Team Bay Ridge CrossFit at CFSBK

• Happy birthday, Frank H.! 
• Coach David’s article about programming deadlifts is blowing up the interwebs. Like Inside the Affiliate on Facebook so you don’t miss any future articles!

Got Plans on Saturday? Come to CFSBK’s Art Show!

CFSBK’s first Art Show (and maybe the first ever at a CrossFit gym?) is THIS Saturday, November 22, from 7:30-10:30pm. Free entry and alcohol.

Matthew Reid, a local Brooklyn artist, will be live painting a mural from 8-10pm. Follow him on Instagram to see more of his stuff, and look through his website to see some of his past collaborations. 

Most importantly, come check out art from fellow talented CFSBKers. Below are all the artists whose work will be on display:

Elyse Barton
Camille Cruz
Asta Fivgas
Katie Harper
Jenna Jerman
Alona Katz
Tim Mauseth
Kevin McDonald
Laura McElherne
David Osorio
Cait Vogt
Keith Walter
Brian “Baz” Zimbler

If you have any questions, email Kate at Katharine [at] CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com.

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There Was No First Human It’s Okay To Be Smart
The Unhealthy Competition Bug: Is Your Gym Infected? Breaking Muscle

10 Minutes Jump Rope Practice

Post what you worked on to comments.
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5 Rounds Not For Time:
:30 Nose and Toes Handstand Hold
10 V-Ups
8ea Dumbbell Step Ups, as heavy as possible

Post loads to comments.

Huge congrats to Katie HarpZ on getting her first muscle-up at OG on Friday… and then proceeding to get two more, shown here! (Here it is in slo-mo if you want to audibly relive a Jurassic Park scene.)

News and Notes

• CFSBK’s Art Show is THIS SATURDAY! Tell your friends, and come hang with us from 7:30-10:30pm!
• There’s a new post over on Inside the Affiliate about how we program deadlifts at CFSBK (which you’ll be seeing in the upcoming cycle). Check it out here.
• The upcoming programming template is posted here! We’ll be starting the new cycle on December 1, after the holiday weekend. This means that we’ll have a week of floater WODs between Back Off Week and the start of the next cycle. 

Why We Program a Back Off Week at CFSBK

By David Osorio
Originally published on 12.2.2013

For most of us, it can be quite difficult to hit the WODs hard, week-in week-out, ad infinitum. Your ability to successfully train at high intensity over a period of time is determined by genetics, recovery, nutrition, injuries, and training age. To create an inherent balance, CrossFit South Brooklyn follows a 3/1/2/1 weekly microcycle, which looks like this: 

CFSBK Microcycle
Saturday: On
Sunday: On
Monday: On

Tuesday: Off 

Wednesday: On
Thursday: On

Friday: Off

By allowing at least two non-sequential days off, we can train at high intensity over the course of a week. Consistently training CrossFit more than three days in a row can lead to a decrease in performance due to accumulated inflammation and a lack of recovery. Many of you guys have been following our 3/1/2/1 schedule with great success.

But What About Training Over Longer Periods of Time Than a Week?
The type of training we do as CrossFitters leads to degrees of adaptation much more closely related to competitive athletics than traditional exercise programs (check out our article on Inside the Affiliate about the difference between exercise and training). That being said, it’s important to note that most organized sports teams map out their yearly programming goals based around a competitive season. Conversely, CrossFit is a General Physical Prepardness program that aims to achieve a consistently high level of work capacity over a lifetime. There are many individuals who use CrossFit to train for their sport or occupation (MIL/LEO etc.) and an ever-growing number of people who are competing in CrossFit as their primary sport. These individuals will generally modify variables of their programs to better prepare themselves for competition or deployment.

But What About Boring Old Me?
The majority of us are training CrossFit without any regard to a specific competition or training goal other than health, longevity, and fitness. It’s therefore necessary for the average CrossFitter to take it upon themselves to consider their training over longer periods of time than a week. Especially for the folks coming in five times a week, we program every 8th week at less intensity and use it as a period to scale back and give your bodies a chance to clean house and manage any systemic inflammation.

The workouts we post on back-off weeks will generally be of lighter total volume with less emphasis on load or time, if at all. Additionally, we’ll use it as an opportunity to prep for the upcoming cycle by workshopping the movements in longer formats. It is simultaneously the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the new one. 

CFSBK Mesocycle
Week 1: Training 
Week 2: Training 
Week 3: Training 
Week 4: Training 
Week 5: Training 
Week 6: Training 

Week 7: Testing (“Crush Week”)

Week 8: Back Off/Prep Week

Auto-Regulating
If you train with us less frequently—perhaps once or twice a week—and are not considerably active outside of CrossFit, you can still benefit from some cyclical recovery. How much recovery and fluctuation in intensity you need is highly specific and you should always be listening to your body and adapting accordingly. Folks who are living hard and fast outside the gym should be especially sensitive to how they’re feeling.

Enjoy Back Off Week! You’ve earned it.

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Quick and Easy Voting for Normal People CGP Grey
Exercising but Gaining Weight New York Times
Feel Better for 10 Bucks T Nation

Training Cycle Template

Training Cycle Dates: M 12/1 – Su 1/11
Crush Week: M 1/12 – Su 1/18
Back Off/Transition Week: M 1/19 – Su 1/25 

Cycle Goals

• Prepare for the 2015 CrossFit Open
• Lactate threshold work
• Cycling Olympic lifts
• Cycling Kipping Pull Ups and Toes to Bar
• Time Capped Ladders
• SWU: One kipping pull-up/ one Kipping T2B for more practice

Monday: Bench Press + Deadlift + WOD/NFT

Fitness 3×5 Linear Progression Bench, Heavy 5 Deadlift

Performance Work up to a Heavy Single (80-90%) then Max Reps at 60% (capped at 20). Try and beat your previous week’s rep max. Heavy 5 Deadlift.

Wednesday: Front Squat + WOD/NFT

Fitness 3×3 Linear Progression

Performance Work up to a Heavy Single (80-90%) then Max Reps at 60% (capped at 20). Try and beat your previous week’s rep max. 

Thursday: Power Clean + WOD/NFT

Fitness 5×3 Linear Progression (Start light. Bail each rep and reset within a few seconds)

Performance Touch and Go 5-5-5-3-3-3 (Start light and work on resetting hook grip on the descent) 

Saturday: Squat + WOD/NFT

Fitness 3×5 Linear Progression

Performance Work up to a Heavy Single (80-90%) then Max Reps at 60% (capped at 20). Try and beat your previous week’s rep max.

Sunday: Power Snatch + WOD/NFT

Fitness 5×3 Linear Progression (Start light. Bail each rep and reset within a few seconds)

Performance Touch and Go 5-5-5-3-3-3 (Start light and work on resetting hook grip on the descent)

Competitions/Events:

CrossFit Hoboken Winter Challenge 7.0: December 6 

For Time:
400m Run
15-9-6
Thrusters 75/55
Pull Ups
400m Run
15-9-6
Thrusters 75/55
Pull Ups
400m Run

Post time and Rx to comments.

Val wants to wish you a happy last day of Crush Week!

• Check out Active Recovery with Coach Fox at 11am.

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Stunning GoPro Footage From the Front Lines of Wildfire with the Geronimo Hot Shots The Atlantic

In teams of three with one partner working at a time, complete AMRAP in 30 Minutes of:
Max Unbroken Reps Bench Press
250 Meter Row

Choose a load that allows around 10+ reps when fresh. Score total pounds moved by the team on the bench press. Use a spotter for each and every set. 

Post total pounds to comments.

Competing in a team CrossFit competition is a great way to test yourself and have fun with your fellow SBKers in the process

Bend, Stretch, Mobilize, and Swing on the Rings

• Yoga for Athletes with Coach Whitney at 10am.
• Active Recovery is back on at 11am and noon today with Coach David.
• If you signed up for Ken H.’s rings class, remember that you’re meeting today from 2-3:30pm!

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Busting a Barrier, Preserving the Seams: Clothing Start-Ups Design Jeans for Muscular Athletes New York Times

Chris H. lets Coach McDowell know he’s his number one fan

News and Notes

• CFSBK Endurance Coach Mike O. wants you to know about the Unbreakable Runner 5K Challenge with CrossFit Endurance whiz Brian MacKenzie. It’s a challenge to improve your 5K time over the course of nine weeks. You need to submit a GPS-ed 5K time by the 16th, so learn more here and get on it! If you have any questions, email michael.olzinski [at] gmail.com.
• There’s a lot of new Lost stuff that’s been Found. Claim it by 11/27, or we’re giving it to someone who needs it more than you.
• NBC’s series “American Ninja Warrior” is casting Season 7. Do you think you have what it takes? Click here to apply, and here to see some of the competitors from last season. 

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The Solar System and the Earth Big History Project 

Clean and Jerk: 1-1-1-1-1
Work up to a 1RM Clean and Jerk for the day. 

Post loads to comments.
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Dumbbell Bear
Perform the following complex every minute, on the minute, for 20 minutes:
5 Dumbbell Deadlifts
5 Dumbbell Hang Power Cleans
5 Dumbbell Thrusters 

Loading is 45% bodyweight for advanced athletes. This version of “The Bear” was made popular by coach Mike Rutherford. If you are able to complete all the rounds, first start scaling up until you can do the weight as Rx’d, then begin to add one rep to the circuit. Seven reps of the complex for 20 rounds as Rx’d is the gold standard. 

Post load and rounds completed as Rx’d (within the minute) to comments. If you fell behind the clock, indicate how far you got and how many rounds you were able to complete in the remaining time.

Compare to 12.9.09.

Photog Asta F. during the most recent Subway Series “Team Jackie” event

Catching Up With CFSBK Classifieds

• Coach McDowell and Ellie are looking for a part-time nanny who can work Mondays and Wednesdays from 8am-6pm starting December 1st. Someone who has experience with infants and is ok working around a cat. If you know someone, let Ellie know!
• David and Rachel are selling their Concept 2 Rowing Machine. If you can’t get enough of the erg, hit them up! 

Travel Gym Recommendations

Have you traveled to another affiliate recently? Coach Noah wrote a great guide a few months ago about how to be a good visitor at other CrossFit gyms, titled “On the Road, and Sweaty: Visiting Other CrossFit Affiliates.” We love it when you post your experiences to the Travel Gym Recommendations tab in the bottom left bar. Check out these two recent ones and add your own! 

• Jason F. visited CrossFit 416 in downtown Toronto.
• Sarena K. visited CrossFit Herzliya north of Tel Aviv. 

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Modernity Big History Project 

Fitness
AMRAP 15 Minutes:
100 Sit Ups
80 Calorie Row
60 Burpees
40 Russian Kettlebell Swings
20 Pull Ups 

Performance
AMRAP 15 Minutes:
60 Calorie Row
50 Toes to Bar
40 Burpees
30 Russian Kettlebell Swings 72/53
20 Muscle Ups 

Post rounds and Rx to comments.

David skinning some cats during gymnastics class with Ken 

• Happy birthday, Adele M.!

CFSBK Art Show: Featuring Travis Poston  

Do you have CFSBK’s first Art Show on your calendar? The show is NEXT Saturday, November 22, from 7:30-10:30pm, with a live mural painting from 8-10pm. Free alcohol and lots of art from some of your favorite CFSBKers! For a full list, click here.

One of our three featured artists is Travis Poston, a painter who makes East Williamsburg, Brooklyn his base of operations. The 38-year-old New Jersey/Tennessee native uses acrylic paint, oil-based paint pens, and ink to create richly textured collages on slabs of plywood and canvas. His busy, colorful designs explode off the the canvases and recall the old-school street art and graffiti of hip hop’s early years.

Poston describes his work as “psychedelic—detailed chaos, really,” he says. “Shape merges with illusion to create a tasteful disarray of color, these pictures throw you into the vibrant world of the unknown.” Poston says he is more interested in the life of the mind, memory and magical symbolism rather than realistic representation in his pieces. We will have a few of his pieces in the show, but you can preview his work here!

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Human Evolution Big History Project 

Rajj with a good overhead position in the American swing

• Happy birthday, Mike W.!

Fitness App Recommendations 

By David Osorio

Below are three fitness related apps that I recommend. Check out the description and see if any of these make sense for you. If there are other fitness apps you like, please let us know about them in the comments.

myWOD
This has been the best workout tracker I’ve come across yet. Often trackers have very specific formatting that doesn’t allow you the flexibility to put in the different kinds of segments typically seen in a class. myWOD is easy to use, easy to search, and you can fill in all your lifts to see long-term progress without having to go through your book looking for previous exposures. I also like that you can customize all the lifts and make up your own benchmarks. There are also built-in timers, how-to videos for common movements, and other things you can tweak. It’s two bucks, but since I started using it I don’t think I’ll ever go back to paper and pen.  

Starting Strength Warmup
This is a great app for people who are not sure how to warm up their lifts on their own. Simply put in your work weight and the app automatically calculates your warm-up weights and reps for you. It also differentiates between Squats, Bench Press, Deadlifts, Pressing, and Power Cleans, which often require different jumps even given the same work weight. If you’re often confused about how to warm up your lifts or want the machines to do the thinking for you I recommend it. The only downfall is that the lowest weight it can process is 45lbs, so if your warm-ups or work weights are at or below that, then it won’t really be useful. 

Coach’s Eye
We often use this app with our clients and use the slow motion and frame-by-frame features to show people how they’re moving. You can even draw little lines and markers on yourself to see your relative joint positions and bar path. This is a good app if you know what you’re doing already or want to have a coach look at your form from a video. Otherwise, you’re probably just as well with the new slo-mo camera standard on iPhones.

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The Origin of Life Big History Project

Rack Thruster: 1-1-1-1-1
Must be one motion from the bottom of the squat to overhead. No jerks.

Post loads to comments.
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Open Workout 12.4 and 13.3

AMRAP 12 minutes:
150 Wall Ball 20/10, 14/9
90 Double Unders
30 Muscle-ups 

Post rounds and Rx to comments.
Compare to 5.29.2014 and 3.23.2013  

It’s Captain Osorio’s Dirty 30! Happy birthday, David!

News and Notes

• Yesterday was also Inside the Affiliate’s 1st birthday! Head over there to see the latest post about collective learning and why David started ITA in the first place, and how to participate well in the CrossFit community.
• Congrats to Coach Whit who got her first muscle-up on Saturday—a year-and-a-half of hard work in the making, and she nailed it!

Zen and the Art of Crush Week

By David Osorio
Originally posted on 11.16.2011

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 in to the “now.”

In 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 you’re 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, which starts TODAY!

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Underneath the Hoodie: David Osorio by Margie Lempert
Starting CrossFit South Brooklyn CrossFit Journal, a preview

We did it a couple years ago, but let’s do it again: describe David in three words or less.