Morit (right) on the podium with Val and Ellie at Fight Gone Bad 2015

• The fourth LFPB Q&A Info Session, “Adjusting Nutrition to Meet Your Goals,” is this Thursday at 6:30pm.
• We have a ton of your stuff in our Lost and Found! Do any of these shoes belong to you? What about this other stuff? Please claim it before we donate it to CHIPS in two weeks!
  

The Iron Maidens of CFSBK: Morit Summers

The Iron Maidens Raw Open is fast approaching! Leading up to the event, we’ll be posting brief interviews with CFSBK lifters to help you get to know our team and give you a sense of what these women are doing to prepare. This year, through competitors’ fundraising efforts, Iron Maidens will create the inaugural annual Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for 70% of college tuition for 10 women in the College Prep program at the Bronx-based Grace Outreach. Right now we’re at $17,335 donated. We’re so close, and we need your help to reach the finish line! You can donate to a lifters’ campaign by going here.

What’s your athletic background, Mo? When did you start barbell training?

I don’t really have an athletic background. I started lifting weights when I was 14. I was overweight and did not enjoy sports, so the gym became a part of my life. I went to SUNY Cortland for Exercise Science and Kinesiology, and that’s where I learned how to use the barbell. I really didn’t start working out with the barbell all the time until I joined CrossFit South Brooklyn a little over a year ago. Now I couldn’t live without it.  

How has lifting impacted you athletically and personally?

Lifting is really the only time I feel at my most confident. I am the strongest I have ever been and feel that I can always become better and that there is always room for improvement. I am excited to be at my most athletic in my 30s. I’ve always lifted, but Iron Maidens has given me something new and different to work towards. I’m at a crossroads in my life and career, and having this to focus on has been really amazing and empowering.

Have you competed in a powerlifting meet before?

No, this will be my first powerlifting competition. I am super excited to do this for the first time in a place I feel comfortable and surrounded by strong women! I work in the fitness industry, and for a lot of people it’s about aesthetics and the amount of weight you can lift (although I know that at a powerlifting meet we are trying lift a big number). To me the event means so much more than the numbers! 

So this is your first time competing in Iron Maidens! Anything in particular that you’re looking forward to or nervous about?

It is my first time, and I’m really looking forward to being surrounded by strong women! People have always told me I’m strong, but I’ve never been totally sure what that means. I really feel like training for this competition is a way of proving to myself what I am capable of. I’m not nervous now. I know I will be the day of, maybe even the week of. Usually before any competition I’m incredibly nervous until I get started.

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Clean | Front Squats, Toes-to-Bars
Is It Dangerous to Sleep with Your Smartphone? Hopes&Fears
CrossFit HQ Redesigns CrossFit.com

Power Clean

Every Minute on the Minute for 15 minutes:
3 Touch-and-Go Power Cleans
Start light and build to a max for the day.

Post loads to comments.

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5 Rounds For Time:
12 Front Squats 115/75
10 Toes-to-Bars
The Front Squat weight should be light enough to do unbroken and fast, even if you don’t really want to. Nowhere to hide on this one. Sub Hanging Leg Raises for Toes-to-Bars as necessary.

Manuel G. demonstrates an excellent front rack postition

• Over on Inside the Affiliate, Coach David just published an interesting new piece entitled “How To Give Newbies Their First Taste of CrossFit.” It’s an excellent reminder of how lucky we are to be part of a gym where the managment puts so much thought into programming and works so hard to create an inclusive environment. What was your first CrossFit workout? Tell us in the comments!
  

New Programming Cycle Starts Today!

This next 8-week Group Programming Cycle, running from 2/15/16 until 4/10/16, will take a different approach than our previous cycles. Instead of programming the same lifts on the same days of the week for the entirety of the cycle, we’re going to rotate through different movement variations across 3 categories in the strength/skill portion of each class. These 3 categories are: Olympic WeightlIfting (the Snatch, the Clean and Jerk, and all their variations), Powerlifting (Squats, Presses, and Pulls), and Gymnastics Skill Work (Ring and Bar Muscle-Ups, Inversions, etc). This will provide broader exposure to a wider pool of movements and allow for the daily programming to look much like a class that’s prepping for an Open Workout. Since we’re running right through the Open this cycle, it’s perfect timing! Here’s the basic structure:

Monday – Olympic lift + Metcon
Tuesday – Rest
Wednesday – Powerlift + Metcon
Thursday – Olympic lift + Metcon
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Skill (or Open Workout prep) + Metcon (or Open Workout)
Sunday – Powerlift + Metcon

We’ll continue to throw in some Not For Time assistance/accessory work and will vary the mode and time domains of the metcons, so you can expect to see some Olympic lifting variants in the metcon on powerlifting day and vice-versa.

During the CrossFit Open, we’ll be programming Open Workouts on Saturdays. This means you’ll have several opportunities to complete them and get your scores in. You’ll be able to do Open Workouts at the following classes:

Friday – All morning classes (following Saturday programming), plus Friday evening Open Gym
Saturday – All classes, plus Saturday afternoon OG
Sunday – Evening OG

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Handstand Walking | Chipper WOD
How Steph Curry Got the Best Worst Ankles in Sports ESPN
CrossFit Teens: Competing at Wodapalooza and More Fitness HQ

Handstand Walking

Choose one of the following scaling options and spend 12 minutes developing your hand balancing:
A) Hand Walking (free or 2′ from wall)
B) Wall Inverted Hip Shifts with Hand Release (from a kick up)
C) Box Piked Hip Shifts with Hand Release
D) Floor Piked Hip Shifts with Hand Release

__________________

For Time:
50 Double-Unders
50 Pull-Ups
50 Double-Unders
50 Burpees
50 Double-Unders
50 Squats
50 Double-Unders
50 AbMat Sit-Ups
50 Double-Unders
Aim to stay below redline on this chipper. Break the sets up as needed to stay fresh throughout. Smooth and steady is the goal. 

Remember summer? Dan G. and Greg C. do 

Editor’s Note: Tomorrow we’ll be posting the template for the upcoming group programming cycle, which will be quite different from the way we’ve organized mesocycles in the past. Our basic programming philosophy will, however, remain the same. Now’s a good time to revisit it! The article below was orginally posted on 6.10.2014. Enjoy! 

The Underlying Philosophy Behind Programming at CFSBK

By Chris Fox 

At CFSBK, we program for long-term health and fitness utilizing strength training, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and mostly CrossFit-style couplet and triplet conditioning work. While some days look a bit different, a routine day at CrossFit South Brooklyn looks like this: DROMs, Warm Ups, Lifting, WOD prep, followed by a WOD. Let’s look at some of the reasons why we structure and program this way in terms of what each segment offers. 

DROMs: A general, light, dynamic warm up of joints and soft tissue will get your heart rate up a bit and help you enter a training mindset. It starts to get the sleep out of your eyes or the emails in your inbox out of your head. It also offers time for the QOD [LINK], which can lighten the mood and let you get to know a bit about the people you’ll be working hard with. 

Warm Ups: You need to be warmed up properly to move well and help prevent injury. Standardized warm ups move you through a wide range of motion, get you sweaty, and give you an opportunity to develop some strength in basic gymnastics and barbell movements you’ll regularly see in classes. Focused barbell drills review the positions and intentions of the lift you’ll be working on that day. We structure the drills so that you also get warm as you’re doing them.

Lifts: You need to be stronger, as strength is the physical adaptation with the greatest carryover to the rest of your training and to life in general. You may have noticed that we often squat twice each week. We’ve been programming this way for years and for good reason. I can’t say it any better than Mark Rippetoe so here’s a quote from the man himself:

“There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that provides the level of central nervous activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density enhancement, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning than the correctly performed full squat.” 

We agree. 

The Olympic lifts train power, strength, coordination, flexibility, and overall athleticism. If you can throw a heavy weight overhead, catch it in a rock bottom overhead squat, then stand it up (PR bar slam optional), almost all of the other things we do will be easier. As far as the other lifts go, the bench is the best upper body strength developer and is simply fun. The press is another great upper body strength developer—it keeps the shoulder girdle healthy and works the muscles that stabilize your trunk extremely well. Every few cycles we’ll program an upper body gymnastics movement as a strength developer, as this allows us to have some fun and vary the stimulus a bit. The deadlift will get your back stronger like no other exercise can, and it’s almost always the lift where you’ll be able to move the most weight, automatically making it pretty cool. The average lifter should be able to deadlift more than they can squat. If that’s not the case for you, we recommend coming in on days when we’re pulling weights off the floor. 

WOD Prep and WOD: We discuss the intent of the WOD at the whiteboard, along with scaling options and strategies. The WOD is where we get our conditioning and develop the ability to work at high intensities for longer than a set of squats can take us. As stated above, we use mostly mixed modal couplets and triplets. Our conditioning tends to range from short, high intensity three- to seven-minute efforts, to medium intensity eight- 15-minute efforts on most days, with a lower intensity 20-minute-plus WOD thrown in once a week or so. 

Even when the total time is above 15 minutes, we’ll often use interval work so that intensity stays high, given that high intensity (anaerobic) training has positive carryovers to low intensity (aerobic) training and offers other benefits. High intensity training can develop and preserve muscle mass, whereas long slow distance training can cause you to lose it if used exclusively. High intensity training creates EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), which sets your metabolism up to burn slightly more fat after exercise compared to endurance-type training—a boon if you’re looking to lose extra fat. Plus it’s time effective. If you can get the same or better benefit metabolically with shorter high intensity training, then the only reason to do the long slow stuff is if you don’t want to work that hard. 

Consider that maybe you don’t need more “cardio,” but actually need to work harder. I’d argue that hard work will also make you stronger in non-physical ways. We throw something like “Murph” at you a few times each year since we know you secretly love it and it’s cool to see that you haven’t lost your ability to go that long in spite of all your gainz. If we programmed hero type WODs all the time however, we’d likely have an oft-injured population with a narrow scope of fitness. Time and intensity have an inverse relationship in that the longer you work, the lower the intensity must be. By intensity, I mean power output. I know a marathon can be an intense experience, but you’re not working as hard on those miles as you would be while doing 800m repeats. Furthermore, the longer you go, the more reps you’re going to be doing and the more fatigued you’ll be. You don’t move better on the 69th deadlift compared to the 9th, trust me. Remember: we’re programming for our general population to be fit for the long term—not to crush a week’s worth of hero WODs followed by six weeks of PT. 

Cool Down: This portion is largely up to you, but you really don’t need us to babysit while you run, row an easy 1000 meters, or spend some quality time with a foam roller. 

To wrap up, CFSBK’s programming is designed to give you the most training value. We do these things because they are effective, not because they are in vogue or even because our members demand that we do things a certain way. We’ve withstood a few silly fitness trends in favor of what science and experience says works and will continue to do so, evolving as we learn. Training here is hard, it’s consistent, and it isn’t always exciting or sexy, but it works. We’re lucky to have so many of you who seem to agree and are willing to put in the hard work!

What, in your opinion, was the most difficult workout of this Crush Week? 

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Partner WOD
Donald J. Trump State Park Atlas Obscura 
Streetcar Desired The Awl 

Partner WOD

With one partner working at a time, partners alternate full rounds in this workout to complete 10 total rounds for time of:
8 Hang Squat Clean Thrusters 135/95
270m Run or 300m Row
First partner completes a full round, then second partner starts on the Hang Squat Clean Thrusters when they finish the run or row.

Post time and Rx to comments. 

Griselle O. and Jason M. were all matchy on Wednesday night. Get it? Because their shirts match and also it’s called a rugby match. I’m sorry

Interested in Working Among CFSBKers at a Part-Time Workspace?

Brooklyn Creative League offers part-time workspace to independent workers, creative freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small-shop companies across Brooklyn and NYC. Several CFSBKers, including Richard G., Rob U., and Joe M., work there and can attest to the great environment. Get the details about availability and amenities over at brooklyncreativeleague.com.

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Rest Day
What I Paid To Be A Division I Athlete Vice 
13-Year-Old Maryana Naumova Benches 240lbs Raw YouTube 

More photos from the Community Potluck, including the aftermath of this one, are now up on our Flickr account. Check ’em out! 

This Week at CFSBK in Review

1. In our continuing Iron Maidens of CFSBK series, we heard from Jenna J. and Worm. We’re a little over 3 weeks from The Iron Maidens Raw Open, and we just hit 81% of our fundraising goal. We need your help to reach it! Can we make it past 100% by next Friday? Hell yeah we can. Go here to donate to your favorite lifter’s (or lifters’) campaign(s). 

2. Also, over at the Iron Maidens main site, Coach Margie wrote a very useful post about weight class considerations for those competing. Not competing but interested in volunteering on the day of the meet? We are still in need of spotters and plate loaders. Please fill out this form if you can help out.

3. Coaches Chris and Jess Fox threw down in front of the Eiffel Tower. It’s okay to take a break once in a while, guys. 

4. Coaches McDowell and Noah traveled to Arizona for James FitzGerald’s OPEX seminar and are looking for volunteers to do a free consultation. 

5. We gave you a rundown of all the recent gymprovements we’ve made at 597 and 608. What else what you like to see?

6. There are just 13 days until the annoucement of CrossFit Open Workout 16.1. Holy crud! Have you registered for the Open yet? Here’s why you should. 

7. The fourth LFPB Q&A Info Session, “Adjusting Nutrition to Meet Your Goals,” will happen Thursday, February 18th at 6:30pm. 
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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Snatch | Row, Power Snatch, Burpees
Why Men Fight: An Empirical Investigation of the Extremes of Masculinity Quartz
Your Sorry Ass: Door Holding The Baffler 
FDA Recommends Adding Little Tabasco To That Bad Boy 

Power Snatch

Power Snatch:
Take 12 minutes to warm up to a Power Snatch slightly above your work weight for the metcon. Everything about the Power Snatch should look exactly like the full Snatch with the exception of the receiving position. Don’t default to sloppy mechanics.
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For Time: 
1000m Row
30 Power Snatches 135/95
50 Burpees Over The Bar 
Don’t sandbag the row here. Stay at a pace that allows you to come off feeling fresh. The Power Snatches should be a medium heavy load for you, so scale as necessary. If you can organize sets of 2-5 touch-and-go Power Snatches, then try to stay with that. Otherwise, singles with quick resets can keep you moving through. Burpees over the bar suck, we know. Full extension is not required and these are not bar facing. Set a pace that keeps you moving, and don’t take any long breaks. If you have a little bit left in the tank, then sprint for the last 10 reps.  

Worm driving to the top of a Thruster

• The fourth LFPB Q&A Info Session, “Adjusting Nutrition to Meet Your Goals,” is next Thursday, February 18th at 6:30pm.
  
• Interested in volunteering for Iron Maidens? We are still in need of spotters and plate loaders.  Please fill out this form if you can help out. Thanks!

The Iron Maidens of CFSBK: Sara Widman

The Iron Maidens Raw Open is less than 4 weeks away. Leading up to the event, we’ll be posting brief interviews with CFSBK lifters to help you get to know our team and give you a sense of what these women are doing to prepare. This year, through competitors’ fundraising efforts, Iron Maidens will create the inaugural annual Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for 70% of college tuition for 10 women in the College Prep program at the Bronx-based Grace Outreach. Right now we’re at $15,550 donated, and we need your help to reach the finish line! You can donate to a lifters’ campaign by going here.

Worrrrrrm! (Did you know she’s had that nickname since summer camp?) What’s your favorite powerlift? 

I have to say, my favorite is definitely the Deadlift. The fact that I can lift well over 200 pounds makes me feel fierce. If my back is strong and my core is tight, I can safely lift 2 times my body weight, and that is amazing.

What’s your motivation for competing in Iron Maidens?

My main motivation is the comradery. I’ve competed in Iron Maidens for the past 3 years, and each time I am amazed by the amount of praise everyone gives to one other. Everyone is clearly respected and encouraged, no matter what her size or skill level. As a young woman growing up in Long Island, New York, I saw a lot of women around me working out to lose weight. They were always talking about the number on the scale, and they seemed to think of success as being skinny. At CFSBK, and more specifically at Iron Maidens, women clearly workout to get strong. For men strength is important, but for women, I believe it is a must. Feeling strong on the outside makes me feel strong on the inside and enables me to face all of the things in my life that are difficult. 

Any advice for first-time competitors? 

My advice is to just come and experience it. You will have so much fun, and really I think that’s the most important part—to have fun! 
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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Open Workout 15.4
Frinkiac: A Searchable Database of Simpsons Screencaps
How to Reboot Your System Breaking Muscle

Open Workout 15.4

Complete as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
3 Handstand Push-Ups 
3 Cleans 185/125 
6 Handstand Push-Ups 
3 Cleans 185/125 
9 Handstand Push-Ups 
3 Cleans 185/125 
12 Handstand Push-Ups 
6 Cleans 185/125
15 Handstand Push-Ups 
6 Cleans 185/125
18 Handstand Push-Ups
6 Cleans 185/125
21 Handstand Push-Ups 
9 Cleans 185/125
Etc., adding 3 reps to the Handstand Push-Ups each round, and 3 reps to the Clean every 3 rounds.

The Cleans can be performed in any way. Prior to starting you will need to establish the foot line for your Handstand Push-Up. Stand facing the wall with your feet at hip width and your toes touching the wall. While standing tall, reach your hands over your head with your elbows straight, shoulders extended and your thumbs touching. From here, mark the height of your wrists, then measure down 3 inches and create a line on the wall. Mark your line with a permanent marker, chalk or tape. Judges may restore the line between rounds as needed. Each Handstand Push-Up begins and ends with the heels in contact with the wall and above the pre-marked line. The athlete may place their hands however they choose, as long as their heels are above the line.

Evan and Michelle at the Community Potluck this past Saturday. Pics from the Potluck are now up on Flickr! 

• Are you on the list to get our newsletter? You can sign up using the widget to the right, just above the link to CrossFit Journal. Don’t miss out on important news and events!

Gymprovements! 

Here are some recent additions to our equipment arsenal! 

• 3 new 10kg/22lb barbells for 608
• 6 Pairs of 15lb bumper plates for 608
• We ordered a new set of six 20″ and six 16″ stackable plyo boxes like the ones we have in 597 to replace the ones in 608 that stick together and make you say swear words. 
• 10 beaded jump ropes. These are a heavier than our speed ropes and make even Single-Unders feel harder.
• We put pop pins in the Crossover Symmetry stations in 608 so that they can be placed in any available rack instead of whichever ones happen to have the grey straps on them.
• We replaced the Assault Bike monitor since the last one was glitchy and kept resetting.
• We ordered 3 new back lit Concept2 PM5 rowing machine monitors.

What equipment would you like to see or see more of at CFSBK? Tell us in the comments!
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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Rest Day
Brooke Wells Does Grace Scaled Up to 155lbs in 3:18 YouTube
We Are Hopelessly Hooked The New York Review of Books 

Noah and McDowell with James FitzGerald at the OPEX seminar

Coaches Noah and McDowell Go West!

While CFSBK hunkered down under the gale of Snowstorm Jonas a few weeks ago, Coaches Noah and McDowell traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona to absorb a storm of knowledge from veteran athlete, coach, and educator James “OPT” FitzGerald.

FitzGerald has been a name to know in CrossFit since the early days, when his posted scores and times on the CrossFit main site were consistently top 5 worldwide. Already a veteran trainer, “OPT,” (his forum handle and the original name of his business) went on to win the first CrossFit Games, and has since trained 50 Games athletes,over 500 Regionals athletes, and countless people looking for science-based, individually tailored training under the aegis of his new coaching company Optimum Performance Experience (OPEX).

Noah and McDowell have been working towards becoming OPEX Associate Coaches since October. Having already completed their Assessment and Program Design modules online, in Arizona they completed their Life Coaching and Nutrition modules live and hope to share their experiences and insight with the CFSBK community.

To that end, Noah and McDowell are looking for 6 brave souls to volunteer for a free consultation, which will look to help optimize lifestyle and nutrition factors to better support progress and performance in the gym. The initial consultation will be 45 minutes long and will be followed with bi-weekly scheduled check-ins for 3 months. They are looking for people with a mixture of fitness levels, dietary styles, and lifestyles and will make selections accordingly. Fill out this survey if you are interested! 

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: “Morrison”
How Would You Hold Up to a Lesson from Dmitri Klokov? The WOD Life 
Natural History Museums Are Teaming With Undiscovered Species The Atlantic 

“Morrison”

50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Wall Ball 20/14 to a 10′
Target Box jump 24/20″ (jump is Rx’d, step-up is scaled)
Kettlebell Swing, 53/35
*40 minute cap
As Rx’d, “Morrison” is 450 total reps (that’s a lot!) and is often reported as one of the hardest WODs people have done. Set a steady pace for yourself and try to stick to it. Definitely don’t blow up in the 50s.  

B Scale: 40-30-20-10 reps for time (100 reps of each movement, 300 total).
C Scale: A partner version is appropriate for newer folks, and it’s still a hell of a workout. Split the work evenly in sets as desired (75 reps each movement, 225 total).

U.S. Army Specialist Scott Morrison, 23, of Blue Ash, Ohio, assigned to 584th Mobility Augmentation Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, based out of Fort Hood, Texas, died on September 26, 2010, from injuries suffered on September 25 when insurgents in Kandahar, Afghanistan attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He is survived by his father Donald, mother Susan, brother Gary, and sister Katie.

Post time and Rx to comments.
Compare to 4.5.2014, 5.23.2012, and 7.13.2011

Coaches Jess and Chris Fox love to travel far and wide. Here are nos Renards visiting the Eiffel Tower on a beautiful day in Paris. Très bien! | Photoshop by Cam C.

• Do you store your lifting shoes in the closet at 597 or the loft at 608? If so, please make sure they’re marked with your name. Unlabeled shoes will be removed on February 21st. Space is getting tight!
• There are just 17 days until the annoucement of CrossFit Open Workout 16.1. Yikes! Have you registered yet? 

The Iron Maidens of CFSBK: Jenna Jerman

The Iron Maidens Raw Open is less than 4 weeks away. Leading up to the event, we’ll be posting brief interviews with CFSBK lifters to help you get to know our team and give you a sense of what these women are doing to prepare. This year, through competitors’ fundraising efforts, Iron Maidens will create the inaugural annual Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for 70% of college tuition for 10 women in the College Prep program at the Bronx-based Grace Outreach. Right now we’re at $13,765 donated, and we need your help to reach the finish line! You can donate to a lifters’ campaign by going here.

Last week we heard from Rachel Hsiung. Next up: Jenna Jerman…

JJ! Tell us about your training program. 

For the past few months, I have been exclusively Olympic lifting, 2-3x per week in Frank’s program (plus the occasional yoga class). In the Olympic class, we only High-Bar Back Squat, but doing so has really allowed me to focus on busting through a lot of my old mobility issues and correct some old bad habits in my form. So even though I have had to keep my weights lower than I would have if I had been Low-Bar Back Squatting on my own (and probably sacrificing form for the sake of heavier loads), I am hoping that the new strength I have developed through my fuller range of motion in all of the positions will translate to a stronger Low-Bar Squat. Same goes for my Deadlift—I haven’t been training this lift, but I expect that all the pulling we do will yield some strength gains at the meet. Starting in February, I also plan on devoting more OG sessions to powerlifting, to work on a linear progression for my bench and deadlift and to reacquaint my body with the movement of Low-Bar Back Squatting.

What’s your motivation for competing in Iron Maidens? 

I mostly just love the super-supportive and celebratory environment of Iron Maidens (and CFSBK in general). I don’t consider myself to be a very competitive person (at least not athletically), but there is nothing like getting up on the platform and getting to feel like a TFBA, and having that feeling validated by all of the other strong, TFBA women around you. A week or two ago I was looking at the video posted on the @ironmaidensopen Instagram account of Bethany E. Deadlifting, and I thought to myself, “Shit, I can’t compete with her! She’s too strong!” Then I realized that I won’t be competing against her, really. I will be competing with her, and I really like that. (It also helped that I was discussing weight-class strategy with KMo one day—I am right on the cusp of two weight classes—and she laughed at me and said, “I’m sorry, you don’t think you’re going to win this event, do you?” I had to laugh, too. Sometimes it helps to be reminded to take myself less seriously and that I am only doing this for fun.)

But really, it does feel like a privilege to get to lift with all these strong women. I think the saying, “a rising tide lifts all boats” fits here somehow. It makes me a better lifter (person?) to lift with all these supportive women, and I want to contribute to that. I am really grateful to Margie for creating this awesome event, and I hope to participate in as many of them as possible, because they’re just really fun. I will never be good enough to compete in any kind of CrossFit competition, (or maybe I just don’t want to because seriously, fuck Burpees) but this event is accessible to all people at all levels. 

I also like that the event is focused exclusively on strength, full stop. Not: “strength is beautiful!” I like participating in a women-focused event that celebrates strength as the end goal, not as a means to acceptable physical appearance.

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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: Clean | Open Workout 11.3
“Morrison” Hero WOD Demo WODwell
The Final Comeback of Axl Rose GQ

Clean

Clean: 
1-1-1
Warm up and perform 3 attempts at a max for the day.

Post loads to comments.
Exposure 16 of 16.
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Open Workout 11.3

AMRAP 5 Minutes:
Squat Clean 165/110 
Jerk 165/110 
In this movement, the barbell goes from ground to overhead with the athlete passing through a full squat position while the barbell is racked on the shoulders. This can be a Full Squat-Clean Thruster, a Power-Clean Front Squat followed by a Split Jerk, or anything in between, as long as the three key positions are reached. The barbell begins on the ground. Touch-and-go is permitted. No bouncing. The athlete must pass through a full squat with hips below knees. The barbell must come to full lockout overhead with the hips, knees, and arms fully extended, and the bar over the mid-line. Score a point for each Clean and a point for each Jerk. So, 1 full clean and 1 jerk = 2 points.  

Post Rx and points to comments.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Community Potluck last night. What a feast. Full success!

Zen and the Art of Crush Week

By David Osorio
Originally posted 10.17.11 

In traditional meditative disciplines, you aim to cultivate mindfulness in a physically neutral setting. Often the practitioner sits in a comfortable position and tries to bring attention toward their breathing.   In Yoga, we see a more dynamic approach where rhythmic breathing becomes interwoven with a controlled flow through a series of postures .  In both of these instances, the intention is for the pilot to become more tuned into the “now”.  At CrossFit, we achieve something very similar through a very different approach.   During an intimidating lift or difficult conditioning piece you’re forced to deal with the moment at hand. The high discomfort level of what we do takes that moment and amplifies the physical inputs to the point where you can’t help but focus on what’s happening. You know this intuitively and it’s why you get nervous before a 500m erg test or 3 rep max Back Squat attempt.  You know that once you start you’ll be forced to deal with the “now” until it’s all over. Every second gets dragged out and every moment to rest or doubt yourself becomes amplified against what needs to get done.  Take this opportunity to set your intention for the approaching workouts.  Whenever you find yourself deep in the agonizing “now” embrace it and stay on task.  Don’t look around the room to see where everyone else is, don’t check the clock to see how much time has gone by and don’t make excuses to try and avoid what your feeling. Just keep fighting the barbell up or chipping away at reps until you’ve completed the task.  If you lose focus and get derailed, don’t let it mess with your head, just come back pushing harder. Remember, you’re here to get stronger, both physically AND mentally.

Enjoy Crush Week!

How do you mentally prepare for Crush Week? Tell us in the comments! 

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