Clean
Spend 10 minutes warming up your Clean and Dips/Push-Ups for the metcon.
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“Elizabeth”
21-15-9 Reps for Time:
Cleans 135/95
Ring Dips
The Cleans are Rx’d as full (squat) cleans. If you struggle with these, then consider scaling to “Power Elizabeth” (Power Cleans). This is generally a Ring-Dip workout for most people, so scale volume as necessary or scale the movement to Push-Ups if you can not perform at least 7 unbroken Ring Dips. Kipping the Ring Dips is permitted and recommended.
Post time and Rx to comments.
June Athlete of the Month: Allie Clark
This AOM has been quietly been going about being a boss at CFSBK for about 2 years now but was still shocked to learn she was the staff choice for this month. I believe “Really? How did that happen?” were the first words she said when told. She’s been super consistent in training, made some major gains, and been a big part of multiple gym events. Get to know a little bit about an unassuming but unanimous AOM, Allie Clark.
Fox: Hi Allie, congrats and thanks for sitting down with me for this. Let’s get started… how and when did you start at CFSBK?
Allie: Thanks so much! I took an Intro Class in the fall of 2014. I was really just looking for a gym and I live around the corner so I lucked into this place.
Fox: What were you doing fitness-wise before coming to CrossFit? And why did you decide to stick with CFSBK?
Allie: Way back when I was a child athlete. That is to say that I played just about all the sports but wasn’t very good at any of them. I’d get bored and move from one to another. As an adult I’d been a runner and had done more than a few half-marathons. Immediately prior to starting CrossFit, I’d been in PT for a posterior tibailais injury (suffered from running) for a very long time. So long that I was actually getting angry about it and decided to try something else. I’d been to regular gyms in college but never with any sort of purpose. I looked for a gym near me and there you guys were! I remember that Nick taught my Intro Class and that I couldn’t move my arms for a week. Even though the workout was hard, the people in the class and the in whole gym were happy. I took Foundations right after that and was impressed by the overall positive vibe of the gym. The coaches seemed smart and had eyes on people. That part was particularly struck me, as I’d never been to gym where people threw weights around before, and I don’t think I’d have stuck around if not. Come to think of it, this is actually the first year in a long time that I haven’t run a half marathon!
Fox: I always love hearing the things that stuck out to members as they first came to CFSBK. First impressions are so important! Can you tell us a little bit about your life outside the gym? Where did you grow up?
Allie: I grew up in New Rochelle, and my folks are still there. I have a brother in Connecticut and an adorable 2 ½ year old nephew. Dad works in insurance and is one of 13 kids, so I guess my brother and I had it easy! Mom was a preschool teacher and is retired now. The family has a beach house in Long Beach Island, NJ, and we’re fortunate to get together there when we can.
Fox: Where did you go to school, and what do you do for work?
Allie: I went to Loyola and got a degree on Psychology and Spanish and also studied abroad in New Zealand. I went to Teachers College immediately after college, and I currently work as a college counselor at a high school with mostly first generation kids from low-income families. I’m pretty into setting goals and making plans to reach them, and I feel lucky to have a job that lets me do this with really awesome kids.
Fox: And what do you do when you’re not working or working out?
Allie: I cook a lot but am not really good at winging it. I’m definitely the person who reads, shops for, and follows recipes. I can eat eggs at any time of day and prefer them poached, preferably by someone else. I also read a ton and enjoy outside time and will often set off on aimless walks. My current goal is to learn to surf. I’ve taken lessons in LBI and may rent a board this season!
Fox: Sweet! I love that we have surf beaches, modest as they may be, available to us in this part of the country. And, plus one for a well poached egg! Do you have any gym goats and goals?
Allie: As far as goats I’ve overcome, I remember when starting out that a 65lb squat was super hard. Now my 1RM is 215 and I’ve squatted 200x5x3 as well, so I’d say that’s improved, as has my ankle mobility. I can’t really say that I’ve devoted lots of time to my ankles. I’ve been back and forth with mobilizing, but I’ve developed flexibility through CFSBK programming in general, which is neat. My current goals are to develop my Pull-Ups and to have my Olympic lifts reflect my Squat and pull strength.
Fox: Ah, that’s why we see you before and after class working biceps and triceps. It’s so great for us coaches to see people work on and achieve their goals, keep at it! You mentioned before that you’d played sports but never stuck with any. Why do you think you’ve stuck with CF?
Allie: I’d say it’s because the programming is varied but progress is still visible. It’s different enough that I don’t get bored. Also, I’ve dropped into a few other CF gyms and see the difference in the approach here.
Fox: You’ve been quite a fundraiser for a few things, Iron Maidens and Fight Gone Bad in particular. What motivated you do give the effort there and how were you so successful?
Allie: As fas as the success, I guess I just have very generous family and friends. This year’s Iron Maidens cause (The Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship for Grace Outreach) was particularly close to home as college access and education in general are very personal and important issues for me. I was happy to be able to help.
Fox: Well you helped a bunch and certainly made a difference to some folks. Last question: What should we look for in a future AOM?
Allie: I’m not really joking when I say you could just about pick a name out of a hat. There are so many great people at this place. That said, I think an AOM takes their training seriously but is nice to people. That, and they should be good at bar math!
News and Notes
- We’re giving away 4 free entries to the Rugged Maniac race in Brooklyn on June 25th. The first 4 members to e-mail Coach David at David [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn [dot] com get them!
- Are you still saving the date? Coaches MeLo and Katie’s graduation WOD and BBQ will happen on June 18th at 2:00PM!
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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Snatch | NFT Work
Athletes: Fit but Unhealthy Sports Medicine
Man Approaches Unfamiliar Shower Knobs Like He Breaking Wild Stallion
Congrats Allie! Those squat numbers are pretty sweet!
Allie is awesome! A perfect choice for AOTM!
6am with NickD
Elizabeth Rx'd in 9:30. I felt confident going into this but drastically underestimated how labored my breathing would be and how fast my heart would be racing. Took more rests on the dips than I needed so I could catch my breath and contemplate poor life choices.
Cleans were bailed singles from the start.
Ring Dips were 7/7/7, 5/5/5, 9
6am with Nick & McDowell
Elizabeth – 11:51 Rx
First time doing this workout so decided to try and separate myself at the start. Came out of the gates touch and go (6) and spiked my heart beat and caught the Fran cough. I recommend singles from the start.
Dips I think 10-5-3-3, 7-5-3, 5-2-2
Came in for a little solo lifting…but OG this morning was happening! Between Kayleigh doing pullups, Natalie lifting in the rack next to mine, and Strength Cycle shooting the breeze about superhero movies as usual, it was kind of a party.
Paused HBBSQ, 160x3x4. Not bad.
Bench (football bar) 105x5x3. Yeesh. 100 wasn't bad two weeks ago, so I didn't expect that 105 would be this hard. I'm starting to feel like balance might be a limiting factor?
Kroc rows 45x10x3/side. I just did these on Friday but I want to get back to my normal routine of rows on Monday and chinups on Friday.
Are we testing 1RMs on Wednesday?
6am with Nick & McDowell
Elizabeth – 10:15 Rx
The first time I did this workout it was my first year of crossfit about 6 years ago and my time was 25min or something, so this was a good improvement.
I tried doing touch-and-go in the first round and should have stuck with it. The last 7 reps of cleans of the round of 21 were the hardest. Took way too many pauses during the dips, should have just sped through them. Heart was racing during the dips just like MattyChm said. Fun morning overall.
6am with Nick & McDowell
Elizabeth – 14:22 Rx *
First time doing this workout Rx'd – actually, my first time doing ring dips in a wod. Despite my best efforts, I'm guessing only about half of them were to depth, hence the *. I have to remember to lean a bit forward so as not to be completely vertical, and I really have to learn to kip.
This was a ring dip workout for me. Cleans were not the hard part, but I found myself losing tension at the start of them pull. I was basically flipping the bar up and trying to catch low, but I have to work on doing that with a good setup.
Good times at the gym today to see so many people doing this for the first time and being successful.
Like Stella said, a very happening OG this morning! I tweaked my neck on Friday and took the whole weekend off so I did a mash-up of things based off of Saturday's workout. Proceeded with caution on everything and so far feeling better than when I walked in the gym, a good sign!
Crossover symmetry 3×10 of three different exercises
Front squats with 145# 3×5–this was minus 5ish pounds from last Saturday, but I didn't feel up to pushing it today.
Then behind the neck seated press w/ 45# 3×7. These are starting to get easier! But they look real weird.
Then a shortened version of the WOD:
EMOM for 15 mins: 1) Row 10 cals 2) 40 DU 3) 3 strict pullups
Plus lots of stretching, foam, rolling, mashing before after and in the middle of all of this. Hopefully I'll be able to do some version of Elizabeth tomorrow!
Congrats Allie on AOM.
6am.
Elizabeth: 10:52 Rx. A new PR, 3 minute improvement since last time. Maintained a good pace on the cleans, all singles. Ring dips and me don't get along, so broke them up a lot to avoid hitting failure (5's, 3's and 2's).
Congratulations Allie!
7am – Great coaching this morning from Nick & McDowell. Loved the Elizabeth modification Nick created for my shoulder and McDowell helped me try to be graceful with handling a heavy KB.
21-15-9
KB swings 24kg
KB squats 24kg
Push ups
9:44
Big ups to Shawn for matador ring dips!
7am with NickDowell
Elizabeth @ 115# – 12:23
This is a lot of squat volume for me — a weak spot — so went lighter. Tried going touch and go sets of five, but moved to bailed singles after the first ten. Got a little soft and was feeling it in my back during the round of nine. Note to self: need to re-learn how to kip mah dips.
Congratulations Allie!
8 AM with McDowell.
Decided to go light in order to do full cleans. Turns out I'm better at those ;-).
6:52 @65# and pushups.
Started with the goal of making them all sets of 7's but ended up doing 3's touch and go.
Pushups were split in half and then unbroken for the 9.
3 sets of 8 GHd situps, 1000m row and 30 bridges to cash out.
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Congrats, Allie! It was about two months ago I did a double take when I saw you get paired up for squatz– INCREDIBLY (and super humbly) TFBA! That amazing goal setting ability and work ethic make you a stellar role model at cfsbk but also at school–your students are so lucky to have you! Team PM REPRESENT!
Great kipping ring dip practice yesterday at AG..finally got the hang of it! But FULL squat cleans and ring dips plus lingering soreness from murph means I'm doing this workout tomorrow! Yay crush week. Bye!
Congrats on AOTM Allie!
6am with NickDowell
Elizabeth in 14:30 Rx.
First time with her and I knew my ring dips would suck. They didn't disappoint. Very quickly went to 3s and 2s. MattyChm is a ring dip machine.
Congrats Allie!
First time posting in a while! According to my notes, I've only done Elizabeth once, about 4 years ago with 73# power cleans and elevated push ups in 10:33. Today I did 73# full cleans and kneeling push ups in 8:57. I considered walking the 40 blocks home just to avoid going down the subway stairs afterwards, and I too caught the Fran cough. Cleans were 8-4-3-3-3/3-3-3-3-3/5-3-1. Push ups in small sets of 3 throughout.
Allie is super nice, strong, and coachable. A slam dunk for AOM.
11am
De-load week although it didn't really feel like one.
Snatch
(70%x1, 75%x1, 80%x1) x2
Based off 95kg/210lbs
Clean and Jerk
(70%x1+1, 75%x1+1, 80%x1+1) x2
Based off 117kg/257lbs
BSQ
75%x3x3
Based off 138kg/335lbs
Yay Allie!!! Excellent choice for AOTM!
Elizabeth with push-ups in 8:05. Started with a big set of 10 touch and go cleans, then moved down to sets of 3-4 for most of the rest. I tried to end with a single each round so that I would be as fresh as possible for push-ups, but not sure if that was the best way to game it. Failed on my last push-up and just missed sub-8. Many thanks to Joy for help keeping me on track.
I'm also a yay for Allie! Congrats!
7 am with McDowell and Nick
Elizabeth with 63#/ I think I wrote 53 on the board. The first 5 felt great! 'nuff said.
Matador dips 15-9-6. Nick came along at some point and tried to teach me to knees up 'em (kip?) but I couldn't get the movement on the fly like that and paced a lot of singles. Thanks Karina and keep at 'em too!
Sub 13.
I got to work with a guest – Ali – from Australia. Fun to meet the drop ins!
@everyone – Brendan and I want to know who golfs. Maybe we can get a game going one of these weekend days after the gym!
Congrats Allie!!!!
Congrats Allie! Great work.
Modified and scaled Elizabeth: 115lb power cleans, 15-9-6 strict dips. The last round on dips fell apart, so I did the last three on the matador. Finished in 8:30 approx.
Allie is a great CFSBK AOM!! loved being able to read a little more about her!
@Stella Yes Squat and DL 1RMs
Front Squat
175x3x5
"Elizabeth"
16:02 as Rx'd with Strict ring dips
This workout is a couplet of two of my "goats" (things you're bad at) and is therefore something of a Chupacabra workout for me. Just chipped away at it until it was done! Thanks to Noah for being my copilot
This seems like an appropriate time to come out from my hiding place in Lurkville to say THANKS! I'm constantly impressed by CFSBK's coaches and my fellow members and am sincerely humbled and grateful to have been chosen this month.
My dad is also really pumped to have become blog famous!
Solid gym day
EMOM Snatch for 10 min
175# across
Deficit snatch pulls on a 45# plate
200/205/210/215/220
Back squat 3×2
255#
Should have done 275#
Elizabeth: 8:46 Rex
Fast singles on cleans
Ring dips
7/7/7
8/5/2
6/3
All felt good, really surprised on how fast it went today. I wish every day felt this good!
yay, Allie! So fun to read more about you. Congrats on an easy AOM choice!!!
Yay – Allie! All your hard work does not go unnoticed, well deserved!
Serious DOMS from Saturday squatting. Gave myself some wiggle room on this workout.
Today's workout at 63# & Push Ups
Cleans broken up as 7-7-7, 5-5-5, 5-4
8:54
Back Squat
396×3
407×3
418×3
5rds, Every 5 minutes for 25 Minutes:
Run 400M
10CTB pullups
10 OHS #155
This was some Invictus workout, really hard. Did a bunch of MUs yesterday so I figured Id give me rings a rest till tomorrow.
Congrats, Allie!!! It's been great seeing your progress and commitment 🙂
Hands still healing, but definitely getting better. Did some testing for strength balance today.
3 Rounds
5ea hip airplane
8ea box hamstring curls
8 pvc passthroughs in squat
:30 handstand
:30 hang
test 1 arm high pull @16kg
R: 15
L: 15
Tried 20kg but can only get thru about 3/4 ROM. bummer.
test 1 arm press @40# DB
R: 2, fail 3
L: 1, fail 2 (splay to side)
Then 3 Sets:
1 arm press 30×7
1 leg box step up x12L, 6R (20kg kb, goblet style) … this was a good rep/weight scheme.
false grip ring pull-up x3 reps
Conditioning
6 rounds:
10 cal assault bike
10 box jumps 24”
rest ~2min b/t rounds
was sharing the bike with Bob (Thanks!!) so didn't time this. went HARD on the bike, tried to just keep moving steadily on the jumps, felt mostly recovered before each round. ate it on a box jump in round 5. didn't break skin, but there's a good bruise and a solid inflammatory response happening there :-/
1st time doing Elizabeth.
15min Time Cap for 6:30pm class.
Finished with 15:13 Rx
Should have stuck to singles or doubles on the Ring Dips once I lost them, had no strategy and was trying to recoup in 15 secs or so to get triples or quads and didn't hit them which was wasted time and energy. Would like to redo this one at some point.
Congrats, Allie! Well deserved. I was the lucky on who was paired up with her today for the workout! 😉 I'm always jealous of her front and back squat form- she makes it look so easy!
Elizabeth in 9:03 @93# with pushups.
Was dreading this all day because I'm so bad at front squats. Wore a belt. Was able to cycle in 5s, 4s, 3s for the first part of each round, then had to go to singles in the latter half of each round. Really happy with my time on this.
Congrats Allie!
Elizabeth pt. 2: The Revenge.
Per my notes, Elizabeth was the main course on 8/12/14. That day, it had a 10 min cap. My journey ended at the round of 21. Plus, my August 12, 2014 self notes that the dips destroyed me. In fact, "I shook the entire time I did the dips."
Today, Elizabeth was the main course again. However, there was a 15 min cap today.
I failed my 1st goal of finishing the workout. Nevertheless, I am proud that I was 3 dips short of finishing the round of 15. I never shook like a willow tree in the wind while I did my dips. Thus, I have gotten stronger and more aware of my body in space in this regard. I know I failed myself because I took so much time between reps on the dips; I feared failure and went too far on the rest spectrum–a daily battle. Cleans felt great. I did singles from the beginning and kept a consistent count to get back on the bar.
So, Karl is still 0-2 vs. Elizabeth. But this one was a closer battle and I know the next time we meet, I'll get sub-13.
Whoooo Allie! Congrats on AOM! SO deserved! And those squat numbers!
Yes! Allie! Great choice for AOM. Congratulations!!
Oh man I did not execute well on Elizabeth today.
Almost a minute twenty slower than my last time trying this, and last time I did strict dips!
I paced my cleans too slowly and couldn't coordinate the kips on my dips — I seemed to get a few of the kips right, but most of them weren't working and my shoulders started to break down by the end.
I left feeling like I got a hell of a workout though which I believe was the point, so not a loss really. 14:22