Much better week

All in all, this week was the best one I've had in quite a while. My food has been very clean, and my workouts have all been intense and focused. Over the weekend, I'd like to spend some time putting together some specific goals for my weightlifting, similar to what I've done for my bench presses. Those goals will include projected weight to be used. If I don't do that, I run the risk of getting comfortable with what I'm doing and not moving forward. I plan on doing the same thing for my running. I'm about in the same place that I was in a year ago with my runs. If I had a plan to gradually increase my average speed, I'm certain that I would have made some significant gains. Lacking that plan allows me to stick with the same old same old, meaning stagnation. I work to hard to stay in the same place over the course of a year. It's time to shake things up!

It was with sore legs

from yesterday's LBWO that I began to run for my cardio today. I hit the 2.6 mile mark at 20 minutes, which was an average pace of 7:41 per mile. Had I continued on for a 5k at that pace, I would have turned in a 23:00 time, running on the treadmill at a 1.0 incline. Not bad. I need to keep pushing myself on my cardio. I've been stagnating, and it's time to progress.

I toyed with the idea of doing the Crossfit WOD today

but I opted for a very good 5k run instead. The WOD today was:

Five rounds for time of:
400 meter Run
50 Squats
30 Back extensions

Sisnce I have legs/abs tomorrow, I thought it would be overkill to do this one today. Herein lies my struggle with trying to blend Crossfit with my BFL style workouts. I actually did yesterday's WOD for my shoulder workout yesterday. It was like this:

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Sometimes it works out fine, and others, like today, the workouts end up conflicting with each other. I've been doing some practice on teh Olympic lifts. I need step that up so I can try to move 90% over to Crossfit.

I cleaned up my act on food over the past two days. Obviously, cardio was on point today. I'm going to assemble a plan for my squats that resembles my bench press plan to keep me on target.

Assessment time

I have been making very good progress on my upper body workouts lately. I'm pushing the weights higher and working towards my goal of hitting 300lbs on the bench by the end of the year. That's the good news. The bad news is that I've been neglecting my legs, and, to a lesser degree, my cardio. Since I've been hitting UB twice a week, I've only been hitting lower body once a week. It's hard to build any momentum with a once a week workout. To make matters worse, in most weeks I'm only hitting abs once a week, unless I do a Crossfit workout on cardio day that has some ab work. If I miss a workout, it is likely to be a cardio workout, and it is showing in my performance. My eating has been far from perfect, and far from horrible. So-so. Needs improvement. If I had to give my self a grade, I'd go with a C+, or a B- if I was feeling really generous. That is just not acceptable.

I need to make sure I hit legs at least twice a week, and I really need to focus harder on my cardio work. The food...yeah. Play time is over.

I know I deserve a bit of butt kicking from my old teammates. C'mon guys and gals. Step up and let it rip. I deserve it!

Just about every

muscle in my body is aching and sore today.

That makes me smile, in case you were wondering.

Interesting question

I've been following a post on tracker in which someone asks whether BFL rewards muscularity or overall fitness. It's an interesting question. I think it's clear that the BFL contest tries to crown winners that make the biggest physical and emotional transformations. I think an improved state of fitness is a by-product of a BFL style bodily transformation. That being said, I do think it is possible to be champion material and still fall well short of your potential as it relates to overall fitness. This is particularly true if the exercises you most often do are isolation exercises rather than compound exercises. If you do not push yourself hard enough on your cardio or vary what you're doing for it, you will also limit your overall levels of fitness. Don't forget that the BFL workout has its basis in bodybuilding. In bodybuilding, asthetics rule, not athletic performance.

Personally, I tend to agree with the definition of fitness as described by crossfit:

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-download/CFJ-trial.pdf

Combining compound movement weight training/gymnastic movements with Crossfit style metabolic conditioning that challenges both the upper and lower body during a workout will lead you to a much higher level of overall fitness than the as prescribed BFL plan. This doesn't mean there is anything wrong with BFL. In fact, adherence to the plan will yield a level of fitness that surpasses most people in your age group. What you won't do is approach an elite level of fitness performing BFL alone, especially if you do a lot of isolation work or machine work. Sorry. It just isn't going to happen. That doesn't make it a bad program. It just has its limits.

BTW, today I added the Crossfit WOD to my LBWO. It was seven sets of 3 reps Hang Squat Clean. This is a perfect example of what I mean. The drive to move the weight up begins in the legs and hips, the traps get involved, and then the quads, hammies and glutes as you drop under the bar, stop its downward motion, and perform a front squat to complete the sequence. It takes some getting used to, and is a very explosive movement. This is the type of thing you'll NEVER encounter in a BFL workout. Workouts like this build your body for performance. Asthetics will follow.

I grunted and growled my way

through my UBWO today. I finished up doing dips with a 25lb dumbell held between my ankles. I'd like that to be a 100 pounder by the end of the year. Another goal. Good 5k run over the weekend. Legs finally feeling good again. I need to watch the knees.

Okay...I'm ready

After missing workouts the past three days, I got back into the gym for my UBWO today. That cold never kicked in, so that's good. My eating was not great the past few days. I actually ate too little, and a bit too much of stuff I shouldn't have. No big surprise that I felt a bit weak in the workout today. I wonder if part of it is that my body just didn't do anything for three days. Could be. Anyway, I ended up having a pretty good workout. My body woke up once I got started, and I got a good pump going.

I'll be running tomorrow. Running and abs. I'm ready to pick up where I left off.

Getting a bit annoyed

Is it coming or not? I'm right there on the edge of a cold, sure it's going to set it's teeth into me...and yet it just isn't. I've passed up my LBWO today, as I was feeling groggy and "almost" sick again this morning. That's two workouts in a row that I've missed. Either come or don't already. I have shit that needs doing!

I bordering on coming down

with the first cold I've had in ages. I was wiped out last night, and my throat is a bit scratchy. I opted out of running this morning. I can usually do weight training when I'm sick, but pushing cardio seems to make it worse for me. I don't like missing workouts, but I'll play it smart for now.

Mixed bag

I almost feel like I'm coming down with a little something, and I felt it in my workout today. It was higher rep day today, and I was spent by the end of it. I'm liking alternating higher rep workouts with heavier, lower rep ones later in the week. I've been making good progress with them as well. I'm going for a good night's sleep tonight to fend off whatever it is I may be getting. Hopefully nothing.

Progress

I had a combination workout at lunchtime today. I did my normal leg workout, and then decided to do my cardio workout for the day. I decided to go with a Crossfit workout called Michael. It goes like this:

Three rounds for time:
Run 800m
50 Back extensions
50 Situps

I completed it in 24:44, which beat my last time of 25:51 by over a minute. I lose at least a couple of minutes in transition, because the treadmills are a bit away from where I do the other two exercises. Good workout.

My knees have been a bit sore of late. That Saturday Crossfit from a couple of weeks ago has taken it's toll a bit. First, the knees felt very tight for a few days. Now they feel a bit sore when I go into a deep crouch. Crossfit is very leg intensive. I really should scale it for a while to let my joints catch up.

Cause and effect

If you had a nasty food allergy, you would avoid eating the food that triggers a reaction at all costs. We can clearly see an immediate cause and effect in these situations, so we alter our behavior to avoid them. Of course. Only an insane person would choose to do otherwise.

Given the above, why do so many people choose to ignore the cause and effect of poor nutrition, overeating, lack of exercise, smoking and excessive drinking? I read something the other day that was shocking. Nearly 1 million people die annually in the United States due to heart and circulatory system diseases. Diabetes takes an additional toll. We know our behaviors are harmful, yet we do nothing to change them. It is truly shocking. Although we are an intelligent people, our mind does think in illogical ways at times. The way our harmful activities adversely affect our bodies is a very slow process, allowing us to mentally uncouple the cause and effect in our minds. Even though we KNOW we are hurting ourselves, intuitively, it feels as if we aren’t. So we continue what we are doing. We continue until we are lucky enough to get a wakeup call, or we get sick of being unable to physically perform certain tasks, or we get sick of looking at ourselves, or we have a near death experience, or, worst case, we die. Often, even people who have some sort of epiphany revert back to past behavior at some point. Frequently, family members derail the efforts of someone trying to get healthy. Cause and effect is not always an immediate thing. We should take care to actively remember that.

We also make the mistake of equating how we look with how healthy we are. Being thin or toned does not mean we are healthy. Being fit involves proper nutrition and exercise. It involves possessing a level of musculature that allows us to enjoy day to day activities in a reasonable fashion. Most of us have jobs that require us to be sedentary for hours on end. We must ensure that we set aside time to do what our bodies were designed to do. Move. Walk. Run. Jump. Pick up heavy stuff. Challenge ourselves. And we must do it on a regular basis. We must ensure that we provide our bodies the proper building blocks to rebuild themselves over and over during the course of our lifetimes. We must limit our intake of empty calories that only serve to destroy our bodies. We must make the connection between our behavior and our health. We need to make that connection every day. Our lives literally depend upon it.

Not much to report here

Busy weekend that lacked any exercise, but certainly didn't lack an overabundance of the wrong foods. Sometimes life gets in the way, and you roll with it and move forward again. That's what I'm doing. Brutal UBWO today. Brutal in a good way. Penance...she can be a bitch...but you have to love her.

Great workout and some thoughts

I had a great UBWO today. As I wrote recently, I've got a plan to increase my weight on the bench this year, with a goal of hitting the 300lb mark by the end of the year. I'm working on a cycle that goes like this:

1st UBWO of the week: a warmup set or two followed by 5 sets of 10 reps at a single weight, and then 1-2 reps at a weight that is 50lbs heavier than the 5 set weight. Finish up with a set of 10-12 at the warmup weight. I also do a few sets of cable flys at the end of the workout.
2nd UBWO of the week: A warmup set or two, followed by 5 sets of at least 3 reps at a weight 30lbs higher than the 1st workout of the week. Follow with 1-2 reps at the high weight from earlier in the week, and then run a set of 10-12 reps at warmup weight.

In week 2, add five pounds to each set.
In week 3, add five pounds again.
In week 4, start at the weights used in week two, add 5 pounds again in week 5 and week 6. Repeat that pattern.

In six months, the workout weights will have been increased by 50 lbs in total.

After just a couple of weeks on this plan, I can already see gains. By progressing slowly and regressing backward every three weeks, the connective tissue is given the opportunity to catch up to muscle growth. The key is to get the body used to handling heavier weights. The body learns to handle heavier weights in the second workout of the week, so the increased weight in the first workout of the next week doesn't feel too heavy. Since we're targeting only three reps in the second workout, and increase in weight of 5 lbs a week is not overly taxing. Of course, at some point everyone is going to hit a wall where gains become harder to come by. I get that. But I also now realize that without a real plan such as this, strength gains were going to be a nebulous goal that I might never reach.

I'm thinking about assembling a similar workout for shoulders and squats as well. While I'm working on Olympic lifts for Crossfit, I can work to increase my max lifts on presses and squats as well. I was supposed to have done some work on that today, but I...well...I forgot. It's okay. My legs are shot after last weekend's workout.

Most people cannot understand living a BFL/Crossfit type lifestyle. Why? Because a lot of people only make temporary changes in their lives if they've gained some weight over the holidays, or are trying to lose weight for an event or some other short term/short sighted reason. They tie eating differently and/or exercising solely to appearance, and usually for a limited amount of time.

They are missing the boat. Big time. We all care about our appearance, and looking better may even be a motivating factor at times. What we really want to be is healthy and fit and strong. Every day of our lives. That is NOT a temporary fix. It is a lifestyle. It's sad that so many people don't get it.

BFL is in the Zone...kinda...

The Crossfit program suggests either the Zone eating plan or the paleo eating plan, also known as the cave man plan (I will NOT use the word diet here). There are a lot of similarities between the BFL plan and the Zone plan. In fact, the palm of your hand measurement is suggested by both plans. One difference is that the Zone plan recommends a bit more fat, and encourages fruit and vegetables as the desired form of carbs. The plan allows you to double the carb portion size if you're eating veggies instead of rice/potatoes/whole grains. The use of nuts are also recommended by the Zone. Honestly, it's what I've intuitively done under BFL anyway. The Zone suggests you eat very little in the way of pastas and rices and whatnot. I think one of the reasons for that is that it's very easy to overconsume these foods. Unless you're measuring everything, you're probably eating more carbs than you should. Anyway, it's interesting to note how similar the plans are in many ways. I'm guessing that based upon your body type and genetics, most people's optimum nutrition needs probably fall into a range between these two programs. Play around a bit and find out what works best for you.