Handstand Push-Up / Dumbbell Split-Stance Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift Superset*
Performance
A1) Tempo (40×1) Handstand Push-Up:
5 x 6-10 reps
Add a few reps to last week. These should all be sub-max sets, adding a deficit if you’re able to. Full range of motion, no AbMats. No crashing or resting on your head! Perform the reps strict if you can. You can kip the concentric if you must, but keep true to the tempo on the eccentric through the full range of motion and do not crash or rest on your head.
A2) Dumbbell Split-Stance Single-Leg RDL:
5 x 6-10 reps
Add weight and/or reps to last week.
Fitness
A1) Tempo (40×1) Seated Dumbbell Press:
5 x 5-8 reps
Add weight and/or reps to last week. Optional: Perform a Kick-Up to the wall with a few second hold immediately after each set of Presses.
A2) Dumbbell Split-Stance Single-Leg RDL:
5 x 6-10 reps
Add weight and/or reps to last week.
*Warm up and then perform a set of Handstand Push-Ups, followed by a set of DB Split-Stance Single-Leg RDLs. Repeat for 5 work sets of each, resting about a minute between movements. The last few reps of each set should be tough, but the goal is no misses.
Post loads/reps to comments.
Exposure 5 of 8
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For Time:
42 Kettlebell Swings 24/16kg
21 Box Jump Overs 24/20″
15 Chest-to-Bar Pull Ups
30 Kettlebell Swings
15 Box Jump Overs
9 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
18 Kettlebell Swings
9 Box Jump Overs
6 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
The Kettlebell Swings are Rx’d as overhead. The Box Jump Overs are Rx’d as a two-foot takeoff, with no extension requirement atop the box. Scale range-of-motion or to Jumping Chest-to-Bar as needed for the Pull-Ups.
Post time and Rx to comments.
December Athletes of the Month: Thaisa Lemos and Daniel Rocha
We’ve got a treat for you this month. It’s a 2-for-1 deal on AOM, only the second time we’ve done that, and this time around it Thaisa and Daniel! They are both well deserving AOMs individually, but we figured why not compound the honor and learn a little about them as a quintessential CFSBK power couple.
P.S. These two will be traveling for the holidays and will thus miss your congrats in person, so please show them some good old CFSBK blog love with a “virtual high five” via a comment below!
Fox: Hi Guys! Congrats, and thanks for coming in to chat. Let’s start as we always do, with when and why you began CrossFit.
Daniel: We started here together three years ago, in November 2014. I have a work friend whose brother owns an affiliate in New Jersey (Crossfit 908), and he’d been telling me I would love it. I was running and doing classes at the 24 Hour Fitness we belonged to and was getting pretty bored. I was also not happy feeling like I was exercising like crazy only to earn a lack of results. I was ready for change. Thaisa took a bit of convincing.
Thaisa: Yeah, the body pump classes weren’t really doing it for me either and I was also tired of yo-yo diets and protein bars, but I wasn’t too sure about CrossFit. Daniel’s friend’s wife said if you did CrossFit you could eat whatever you wanted. That had me intrigued enough to give it a go.
Daniel: I’d tried an intro class at a Manhattan CrossFit gym when we were living there, and it wasn’t the type of place I figured Thaisa would enjoy. Once we moved to Brooklyn and were so close to CFSBK I knew we try again and had no excuses. We signed up for Foundations (I didn’t want Thaisa to do the Intro Class and have a bad experience so we just decided to try it for the few weeks of Foundations) and had you (Fox) and Arturo, and one make-up session with McDowell. Now here we are.
Thaisa: I was nervous at first but right away the coaches made me feel like I would be okay. We felt very taken care of.
Fox: That’s so great to hear! A high priority for us in Foundations is to show people that they are welcome and wanted here no matter their level of ability or experience. Were you guys athletic as kids?
Thaisa: Not. At. All… My family tells stories of summer family vacations to the beach when I would bring my textbooks. Sports and “activities” were not my thing. I spent after school hours and weekends inside studying, in my coke bottle glasses, and braces. Total nerd!
Daniel: Yeah, not really either. I played a bit of soccer but would not say I was an athlete in any sense of that word.
Fox: CrossFit definitely appeals to a previously athletic population, and many people have the perception that you have to be fit and athletic to even do CrossFit. What brought you guys in and why did you stay?
Thaisa: Well the “eat whatever you want” promise was appealing, although I wouldn’t say it’s exactly turned out to be true. I wanted to be challenged in a new way and CrossFit certainly fit the bill. I immediately liked the idea of progressions and of measurable progress, and I trusted the coaching. The level of coaching here is so consistent. Plus, the number of class offerings means you don’t have to miss a day of training if your train runs late. You just take the next class.
Daniel: Yeah, we both like the quantifiable aspect to CrossFit and I second the fantastic level of coaching. The other gym we were going to sometimes had trainers who seemed smart and you could tell cared, but there were also many of what I call “coffee counters,” trainers who would just count reps while drinking coffee. Although it’s not as convenient as when we lived in Park Slope, we recently purchased our first home in Clinton Hill, we wouldn’t consider switching gyms. Thaisa even made sure that the cost of daily transportation to and from the gym was factored into our monthly expenses when we were buying!
Fox: That’s some next level commitment. So happy you appreciate us that much. The feeling is mutual! Where did you guys grow up, and how’d you end up here in New York?
Daniel: A small city in Brazil named Natal. Small by Brazil standards at least, but it’s a pretty large city with 1,500,000 people in it. Thaisa and I went to the same high school and knew each other, but we began dating during our senior year.
Thaisa: Then a few years later, during our last year of college, Daniel applied to jobs and ended up accepting a great offer from Google in NYC. I was very excited for the move but also very nervous. I spoke zero English!
Fox: No way! I wish my Spanish was as good as your English. What do you guys do for work?
Daniel: I’m still with Google where I’m a software engineer working on the Search team. The energy is usually pretty great and the people I work around are happy (and all really smart!) so I guess I got pretty lucky right out of college.
Thaisa: I received my PhD here at Rutgers School for Nutritional Science and work as a Lactation Consultant. I’m currently starting my own business here in Brooklyn! I do home visits, and a lot of my work is actually helping women learn stress management techniques.
Fox: What was growing up like for you both?
Thaisa: We had quite opposite childhoods. I grew up with a large family and am the baby of 4 children. Growing up there was always extended family around the house, but I was pretty shy and mostly kept to my books.
Daniel: I’m an only child of divorced parents, and I lived with my mom for most of my life (my dad was living away for many years of my childhood). I was also a shy, introverted child throughout adolescence, really up until high school, which was pretty transformative for me. The change from private to public school was eye opening. Nowadays I have a younger half -brother and a step-sister who I’m very close to.
Fox: What can you guys be found doing when you’re not at the gym?
Daniel: Well, we spend MANY hours at the gym, but we can often be found eating when we’re not here. We cook a lot at home now (thanks, Look Feel Perform Challenge!) but also like to try different restaurants.
Thaisa: Haha, sounds like we’re still testing out the “eat whatever you want theory.” We watch a lot of movies and travel a bit, and I try to tag along when Daniel has work trips. We usually visit other CrossFit gyms when we travel, though that’s mostly at Daniel’s suggestion. Finally, the new place takes up a lot of time. We’re getting it in order and making it ours while trying our hand at being handy.
Fox: Give me an odd/fun fact about each of you.
Thaisa: I don’t sing at all. I don’t even really like music.
Daniel: I didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until I was 30 years old. Now I love it and ride all over, in NYC!
Fox: What were some gym goats of yours when you first started, and what are you working on now?
Daniel: I’d never jumped rope before, so getting Double-Unders is still challenging and something I still work on. I’m currently focusing on improving gymnastics skill and strength. I really want to be able to do Handstand Push-Ups.
Thaisa: Pull-Ups, and I’m still working on them. But, I used to not be able to do full Push-Ups, and this year I did 200 of them during “Murph”!
Fox: Nice! Keep up the hard work. Last question: What should we look for in a future Athlete of the Month?
Thaisa: We spoke about this question since we knew it would come up! Something we discussed was that for the first year here, it actually felt pretty hard to fit in. Active Recovery, meeting people and having random topics of discussion in that room, made a big difference. We began to make friends. That might have just been our personalities, but it made a big difference. People like Mo (former AOM) and Kat and others were so warm and friendly. They paid forward the kindness they received early on and that made a huge impression on us. We’ve since tried to emulate that. It’s the sort of thing keeps people coming in not just for physical fitness, but also for community. You may not be a super athlete but you can be nice, approachable, and simply be working on being a better person. So, that’s who we’d like to see: Someone who’s welcoming, approachable, dedicated… and overall kind.
Daniel: I couldn’t have said it better.
News and Notes
- Take a look back through our 2017 Athletes of the Month on the CFSBK Articles & Media page!
- In case you missed it, our 2017-18 holiday schedule went up over the weekend! Check out the Schedule page to find out when you can do your holiday fitness.
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Yesterday’s Results Board: Front Squat + Jerk | Burpees, Power Cleans
How to Master Pull-Ups Athlete Daily
Lessons from Four Generations of Weightlifters Breaking Muscle
