Fitness: 3 x 5 LP 
Add 2.5 to 5 lbs to last week. 

Performance: 72.5% x 8 x 4
Rest two minutes between sets. 

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4 Rounds
10 Kettlebell Swings 72/53
10 Squats with Kettlebell with Kettlebell in rack position Right
25-yard One-arm Farmer Walk with Kettlebell in rack position Right
10 Kettlebell Swings 72/53
10 Squats with Kettlebell with Kettlebellin rack position Left
25-yard One-arm Farmer Walk with Kettlebellin rack position Left

Work with a partner and alternate rounds with minimal rest. If you can’t organize the front rack squat, perform a goblet squat instead. Kettlebell swing Rx is American, as always, unless stated otherwise.

Flynn Dog Millionaire (as David affectionately calls Ryan F.) goes overhead with a picture-perfect split jerk 

Brooklyn Zen Center Event

Are you curious about meditation and Zen, or just interested in doing something different on a Saturday night? Then join CFSBKer Keith F. for the first ever Brooklyn Zen Center May Awakening on Saturday, May 17, from 5:30-7:30pm. There will be music, Zen-inspired cuisine by The Pines, tasty pies by Four & Twenty Blackbirds, and a silent auction of artwork created by our Awake Youth Project teens, which is our teen meditation program that has served 800 youths from under resourced communities since 2010. RSVP by April 27 HERE.

Inside the Affiliate

There’s a new post over on ITA about how we’ve thought inside the box with the events we’ve hosted in our gym. Let us know what you think!

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Why Are Some People Early Birds and Others Night Owls? Slate
Best Space Pictures: Blood Moon, Auroras, and Rover Tracks National Geographic
Bubble Football/Soccer Algund YouTube
A Better Way to Say Sorry cuppacocoa

Fitness: Deadlift 3 x 3 LP
Should be able to add about 10 pounds to last week’s number. 

Performance: Power Snatch 80% x 2 x 5
Based off this week’s heaviest single.

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For Time
400m Run
40 Alternating DB Snatch
40 Burpee Box Jumps 24/20″
800m Run 

Jenna J. getting swole with her wall balls

Happy Sunday, CFSBK! Enjoy the sunshine!
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Quick Test: Is It Your Shoulders? mobility|WOD
Episode 153: Olympic Lifiting Mobility Part 1 mobility|WOD
3 Yoga Poses to Increase Overhead Shoulder Mobility Breaking Muscle 
The Overhead Squat Is a Punk: Advice from Experts on How to Make It Better Breaking Muscle 

Fitness: Clean Segment Deadlift + Clean + Jerk
If you have a hard time organizing the pull off the floor then perform the clean from the mid-hang, after the clean segment deadlift. 

Performance: Clean and Jerk 90% x 1 x 2
Work up to a heavy clean and jerk in 3 attempts, then perform 2 singles at 90% of today’s best lift

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Front Squat

Fitness: 3×5 LP
Start light enough to leave room to go up by 5-10 lbs for the next 5 weeks.

Performance: 70%x8x4

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• Jayson S.’s day of birth! Happy birthday, Jayson!
• CFSBK’s Clothing and Book Swap from 2-4pm! Bring at least five items (make sure clothing is clean and preferably on hangers) and arrive at the 2pm start. Any leftovers will be donated to the CHiPS shelter and Dress for Success. 
• Flex in the City at 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. If you want to be a super fan, track our athletes’ scores HERE. GOOD LUCK to everyone who is competing! 

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Olympic Coaching Tips: Clean and Jerk in Slow Motion Team USA

The Side of Rich and Hillary Froning Most People Don’t Get to See Michael Haning
Things You Can Get Rid of & Things You Can’t Catalyst Athletics
This Is Big: Scientists Just Found Earth’s First Cousin The Atlantic

Notes from Robyn O.

“I am currently doing this Rickshaw Run! Two girlfriends and I are driving 3500 km across India over a span of two weeks to raise money for charity. Our charity is Made by Survivors, a non-profit organization that educates and employs survivors of slavery and other human rights abuses. We have already raised over $6000! 

Basically, we showed up in India almost three weeks ago, had 1-1/2 days to learn how to drive this thing and we were off! Sputtering across India at a blazing 40 km-per-hour! The traffic is terrifying, but we have found our groove and are making progress while enjoying India and all of the lovely super, friendly people! All while averaging about three breakdowns a day. We have two more driving days left to make it to the finish line party. Wish us luck that we make it in time!” 

GOOD LUCK, ROBYN!  

CFSBK Closed Next Weekend

We are hosting Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Seminar again and the gym will be closed next Friday night through Sunday night (4/25-4/27). But dry those teary eyes, friends! As an alternative, we’ll be offering some super fun off-location workouts for all our members adventerous enough to take their fitness outside the box. Stay tuned for more details!

Have you ever had a reoccurring dream?

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Understanding Sleep for Optimal Recovery & Productivity Catalyst Athletics
In Defense of CrossFit T NATION
The Mental Life of Plants and Worms, Among Others The New York Review of Books
A Five Step Plan to Feed the World National Geographic

Rope Climb 101 
Come play on the ropes. Perform no more than 10 ascents, fewer if you’ve never been up the rope. WEAR LONG SOCKS TODAY!!!
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AMRAP 15 minutes

Performance:
5 Handstand Push Ups (one AbMAt is okay)
10 Pull Ups
15 Pistols (alternating legs)

Fitness:
10 Box Jumps
10 DB Push-Up to Renegade Row
10 V-Ups

Post notes and Rx to comments.
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Last Sunday, CFSBK and our new CSA partner Village Fishmonger sponsored a fish cooking class. VFM’s very own fish cutter Carolyn Koch, along with the gym’s CSA manager Michele K., led six participants through a variety of techniques and recipes, including scallop ceviche verde, broiled monkfish with Dijon mustard and thyme, bacon-wrapped monkfish, and Jacques Pepin’s monkfish à l’Américaine. Afterward, everyone enjoyed a lovely spring supper with wine and a whole lotta fish!

Here’s what CFSBK’s Katie M. had to say about the class:

“I’ve used the same two basic recipes for all fish for all my adult life (poach or bake!) and this class was a great afternoon expanding my toolkit of easy options. I left not only able to make more delicious recipes, but also left realizing that solely eating seafood from Trader Joe’s was perhaps not the ideal situation, either ethically or taste-wise. I’ll be joining the fish CSA for the chance to get those scallops (to make that amazing ceviche) alone! It was great to get to know other CFSBK-ers, learn from Michele and Carolyn from the seafood CSA, and eat some amazing food. If another cooking class option ever comes along, I highly recommend it.”

Many thanks to David for agreeing to sponsor the materials for the class, and to Carolyn for dedicating her Sunday afternoon to SBK. Asta took some great photos and you can see more on Michele’s blog. If you are interested in an opportunity to learn more about cooking fish, please email mignyc [at] gmail.com.
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• Happy birthday, Prem M. and Yoshi S.!
• Belated but wholehearted CONGRATULATIONS to Aileen H. who ran her way to the top of CFSBK’s lady leaderboard with her 5K time last Saturday of 24:01. Aileen has been part of Michael O.’s Endurance Program, where they’re all crushing their goals! 
• Remember that CFSBK’s Clothing and Book Swap is THIS SATURDAY from 2-4pm! Bring at least five items (make sure clothing is clean and preferably on hangers) and arrive at the 2pm start. Any leftovers will be donated to the CHiPS shelter and Dress for Success. Let us know what you are bringing! 

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Mind Over Milkshake: How Your Thoughts Fool Your Stomach NPR
Klokov D + Annie Thorisdottir + Aegidius: Isabel Complex YouTube
Maybe They’re Not THAT Bad: Personalities in the Gym Catalyst Athletics
Photo of the Day: Best of March National Geographic

Fitness: Snatch Segment Deadlift + Snatch + OHS
If you have a hard time organizing the pull off the floor, perform snatch from the mid-hang.

Performance: Snatch 1-1-1, then 90% x 1 x 2
Work up to a heavy snatch in 3 attempts, then perform 2 singles at 90% of today’s best snatch.

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Back Squat

Fitness 3×5 LP

Performance 70%x8x4

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Babysitting services during Strength Cycle

Things We Want to Know

1. Are you running the Brooklyn Half Marathon? Head over HERE to tell us if you’re running on May 17. Plans are in the works for a post-race celebration, so we’ll make sure to update you here and on the event page re: final festivities. Let us know about your races, CFSBK! We want to be your biggest fans!
2. We’re hosting another movie night soon. What do you want to watch? Come at us with suggestions in the comments! 
3. Say hi and welcome back to Captain Osorio, who returns to us today. Yahoo! 

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Olympic Coaching Tips: The Snatch in Slow Motion Team USA
Increase in Arch Height from Running in Minimalist Shoes Dr. Nick’s Running Blog
Artist Rachel Sussman Photographs the Oldest Living Things in the World before They Vanish COLOSSAL
The Confidence Gap The Atlantic

On Being an Athlete Who Doesn’t Eat Meat

By Kate Reece

Coach Whitney H. first walked through the doors of The Brooklyn Lyceum to join CFSBK in late 2009 and though she now tackles WODs like a boss, she certainly wasn’t born doing kipping pull-ups. Around that time, yoga and dance were her main focus along with managing a lululemon store. She got certified to teach yoga in 2010, started teaching full-time in 2013, and introduced Yoga for Athletes here last August. A few months and hundreds of hours sweating under barbells later, she took her Level 1 Certification and soon began coaching CrossFit. Oh, and all that time, she was still dancing.

Expending as much athletic energy as she does requires adequate nutrition, so we sat down (at the virtual dinner table known as email) and chatted about her journey with giving the ax to meat (har har!) and kicking ass at getting protein—so she can then kick ass at CrossFit and all her other endeavors.

CFSBK: I remember one of the first times I benched with you, I was stunned by the height of the arch in your back, and you told me it was because of dancing (and some injuries). Tell us about dancing, and when you feel like you started considering yourself an athlete. 

Whitney: I started ballet when I was three years old, then jazz when I was maybe five or six. I did gymnastics as well for a while, but around middle school the time commitments got a bit intense, so my mom told me to choose—and dance was the winner. I added in tap when I was 12 or so, and that was also when I started competing. I think I averaged 18 hours of class or rehearsal a week from that age on through high school. While I didn’t necessarily consider myself an athlete in those years (because I wasn’t playing high school volleyball or field hockey or whatever), I certainly spent a lot of my waking hours in the practice of form, rhythm, and movement as well as creating power, speed, and flow within those movements, which I consider athletic. I competed both as an individual and in a troupe, and after I got over the pee-my-leotard feeling of the very first “Nationals,” it was great! 

CFSBK: When did you first start practicing yoga?

Whitney: I started yoga in my junior year of college. I was in a BFA program in Dance at Illinois, and Yoga for Dancers was the 8am class that no one wanted to get out of bed an hour earlier for (before ballet at 9am). I figured if I didn’t try it once in the four years I was there, I’d kick myself. Once I committed, I was hooked. Even though I was waking up earlier and maybe getting less sleep, I had more energy throughout my days. My body felt better. I felt more balanced. I continued every semester thereafter, and when I moved to New York and started working for lululemon, a big part of my job was to get to as many yoga studios and teachers as possible. It was incredible. 

CFSBK: So where does becoming a vegetarian fit into all that athleticism? 

Whitney: I stopped eating meat halfway through my senior year of college. Basically, someone handed me a flyer on the quad about factory farming with all these pictures of little baby chicks being thrown in a dumpster and sad cows and all that kind of stuff, as well as some info about the environmental impact. I literally had never considered these things before, and so it shined a light on my narrow-mindedness. I read more about the topic and became interested. I had always been the person who said, “Why on earth would you ever want to do that? Meat is so delicious. That’s insane.” So becoming a vegetarian ended up being mostly about perspective. Whereas before I couldn’t fathom giving something up that I was so accustomed to, I sort of took it upon myself as a way to expand my point of view and just give it a go. 

At that point in college, I had started cooking for myself for the first time and didn’t really like handling meat anyway, so figured cutting it out wouldn’t be too hard. I ended up eating a lot more vegetables in the process, and I started feeling really good! The new habit stuck. It’s also important to note that I’m actually a pescetarian or, as I like to say, a veggaquarian. So, I still incorporate fish and seafood into my diet. 

CFSBK: Ah, yes. Strict vegetarians can get quite feisty about that distinction. Talk to me about starting CrossFit (really starting CrossFit), and when you began noticing that what you ate affected how you performed.  

Whitney: I started CrossFit in November 2009 with David over at the Brooklyn Lyceum. For the first year (or even two?), my attendance was quite off and on. I was a bit scared and nervous most of the time and so found a lot of reasons to get out of going. I was practicing yoga, taking spin classes at Soul Cycle (yup), and working a lot. But, the interest was always there and as I got more confident, I started getting hooked. I think CrossFit is the kind of activity that the more results you see, the more results you want—so the more time and effort you put in. It’s like an awesomely vicious circle of fitness and fun.  

To me, quantity is an important variable in the equation. If I don’t eat enough—before class or something like Tough Titsday, or just in general—I get very light-headed, dizzy, and irritable. What we pleasantly call “Hangry.” But on the other hand, if I overdo it with heavy, starchy carbs or just too much at one meal, I get lethargic and unmotivated very quickly. Both of those can become a pattern over several days or weeks. Personally, I’ve found that eating several small meals throughout the day works for my lifestyle and my energy levels. This is obviously an individual preference, and everyone should experiment with what works for them. Coach Fox likes to make fun of me because he manages to always see me when I’m eating at the gym! 

And, of course, quality is crucial. In the LFPB Challenge at the beginning of 2013, I tried to go strict Paleo. I cut out all grains and legumes, restricted dairy, everything. Well… after three weeks of that, I felt bloated, unmotivated, and generally crappy. To make up for all my missing calories—I was SO HUNGRY—I basically stuffed myself with nuts and fruit a couple times a day. No bueno. So, for the last three weeks, after a brief and enlightening conversation with Fox, I added in quinoa, beans and lentils, and some dairy. I immediately had more energy and felt ready to move again.  

CFSBK: We just read that even Iceland Annie eats non-Paleo dairy for protein! And your answer points to the most common thing people tell you to watch out for as a vegetarian—getting enough protein. Has that been a problem for you at different points? How do you make sure to get enough and what are your favorite sources? 

Whitney: I definitely spend quite a bit of mental energy on the topic of How Whitney Will Get Enough Protein Today. Honestly, it can be challenging. Getting clear on the Zone classifications of macronutrients (carb, protein, fat) has been quite helpful, in terms of considering type and quantity. What’s key for me is making sure that my kitchen is well-stocked in a variety of protein sources. Otherwise things go south quickly. Obviously, I have the “advantage” of still eating fish. Being a true vegetarian reduces the sources. 

The other consideration is variety and planning in advance so I don’t get bored with the same stuff all the time. My go-to’s include:

Eggs: I make little mini crustless quiches in a muffin tin that keep for a week (with spinach, scallions, and cheese), hard-boiled eggs, scrambled, etc.

Fish: I buy wild Alaskan canned salmon and smoked salmon (portable, lasts for a bit, and pairs with many things), a lot of Arctic Char (it’s relatively inexpensive, good on environment/contaminants, and delicious), frozen shrimp, and sometimes frozen fish fillets (Whole Foods has good wild Pollack ones, although they still have a bit of breading on them), as well as anchovies/sardines for salads. I also make it a point to eat good fish when I go out to eat—though of course this can get expensive. Also: Fish CSA! 

Dairy: I almost always have Greek yogurt and cottage cheese at home. Add some fruit (berries with the yogurt, citrus with the cottage cheese) and nuts/seeds and you’ve got a complete snack or meal.

Protein powder: I’ve started using this a lot more in the past year. I do my best to get protein at each meal without it, but it certainly helps. Breakfast is often a bowl of plain oatmeal with chocolate protein powder, a spoonful of almond or peanut butter, and a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut. 

Lentils/Beans: I often make a big pot of vegetable soup/stew or chili so I have something hearty to go to throughout the week. Favorites are red lentil coconut curry stew with greens, rosemary white bean and mushroom soup, and black bean butternut squash chili. 

CFSBK: Beyond what you just shared, what does a typical day look like for you, eating-wise? 

Whitney: Here’s one possible combo:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup (dry) plain oatmeal, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1 tablespoon peanut or almond butter, and a sprinkling of shredded coconut. Black coffee.

Snack: Cottage cheese, grapefruit, and a few pecans. Or carrots and celery with hummus and maybe an ounce of cheese or a hard-boiled egg.

Lunch: Three mini egg cups (crustless quiches) and a whole mess of vegetables (favorites are roasted brussels sprouts, sauteed broccoli, sauteed kale, baked sweet potato, spinach salad, etc.), with maybe 1/4-1/2 an avocado. Or a mixed greens salad with canned wild salmon (I mix in a little bit of hummus and lemon), some veggies and avocado, chopped in, and a bit of fruit.

Dinner: Fish (probably baked Arctic char with a bit of butter and lemon) and lots of veggies. Or breakfast-for-dinner if I had fish at lunch!  

CFSBK: Sounds delicious! Where can we find some of your favorite recipes? 

Whitney: Well, it needs some serious updating, but I have some recipes on my blog, here. Anything with a picture of food is a recipe! 

CFSBK: Lastly, we’re hearing great reviews about your coaching at CFSBK! How’s is going? What’s been your favorite moment so far? 

Whitney: Coaching has been incredible so far—rewarding and fun. I know I have plenty to learn and that wisdom comes with experience, but I feel I’ve started out on the right track under the tutelage of Coach David and Coach Fox. Leading barbell drills for the first time was an invigorating highlight: a mixture of not wanting to hit myself in the face with a bar while demonstrating, saying all of the correct cues at the correct time, and observing the athletes to see what’s happening. Also, it was really enjoyable to watch people power through and kick ass on the Open WODs on Saturdays once I had already given them my best in the morning! Our community rocks.

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What’s been your experience with vegetarianism or some variant of going meatless?