ALBANY CROSSFIT

Carla, Kettlebells, and the CFT

"Carla" got the best of a few people tonight.  I'm not sure if it was her or the culmination of 3 intense days, but none the less people were Knackered tonight!

What a great day.  The morning folks and the nooners did a great job with Carla.  We had Lenora completing her first ever WOD, Dave and Beth battling eachother on the rowers, and Sue and Pukie having a quick lunch date.

Jason and John J. both completed the CFT today, and both set some serious PRs.

Jason's 3 lifts were a 305 squat (PR), 130 Overhead Press, and 365 Deadlift (PR) for a CFT of 800 and a PR by 60lbs.!!!

John's 3 lifts were a 200 squat, 135 Overhead Press (PR), and a 315 Deadlift (PR) for a CFT of 650, awesome for his first official time!

This CrossFit stuff really works!  This is Jason with his 305 squat!

After Carla tonight, Luke gave a great instructional on some fundamental Kettlebell exercises: the Turkish Get Up and the Swing.  He did an amazing job and everyone learned a lot from it.  We even got some PR swings after!  Thanks Luke!

Don't forget to check our log at CrossFit HQ - http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=23094

Tuesday Night = Teamwork!!!

Awesome team work tonight everybody.  It is amazing how anyone new to Albany CrossFit can come in and feel totally comfortable with everyone.  It is definitely a "no judegement" zone and I truly appreciate that.

Great work with the "light Fran", team "Christine", and team Wall Ball.  Everyone did their part and showed their strengths, whether it was the rower, deadlifts, or jumps.

It was great to have Peter at class tonight, he did a great job.  Thanks John for bringing Nina, she got thrown in with the wolves tonight and came out alive, not too bad.  Although she may not like you too much tomorrow!

Some of us might get together for a Sunday breakfast/brunch for anyone interested...but we are sticking to Paleo/Zone...right?

Beth came in for her Birthday workout today, Happy Birthday Beth!!!

Jess looking strong on her deadlifts!

Guess who's back...

Ladies Night!

Great class tonight!  Everyone kicked some serious butt!!!

Some great Posts from the Albany CrossFit Workout Log:

John M. -"tonight i did 6 of the 8 girls in the hour (wink wink) dont really remeber their names".

Viv - "I have no clue what ladies I did today but there were 5 of them"!

Be sure to post your times and comments to our log at CrossFit.com - http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=23094

We also had a double helping of Lasky tonight! In Jess Lasky's attempt to bring every person she knows to Albany CrossFit, she now brought one of her 3 sisters...and they both did a great job. Allison was very impressive in her first class, stay tuned to see who the toughest Lasky really is!

On top of all this fun we also had some PRs set on the 2K rows.  Keep up the great work!

Viv and John swinging the KB...looking great!

Jason doing a Pullup with a 75lb. dumbbell, thanks for your help Sue.

Week in Review...

Thank you everyone for coming to Part IV of our workshop today.  We went over all of the new lifts that we have learned.  When watching it is quite obvious everyone is paying attention and practicing because you are all looking great!  I plan on running some more seminars in the new year.  I hope that all of you unable to make it to this series will be able to attend.  We will also go deeper into the knowledge and world of CrossFit so there will be something new for everyone.  Look for future posts on dates of the next series.

We had some great PRs this week:

Jess Lasky was able to push jerk 60lbs., it won't be long until she is doing reps with this weight!

Noreen Santa-Maria had 2 PRs, push jerking 65lbs. for 3 reps, and swing a 40lb. KB over head for the first time.

Vivian did a 95lb. Clean and Jerk for the first time on Tuesday and she did it for 5 sets of triples, we expect big, heavy things in her future!

Diana Voss got over her fear of the clean and is now able to clean the 45lb. Olympic bar with ease!

Beth D. also worked on her push jerk and went from not being able to get 45lbs. overhead to doing it 15 times...this shows the importance of practice and skill work!

Niki did a great job with "Elizabeth" doing it in 21.13 with 75lb. full squat cleans.  Her new goal is to complete a fully rx'd "Linda". 

Try your best to motivate/entertain Susie when you see her on the rower.  She is completing the 200k challenge - trying to row 200,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas eve...you can do it Sue!

Great job to everyone that came in both Wednesday and Friday with the team-building challenge.  You guys all worked so hard and deserve every bit of PIE you ate for Thanksgiving.

Be sure to say hi and introduce yourself to our newest members - Dr. Josh, Peter, John, and Lenora.

***HOLIDAY SPECIAL*** Through December 24th any member can purchase a one-month certificate for a new, first-time member for a special rate of $50!  If this member joins, you will receive a $25 referral fee, so that's a great gift of health for only $25!!!

   

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude for family and further for
extending the circle of our loving beyond the borders of mere flesh and
blood.

Let's try to be mindful, gratefully noticing the good in our lives with
gratitude. But let's not stop at that. Why not take it to the next step,
to a deeper level by practicing gratitude-mindfulness in action. Share
in some way. Think about what you have with deep appreciation and rather
than just giving in to greed, wanting more of this or that, Just give.
With so much need in the world all around, in each of us, and in all of
us, just give. There is justness and righteousness in it.

Lama -Surya Das-

John, right before putting a hole in the floor.

Thanksgiving Holiday Schedule

Great job by everyone tonight at the Filty 50's!  Everyone is showing tremendous improvement, it is truly amazing!  I have been training people for over 10 years and have never seen such amazing progress in such a short amount of time.

Here is the Holiday Schedule, please contact me with any questions/concerns:

Wednesday - 6am, 12pm, 5:30pm

Thursday - no classes

Friday - 6am, 12pm, no 6pm class

Saturday - 8am

Sunday - 2pm (Part IV of Seminar - all welcome)

Part III of Workshop - Nutrition

We learned a tremendous amount about how important a role nutrition plays in our body.  Sue Rosenberg led a great seminar focusing on 2 popular CrossFit diets - the paleo and the zone.

After the great diet talk, we continued our work on form and mechanics.  Focusing most of our time on the Jerk and the Clean. 

For those of you that couldn't make it, feel free to ask Jason or Sue any questions.  Next week will be our final workshop.  If you have made it to all or haven't made it to any, next week will be great for you.  We will do a full recap of all of the exercises we have discussed and get a great workout after! 

Sue's Response, Dona's DL, and our first member of the month!

After watching her video testimonial, here is what Susie had to say...

There was so much more I could have said.
I could have said that in about six weeks, I increased my max hill speed on the bike from 5.5mph to 7.0 mph. Same damned hill.
I could have said I have more energy now at 52 than I did at 32.
I could have said there's nothing like coming to the gym to see if today's the day I can do more.....
I could have said that before I started exercising and dieting, the world was getting smaller and smaller as I was getting larger and larger. As in: can't hike up the hill, can't take a bike ride, can't go rock-climbing, can't kayak, can't walk around friggin' Disney World because it's too tiring and it hurts too much. I thought I was old. Thank God I figured out I wasn't so much old as fat, because fat you can do something about.
Now, I can bike across New York state in one week, go rock-climbing, kayaking, and I could walk all day without getting tired. Heck, I could run 10 miles today if I felt like it.
I could also have said that I would never have done all this without the support and help of my friend and trainer, Jason Ackerman of Albany Crossfit. He treated me as seriously and respectfully when I was fat and sedentary as he does now that I'm fit and moving. He believed in me before I could believe in myself. If you're in the New York capital district and you are looking for a trainer and a fitness program, look no further than Jason Ackerman and Albany Crossfit.
So there...I could have said all that!

Dona Wildove hit another Deadlift PR lifting a huge 150lbs!  Great job Dona! 

And finally...we gave out our first member of the month to Jessica Lasky.  She has done an amazing job since joining Albany CrossFit, we are very proud of her!

Veteran's Day Tribute

In honor of her father (Korean War Vet) and all of the other veterans that proudly served our country, Susie Rosenberg decided to get a little CRAZY!

CrossFit hero workouts are dedicated to the memory of soldiers that have died in service of our country.  These workouts are generally as hard as they come.  With one not being enough, Sue set out to do 2 back to back. 

She conquered Murphy (1 mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, 1 mile run) in great time and hit Michael (800m run, back extensions, 50 situps - 3 times for time) just as hard.  After she mistakenly kidded that she could do one more, so I challenged her.  She then completed a scaled JT (21-15-9 HSPU, ring dips, pushups) as well. 

All in all an absolutely tremendous showing.  We are proud of you Sue!

Part II of Workshop...expanding our knowlege.

Thanks again to everyone who attended Part II of our seminar. 

Today we built upon our knowledge of form and mechanics that was introduced last week.  We again discussed the importance of well-balance Fitness and why CrossFit offers so much more than the standard gym workout. 

After a brief refresher on the squat, deadlift, and overhead press, we incorporated 6 new exercises: pullups, pushups, thrusters, overhead squats, sumo deadlift high-pull (SDHP), and the push press.  If you could not attend please ask Jason any questions you have on these exercises before or after class.

We then attacked "Fran" with a vengeance!  A few people set new PRs, both Brett and Niki dropped their best time by about 4 minutes!  Overall everyone did awesome and I look forward to next week.