Rest Day
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 8:01PM
Coach Shane without his signature hoodie and sweats
**Reminder: No group class this Sunday at 12PM**
Underneath the Hoodie: A Coach's Spotlight
By Margie Lempert
We thought it might be fun for you all to find out a little more about the people who subject you to squats, burpees and the name game. You know we love to get people strong and fast, but there's a lot more to us than shouting 3,2,1... Go! Each month, we'll find out about a different SBK coach. I couldn't think of a better person to kick things off with than Mr. Shane Williams.
Vitals
DOB: 11/19/79
Height: 6'
Weight: 210
Place of Birth: Charlotte, NC
Place of Higher Learning: Dartmouth
Years in New York: 5
Years at SBK: 3
Let's start at the beginning: little Shane had lots of dreams. He wanted to be a writer, a soccer player, a film director, an extreme skier.... but with each dream, at some point he discovered it required hard work to achieve, so he thought "Screw that" and moved onto something else.
Before CrossFit, Shane was into muay thai and kickboxing. In fact, when I met him back in February of 2009, he had been cutting weight for his first fight, which kept getting pushed back. Poor Shane was so hungry! And then the damn thing never happened. But it was ok, because he became very quickly ensconced in our little world. We were downstairs at the Lyceum back in those days. And Shane wore glasses.
Shane's official intro to CF was at The Black Box. He had heard of some place in Brooklyn, but since it was called CrossFit South Brooklyn, he assumed it was way the hell out in Coney Island. After about 6 months of lurking around on CFSBK's blog, he finally decided to come by. Damned if it wasn't a 20 minute walk! I kinda recognized him from the Black Box when he walked in (I, too, had spent time there), and was happy to see his cute self (who didn't have a crush on Shane at some point??). Shane totally dug the vibe, though was a little weirded out by the other new guy. We were doing an approximation of "Eva" that day, and Shane was under the impression that this older gentlemen was some homeless dude who wandered in only to get his ass kicked so bad that he never came back. Shane thought we'd killed him. Well, eventually Jack returned and now we can't get rid of him.
But back to pre-CrossFit Shane. His other life love has been film. Westerns and 70's kung fu are his preferred genres, with Once Upon a Time in the West and Enter the 36th Chamber as two of his top pics. For several years, Shane was location scout on the show Rescue Me, interspersed with production work on several big films. Apparently, George Clooney is super cool and can pick locks with credit cards. But the film gig wasn't really doing it for him, so as he got more and more into CFSBK, he dropped Rescue Me and focused on becoming the trainer extraordinaire we all know.
Shane has really evidenced himself as a student of the body; he programs educational workshops for our training staff and loves to geek out on anatomy. Hips are his fav. They are huge strength and stabilizing centers, but can also place major limitations on the rest of the body if they get tweaked.
Parting shots
Claim to fame: Shane's Dad, a well known Reverend in Baltimore, plays himself in the 4th season of The Wire. As a result, Shane got to party with the best character ever written. Omar.
Favorite way to eat eggs: over easy, nice and runny, fried in bacon fat (despite childhood associations with gooey yolks and The Fly).
Team CFSBK Competes in WOD 11.5 This Weekend!
Only two WODs left in this year's open sectionals. The final two events will be held at CrossFit Long Island City. Good luck to the CFSBK crew on these last two WODs!
Next Saturday CrossFit Virtuosity is hosting a party to commemorate everyone's hard work!
Location: CrossFit Virtuosity
Date: Saturday, April 30th, 2011
Time: 7pm until late.
Suggested attire: Fancy Shmancy!
________________
The Whole 9 Crew wants you to "Kill Your TV" Whole 9
Speal vs. Khalipa: An Early Test of 11.6 Crossfit Games
Pull-up shoulder Conking Fix and Better Folding for Toes to Bars/Good Mornings Mobility WOD
Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? NY Times
Reader Comments (13)
But Won't we run out of coaches to spotlight soon though?
----
"Volume" Day:Squat: 265x5x4: this was no-no-no-no The last no being no shoes!I planned on 3-5 sets depending on how it felt. Volume is usually 5 but since we're winding down the cycle less stress may not be a bad thing. J and I decided 260 but after the warm up I felt good and technically could be at 265 today due to making the 10 reps Wednesday. (can I get a hell yeah!) After the 1st work set I committed to 4 sets. If 4 felt better than the 3rd (which it frequently does believe it or not) I would go for 5. It did not.
Jesus, I'm verbose today, but must continue because my left quad (interior by the knee) started feeling sore after the 2nd set and got tight. WTF? I have yet another muscle to baby and worry about.
Anyway, this was tough 4 sets. I wasn't trusting my depth and being in a weird gym w/o Jeremy looking over my shoulder definitely made me more tentative on the way down which then made it harder to find my bounce at the bottom. And then there was the no belt or shoes part. For a 5x3 PR.
Press: 110x5x3 OK
Accessory carries:1-handed farmer's walk: 85# DB ~40 yards grip failed at ~25 yardsWaiters walks: 50# ~40 yardsBear Hug carry: 75# ~40 yards2-handed farmers walk with 2 65# DB ~40 yardsBat wings; 15# for 10 seconds twice & 20# for 10 seconds twice
Dan John will not stop about the bat wings so I'm starting to practice them. Next month I plan to do his 6-week mass gain program and it's an integral part of that so I figured I'll start finding my work weight now.
That's that. See you Monday peeps. Have a great weekend!
Second, newbie question, what kinds of things happen in classes on rest days?
Secondly, which character was Shane's Dad? Was it the Reverend that gets frisked/searched by Herc? But I can't see a listing for him in the other Williams on the Wire (including Michael Williams, Omar, my main man).
My personal favorite Shane memory will forever,ever,and ever remain my 199 score in my first FGB. I'll never tire of telling people (so apologies to those that have heard this before) that I would have cracked 200 had I had any other judge but Shane! And yet, the best part about it is that he volunteered to judge me that day to make sure I didn't destroy my on-the-mend back while doing SDHPs or wall-balls! Shane is also responsible for one of the many nice nicknames sent my way at CFSBK: Samiracle.
Nice writeup! Looking forward to more!
Finally tackled my cramped calf muscle with acupuncture at the Brooklyn Acupuncture Project (http://brooklynacupunctureproject.com/) today. Incredible. Feeling pretty healed after a terrible week long tightness.
I can't recommend Liz there enough-- anyone who lets me take an hour-long nap on my face is a-ok in my book. Also, it's priced on a sliding scale with an honor system, it's clean and light and did I mention I got to nap on my face for an hour?
Warmup: 45x5 45x5 95x5 125x5 155x5Work: 185x5 185x5 185x5
Then did 1 set without the box at 185 to try to get the motor pattern down.