Lots of fitness happening in this great photo by Thomas H.
This Week at CFSBK in Review
So it’s Memorial Day weekend and you’re ready to catch up on this here blog. What happened this week? We’re glad you asked!
1. Murph Day is this Monday! Have you signed up yet? We’re also looking for volunteers to help clean up after the event. CFSBK will provide one keg, burgers, and sasuages, but please feel free to BYOB and more delicious foods. Please contact Events Coordinator Danae at Danae [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn [dot] com to let her know you’d like to help out.
2. This year we’ll also be raising money to benefit K9s for Warriors, an organization that provides service dogs for veterans suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disability, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma as a result of military service post 9/11. You can start donating here! The suggested donation is $25 (the cost of a drop-in) or the dollar equivalent of your “Murph” time.
3. Sign-ups for our seasonal fish CSA with Big City Fish Share are open until June 11th.
4. Last weekend, several CFSBK TFBAs were in Philly to compete in the USAPL Philadelphia Freedom Championship, and we’re lucky to have this awesome report from Cam C.
5. Also, Ryan L. dropped into to CrossFit Max Effort in Las Vegas and gave us the full rundown on what sounds like a great travel gym.
6. We introduced you to Katie Rose Hejtmanek, a new member and professor of anthropology at Brooklyn College who will be doing some really fascinating research at CFSBK over the next year. Welcome, Katie!
7. CFSBK Movie Night returns on June 24th at 8:00pm (after Open Gym). We want your suggestions as to which movie we should show, so please let us know in the comments section of the event page.
8 All CrossFit Kids programming is cancelled this weekend (May 27th-30th) for Memorial Day. Enjoy the long weekend!
__________________
Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Rack Jerk | “Diane”
“Murph” Strategy WODprep
Which Rock Star Will Historians of the Future Remember? NY Times
It's all my fault
OG – Thursday's work
Rack Jerks:
45×5
135×5
165×3
185
205
225
235 (tied PR)
245 (PR)
255 (PR)
Metcon: Diane Rx'd in 4:55. Also a PR – by over a minute.
The removal of a shirt is not a mere airing out of the body, or a flaunting of sweat and sixpack. Rather, it is a statement that the shirt is superfluous, that its material substance is to be disdained in favor of the body beautiful – whether six packed or kegged. A shirt's removal is a signal rich with semiotic significance; now the body steps forth, proud and forthright, ready to take its place among the world's manifold treasures. Clothes are a late addition to our package of material acquisitions; the taking off of a shirt during a workout indicates a return to a more primeval form, a coming into a way of being that is often sidelined in the indecent rush to clothe ourselves in garbs and raiments. A shirt's removal is a return to the earth, to a more grounded and centered connection with its physical being. No, we shall never disdain the removal of the shirt; we shall participate in it all the more joyously.
I don't miss Brooklyn, but goddamn I miss the gym and all you people.
Diablo Crossfit, my go to drop in gym whilst visiting my mom out here in NorCal. Always tons of space, nice bars, and pretty nice people.
Snatch:
275
Back Squat
385x4x4
Press: 198×5, 176x5x2
It was time to go SHIRTSOFF now…
4Rds
20 Cal Assault bike
15 GHD sit-ups
15 Hand release push-ups
17 or so mins.
Im pretty sure I crushed it with no shirt on today. There were also some other fellow shirtless males there and we were all making monster gains and forging very elite fitness. I do not think this was mere coincidence.
Amen Samir! An eternal YES to shirtlessness. I think Nietzsche said that.
I took my shirt off in front of Samir yesterday (I have no sixpack), so I am gonna take some credit for his epistle. And if there was a master's division for "the sweaty," I would be on the leaderboard… I learned from real pros like Mayor Dinkins… "glistening like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter." If you were not in NYC during the Dinkins/Ewing era, let me assure you, those were some sweaty times.
The Professor is a prose poet!
Jake: Indeed. Have you ever said 'yes' once to a shirtless body? Then I say you have said it eternally, an infinite number of times, for ever and ever more.
Oh hai
This is a gold mine.
Samir, touché. But my primal instincts still love me some six pack 😉
YES! shirtless coast to coast!
10am class
I did murph today. 41:54. Something like a 5 minute improvement from last year. Also, I took my shirt off for the second mile cause it was soaked all the way through and was becoming a nuisance. Hope I didn't offend anyone.
Hey guys, as many of you know I am the dog of Andrew and Stephanie at the gym. Would love to be considered for next years calendar. I have had a rough life ha know. They found me on the streets of the Bronx. Almost didn't make it after an infection on Christmas Eve of 2014 at the shelter but my new parents have been really good to me. It will all have been worth it if I can get on that calendar. I do have 1 inch long nipples as a warning to Anon.
Wanted to get in on this epic blog post day because you all are pretty funny without being too serious.
Have we even talked about those that don't wear knee sleeves? I mean, come on. There are bare knees being exposed EVERY DAY, EVERY WOD. Some folks are just inconsiderate, some folks are just rebels, some folks are just young and have healthy knees. Whatever. It's a disgrace.
Personally I have never taken my shirt off at a CF class but that's just because I'm not comfortable enough in my own skin. I've definitely wanted to because it's so freaking hot but I'm just too self conscious. Rob's post may have helped me change my mind. #strongandjiggly
p.s. i love hearing from our OGers!…(ben, steph, gina, mare!!!)
Two days later – I was initially disappointed in this thread, and after a day or two of cogitating I'm still disappointed (although people probably aren't following it any more).
"Anon" simply asked "Would it be possible to institute to "shirts stay on" policy during class? Not everyone is comfortable with it."
Not a single person has asked *why*. I'd be interested in a few more sentences from Anon. Instead, all the responses have been japes or inside jokes or telling Anon to stop feeling the way they feel. Or virtual invitations to run off to Curves or Lucille Roberts.
None of that is terribly supportive or inclusive or welcoming.
I can imagine a lot of different possible reasons Anon feels the way they do. Some fundamentally conflict with baked-in parts of "crossfit culture" and won't ever change. However, some might be things that can actually be productively acted on as a community. Guess we'll never know.
That's all I got, thanks
With respect to “why”:
It is true that (a) ONLY men go fully topless in the gym, and (b) the men that do are generally well-built.
To me, (b) is (to an extent) against CFSBK’s professed culture of inclusiveness for people of all levels of fitness. Ask yourselves why (b) is substantively true. Is it unreasonable to think that (b) would lead to others feeling insubstantial, unwelcome or inferior in some way: like they don’t “belong” there? It isn’t a beach; it’s a gym.
Additionally, the generally hostile responses did tell me I made the right decision to stay anonymous (though I will admit that it is possible that the fact that I was anonymous in the first place might have led to those sorts of responses). It’s no coincidence that exactly ONE response was supportive, and that that responder was forced to remain anonymous as well.
Lastly, I don’t want to argue about who has the right to be topless in the gym, because that isn’t my point at all: of course everyone has that right.
Anon, don't want to beat a dead horse, but I think you need some confidence!
Shirt on or off, I'm sure you're a beautiful human being who is seeking to make yourself stronger and fitter for a longer, healthier life. That's a beautiful thing and you should feel really proud of yourself. Whether or not dudes take their shirts off (or ladies choose a sports bra) doesn't take away that amazing fact!!!
I have NEVER heard a comment from anyone at CFSBK like "ohhhh look at *That* person trying to work out. Ugh, who do they think they are, they're so out of shape?"
A strong body is a mark of what regular exercise and consistently good nutritional choices can do for one's health. It's all in your perception if you feel excluded because someone is choosing to show that of. Let's celebrate all of our efforts to be healthier(shirt on or off) instead of making rules because you are taking other's hard-work and confidence as a personal attack. I'm 100% positive that any time someone takes a shirt off, they're not trying to make you feel bad about your own body or unwelcome at CFSBK. You inherently belong to the CFSBK community solely by showing up and working out. But are *you* actually a supportive, inclusive community member or someone who is anonymously judging others?
Human bodies sunshine rainbows unicorns hardwork positivity celebration ftw. Spread the love mannnn (or womannnnn)