Small Update

Hey folks, I've really let the blogging slack off, but that doesn't mean I've slacked off on shredding hard! I'm really loving following CrossFit and have worked my way up to the recommended 5-6 times per week. I've since stopped my "bulking" diet and levelled off on a sort of maintenance diet. Over the time that I was putting on weight, I "feel" like I've gotten leaner, especially since I started CrossFit. I'll get around to doing pictures and measurements tomorrow. I promise this time! Unfortunately, I think the pushups will have to wait. I tweaked my shoulder and it hasn't quite felt right for a while, and pushups seem to stress it the most.

Anyway, I think my plan over the next little while is to not be too strict on my intake levels, mostly just keeping starchy carb intake down and see what a steady diet of CrossFit does for my body. "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat". To be honest, I'm confident that I'll be ripping out a six pack soon enough.

My real goal now is to just increase my performance in all the CrossFit workouts. Faster times, heavier weights, more reps, etc.

Since my last post, I've seen even more improvements. Most noteably, I managed to string 5 muscle ups together in a row and I also deadlifted 325 lbs fairly easily.

Another Goal Accomplished!

Ok, so this one was just outside of the window of my mission, but after I started looking more into CrossFit, one of the goals I made for myself was to be able to perform a "muscle up". This is almost a rite of passage in the CrossFit community. Well, last night, after my workout at the local affiliate, I was staring at the rings. Someone else was trying out muscle ups, so I thought I would give it a go.

I got set in the proper position, grabbed the rings, and violently pulled myself up and spread out the rings to my side. The next thing I knew, I was through the transition and pushing myself up to fully lockout the dip portion. I was shocked! I had just done my first muscle up! I stayed in that top position for a little while with a big goofy face.

A couple minutes later, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I tried it again and got another one!

If you don't know what a muscle up is, just check out this video:

Day 170 - Committed to CrossFit

Well, today, I signed off on the cheques that'll have me going to my local CrossFit affiliate 2x/week. The rest of the time will be spent at my University gym. It'll be nice to have that bit of coaching, as well as a facility that is specifically geared to being able to do the crazy workouts.

Here's today's workout (it's a CrossFit.com rest day, but not a rest day for me!)
CFWUx3

5RM Back Squat:
45, 95, 135, 165, 195

mini G.I. Jane (L'il G.I. Janie?):
for time
50 Burpee Pullups
6:16

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 52

Day 169 - Caveman

The workout posted on CrossFit.com today was:
Five rounds for time of:
400 meter Run
50 Squats
30 Back extensions

The treadmill and back extension machine apparatus are in separate areas, so to save running back and forth, I substituted dumbbell swings. I also scaled it back since I'm just starting at this.

So I did:

CFWUx3

4 rounds for time:
25 db swings (30#)
25 squats
15 back extensions

10:04

Probably would have been faster, but a guy stopped me in the middle of my last set of squats to ask me if I was doing CrossFit. He must have noticed my crazy non-stop db swings and huge puddle of sweat developing on the floor. He said he knew some people on his rugby team that did it (he was wearing a University Rugby team shirt). He asked me how it was, what I thought of it, and how I was finding it. I could only come back with winded caveman answers.

".....yeah.....just starting.....good......hard.....crazy"

I had originally planned for 5 rounds, but my form was suffering really bad on the last set of db swings, so I figured it was time to stop. Not too bad for my first WOD with a bit of weight.

Splits were:

db swings: 25, 15/10, 15/10, 10/10/5
squats: 25, 20/5, 15/10, 15/10
back extensions: 15, 9/6, 10/5, 15

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 51

Day 168 - Catch up

Yesterday I ended my current strength program and am switching to following the CrossFit WOD's. I figured the best way to end my strength program was to do the CFT!

Squat:
Warmup - 45x10, 135x6, 185x3, 205x2
-----
3 tries: 225, 255 (+30 PR), 265 (f)

Press:
Warmup - 45x8, 65x6, 95x3
-----
3 tries: 120, 130 (+15 PR), 135 (f)

Deadlift:
Warmup - 135x7, 185x3, 225x2
-----
3 tries: 295, 305 (+30 PR), 315 (f)

Total: 690

Notes: The 135 press was going up slowly, but it was so uneven and wonky that I just dumped it given it was so ugly looking. I think I could have gotten the 315 deadlift up if I took a few less warmup sets. The total amount of time I was taking was really long and I think I just gassed myself. I wanted those "3 wheels" so bad! Definitely topping 700 next time.

Today, well, the day I decide to come off a strength program and start following the WOD's, a strength workout is posted. Since I maxed on the press yesterday, I didn't think it was too wise to do a big workout of presses, push presses, and push jerks.

Thought I'd do a light day and work on my POSE running.

CFWUx3 (The modified CrossFit WarmUp is 10 reps each of Good Mornings, Overhead Squats, Pull-ups, Dips, Pushups, and Knees to Elbows)

7 min warmup run/walk
Tabata Treadmill Run 11.5, 11.5, 11.5, 11.5, 11, 11, 11.5, 11.5 (km/h @ 7 incline)
5 min cooldown run/walk

Had a bit of time to kill so I thought a couple push jerks @ 115 wouldn't hurt. Wasn't really feeling it, dropped down to 95, banged out a set of 5 and called it a day.

Here's this weeks stats:
M2 Week 7: 2008-02-18 to 2008-02-25
Weight: 140.29 (+0.62)
Suprailiac: 10 mm -> 11.6% (no change)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 7/15/10 -> 9.13% (-0.31)
Avg BF: 10.4% (-0.1%)
Lean Mass: 125.70 (+0.70)
Fat Mass: 14.59 (-0.08)

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 50

Day 164 - First time to CrossFit

Tonight I used up my freebie visit at my local CrossFit affiliate. A common saying among the CrossFit community is "Your workout is our warm-up". Well, I thought I had been doing reasonably well following the CrossFit warm-up on my own, but I had been leaving out the pull-ups and dips since I do weighted ones of those as part of my strength program. They also had us do ring dips which are waaaaay harder, chest to deck push-ups, and "knees to elbows" instead of crunches/sit-ups. That made a world of difference. I was already feeling it by the end of that. I only had enough courage to attempt a very scaled down version of the workout of the day that they did, and it was plenty.

I was planning on doing my CrossFit total (1RM testing of Squat, Press, Deadlift) again tomorrow, but I think after today's workout I'm going to have to push that to Saturday to give me proper rest. Today's workout was like a bonus workout anyway, so I don't feel bad about moving tomorrow's planned workout back. I just know I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

Anyway, I think the workouts are great and I want to jump right in. So I'm changing my plan and I'm going to start doing (scaled versions of) the CrossFit workouts starting next Monday.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 46

Day 156 - 3/4 Tabata Something Else

University gym was closed due to the snow storm, so I had to miss my scheduled strength workout. Decided to do an abbreviated "Tabata Something Else" without pull-ups within the comforts of the living room since it requires no equipment as our first CrossFit styled workout. "Tabata" is a specific type of high intensity interval training using a strict 20s/10s work/rest scheme. Each exercise was completed for 8 rounds with no rest between exercises. The official CrossFit "Tabata Something Else" calls for 8 rounds of pull ups before the push ups.

Pushups 21/17/15/14/10/8/8/7 = 100
Situps 8/11/11/12/10/10/9/7 = 78
Squats 18/18/18/17/17/17/16/18 = 139
Total: 317

This works out to an incredible amount of work done in only 12 minutes. I ran out of gas on the pushups due to working them hard last night I think. The squats felt pretty good until the last 2 rounds. My quads were burning by the end and I collapsed on the floor. Had to force myself to get up off the floor to stretch them out and walk it off! I can't imagine adding 8 rounds of pull ups ahead of that workout.

Oh, I thought I would throw in a comparison pic to show how much snow came in the last 24 hours.



It just keeps piling on. It almost makes me want to go out and do a Rocky training montage running in the knee deep snow.



Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 38

Day 153 - Quiet Weekend

Well, I missed a few days of blogging, but I don't really have too much to report. Had a decent workout on Friday. Got my regular workout in and then did some "skill" work. I'm trying to get my "kipping" pull-up technique down as well as doing some other work towards developing a muscle-up. The rest of the weekend was quiet.

Today I did however buy myself a workout watch on eBay in preparation for CrossFit workouts. It's the Timex Ironman OVA, which is worn on the side of the wrist, not the top. In this position, it's easy to see the face at all times without having to turn your wrist over. Also in this position, you can avoid inadvertent button presses from a flexed wrist (important when doing certain barbell lifts). It's highly recommended among the CrossFit crowd because it has all the timing functions one needs. The best feature is you can set work/rest intervals on it to do a Tabatas (20/10 work/rest interval training) and has a counter for rounds (I tend to lose track of these things).

I'm also thinking of starting some trail running once the snow melts around here. That might be a while though, but I'm going to try again to build up my running. I haven't had much success in the past due to my back pain, but I've been researching some stuff on technique and am going to try to build up and develop the POSE method. I think this might be the answer for me. I've always done well running on grass in soccer cleats, but could never run on pavement with regular runners. I was probably more likely to heel strike on pavement than I was on grass in cleats. The POSE method is more or less concentrating on landing on the balls of your feet and pulling yourself through the stride rather than heel-striking and trying to push your feet forward. At least that's what I've got out of it so far. They say it can take a while to really build up your calf and feet muscles to handle it, but once you do, the impact on your knees and lower back is significantly reduced.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 35

Day 150 - Strong enough? Big enough?

I did a lot of thinking today, and wondered if my current mission goals/plan aren't quite moving me towards my ultimate goals in the best way possible. I might just dive right into CrossFit. My strength and muscle gains might slow down, but every other aspect of my fitness should increase. We are making lifestyle changes, and CrossFit is a lifestyle that just seems like the perfect fit for me. As I mentioned, boredom is starting to settle in on my current program, and CrossFit is a different workout everyday, so it's always fresh and new.

I'm contemplating doing 2 more weeks of Stronglifts Beginner 5x5 setting up for a max effort at the end. Then I'll jump into the CrossFit workout of the day.

I can still eat my way to muscle gain, but it might be slower with CrossFit, but it should definitely be lean the way those workouts tax your entire system!

Did pushups training tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Didn't want to put it too close to my regular workout tomorrow which I have to move forward to the afternoon since my girlfriend and I have plans for the evening. They felt good and I'm sure I can bang out a bunch now. I actually did some "youtube" pushup standard searching for what constitutes a set, and the consensus seems to be that you are allowed to rest and crank out more, as long as you don't break your plank form i.e. no resting on knees or bending of the body or you know, collapsing in a heap. If you count that way, my goal is to crank out 65 with a max effort on Sunday night.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 32

Day 149 - Foolin' Around

Today I switched out my regular back squats for some overhead squats with much lighter weight to give my legs some "active" rest and really to just work on the overhead squat as I slowly learn many of the other lifts that are used in CrossFit workouts. The overhead squat is a great exercise for increasing your stability and it also has skill transfer in that it will "clean up" your other squats. With the weight overhead, any glitch in your form is emphasized as your core has to try a lot harder to stabilize it.

Anyway, going lighter on the overhead squats got me through my regular workout quicker. My girlfriend wasn't quite done her workout, so it gave me some extra time to fool around with some other exercises from the CrossFit repotoire. I did a few one armed dumbbell snatches, and then some dumbbell swings. Then I tried a few dumbbell pushup rows. I don't know how to explain these well, but you take a set of dumbbells (hex) in your hands, set them on the ground, then do a push up. Then you pick up one of the dumbbells while in a plank position and then rotate your torso and raise the dumbbell up in the air. My girlfriend said I got a few funny looks when I was doing all of these! I think she thought I was going to hurt someone with my dumbbell swings.

Then I finished up with some "Durka Durka's", more commonly known as Turkish Get-ups.

I think boredom might be starting to settle in on my current strength training program as evidenced by my bipolar workout today. I almost want to just dive into the CrossFit workouts immediately but it kind of goes against my current muscle building and strength focus at the moment. CrossFit is definitely the better overall program as far as general fitness is concerned, and I know it's the program I want to follow in the end, but it might take longer for me to hit the muscle and strength goals that I set out if I were to start it tomorrow.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 31

Day 137 - Maximum Effort

Today was probably the hardest I worked out in the gym in a long time. On my current program, the goal is to increase the weight on all exercises each and every time I go in. I'm almost at the point where I've worked my way up from using an empty bar concentrating on form, to putting in a maximum effort and nearing failure on all my exercises. I was able to finish my prescribed reps for all of my exercises, except for my last set of weighted pull-ups. This might have to do with a slightly more intense warm-up. I usually only do a cardio warm-up on a machine, but today I tried a modified "CrossFit" warm-up. 3 sets of 10 reps of squats (instead of broomstick overhead squats), sit-ups, back extensions, push-ups (instead of pull-ups, which I do later), and dips. Now I know what they mean when they say, "Your work-out is our warm-up".

I think next week I might incorporate the "flip" method, where I invert the order that I do my exercises in. So, instead of ending with my weighted chin-ups or pull-ups, I'll start my workout with them. I think this will help me push my weights up another notch.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 19

Day 123 - CrossFit Total

Today I did my 1 rep max (1RM) testing. Doing this properly takes a fair amount of time, so I was actually only able to get it done for the big 3, the squat, deadlift, and the overhead press. Well, I don't know if these are usually considered the big 3, but they are the 3 lifts that factor into the CrossFit Total.

I threw in a new compound power lift sequence at the end of this to get my total workload up for the workout session, as doing heavy singles isn't a lot of total poundage moved. The CrossFitters call this one the "Bear Complex"



It works pretty much all the major muscle groups. Boy does it ever wear you out!

Anyway, here are my results from the 1RM testing:

Squat: 225 lbs
(Overhead) Press: 120 lbs (not in one fluid motion, did 115 with good form)
Deadlift: 275 lbs

At my current bodyweight (say 135 lbs), this gives ratios of

Squat: 1.67 x BW
Press: 0.89 (0.85 good form) x BW
Deadlift: 2.04 x BW

The deadlift probably surprised me the most. Getting over the 2xBW threshold was pretty good I think. I had an idea that I could squat 225 though and might have been able to push it further, but I underestimated my starting weights for it and ended up doing too many singles building up.

Comparing these results to strength standards table found here, I'm in between the ranges for intermediate and advanced, but closer to intermediate. Based on this, the goal I am setting for the end of this mission is to hit the advanced level for the press, bench press, squat, and deadlift. I will also practice my technique on the power clean and some other power lifts, but not go heavy on them just yet.

This would put my target 1RM at the following, assuming I finish at a bodyweight of around 140:

Press: 135 lbs (need to increase by 20 lbs)
Bench: 225 lbs (need to increase by ???)
Squat: 300 lbs (need to increase by 75 lbs)
DeadL: 365 lbs (need to increase by 90 lbs)

Out of these, realistically I might only be able to get the Press up to the advanced level, but it gives me something to shoot for. I know I'm going to have to make some jumps in added pounds on my 5x5 training! Gotta push myself!

That's all for today.

So until then,
Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 5

Day 93 - CrossFit

As I think more and more about my ultimate goals, the more I think about my "dream" body. Others may have a picture in their mind, or have pasted their head onto their dream body to help them visualize. Ultimately, I want to be fit, strong, and healthy. I am an athlete, but an athlete that no longer has a competitive sport to compete in. What does it mean to be an athlete? What does it mean to be athletic?

The more I think about it, the clearer the picture is for me. I want to model my "dream" body on the athletes that exhibit the greatest strength in all aspects of fitness, which includes cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The best examples I can think of that cover this category are Boxers, Wrestlers, and mixed martial artists. Now, I'm not a violent person, but I like that each of these sports requires someone to compete in a specific weight class.

As a shorter and smaller person, I've always had to rely on other aspects of my athletic ability to compete against those bigger and stronger than me. My strong points in athletic fitness were always, well, everything but strength and power. But that was absolute strength and power. When you compete in weight classe, strength to weight ratio and power to weight ratio are what matters. So, my "dream" body is to maximize my abilites in all aspects of fitness, while remaining in my "weight" class, whatever that may naturally fall in, which I'm guessing is somewhere between 135-145 lbs.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not just looking for big muscles and low body fat. I'm looking for everything else. Yesterday I stumbled upon CrossFit, which is a strength and conditioning program that combines different exercises into workouts that develop all aspects of fitness. It takes the idea of cross-training to the extreme. If you haven't heard of it before, you should definitely check it out and watch some of the workout videos. Everyday they post a Workout of the Day (WOD) and CrossFit athletes performing them. Now, I've only watched a few, but you'll soon realize that these are killer workouts. Watch these people with excellent physiques become totally wiped and struggle to complete these exercises as they tire.

This program is used by firefighters, police officers, SWAT, and military. I like to think of it as the training Jason Bourne got.

I think this is exactly what I need. A lot of the WODs look like obstacle courses, which I used to just love as a kid. Run, jump, climb, throw, lift, as fast as you can and try and put in the best time.

Well, it turns out that there's a CrossFit club in my current city. I really want to join, but I don't know if I'll do it right away, as it would be an extra cost and I'd have to drive to it. I can't really justify that now since my gym membership is essentially free (student at Uni) and it's a short walk away. It's also at a specific time each day, so there's no flexibility. Eventually it's something I would like to do though. It just looks awesome! You do something different everyday, so it's exciting and you wouldn't have to worry about boredom setting in. It is possible to just follow the workouts on your own, but they use a lot of equipment that my gym doesn't have.

They also use a lot of squats, deadlifts, presses, power cleans, clean and jerks for the weight lifting portions. I think I'll have to work on my form first before I fully engage. But this is certainly exciting stuff!

Cheers,
Raiden

ShredderSphere daily accountability starts tomorrow, so
Get your game face on!

Day 93