Words. Not Even Once

"Do or do not, there is no try" -Yoda

Read it and respect it for two reasons. It is true and it is Star Wars. If you don't like Star Wars then you can go stand in the corner and think about how your life is incomplete. Yes that just happened.

But honestly there is no middle ground. Just like the fact there are two types of people in the world, those who do and those who say they should do. Be somebody who does. Simple as that. You can talk about how you should eat more veggies and take less handle pulls, but until you grab that rabbit food instead of that illicit substance, you are no better than a couch potato who won't get up to change the channel and is stuck watching lifetime.

I cannot stand when people say they should do something. Stop wasting your breath say that nonsense and actually do it. It is a crazy idea, I know. Stop talking about squatting five hundred and the mad amounts of poon you slaughtered all weekend and watch how it does absolutely nothing to increase your sorry excuse of a squat and the fact that the only action your bedroom sees is tears of loneliness.

Start taking action to be better. I never listen to people. As a coach, as a friend, and as a person I can honestly say that I hardly ever listen to people. I observe them. You can talk all you want, but if you want my attention I better see you ask for it and and not hear you ask for it.

I am keeping this post short for the sole reason that there is nothing else to say besides do. I challenge you to stop yourself when you say you are going to do something and just do it instead. Let everything people know about you be defined by your actions. Let the squat talk for you, let the diet talk for you, let your smile talk for you (stupid but still it counts), let your hard work talk for you, let the fact that you don't stop until the workout is over talk for you, let your sweat talk for you, let your blood talk for you. After all that you can sit back and talk, but there will be no reason because YOUR RESULTS will say everything that needs to be said. Why you did that extra squat, why you chose that rabbit food salad and meat tornado you may be asked,  but you just sit there and let them wonder. They will watch and learn and see that no words need to be said. Words are dead, actions are in.

Stay hungry.

Adamas

I figured its been a while and my training has been full of ups and downs which in turn gives me some good fuel to write about. So the next few posts I will be writing about will be about thoughts and events occurring during my training now. I am explaining about them for a number of reasons, sometimes the last advice you take is your own so I ma hoping this will serve as a wake up to me, I know for a fact there are all sorts of other people experiencing the same things, and lastly, I am sitting here drinking my coffee and listening to hipster music so I figured all I need is an insightful blog post before all the hipster girls are at my door... and yes I just admitted to an addiction to hipster girls. One last thing, before any of you trash talk my thought process or training style, wait until further posts because I can guarantee what you will have problems with now I will address later, calm yo' tits.

So here you go, I like girls and I like kegs so lets just combine them. (If you are training as hard as I am kegs are nowhere to be seen in the near future)

So here we are in the middle of summer with time to train and lots of work to do. Any smart coach would use this time as a time to test their athletes, break them down and use lots of volume in their training. Going through this right now, let me tell you, it sucks more than being given socks as a birthday present. Everyday I wake up with my body crushed and my mind out of it. My body is not as much sore as it is physically exhausted an devoid of energy. I hate it but this is a necessary process in training. While we have all sorts of time we need to get rough with it and find that rock bottom. It does many things from a coaching stand point and for the athlete. It proves who really has a desire to get better and compete and weeds the ones lacking the competition desire out. Lots of people want to compete but not everybody wants to work to compete. Not to be an asshole about it but CrossFit of the competitive level is not for everybody which is fine. Most people want to get their workout on and be done which is great for them. But those trying to compete need to prove themselves having the desire to work for it. Secondly, this high volume part of training that wreaks havoc on us adds immense amounts of strength and allows us to embrace the suck. How fatigued we are now we will grow accustomed to so when it comes to a chipper we will push until we are dead then push some more.

This however is the most important time to push with everything you have. Your shoulders may feel like they have nothing left, you may want to walk out of the gym and go lay down and watch your favorite show, but forget that. Get right back down on that bar and pick it up. Do that final snatch, do that final squat no matter how much it wants to break you, you need to fight the urge to stop and break that bar before it breaks you. Somewhere out there is somebody who will always be doing that extra lift or extra muscle up not because they are better than you, but because they want it more than you do. 60% of these workouts are for the strength and conditioning, but the other 40% is questioning you to see how bad you want to win and excel. When you get beat at a competition and you can look back and say well that snatch I didn't do or that lap I didn't run would have helped. Good job there buddy you beat yourself before you even started your god damn competition. Train so you can look back and know there was nothing left for another squat so you can honestly say that day was the hardest you have worked yet. I don;t care i it is a light day, you still rip that bar and concentrate as hard as if you are trying to snatch 315 form the ground. Weigh does not change the workout or the thought process. It just changes the way the bar looks. Work load does not change EVER!

"Stay Hungry"

It has been a long while. Life has a funny way of keeping you occupied and having fun. That is if you are living it right of course which brings me to my first topic for today. Like what you do. It is as easy as that. Training for some competition or just getting your daily workout on should not be a task, it should be an admiration of yours. Whether you enjoy the beat down in the gym or the rewards after the workout, you still need to enjoy it. You need to be able to look back at the past few months of working out and with a smile say that it was worth it to be where you are now. It is not hard, but hard work is always rewarded. ALWAYS WORK HARD.

This is not to say that you will not enjoy every day of training. It is up and down and we can all agree upon the fact that every once in a while we have a day where a bar seems like the heaviest weight in the world or 400m seems like a marathon. Those are the days that matter the most. They define us as an athlete and a person. You need to separate manhood from boyhood. Somewhere out there is a person exactly like you that is doing that extra squat that you do not want to do, doing that extra sprint that you don't care about. They will be the ones faster stronger and sexier than you. BE THAT PERSON.

What defines greatness is not being great on a good day, it is pushing through every rep and pushing your hardest when you feel like you are tired and think that you cannot possibly go further. If your body is still moving when you set the weight down, pick it back up and let your body dictate when to set it down and not your mind. Doing sets of 5 to get through 30 reps. That is not your body talking, that is your mind picking a good number to rest. We do not get better listening to our mind. We achieve greatness from listening to our body and ignoring our mind.

When training and working out, push at the pace you want to be at, and when you start to fatigue and slow down this is when the workout really starts. This is the point that will separate us from the person that woke up this morning from the fit athlete we want to become.

We define ourselves and control who we are. If you want it bad enough, you will push that extra bit for it, but if your heart is not in it and you truly do not want it, then you will fail to succeed. Enjoy the pain or enjoy the results because if there is no enjoyment there is no fuel for greatness.

-Renaissance Man

Rhabdo-what?

12.4 has passed us now.  How was it? How is the open? Well if your anything like me it feels like a spider monkey went HAM on my legs. Things got real with 12.4.

Hide yo' kids, Hide yo' wife, RHABDO IS COMING! Yeah that little thing called Rhabdo came during 12.4 and took some people back to its van. So in all honesty, be careful. The nice thing about the open is you can redo workouts to get a greater score but make sure to listen to your body. Some of the most in shape people in my gym have gone rhabdo after one go at this WOD. Then I see some of the people who are not at their level doing the WOD again for a second time. This means one of two things, you did not go hard enough your first time or you are not listening to your body and giving it the rest it needs. Rhabdo is a serious thing that puts people in the hospital. Competition is intense and brings out the best in us, but make sure if it brings out the best then you rest enough to be at your best again.

A forewarning out there, whenever you are faced with a WOD from the depths of some nasty mind of a coach, warm up real good. Long row, squats, push ups, GHDs they all are good warm ups. And after, especially after, do a cool down of rowing and stretching with rolling the muscles out. This will decrease soreness and prevent that rhabdo man from showing up. What got people in 12.4 was the fact you did karen to wreck your legs, then you following it with high jarring movements like double unders which jarred all your muscles and then coming down from the rings was a huge shake and jar to the body. So be careful out there.

Make sure you get all your needed rest before you all blow 12.5 out of the water.

Remember at all times, Respect is not from a number or a score. Respect is from hard work

Just Done Did It

San Diego.......'nuff said. Sunny, warm,not a cloud in the sky what else can I ask for! Oh yeah chemistry class! Good thing I am like Walter White up in here!.....- the meth...and child...and wife... so the good life.



Well lets fix the problem of the world declining into a state of obesity. If you want to look like the woman above then you might want to get reading! And lets be honest, fitness isn't about looking great it is about being great and feeling great. Looking great is just a side effect. And for all you guys, this woman could totally kick your booty, so respect the lady because she is a dream wifey of mine.

The topic for today is scaling, so lets start out with a story to relate it too! Story time bro!

Once upon a time there was a man who was awful at math but just barely got by in all of his classes. Got that C- to pass his classes, but when he went to college he realized he didnt know anything. He then proceeded to flunk out of everything, become a hobo and live a horrible and sad life.

There was another guy who sucked at math beyond belief but this guy instead dropped down to the slow and remedial math classes. Sure he was behind the curve, but he ended up learning everything, passing college and getting a good paying job and a hot wife only to make more kids whom will soon rule the world

Moral of the study, step back before you step forward. Now lets apply this to fitness.

Scale workouts if you need to bro! Nobody will judge you by your weight. People judge people by the amount of work they put in at the gym, not by the amount of weight they do.

So when you need to heavy thrusters at 155lbs but can only do 115lbs with good form until it becomes a cluster fladoodle of form, then stick to 115. It is MUCH BETTER to do proper form ad full range of motion at a light weight than to kill yourself/look like a fool/ fail at a heavy weight. Simple as that. You will never get stronger by doing bad form. Bad form leads to bad habits and you will never reach your true potential unless you perfect your form. How can a 180lb kid lift more than a 240lb man? Good form. That's how. Results are not always immediate. They take work and time just like fitness. Nobody is instantly fit. NOBODY! It takes time and work just like proper lifting form and strength.

So more props to the dude doing 115lb thrusters than the dude giving himself a hernia with 155lb crap thrusters that are half squats and nasty presses.

I kept the science and technical info out today to save the mind, but tomorrow will fire those action potentials in the noggin'.

Today's training


Crossfit Games open WOD number 1 !!!!!!!!

Strict Paleo as always brosef

Bro..were good bro

Here we are again. Back to the basics of elite fitness. Hopefully your new to reading this because of me being a great advertiser among other things.





So pretty much you should read all of the other posts I have. They may be old but they are like the freaking holy koran of fitness info. We dont mess around. Well get reading foo!

Today we are talking about mobilizing. Bro we got to get mobilized up in here! What does this mean? Stretch and move your joints around to loosen them up and gain range of motion.

Range of motion is STRENGTH! So if your trying to be swoll and win ladies over with your gargantuan muscles, you might want to be more flexible than Mr freaking fantastic. Overhead squats are a great leg workout to hit parts of your legs that back squats dont. If you arnt flexible in your shoulder capsule then you might as well not even overhead squat at all.

In movements like snatch and overhead squats it is key to be flexible in your shoulders which makes everything easier allowing easier reps and dumps when you fail but we dont fail because failing is for fools... jk

So how do we mobilize our shoulder joint? Simple, first we stretch it. There are videos by Kelly Starett about shoulder stretches but my favorites are grabbing a band from behind you, holding your arm straight and lean forward to feel that stretch in your shoulder.

Another great mobility exercise is a pass through with a pvc pipe. Grab a pvc pipe with a wide grip and keeping straight arms pass it from in front of you to straight overhead then continue in that path until the bar is behind you against your back. then bring it back through the same way it went over. Keep moving your arms in until you can no longer keep straight arms through the whole stretch. Then do a few more pass throughs and reap the benefits.

The most hated of them all is the lacrosse ball. Simply put a lacrosse ball on the ground and lay on top of it with it making contact with your scapula and shoulder region. Roll around on it until you find a hot spot or a knot. Pretty much find a spot that hurts like a beezy and stop there. feeling the pain that will make you wish you were a girl so you can cry legitimately, begin to rotate your arm around in a straight motion to move the muscles under the ball. This will help rub out knots. Make arm circles essentially. It should hurt like hell, if it doesnt then man up grow a pair and find a spot that does hurt because everybody has those spots.

The lacrosse ball also opens up joint capsules and connective tissues sheaths by moving them around and loosing them when they become attached and experience heavy friction with the skin and muscles and connective tissue in the area. When you move the muscles around the ball everything gets loosened and moves around nicely.

As with all mobility drills, test and retest the area that you mobilized to see your results that you can obtain in minutes. remember to do both sides, the dominant and the complimentary side because there is no such thing as a non dominant or weak side.


Props to Jon B and Justin N for the added knowledge I have gained on this.


Workout for today:

Easy workout since the open starts tomorrow

EMOTM:

8 minutes

2 front squats 185#
6 KBS @ 2 pood

Done with ease but dont want to be wrecked for tomorrow

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 :)