63, 83, 103, 113, 123, 133, 143F. Lots of cleans this morning! 143 would've been a PR and Frank took video showing I got the bar plenty high, but just can't quite get my elbows around fast/high enough.
Snatches from the mid hang: 33, 63, 73, shifting between the mid hang and power (high hang) positions twice before snatching. I was struggling a bit with hitting the high hang, so Frank had me break it down some more and focus on jumping just with the legs and not with the hips. Still a work in progress. Rounded out the session with light jerks from the rack and mobility.
This is the most number of cleans and snatches I've attempted in one hour and I paid for it by ripping off the calluses on my left hand, which didn't help :/
Strength cycle is awesome!!!! It helped me to get closer to my full potential in lifting heavier weights. It's amazing how well Jeremy knows what you're capable of even before you do and it gave me so much confidence under the bar! I also didn't know how important resting between sets is as you go heavier.
9:15am outlaw sesh, without any of my usual blonde workout buddies!
BBG: EMOM for 10:00-
A. 3 T&G Power Snatches – Begin at 60% and add weight each minute
63, 68, 73, 78, 83, 88, 93, 98!!, 88, 88
No misses. As Todd observed around 88/93#, I had plenty of room and just needed to trust and get lower on the heavier weights. Focus on getting to hips, vertical, and then under. Maybe just a couple small press outs.
98= 87%
B. 2 T&G Power Clean & Push Jerks – Begin at 60% and add weight each minute.
83, 88, 93, 98, 103, 108, 113, 113, 118, 123
No misses. I would've stayed at 113, but Frank told me to go up. I get tired on second jerk so need to stay in my legs and get down! stay braced. 123 is 10# up from last wk!
123= 85%
Strength/Skill:
1a) 4X10 Front Squat
105×10, 115×10, 125×10, 135×9 (Fail on 10! Rude!!!)
Had Ro coach me thru my last set. 1-5 solid bar speed, then I start to freak out. Lost some tension/position in 7/8, for reps 9 and 10, I just felt like I couldn't get the bar off my chest and couldn't get a deep enough breath to brace. Just felt crushed. Got to the bottom of 10 and gave up. Re-racked and hit the last rep.
Tempo ring dip: 3×3
Muscle ups: 1-1-1-1-1 Kipping, with about :30-:60 between
Great article!! Margie is awesome! 🙂
I have not taken strength cycle. I would like to at some point though!
Last night: 5:30pm with Noah and McDowell
Push-press (staying off heavy squatting for the rest of the week): 3×100. Not super heavy, but I haven't push pressed in a while. Staying tight over head is still a struggle, but I felt like some reps were more successful than others.
Conditioning: 9:55. I'm fairly certain I did seven rounds here (came in from the run around 2:45, each around at about :45, then 400m in about 1:30).
Coached this morning so made up a bit from Oly cycle at 8am:
Snatch complex: 2×1 transition from hang to power position +1 hang squat snatch/ 53, 53, 63, 63, 63, 63, 73, 73.
Squat cleaning hurt so I did 1 clean + 3 jerks: 73, 83, 83, 93×6. Same weight as Monday. Felt better. I'm definitely doing a better job of keeping my elbows up and pushing myself underneath the bar, though I am definitely still landing a bit forward.
Question for Margie: Can you elaborate on why you no longer consider nutrition to be an important reason to choose pasture-raised meats?
First off – thanks for the kind words everyone! I appreciate it very much.
Stella – that short answer is that there isn't enough research to suggest that the nutrient content of pasture-based animal flesh and fat is always significantly different from/better than conventionally raised animals. There's one good lit review that does find certain vitamins and minerals tend to be higher in grass-fed beef. But then another more recent article suggests the differences are not sweepingly significant (this was also funded by an association that advocates for big beef, so the validity may be questionable). I think there's decent evidence to suggest eggs from pastured chickens contain higher levels of beta carotene, etc. But overall, there's not a lot out there yet in terms of conclusively linking beneficial outcomes for human nutrition.
The point is that we just need to get better at studying this stuff, which is very complex and requires a cross-disciplinary approach.
However, I am thoroughly convinced animal health is vastly improved in a pastured-system. Certainly the antibiotic/growth hormone usage is very small, which has public health implications.
So, the human nutrition side is not a dead end, it's just not as robust an argument as other aspects.
The original iron maiden! Welcome back Margie! I'm happy to see you back in the gym. We are lucky to have you.
Logged some solid SBK time today
Shoulders, arms, lats mobility
50 DU
550m run
20 thrusters 17.5# DBs
Clean Complex
Pause Hang DL, Hang Pull, Hang Clean, Jerk
15, 35, 40, 42, 45, 50, 55
Work out – 296 reps
1:00 on 1:00 off, 3 rounds
Max cal row, wall balls, DUs
With an amazing Phil Collins moment orchestrated by Arturo
Then the shower to end all showers
Aw man seriously that Phil Collins moment will be remembered by all who witnessed it forever. Still can't quite believe it happened.
12pm class with DO and Ro.
Nice surprise WU
50 DU's
550M run
20 x DB thrusters (with pause) at 20#
Clean Complex
Halting Clean + Hang Clean Pull + Hang Clean + Jerk (fitness)
33, 63, 73, 78, 83, 88, 93, 98,103,108… kind of wish I had more time as I felt I could have added more. Everything seemed to move pretty well today.
WOD- 275 reps
3 rounds
1 min on, 1 min rest
Max cal row (16,16,16)
DU (60, 50, 52)
Wall Ball 14/9 (23, 21, 21)
Well, I figured out how to pace myself on the row at least. I am just not efficient at DU's at all yet but was very happy to string them together. Wall Balls kill me. Every time.
HBBS, 5RM
433×3**Had no fire today. I was feeling a bit scared of the weight…and just racked it.
429×4, failed 5th.
390×5
PRess behind neck, 5RM, -5%x5x2
187×5
176x5x2
Tabata Assault bike, 51 cals
Hell yeah, Margie. I've always flirted with the idea of taking Strength Cycle, but I'm confident I would go crazy without sweating my face off through WODs. 🙂
My hamstring is officially wounded, so I will be taking it easy for a week or two to see how things progress. Discussed all the substitutions with David I can do in the meantime, and made up a version of yesterday's Murph-ish WOD.
Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry and some planks and slow lunges.
DB Press: 30#x10, 35#x8x3
For Time:
100 DU
7 Rounds:
5 pull-ups
15 squats
Then, 100 DU
I finished around 13:30. Oddly, my first set of DU was way harder than the last. I took out the push-ups because I know I'm not strong enough to do those plus the pull-ups, and I wanted to crush the pull-ups… which I feel happy to say I did. (My version of crushing them, of course.) 🙂
Then I did 8 sets of 7 push-ups with ample rest. I used to be able to do 20 unbroken but man, if I don't focus on these, they go away so fast.
Margie! Please do an evening class for an upcoming cycle! Loving group class right now but would give it up to do a cycle with you.
I guess I can quit my job. I will weigh my options.
Ugh Kate- it sucks that you are injured. A good thing about this strength cycle is that it is only two days per week so you can still get your sweat on. I certainly plan to! You should join me!!
So Greg Glassman will be on 60 Minutes this Sunday. And, after watching a mini preview on cbs.com, up came a Viagra ad (narrated by a young woman). Clearly, some mis-marketing there, right?
Fitness Clean: I felt immediate pain in my wrist that shot down my forearm to my elbow on my first clean with weight on the bar. Subsequently spent most of the time rolling out and stretching out my forearm. Then Ro did some voodoo on my arm. Worked wonders. Hit the bar for one rep at 73# and another at 83# with much less pain. Didn't want to push it beyond that and ran out of time anyway.
WOD:
Row: 15, 15, 15
DUs: 30, 39, 36
WBs: 24, 22, 20
Total: 216 reps
DUs were meh today. I was able to string 10-14 together at least once each round, then lots of smaller sets. No repped myself on a few wall balls.
Another great interview! I would like to do a strength cycle at some point. I thought I had to get over my squatting issues to do it, but it sounds like the strength cycle is the cure to overcome my mental barriers!