Helen for Houston
For Saturday’s workout, we’re teaming up with our friends at beyond the whiteboard to support their Helen for Houston initiative to help CrossFit Affiliates affected by Hurricane Harvey rebuild their gyms and communities. CFSBK will donate $1.50 for every round of “Helen” completed at the gym on Friday and Saturday. You must post your workout results to the comments section Saturday’s blog post in order for your work to be counted. As beyond the whiteboard says:
It’s important to remember that the people who own and run these affiliates are small business owners. They are not part of a big globo gym system. It’s your mom-and-pop gym that happens to be the best gym in the area. If you’re a member of a CrossFit Affiliate, then you know what we are talking about. This is their passion project.
100% of money raised will be donated to affiliates in the Houston area who need help. Join us this week for #HelenForHouston. Helen is one of the most popular benchmark workouts in CrossFit and has been done over 126,000 times on btwb.
Additionally, we’ll have a computer set up so you can donate to this and other relief organizations like the Red Cross, UNICEF USA, Houston Food Bank, and Texas Diaper Bank if you need that extra nudge to donate to any organization providing relief. Every little bit helps!
This is a good time to recognize that staying fit makes us all better citizens, more equipped to help ourselves and those in need in times of crisis. So come on in today or tomorrow, do your best “Helen,” and don’t forget to note your results on Saturday’s blog post!
Tomorrow: Prospect Park Potluck
Celebrate the end of summer with your CFSBK buds. This Saturday, September 2nd, CFSBK will be hosting a potluck at Prospect Park. Come lounge on the grass, throw some frisbee, toss the ol’ pigskin, and hang out with your gym buds. What better way to celebrate Labor Day weekend?
We’ll be on the hill south of the Picnic House from 2pm on. Bring a dish or drink to share. Friends, family, and dogs are, of course welcomed. We can’t wait to see you there!
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Yesterday’s Results Board: Snatch | NFT Work
38 Things You’ll Hopefully Learn from Weightlifting Catalyst Athletics
Optimistic Nihilism Kurzgesagt
Saturday’s Programming
Back Squat Test
Performance
1-1-1-1-1
Fitness
3-3-3-3-3
Warm up and establish a new 1RM or 3RM. No tempo today!
Post loads to comments.
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“Helen for Houston”
3 Rounds for Time:
400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings, 1.5/1
12 Pull-Ups
Post time and Rx to comments.
6am with Lauren
Hit 380 on back squat, failed 395. PR is 410, but I had a suspicion I wouldn’t hit that after Tuesday’s front squats. Seems like my squat has lost a step. Hopefully will be back in PR territory after another cycle.
Helen in 9:48 Rx. Was surprised to see when I punched that into BTWB that it’s a 1:12 PR going back all the way to April 2015. So at least I hit one PR today!
Off to the beach for LDW! Hopefully will find a place to drop in for Clean and Jerks on Sunday.
@MGMT: I did ‘Helen’ on Tuesday during Open Gym. Got a PR actually. Can this count? 🙂
Ignore my question. I just read the blog again – more carefully this time.
7am with Lauren
BSQ PR at 185#! Previous PR was at Iron Maidens at 180#.
Did 135, 155, 165, 175, 185.
Bar felt super heavy today after testing Front Squats and Snatches on Wed and Thurs, so I definitely surprised myself with the PR.
Partnering with Molly was an inspiration- on her final lift (a MASSIVE PR), she fought under the bar for SO LONG and came up in the end. Incredible. Going to keep her hustle in mind next time I’m stuck!
Helen was definitely harder than I thought it’d be, but remembering the cause was great motivation. Finished in 11:12, Rx KB weight but jumping pull-ups.
GO JAIME!!!!! (And Molly!!) I’ll miss squatting with y’all tomorrow 🙂
6am with Snickers
BSQ worked up to 315# and decided that’s good for today.
Spent the rest of the class offering words of encouragement and hi fives.
Helen in 8:18
Last round of pull-ups was a disaster. Couldn’t stay on the bar.
8am With Keith. BSQ 340# partnered with Jesse. Felt pretty good, left a little gas in the tank. Tempo squats definitely helped. Helen slooow 15:12 but at least I had the whole gym cheering me on as I struggled through my last pull-ups. Thanks guys! And thanks CFSB for doing this for Houston – really great.
6am with Lauren:
BSQ – up to 235. matched an old PR. looking forward to breaking through this in the near future.
Helen: 10:09 RX
I think this was a PR – last time I did it was in New Orleans during Mardi Gras 2016 – my focus was on hurricanes & beignets, no idea what my time was
Short Circuit was fun today. I’m knackered from that LA workout yesterday and needed a bit of a chill pill, especially because…
Calling myself out to make sure I actually do this: one week, 3 cities, 3 gyms! I’ve got SBK and LA down, and am planning to hit up River North CF in Chicago tomorrow. They love their Saturday morning partner metcons that last forever. eeeeeeeek.
7am with Lauren:
High Bar BSQ- Made it to my current PR 255. Failed at 260. Really wanted a new PR, but I may have gotten greedy with the 5# jump. This was ok overall. A grind, but moved well enough. The one thing I’ve been meaning to try is a belt. Never used one, but I’d like to see how I perform with it.
Helen: 11:05 RX Kb, 6 strict pull-ups
Felt good about this. The pullups were the slowest for me, but I got them all eventually. Need to work on my kipping PUs for the future.
Am I correct in understanding from reading the blog that those of us who did the workout today and posted today will need to repost tomorrow in order for it to count for the Houston aid effort?
Did not feel like testing was appropriate for me, so went with just heavy triples.
LBBS: 185×3, 205×3, 215×3, 225×3
All felt pretty good. Not max effort, but felt good to go heavier than we have with the tempo.
Helen: 11:24 Rx. I’ve done this once before Rx when I was just getting pull-ups. I very distinctively remember having KHarpz encouraging me through lots of singles at the end because I was the only one in the class still going (finished in 16:11). I even used the phrase “Can only get better from here” in my notes. So true.
Much enjoyed short circuit after… one last 9am to end my summer.
8am With Keith.
HBS: 225×3, 235×3, 245×3. Not max effort, however it felt good to move the bar.
Helen: 10:36. Scaled to 7 strict pull ups. Felt like I needed to run harder…
7 am with JB
Snatched a PR at 70.5. I was trying to get to 73 but failed 2x, backed off to 68, which was the previous PR, added the 2.5 lbs and it didn’t feel bad at all so tried the 73 again. Nope again. It’s there for next cycle!
NFT – 85# on the carries and 7 dips on the matador. Tried to band ring dips. These are more challenging and will use this assistance more often!
@NCFit in Mountain View, CA
Front Squats 205 – 225 – 245F – 245* – 255*
Previous PR was 240, so this was a nice jump – the tempo definitely helped, it felt so good to be able to go down/up fast. Thaisa took a video of my fail, and it was super helpful – I got stuck midway through and shot my hips back instead of forward, which made me lost all tension. After watching the video the next 245 attempt was so good that I decided to test 255.
Metcon 12min(ish) AMRAP
12 cal on Assault Bike
Max ring dips
The AB is an instrument brought to you directly from the circles of hell. My ring dips went away *very* fast (4 strict on first round, 4 kipping on 2nd round, then nothing more), so I switched to 3 HSPUs to 2 abmats. Think I finished 5 rounds total of this.
Excited to be back at CFSBK and BS+Helen tomorrow!
7am w/ Lauren.
Squat: Felt pretty good overall, failed my last attempt at 245. Current PR is 240 and 4th attempt at 235 felt really good so I tried to push it. In retrospect probably should of attempted 240!
Helen: 11:38 rx KB w/ Stict Pull ups. First time doing Helen and really found it to be a fun workout.
So dope! CFSBK is the best. Btw, if anyone wants to use btwb, we offer it free to all CFSBK members. If you don’t have an account you can make one with the link below. After that, just install the app(iOS and Android). If you already have an account, just edit your profile and switch gyms. Once you’re in you won’t be charged for btwb anymore.
https://www.beyondthewhiteboard.com/signup?gym_invite=5db974ca-29db-43fc-8b43-e3205c726f7f
Also, remember that time Dan almost ruined Noah’s surprised bday party?
Do people generally use this in addition to journaling workouts or is this essentially the journal?
I use BTWB instead of a paper journal and highly recommend it. It’s useful so I can always have my “journal” with me (on my phone or laptop), it does a really great job of organizing past workouts and organizing information for me (e.g. it’s super easy to find my previous 1RM or 3RM, or past performance on a metcon).
That being said, it’s less flexible than paper, and it’s harder to make random notes from a given day of work, and it can be tricky to annotate more varied workouts.
Super helpful! Thanks!
I’ve been a blog-lurker for quite some time now, coming out of the shadows with donating as my motivation 🙂
7am with Lauren
BSQ felt superrr heavy during warmup sets, but ended up PR’ing by 15 lbs at 190! Shout out to Lauren for pushing me through, felt like I was under the bar for so long! Jaime and I were both pumped about PRs today.
155 – 165 – 175- 185 – 190
Helen Rx at 12:01, broke up the pull ups into 4-3-3-2 and moved well throughout. Going to do less sets next time around, but this was helpful as a benchmark.
Mollyyyyyy!!! WOW! Congratulations. Post more often– I like to (friendly) compete with you! 😉 Although I don’t know if I can ever get to 190!
Dayum! That is an impressive squat!
10 am with Keith worked with Leslie on triples for the back squat. Thanks to Keith for hauling the assault bike across the street so I could do Helen scaled to assault bike and ring rows. I Finished in 9:44. Love CFSBK for donating to the relief effort.
Yesterday
A)Behind the Neck Snatch Grip Push Press
103 x 3, 113 x 3, 118 x 3, 123 x 3
B) Snatch Balance
73 x 3, 78 x 3, 83 x 2, 88 x 2 (high), 88M, 83 x 1 x 2…frustrating, as always.
C) AMRAP in 6 min
8 KB Snatch, L
8 burpees
8 KB Snatch, R
8 box jumps, 20″ -16kg KB
Had some great difficulty with these snatches warming up. This was my first time doing them and I honestly thought I wasn’t going to be able to do the workout. Should put to Coach Fox for giving me some pointers, despite being busy. Much appreciated and as a result, I didn’t injure myself and managed 2 rounds and 2 box jumps.
D)5 sets
350m row
2 min rest walk
-tough effort on each set
-same pace across all sets
1:20.4
1:18.7
1:20.3
1:19.8
1.19.6
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Wednesday
Warm-up
3x
10 cal AB
2 wall walks
5 strict pull-ups
5 pistols/leg
A) Clean Pull
2, 2, 2, 2; rest 90 sec
155,165,175,185
B)
Clean + Hang Clean + Split Jerk
5-7 sets, last three tough; rest as needed
115,118,123M, 113, 118(press out) 118, 123M… yeah I forgot how challenging I find hang cleans and started too heavy. Tried with blue bar but was having trouble so switched. What a mess…
C1)
Bench Press
@20X1; 4, 4, 4; rest 60 sec
120, 125, 130
C2)
Seated DB External Rotation
@30X0; 3 x 6-8/arm; rest 60 sec
17.5 x 6 x 3
D)
5 sets
150m row
5 thrusters, 75lbs
5 pull-ups
rest walk 2 min
1:09, 1:09, 1:11, 1:10, 1:13
Bonus ‘warm-up round’ at 65# by mistake 🙄
E) AB 10 mins easy recovery
Is there strongfit tomorrow? It’s not on the schedule.
Yes there is.
1pm with Whit/Brett
235lb seemed easy, 250lb fail came down too fast and was leaning forward so was squished like a pancake. Thanks to Moe and Joe (MoeJoe) for the encouragement
9:29 for Helen, felt sure I had sub 9 when I finished second round at 5:35 — must have gone too easy on the run, as pullups were right at the front next to the bar
Thanks and props to CFSBK and BTWB for this great event idea and to everyone who took part — Moe was explaining to how important it is for the CrossFit gyms across the affected areas to get these funds quickly