Three new Elements Workshops available for pre-registration now! Mon/Fri 8pm starting July 7th, Wed(8pm)/Sat(noon) starting July 9th, PLUS a new time Mon/Fri 9pm starting June 23rd.

Read all the details and sign up here. Send questions to Allison AT crossfitnyc DOT com.

**Rest Day Discussion #6 now posted. See below.**

Learn how to butcher a chicken in Brooklyn this Thursday
Gonna be in South Carolina at the end of this month? Check out the Sorinex Summer Strong Summer Week Open House
Two awesome Bodytribe videos: Building the Olympic Lifts, Part I; Odds & Ends, Part IV
What good is breakfast?
Why traditional diet and exercise is mediocre at best

Some Elements Workshop photos

Mid-Tabata fun and games

Handstands!

Worshipping of Coach Court or prayer-style squat therapy--you decide

TODAY'S CLASS SCHEDULE
7am Workout of the Day (WOD) Class (Jacinto)
12:30pm WOD Class (Court)
6pm WOD Class (Mike)
7pm WOD Class (Mike)
8-9:30pm Open Gym (Hari)

REST DAY DISCUSSION #6

Written by Hari Singh. Please leave comments below and/or email Hari directly.

Friday (July 4) Rest Night Dinner

The next Friday Rest Day falls on July 4. We had tentatively selected the Cuban restaurant located a few doors from the temporary Black Box for the location. It is hard to gauge the level of interest, so please post to comments whether you're interested in a relaxed dinner around 8:30 on July 4.

Black Box Manhattan Update

By mid week, we expect to have the loft removed. By the end of the week, we expect to have the new pull-up system in and the flooring down. The net result will be to double the usable floor space. If you have left any personal belongings in the temporary space, expect to find them in a large box over the next week and gone within two weeks. The space is simply too tight for us to allow personal storage.

We are close to retaining a law firm with significant expertise in getting the type of certificate of occupancy needed for the permanent location. Once we sign a retainer, the process will take three to six months (but is pretty much a sure thing). It looks like we will be in the temporary space until the fall.

Black Box Brooklyn Update

In the May 29 Update I suggested that a business's need for cash is like a human's need for oxygen. I compared the Black Box Manhattan location to an adult on an airplane that needed to put on its own oxygen mask before assisting its child (Black Box Brooklyn). It's time to update that analogy.

A team of Black Box members (who, of course, are used to being oxygen deprived for long periods of time) have put on their own masks and gotten to work. What has been accomplished since the lights have come on is nothing short of amazing. In time, we will submit an article to the CrossFit Journal outlining the efforts of our members. For now, I quote in its entirety a single update message from Jeff:

Hopefully this recap won't be a complete repetition of Bad Sam's but I wanted to say what a privilege it is to be part of this group. The things I witnessed today were nothing short of inspiring. The Got-Junk? Guys arrived sooner than expected and when we heard the estimate they gave, we decided that we needed to get as much crap onto that truck as possible as this would likely be our only shot at clearing out our hard-to-dispose large garbage items.

What happened next was an illustration of power defined. Just thinking about the work done--the weight of the trash and the distance between the basement and the front door--and the short amount of time we had--we pretty much had to clear out the basement in the amount of time it took for the junk men to move our other refuse from the gate to the truck parked out front--is as good an example of functional preparation as I can imagine. To merely call my fellow CrossFitters motivating would be an epic understatement. That morning I never would have thought that I would have even set foot in that freaky-ass basement again, yet there we were this afternoon evacuating its nightmarish contents with total abandon.

As Bad Sam noted, Moon single-handedly tore two metal shelves from the wall using just his bare hands and occasionally a pair of hammers. I almost hesitate to say it was a feat of sheer will because that would betray how easy Moon made it look. If you've ever seen how effortlessly Moon does a 2x BW dead lift, you'll have an idea of how scary-cool he was while twisting sheet metal until it snapped.

It should also be emphasized how useful Good Sam is. Just like a good CrossFitter, she never rested for one moment as long as there was some other project she could finish. By herself, she replaced the bathroom doorknob, repaired the door itself so that it will actually shut, and reassembled the cubbyhole shelf. I'm sure she did half a dozen other things while my back was turned as well. The woman is handy. This is why she is Good Sam.

I also want to note that while shopping for cleaning supplies today at the hardware store, Good Sam and I made a point to get the largest industrial-sized commercial-grade mop head we could find, which the store clerk guaranteed would also be the fastest
as well as heaviest. Soak that thing up with water and, as Avery will attest, it will make mopping fun again!

It's getting too late in the evening to write about what Erica did and what Bad Sam did, but trust me, they did us proud.