Morit (right) on the podium with Val and Ellie at Fight Gone Bad 2015
- The fourth LFPB Q&A Info Session, “Adjusting Nutrition to Meet Your Goals,” is this Thursday at 6:30pm.
- We have a ton of your stuff in our Lost and Found! Do any of these shoes belong to you? What about this other stuff? Please claim it before we donate it to CHIPS in two weeks!
The Iron Maidens of CFSBK: Morit Summers
The Iron Maidens Raw Open is fast approaching! Leading up to the event, we’ll be posting brief interviews with CFSBK lifters to help you get to know our team and give you a sense of what these women are doing to prepare. This year, through competitors’ fundraising efforts, Iron Maidens will create the inaugural annual Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for 70% of college tuition for 10 women in the College Prep program at the Bronx-based Grace Outreach. Right now we’re at $17,335 donated. We’re so close, and we need your help to reach the finish line! You can donate to a lifters’ campaign by going here.
What’s your athletic background, Mo? When did you start barbell training?
I don’t really have an athletic background. I started lifting weights when I was 14. I was overweight and did not enjoy sports, so the gym became a part of my life. I went to SUNY Cortland for Exercise Science and Kinesiology, and that’s where I learned how to use the barbell. I really didn’t start working out with the barbell all the time until I joined CrossFit South Brooklyn a little over a year ago. Now I couldn’t live without it.
How has lifting impacted you athletically and personally?
Lifting is really the only time I feel at my most confident. I am the strongest I have ever been and feel that I can always become better and that there is always room for improvement. I am excited to be at my most athletic in my 30s. I’ve always lifted, but Iron Maidens has given me something new and different to work towards. I’m at a crossroads in my life and career, and having this to focus on has been really amazing and empowering.
Have you competed in a powerlifting meet before?
No, this will be my first powerlifting competition. I am super excited to do this for the first time in a place I feel comfortable and surrounded by strong women! I work in the fitness industry, and for a lot of people it’s about aesthetics and the amount of weight you can lift (although I know that at a powerlifting meet we are trying lift a big number). To me the event means so much more than the numbers!
So this is your first time competing in Iron Maidens! Anything in particular that you’re looking forward to or nervous about?
It is my first time, and I’m really looking forward to being surrounded by strong women! People have always told me I’m strong, but I’ve never been totally sure what that means. I really feel like training for this competition is a way of proving to myself what I am capable of. I’m not nervous now. I know I will be the day of, maybe even the week of. Usually before any competition I’m incredibly nervous until I get started.
__________________
Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Clean | Front Squats, Toes-to-Bars
Is It Dangerous to Sleep with Your Smartphone? Hopes&Fears
CrossFit HQ Redesigns CrossFit.com
Wednesday's Programming
Bench Press/Row WOD
5 Rounds:
5 Bench Presses, as heavy as possible
250m Row for Time
This is a slight variation on a WOD we've programmed a few times over the years. Work up to as heavy a load as possible on the Bench Press while still making all 5 reps. Your score for the Bench Press portion is the total poundage moved for all 5 work sets. However, if you miss a rep and only complete 4 then you score a 0 for the Bench Press for that round. There is no time component for the entire round, but you'll score each 250m Erg sprint. The intent is to go all out on the row. Set the monitor up to count down 250m and score your time for that as well. Rest as needed (probably at least 3 minutes) between rounds. Score total pounds moved in sets of 5 and total time for the Erg sprints.
AG
A.
3x max unbroken strict pull ups
3×20 Shoulder taps
B.
EMOM 10
3-5 Handstand push ups
C.
Annie
50 40 30 20 10 reps
Double unders
Sit ups
Did anyone find a grey lululemon zip up with a neon yellow zipper? I left it Saturday. Don't see it in the lost and found. 🙁
Made up yesterday's work at 6am with McDowell
Power cleans
135×3, 165×3, 185×2, 205×1, 215×1, 225×1, 185×4
Decided to work up to a max before I got too tired. 225 is a PR for 3 reps
Metcon – 5:01
Really wanted sub-5 but I just couldn't string the T2B together at the end. Probably should have paced it out a little better. The last round took almost 1:30
Allie- list and found was photographed last week so it wouldn't be in those pics. Have you emailed the front desk? I'll be there later today and I'll take a look for you. Don't worry lady, I bet it's there!
6am Bench and Puke work with Jess
3,725# and 3:46. Ended up failing on my last round of bench press so got a big fat 0.
Bench 175-185-190-195-195×3
Rows all in 45.x
Very surprised by how consistent my rows were. Should have dropped the last bench press down to 185 or 190 since I barely got all 5 of round 4. Oh well. At least I didn't puke.
Visited CrossFit East Bay yesterday
They were de-loading this week which worked out well for me — Thanks to Max and Chelsea for a great experience.
Warm up w 16kg KB
2 rounds:
10 jumping squats
10 good mornings
10 snatch high pulls
10 goblet squats
10 thrusters
Push Press — guessed 1rm was 105 but these all felt light
65% x5 – 70#
70% x4 – 75#
75% x3 – 80#
80% x2 – 90#
85% x1x3 — I decided to keep going up
95#-105#-115# still felt light
HBBS — same %s/rep scheme as PP
110# x8
130 x5
140 x4
150 x3
160 x2
170-175-180 — these felt fine
Finisher – 3 rounds for time:
3 strict L hang C2B pull ups (used underhand)
6 V-ups
18 Russian KB swings – 24kg
3:59 mins
6am doing Monday's workout with McDowell
I caught a wicked cold this weekend (I only have myself and two late nights to blame) so I felt like I was running at 60% capacity today. Adrenaline felt good – it's good to workout when you're sick, right?
Power Cleans: Worked up to 195# on the 3 touch-and-go. Skipped two rounds total to get some extra rest in.
Metcon: 5:54 Rx. That was spicy. I was trying to stay consistent on the T2Bs but they got split up in rounds 4 and 5. Unbroken on the front squats.
Thanks, Charlie!
Crossfit Murdock:
C&j: 93,103×2, 108×2, 113-f clean. I realized I have to squat clean from the beginning or my body gets confused if I switch to squat cleans from power cleans as weight gets heavier.
Wod was a fun but HARD one.
9 min emom:
9 cleans (supposed to be hang squat cleans; I power cleaned), 1 jerk
8 cleans, 2 jerks
7 cleans, 3 jerks..
5 burpee penalty every time you drop the bar. RX was 83, I did 68. It was just challenging enough: didn't drop the bar until last round of jerks even though I really wanted to. I can barely lift my arms.
6am with McD
EMOM Cleans:
95×3
115×2
135×2
155×2
165
175
185×3
Metcon: 7:42 Rx. T2B fell apart fast. First set unbroken, then 5-5, then 3s and 2s and finished with singles. All the FS were unbroken.
7am doing Wednesday work with McDowell
Bench – 3625# total
Row – 3:59 total
Had never done this workout before and hadn't benched since testing a 1RM in September. Cripes. Form was a little squirrely the first few warmups but got it under control. Worked up to 155# which was a new 5 rep max.
Went hard on the erg and hit :47.something each round but the last. Always lost some time once I had ~25m left. Messed with the mind.
OG
First day back after 10 days of near motionless sitting at my desk along with the usual accompaniment of stress, bad food, necessary booze, and lack of sleep. It was as if I woke up in my grandfather's body. And he's dead.
Allie
I put your hoodie in the Lost and Found that night.
The new redesign of CrossFit.com makes me sad. I've been looking at that site daily since 2004 and to see it different. In my opinion it's a little overwhelming with content and navigation options.
@DO – I agree om the new look of dot com. I noticed it last night. I'm sure it's more user friendly for someone new, but it sort of freaks me out…I wish there were an option to see the old interface!
11am
Squat
290x10x3
Getting pretty real. I took video to see if I was hitting good depth without going too low, as Jess noted I was doing last week. They were all good, even a bit low still, but they felt so high!
Did the old Benchy/Rowy Wednesday WOD today.
Benched 195 to start, 205 after, hit all reps. Rows were all around 50 seconds, don't have much power to put into the erg, not like I had much at any point in my CF career! At about 150m each time I basically just held on and pantomimed rowing as opposed to rowing for reals.
I think the CF redesign is about 5 years late- nostalgia aside, its been a byzantine and chintzy looking mess for just about ever. The new one is a little busy, but at least it looks like it wasn't made by a teenager. I do like Chris' suggestion that you should be able to see the old interface, but I'm sure that would be logistically hard.
Clean and Jerk, 75%x2, 80%x1x4
286×2
308x1x4
Front Squat, 89%x2x5
396x2x2
383x2x3
*the 396 felt so heavy, had to drop it down
Clean Deadlfit, 110%x3x5
418x3x5
Today:
1) LBBS: 105x8x4
-reworking my squat to try to minimize this knee thing I've got going on. squatting barefoot, no sleeves and have returned to the Low Bar. Everything feels so weird.
2) Bench: 102.5x10x3
3) Close Grip Bench: 87.5x10x3
~3hrs later…
4) Crash B's: 20 rounds of 30secs work, 15secs rest….then followed by a 20min Recovery Row.
-the 20 rounds may be the worst workout I've done in training for Crash B's. We were supposed to do this at race pace (for me 1:59) and I ended up doing a little better.
-Fastest time was 1:57.1 and slowest was 1:59.0. I did not like this at all. 15secs is a tease of a rest period. I had to start the recovery row fairly quickly after the intervals because I was so angry at the erg that I knew that if I didn't start I wouldn't do it. (to be fair, this is also after it rained like hell IN my apartment so maybe some was carried over from that. 😉
Long weekend in New Orleans, hopped off the plane, dropped of my bag, and made it just in time for the 730 class.
When in Nola:
Saturday: 1 hour run along the Mississippi.
Monday: 2 mini WODs; 10-9-8… Air squats, pushups, lunges each leg; Followed by 21-15-9 air squats and pushups to round it our for a total of 100 reps of each.
Most of the weekend: AMRAP 90 degree arm hold with beverage in hand with arm lifts of oysters/grits/all the food EH(our)OH… Actually, despite definitely not adhering to LFPB challenge, I definitely was making much better choices than I probably would have. Like "I don't really like super sugary drinks, so I will sit out this round while all my friends get it" and "Let me share the beignets and only have one rather than having the whole batch myself." Definitely learning.
And back to Brooklyn tonight:
Started at 83, worked up slowly to 128, focused very intensely the whole time on keeping the bar close. Failed on my last try at 133, making the first but couldn't make the second.
WOD: 10:30 Rx. Admittedly, there were 2 T2B that didn't quite make the bar that I counted. Front squats were quick and unbroken. T2B were long and drawn out, very broken.
5:30 class with Jeremy and whit
Wednesday's work
Did Annie when I first got to,the gym. Went well and finished in 7:15.
Bench
205-215-220-215-220 total of 5375
The last rep of 220 was a 30 second battle between me and not wanted to get a 0. It was the SLOWEST bench press rep I've ever done.
Rows
45.4-45.5-46.8-46.8-47.2 total of 3:51.6
8:30AM class at CrossFit Reykjavik
Single and double under warmup alternating with mobility stuff.
15-20 minutes of barbell drills: front squats, muscle cleans, power cleans, cleans, push presses, push jerks, split jerks and more that I don't remember. The coach gave all instructions in Icelandic, but he also demo-ed everything so it was easy to follow along.
15min to work up to a 1RM C&J
First time using kilos so was a little slow finding the right plates and doing the math.
35
40
45
50
52×2
55? not sure
Metcon:
7 minutes:
20 DUs
5-10 TNG power clean + push jerk @40kg
15s of DUs
45s power cleans
This is where things got lost in translation. I assumed this was an AMRAP and thought the 15s of DUs and 45s of power cleans were suggestions for scaling (i.e. only spend 15s max on DUs). It took two rounds for me to figure out this is what we were doing:
15s DUs (up to 20)
30s TNG PC+PJ (5-10 reps, whatever you could do in 30s)
15s rest
I started with 40kg and should have been able to do TNG on these, but quickly realized I wasn't going to maintain so dropped to 35kg. I forgot what the first WOD feels like after so many days off of not lifting.
Then my rope broke mid WOD, but the coach was nice and grabbed me a new one.
Metcon was fun but I obviously stopped a lot with all my issues. Wonder what everyone else was thinking. haha. At least my clean and jerks were good.
Everything felt heavy today. I hadn't lifted since Thursday, was just getting over a nasty cold and barely slept the previous three nights. Still had fun though. The coach was extremely thorough with the warmups. Circulated and gave lots of feedback (complimented me on my C&J). HUGE space. Super organized. REALLY nice people. Felt right at home like SBK.
Annie was in town, but usually works out at 12 so I didn't see her.
I also learned that the fitness fad in Iceland is biking. The gym had a huge room with that equipment you put your bike on top of so you can ride it inside. The inside biking is a different membership option and price point than any associated CrossFit classes (kids, mobility, Olympic lifting, regular CF) and brings in completely different customers for the gym.
They also had a foam roller that vibrated. The guy next to me on the mat was using it so I didn't try it. Seems a bit much.