Fitness: 3×5 Work Sets Across
Add 5lbs to last weeks Push Presses. You should still

Performance: Work up to a heavy 3 rep set on the Push Press
Try and beat last week’s heavy 3.

Post loads to comments.
PP e3/6
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5 Rounds Rounds For Max Reps of:
:30 Wall Ball 20lb,10′ / 14lb,9′
:30 Rest
:30 L-Sit Hold
:30 Rest

Hold the L-Sit as long as you can. If you need to come out of it within the time frame jump back in once you’re ready.  Prioritize shoulder position

Post total Wall Ball Reps and how many :30 L-Sit holds you were able to achieve

Chris A and Mike M debate which would be the better weapon of choice in a CrossFit Death Match, the Jump Rope Whip or PVC Staff

• Don’t forget to check out CFSBK on Instagram, Facebook and Vimeo!

Complimentary Range of Motion Testing Sunday

Can you identify the 4 muscles that make up the Rotator Cuff?  Do you know which of these muscles is most commonly injured?  Although you can tear your rotator cuff as a result of an injury, most rotator cuff problems develop over time.  Want to know if there’s a muscle that might be limiting your shoulder mobility?  Inka will be offering complementary ROM (range of motion) testing and MLT (muscle length testing) for the shoulder joint.  She will take you through AROM (active range of motion) and then PROM (passive range of motion) and will help you figure out if you are within normal range of motion for these muscles.  How does this help your workout?  Knowing where you fall short can help you figure out where you need to roll out and stretch more and give you that extra edge during your workout.  It can also help to prevent injury by addressing the imbalances in your body.  

She will also be doing some myofascial release and trigger point work to your Pec Minor muscle (found underneath the Pec Major) as well as your Subscapularis (found on the anterior side of your Scapula).  These muscles are hard to get to by yourself and can be a factor in rotator cuff injuries.

She will be offering this Sunday during the morning classes and Open Gym.  Email her directly to make an appt.inka.hodes(AT)gmail.com

If you had to bring one implement from the gym to battle (Anchorman style) which would it be?
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OMG Celebrity CrossFitterz
Scaling the a HSPU WOD with CrossFit Santa Cruz

Fitness: 3×5 Work Sets Across
Add 5lbs from last week’s exposure.

Performance: Work up to a heavy 3 rep set on the Front Squat
Go a little heavier than last week’s heavy 3

Post loads to comments.
FSQ e3/6
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Fitness
4 Rounds Not For Time of:
20 Banded Good Mornings
10 Kip Swings on the Pull-up bars OR 3 Strict Chin-Ups
16 Reverse lunges with a KB in the front Rack. GO HEAVY

There is a strict pull-up buy in for the kip swing practice today (3 for men, 1 for women). If you’re doing the chins, work up to as little assistance as possible. Perform the lunges one leg at a time.

Performance
4 Rounds Not For Time of:
20 Band Good Mornings
5 Hips to Rings
16 total reverse lunges with a KB in the front Rack. GO HEAVY

Perform 5 Kipping Hips to Rings as seen in the link. There is a buy-in of 5 Chest to Bar pul Ups to get on the rings. Alternately practice Kipping C2B Pull Ups on the bars. Perform the lunges one leg at a time.

Bike Rack is in!

Hail To The Queen

Ladies, 12 of your cohorts are already signed up for the female-only competition, “Hail To the Queen” on February 2nd taking place in Long Island City. If you’re interested in signing up, please do so today. There are only a handful of slots left and Jess will be ordering some matching socks (provided by the gym) for the competition tomorrow. If you register please email Jessica(AT)CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com to let us know you’re in.

Curried Collard Greens

By Chris Fox

Ingredients:
 
1 Bunch Collards (or other hearty greens), chopped or medium julienne
1 medium Onion, sliced thin
2 cloves Garlic (or more to taste), finely chopped
1 Tbsp Ginger, minced
1-2 Tbsp good Curry powder or paste (I like one with some HEAT!)
½ can Coconut Milk
½ – 1 cup Chicken Stock (salted water will do as well)
1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
Salt to taste
Juice from ½ Lime
Honey (optional)
Cilantro, chopped
Red Peppers, chopped

To Prepare:

–        Sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger in oil over medium heat in a medium saucepot till onion is slightly caramelized
–        Add the curry powder and sauté a few seconds before adding the greens (if using paste stir it in 1-2 Tbsp water or stock first so it incorporates better)
–        Add ½ cup stock or water and salt to taste and cook covered till greens are al dente, adding more liquid as needed. You don’t want more than 1-2 Tbsp of liquid left when greens are done
–        Add the coconut milk and simmer uncovered for a few minutes until the greens are cooked through and the whole thing thickens up a bit
–        Remove from heat amd add lime juice and a small amount of honey if using
–        Garnish with cilantro and red pepper
 
The dish packs a healthy dose of good fats from the coconut milk including lauric acid, along with a good dose of calcium from both the greens and the coconut milk. Curry powders contain numerous anti-inflammatory agents as well.  It keeps well so 2x or 3x it for leftovers. Pair it with some roast pork tenderloin (or any piece of meat) to make a meal, and add a starchy veg to make that meal superb post-WOD. To make it more calorically dense use a whole can of coconut milk.
 
Enjoy!

Write a WOD that includes a barbell, swimming and a calisthenic movement
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Vision and Culture TTMJ
Meet Kurtis Bowler CrossFit
Stig Severinsen – Guinness World Record – Longest Freedive Under Ice (236 feet)
Stig Severinsen : Freediving as philosophy

CRASH B’s Reviewing an on water 2K Race

Look, Feel, Perform Better 2 Week Check In

We’re just about two weeks into the Look Feel and Perform Better Challenge.  By now you should be finding your groove with some of the guidelines and hopefully realizing some of these things aren’t as hard as you would have anticipated. Below I’ve listed the basic parameters of the challenge. Please post to comments which components you’re doing the best with (and why) as well as which you’re struggling with (and why).

Guidelines:

Avoid Grains: Consume no grains or gluten products. This means bread, pasta, tortillas (sniff), beer (sniff, sniff), pastries, cookies, etc… Check labels for wheat/gluten containing items. Generally, try to avoid packaged foods.

Avoid Sugar: Consume no refined sugars. This means honey, fructose, coconut sugar, agave, etc. If you’re craving sweets, eat some fruit. 

Hydrate: Drink ½ oz of water per lb of bodyweight daily. Herbal tea and seltzer are Kosher too. Diet drinks are not.

Sleep: Sleep at least 7 hours per night

Bonus Points:
1 Point: Fish Oil
1 Point: 9 Hours Sleep
1 Point: Workout
1 Point: Active Recovery 20 min or Meditation 10 min

Also, don’t forget to RSVP for the 2013 CFSBK Community Paleo Potluck. All are invited! While you’re at it not forgetting things, click the “online waiver” link on the left and fill one out if you havent already.
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Robb Wolf Answers The Most Common Questions About The Paleo Diet
Tips From a Silver Medalist Rower CrossFit

Fitness: 3×5
Add 5-10lbs from last week. Pull the same version you started out with last week

Performance: Dynamic Effort Deadlifts 40% Plus Bands x 2 reps every 30 seconds for 4 minutes
Take 2-3 quick warm up sets to get to work weight (40%) then add bands. Focus on moving the bar fast, and being aggressive at the hips and quads with a tight finish position, no soft knees or hips. Dead start, no touch and go.

250-325 Red Band
325-400 Blue Band
400+ Green Band

Post loads to comments.
DL e2/6
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As Many Rounds As Possible In 7 minutes of:
20 Double Unders
15 Kettlebell Swings
20 Double Unders
10 Push-Ups

Post rounds and Rx to comments.

75 Hollow Rocks in as few sets as possible

Post total number of sets to comments

Fight Gone Bad 2012

• Don’t forget to RSVP for the 2013 CFSBK Community Paleo Potluck on Saturday, January 19th at 6:30pm. Everyone is invited to this event! Please let us know what you plan on bringing in the event page.
• Our digital waiver is now conveniently located on the left navigation bar of the web page. If you haven’t filled this out, we’re officially mad at you. Please go fill it out today.

Bikes Get Another Day

Because our bike rack hasn’t come yet we’ll allow bikes to be stored in the gym through Monday and Tuesday. We expect it to come in on Tuesday at some point at which we’ll be offering additional bike parking outside. Remember your locks moving forward, people!

Dr. Judy Wants (Me) You To Get A Flu Shot.. And Free Shoes

Free Vivo Barefooots

Fitness: 1 Hang High Pull + 1 Hang Power Snatch

Performance: 1 Hang Power Snatch + 1 Hang Snatch
 
Post loads to comments.
Snatch e2/6
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In teams of 3 Complete:
Run 800 meters together then,
75 Man-Makers with one partner working at a time then,
Run 800 meters together

Manmaker = DB Push Up + Renegade Row Left + Renegade Row Right + Squat Clean Thruster

Post results to comments.

Attempting something you’ve never done before in front of a room full of people watching. NO BIG DEAL

Big thanks to Dave, Rachel and Nahla for hosting the first Paleo Potluck of the challenge last night!

Dynamic Effort Deadlifts This Cycle

By: David Osorio

This cycle will be the second time we’ve seen Dynamic Effort Method Deadlifts with Accommodating Resistance programmed for Group Classes.  Lets explore what these methods are and who they’re appropriate for.

Dynamic Effort Method
As the name implies, Dynamic Effort (DE) work focuses on developing speed and explosiveness. This is accomplished by using a sub maximal weight lifted at maximal speeds.  Your muscles ability to produce force is dictated by a number of variables including overall size, angles of insertion on the bone, muscle shape, muscle fiber type and finally neuromuscular control.  The DE Method aims to help optimize that last variable by training your body to fire a large number of motor units quickly and efficiently.  You see, your muscles arent simply hunks of meat that are either “on or off”.  This is intuitive when you think about it a little.. consider holding a child’s hand versus holding a heavy dumbbell.  Your body senses that you need to work harder in the second scenario and will engage more motor units to accomplish the task at hand (pun intended).  Motor units are subdivisions of muscles that are recruited depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Fewer motor units are used for light and fine motor patterns like writing and putting on clothes while more motor units are requited for heavy and fast patterns like lifting weights and jumping. When you’re first learning a new skill, that awkward, uncoordinated feeling you experience is your body not knowing how to best produce a firing pattern that will express effective, efficient movement.  The more you practice a skill, the better your bodies internal “software” gets at using the “hardware” resulting in better movement.  Lifting weights is no different, when you go to attempt a 1 Rep Max Deadlift, part of the equation regarding whether you’ll hit it or miss the lift is how good you are at firing up lots motor units.  By training a particular % continuum of your 1RM at high speed, you develop an explosive capacity to generate lots of force quickly.

Accommodating Resistance
We’ll also be playing with some Accommodating Resistance (AR) this cycle by way of bands and chains. The point of AR is to modify the amount of resistance you experience throughout the range of motion.  In any exercise, you’ll notice that there are “easier” and “harder” parts during the rep.  For example in Deadlifts, people often miss lifts at the bottom or around the knee, rarely after they get the bar onto the thigh. Similarly, the first 1/4 of a Back Squat is a hell of a lot easier than everything that happens at parallel and below (this helps explain the popularity in commercial gyms of partial squats).  The reason for this is that at certain points during the bar’s path you find yourself in more mechanically advantageous positions based on joint angles, muscle positions and where the resistance (barbell/body weight etc) is relative to the primarily muscles trying to move it.  Bands and chains can make those “easier” areas harder by changing how that resistance is expressed throughout the movement.  Watch this video of Bands and Chains used in Deadlifts and notice how at the top of the lift, when it’s usually the easiest, either the band is stretched out the most pulling the bar down or more chains are hanging from the bar increasing the amount of weight being lifted. The result of this kind of training is more well rounded strength and an increased ability to accelerate the lift through the range of motion.

Appropriateness
DE and AR are advanced training techniques used with seasoned Group Class lifters.  Think of the continuum of development like this:

• Phase 1: Basic technical practice at submaximal weights and speeds (2-4+ Months)*

• Phase 2: Strength and connective tissue development with medium and heavy weights (4-9+ Months)*

• Phase 3: Fancy shit used to overcome plateaus and individual weaknesses (9+ months of consistent training)*

*Generalized guidlines

If you haven’t spent extensive time with a particular lift and exhausted a linear progression, Dynamic Effort and Accommodating Resistance won’t give you the most return on your time. You’re better off getting as strong as you can at the base lift before using advanced methods.  You want to milk your body for all the strength potential you can get before digging into the bag of tricks to squeeze out your remaining capacity.  It’s inherently human to want to try advanced techniques in order to accelerate your development, but as anyone proficient in their craft knows, without a solid foundation, you won’t come close to what you’re capable of.  If your deadlift numbers are still gradually moving up, keep doing what’s clearly working and ride that train as long as you can. If you’ve been stalled out in your Deadlift for sometime, despite regular lifting and many, many attempts at lifting 1RMs, consider trying DE and AR methods.  When in doubt, ask a coach and as always, we’ll be doing our job and telling folks which to do if we feel you’re better off doing one or the other.

Happy Lifting!

Related Videos:
Dynamic Effort Day at Westside
Jay Fry Speed Deadlifts at Westside

Fitness: 3×5 Across
Add 2-5lbs from last week’s exposure. If you werent here find your opener weight for this cycle.
If you’re new to strength training and want to learn about linear progressions, read this article.
If you’ve been through a few linear cycles on the Back Squat, read this article

Performance: 82.5%x5, 87.5%x3, 92.5%x1x3

Post loads to comments.
BSQ e2/6
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Fitness
4 Rounds for time of:
20 Kettlebell Swings
15 Burpees or Squat Thrusts
10 Pull-Ups or Ring Rows

Work with a partner and rest about 1:1
Post times for each round

Performance
4 Rounds for time of:
20 Overhead Kettlebell Swings 24kg/16kg
15 Hand Release Burpees
10 Chest-to-Bar Kipping Pull-Ups

Work with a partner and rest about 1:1
Post times for each round

Rahsaan’s Standing Work Station

Vivo Barefoot

We’ve got the inside scoop that Vivo Barefoot will be closing down all its US stores within a month. Discounts on shoes at existing locations may be upwards of 60% so if you’re in the market for a pair of minimalist shoes you might catch a good bargain. VB will still be available in the US after February however at other retail store and with fewer options. Thanks to Dr. Judy for the tip!

Kelly Starrett Coming to CFSBK

KStar is coming back to CFSBK for his CrossFit Movement & Mobility Training Course. MANY of you guys have already prepurchased Kelly’s upcoming book “Becoming a Supple Leopard” which will be released late February. If you’re serious about movement and mobility, apply the methods in the book and then meet Kelly in person to deepen your understanding of the material.
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The Crossfit Movement and Mobility trainer course is a hands on, movement theory based workshop where coaches and athletes will be exposed to the principles of Kelly Starrett’s Movement and Mobility Method of resolving pain, preventing injury, and optimizing athletic performance.

Performance is what drives the human animal, but the human animal can be brought to an abrupt halt by dysfunctional movement patters and underlying restrictions in mobility. Oftentimes, the factors that impede performance are invisible to not only the untrained eye, but also the majority of athletes and coaches. This course exposes attendees to a Starrett’s systematic approach to make the invisible visible. This course illuminates common movement errors that can cause injury and rob you of speed, power, endurance, and strength. Whether you are a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply someone wanting to live healthy and free from restrictions, this course will teach you how to maintain your body and harness your genetic potential.

Learn How To:

• Prevent and rehabilitate common athletic injuries
• Overhaul your movement habits and efficiently your body’s most effective physiology
• Quickly identify, diagnose, and fix inefficient movement patterns
• Problem solve for pain and dysfunction
• Fix poor mechanics that rob power, bleed force, and dump torque
• Unlock reservoirs of athletic capacity you didn’t know you had
• Identify and fix poor movement patterns in children
• Develop strategies that restore function to your joints and tissues
• Develop effective individual and group mobility programming

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What is your favorite mobilization?
MobilityWOD.com

Haley G sets up to pull 205
In case you havent already seen them, the full TTD results can be seen in this googledoc pdf. Scroll down past the long first page and see the breakdowns on pages 2 and 3. Thanks Ryan J!

Competition Weekend

Best of luck to Steph P who will be competing in the Philadelphia Winter Warmer this weekend and Alan L and Micheal F who will be doing a team competition called ALS Fire For Life. Go Team SBK!

Speaking of competitions, we’ve currently got 9 ladies signed up for Hail to the Queen on February 2nd. If you’re interested sign up asap and let us know. Email Jessica(AT)CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com if you sign up. Matching socks anyone?!

CrossFit South Brooklyn Gymnastics Classes

Basic Gymnastics Tumbling Class
Join guest Gymnastics Coach Ken H as he takes you through 4 weeks of basic gymnastics tumbling.  The movements will build on themselves and get progressively more difficult. The basic gymnastics class will help students understand how to control their bodies through different movements, and being up-side-down.  The class is broken up into 4 distinct sections: Warm-up, Strength, Stretching, Gymnastics. Movements included in this program are: Forward/Backward Rolls, headstands, handstands, cartwheels, round offs and more! Space is limited so sign up now!  Please email hallerk(at)gmail(dot)com for more information.

Saturdays from 3pm – 4pm
1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9

Price:
$60 for 4 Weeks

Cap:
8 Participants

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.

What are your favorite and least favorite gymnastics movements?
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Obesity expert says daily workouts can’t undo damage done from sitting all day nbc News
Dark-Alley Defense CrossFit

Fitness: 3×5 Work Sets Across
Add 5lbs to last weeks Push Presses.

Performance: Work up to a heavy 3 rep set on the Push Press
Try and beat last week’s heavy 5.

Post loads to comments.
PP e2/6
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For Time:
65 Double Unders
20 Box Jumps, Games Standard 30/24″
55 Double Unders
15 Box Jumps
45 Double Unders
10 Box Jumps

Post time and Rx to comments.

900lbs of Meat and 15lbs of Weiner

Tell the DOT you want a Bike Rack at CFSBK

Attention CFSBKers! Please do us a solid and take 2 minutes to fill out a request for the DOT to install additional bike parking on our block.  The more people who fill this out the better chance we have of getting a rack installed. So, whether you ride a bike or not, do us a solid and fill this out please! Business information is located below the link.

Suggest A New CityRacks Location

Business, establishment or transit stop: CrossFit South Brooklyn
Street Address: 597 Degraw St
First cross street: 4th Ave
Second cross street: 3rd Ave
Borough: Brooklyn
Neighborhood: Gowanus
Block number (optional) 420
Lot number (optional) 58
Phone number of business or establishment (if applicable) 973-610-3628
Community board N/A
Anything else you would like to add? your own comments

Rest Day Dinner #1

Here are the details for the first RDD hosted by Dave, Rachel and their awesome dog, Nahla. They’ve got plenty of room for all and hope you can make it. To RSVP please email them at the contact information listed below. This year we’ve also included pictures of folks on the event pages (to the right) to help put names to faces!

Hosts: Dave, Rachel and Nahla
Host Contact: dgever(at)gmail.com
Location: 399 Ocean Parkway apt 6 L 11218 – its Ditmas Park , 4 stops on the F train from Park Slope. F train to Ditmas ave or the Q train to Cortelyou road
Time: Saturday 1/12 at 6pm
RSVP: We would like to have an idea of many people are going to show by next Wednesday 1/9 but dont actually need a final number until friday 1/11
What to bring: This will be a potluck event, the hosts will help coordinate dishes.

Have you noticed any positive adaptations from the LFPB Challenge Yet?
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A Tour of The International Space Station

Fitness: 3×5 Work Sets Across
Add 5lbs from last week’s exposure.

Performance: Work up to a heavy 3 rep set on the Front Squat
Go heavier than last week’s heavy 5

Post loads to comments.
FSQ e2/6
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3 Rounds of:
AMRAP 2 minutes
10 KB Swing, Heavy
10 AbMat Sit-Ups
Rest 4 minutes

3 Rounds of:
AMRAP 2 minutes
7 Hang Power Clean 135/95
14 AbMat Sit-Ups
Rest 4 minutes

The two minute work intervals should be treated like a sprint. Get as much work in as you can.

Whitney H (aka Dubb Hubb) takes a big breath while unracking for a big squat.

Front Desk and Bikes

Pretty soon CFSBK will be adding a staffed front desk to our reception area (like a real live business!) and will be making some improvements to the front end of the gym. This new service will make it easier for members to ask questions, know what’s going on around the gym, purchase merch or memberships and help us manage folks who walk in.  On a similar note as you may have noticed, the front end can become overwhelmed with bikes during busy hours.  Not only has this created a problem with people having their own bikes buried by others, it also limits our use of the front area ring row stations and makes movement around all the bikes generally difficult. Starting Monday the 14th we’ll not be allowing non-staff to store their bikes inside. To offset this we’ll purchase a bike rack to put in front of the roll up gate when it’s down. As much as we’d love to let folks park in the gym we can’t handle the volume of bikes we’ve been getting as it’s creating more problems than its solving.

MEAT CSA PICKUP TODAY, 6-8 PM

HAIL TO THE QUEEN!

On February 2nd, CrossFit Queens will be hosting its third annual “Hail to the Queens” Competition.  This is a female-only competition where both rx’d and scaled girls compete side by side.  This year they are expecting more competitors, bigger and better prizes and a larger event facility.  In order to make the competition experience the best possible, CrossFit Queens and

1. The movements of the first three WODs:
Burpees
Double Unders
HSPU
Thrusters
Snatch
Deadlift
Pullups
Situps

2. WODs will be announced as we get closer to the event.  However, all WODs will be variations of the Girl WODs. 

3. There will be a cut off for the surprise final WOD for Rx only. 

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Scientists Debut Robot That Can Run A Half-Marathon, Smugly Brag About It

Rest Day WOD:
If you haven’t already… fill out our 2013 Digital Waiver!

A New Project

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the CFSBK Community Paleo Potluck on January 19th. The RSVPs on the event page are already starting to roll in.

So Close To a Pull-Up..

Are you “So Close” to a pull-up? Do you feel like it’s within reach but has still eluded you despite your most sincere efforts? Below are three things I think will help folks who are close to pulling body weight get over the bar.

Start with Chin-Ups
Chin-ups are easier than pull-ups and you’re more likely to get your first chin-up sooner than your first pull-up so it’s a pretty good place to start. In my experience once a couple chins have been developed the pull-up magically shows up a lot faster. That being said, both versions are totally legit and huge milestones for anyone who didn’t have them before.  Chins are also easier for people to organize well. The upper arm is already rotated into a more stable position and the last few inches over the bar usually involve less neck craning and wiggling. Once you can do about 3-5 chin-ups you’ll be a Lot closer (if not already there) to the pull-up. When performing chin-ups, keep your hands just inside shoulder width and imagine pulling the bar down to your chest, not pulling yourself up to it. That cue usually helps people fire the upper back and pull the elbows posteriorly during the ascent, both good things.

Keep The Reps Low
If you’re struggling to get your first pull-up, your muscles experience the effort as a near maximal exertion.  You’re going for something that you’ll only be able to do 1 rep of (right now), so when we train to develop our first pull-up a lot of our reps should look and feel pretty similar.  Several doubles or singles with just enough resistance to clear the bar is better than high volume sets of 5 or 10 with much more assistance. If you were a 1 rep max obsessed lifter, you wouldn’t spend all your time doing sets of 5 and 10, you’d perform submax singles, doubles and triples more often to get your body ready for the effort.  Here are two examples of productive training sessions:

7 sets of 1 rep with ample rest
5 sets of 2-3 reps with ample rest

“Ample Rest” could be anywhere from a minute to three minutes depending on how much you require to get another successful rep. Because this is going to be a strain, make sure to warm-up with some ring rows and more heavily assisted pull-ups. 2-3 sets of 5 reps should be sufficient.

When you’re scaling workouts, use the lowest volume option possible. 20 Kipping pull-ups as Rxd on the workout might be 5 chin-ups for you. That component of the workout won’t have anywhere near the same conditioning effect but depending on your goals that might be okay.

That being said, a little volume isn’t a bad thing. Just remember that if you want to get a pull-up you’ve got to train in a way that feels similar to your goal.

Resistance Matters
While the big jump-stretch bands can be a valuble tool in this process, they shouldn’t the only or even the majority of assistance you use. In my opinion, having a good spotter is ideal. Someone who knows how to give you just enough help to make you finish the rep without any jerky movement, uneven assistance or too much pushing. You’ve got good hands on you if you never get “stuck” anywhere in the rep but still work really hard at the most difficult positions (the very top and the first few inches at the bottom). The range of motion should be smooth and you should be able maintain good organization throughout. Another option is using a band just below what you can do on your own and having a partner gently push you through the finish. Depending on the size, height and strength of everyone involved, sometimes this is a more practical solution and can lead to better spotting. If you’re working with someone who is not a coach or giving you too much/too little/weird help, tell them what you feel and work together to make it better. One major problem with bands alone is that at the top of a rep you’re getting the least help since the band tension decreases as you ascend.  If you’re flying solo, choose a band that helps you get all the way over the bar, not just enough so that when you reach your chin can barely make it over the bar. That’s a no rep.

Hopefully these three tips can help you find some success with getting your first pull-up. Make your goal to not only do it, but do it well. If you train smart in the beginning and pay attention to your neck and shoulder positions you’ll develop a solid foundation to build off of. If you make your emphasis simply getting any sliver of your chin over the bar, things will be a lot slower and less awesome for you.  To see exactly what I’m talking about, watch this MobilityWOD: Stop The Pull-Up Chicken Necking People

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An alien shows up in your apartment and asks you to show it 5 examples of what human culture has achieved. This can be technology, art, architecture, philosophy, science.. anything! What 5 things do you choose?