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!!
____________________
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.

________________________
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!

Mare L pulls 270lbs at the Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet
Check out Bekka P’s shots from TTD on our Flickr page

Events on Events on Events!

We recently hired superstar CFSBKer Mare Lai to help plan and coordinate more social events for the gym. We couldn’t be more excited to have her help us create more opportunities for people to meet each other and do fun and interesting things together. Below are some upcoming events we’re proud to announce:

Saturday, January 18th: Paleo Potluck at CFSBK

Save the date! On January 18th 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. Please RSVP and note your dish in the event page.

Friday, January 24th: Ice Skating at Prospect Park

Join us on Friday, January 24th from 7pm-9pm for all-ages nighttime ice skating at the newly opened LaFrakCenter, part of the $74 million restoration and redesign of an underutilized section of Prospect Park. We will have access to both outdoor rinks (one covered, the other open air, weather permitting) and our own space to gather and eat some light food and drink hot cocoa during skating breaks!

$20 per person includes admission and skate rental + food + beverages

RSVP to mare(AT)crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com by Friday, January 17th

Sunday, January 26 Paleo Friendly Rest Day Brunch at Ideya 

Ideya is a Caribbean Latin bistro new to Prospect Heights after 14 years in Soho and co-owned by CFSBK afternooner Mirko Berloso. Ideya will be hosting a special Paleo-friendly price-fix brunch event for CrossFit South Brooklyn on January 26 from 11am-1pm during the Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge. Read more on the event page.

$36 per person (tax and gratuity included) with family-style appetizer and sides + a choice of entrée + coffee, tea or juice.  

Sign-up and pay at the Front Desk by Wednesday, January 22

Saturday, February 1st: Photo Portraits with Bekka Palmer

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.

For more information and to sign up, check out the event page.

You can post questions or comments about any of the events in the comments section.
____________________
Zlatan Vanev is much, much faster than you.
The Hidden Messages in Kids’ Movies TEDx
What it looks like flying over planet earth

Fitness: 5 Rep Max
Try and beat your 3×5 weight by 5-15 pounds

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

Use this 1RM calculator to figure out your numbers, round to the nearest 5 on your attempts.

Post loads to comments.
Bench Press e6/6
_____________________

Not For Time:
100 Push-Ups
150 Russian Kettlebell Swings

Break up however desired. Minimize rest between sets.

Post rep scheme and Rx to comments.

Congratultions to all the participants, volunteers and spectators who made yesterday’s Tough Titsday Powerlifting meet one of out most memorable to date! We saw incredible performances from so many athletes. If you didn’t already, please post your experience to comments.
View full results here

Paleo Potluck This Saturday!

Save the date! On January 18th 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. Please RSVP and note your dish in the event page!

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.

New post on Inside the Affiliate

Coach DO has a new blog entry on Inside the Affiliate about our Foundations program. Check it out to learn more about our thought process regarding this program.  If you have any comments about your own experiences with us, we’d greatly appreciate hearing about them in the comments section over on ITA. Thanks!!

ITA is a free, open source blog for the CrossFit community dedicated to sharing what we’ve learned running an affiliate for six years. If you like it, please share it with your CrossFit friends on Facebook and help spread the word!

_______________________
Ask The Doc: Why We Develop Bad Knees Tabata Times
CrossFit Criteria Cathletics

As Many Rounds as Possible in 15 minutes or:
20 Deadlifts 155/105
15 Burpees
10 Toes to Bar

Post rounds completed and Rx to comments.

Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet Today at 2:30pm!!!!

The TTD Powerlifting meet is happening today starting at 2:30pm. All are welcome and encouraged to watch some of CFSBK’s strongest women hit the platform to test their strength. Excitement and awe-inspiring performances guaranteed! The event will last until around 5:30pm, so stop by for part of or all of the event. Beer is on us!

The Details:
Each woman will have three attempts to hit a max single in Squat, Bench, and Deadlift, in that order. All lifters will make their attempts in each lift before moving to the next. First, second and third place winners will be awarded in each weight class based on total combined weight of best lifts.

Active Recovery on Sundays or early weekday AMs?

We’re thinking of launching a Sunday Active Recovery class on Sundays at 11am, would anyone be interested in that? Additionally, would you ever come to a 6am weekday AR class? Please let us know!
_________________
Save the date! Next Saturday the 18th we’re hosting our 2014 Community Paleo Potluck! Please save the date and RSVP with what you’ll be bringing to the event page linked above.

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

Fitness: Power Clean + FSQ + Split Jerk

Performance: Clean & Jerk
___________________

Front Squat

Fitness:3×3 Across
Add 5lbs from last weeks front squats.

Performance: Work up 90% of projected 1RM (based off the 3RM) for 3 singles
Rest 2 minutes rest between sets. You should not be failing today.

Post loads to comments.
C&J/FSQ e5/6

Behind the Desk: Ruth Party!!

Here is the next installment in our new series called Behind the Desk, about our beloved and much appreciated Front Desk staff. These CrossFitters take care of the important duties of checking in our members, handling walk-ins, tidying up after classes, and so many other things that it would take forever to list them. They are the glue that holds this gym together!

 

Full name: Ruth M. Pardee (prounounced “Party!!” with two exclamation points.)

Where were you born and where did you grow up: Born and raised in Berkeley, California

First album that you loved: The Shrek soundtrack

What are you up to when you’re not at 597 Degraw Street: I work part-time for a small tech company. Other than that I love to go out to movies, go on bike rides, and cook.

“Ask me about that time I…”: Broke my nose while attempting to shoot a rifle. More me being stupid than an actual good story…

Earth is about to implode but aliens on a previously undiscovered planet named Euripides want to preserve one artifact from humans. What would you offer them? A Steinway grand piano (art, craftsmanship, and technology)

Favorite shade of blue: Teal

Favorite lift: Power Clean (from the floor)

Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet Tomorrow

The TTD Powerlifting meet is happening tomorrow starting at 2:30pm. All are welcome and encouraged to watch some of CFSBK’s strongest women hit the platform to test their strength. Excitement and awe inspiring performances guaranteed!

The Details:
Each woman will have 3 attempts to hit a max single in Squat, Bench and Deadlift, in that order. All lifters will make their attempts in each lift before moving to the next. First, second and third place winners will be awarded in each weight class based on total combined weight of best lifts.
___________________
Tissue Repair 101: What Should You Be Doing? Tabata Times
A lifelong fight against trans-fats NYT

Underneath The Hoodie: Robert McDowell Myers

By Kate Reece

Vital Stats
Height: 6’1’’
Weight: 200 lbs
DOB: September 24, 1979
Born and raised: Roanoke, VA
Place of higher learning: (mostly) Radford University

Ask him to recite a Jim Harrison poem from memory about a dog on a short leash and hear traces of a southern accent protract his vowels. Stand with him at a party, and listen as he describes which section of the crowd he’d pick to paint, based on the contrapposto of the subjects or the contrast of the lighting. Ask him to open your beer with a rolled-up magazine, or do a lick on his guitar over a ii-V-I chord progression. Actually—don’t ask him to do any of those things, because he’d immediately sense it wasn’t an original request and be irritated—quietly irritated. Instead, watch the man in action, shredding through a workout after coaching. Or remember him pedaling 100-plus miles through Southwest Virginia’s Mountains of Misery, then riding a quarter of the Tour de France’s mileage for 21 afternoons in July of 2010 (post-CrossFit at 7 am and work during the day). And remember the young man picking strawberries with his mother, jumping at any chance to toss a football with his dad in the backyard, stocking shelves with his grandfather at their local grocery store, and proposing to Ellie June on the coast of California (who fell for him when she learned about his love for Joni Mitchell). To know Robert McDowell Myers is to know dignity, in its silliest, most fun and fun-loving iteration. To know his life is to know adventure.

The boy was born on a Monday, the cusp of autumn in 1979, in Roanoke, Virginia, a small town that epitomizes the term “small town” (current population resting at less than 10,000). But his story starts earlier than his birth, reaching back to his namesake. Both sides of his family can be traced back to the beginnings of the state of Virginia, and his great great great grandfather on his mother’s side was named McDowell Fitzgerald, which was going to be his name. Instead, he was named after his father, Robert. McDowell goes by his middle name to prevent confusion. His parents, “Bobby” and Rosanna, met as teenagers in the early 60’s at a church in Roanoke. In 1972, after Bobby finished his time with the Navy (during which he helped build McMurdo Station in Antarctica), they were married, and soon had their three children—Caroline, McDowell, and Livingston.

McDowell’s story also starts on the land, the idyllic backdrop of his home. The yards of his parents’ house and dad’s father’s house blend together, and both houses are next to his aunt’s house. Behind the three houses, big open fields sprawl wide, some cattle populating one section, with a vast swath of woods framing the underbelly of the horizon. It was there that he would learn to run and play with his brother “Livi” and a couple cousins (who remain McDowell’s best friends), along with some neighborhood kids. They constructed log cabins out of felled trees, hiked around a nearby reservoir, and built fires in pits they dug in the woods. Television held no singular intrigue; it functioned solely as space to let McDowell’s mind rest and process the day’s activity, which often was spent daydreaming and entering the space of his imagination, in the safety of his portion of the earth’s wilderness.

It would be hard to expect any kid of McDowell’s youthful energy to settle down in a classroom, and Rosanna now enjoys telling the story of the week he began kindergarten. He hopped on the bus behind Caroline, his older and wiser sister, went to school, and had a fine and uneventful day. When he arrived home, his parents both looked at him anxiously. “How was school?” Rosanna asked. “Fine,” McDowell replied, shrugging. Both of his parents appeared deeply relieved. The following week before a long Labor Day weekend passed easily enough. But when next Tuesday rolled around, Rosanna went in to wake McDowell up (he woke himself up before the rest of the family on the weekends, so eager to play) and failed. He simply refused. His refusal did not come from an attitude of petulance or laziness. Rather, he had a precocious sense that certain things mattered more than others, and he could summon little interest in the things he felt were less important. Of course, he went back to school, but he would never be a consistently excellent student, except in the subjects that captivated him and felt meaningful on a deeper plane.

McDowell’s life became filled with his family, sports, and music. His parents had signed him and his siblings up for a sport every season as soon as they were old enough, and all three proved to be exceptional athletes. McDowell mostly played basketball and baseball, along with whatever else was in season. He also started racing mountain bikes when he turned 14. Then there was his guitar. At 15, he taught himself to play from a Neil Young book with his father’s acoustic dreadnought (he was raised on the four Bs: The Beatles, the Band, the Byrds, and the Beach Boys, along with other 60’s rock and roll). Learning to play music certainly didn’t help him focus more on school, but even when his parents grounded him, they never took his guitar away or told him he couldn’t play.

For a boy with such courage of his convictions, coupled with an easy talent at most things he set out to do and a sometimes-quick temper, it might have been easy to develop into a wild card, with a passion of the undisciplined sort. Especially as a young male, he needed boundaries—an example of what it looked like to wed masculinity with fundamental goodness. McDowell’s whole huge family contributed to shaping him, but he grew up reading a plaque hanging in his father’s office (which now hangs in Livi’s office), bearing a quote from Act 3 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”: 

Sir, I am a true laborer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good…

Those weren’t just pretty words. McDowell’s father is notorious for his “stare”—a look he gives that communicates you damn well better shape up. The Myers’ family edict was simple: Don’t be a jerk. And what’s more: Do good. Bobby’s father was a labor leader, and Bobby followed in his footsteps as business manager at the Laborers’ Union, with a jurisdiction covering Virginia and North Carolina. No slight task in an area that generally despises unions.

McDowell likes to say that if he had been forced to do manual labor his whole life, he would have had a different appreciation for school than he did—the kind of insight that reveals his pragmatic instincts toward compassion, and awareness of the privilege that accompanies the hand he’s been dealt. He bounced around between colleges, never far from home and never quite sure what he wanted to study, always playing music. He was good at showing up for class, mostly out of respect for the professor’s job. He eventually settled on studio art—oil painting and photography—thinking he might go into photojournalism. Throughout college, he gave guitar lessons (and some mandolin) and played bluegrass on the scene in Southwest Virginia with a group of older guys he met at festivals and in bars, who had been playing their whole lives. Between semesters, he helped out at his grandfather’s store and worked various construction jobs. Eventually, he became a field representative for Laborers Local 980, talking to contractors and guys on the job, checking on them and dealing with any grievances. After college, McDowell started working full-time with the Laborers’ Union, training workers to enhance their skills when they were unemployed—work he would do, and do well, for the next eight years.

In 2005, a few years out of college, the boy had become a man (though you should ask him about the “retirement community” he lived in). And then came Ellie June. McDowell‘s cousin Bland went to school at Johns Hopkins, where Bland met a girl named Jen (who he would eventually marry), who happened to be friends with a girl named Ellie. McDowell, who had been going up to Baltimore to hang out on the weekends, first noticed Ellie talking to one of his friends across the room at a bar—a tawny-haired, ballerina-limbed, stunning woman. Aww, shucks, he thought, figuring she was taken. A couple weekends later, they both ended up at the same house party. McDowell was leaning against the refrigerator in front of Ellie, and Jen asked Ellie if she had met him. “Yeah,” Ellie fired back. “He’s the guy that’s full of shit.” McDowell flashed her a grin. Here we go, he thought. This is gonna be fun.

Fast-forward a few more weeks to MerleFest, an annual bluegrass festival in North Carolina. Ellie and one of her friends were going, and McDowell, Livi, and Bland had been going for years, so they all decided to share a campsite. The weather wasn’t great but that night, they sat in the front of the crowd watching the band, and they both happened to look up at the sky in time to see a shooting star gleam past. Later, they were all dancing and Ellie put a flower in her hair. As the party died down, they held hands for the first time. Ellie remembers saying to her friend, “McDowell’s going to be such a good friend. I can see us being such good friends.” McDowell, of course, had other designs. Five full years later, they were married, in June of 2010, and moved into his great-grandparents’ old house at the base of the Appalachians.

Rewind a couple years to early 2008. McDowell, active as ever, was still biking and exploring the mountains. He wanted to find a way to get stronger, but he was reluctant to train at a regular gym, because, “Well, it looked like a whole bunch of no fun.” So Bland called him up one night and told him to check out this website, Crossfit.com.  McDowell did, and they completed their first WOD the next day, in an empty garage space at his office, with a set of dumbbells, a barbell, and iron plates. 7 am workouts pulled from Crossfit.com, plus some Olympic lifting cycles, quickly became their routine. They polished off their homemade gym by building their own squat stands, kettlebells, medicine balls, and a pull-up bar (ask him about these), and installed rings stations. Livi and one of their cousins, Chris, joined them, along with Ellie when she finally moved to Roanoke. McDowell found that the sense of fresh pride he felt in finishing workouts, especially the long and brutal Hero WODs, began to have practical applications with his career and how he carried himself. His familiar instincts kicked in; this felt right. He knew they’d found something special.

His instincts led him far enough to get his Level One certification, in the interest of setting himself up to eventually work in the field. He told a coach at his certification in Charlottesville that he and Ellie were thinking about moving to New York and the coach told him to check out CrossFit South Brooklyn, mentioning some good things about a guy named David Osorio. Ellie had found CFSBK on Google Maps even before the coach mentioned it, and when she read through the blog, she knew, These are our people. (She also knew that if they didn’t move close to a gym, in the absence of the mountains, McDowell “might lose it.”)

And move they did, in pursuit of new career opportunities and experiences they wanted to have before starting a family (including the NYC music scene). McDowell’s first class at CFSBK was a noon-er with Fox, and he got on the leaderboard for Annie (Ellie also quickly got up there, almost a dozen times). After his second visit, David invited him to the Competition Class. About nine months later and almost two years ago today, he spoke to David about coaching. He and MeLo started at the same time, in early 2012. He had finished the last of his work with the Laborers’ Union, which he kept doing remotely after moving, and none of the other positions he’d applied for in his line of work panned out. This, yet again, felt right. He still plays music daily, in the privacy of his apartment in Carroll Gardens, and has seen some of his favorite musicians perform in historic venues around the city. He and Ellie aren’t sure where their journey will take them in the near future, but they’re enjoying the ride—and we’re glad to have them as such an integral part of the staff and community at CFSBK.

(And now he does cool shit like this.) 

Parting Shots
How he likes his eggs: homemade eggnog
Favorite book: Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
Favorite lift: Snatch
Pets: Three cats, named Mallory, Tessa, and Hobbes
Something he’d like CFSBK members to know: He is never responsible for the country music—so stop accusing him. If he picked, you’d be listening to Coltrane.

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Bartendaz: Mind Up CrossFit Journal
The Best Kept Secret: Why people have to squat differently The Movement Fix
Total nerd actually owns his own computer

Fitness: 5×5 Assisted Chin-ups

Performance: 1RM weighted Chin-Up

Post loads to comments.
___________________

For Time:
Row 1500m
then, 21-15-9 Reps of:
Dumbbell Push Presses @45% bw
Box Jumps 24/20″

Post time and Rx to comments.

The one and only JMD

Heavy, A Response

By Margie Lempert

“How did your squats go?” I ask.

“Heavy. More weight than last time. But heavy,” you say with a mixture of disappointment, exhaustion, and maybe even a hint of disbelief. 

As if you wish, you think, you expect that your increase in weight will feel lighter by virtue of the fact that you got a little stronger. And that’s your goal: to be strong enough that heavy weight feels light.

Well, I think you’ve got your goal backwards.

Weight should be heavy. You should be required to push. Getting strong is hard work, as Mark Rippetoe often says. It is a commitment; not something you suddenly arrive at, but rather a slow, deliberate journey that becomes more challenging over time.

Stress adaptation – a fundamental principle of physiology. When you tax your body it rises to the challenge by growing stronger. Your bones get denser, your muscle fibers increase their contractile potential, and your ability to recruit those muscle fibers becomes more efficient. Increase weight, increase capacity; increase capacity, increase weight. It is a harmonious vertical see-saw.

Once you gain enough technical proficiency to use loads that stimulate growth, you are at the glorious beginning of not just building tolerance for, but ushering in struggle. Struggle signifies progress. “Feeling good under the bar” means you gave it a fight, and are rewarded with the tired satisfaction of getting your reps done. It does not mean an effortless set of 5 where you barely breathed hard and didn’t ever once ask: “Is this rep gonna happen?”

Sure today’s weight will feel light one day: when it’s your warm up on the way to lifting something heavier. Relish heavy weight, it never gets easier. And you shouldn’t want it to.

Speaking of heavy.. the TTD Powerlifting Meet is happening this Sunday at 2:30pm. This event is open and free to all. Come on down if you want to see some of CFSBK’s TFBAs attempt to PR their Back Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift at our in-house meet.
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