Hope all is well back at CFSBK. I’m currently traveling through Central America and have made my way to the Mayan ruins in Copan, so I took some time to practice my inversion work you guys have taught me! -Mirko B

• Happy skating to everyone signed up for our Prospect Park Ice Skating trip this evening starting at 7:00pm!
• Interested in competing in Powerlifting? There is a USAPL meet in Paramus NJ on March 8th. If you’d like to sign up, email David(at)CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com and we’ll start making travel arrangements. Rob I is already registered.
• Last Tuesday morning a money clip was left in the coat room. Thus far no one has claimed it and we’d like to return it to it’s rightful owner. If it’s yours please see the Front desk next time you come in. We’ll ask that you accurately describe the clip and how much cash is in there for proof.

Leave your snowy shoes by the door

In an effort to keep the gym floor reasonably clean, please leave your snowy shoes at the front of the gym on the runner and change into your workout shoes once inside.  People have been tracking lots of water, salt and sludge into the gym the last few days which makes it less awesome when doing burpees or stretching on the mat.  Thank you!!!

Mario Kart 64 Tournament

On Sunday, February 9th at 7:30pm we’ll be hosting a Mario Kart 64 Tournament on the big screen!  This will be on the tail end of Open Gym so you can get a WOD in or do some A/R beforehand (or during!). If we get enough people we’ll do a double elimination style bracket tournament.  The racing will start at 7:30pm but we’ll have the game on and ready beforehand if you’d like to get a few practice runs in first. There will also be beer in the fridge you can help yourself to which can only improve your driving skills. 
This is a free event open to anyone interested in reliving the late 90’s.  Please RSVP in the event page!

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What to do when it’s really cold outside
Soylent Passed $2 Million in Orders, Will Ship Next Month

Performance:

30 Muscle-Ups for time.

15min time cap.

Fitness:

5 Rounds For Time:
15 Kettlebell Swings
15 Burpees
15 Toes To Bar or AbMat Sit Ups

Choose the workout that will give you a better stimulus. If you’ve sorta got one muscle-up, we’d recommend the Fitness version and some DIY Muscle-Up Practice afterwards.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Congratulations to CFSBK TFBA Bob S who took first place in his division at the masters competition this past weekend!

• Found Money Clip in coat room from Tuesday with money in it.  Email the front desk with a description of it if you think it belongs to you. cfsbkfrontdesk@gmail.com

Photos with Bekka P

In need of a family photo or headshot?  Or want a bad-ass photo for your athlete profile for the upcoming Open? Resident photographer Bekka P. will be offering specially discounted one-on-one photography sessions for members here at CFSBK on Saturday, February 1 from 2:30 pm-6:30 pm.  

• $30 for a 15 minute session (3 guaranteed delivered photos)

o   1-3 movements 

o   Great for individuals & CrossFit Open profile photos

•       $60 for a 30 minute session  (3-5 guaranteed delivered photos)

o   2-6 movements

o   For family photos or group shots (note all families must do the 30 minute session)

You’ll receive a link to download both high resolution and medium resolution versions of your images, no prints are included in these sessions. All of the photos will be lightly edited and will be shot on a solid backdrop (so you won’t be seeing CFSBK in the background). Photos will be delivered by Monday, February 10.

More about Bekka’s work here 

Sign-up here by Wednesday, January 29.  

Email mare@crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com with any questions.
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30 Muscle-ups, Isabel AND Grace done in 10:13 by Rob Orlando
Is the will to workout genetically determined?

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
75/45 pound Snatch, 30 reps
135/75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
165/100 pound Snatch, 30 reps
210/120 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

Post total reps completed and Rx to comments.

Rich Froning and Dan Bailey take on today’s workout

• At the Paleo Potluck this weekend Rich A won best overall dish with his Bo Ssam Triumph. Check out the link to see how he made it. You can also check out Michele K’s blog, The Daily Paleo for more amazing paleo dishes! Finally, there are always dishes being talked about in the CFSBK LFPB Forums

Schedule Addition!

Effective this week, we’ll be adding a 1pm Sunday Group class to our normal training schedule! Hurray!

Gymnastics with Ken Registration Live

Join guest Gymnastics Coach Ken H. as he takes you through 6 weeks of gymnastics strength training. This 1.5 hour long class will incorporate different facets of body weight strength training and movement. Specifically, each class will be composed of 3 to 4 distinct areas, warm-up and active mobility, rings skill work (muscle ups, levers etc), body weight strength conditioning, balance (on hands and feet) and flexibility. Students will be asked to have a goal or intention to focus on for the next 6 weeks. Students can then focus on that goal outside of class.

Sundays from 2:00pm – 3:30pm
1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/2

Price:
$120 for 6 Weeks

Cap:
8 Participants

REGISTER HERE!

Ken Haller’s Bio
Ken was a nationally competitive gymnast in Newton, MA and at the University of Michigan. After graduating, Ken coached for eight years at Capital Gymnastics in Northern Virginia where he coached regional and national champions. His students have gone on to be NCAA champions and members of Cirque du Soliel. In searching for an activity to replace gymnastics, Ken filled the void with rock climbing and yoga for the past ten years and recently found CrossFit to round out his training.

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Lydia Valentin Snatches 124 kgs and Clean and Jerks 140 kgs
Goodnight, Sleep Clean
Utah Ending Homlesness by Giving People Homes

A Day in the Life of Samantha Briggs

• We’ve got about 20 people RSVP’d for this Friday’s Ice skating event at Prospect Park. Get stoked!
• There are 58 people signed up for the 2014 CrossFit Open. That puts Team CFSBK at the 5th largest team in the world! Not sure if you should sign up? Read this article.
• Want to try something new? Check out our Mat Pilates class with Kristen H happening tonight at 7:30pm!

Training vs. Testing

by Coach Noah

All last week attempted One Rep Maxes (1RMs) here at CFSBK.  People moved some impressive weight, beat old PRs, and gained insight about their training and their performance.  Going forward into Crush Week, now that many of us have some experience exploring the outer margins of our strength, let us discuss what testing is, as opposed to training, and where both of these concepts fit our development as Crossfitters.

Training

When we train a skill or movement, we perform with a direct and focused outcome.  At CFSBK we mainly use a “linear progression” model for our strength training, which allows us to slowly and steadily increase our strength and avoid plateaus.  We mix this with conditioning and muscular endurance training that is designed to complement our strength training while drawing from a deeper pool of movements and time domains.  Our training is never random- our coaches spend a good deal of time and energy to make sure that each movement we do in the gym makes us stronger, more mobile, and works to address weaknesses and imbalances.  At CFSBK we train submaximally 90% or more of the time- basically if it is a workout without a “Girl” or “Hero” name or a One Rep Max test, consider it training, and handle yourself accordingly, as described below.

Good training is generally submaximal, which means we use loads or rep schemes that are lower than our absolute ability.  Training submaximally is great for a number of reasons.  It allows us to train with proper technique, avoid injury, and recover better.  Training submaximally also lets us “own our exercise” and perform our reps with good speed, authority, and confidence.  

Your own training should draw on these concepts.  Your training should be submaximal, with an eye on the larger outcome your training session will have on your general fitness.  During training, failure should be nearly non-existent (I will discuss this further at the end of the article) and we should reflect about what today’s work means to our greater plans both before and after our training session.  We should leave each training session feeling that we accomplished our goals and are moving forward with our bigger plan.

Testing

Testing is the rare and exotic unicorn in direct opposition to the common utilitarian draft horse of training.   Compared to training, testing is rare.  At CFSBK we have programmed crush weeks, during which we will program more “named” workouts, or generally tougher workouts that are related to the training cycle we have just completed, with an eye on testing how effective our training has been.  Unlike training, where we have a full understanding and direction for our daily toil, a day of testing can be a bit of a wild card.  Coach Jeremy has referred to it as a “performance,” and just like on the stage, sometimes during a test we bring the house down, and some days we fall flat.  Part of the value of training lies in this mystery and our reaction to it.

Why train so frequently and test so rarely?  Testing taxes your body and has little progressive effect on your system.  Moving extremely heavy load or at breakneck speed can lead to diminished accuracy in technique, technical misses, and is extremely taxing on our CNS.  Incessant testing leads to poor recovery and less adaptive stress on our system.  Adaptive stress fuels growth, so the more we test, the less we grow.

Why test at all then?  Tests are necessary for benchmarking our progress, identifying weaknesses, and gaining experience and confidence in performance under pressure.  The very reason the “girls” and “heroes” are referred to as “benchmark” workouts is that we should only perform them every so often as a yardstick for our strength and conditioning gains.  Don’t be the guy who does Fran every friday.  That said, every so often you should pick a workout and say “I’m gonna really get after this” and lay it all out there.  It’s best to make sure it’s a workout we do semi-regularly so you will have some comparative data, and it’s good to pick a workout that incorporates movements you have been working on during your training so that you can reward your hard work with progress.

Failing and Bailing

This conversation is a long time coming, and an attempt to clean up some lax training habits and psychology that have become a bit too hardwired at the gym.  The difference between training, where we very rarely fail, and testing, where we very well may fail, necessitates a discussion of when, why, and how failing/bailing should occur.

During training we should virtually never fail.  We should be working submaximally, with a plan, and in control of the weight.  Part of our plan is a plan to succeed.  If we do fail it should be a technical fail- lost balance in a squat, hitting ourselves in the chin during a press- a mistake.  Repeated failure during a training phase is a not-so-subtle message from our CNS that we are training too hard and need to back off or deload entirely.  During a 6-8 week training phase you should be able to count your missed reps on one hand, with fingers to spare.

During a test, we may very well fail as we brush up against the ceiling of our strength, conditioning, and skill.  This could be as simple as not being able to stand a squat back up after taking it down, or can be biting off more than we can chew in a WOD and realizing that we either won’t be able to complete it at all, or at least not before the next equinox.  These failures will inform our training going forward, as they set concrete benchmarks about what where we currently stand.  A missed lift or slow metcon shouldn’t be a cause for frustration, demonstrative shouting, or thrown weight belts, but as useful data that will inform our next training cycle.

Bailing is a luxury that weightlifters went without for many years.  Bumper plates are an invention of Olympic Weightlifting, where technical misses occur fairly often due to the high skill demand of the movements.  Powerlifters for years toiled away in “iron gyms,” without the ability to bail every time they got stuck in the hole.  This week we had everyone get spotted during 1RM attempts, and asked that they hang in there and finish their lifts, even if it had to be with the aid of the spotter.  Fighting through a rep is a learned skill, and often the feeling of “oh no, this will never go up” can one second later become “I’ve got it” with the application of a little tenacity.  The converse is true- people can become so comfortable bailing the bar that the second their squat feels less than stellar they toss if off their shoulders.  While there are some WODs and specific workouts where a (CONTROLLED) bail is ok (Grace for example) these bails usually happen at the TOP of a lift so the athlete doesn’t tire out or have to fight through a suboptimal position. Learn to fight out a rep, finish what you start, and don’t get comfortable with the idea of bailing the bar.

The Takeaway

The best athletes have a larger view of their training, and don’t simply walk into the gym each day without a plan, throw some weight on the bar, and see what they can do.  Careful planning, listening to your coaches and your own body for feedback, and picking your times to test a lift or skill will all lead to greater succ
ess, faster recovery, and less injuries.

It’s crush week.  Show us what you’ve got.

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Part dance and part performance art, the kinetic drawings are a way for Hansen to merge her love for visual art and dance into a unified artform.

5 Rounds for load and time of:
5 reps Bench Press, followed immediately by
250m Row

Rest as needed between sets. Perform a heavy 5 rep set on the bench press for load, then move quickly to the erg for a 250m sprint for time. Score the Bench Press total pounds and the 250m time. Failing short of 5 reps nets a score of zero for the bench portion.

Post loads and times to comments.
Samir C does push-ups in Canyonlands National Park in Utah

• There’s a new post on Inside the Affiliate profiling CrossFit Roots! Get the details about how another sucessful CrossFit gym manages and runs their affiliate! Check it out here.

Male Vocalists Wanted

The Brooklyn Community Chorus is looking for singers! BCC meets every Wednesday night at 7:30pm in Old First Reformed Church at the corner of Carroll Street and 7th Ave. Our new season starts this Wednesday, January 23. No auditions required to join, and everyone is welcome – although we especially need more men!
–Melon W

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NYC Subway images from the 60’s and 70’s
Paleo on a budget
Glengarry Glen Ross Speech

For Time:
400m Run
40 Toes to Bars
40 Box Jumps 24″/20″
40 Kettlebell Swings 32kg/20kg
40 Burpees
400m Row

There is a 20 minute cap on this workout.

Post time and Rx to comments.

Happy Birthday to Ben W! Here’s Ben after the last event at the Shorline Masters competition yesterday

• Thank you to everyone who came out for our first Paleo Potluck last night! Here is a short video of the event in full swing.
• Don’t forget to RSVP for our upcoming Ice Skating trip by tomorrow AND we’ve got a Paleo Bunch at Iydea on Sunday, details and RSVP for that here.
• We’ve currently got 50 particpants signed up for the 2014 CrossFit Open on Team CFSBK. That currently makes us the 5th LARGEST TEAM IN THE WORLD. Stop sandbagging and register
• Also, don’t forget that today is the first Sunday Active Recovery at 11am. Get supple!

Inka Hodes at CFSBK

Structural Bodywork
Inka has been studying Structural Integration (AKA Rolfing) with Tom Myers. As part of her program training she is offering a “three-series” at a discounted rate of $200 (normally $100/ hour).

Structural Integration is a new way of exploring your body and its structural relationships.  The intention of the three-series is to initiate change for the better in your posture, your movement, your energy, and your knowledge of how your body works.  More details about this here:

LFPB Massage Club
Inka is offering massage at a discounted rate for the duration of the LFPB challenge.  For only $40 per week you will receive a 25 minute massage 1x week geared towards improving mobility and freeing up fascia that is stuck.  Each week will focus on a different area of the body.  Mobility can mean the difference between a rep and no rep and massage can help you get there.  Take advantage!

Hours:  Friday night open gym 5:30-8, every other Saturday, every other Sunday, and Sunday open gym, 6-8.
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Ice Quakes, Your Brain on Pot & the Body Language of Victory
Annie Thorisdottirs world record event 2 performance at the 2012 Regionals

In 15 Minutes, work up to a heavy single of:

Fitness: Power Clean + FSQ + Split Jerk

Performance: Clean & Jerk
___________________

Front Squat

Fitness: Find a 3RM
Try to add 5-15lbs from your heaviest exposure yet.

Performance:
75%x5
80%x3
85%x2
90%x1
95%x1
100%x1
105% + if still moving

Work off your projectd 1RM. Try to avoid failing but use spotters just in case. Use this link to project your 1RM for today’s work sets.

Post loads to comments.
C&J/FSQ e6/6

CFSBK Swole Patrol in Nigeria
“These are the awesome guys that lead our little weekend CrossFit meet up in Nigeria – what we are unofficially dubbing CrossFit Naija. They’re US servicemen that are nice enough to share some of their PT training experience, technique and equipment with us. Awesome guys that are building a really open little community here!” – Melissa L

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSTAR!!!!!!

• Good luck to Jake L. who’s competing today to qualify for the US Nationals!
• Best of luck to Coach Fox, Bob S, Ben W, and Pierre D who will be competing in Shoreline CrossFit Masters Throwdown and BBQ today!
• When was the last time you went Ice Skating?! CFSBK is going this upcoming Friday at 7:00pm. To view the details, check out the event page. Please RSVP by Monday at the latest. Non-CFSBKers are more than welcome to attend!
• Today at 2:30pm, the CRASH BEASTS will be taking on the deaded 2K ROW, testing their laborious hours on the ERG. We’ll be projecting this on the big screen, all are welcome to come cheer them on!

Community Potluck Tonight!

Tonight starting at 7:00pm we’ll be hosting our first CFSBK community potluck in 2014! This event will simultaneously kick off the new year, support the Look Feel Perform Better Challenge, and bring folks from all times and corners of the gym together. All are welcome and encouraged to come. We can’t wait to see you there!

Potluck Notes:

• If your food needs to be kept warm or hot, you’ll need to provide your own crock pot or method for keeping it at serving temperature. We’ve got surge protectors and extension chords
• We’ll provide note cards for you to label your dish with.
• When you leave please take everything you brought with you. Do not leave any pots/pans/tupperware utensils etc. They will be discarded that night.
• Parents, we’ve got a minature bouncy castle inside your kids can play in.
• If you’d like to help out (and haven’t already been contacted) we’ll need some hands on deck putting everything away afterwards. If you stay until the end we’d appreciate it!
• Feel free to bring any alchohol you’d like too. If you’re not doing the LFPB Challenge and want to bring some non-paleo booze, that’s okay too.

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The sum of all natural numbers is -1/12
The Bizarre Border of Canada and the United States

Joey gets down with Front Squats

• The Paleo Potluck is tomorrow at 7pm! There will be food, drinks, fun and a Bouncy castle for the kids!
• If you register for the CrossFit Open, you can pick your affiliate AND team as CrossFit South Brooklyn. I will be approving all CFSBK members. Don’t worry, even the lowest person’s score can’t “hurt” the team.
• Tomorrow at 2:30pm the CRASH-Bers will be testing their 2K row! We’ll be projecting the boats on the big screen, come on and give these guys and gals your support!

There Is No Wagon: Thoughts on Binge Eating and Dieting

By Chris Fox

You can not fall off the wagon. You can not get back on it. There is in fact, no wagon. You are self propelled, and you make your way down your own path.

I’ve heard it countless times and had said it myself for years…”I’ve got to get back on the wagon”. This language seems to allow for some other power, in this case The Wagon, to make or break us. We make a big change in our lifestyle that seems like it will make everything better. That if we can stick to it we will once and for all be happy. We decide to get on The Wagon. We choose a date, prepare for it, and then go full steam ahead. At first it’s great, this is when you’re riding the momentum created by the hope of change, or of something changing you. Then some of the reality settles in and you stray a bit from The Wagon. You “mess up” and feel guilty. Maybe you even “mess up” a little more because of the guilt. So what do you do now? This is the point where you can move further off your path (have a second or third beer, order dessert after pizza, have a crappy dinner since you “messed up” at lunch, etc…) or turn back toward it (make your next decision one that lines up with your values and priorities). You can eat like crap all day and it’s still only one day. Health and fitness is not made or broken in one day alone. Be nice to yourself, don’t beat yourself up about it. And importantly, don’t wait for some wagon to come along and pick you up.

If you find yourself in a cycle like this then consider a few things. First, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or a failure. It means you’re just like everyone else. Fit people don’t magically not crave “bad” foods or never have trouble abstaining from unhealthy treats, and it’s hard for them to get to the gym sometimes, too. They even kick back and have a few drinks and french fries every now and then. What they do is consistently make more good decisions than poor ones. They live more in line with long term values and less with instant gratification. Try this: Think about what you value, then think of a few small actions you can take right now to live in line with those values. It’s important to realize that we are constantly making small decisions about how we will live and who we’ll be. This means that you can make a choice to have an all weekend bender or give in to a craving for the office donuts. That’s ok. It also means that you can make your next choice one that you are ok with, that makes you happy, and that is in line with your values. Be nice to yourself and put one foot in front of the other. Don’t wait for The Wagon to come around again and pick you up.
___________________
Top 12 Reasons this 47 year old Hates CrossFit

5 Rounds for Time of:

Fitness
20 Wall Ball shots
40 Double Unders (sub 20 calorie row or 20 slam ball for doubles)
10 Pull-Ups or jumping pull-ups

Performance
20 Wall Ball shots 20lb,14’/14lb,9′
40 Double Unders
4 Muscle-Ups

For both versions, rest 2 minutes between sets. Score total time including rest.

Post rounds completed and Rx to comments.

Check out more pictures from TTD by Brian Hotaling here.
You can also see the pictures along with other from our in house photogs Asta and Bekka P on our Flickr stream.

CFSBK Member To Do List:

1. RSVP for the potluck this Saturday at 7:00pm.
2. Register for the CrossFit Open on team CrossFit South Brooklyn
3. Check the Flickr page to confirm that you left ALL YOUR CLOTHING EVER at the gym, then go pick it up.
4. Make a mental note that there is Active Recovery is no longer available on Thursdays at 7:00am but now IS available Sundays at 11am.
5. Consider getting your “Yoga for Athletes” on tonight at 6:30pm with Whitney H.
6. Have an insanely nice day.

2000m Rowing Race this Saturday!

Come watch the “CRASH-Beasts” race this Saturday at 2:30. These folks have been training with Coach Nick since late October for the CRASH-B Indoor World Rowing Championship in Boston in mid-February. The race on Saturday is their final test – they’ve already done one 2K and two 6Ks – and will be projected on the big screen. Cheer them on to new PRs!!
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1984 Olympic Men’s Single Sculls Rowing final

15 minutes to work up to a heavy single of:

Fitness:  Power Snatch + Overhead Squat

Performance: Snatch
________________

Back Squat

Fitness: 5RM
Try to beat your previous exposure by 5-15lbs

Performance:
75%x5
80%x3
85%x2
90%x1
95%x1
100%x1
100% plus if still moving

Work off your projectd 1RM. Try to avoid failing but use spotters just in case. Use this link to project your 1RM for today’s work sets.

Post loads to comments.
Snatch/BSQ e6/6
______________________

7 Tabata Intervals of:
Rowing for meters
or
Burpees

If you did Mondays push heavy WOD and lifting, perform the Row. One Tabata interval is :20 of work followed by :10 of rest.

Post best and worst rounds to comments.

Packed house at the last potluck

• Remember to RSVP your dish and attendance for the potluck this Saturday evening starting at 7pm and going until about 9:30pm. This is a kid-friendly event and we’ll have a bouncy castle for the young ones to entertain themselves on.
• ACTIVE RECOVERY SCHEDULE CHANGE: Effective this week we are going to drop the Thursday 7:00am AR class and add an 11:00am Sunday AR Class. Get stoked, supple weekend warriors.
  
  

What is the CrossFit Open?

The Open is the first phase of the competitive CrossFit season. This is a worldwide competition in which one workout is posted every week for five weeks (starting Thursday, February 27th) to find the fittest folks out there. The workouts are intentionally designed to be a little more inclusive than even the average CrossFit workout to maximize participation. That being said, you’ll need some basic competency in the most common exercises. To see what last year’s workouts looked like, click here. Folks will have an opportunity to complete the workout every Saturday, as well as some Open Gym hours at the gym. If you’re on the fence about it, we recommend signing up anyway since we’ll already be doing them at the gym. At the end, you’ll see how you rank against the gym, your region, and the world. More than 138,000 people participated in the Open last year, and this year, the worldwide competition will be even broader and more inclusive.

Registration for the 2014 CrossFit Open starts today! As of midnight the sign up page had not gone live but now can be found here.

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Last year, CFSBK had the honor of hosting the Live Announcement of 13.2 (the second Open workout) with Annie Thorisdottor and Lindsey Valenzuela. To relive that moment.. click here!