Oh yeah!

Its funny how this thing called college takes all sorts of time and focus. Time for fitness? Yes. Time to study? Yes.Time for ladies? Yes. Time for beach? Yes. Time for tetris? Yes. Time for Breaking Bad? Yes. Time for saving the world for the obesity and bad health epidemics? Now there is!

So I am not really going to his on a whole lot of things today because I want to save them for later posts. Yeah, that right there is information hunger. Thank you COMM 103 for that little tid bit of knowledge! So that's that, time to get into the BEEE LAWWWGGG! Before some of you think that I am some immature little kid who writes like a child, just know that fitness is fun so therefore I can have fun with it....Haters.

So recently, I ran a little something I like to call the NorthFace Endurance Challenge Gore Tex 50 mile race. It was a 51.2 mile foot race through the Marin Headlands with a total elevation gain of 10,000 feet. By far the biggest test of mental and physical toughness I have ever done. Not to mention,by far the most fun I have ever had in fitness. My training however was put on hold due to two torn ligaments in my ankle 2 months before the race. This really put a damper on me.Not to mention, I had to run it in Nike Free shoes, and got some G.I. problems during it. But none the less, I finished proudly.

As for next year, I am going to take off all heavy lifting two months before the race, keep training in the off season and do crossfit only three times a week to maximize the benefit from my running. I am out for that sub 11hr mark next year and I WILL get it!

Well that is that, but here is what you can take away from this. Sign up for races and competitions, not just for the fun but to prove to yourself that you can and you will. I was nervous about this race and even finishing it, but I did and I proved to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to.

The mind is the most powerful thing in fitness and should come with its own form of training too. That set of 15 on Fran or those last 3 miles in a marathon, are your legs really giving out on you or is your mind telling you that your legs are fried. I will let you guess, but give you a hint in saying your legs are fine. So train thew mind! Push it to its limits so it has to be forced to realize that your limits are beyond what you thought. I guarantee that your times will drop on Helen, Cindy and Barbara.

I found out in mile 38 that my mind told me that I was done for, but what happened? I ran 13.2 more miles proving to my mind what I am really capable of. SO keep in mind that your limits are not physical, but they are mental.

Nutrition section :)

Post race diet....... uhhh we wont go there


Workout

Post Race rest... still. Feet=Dead

When And Where... Whatever

Here we are on the night of preferential with the lovely ladies of Alpha Phi. I found out the other day that I gave my rose to a senior, but that does not phase me. I take on Fran everyday and come out on top so a senior will not phase me. She does CrossFit too so that is an instant bond! Anyways I am a nerd at chemistry as I destroyed my test but let us get to fitness and CrossFit.

Some people feel as if they cannot get a good workout if they are out of a routine. Say yo go to the 6am class everyday, but this morning you just could not get up. That certainly does not mean you cannot workout for the day. Who cares if it is in between classes or during your lunch break, CrossFit can happen anywhere and anytime. Doing some simple tabata push ups or squats will suffice if they are in a CrossFit Gym or in the corner of your office, it is still a workout.

That leads me to my next topic that is strayed away from this post but very important. The deadlift. DO NOT DO IT WRONG! This lift will turn your back into the devil if done incorrectly. So I just want to go over this real fast because today in the gym on campus I saw some frat meat head body builder doing deadlifts. or at least his excuse for them. Sure it was 315 and he looked good for the ladies but he was wincing in pain with every rep.

1- Grab the bar a little bit outside your knees and use whatever grip you feel comfortable.
2-Make sure your hips are back, hamstrings are tight.
3-Ensure that your back is in a tight lumbar curve. You need to imagine that no matter what happens, even if I were to come at you and pounce on you, that your back will keep your lumbar curve nice and tight!)
4-Start the lift with your legs.
5- After the legs comes the hips. Open them up.
6- The back should stay in a tight lumbar curve and end straight up as you open your hips
7- Stop when straight, don't do that globo gym douche over extension of the back. It is worthless and looks funny. We all can tell that you just want to demonstrate a pelvic thrust.

With that being said. Hit the squats, grow those legs and stay paleo.

Strength


Every Minute on the Minute for 15 minutes
2 Deadlifts 225#
2 HSPU

WODs

5 rounds
15 sit ups
10 ab thrusts
100 bicycle cash out


20-15-10
Wallballs 20#
Push ups
Squats

Short metcons but I had to get something in

Nobody Is Perfect

Ladies and gents, nobody is perfect. That is excluding Katie Hogan, Stacie Tovar, a few girls I have seen lately and of course Carrie Underwood. So other than them nobody is perfect at all.

Let's say we got Mr. Hotshot doing a workout today. He is a 4 minute Fran guy trying to get a pr. He does it, pukes his guts out and ends with a 5:15. Did he pick the weight wrong? No. He has a bad workout. THEY HAPPEN! So instead of cussing yourself out for not getting that new pr, or not getting that extra rep. JUst chill bro.

Do you think Chris Spealler Snatches over 200lbs on every attempt? Hell no he does not! For all we know one day he may not even get 185. But he knows that not every day can be a great day for working out. He accepts it and does not let it phase him the next workout he does.

Just because we are athletes of various levels does not mean we cannot hold ourselves to the standards of the games' athletes. We also need to learn to accept our own failure and off days. Sure we may not train 5 times a day like they do (though it may feel like it) it does not mean that we should let one bad workout judge us for the rest of the day.

Just a little food for thought (paleo of course). And actually about paleo, being a paleo man full time with the exception of two cheat days a month, I decided to try something out starting monday. Paleo in the zone. Yes you heard it right. Zone meal plan blocks all of paleo food. I will give it 4 weeks to see how my numbers look and see if any changes occur with the portion control of zone blocks. From what I heard when I talked with Josh Everrett in person (yes he is amazing) zone is the way to go.

Workout

         NFEC Training
7 mile run @ 9:00 min/mile

                 Strength

Press- 2reps every minute for 12 minutes at 65%

Bench Press- 3-3-3-3-3 @ 65%

     WOD
4 straight tabata's

push ups
squats
sit ups
pull ups

College Has Not Killed Me....yet

Back to the blog! Yeah that's right! This guy is not done telling the world of his fitness epiphanies! But I do not blog here as an 18 year old high school student now..... I blog to you as



A LEVEL ONE CERTIFIED CROSSFIT TRAINER!

Dig it.

A lot has happened since my last post. College has happened.Pr's have happened. Ladies appear out of nowhere in gaggles. New gym has been joined. So let us get to the good stuff.

Sure she is 28 and her bicep is the size of mine, but she is still in my league right????

I came down here going terminator on this hizzouse! In other words I was slightly "bionic" as my new nickname goes for my gym, Outlier Crossfit! I had a torn MCL in which I have no clue how I tore it. So what did I do? Workout of course! Destroy every and any WOD in my way of success and establish myself as a strong presence in the gym.

But now I am sick. A long weekend comprised of many long nights has lead this guy to illness. SO here the topic begins.

DO NOT WORKOUT WHILE YOU ARE SICK. Sure you may want to, yeah if you do not want to get better! It has been proven that you are six times more likely to get sick after running a marathon than before. So I know that is an extreme case right there because not everybody runs a marathon, but if exercise puts you at that much more of a risk, imagine what being sick already and exercising can do. Not good stuff. What happens is your immune system gets compromised and your body becomes the France of the world wars. Easy to invade. So in essence if you are slightly sick, your workout will be sub par, you will get angry and sicker. That is how the cookie crumbles.

WOD

Sick day

68 days until the North Face Endurance Challenge

The Games

Long time no blog eh? Well let's fix that. Over the past few days I have had some great experiences. I went to the Crossfit Games, and dropped in to two different boxes in San Diego.

Let us start out with the games. It was the single greatest event that I have ever been too. I have never such such athleticism or strength in my life. Those people truly are the fittest people on earth. They top any other sport on this planet. Hands down. I don;t want to waste too much time on this but it was amazing and you should watch the highlights on the HQ website.

Next, I dropped into two different boxes to begin my journey of finding the right box for me in San Diego. The first was CrossFit Socal which I really liked. Short ceiling so there are no true 15 foot rope climbs, but the trainer and facility was awesome. The next one was Crossfit San Diego. Didnt really care for the trainer but what I did care for was the pr I got on the Filthy Fifty. 21:03!!!!

But onto working out! I have not ran for about a week and a half due to knee and hip flexor injuries. It is difficult to rest from something like that but I know the only way I will get better is to rest. Now my knee problem is runner's knee. Whats the solution? Deeper squats!!!

Yes I said it, the way to the healthiest knee possible is to go deep on everything. I developed runner's knee from running a lot and my leg muscles were becoming imbalanced causing my patella to slide side ways. You can re balance the knee muscles out with deep squats. Each position on a squat hits a certain muscle, and when you go deep you hit those muscles that never get hit while running or doing a box squat. It seems counter intuitive but it is the truth I promise.

As for today's workout, there is none. I have a competition tomorrow that I want to be fresh for. I know I can destroy all the gymnastics and metcon in it, rope climbs, push ups, double unders, squats, dead lifts, pull ups, sit ups, box jumps are all a piece of cake. But ground to shoulder atlas stone of 115# could be interesting and the max lift is the snatch my favorite..... I am shooting for a good snatch of 135. I can get down in the squat with the qeight overhead, but I can never lock it out, I need to really throw my hips to catch it behind my head so I can lock it out because the weight always falls forward. We will see how the competition goes tomorrow!!!

Go Big or Go Home

I have not saved the world from obesity for quite some time. My excuse? I don't really have one. I get back from an intense WOD and the last thing I want to do is write about it. I am still a teenager and like to have some fun time so pardon my adolescence.

The CrossFit Games are coming up soon and I cannot wait one bit. I get top see the fittest people on earth and the love of my life Stacie Tovar! Now I know she is married and to her husband I say teach me your ways. But she is really a top 5 hopeful and with her snatch and HSPUs she is a real competitor.

Now for the life of fitness. I am a runner. As much as I do not want to admit it, my strength in CrossFit is running and metcon not strength. Don't get me wrong, I still move decent weight but it is not my greatest thing. So to fix it I have been trying to add on as much strength as possible using a Russian Squat Program Generator and it is amazing! Two weeks in and I added 20 pounds to my back squat. It works and you should try it.

There is some real science behind it. Now don't think too hard on this all you reluctant scholars. Too bad for you I cant type slow for you. It is a mental, physical conditioning program. Your body trains to support heavy weight by adding the number of mitochondria in each muscle fiber versus adding more muscle fibers. You are becoming more efficient. Sure you get more fibers but when you do lots of low rep sets you are conditioning mainly and growing secondly. As your body gets used to handling heavy weight the sheer fact of holding and controlling heavy weight becomes less of an issue allowing you to focus on the lift.

How do you add size? After your strength program throw in a few kill sets to failure or some higher reps and you will spark some real anabolism there.

Workouts


From the past

"Filthy Fifty" 24:44

"Annie" 7:48 ewwwww

CrossFit Football Squat Cluster 235#

Don't Be Shy!!!

Another 1Rm today. Failed this morning, but I returned in the evening to get it and I was stoked! Best feeling in the world. But it was horrible weather so my sprint workout was cut short. And not to mention the crazy old man who tried to say a prowler would ruin asphalt. If he thinks that is the case then he has a lot to learn because we will prove to him that it is not bad for the asphalt via massive amounts of prowling. Benicia PD we have a 1074! Haha

Well this topic is something that I can talk about shortly because there is not much to it! Why shy away from any weight that is a 2RM or 1RM. People achieve a 5RM and then call it quits. WHY!!!!! Are you scared of hurting yourself? Well simple keep proper form and do less reps. Hence why when you increase the weight you find a 3RM because you will not be able to do as many with proper form. Secondly, just drop it. If it is heavy drop it where you are. We use bumper plates for a reason. You get stuck at the bottom of a clean. Drop it. You fail on a jerk, drop it. You lose your balance on an OH squat, drop it. It is a simple concept.

Not only can you gain large muscle and strength finding low rep maxes at high weight, you get an overwhelming sense of confidence. When you clean that weight and you are holding it up after a hard squat, stand there and take in your accomplishment. You deserve it. You are seeing results, which we all like to see!
Now don't be a complete douche about it and rub it in to people's faces or run around in circles yelling. Take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back. Remember half of being a true athlete is being humble at ALL times.

Workout

Clean Practice 1 RM 175lbs

Prowler sprints
 2 high bar, 2 low bar
4@90lbs
4@160lbs
4@210lbs

WOD

25-50-75

squats
sit ups with mat
pushups

time of 14:51

loved this WOD!

The World Over Your Head (or so it seems it)

Well I sure got my butt kicked today. Not only was it a tough workout, but it was a Monday, so of course every other breath was a yawn. But hey! I mean I got to enjoy a last workout with the beast Taylor before she leaves to kick butt and take names at the USNA!!! You go girl!

....................yes, the periods are necessary because I have to talk about Overhead squats which I completely hate!!!!! This is one of the workouts where flexibility is strength, so sure my legs can be as strong as they want, but if my shoulders are not flexible then I will not move much weight.

So let us take a look into the mechanics of an OH squat. So. Push press or strict press or snatch, any move you want to get the bar in the overhead position. Once up, Lock the shoulders and imagine that you are trying to pull the bar in two. It really helps you stabilize the bar. The bar should be right behind your head if brought straight down to ensure the weight goes straight up and down so you can perform a proper squat. If it is too far forward,directly over your head for example, you will squat on your toes. NO NO! It is awkward. I get it. But just do it right!

At the bottom of your squat for it to count you need to go past parallel with your legs. It sucks, and then bring it back up remaining locked out the whole time. Now this is really where flexibility turns into strength. Sure you can deadlift 300s but you may only be able to OH 115lbs because you cant get max power. Lack of flexibility leads to effort be put into the bar to hold it into position meaning that there is that much less power directed to the squat. So if you are flexible, you don't need to divert any power to the bar position so it can all be directed to the squat....lucky people...

So ways to help this out, do pass throughs before to open up the shoulder. This will help greatly. And the next best thing I already mentioned is really try to pull that bar apart when overhead. It will really help stabilize it.

Workout

Rode bike to everything today so the rides are short but tiring as they are right after workouts

4.5 mile bike ride

CrossFit

OH squat Max  120 (didn't do pass throughs, will retry for 130 soon) Shoulder flexibility sucks!

60 burpee bar jumps
30 OH Squats 75lbs
10 ring pushups

time : 10:31         Burpee bar jumps were long and tiring but not terrible. OH squats sucked after the burpees and the max. Had to do sets of 3.  Ring pushups were a joke for me because I love my push ups

6 mile bike ride to gym

3x10 Squats at 150lbs (should have been 15 reps but tired from bike ride)
back extensions 4x15,12,8,6 at 10lbs,25lbs,35,45
dips 1x60 Broke up into sets of 10 with 10 seconds rest in between
sit ups 1x60 Broke up into 30,10,20 no more than 10 seconds rest

3.5 mile bike ride home (including up rose drive)

Who's Really Winning???

Rest day today. No lie, I needed one today, but it hurts because I know the workout today is a one mile run for time which could quite possibly be one of my favorites. But I am being a good little athlete and taking my rest even though my heart stopped beating. It seems like every rest day I have is the day of an awesome workout! I hate it but what can I do.

So this topic is one that I take personally. For example, yesterday was a team throwdown and it was very competitive. What does that mean, everybody wanted to win. Now I am not calling anybody out, but especially men, I know most of you have probably done this. Adding on a few reps to your total just to beat that guy next to you. Sure it feels good to have won according to the board, but did you win? No! You LOST! Dead last. You cheated yourself, you don't have accurate numbers to track your progress for the next time you do the workout. Not only that but you just straight lied which gets you nowhere.

You might as well sit down and watch people workout and then take their numbers. A lie is a lie. CrossFit is not about being that guy who wins in every WOD or beats the man next to him, it is about who makes the most gains. Sure you dead-lifted more than him, but in a two month period he increased his PR by twice as much as you. That is a true win. It is not about being the guy on top. I would much rather come in dead last in every WOD but make personal gains than to cheat to win and not make gains.

So next time your doing a WOD, be completely honest. I get beat by 40 year old men sometimes, sure they are in freakishly good shape, but still it hurts. But there is no need to lie. You are stealing their deserved glory and cheating yourself from lots like the feeling of success when you break a true PR.

Workout

REST!!!!

Teach Me How To Jerk

Well I sure am tired after today. Like no joke I hurt all over. The cure...A MASSAGE! Now the tough part is finding somebody who is willing to give me a massage. People these days, so worried about themselves and not wanting to help others in need.

Well the main topic of this entry is the clean and jerk. And man oh man is it one of my favorite moves. It is complex and requires power gathered from all parts of the body. Legs, core, arms, shoulders. It is some good stuff that I am going to pass on.

In short, the clean and jerk is the way to get the most weight from the ground to the overhead position. It starts off with a dead-lift stance and grip (which i covered yesterday). From there you explode up with your legs. Once the bar is past the knees you shrug your shoulders straight up and then at the top of your shrug row the bar the your chest. The whole time during all these moves, the bar is right against you, at any given moment the bar should be touching your trunk. At the top of your row, you jump under the bar into a squat and rest the bar on your shoulders in a front squat hold. Now for the clean to count, you need to catch the bar in a squat position where your legs are further down than a 90 degree angle. So catch it deep, we don't want it deemed as a no rep. Once there. Finish the squat and stand up.

Once you are standing with the bar resting on your shoulder shelf, like you are set for a push press, comes the jerk part. The jerk is pretty simple but is very powerful. You dip your hips no more than four inches so you can fire upward, once fired upward, drop low in either a split stance (lunge) or OH squat stance. I prefer and think the split stance is easier. Catch the bar with straight locked arms. It is easier to go lower with the legs then push press the bar up. Walk the bar up front foot first. stand straight  up. And this is crucial! Let out a big roar to say look at me I lifted it and drop the weight. Okay maybe the roar is not needed because I usually need to do mine front squatting the weight.

Workout

Find 1RM Clean and Jerk

175lbs ( decent) Need to jerk better

2min rest

8 min AMRAP

2 rounds 1 minute each station

Toes 2 Bar
Box Jumps (20 in)
KB Swing 53lbs
Push Ups (Games Style)

total 189 reps (killed on toes 2 bar)

2min rest

100m sprint not timed

Keeping It Real On The DL

No post yesterday, I know. No excuses right? Well to all of you heartless readers, I still worked out but I had to get some lady time in. I am a fan of lady time so if it means no blog for the day, then I think you can live, but it did kill me a little bit inside to not be able to blog.

So Two big things today. We will be breaking down the Dead-Lift movement, and also we will talk about strength vs. endurance.

So lets talk Dead-Lift. It is an awesome lift. And most likely your strongest lift. In simple. You pick heavy crap up. But worst of all, it also has the potential to screw you up pretty bad. But that is why I am here to pass on my impeccable knowledge of the dead-lift. Piece by piece we will break it up. Start with the bar over your your toes, and pull your shins into the bar. Next part. Chest up. Push it out like you are trying to impress the ladies. In doing so, your back will remain straight. But that is only part of it. Not only must your back be straight, but it must be extremely tight. The tighter the better, we do not want any sideways movement with it. With that said, Sit the butt down and grip thew bar with a comfortable grip outside your legs. Now you can go normal grip or split grip where one wrist faces forwards and the other backwards. This grip may be awkward at first but will give more stability and strength.

Now for the movement. Before the bar leaves the ground you should already be putting a tight pull on it. You should be tight, arms back legs and all. So if you pull before you lift it will prevent a jerking action which equals pain. We all love hernias right? No! So be tight. While lifting the bar, keep your back straight and tight always! Legs start the lift and extend all the way and the back finishes it out, but at any given time it is a combination of the two. If you don't have one you don't have the other. Then enough said, go back down the same way you went up, except backwards. Haha. And your done!

Now on the next note, everybody's muscles are different. Some people can lift massive amounts of weight, and others not so much but that is only one aspect. Don't forget about repping the weight out. Sure a guy can dead-lift 400lbs but how many reps of 225lbs can he do in a minute? Who knows but a guy with more of an endurance set of muscles can probably do more.

Me for example, I come from a running family so I am very endurance oriented, I can move decent weight, for example today I deadlifted 300lbs, and another guy deadlifted 340lbs. But when it comes to a WOD with 21 reps at 225lbs, I can destroy him. It all depends on your muscle set. So if you get beat out in maxxing out, don't worry because for every max effort WOD, there will always be a chipper or a high rep WOD. Again it is about finding the median in between the two, because a specialist in endurance or volume will not succeed overall but a person decent but not great at both will come out on top. That is the emphasis at CrossFit.

Lift Big and Stay Swift

Workout

CrossFit

DL 1RM 300lbs (sore should have gotten more)

5 min workout
1000m row
AMRAP deadlifts 190lbs

3:22 row (decent)
18 dead-lifts (again sore)

Gym (should not have even been in here)

Over head dumbbell press 3x12 (35,40,45)
Bent over Rows 4x15,10,8,6 (95,95,105,115)
Rainbows 25 each way

A Little Much?

Well here I am over training again. It is so easy to over train during the summer. I wake up, have nothing to do so I spend my time working out. Then one thing leads to another and I have been working out for 5 maybe 6 hours. I don't mind it until it hits me and one day I am worthless and am left with no strength. Haha. Sounds like I need another beach trip to give me a break. Nothing beats ice cold waters and burning sand. Actually indoor rock climbing does. Sounds like something to try.




Onto the topic. Don't over train. It is a horrible thing that I myself am very guilty of. Working out can be addicting especially if you love being fit. And especially with the mentality that comes along with it, the more I workout, the stronger and fast I will get. That is not true. When you overwork yourself it is detrimental to your progress and very unhealthy.

Symptoms of over training

• Always feeling tired
• Constant soreness
• Dreading each workout
• Waking up in the middle of the night
• no appetite
• Pessimistic

Let us look at the effects of over training.

1. Lack of energy: When you do too much, you have increasingly less energy for each exercise, so you lack the intensity with each set. As a result, you fail to maximize the benefit of the movement.
2. Prone to injury: Over training leads to bad form, and the body focusing all energy towards movement and strength and not other healthful benefits that we need to prevent injuries. For example too much lifting leads to bad form and a hurt back or impingement or shoulder issue. In running, too much running can lead to inflammation of joints, swelling, and stress fractures. 
3. When your body has no more glycogen or lipids to gather energy from, the body goes to its next source which is muscle cells. When this happens you are losing muscle while you are trying to gain it. That is self explanatory. Burning muscle is not good.
4. Weight gain: When your body uses all of its lipids, it begins to create and store its own lipids, leading to weight gain over time. If our body is the main source of lipids, it is most certainly a horrible thing because they arnt stored in the best of ways.
5. Central Nervous System fatigue. After serious over training you CNS will actually take a beating. It will actually run low on neurotransmitters, inhibiting your workout, the most important being acetylcholine.

Once you have over trained, you need to take a long rest. About a week would be ideal. During this week you want to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, going into a low energy state in which your body can maximize muscle repair to fix the muscles you have destroyed and not for the better. You also need to keep the protein intake high so your body has building blocks for the muscles. 

Ways to prevent over training

1. Set a new workout schedule where you do not do as much in each day. You do not have to run, swim and lift everyday. It is not needed. Recovery is just as important as exercise. Make your schedule smarter not harder.( I made a new schedule that I will show you all tomorrow.)
2. Take at least one mandatory rest day each work. Two would be even better. On these days, do absolutely nothing. You need to rest and build back up. No running, no easy jogs or lifts. Nada. Zip. Zap. Zilch. ZERO!!! 
3. Spread your workouts throughout the day. Morning then evening. That little rest in the middle of the day will pay off greatly. I promise.
4. Eat Eat Eat!!!! Make sure you are eating plenty of calories. Plenty of protein and plenty of water. The more you eat, the faster you will recover.
5. Listen to your body. If it hurts, take time off. Don't push through it.

Well that about sums it up. I will add my email address for anybody who wishes to send me individual questions which I would be glad to answer.

Today's Workout

CrossFit

Practice Kipping Pull Ups

WOD

Each Round 1:30

200m run

AMRAP Push Ups

1:30 rest

Results:  32,28,27 (push ups)

Really really easy WOD.

Gym

50 Pull Ups Broken up as needed

Heavy Dumbbell walking lunges 4X(15,12,8,6) 45,45,50,55lbs

Dumbbell Incline Bench Press 4x(15,12,8,6) 40,50,60,70lbs

One Arm Deadlift 3x6 (each side) 95lbs

Get Your Pump On! FAST!!!

Man it is getting hot out. Well seems like it is just that time of the year to head to the beach, or lay in front of a fan. They both work. Today marked the official start of my marathon training and also my triathlon training. And so far it is not too bad. For those of you who think I put this on here just to add a pretty lady, SHE ACTUALLY HAS GOOD SQUAT FROM!!!! The rear is back and chest is up.

I want to talk about intensity today. What people think matters is the hours they put in to working out each day. And I feel sorry for those ignorant souls who are going to fitness hell. IT IS NOT ABOUT THE HOURS. Anybody can come sit down in a gym and do three workouts in an hour. Is that hard? NO! What really matters is how filled those hours are.

I guarantee that if you speed your workout up. Lower rest times and not talk at all. Your intensity will increase greatly and you will benefit from the workout much more. Shorten the workouts too. You should never have to spend more than 45 minutes working out lifting weights. If you need more time than that, then you might as well throw your gym time away because you are not getting the maximum benefit. Go big or go home.

Intensity is the key with most things, but not all. For example today was the start of my marathon training. I am following one of Hal Higdon's programs and they are awesome. But they are about building the body up and preparing but not about pure intensity. Save it for race day. Running itself is draining. So for each training run, my mile split should be one minute slower than my goal race day split. I am shooting for a 4 hour marathon so I need to train at 10 minutes miles. And besides I don't mind a nice easy jog everyday.

Workout

CrossFit

1 RM Front Squat    185 lbs

12 min AMRAP

8 Front Squats
8 HSPU (negative)
20 DU

2 Rounds + 2 HSPU

This was more of a form practice than a WOD but it still got me. I need to work on my HSPU.

Swim (not my forte) Will get more intense soon. I promise

2x100 yd breast stroke
2x50m breast stroke breath every 2
2x50m free breath every two
5x100 free

Gym

Squats 3x12 @ 135lbs (easy)
Dips 1x50 (broke up into 10s)
Back Extensions 15,12,8,6 (10,15,25,35)
Incline Sit ups 1x50 (broke up 30,8,6,6)

3 Mile Run (25:01) should be 30:00

What Is Comfort?

Rest day today for me. It sucks. Special WOD for Kara's birthday and breaking in of the new pull up rig. And of course here I am sitting at home, wishing I could go. But in the mean time, it is time to put some TLC into my bike. She is getting new ball bearings packed in red grease, new tires, cork grip and a bath! She better be ready for some tough riding tomorrow!

Topic for today! Whenever you are lifting weights, how can you tell if you are utilizing yourself to the fullest extent? Often times it can be hard to tell. It makes me thing of this common weight lifting slogan "No pain no gain". Now is this true? Well yes and no. Pain while lifting usually is not a very good thing. So that part is totally wrong. But should it be comfortable? Not at all! What is comfortable about having 165lbs above your head? What is comfortable about having 315lbs hanging from your arms? Nothing!!!

If you are comfortable while you are lifting weights, then you are not leaving your comfort zone to gather all that you have. If you are doing a set of 10 reps, that tenth rep should be the death of you. You should be trying with everything you have to get it up. If it goes up easy, then you are just cheating yourself.



With that being said, when you are doing your next WOD and are scaling or picking weights in a strength training session, keep that in mind. You want to struggle, if you arn't pushing yourself to the limit, you are cheating yourself.

I apologize for the lack of intense lifting knowledge and fun in this post. Rest days are hard to blog on because I usually pick my topic from each day's workout. SO just wait until tomorrow for some juicy blogging!

Workout

Repair bike for time :)

Refuel man

Sunday morning started out with ripping out some ivy. let's just say that I have done more fun things in my time. It not being one of them. But after that I had another beautiful workout. We got two topics, refueling your workhouse body and your body itself.

So during and after a long hard hot workout is crucial time when we need to keep our body happy. Of course before too because hydration starts hours before your workout. If your doing a long run, ride or strength workout in the heat and working up a sweat, not only are you losing water through your sweat, but electrolytes too. The main electrolytes are sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. All of which are crucial ions in the firing of nerve impulses and in cramp prevention. So as you lose them you should replace them, and in hot weather and intense workouts, food is not enough. Sometimes it is necessary to have an electrolyte drink for example during a marathon. But do not get carried away, the diet does not stop here. Find the lowest sugar drink of it. I prefer cytomax because gatorade is way too full of sugar.

And afterwards, get some real food. Stick to the bones type stuff. A protein based meal is ideal to feed those muscles that are looking for something to build themselves back up with. But don't forget monounsaturated fat (avocado is my favorite source). A few carbs, fruit is the best source for these. So keep that body filled with happy food and healthy food. You put crap in and you will get crap out. You put good stuff in it and you will get good stuff out.

Secondly, let us talk about our body. Is it your ideal body? Do you have the abs you want? Are you arms big enough? Well if you are anything like me, the answers are all no. I workout countless hours only to gain strength, but no results in the way my body looks. no abs, no arm growth, nothing. It can be discouraging, seeing a guy who naturally has an awesome body. But ask yourself this. What is more attractive? I think we can all agree that a man with an average body destroying a nice body guy in a workout is much more attractive. Sure he may look better but if he can't compete at your level of fitness, then he cannot compete with you at all. By nature, women are more attracted to the man who can rise above other men, not the more attractive man with a nicer body. And this is not only men to all you ladies. Sure that lady might have breasts the size of watermelons and a skinny waist, but if you beat her in a workout, you are instantly more attractive. Body's are not attractive, fitness is.

Workout

2.5 mile bike ride

Crossfit
"Modified Murph"

1000m run
100 push-ups
200 sit-ups
300 air squats
1000m run

Time Of :  27:13

2.5mile bike ride home (sucked)

Form Son!!!!

Back to working out and man oh man does it feel good!  What better thing to do then hit it harder than ever after a few days break. And as for the rest of my day,                                 . Exactly, I will do nothing. It is summer and I am going to enjoy it by sitting and enjoying myself.

So lets talk about something very important that I have a problem with sometimes and I have a feeling that I am not the only one out there. I will say it so others don't have to. YOU NEED TO DO YOUR WOD WITH PROPER FORM! Sometimes this may mean you cannot go rx on the WOD. Hurts the ego yes, but saves the body.

For me the snatch is my Achilles heel. Strength wise it is not bad for me, but when it comes to the shrug and keeping the bar right against me, I start to lose it. I can get the weight up, just not in a pretty fashion. So it kills me, but sometimes I just have to drop the weight to nail that form and knock out those reps perfectly.

Lets go over proper snatch form now. Start with the bar on the ground, squat down keeping a tight back and proper dead-lift stance. Now get your wide snatch grip. From here you will explode in a dead-lift movement and when all the way up you will shrug your shoulders and drive forward with your hips at the same time. At the top of your shrug, start to lift your arms and "jump" under the bar. Lockout the bar in an overhead position and catch it in an overhead squat with legs past parallel. Squat it up and your good.


Workout

4.5 mile bike ride to CrossFit

CrossFit

Partner Workout With Brad G.

2,000m total switch every 500m
5,000 lbs total ground to overhead 85lbs   (10 snatch, 20 C&J)  SHOULD HAVE GONE WAAYY HEAVIER!!!!!
200 total ab mat sit-ups (100)
150  total jumping lunges (75)

time of: 22:13

Sprint workout Sled Push

4 pushes at 45lb plates
4 pushes at 45+35lb plates

4.5 mile bike ride home

Be Your Own Inspiration

Here we are on another day of summer and my calves are way too sore to do anything besides rest. Hate resting but love knowing that my calves will be that much stronger. You have to lose some before you can win some I guess. Well the topic for today is going to be a very deep one but I think one of the most important. Inspiration can carry a man far in the world of fitness.

When you are doing the "Filthy Fifty" or a chipper and are dying and you are only halfway through, who or what do you look to for encouragement and inspiration to finish? The people around you doing the workout? Some CrossFit pro who destroyed the workout that you saw on youtube? Both very good sources and will help you out, but the strongest source of inspiration is yourself. Nobody will be as hard on you and push you as hard as yourself. You need to prove to yourself that you can do something. If you can't push yourself or have the desire to push yourself then how can you expect others to help you.

Not every workout will be in a box with lots of other athletes to aid you in encouragement. It is something that you need to learn how to do on your own. If you prove to yourself that you can do anything, then you will be able to do anything with a little help from a mental talk.

For example, March of 2010, I got Achilles tendon surgery and when I could walk again in may, I had a boot and could hardly walk 400m without being in terrible pain. Exactly one year later at the same event, I ran 30 miles with a marathon split time of 4:48. I could not have done it without some of my friends cheering me along and knowing that there may be some pretty ladies watching me. Haha. But now having completed that and painted my own success story, I know that I can truly do anything.

I AM NO DIFFERENT FROM ANYBODY ELSE. Everybody has the same muscles and body parts as I do. So honestly and truly anybody can do ANYTHING THEY WANT TO ACHIEVE. They may not feel like it because they have not proved it to themselves, but the proving part is just a mental barrier. Before that I could have done anything I wanted but now that I have proved it to myself it is that much easier.

So on a final note. It may take a feat to prove to yourself that you truly are a force to be reckoned with, but everybody from the start no matter what they think is an amazing human being that when applied and dedicated can achieve feats that would thought to be unimaginable.


Workout

Rest

(Was going to go on a 14 mile ride but calves are sore) Better rest than workout destroyed muscles) ( back to full new routine monday after a much needed 5 day break due to overworking my body)

Change Things Up A Bit,,,

Another day of the beautiful thing we call summer. Now I went to the beach today, but have no fear I still got some exercise in. Now I know that it may be difficult to get your ideal exercise during summer but instead of seeing it as a burden see it as an opportunity to try something new. For example, at the beach today I did a long run in the sand to work my calves a little bit more.

But now onto the real topic. Change things up. It is always good to change your workout schedule from time to time for a multitude of reasons.

1. Keep yourself entertained. Working out should never get boring and feel like a routine thing.
2. Keep those muscles confused to maximize growth and strength
3. Give yourself a few days layover period in between to give your body some rest which it will always like.

As for myself here is what I am changing to.

> Weight lifting two days a week. Two times each day. One muscle group each workout for a total of four muscle groups. Day 1 is chest, back, and shoulders and day 2 is legs, biceps and triceps.

> CrossFit will be 4 days a week.

>Cardio will be 5 days a week (marathon/triathalon training)

> Abs will be 3 days a week


Diet Guidelines will change a little bit with the increased running.

Paleo with a few exceptions
> Milk added
>Whole grains added
>Any drinks containing sugar (exception of cytomax)
> three protein shakes a day (40g protein each)

Workout

2.5 mile sand run

Watch It Bud.....

Another beautiful summer day and here I am ready to hit the workouts. But before we get to the exercise part of it all, we need to go down to the base and support of our lifestyle of fitness.

Nutrition!!! Fun right? We put our bodies through loads of ridiculous stress and training, so it is the least we can do to feed it what it needs to rebuild itself and keep it healthy. Now contrary to popular belief, a twinkie is not a good post workout food.... it is actually not a good food in general. Is it even food? I mean those things are faker than Pamela Anderson. But seriously, your body will only put out work as good of quality as you put into it. Will a twinkie let you run a mile...maybe. Will it like it? Only if your body likes to puke. Besides nobody wants to write their name on the puke buckets in the box.

Now I am not telling you to find a diet and go gung ho on that thing. That would not be advised, but slowly adjusting to it would be best. Also, diets are not specifically designed for any one person, so feel free to tweak it to fit your lifestyle better. Cupcakes fit no lifestyle for those of you who are wondering.

For example, I follow the Paleo diet, and it is amazing. Makes such a different in my energy, but I had to tweak it a little bit. I do lots of endurance training as I train for my triathalon and marathon, so there is no way I can cut out all starches. They are a necessity for endurance training even though they are not paleo. That quick energy is needed but how I get it is in my control. Whole grain only. None of that enriched white boo boo crap, commonly known as death in my mind.

When planning your diet there are several key factors to take into account. Diversity of choice, colories, timing, and goals.

Diversity of choice: Eats lots of different fruits and veggies. Don't limit yourself to a few or be boring about it, keep it entertaining and delicious. The more you limit yourself the harder it will be to eat enough.

Calories: If you workout a lot you need to eat a lot PERIOD. I have struggled with this because it is hard to eat a lot when you don't have a large appetite. Fix this by eating high calorie foods like avocado, some nuts and foods of that nature. As for myself I try to eat 3,200 calories a day.

Timing: This is a lifestyle type choice. Whatever fits in best. Ideally, to keep your body healthy try to eat mini meals throughout the day. But be careful because when you do this it becomes easy to mistake a mini meal with a snack. Bad JuJu right there. Protein should be the centerpiece of each mini meal. ALWAYS! If you cant do mini meals then fit meals however fits in best but make sure you are getting the calories and protein needed.

Goals: Now weight loss and Muscle gain goals can vary greatly. Lean muscle and weight loss go together,  but trying to gain sheer mass is way different. If you want to gain mass, start packing on the protein and post workout carbs with mando amounts of calories. For weight loss, eat lots of lean protein, low carbs, and hit the veggies up son!

Workout

Foot pain. Maybe bruise or ache from running to much lately. The earlier I rest the faster it will heal. I hate not being able to run or ride my bike, but I know my rest will be rewarded with fast healing. Besides no matter who says what two to three rest days will not leave you out of shape, it may feel like it, but on a physiological level you may be even stronger and more rested. So enjoy the free time.


Soccer training tonight.

Back From ........ School?

First blog as a high school graduate. And......I feel slightly different only because I have more time for activities. And I am for sure of graduate knowledge for you! Now that I am back to the blogging schedule I am full of stuff to say and ready to blow your minds.

Well it may have been awhile, but I am going to get right down to it.

ITS  SUMMER!!!! What does that mean? DON'T OVER DO IT!!!! I may have already done this. Today in the gym I was only able to curl 85 pounds 3 times, should normally be an easy 15 reps for me. Now sometimes it may seem like an off day and you shake it off, but before you say that, look at what you have done previously. For me, the day before, I did a chest workout, lower ab workout, 6 mile run, CrossFit, and soccer training. So it was no off day for me. I had worked my body past what it should be able to do.

It does not matter if you feel like you want to workout more or you feel that you need to. Your body can only take so much before it starts to cut out on you for its own health. LISTEN TO IT. Stop lifting, stop running, and lay down and catch some sun. Enjoy life. Read something insightful.

Why am I making a big deal of this whole thing? Injuries happen when you workout past the point when your body can give you 100%. Shin splints, impingement, tendinitis, and pinched nerves; all of these are common injuries from overworking. Injuries are no fun, so let's not put ourselves at risk.

CrossFit

1000m row
1 min rest
100 Double Unders

Row Time : 3:25
DU Time: 2:42

Cardio

6 mile bike ride (ended because my tire got a pinch flat)..   :(

Lets Coordinate Some Sexyness

Guess who is done with all of their calculus objectives three weeks before school ends? This guy! Aww yeah! What does that mean? Well it means I will have more to my life than fitness and math. Imagine that.

Coordination: The ability to move muscles in the accurate and desired way.

What dies this mean? If you want to do a snatch, and you need to shrug and thrust your hips at the same time, then you need to be coordinated and have the ability to do both of those with precision to maximize power. What CrossFit amounts to is that strength comes not only from muscle and raw strength, but precision of muscle movement. Sure you can dead lift 400 pounds, but if you cannot learn how to lockout the bar at the top of your snatch and get under it, you will struggle to snatch 100lbs.

Most movements are complex movements that require exact muscle movements to maximize power and ultimately result in moving some real weight. So the next time you are working out, instead of stacking all the weight to the bar. Grab the empty barbell and practice that form and nail those moves and get used to the proprioception.

As for me my kryptonite for coordination is getting into a hand stand. Once up I can push out all those hand stand push ups, but getting into that hand stand just makes me look like a fish out of water. A worm in a rainstorm man. No joke. Practice it no matter how rediculous you look.

Workout

Wendler 5,3,1 Week One

Flat Bench
Incline Bench
Decline Bench

Decline Push-Ups
Unload 50% max 2x10

CrossFit

Tabatas

Push-Ups
1min rest
Sit Ups
1min rest
Jumping Pull Ups
1 min rest
Push Press 45lbs
1 min rest
Squats
1 min rest

Total: 64 Reps

Abs

Okay there is no ab workout for me for a very good reason. They are way too sore!!!! It is horrible but good to know I got such a good ab workout. Wat could give me such a good ab workout? Going to the club. The music pumping. The subs bumping? And my dancing all combined to give me the greatest ab workout I hve ever had. Fun and good for me. Aww Yeah!

Gimmie' Power Son!

Well all I can say is high school, it was nice knowing you. AP tests are done, only two finals to take, so pretty much the need to try is over with. Straight A's is what I have and intend to keep with the smallest amount of effort possible because B's are worthless! So do you know what this all means? More time to workout!!!! Awww YEAH!


Power = Work/Time; the rate at which work is done.

The goal of working out is to become a fit and powerful individual. Am I right? So sure you can dead-lift 350 3 times in 10 seconds, I mean thats cool I guess. You may be strong, but are you powerful? Well lets look at an individual who can dead-lift 185 10 times in 10 seconds. Now sure he's pretty strong too, but is he powerful? Lets break it down.

350*3*1/10 = 105J/s

185*10*1/10 = 185 J/s

So thanks to math, and physics if you will, we can see that less weight, but faster reps will give you a much greater power output. So knowing this, lets look at CrossFit itself. The idea behind CrossFit is to do the most work in a given amount of time.This explains the multitude of bodyweight exercises and emphasis on time for each WOD. It is not a matter of how much, it is a matter of how fast. So if you are truely trying to become stronger and more powerful, skip the heavy weights and go back down some, but make sure to focus on busting those reps out as fast as possible. That will be your key to increasing power. Not to mention a great plateau breaker.

Workout

3x(15,15,15) Superset every two

Triple Drop- Straight Bar Cable Curls
Triple Drop- Straight Bar Tricep Press Downs

Preacher Curl
Overhead Rope Tricep Press

Seated Alternating Curls
Rope Press Downs

Reverse Grip Cable Curls
Chair Press Downs

High Cable Curls
Reverse Grip Tricep Pull Down

Abs

1x45

Oblique Raises

Cardio

Soccer Tryouts (so pretty much a sprint workout)

Agility Is Amazing

Now as usual, I will start with a sentence trying to get you all less mad at me for not blogging for a while by using some sort of excuse. Now I do have an excuse, but to be real, let's just say that I dropped the ball in this case. Now stop all your trash talk about my amatuer blogging, and get to reading my info.

I a,m going to spread the light upon agility and all of its beneficial characteristics. So lets get our eye pump on....BRO!

Agility: The power to move quickly and powerfully; nimbleness.

So what eaxactly does this mean in the world of fitness? Well to put it simply, everything! The way I see agility, it is the ability to use your power effectively by being able to execute the movement with precision. For example, power cleans, snatches, dead lifts. All these movements are high power movements that cn only be completed at heavy weight when you can quickly administer all your power in the exact way necessary.

Out of the realm of lifting and into the world of sports, it is almost more apparent. Sure someone can have great amounts of speed, but what happens when you ask them to quickly change direction? Well it usually isn't a very pretty sight. Why is this? They cannot quicly and effectively apply their power to a new direction. So the more agile you are, the better able you can change directions while in a full sprint because you can easily and quickly apply your strength in an efficient way to turn your body.

Now you all probably wondering how one can go about improving their agility. Well it's not a simple thing. It is one of  those things where practice is the only way. So some great measures that can be taken to increase one's agility include speed ladder workouts, stepping exercises, warm-up plyometrics, T drills, shuttle runs, dot drills, and square cross sprints. All these exercises are for agility outside of the lifting world, but inside the lifting world, the best way is to practice the movement that you wish to increase your agility at. So if you need help on your snatch, drop the weight, practice the movement and speed it up as you get better. Ifneed be, break the compound movement down into simple movements and practice those individually.

Workout

3x(15,15,15)-superset each two workouts

Machine Flyes (Triple Drop)

Flat Bench Press
Flat Cable Flyes

Incline Bench Press
Incline Cable Flyes

Decline Bench Press
Decline Cable Flyes


Abs

2x(20,20) non-stop superset

Ball Crunches
Concentration Crunches


CrossFit

20 Minute AMRAP

5 KBS  1.5 pood (53 lbs)
10 Pushups
15 Air Squats

Result: 17 rds. + 10

Flex Is Forgiving

Well here I am enjoying another day of no school until noon. But today I feel like I have nothing to do since it is a rest day. I think I sense some frisbee to be played today. And I hope all of you feel like you are more fit then before, not only for being educated on what fitness really is, but taking the initiative to read my blog today. I mean hey it might only be two calories burned, but lets say you read 200 posts, and thats 400 calories. So after you read 200 posts, reward yourself with a mirror glance, because it would be worthless to destroy those burned calories with a snickers bar. If you did I might have to show up at your door and round house kick that cancerous crap out of your hand.

One of my not so favorites, because it is just not my forte...

FLEXIBILITY: The range of motion of one's body or appendages.

So, for all you ladies out there, I'm about 6 feet tall and love long walks on the beach while drinking pina col.... my bad, it's habit... Well all you ladies are naturally more flexible than us men, so you might have a few laughs at us while trying to work on it. But nonetheless, I will always add science to screw with everyone's head. So what are factors that affect flexibility? Simple, MUSCLES, JOINTS, SKIN. Yes, I said skin and it is a huge factor.

MUSCLES: What makes a muscle flexible? Well in simple terms, the more aligned and uniform your muscle fibers are, the more they want to stretch and give you a greater range of motion. So every time you stretch, you are pulling all of those fibers in the same direction to line them up. Now what happens when they arn't in the same direction? Well we call that a knot and they SUCK. Any pressure you put on that part of the muscle feels like a bruise the someone stuck a knife into. The fix is simple... just read on.

JOINTS: These are not very fun. Pretty much, a joint contains tendons and ligaments which are pretty much some of the stiffest things in the body. They don;t like to be flexed or stretched. But there are always ways around this. Strengthening the join can over time lengthen and strengthen the tendons and ligaments, giving a larger range of motion. So stretching does not do a whole lot, it does a little but strengthening is the true stuff for it.

SKIN: Okay for starters stop the crap talking about me being an idiot for putting this on here. It actually is a very important part of flexibility. What can happen after a good nights sleep, or a prolonged period of time without lots of movement in an area, mainly in the scapula area, the skin and muscle together can have high amounts of friction between them. As a result, you muscle and skin work against each other and you are stiffer than a phone pole.

THE FIXES :)--- So lets begin with some good stretching. Hold for about 20 to 30 seconds and get a nice pull on them all. The ideal time for this is after exercise when your muscle are at their weakest and prone to be shaped. Next, identify if you have any knots, which is any place on a muscle that is painful to touch. Once identified, grab a foam roller of death and isolate the muscle on the roller and start crying. it hurts like a son of a gun, but it is worth it. Next, strengthen your joints to lengthen those ligaments and tendons, because your joints are only as flexible as they are. I will post some videos of exercises that do this in a few days. Finally, if you go a period of time with little exercise or movement, grab a lacrosse or racquetball and place it under the main area being scapula and hips. Same thing as the foam roller, roll around, except this one doesn't hurt. it actually feels amazing.


Workout

Rest Day

Pop the Protein!!!

Twinsies

It's been awhile people, I know I say this all the time but I am a very busy guy. I mean I had prom to go to and do all that hullabaloo. It was so worth it. And man oh man what a workout. Jumping for three minutes gave me a good calf workout and man oh man. And for my arms, I fist pumped like a champ and by the end of the night it was more of a fist wobble. Job well done if you ask me. Fun and working out at the same time.

So now onto the real topic. The next two factors of fitness. STAMINA and ENDURANCE. Now are they the same or arnt they... Well its really just a terminology type thing. They are variations of each other, but people use them interchangably without taking into account the factors that seperate the two. So lets get down to the meaty stuff and see what they are.

ENDURANCE: The ability to sustain activity for a prolonged period of time. Now what does this mean? Well it means you can run for a long time or row for days. Well maybe not days unless you are somesort of hiberno saxon or viking or of the norse people. But anyways, it can also sometimes be referred to as cardio. Now on the complex level it is your bodies ability to utilize its oxidative pathways. Now we all have our oxidative pathways, but the more endurance we have, the more efficient we make them. As we increase our endurance, we increase our bodies ability to deliver oxygen to the areas where it is needed, thus allowing our body to keep chuggin' along.

How do we increase our endurance? Well it's not easy and it just takes pure work. The greatest way to increase it is by sustaining approximately 75-80% of our maximum heart rate for a period of around 20 minutes. If your doing it right then you should be breathing pretty hard, I mean this is no walk in the park, this is hard core running through beautiful fields full of flowers and butterflies. I mean who said fitness can't have beauty...

STAMINA: A.K.A. "Muscular Endurance" Sounds similar, yes it is a type of endurance if you want to see it that way, but it is not nearly the same thing. This type of thing is more focused on muscle fatigue. So when you are doing those push-up tests and you reach the 80 mark and your arms start to feel like jello. That's stamina for you. Now for the sciency part of it all, a muscle is composed of lots and lots of muscle fibers. The more we work our muscles and strain them, the larger they grow, but also the more mitochondria they produce to keep up and adapt to the great workout they are exerted to. Along with more mitochondria, comes more energy molecules for powering our muscles. Now there are many, but the two main types are ATP (Adenosine tri phosphate) and Creatine Phosphate. So the more of those, the longer the muscle can go.

So how do we build stamina? Well its those fun days in the gym when we do those 20 rep sets and 30 rep burnout sets. In other words, the ones that burn. Also another overlooked part of building stamina is practicing everything bodyweight which is a great weight for adding stamina to your muscles. So hit it up!


Now I have overloaded your mind with all sorts of great knowledge, so with this go get your pump on with all your bros and broettes at the gym, crossfit box, or backyard. They all work. Or even go for a run or a bike ride or pay soccer or disc golf if you will.

Workout

5x(5,5,5,15,15) superset every two

Preacher Curl
Skull Crushers
Seated alternating Curls
Tricep Kick Backs
Reverse Grip Curls
Tricep Pressdowns


ABS

3x(15,15,15)

Knee Raises
Roman Chairs

Cardio

14 Mile Bike Ride

Strength Starts It Off

Ahh here we are with numero uno of fitness. Strength! One of my favorites, however just as important as all of the others. Today was very boring. rest day along with pretty much nothing at track practice. If you ever feel like you have enough strength, your wrong and I put this picture of this lady to remind you of it.

What is strength exactly? How do we judge strength of a man? Well to begin with it is all compared to body weight. Comparing a man that weighs about 150 pounds to a 300 pound man is just not fair. So whenever you are judging a lift always put it in percentage of your body weight.

Strength: The amount of weight that one's muscles can move.

So to put it in a nutshell, its about how many plates you can move, and push ups you can pump out.

How do we gain strength? Well its one of those things that takes time, it is not instant. For being in the gym, you want lower reps with higher weight, along with pyramid sets and negatives. These are all sets that will help you add strength onto your body. Along with strength comes size, but dont get the two mixed up. A person may be huge but not very strong, or my favorite, a person may be super scrawny but able to kick your butt in the gym. Never judge a man on his size.

Another way to look at strength and to build it is by bodyweight exercises. They are a great gauge of your true strength and practical strength too because all movements include the weight of your body. So push out the push ups, bodyweight squats, squat jumps, hand-stand push ups all of that fun stuff!

Remember the stronger you are the easier your WOD is because I have never seen a WOD that does not include some sort of workout that does not require strength.

Track

Nada

Workout

REST

Fitness For Real

Well again I missed a few days, but I was in Santa Clara debating topics of importance. Hate me if you will, I dont care but you will be missing out on valuable fitness info. Worst part of the whole thing besides no blogging, workouts were pretty much impossible to get in.

Well today is going to be the first of a series of many posts defining what fitness is. Do you know what fitness is? I doubt you have the full definition of it. Sure it may mean strong, or being a good runner, or things along those lines. But NO!!!!

Fitness is a term used to bring together all the aspects of being fit and a true athlete.

• Strength
• Stamina
• Endurance
• Flexibility
• Agility
• Power
• Coordination
• Nutrition

Now each day I will go into depth on each aspect of my definition of fitness. Now everyone may have a slight bit definition but I will give you mine, it is neither right or wrong. (Well actually I think it is text gold) So dont say hey your wrong or I forgot one. DONT. It's like one of those open response questions in class where you have to interpret a symbol in a book. Except unlike those this one is fun and doesn't ruin my day.

So I figure I will start tomorrow since today I pointed out all the aspects, and quite frankly I need to start getting my rest for prom because I have a feeling I am going to be wishing I had more sleep in me for it. 

Track

10 minute run

5x300s (65%, 80%, 100%)

Discus

Workout

3x(15,10,6)

Preacher Curl

Tricep Pressdowns

Seated Alternating Dumbbell Curls

Reverse Grip Pull Downs

Rope Hammer Curls

Tricep Dips

ABS

2x50

Russian Twists

2x20

45lb plate Oblique raises

Slow And Steady Gets The Gains

Now I know I said yesterday that I was going to talk about the dreaded "off" day, but then I realized yesterday was one of those mental parts of fitness so I decided you all needed to good healthy dose of physical fitness and science.

Sure we have all heard of plyometrics, in soccer or warm-ups or some sport, but have you ever heard of isometrics? Well you are going to hear about then and then some because they are good stuff man! So if plyometrics means an exercise in which muscles are repeatedly contracted and relaxed in a process to build muscle. So lets take a guess on isometrics. Static? YES! You workout but not by movements. Sounds wierd, yes. I know it is weird but I promise after an isometric workout for the first time you will say every curse word that there is in the freaking oxford dictionary. If anyone slaps me in the face this week I will know why and feel proud to have been smacked in the face.

So say we have legs to do and our exercise is the squat. Sure you can do your reps and sets, or you can isometric it up by holding each squat right above the lowest position for about 10 seconds and then back up and do it again. The whole goal is to keep our muscles contracted at their point of most resistance. Another example is holding a weight above your head with a straight arm for a minute. Sounds easy right? Try it, I dare you!

Now for the nerd aspect of it all, this is just another strategy of maximizing muscle growth. We normally work our muscle fibers by constricting and relaxing them, but when kept under extreme stress and tension for a prolonged period of time, it cause all new rips and tears in them. These new rips and tears that have not been experienced before will lead to massive growth. Remember that muscle fibers grow by damaging them so to speak. We stress them, then they rip and heal back bigger. But at the same time, they try to accommodate to what  they are being exposed to. So if you switch it up with isometrics, then cannot accommodate to the workout and you will keep adding muscle at an exponential rate.

Track

Discus and Shot Put practice

3 400s

3 300s

3 200s

(distance did 5 of the rounds, I did three but all the throwing still takes a little bit of a toll) I think in sake of my mile time I need to run all tomorrow and not throw)

Workout

Rest day! Well needed to. I was getting fatigued from day after day of track and working out.

It's A Mental Must

Back again to the old grind. Or should I say the old PUMP! That's juice head terminology for all of you jersey fans out there. But of ocurse none of us are of that life form, however I do like to follow the GTL lifestyle. It seems very simple and entertaining. My mother always said "beauty in simplicity".

So it has been said that the buddy system is best when going to the bathroom so nobody gets lost, but it is the same when working out! You don't want to get lost in your time or reps, so you have your buddy there to keep you going through it all. When you have a buddy to workout with, they can yell at you and ecnourage you to finish and get those last tough reps, or they can workout with you and keep the pace set and you can push each other.

Being men and full of testosterone, this is a great thing for me and my friends. We have an amazing competitive factor between us all, so when you see a friend next to you doing more push ups or doing them faster, you go faster so they can't beat you in the workout. It is simple psychology, men want to one up each other all the time.

Environment is everything when working too! So you have your buddy next to you pushing you along, but in those long and strenuous WOD's, nothing can keep you going better than some good music to keep that blood pumping in your brain. Your mind is the most powerful "muscle" in your body. Every workout depends on your mind set, so your brain is seen as a muscle in the fitness world, more so than a complex organ of nuerons and glia. But I am trying to avoid science on this entry so excuse my terms. So if you mind is happy and ready yo go, then your body will follow in behind it. So prepare your brain and keep it happy in your WOD to keep your muscling pumping just as hard as it.

Topic for tomorrow is the "off" day. we all dread it but they are a for sure occurence.

Track:

Practice Discus, using the full spin.

30 minute run

CrossFit

6 hills

WOD:

3 rounds AMRAP (reps)

45 seconds burpees
15 second rest
45 seconds thrusters 40lb dumbbells
15 second rest
45 seconds straight leg sit ups
15 second rest
45 seconds floor press 40lb dumbbells

Results: 

1- 71
2- 77
3- 71

Practical Power

Well here we are again with another day of fitness and blogging. I mean what more is there to life than those two things? I mean sure it is the cool thing to do to have a hot girlfriend and the play Call Of Duty Block Ops with the bros but neither of those come close to pure exercise and the rush it gives people... or maybe it is just me...

Time to do work son! So there are different types of strength out there. I mean you have people who can lift high volume (power lifters), endurnace (runners/cyclists etc...), and practical strength (CrossFit). Now sure someone can squat 400 pounds but is there a realife application for something like that? The answer is in 99% of people's lives, no. So what's the use in that kind of strength? To be honest it's only there for bragging rights which are pointless. CrossFit preaches that it's not how much or how many, but it is how fast. So the movements are onyl body weight lets say, but they are way more practical, for example, pull ups, push ups,unges, squat jumps all body weight. Now those will pay off when you are in daily life and playing sports or just walking up stairs. When will you ever have to push a 300lb board off your chest in real life? Never. The bench press movement is not a very practical one either. Now a push press can apply in lifting anything overhead or of that nature we all do sometime each month.

So the next time you are lifting, stray away from the olympic lifts and look for workouts that are more practical in movement nd weight. It is what us CrossFitters preach to all of those who follow us and has worked for us so well.

Now I realize I havent done a true WOD i quite some time and to be honest I have had impingement for a while so that put me out of commision and track is eating me up with time. But I assure you, that any spare time I have can be given to CrossFit!

Track

Discus practice. 96 feet
5 mile run at 65%

Workout

4x(10,8,8,8)

Squat Cleans
Sumo Deadlift
Side Squats
Squat Jumps
Isometric Squats ( hold at bottom position for 5 seconds)

CrossFit

Form Practice of Overhead Squat. Nobody likes them... NOBODY!

Chill Bro...

Another filled weekend. Working, track meet and more working out. And it felt good to do my first chest workout in two weeks after resting from it due to shoulder impingement. But lets get down to the real good stuff.

So lets say your in the gym doing your workouts and you have no clue how long to wait in between each set. Well not knowing this is perfectly okay because your about to read the answer!

Less than 1 minute rest: This is ideal when you are doing high rep sets. This includes anything 10 reps and higher. These use slower twitch muscle fibers and gather energy from multiple types of molecules in your body. Primarily ATP and Creatine Phosphate. So these types of fibers are unique in that they give less strength over a long period of time allowing more reps at a lower weight. So on a high rep day, shorten those rest periods.

1-4 minute rest: This is ideal when you are doing volume workouts. Meaning that when you are trying to lift heavy weights but only about 4 reps, you will want lots of rest in between each set. This is because you use fast twitch muscle fibers which pretty much rely on ATP for energy, so when the ATP is gone, they are unable to contract as well. As a result, they are only to be able to used for a few seconds at max strength, but they also yield a lot greater amount of power.

No Rest Super Sets: These are ideal when you are adding in abs to your supersets. A super set is designed to add cardio into an ordinary workout. A downside is they can't give you the growth potential that others can, but they will get you cut and hardened. So if you want the ladies, get on the supersets. Of course you need to get the mass to get cut first.

Track Meet:

Mile : 5:31

Discus: Would rather not talk about. tam did bad.


Workout

(4x10,8,6,12)

Flat Bench Press
Flat Dumbbell Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Decline Bench Press
Standing Cable Flyes

Explosion Push Ups  (3x7)

Knee Raises (3x10)