Short on time

UBWO today. I had a good workout, not too heavy, not too light. My biceps are killing me from the chins and pullups. Eating has been better. That's all for now.

5K today

I ran the 5k today for the first time in about a month. I finished in 22:58, which is nearly :45 slower than my best time, but 1:28 faster than the last one I ran about a month ago. All things considered, I'm okay with it. For now. I need to make progress.

I did some good ab work too. Eating has been a bit better, but I could still stand some improvement.

To get what you've never had...

you've got to do what you've never done. I thought about that statement while I was working out yesterday. Since I've been back from vacation, my weightlifting workouts have been moderately heavy, but I haven't been pushing for progress. I'm treading water a bit right now until I finish developing my workout plan.

There is a section of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength that talks about programing. I'm reading the entire book, and then I'll use that section to develop a lifting program that will push me and help me grow stronger. Once I have that plan, I'll tie Crossfit workouts around it, and mix in some biking/swimming/running for good measure. I've been a bit preoccupied, so it's taking me a bit longer than I had hoped. I want the strength, and I want the metabolic conditioning that CF provides too.

To get what you've never had...you've got to do what you've never done.

We should all remember that every time we work out. It's very true. I've made significant gains on the bench since the beginning of the year by having a plan and challenging myself each and every workout. That being said, I may have underestimated the role that taking an occasional rest plays. I need to keep that in mind in the future.

I was working squats today, and I was working hard on my form. Ripptoe suggests that we imaging a chain hanging from the ceiling and pulling straight up from our tailbone when we come out of the hole on squats. It helps us maintain proper position, and allows the hips to extend before engaging the quads. Damned if he isn't right. It was much easier to maintain proper posture and come right out of the hole. I rewarded myself with some deadlifts too.

Nutrition....damn...I need to stop writing and start acting. I give myself a C on nutrition over the past few days. Enough of that.

Strong workout today

I had a strong UBWO today before the long holiday weekend. I'm not sure if I'll get in my next UBWO on Monday or move it to Tuesday. In any event, I'll be performing two workouts this weekend to stay on track.

I'm also going to focus on eating well and not going overboard. We aren't having any guests, so there is no excuse to eat poorly. Besides, I had my fun on holiday.

Next week, I'll be sketching out my Crossfit schedule, leaving two days a week for lifting. I dont know if I want to take the three on one off approach. I like the BFL six on one off better. It works much better with my week. If I go three on one off, I will at times end up with lifting days over the weekends. I don't generally have the equipment to do it on the weekends, and going to the gym is not a great option. I need to work out something that will not have me over training, but will still allow me to work the Crossfit workouts with lifting days mixed in.

Reflection

It was two years ago today when I began my first BFL challenge. I have made significant progress, and I've altered my workouts a bit to skew more towards Crossfit than BFL. I presently enjoy much improved health and fitness over when I started this journey.

All that being said, it is important to note that I need to remain vigilant. I looked at my stats from a year ago, and realized that I'm almost 16 pounds heavier and my BP is a bit worse than it was this time last year. Those sixteen pounds include some additional muscle for sure. Most of the damage in terms of bodyfat has really occured during the week I was on vacation....at least 5.5 pounds to be more exact. I've known that I was adding a bit of fat while trying to add some muscle. I do need to be more careful with my eating. It is critical not only in terms of avoiding foods, but more so in providing the nutrition I need to build and run my body.

I did the Crossfit Workout Michael today, thanks to a suggestion I received from a BFL friend. It is:

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

I made the mistake of not looking at my total time, speed, and splits from my last Michael beforehand. I should have known I was going too slow when I felt fine during and after my first 800m. My speed should have been 1 mph faster than I ran for each of the runs. I finished with a mediocre 25:39, which is a couple minutes slower than my last Michael. I tacked on a half mile run to the end just because. Yes, I was wiped, but yes...I could have done better.

Moderate HIIT run

today. I wish I could say it felt good to run again, but I can't. I really don't care for it much, but it's a necessary evil...so I do it. I'm a bit sore from my UBWO yesterday, but not horribly so. Not a lot more to report today.

Health club strength

Is that what you have? Is that what you want?

Most people that work out want exactly that. Why? For the most part, because they don't know any better. They may have spent some time with a trainer that stuck them on a bunch of machines at some point, and told them they could have a great physique by doing this for twenty minutes two to three times a week. The message is visually reinforced at most health clubs on a daily basis. People build health club strength because they think that is what you are supposed to do. I recently had a friend ask me whether he should start doing some circuit training. I told him no. I told him that he should lift some weights. Overhead presses, bench presses, pullups, squats, and deadlifts. Master that stuff, and we can move on. I may be spending some time training him.

Well...what is health club strength? If you stick with it long enough, you'll look pretty good. You'll have some pecs and delts, biceps and triceps, some quads and lats. Most likely though, the support muscles throughout your back and trunk will be weak and under worked. You will have underdeveloped hamstrings, glutes, and hip extensors. Why? Because machines and health club exercises try to isolate muscles. Most of them are done in a sitting or reclining position. Your trunk is not used nor required to support the weight as you exercise. Your muscles are not taught to work together, and a large part of lifting involves the nervous system as well as the muscles and skeleton. I have learned a lot of this firsthand, and I've changed my methods accordingly.

My objective is to have real world strength. I want my body to be a machine that works as one. I want my muscles in proportion, each group doing what they were designed to do. I want to do cardio that occurs in the real world-running, sprinting, swimming, attacking hills, biking, working for speed under loads. I can guarantee that I'll look just as good as the average health club guy, but I will be able to outperform him by far. THAT...is the difference between training for performance and training for a mirror.

What do you want to do?

Back in the saddle again

After a ten day layoff, I got back into the gym today for some upper body work. I expected to feel weak, but my body surprised me. I felt strong, and although it was a short workout to get started again, I pushed some heavy weight. I guess taking a week of rest once in a while really does make some sense. Of course, that doesn't excuse eating like a slob, which is pretty much what I did on vacation. I'm not overly bothered by it, except for the couple of times that I indulged in a treat that just wasn't very good. If I'm going to eat something I shouldn't, I damned well want it to be sinfully enjoyable. If it isn't, why bother?

This will be "light" week for me, and next week I'll push hard again.

Time to rest

I'll be on vacation starting this evening. I did my run and abs yesterday, but I'm forced to miss my UBWO today due to work. That's okay. I'm going to rest the shoulder and the rest of my body and come back strong.

Everybody stay on your game while I'm gone!!!

Planning continued

I had a LBWO today, consisting of squats, deadlifts, Stiff leg deadlifts and step ups onto a bench. I did some standing calve raises too. At the end of the workout, I tried doing some overhead squats. I've been having a very tough time with these. While they do seem to give me a stretch in the wonky shoulder, they are very difficult for me. I have a tough time keeping my balance doing these. I'm only using the bar, so it is possible that there is too little weight for proper balance. I need to do some research or proper technique for OH Squats.

That brings me to my point today. When I return from vacation, I want to spend a month doing my normal workouts, but I want to spend some time in each workout specifically working on some of the CF/Olympic lifts. I want to get the form down, so that I can feel comfortable moving onto my next training phase.

I'm thinking of following a strength training CF program. The way the program works is that I would follow the three day on, one day off CF routine. On the second day of each three day cycle, I will do strength training instead of the WOD. That will give me two weight lifting days each week, and four WOD days. I need to think a bit more about scheduling and how I would be able to work this out. I'll probably do the WOD one or two weeks behind the main site, so I can alter things if needed. For example, if it's lifting day today and tomorrow's WOD is max effort squats, I won't do them today. I think I'll like this.

Cardio and ab day

I just did a normal BFL style HIIT cardio today. I didn't extend the run into a 5k like I often have. I just wanted to get back into a good HIIT run, and I did.

I hit my abs pretty good, doing some knees to elbows, situps and bicycles. I finished off with some vacuums. I can't wait for squats tomorrow.

Interesting post from elsewhere

Right Here

How ridiculous. Of course, everyone would like to look good, but really. Health and performance first. Appearance will follow. And if feel you need to go to ridiculous lengths to get a woman to talk to you, you're pathetic. Just sayin.

Intense workout today

I had a very intense UBWO today. I didn't do any exercise over the weekend other than walk, and I wanted to punish myself today. I succeeded. Upon completion of my UBWO, I proceeded to do the CF WOD from yesterday. IT was:

For time:
50 Burpees

Jump one foot above reach each rep

I completed that workout in a miserable time of 6:55.

The more I think about it, the more I realize I need to improve my metabolic conditioning. I did a mini-triathlon last summer, and the swimming wiped me out. While I could stand to improve my technique, it really is the total body metcon that I need to work on. CF style workouts go well beyond just running. They bring the entire body into play, and they require speed. That taxes the body in a way that running, biking, or lifting weights does not. I think metcon improvement will be that last push I need to completely normalize my blood pressure. I feel the truth in that statement. I need to go for it.

I'm going on vacation in a week, and I'm going to give some thought about how to better tailor my workouts when I return. I've got a good idea in my head, but I need to let it percolate and refine it some. With the warm weather coming, I plan to spend some additional time with outside activities too. I need to swim and get on my bike, on top of whatever else I'm doing.

Grinding it out

I was struggling with my UBWO today. It was heavy day on chest/back/shoulders. I'm either starting to hit a wall on chest, or a combination of eating at 75% and sleeping too little is catching up to me. All in all, I had a good workout, but would have liked it to be better.

Today's CF WOD is Murph:

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

I was very tempted to do this one. I looked at my times from Angie last week, and estimated my workout time for Murph. The pullups took me 10:10. The pushups on Angie took me 5:45 for 100, so at best that would be 11:30 for 200. The Angie squats took me 5:14 for 100, so I assumed a time of 15:42 for those. I figure the miles to go 6:30 each. That would give me a total Murph time of 50:20 with no transition time between activities. Add a chest and shoulder workout to that, and I'm into overkill big time. I'll reserve Murph for another time.

It's a rest day on the CF site today...but

no rest for the weary. I did an exact replica of my workout from April 15th:

Four rounds, each for time of:
800 meter run

Rest as needed between efforts.

I did it on the treadmill at a 1.0 incline.

My times were:
3:40
3:30
3:20
3:10

I "rested" 2 minutes between the runs by walking at 4mph.

After the last 800m, I walked for two minutes, and ran one more half mile at 7.5mph.

I also did a rather long, painful ab workout along with a bunch of sets of back extensions.

I needed to run like this today. Saturday I'm doing some real sprints. I can't wait.