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 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 148 - Bring the Pain

Today I had a wicked case of the DOMS, especially in my legs. What did I do to give myself this world of hurt? Believe it or not, I lowered the weight on my squat in yesterday's workout, and still followed the same set-rep scheme.

So how did lifting 30lbs less weight than last week give me a greater stimulus?

Quite simple. I wasn't squatting deep enough.

As I increased my weight each session lately, I've been also slowly reducing my range of motion. I figured rather than cheat myself out of the whole movement, I'd lower the weight and really get an ATA (arse to ankle) squat.

I now have confidence that I can go that low without hurting myself. So from now on, I'm squatting deep into the pocket!

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 30

Day 142 - 2 steps forward, 1 step back

Today's workout was pretty good, but I think I almost could have used another days rest. I didn't quite feel as strong as I did on Monday. I just didn't quite have enough gas in me and my form started to suffer a little. I don't know if it was my nutrition or just that I haven't slept well the past couple nights. I'm going to see how things go on Friday, but if I can't pull the weight that I want to, I'm going to do a short "intensity cycle" where I will back off on my weights to 80-90% of what they are right now, and then slowly work my way back up, and then exceed!

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 24

Day 139 - Q & A

Today I thought I would answer Lilla's questions in my post since they were some really good ones that I kind of wanted to talk about at some point anyway.

I'm curious about stronglifts - when you start, you don't chose weights for failure on each set 5 x 5?

When I started stronglifts, there were a few exercises that I hadn't done ever or in a while. Mainly, the deadlift and barbell squats, which are also ones in which you can injure yourself more easily if you have poor form and lift heavy. I started out with an empty bar and worked my way up in weight while concentrating on form. Since you squat 3x a week on this program, if you add 10 lbs each session, it doesn't take long to build up to a decent weight. If you're comfortable in the exercises, you would go to a slightly different program and use weights closer to your maximum. Most programs of this type recommend a basic 2-3 week strengthening phase using sub-maximal loads before you hit a maximal workload.

How did you up your calories %wise per macro? Do you eat differently on workout days vs. non-workout days?

My calories pecentage wise changed a little bit. Before, when I was on my initial fat loss stage, I aimed for about a 30/15/55 protein/fat/carb split. In order to get enough calories in for a bulking plan, the main thing that I did was allow myself more fats, since it is a good way to get the calories in. Also, some saturated fat is good because it stimulates your testosterone levels, which is anabolic. I also didn't increase my carb intake as much as the others. I think that my ratios are somewhere around 30/25/45, but it's hard to say exactly as I no longer log my food or count calories. I just try to eat a lot! If I overeat on anything, it's meat. I figure I need all the protein I can get.

I eat slightly differently on workout days to account for my workout nutrition. On non-workout days, I eat 6 meals, and incorporate meal tapering. My last meal is more of a bed-time snack which is a casein protein shake with a serving of fat, which has lately been either Udo's mixed in the shake or almond butter on celery sticks. I try to have minimal carbs in this snack. My pre and post-workout nutrition on workout days is strictly protein and carbs. I try to have as little fat as possible in these, and they are smaller. There might be 2-4 grams that sneak in, but I don't conciously add a fat source. These are usually meals 4 and 5 for me, then I'll have meal 6 about an hour or so later, and then finish with my bedtime snack (meal 7). Because of this, my workout days might be lower in fat content and might be more like a 35/15/50 split. The total calories per day probably don't vary much because I feel it is just as important to feed the muscle the day after a workout.

There is a good chance that I'm not making the leanest gains possible, but I am now fully accepting that some fat is going to be put on. What I'm doing is giving me results that I am happy with, so until I see large fat gains and little muscle gains, I'll continue on.

Thanks Lilla for the great questions!

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 21

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 135 - Sweetness

Yesterday I picked up some stevia from the local health food store. Following Lilla's advice, I added a bit of it to the BFFM pancakes this morning. I think that was the secret missing ingredient. It made them much more enjoyable. Now I think the BFFM pancakes can be a real regular on my menu.

Today's workout was great. I was a little sore from Monday's workout earlier in the day, but the pain subsided once I got into the gym. My squats felt a lot stronger and I know I can keep pushing the weight up each session. Snuck in some push up work at the end of my workout, but my bench press and tricep dip had already taxed me. But it made for a great workout! By the end of it, I could barely move.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 17

Day 127 - Back in the groove

Well, the extra rest helped out and it felt good to get back into the gym today. Last week was more of a warm-up. Today's sessions I tackled weights that were more than what I was doing before Christmas.

I warmed up on the deadlift with the weight I was using before Christmas and it felt so much lighter. Now that I'm confident my form is good, I threw on an extra 50 lbs on top of that.

I'm in the groove and ready to step it up and go big!

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 9

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 121 - Strength Goals

I've decided that my primary focus for my mission 2 will be to hit some specific strength goals. But in order to do so, I really need to figure out what I am capable of. Since I've started on the Stronglifts program, I haven't reached the point of failure in any of my exercises yet, and they've all been done as 5x5's. Especially since I started light and am slowly adding weight, concentrating on perfecting form. However, the best indicator of absolute strength is the 1 rep max (1RM). I have no idea what my 1RM's are for all of my lifts, so that's something I need to figure out.

This Friday, I will attempt to determine my 1RM weights for the squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, and maybe the barbell row. I may do the bench and barbell row on another day, as I'm not sure how many different 1RM I can truly figure out in one session as the combination of exercises may fatigure me. But maybe I'll just do them all and make sure I do it in the same order when I re-test again.

This will give me a starting point. I'll then re-test my 1RM's at least once in the middle of my mission, and at the end of my mission.

Well, I must say that starting this new mission has me all pumped up again. I couldn't get to sleep last night because I kept thinking of all the different exercises I wanted to do. I was doing squats and deadlifts in my sleep! I was so wound up with extra energy! I probably would have slept better if I worked out yesterday, but to build that muscle, I really need to try and get my rest! It's hard for me, I'm typically an all or nothing guy, so if I'm working out, it's all I want to do! I just have to remind myself to be patient though. The changes will come as long as I keep doing the right things.

Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 3

Day 103 - Feeling Nostalgic

Today I returned to where it all began for me. I went back to the gym where I first started to do weight training years ago. It's been about 3.5 years since I last worked out there. They've since added some new equipment and got rid of some of the old. A nice improvement overall. The nicest addition in my opinion was a world-class rowing machine, the concept 2, which is used by olympic rowers and is the recommended rowing machine for CrossFit. I had to try it out and I must say that rowing is quite possibly one of the best overall workouts you can do. I did 3x500m sprints on it and I was totally wiped by the end of it, even though that only took me a little over 10 min.

It was kind of nice to go back there and work out again. I even saw some familiar faces, people that I used to see work out a lot when I was going regularly years ago.

Well, I don't have the camera that I've been using (my gf claimed dibbs on it while she visits her family), so I'm relying on the webcam in my MacBook. Thought I'd have fun with the background feature of Photo Booth since my little cousins have been playing with it and having fun with it.

Anyway, I would just like to take this time to say thanks for all the holiday wishes that all the Shredders have been throwing out, and I'd just like to throw mine into the mix. Hope everyone is having fun enjoying good company and relaxing, while still staying healthy and merry!

Cheers!
Raiden

Day 100 - The Century!

Today marks triple digits as I enter day 100 of my Return to Form challenge. I feel like I should make a big post or something, but I honestly don't have the time and I wouldn't be able to do it true justice, so I'll just make it simple and promise to make some more interesting posts in the future. I'll probably have time to over the holidays, but we'll have to see about that.

Personally, I've been busy finishing up things for work (school) as I have a big deadline for a conference paper submission this friday as well as some other big stuff that I can't talk about here :)

All this is going on while I also prepare to head home on friday to see the family. Craziness! Tack on top of that the crazy hours with my gym now, present shopping, wrapping, Christmas baking, and I'm all over the place.

Today though, I did get my strength training session in and upped all my weights again. I'm pretty pleased with my squat and deadlift progress, and I'm loving the weighted chin-up/pull-up/dips.

I also semi-fixed my image program problem, so the nice pics are back up.

That's all I got for today, need some quality rest!

Get your game face on!
Raiden

Day 98 - Shoveling/Weights Morning/Evening Split

With the snowstorm that hit us hard yesterday and continued on through the night, I started the morning bright and early with a shoveling and ice scraping workout. Even after my "pre-shoveling" last night, there was still a fair amount of snow on the car. There was also a nice layer of ice encasing the car as towards the tail end of the storm, a bit of rain fell and then quickly froze. I'm not usually a morning workout person, but this got my heart rate up and kept me alert for the rest of the day.

However, I think the extra energy expended this morning made my scheduled evening session a little lighter. I passed on the cardio tonight, but still managed to get all my weights in, just in the nick of time before they booted us out of the weight room, as an exam was about to start.

Also, today is my weekly fat pinching day, so here's this weeks updated stats:

Week 14: 2007-12-10 to 2007-12-17
Weight: 134.66 (-0.33)
BF: 20.80 (-0.16)
Suprailiac: 10 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/13/12 (9.44%)

Here's where you can find the rest of my weekly stats.

My weight still hasn't switched modes yet, as it is still going down, although much slower. My body fat is still going down, which is good, but I think the muscle mass gains are too small at this point to be noticeabley measureable. I do feel stronger and my muscles feel a lot firmer when they're flexed. I might still be having a hard time shoveling enough calories into my body. It's a lot harder to get all those calories when you aren't pigging out on sugary fatty foods.

I'll probably have no problem getting enough calories over the break, but for now, I'm still concentrating on eating clean.

I still haven't solved my image editing problem as I didn't have much time today to try and fix it. So, instead of struggling with it, here's today's pics:

Day 98

Day 95 - Odd Hours

I'm kind of at a loss for words today, which doesn't happen to me very often. Usually I have some idea of something elaborate that I want to write about. Not today I guess.

The only interesting thing regarding fitness today for me is that the my gym at the university doubles as an exam writing area, so the hours lately have been sporadic, as they don't want people banging weights while they write. So that meant today I had to do some extra planning and sneak off a bit early to get in my workout.

It was another great strength session on the StrongLifts program. Upped all my weights and am now doing weighted pull-ups. I didn't quite hit the prescribed 5x5 on those as I tapped out with 3 reps on the last set, but I'm sure I'll get it next time.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but I'll probably be pretty busy anyway. Well, now I'm off to relax for the rest of the evening with the gf.

Get your game face on!
Raiden

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

Day 91 - The True Confessions of Raiden Matsuo

Yesterday I made a short but to the point post. I had done wrong over the weekend and the guilt was getting to me. The accountability factor of having to report back to this blog did help control it however.

It was kind of one of those deals where a cheat meal turned into a cheat day, which turned into a cheat weekend. It all started with the work Christmas party, which was a buffet style dinner. Luckily though, as a result of eating smaller, more frequent meals, I'm unable to overeat as much as I used to be able to in one sitting. But then there was the beer, and then there was the desert table, and then there was the drunken late night ordering of pizza, and then there was the hangover breakfast, and then there was the samosas for lunch (which is my normal cheat meal), and then there was the beer at the matinee music gig that I caught, and then there was the leftover pizza from the night before.

My body basically had a conniption from all the garbage I was suddenly feeding it. I felt awful by the end of this trek. I was back to my senses by Sunday, but there was definitely some damage done. Oh, and what do I see? A couple of comments from Sammy and Adam advising caution when trying to put on some muscle to not overeat, and to continue eating good clean foods. Oh, the guilt was really setting in there.

But, as I look back, it may not have been as bad as I've made it out to be. As I said, I only managed one plate at the buffet, and a good third of it was filled with salad and grilled tomatoes and peppers. I filled up mostly on the meat, which was a seafood mixture of mussels, clams, and fish (seafood is always good lean protein) and half of a chicken breast, and I had just a bit of pasta and potatoe salad. Ok, well, I won't talk about the beer and the cake, but I did get some watermelon in to slow me down from the cake. The pizza we ordered was topped with chicken, ham, mushroom, peppers, and onion, so I managed to stay away from the sausage, ground beef and bacon. My hangover breakfaast was half of a waffle covered in lots of good fruit (and whipped cream) with a side of ham and some baked beans. So not great, but not terrible.

I did miss my workout yesterday, but once again, I really needed the rest, especially after I spent most of the day on my feet doing chores as well as making up another batch of my protein fortified granola bars. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Today was much better as the order of the work week definitely makes it easier for me to stick to my planned nutrition. I was back in the gym today and got in a good workout and banged out some great sets. I left the gym completely exhausted. The difference between the strength building exercises and all the isolation exercises I was doing before is dramatic. Before, when I was just focusing on 2 or 3 body parts per workout, that body part would get tired, but I'd still have plenty of energy left, or at least that's what it seemed like. Doing whole body compound strength exercises leaves me just wiped, but I still feel good. It's more like the feeling after playing a game of hockey or doing some rock climbing.

Well, before I ramble on too much longer, here are my weekly measurement stats:
Week 13: 2007-12-03 to 2007-12-10
Weight: 134.99 (-0.28, -18.4 total)
BF: 20.96 (-0.07, -5.6 total)
Suprailiac: 10 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/14/12 (9.74%)

Not much changes this week, but the PhysicsDiet data is still playing catch up. I expect to see it go up next week. Even with my weekend binge though, the fat levels stayed the same as far as the pinches go. So, I guess the answer to my transformer hard-gainer in disguise question was that the buffet meal (and subsequent binge) didn't do a whole lot for either muscle or fat, but it did make me feel like crap. My stomach is starting to feel not quite as tight as it was a couple weeks ago. Although, some of my pinches felt like I could have recorded them as the next notch down, but it wasn't quite enough for me to record them as being different from last weeks numbers.

Well, here's today's pics:

Day 91