Fitness: Clean Segment Deadlift + Hang Power Clean + FSQ + Power Jerk

Performance: Clean Segment Deadlift + Hang Squat Clean + Power Jerk
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Front Squat

Fitness:3×3 Across

Performance: Work up to a Heavy 5

Post loads to comments.
C&J/FSQ e1/6

Barbell Warm-Ups.
Doug J, on the right here will be trading BK for Austin at the end of the month. We’ll miss you, DJ!!

• Good luck to Coaches Fox, Lady Fox and Mcdowell as well as Ellie JM, Mike F, Mare L and Alan L competing in the CrossFit Hoboken Winter Challenge today!

Other Stuff We Sell

Did you know we recently got in new CFSBK THERMALS!!!Check them out at the Front Desk next time you’re at the gym. We also sell a few other things beyond clothing and memberships. Check out the list below and see if you can’t benefit from picking up one of these items.

Becoming a Supple Leopard: $35
The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury and Optimizing Athletic Performance. Dr. Kelly Starrett’s textbook on how to perform all the movements we do at CrossFit, a template for understanding movement restrictions and tons of mobilizations you can do to help get you into better positions and increase performance. 400 pages with full color photos. 

Lacrosse Balls: $2
You have no excuses to not own at LEAST one lacross ball. This is the “fine brush” in your mobilization tool box.  There are countless ways to inflict some soft tissue love (hate) on yourself with these guys. Great for sore muscles, adhesions and general stiffness. Great stocking stuffers!

Fish Oil: $35
Magnesium: $25
Vitamin D: $15
Or, purchase all three for $70
Balance out your Omegas, decrease inflammation, stay happy in the winter, defeat your enemies and look better naked. Nuff said.

Private Training: Variable
People often consider themselves to be either a group class member OR someone that does Personal Training.  Group class members should consider some once off or even semi regular private training to develop skills, trouble shoot movement issues and understand how to accomplish their goals. On top of our packages, we also offer 1/2 hour sessions for $55 and single hour sessions for $90. 

CFSBK Stickers: Free

Represent!
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Great cycling video or.. the GREATEST cycling video?

The inagural Active Recovery class in the upstairs expansion!

CrossFit Masters Petition

Here is an online petition for regionals for masters.  Last year there was some issues with masters games competitors who seemed unable to do some basic movements.  I signed it and perhaps others at CFSBK would also.   Thanks a lot, –Bob S

Dude, Where’s my 1RM?

By Coach Jeremy 

Everyone has had the experience:  it’s the 2nd attempt of a Crossfit total or your working up to a new 1RM on singles day, you load up the bar with a weight equal to you your existing 1RM, you get psyched up, unrack the bar, go into the hole, and……nothing.  It doesn’t come back up.  Why?  Did you get weaker?  Are you doing something wrong?  Why can’t you do what you’ve already done?

Think of a 1RM not so much as a measure of strength capacity but as an act of strength performance.  Veteran lifters will speak of owning a weight versus hitting a weight.  Owning a weight means that you can get under a bar just about anytime you want and move that weight (assuming a proper warm-up and having not done back-to-back hero WOD’s that week).  Hitting a weight is a much less reproducible feat.  It means that on a day where you felt good, were well rested, timed your eating properly, had your weight belt sitting just right, heavenly bodies were aligned properly, and you managed not to fuck anything up,  you were able to squeeze out a higher weight than ever before. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a weight that you have only hit isn’t something that you can just do on command.  It’s an act of strength and will; repeating it doesn’t just happen.  No sprinter expects to hit a PR every time they run a given distance, not in competition and especially not in training.  There is no reason to just assume that every time you get under a barbell you’re going to PR.

We should also consider that not every one’s best event in lifting is the 1RM.  Consider again, sprinting.  All sprinters are fast, that’s why they are sprinters.  However sprinters have different specialties, some are better in a 60m dash, others are better at the quarter mile.  If we took a random group of sprinters and tested their best times at a series of distances, say 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, we would probably find that the rankings would look very similar across the events: the faster runners would tend to do well at all of them.  However, you would also expect to see some shuffling of rankings based upon the individual strengths of the sprinters.  Some are better at accelerating, some run the turns well, some finish well, etc. To bring this back to lifting, imagine a group of powerlifters from the same weight class.  If you tested their 1RM, 3RM, and 5RM squat you would see something very similar:  The strongest lifters would tend to be at the the top of each ranking, however you would also see some move up or down the leader board as the reps changed based upon their individual characteristics.  This is relevant to us because the better you are at an event, the 3RM versus the 1RM for instance, the more likely you are able to reproduce your best effort.  We should test our strength at 3RM’s and 5RM’s for precisely the same reason that Track and Field tests more than just the 100m dash as a measure of speed.

Weighlifting, Powerlifting and Crossfit Total’s are all tests of 1RM. This isn’t because 1RM’s are magical, it’s just that they are easier to quantify, they are the highest weights (and everyone wants to see big weights), so they lend themselves to being tested. All this being said there is certainly nothing wrong with going after 1RM’s and when game day comes, you want to break some records. Set yourself up for success by working hard at a good program, resting up in the days leading to the event and getting your head inside your lift when you get under the bar.  Once the day’s lifting is over, let it go.  A sprinter isn’t suddenly slow on the day they don’t PR; you’re not weak on the day you don’t either.  Allow for the fact that not everyday you try to PR is going to be the perfect day to demonstrate that amount of strength.

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Competitive Teeter-Tottering
Nutrition in the NBA; Part II: Paleo diet takes hold for myriad reasons
15K-Square-Foot Indoor Tennis Center Planned for Gowanus
Donny Shankle, Attention to Detail

15-9-6 Reps For Time of:
Barbell Thrusters, 165/110
Chest to Bar Pull-Ups

Post time and Rx to comments.

Behind The Desk: Jaclyn Kahn

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: Jaclyn Kahn

Where were you born and where did you grow up:
Born in NJ (please don’t judge), grew up half in Jersey and half in Manhattan

First album that you loved:
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik

What are you up to when you’re not at 597 Degraw Street:
Teaching yoga around Brooklyn and Manhattan

“Ask me about that time I…”:
Met a Bedouin in Petra

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?
I really don’t know.. maybe a toilet bowl? A computer is so obvious and a newspaper or diary won’t really last too long as it’s made of paper.

Favorite shade of blue:
Midnight blue

Favorite lift:
Deadlift

Snatch Complex

By: Chris Fox
FYI Gang – I think the snatch is the coolest thing you can do with a barbell. Yesterday’s snatch work was not meant to set a new snatch PR, or really even come close (unless you’re a brand new newb). Most people were probably (or should have been) working in the 70-85% range. The positions and pauses are meant to slow you down so you can ingrain them for when you do pull at full speed again. It’s about taking the bar off the floor in a controlled manner so you can pull it to the position it needs to be to execute a beautiful and ferocious snatch, which of course is the end goal. If the first pull (off the floor) is rushed, if the back angle is not held consistent (by picking the chest up too soon) until the mid-hang, if the bar doesn’t come from the mid-hang through the hips (by moving the knees forward too soon) in the power position…all of these faults will likely result in a missed lift (usually forward,) or even worse an ugly pressed out snatch-type-thing. Nobody wants to practice crappy movement. We’re here to move better each week, and there can be a lot of progress made in that regard at lower weights. We’ll be seeing position work and some pauses throughout this cycle. Be patient, young padawan. You should add enough weight to have some feedback from the bar but not enough that you can’t maintain positions and perform a proper snatch.

Three cheers to the snatch!
___________________
Happy Birthday, Coach Fox!

Fitness:  Snatch Segment Deadlift (1″ off floor, Knee, Mid Hang) + Hang Power Snatch + OHS
Try to catch the power snatch in a quarter squat, stabalize the load then proceed into the rest of the overhead squat. Only recover the bar after the power snatch if you need to adjust your feet or position. Only go as deep as you can organize properly in the overhead squat.

Performance: Snatch Segment Deadlift (1″ off floor, Knee, Mid Hang) + Mid Hang Snatch
The first part of this complex can develop awarness of balance and tension during the initial pull off the floor. Focus on speed under the bar for the high hang snatch.
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Back Squat

Fitness: 3×5 Across
Leave room to grow, today’s reps should feel like there is weight on the bar but you’re moving perfectly and not grinding. Reset 1-3 exposures from the last cycle if you need to reset.

Performance: Work up to a heavy 5

Post loads to comments.
Snatch/BSQ e1/6

DIY Cash Out – 21-15-9 Heavy Russian KB Swing (breathing rest) + 550m Run

Partner Yoga at CrossFit South Brooklyn

• Coming in 2014: Mat Pilates classes with Kristen H, Evening Yoga with Whitney H and More Active Recovery! Get stoked.
• There is a new post up on Coach DO’s blog, “Inside The Affiliate“. It’s a blog post about how to blog, very meta. Please share it with your besties.

Kettlebell Kitchen at CFSBK!

Want to make eating healthy Paleo meals easier? Check out our in house paleo partners, Kettlebell Kitchen– your go to for Paleo & Zone meals! Food for CrossFitters by CrossFitters, Kettlebell Kitchen is an easy & convenient way to get top notch nutrition delivered right to the box. We’ve tasted the food ourselves, and we think it’s great!

The complete menu, along with ingredient lists and nutrition facts can be found here: MENU
Ordering instructions and FAQs can be found here: FAQs

Do you order from Kettlebell Kitchen? What have been your experiences? What is your favorite meal?
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Charmel R, Chris D, Pierre M, Bob S, Keith W and Jay R at this weekends Masters competition at CrossFit North Haven

Overall, really fun time.  Was a privilege to compete with Chris, Keith, Charmel, Pierre and Bob.  Huge props to Josh for coming out, getting us all warmed up to compete and for his great coaching and cues during the WODs.

That said . . . a great experience.  Wouldn’t mind trying something like this again at some point.  Big ups to Bob who took home the title in his age bracket – Jay R

Fitness: 3×5 Across
Start cycle light enough to add weight for six weeks

Performance: 2×5, 1xMax Reps <10
Start cycle at 70% of 1RM

Post loads to comments.
Bench Press e1/6
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Fitness:

3 Rounds for max reps:
1 Minute V-Ups or Tuck Ups
1 Minute Burpees or Squat Thrusst
1 Minute Dumbbell Hang Power Snatch
1 minute Rest

Performance:

3 Rounds for max reps:
1 Minute Toes to Bars
1 Minute Burpees
1 Minute Dumbbell Power Snatch @33% of bodyweight
1 minute Rest

For both Performance and Fitness, alternate arms per rep on Snatches.

Post total reps and Rx to comments.

DROMz

Heavy Thoughts: Part 2

We recently asked how you guys and gals structure your thoughts before attempting a complex or demanding lift. Last time we talked about the importance of having a ritual. Here is part 2 in our coaching tips to help you optimize your mental training experience.

Cultivate Confidence
Whether you realize it or not, every time you go to pick up something heavy you’re going into a fight. At near max efforts your margin of error becomes paper thin and even a little self doubt can can mean the difference between an epic PR or an epic fail.  I’ve seen so many people week in and week out miss even light weights because they didn’t trust themselves. They hesitated and subsequently didn’t commit to the lift. An experienced lifter knows that at a certain point, you’ve simply got to shut up and go for it.  The analysis is over and it’s time for action.  Sometimes this manifests as a floor stopping, adrenaline filled pre-lift ritual and sometimes it’s a quiet confidence that’s attained. Either way, you want to fill your mind with simple positive reinforcement and visualize yourself being successful (more on that later). Try to channel how it’s going to feel hitting that weight as if you already did it before touching the bar. Developing confidence is both a skill and integral part of your technical development. A slight hesitation can be just as crippling as shifting forward while you snatch, either way, you’re going to blow the lift. Start by practicing your confidence with your warm-up weights and be mindful about how your mentality changes as the weight goes up.  Will you keep up with the weight or let it roll you over?

How do you establish pre-lift confidence?
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Powerlifting: The Mentality Mark Bell
The power of adrenaline: Man lifts car off 3 year old boy
History of the Turkish Get Up CrossFit Belair

5 Rounds NFT of:
5ea Windmills
10 H2H Swings
5ea Lunge (contra-lateral load)
10ea H2H Swing
5ea Thrusters

Post load to comments.

• There is no Comp Class today
• Good luck to Chris P, Charmel R, Bob S, Jay R and Keith W at the  Christmas Throwdown today at CrossFit North Haven.

Our Upcoming Cycle

Monday starts the new mesocycle of training at CFSBK. Here’s what to look forward to…

Monday – Bench Press + WOD or NFT

Tuesday – Rest Day/Make Up Day

Wednesday – Snatch + Back Squat + DIY Cash Out

Thursday – WOD

Friday – Rest Day/Make Up Day

Saturday – Clean and Jerk + Front Squat

Sunday – WOD

The goals of the cycle are to:

• Continue to improve proficiency in the Olympic lifts

• Incoporate a barbell based upper body strength lift

• Continue to incorporate longer, challenging WODs

• Continue to squat 2x/week

• Include a gymnastics based skill/strength in WODs each week

• Consistently incorporate lunge variant to bring up unilateral leg strength

This next cycle will lead right into the Open, where we’ll put more of an emphasis on work capacity. Expect to see this cycle dovetail into the goals of the next.

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Twitching Gym Jones
Double-Under Positioning CrossFit
CrossFit trainer will be PHL’s first astronaut
Bloomberg Defends NYPD’s Controversial Stop And Kiss Program

1-1-1-1-1

Post loads to comments.
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Row 3000m

Row at about 70% RPE. Keep your stroke rating low, your pulls strong and dial in your techinque.

Behind The Desk Series: Whitney H

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: Whitney Hubbard

Where were you born and where did you grow up:
Born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois — a suburb of Chicago.

First album that you loved:
Either Ace of Base’s The Sign or Mariah Carey’s Music Box

What are you up to when you’re not at 597 Degraw Street:
Well… between the front desk, teaching Yoga for Athletes, and actually working out I spend quite a lot of time at CFSBK! Beyond that, I teach yoga in Cobble Hill and Park Slope (at studios and privately in my home and others’ homes), walk and play with my recently-adopted dog Penny, and cook as many delicious meals and treats as possible. I recently became a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer and am also currently in a yoga teacher mentorship program; I’m continually interested in how to best coach/instruct people in their pursuits of health and fitness.

“Ask me about that time I…”:
…raced Coach Noah in “suicide” wind sprints in the Key Foods parking lot after the Fight Gone Bad 2012 after-party.

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 foam-roller. Mobilize your alien business!!

Favorite shade of blue:
Teal… the blue that’s approaching green, like when sunlight shines through a wave that’s about to break.

Favorite lift:
Snatch
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Give Any Bike Instant Turbo Mode with This Innovative New Wheel Greatist
Four Common Foot Injuries in the Athlete Breaking Muscle
Earn Your Carbs TTMJ

From the Vault: CF HQ staffers and long time CFSBK super-friends Adrian Bozman and Jennifer Hunter-Marshall teach the GHD Sit-Up at a Level 1 seminar we hosted in August of 2009

Heavy Thoughts: Part 1

Yesterday we asked how you guys and gals structure your thoughts before attempting a complex or demanding lift.  Here is part 1 in our coaching tips to help you optimize your mental training experience.

Have a ritual
The less you need to process before a complex or demanding lift the easier it will be for you to focus on the nuances of execution.  Whenever you set up to perform an exercise, make all the steps leading to your start position and pre lift brace consistent and correct. Over time these will become second nature and you wont have to cloud your mind with details about where your feet go, how the bar feels in your hand or exactly when you’ll take in that last breath. By ritualizing this process you can consistently enter into a good start position and focus on the adjustments you’re attempting to make. Additionally, this will increase your confidence in each attempt as you’re consistently entering familiar movement territory even if an unfamiliar weight happens to be on the bar. Remember that practice makes permanent, every lift, from your first warm-up to a PR attempt should look identical up to the point you begin applying force.  Obviously, developing this motor memory and routine sequence takes time and will sometimes need to be tinkered with. The point is that through conscious repetition you begin to decrease the variables and increase your chances for success.

Tough Titsday Powerlifting Meet V

To the ladies of CFSBK:

We are hosting our fifth powerlifting meet!

What: 3 attempts at a 1 rep max of Backsquat, Bench Press and Deadlift
When: January 12, 2014 at 2:30pm; weigh in and registration at 1pm; rules review at 2pm
Who: SBK women who have been attending group classes for at least 4 months

How much: $25
Bonus: Celebrate post meet with your fellow lifters and friends. Drinks on us!
25 spots available. Registration deadline is January 5, 2014. 

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.

There will be 4 weight classes:
Pixies: Under 125
Ladies: 126-140
Dames: 141-155
Broads: Over 156
In the event of a tie, lowest weight wins.

Register Here

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Adrian Bozman Demos “Tom” CrossFit

Fitness:

25 Minutes Not for rounds of:
20 Second Paralette Support (perform on the low ring to spice it up)
15 V-Ups
10 Single Leg Squats to a Box, each leg
5 Paralette Shoot Throughs
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Performance:

25 Minutes Not for rounds of:
20 Second Ring Support
10 V-Ups
10 Pistols
5 Hang Pull Through to Skin-the-Cat

The CFSBK Fighting Tacos

• Happy Birthday’s to Coach Melo, Lisa F (LF DOOM), Christanna S, AND Dr. Mike!
• Have you been following DO’s new blog Inside The Affiliate? You can also follow it on Facebook, Twitter, and by signing up for a newsletter on the website. The one and only Matt K will be running the FB and Twitter.

Bridging Gowanus

“Next week, we are kicking off Bridging Gowanus, an inclusive community-driven planning process to develop a long-term vision for a safe, vibrant, and sustainable Gowanus.

The first in a series of community planning meetings is Monday, December 9, 2013 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at PS 372, 512 Carroll Street in Brooklyn.

Bridging Gowanus is an effort to bring together a wide range of community members to identify broadly-shared goals, discuss different viewpoints, and build consensus around a neighborhood framework for the infrastructure and land use regulations needed in the Gowanus Canal area. I hope you will participate and invite your neighbors. Learn more here.

Thoughts

How we structure our thoughts while training a movement can greatly effect our actual success with it. Tomorrow we’ll talk about some tips to help get you thinking more productively while you train. Today, we want to hear about what you’re already doing.

What are the kinds of things that run through your mind before and immediately following a techincal lift like the snatch? 
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SkullTrek A rowing powered bicycle
Progress… Twice As Hard For Half As Much Cathletics