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)..   :(