Arnold Press / Romanian Deadlift Superset*

A1) Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Arnold Press:
4 x 8-10

A2) Barbell Romanian Deadlift:
4 x 8-10

Use a heavy load for the rep range that allows you to move with perfect form. Keep rest to a minimum, 30-60 seconds between movements.

*Warm up and then perform a set of Arnold Presses, followed by a set of Romanian Deadlifts. Repeat for 4 work sets of each, resting 30 seconds to a minute between movements.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 3 of 8
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5 Rounds or 20 Minutes (for quality):
14/10 Calorie Row
14e Single-Arm Kettlebell Swings
7 Floor Levers (3 seconds down)

Begin each row with 5 “Legs Only” strokes + 5 “Legs and Hips” strokes before moving into the full stroke. Use today to prioritize mechanics over speed, and to stay efficient and connected to the machine. Scale the Floor Lever to the tuck as needed, but be true to a slow decent.

Rowing For Calories: Pick Drill

Post work to comments.

Iron Maidens and the Stay Strong Scholarship

You probably know that The Iron Maidens Raw Open, a women-only powerlifting meet slated for Saturday, June 2nd, is one of our most anticipated events of the year. 60 women, from CFSBK and beyond, will test their strength at Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. Save the date!

For the 3rd year in a row, Iron Maidens lifters will raise funds for the Stay Strong Scholarship, which supports students at Bronx-based Grace Outreach.

Why should you support the Stay Strong Scholarship? Here’s a message from CFSBK’s very own Danae McLeod, Executive Director of Grace Outreach:

Nearly four years ago, I started working at Grace Outreach, an incredible non-profit in the South Bronx that works with women to get their high school equivalency degrees, go to college, and get jobs. I met so many smart, talented, and motivated women who wanted to improve their lives through education. The problem was that a bunch of them couldn’t afford to go to college. They were DREAMers and undocumented women who had come to the U.S. as children, and they weren’t eligible for financial aid.

I started looking for ways to help financially support these women’s dreams of getting a college degree. At around that time, Margie Lempert, the Iron Maidens Meet Director, told me she wanted to add a fundraising component to the women’s powerlifting event she had been running in different iterations for a few years. We thought that the grit and determination that it took for first-generation, low-income women to get to college matched the strength and tenacity that women powerlifters demonstrate.

We created the Stay Strong Scholarship to support women at Grace Outreach. The money we raise pays for 80% of college tuition for undocumented students, DREAMers, and women who have been victims of predatory for-profit colleges.

Two years after Iron Maidens and Grace Outreach started the Stay Strong Scholarship, we have have raised over $65,000 and sent 10 women to college! Two students have graduated with Associate Degrees and moved on to Bachelors programs. We currently have five students making their way through CUNY community colleges with GPAs over 3.0.

We know that now, more than ever, the undocumented community needs our support. The Stay Strong Scholarship positively contributes to women who are determined to change their lives through education.

This year, our goal is to raise $40,000 to continue supporting these students. How can you get involved? Show some love by donating to your favorite lifter(s) through the 2018 Crowdrise campaign here.

News and Notes

• Great news! We’ve added another Short Circuit class on Saturdays at 10am. Another great chance to reprogram your body in the spring! (It is spring, isn’t it?)
• We don’t mean to brag, but we’re the number 1 rated Brooklyn CrossFit affiliate and in the top 10 of all Brooklyn gyms on Yelp! Got an extra minute? Yelp us out with a review!

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Clean and Jerk | Partner WOD
Man Walks on Hands for 6 Hours a Day boingboing (video)
When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen Atlas Obscura

Clean and Jerk Complex

Every Other Minute on the Minute x 14:
Clean Deadlift + 4 Second Lower to Floor + Clean High Pull + Hang Power Clean + Push Jerk

Keep this complex relatively light today (70-80% of Power Clean and Jerk 1RM) and focus on executing perfect positions on each movement.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 2 of 8

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Partner AMRAP 20 Minutes:
10 Dumbbell Thrusters
10 Toes-to-Bars
10 Russian Kettlebell Swings
10 Hand Release Push-Ups
10 Box Jumps

Partners alternate movements in order throughout the workout. Partner A begins with 10 Dumbbell Thrusters, Partner B does 10 Toes-to-Bars, Partner A does 10 Russian Kettlebell Swings, Partner B does 10 Hand Release Push-Ups, Partner A does 10 Box Jumps to finish the round, then Partner B begins the next round with 10 Dumbbell Thrusters. Choose loads that are challenging but will allow you to move largely unbroken throughout.

Post rounds, reps, Rx, and partner to comments.

A post shared by CrossFit South Brooklyn (@crossfitsouthbrooklyn) on Apr 13, 2018 at 4:27pm PDT

From our Instagram account: Some Squatspiration for you from some of our Starting Strength crew. Big Squats and Pause Squats on a Thursday morning. We currently have 40 lifters enrolled in our Starting Strength cycles with our next Total scheduled for April 29th 

Need a New Read? Check Out The Little Clan!

A message from CFSBK member Matt C.:

Tweet the Deets

WOD 4.14.18

While you’ve been sleeping or eating or spending time with your family or whatever, Coach Keith has been training and training and training

Tonight: Mario Kart Tournament at CFSBK!

TONIGHT starting at 7:30pm, CFSBK is hosting a Mario Kart 64 tournament. Relive your college years, childhood, adolescence, infancy, adulthood, or whatever the case may be.

For the main event, you’ll choose from 1 of the following classic Nintendo characters:

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Peach
• Toad
• Yoshi
• Donkey Kong
• Wario
• Bowser

Please leave a comment on the event page to let us know which you’d like to play as. See you tonight!

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Snatch | Run, Burpees
A Better Understanding of Shoulder Health Girls Gone Strong
Why So Many People Love Karaoke NY Mag

Snatch Complex

Every Other Minute on the Minute x 7:
1 Snatch Deadlift + 4 Second Lower to the Floor + 1 Snatch High Pull + 1 Mid Hang Power Snatch + 1 Overhead Squat

Keep this complex relatively light today (70-80% of your Power Snatch 1RM) and focus on executing perfect positions on each movement.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 2 of 8

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3 Rounds for Time:
400m Run
25 Burpees

Do your best to push the pace on this simple couplet today.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Sofia M. before (L) and after (R) the LFPB Challenge

The Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge Winners: 1st Place

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the 2018 Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge, our collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, 3 women and 3 men stood out to us as winners, and we’re announcing them this week. We’ve also asked them to tell us a bit about the “secrets” to their success. Today we’re pleased to announce the 1st place winners *drumroll* … it’s CFSBK power couple Sofia M. and Lauro L.! They’ll each receive a free 1-month Unlimited membership.

Sofia M.

The Challenge was really successful for me and I exceeded my expectations.. I lost 9 pounds, and was able to lose enough fat to start seeing the muscles that I knew were hiding. I was happy to find them for the 1st time in my life! It is funny that 13 months after having a baby, this is by far the best shape of my life. Knowing that so many people were going through the same process really helped me stay away from my trigger foods, like sugar and alcohol. In general, I have been feeling much stronger and energetic at the workouts, and I have been seeing really good progress in my training.

Capacity Test (22 lb Thruster and Jumping Pull-Ups with 16in box):

Before = 9:35. After = 8:45

Active Recovery and meditation are not my thing, so that is the item that I did not do so well with. Everything else was really good!

Lauro L.

I lost 5 kg since the Challenge began. I also have been exercising consistently five times a week, and I am feeling great. I’ve never had such a good stretch of exercise and balanced eating since, ever. I registered as Level 1, but Sofia was doing it as a Level 2 and showed me the tricks on how to count macros, so I did Level 2 monitoring for a couple of weeks and learned a lot. My biggest lesson: “One cheeseburger and my fat intake is already at 100%”. For the first time I was using the scale to gain intuition on food amounts and their macros. It was a great experience. After Level 2 tracking for two weeks I relaxed on the tracking, but not on the food. I was still eating how I had learned from the tight tracking period. My capacity test was went down from 11:15 to 9:10 (I did the yellow bar and Ring Rows). At the time of the first test, I couldn’t do any Pull-Ups now I can do 6 Pull-Ups.

Congrats to everyone who took part in this year’s Challenge!

News and Notes

• Morit S. recently appeared on Pete McCall’s All About Fitness podcast. Check it out here!
• CFSBK is looking for new talent to staff our front desk on Monday evenings from 4:15 to 9:45pm ! Responsibilities include handling inquires from walk-ins, managing basic membership issues, light cleaning/organization, and other miscellaneous duties. Ideally, we’d like to hire from within so that candidates are already familiar with CrossFit and CFSBK, but we are open to talking to new folks if they’ve got good people skills and are committed to joining the gym. On top of an hourly wage, Front Desk staff will also receive 50% off membership for one shift per week or a comped membership for two shifts or more per week. We are looking for people who keep a consistent schedule and commit to six months of work with us (barring extenuating circumstances). We will be interviewing this month and hiring a new staff member for immediate training. Email Charlie [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com to inquire and include “Front Desk” in the subject line.

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Back Squat / Dumbbell Row | Ring Dips, DB Thrusters, Row
The Speal Deal CrossFit Journal
Hey, Buddy, Ever Heard of a Chair?

BACK SQUAT / THREE-POINT DUMBBELL ROW SUPERSET*

A1) Back Squat:
4 x 10-12

A2) Three-Point Dumbbell Row:
4 x 10-12

Use a heavy load for the rep range that allows you to move with perfect form. Keep rest to a minimum, 30-60 seconds between movements.

*Warm up and then perform a set of Back Squat, followed by a set of Dumbbell Rows. Repeat for 4 work sets of each, resting 30 seconds to a minute between movements.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 2 of 8

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5 Rounds for Quality (with as little rest as needed):
5 Ring Dips (22X2 Tempo)
5e Single Arm Dumbbell Thrusters (22X2 Tempo)
15 Calorie Row

Choose the load on the Thrusters and do sets across or build. Matador Dips are ok as needed, or scale to Push-Ups.

Post work to comments.

Marcus P. before (left) and after (right) the LFPB Challange

The Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge Winners: 2nd Place

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the 2018 Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge, our collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, 3 women and 3 men stood out to us as winners, and we’re announcing them this week. We’ve also asked them to tell us a bit about the “secrets” to their success. Today we’re pleased to announce the 2nd place winners: Marcus P. and Liz M. They’ll each receive a 5-class punch card.

Marcus P.

Capacity test: start-10:25; end-8:40. The biggest change for me was healthy eating and sleeping. Regarding eating, I’ve always thought of myself as a veggie enthusiast but after the first lecture I realized how few I actually eat compared to the guidance. Trying to work those in took a good 5-6 weeks of testing new recipes to start to feel a good rhythm developing. Tracking the non-clean foods is also a great way to ease into tracking your food – I was hitting a lot of 2+ bad food days in the first month and it made me realize how much travelling impacted my eating.

On aggregate, I was surprised with the amount of crap I was getting through! Regarding sleeping, I’ve always been a relatively restless sleeper – routinely getting around 5 hours of sleep even though I’d be in bed for 8 hours. So I acquired a fitbit (as well as the mocking name “captain fitness” for wearing said fitbit) and started playing around with consistent bedtimes, winding down before bed etc and upped that to a solid 7. Regarding looking, feeling, and performing better, I think I’ve learnt some good habits and am feeling and seeing some improvements. The habits took a good 3 months to form, so I’ll plan to stick with it to see the real outcomes.

Liz M.

My before and after photos look pretty much the same to me, but I guess that’s deceiving. Looks much different to me in the mirror. I lost 12-14 pounds, 2 inches off my hips, 1 off my thighs, 1.5 off my waist, and 1.5 off my mid-back (read: back fat). My face definitely looks thinner, my chest and shoulders look more defined, and all of my usual pants are now too big. That would be annoying, but I have a bunch of brand new jeans in my closet that were too small when I ordered them and I was too lazy to return that now fit! I love retroactively not wasting money. I had plenty of energy for whatever I wanted to do, stopped having a glass of wine every night and slept much better.

On the flip side (that I am spinning into a positive life lesson), I’ve been feeling really down and stressed for the past 2-3 weeks, and backslid into some unhealthy eating habits towards the very end. My moods have always been the biggest obstacle to maintaining a healthy lifestyle (mostly because of the effort required to prepare and cook food, and that addict-like pleasure response tasty things set off in your brain), but I’ve also never stuck to eating so healthy for so long. As a result, I really never noticed how bad unhealthy eating made me feel until literally right now, because my body isn’t used to it anymore. After maybe 2 weeks of fully not paying attention to my diet, I physically started feeling like crap, was super tired, and got sick for a week. I never get sick! It was crazy, and I feel pretty inspired to get back on track ASAP. I think a combination of more Active Recovery, eating better, and drinking more water helped me get to the gym more often with so much less pain. I also play roller derby, and I have noticed a performance improvement there. My endurance, speed, and strength is markedly better. We were doing an offensive hitting drill the other day, which elicited a lot of feedback like “daaaamn” and “ow” when it was my turn.

News and Notes

• Our MARIO KART 64 practice station will be up all week before the tournament on the big screen on Friday the 13th. Time to brush off the dust and get ready to throw down! Sign up for the tournament on the event page.
• A note from Tim R.: “I work for the Brooklyn Brewery, and we’re throwing a beer and food festival called Beer Mansion next weekend at Weylin in Williamsburg. I’d love to get some CFSBKers there, so I’ve created a $10 off coupon for the gym with code CFSBK10OFF.”

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Rest Day
NYC’s Pigeons, Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before Atlas Obscura
How to Start Olympic Weightlifting After 50 USA Weightlifting

Friday Night: Mario Kart Tournament at CFSBK!

Get ready! This Friday, April 13th starting at 7:30pm, CFSBK is hosting a Mario Kart tournament. Relive your college years, childhood, adolescence, infancy, adulthood, or whatever the case may be.

About a week before, we’ll going to set up a practice station by the couches. For the main event, you’ll choose from 1 of the following classic Nintendo characters:

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Peach
• Toad
• Yoshi
• Donkey Kong
• Wario
• Bowser

Please leave a comment on the event page to let us know which you’d like to play as. See you Friday!

News and Notes

• See that Beyond the Whiteboard widget to the right? There’s now a dedicated part of our site where you can sign up for this FREE service and see recent activity from CFSBKers!
• Congrats again to Runit and Lauren on taking 3rd place in the 2018 Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge! Stay tuned to the blog tomorrow and Thursday to read about the 2nd and 1st place winners…

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Arnold Press / RDL | Pull-Ups, Box Jumps, Farmer Carry
Routine, Detail & Patience in the Olympic Lifts Catalyst Athletics
Why Scientists Are Starting to Care About Cultures That Talk to Whales Smithsonian

Arnold Press / Romanian Deadlift Superset*

A1) Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Arnold Press:
4 x 12-15

A2) Barbell Romanian Deadlift:
4 x 12-15

Use a heavy load for the rep range that allows you to move with perfect form. Keep rest to a minimum, 30-60 seconds between movements.

*Warm up and then perform a set of Arnold Presses, followed by a set of Romanian Deadlifts. Repeat for 4 work sets of each, resting 30 seconds to a minute between movements.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 2 of 8
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Every Minute on the Minute x 21: (7 each)
1) 4 Strict Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
2) 8 High Box Jumps
3) 100′ Farmer Carry

For the Pull-Ups, use bands as needed to get your chest to the bar, or sub challenging Chest-to-Rings Ring Rows. For the Box Jumps, use a higher box than normal. For the Farmer Carry, go as heavy as you can without breaking up the 100′.

Post work to comments.

Photo by Thomas H.

The Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge Winners: 3rd Place

We’re so proud of everyone who recently completed the 2018 Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge, our collective kick-start toward healthier nutrition and recovery habits in the New Year. Among the dedicated CFSBKers who rethought their diets, counted macros, and put in quality time with the foam roller, 3 women and 3 men stood out to us as winners, and we’ll be announcing them this week. We’ve also asked them to tell us a bit about the “secrets” to their success. Today we’re pleased to announce the 3rd place winners: Lauren M. and Runit C. They’ll each receive a free personal training session.

Lauren M.

In general, I was surprised by my relatively pain-free transition to the eating portion of the Challenge. Avoiding bread, chocolate, and ice cream were hard (and sad), but once I got started, it became relatively easy to put those things out of my mind and cut out items like maple syrup in my yogurt, honey in my tea, the half bag of snap pea crisps a night, etc. The two biggest changes I made to my diet were to increase my protein intake (from about 35–45 grams/day to about 80–95 grams/day) and to eat before 6 AM class. I noticed an increase in my energy level overall and especially at 6 AM class. As a result, I started seeing strength/cardio progress pretty soon into the Challenge. Here are some highlights (shoutout to the LFPB Tracker for keeping this all organized!):

Started incorporating full Burpees into workouts. Made my first-ever kick up to the wall. Used a 16 lb wall ball having never used one heavier than 10 lb before. Got the courage up to try a 20-inch Box Jump box right before a workout and discovered I could do them, which meant I did my first-ever workout Rx’d! I did three single Toes-to-Bars, which I had no idea I could do. I did my first few Double-Unders.

It feels silly to list all that out, but also cool to see how much progress I’ve made. I also made progress on my lifts and am looking forward to testing out those weights again in the coming weeks.

My before and after photos show just how much Active Recovery (including Whit’s Yoga for Athlete class!) helped me over these three months. In my before pic, my shoulders are super rounded and tense, and in the after one they are totally settled back. My whole body position looks different. My mom can finally be proud of my posture!

One of the biggest successes of the Challenge for me has been the mental aspect. Making time to sleep, prepare meals, eat meals, relax, and recover, have decreased my overall stress. By making these things a priority, I learned to embrace being someone who likes going to bed early and spend hours planning and cooking throughout the week, instead of feeling guilty for not staying up late like a cool kid or being super social. Having people to talk to about all of this with at the gym and at home (I feel lucky my partner is into all this as well!) has been incredibly helpful.

Runit C.

For me this Challenge was more a fine tuning from last year, which I hope I can sustain for some time. A more controlled approach towards sweets was a huge success. Cooking food (which anyway we do because of kids) was more planned. Cheat days were more like meals and not every/all weekend (like last Challenge). Jackie was 9:23 before and 9:10 after with the same rep scheme. I need to increase my gym time from 3 days a weeks to at least 4 days a week, though my 3 day per week were very consistent.

Congrats, Lauren and Runit! Check back this week for the 2nd and 1st place winners!

News and Notes

• Our MARIO KART 64 practice station will be up all week before the tournament on the big screen on Friday the 13th. Time to brush off the dust and get ready to throw down! Sign up for the tournament on the event page.
• Missing something? You can now check photos of our recent lost and found clear outs via the link under Member Resources. Be sure to claim your stuff at the front desk before we donate it to CHIPS!

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Clean and Jerk | Run, DB Clean and Jerks, Toes-t0-Bars
All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes TED (video)
Tia-Clair Toomey Wins Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games BarBend

Clean and Jerk Complex

Every Other Minute on the Minute x 14 (7 reps):
Clean Deadlift + Hang Clean High Pull + Hang Power Clean + Push Jerk

Keep this complex relatively light today (70-80% of Power Clean & Jerk 1RM) and focus on executing perfect positions on each movement.

Post loads to comments.

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3 Rounds for Time:
400m Run
16 Single-Arm Dumbbell Hang Clean and Jerks 50/35
12 Toe-to-Bars

 

For the Dumbbell Hand Clean and Jerks, perform 8 on the left then 8 on the right. Scale the Toes-to-Bars to Hanging Leg or Knee Raises as needed.

 

Post time and Rx to comments.

 

TONIGHT: WrestleMania at CFSBK!

Tonight we’ll be showing WrestleMania 34 on our big, big screen! The show starts at 7pm. Feel free to BYOB, snacks, friends, and folding chairs to hit ’em with. All are welcomed!

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Metcon Mash-Up
On Being a Giant The Ringer
Strategies to Better Fuel Your Training Athlete Daily

Metcon Mash-Up

AMRAP 12 Minutes:
9 Calorie Row
12 Wall Balls

Choose your weight and height on the Wall Balls.

Rest 3 minutes, then…

AMRAP 12 Minutes:
9/6 Calorie Bike
12 Russian Kettlebell Swings

Choose your load on the kettlebell.

Rest 3 minutes, then…

AMRAP 12 Minutes:
24 Double-Unders
12 Squats

Scale Dubs to 2x Single-Unders as needed.

Post rounds, reps, and Rx to comments.

A post shared by CrossFit South Brooklyn (@crossfitsouthbrooklyn) on Apr 5, 2018 at 9:47am PDT

Tomorrow Night: WrestleMania 34 Screening

Tomorrow night, we’ll be showing WrestleMania 34 on our big, big screen! The show starts at 7pm. Get yourself in the mood by watching the video above of WWE stars throwing down at CFSBK. Feel free to BYOB, snacks, and friends!

News and Notes

• Today’s 10am Yoga for Athletes class is cancelled. 
• There are just 2 spots left in Coach Ken’s rings gymnastics class, which starts tomorrow. Who’s gonna grab ’em? Go HERE to register!

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Yesterday’s Results Board: Rest Day
Nine Ways to Avoid Being a Vile Visitor CrossFit Journal
Let’s Get Lateral StrongFirst