Getting back into the swing of things

Well, it's been awhile since I have updated this. Turns out, that when you start a gym, you train less. Who would have figured?

I had the CrossFit Level 1 cert a couple weeks ago. It was a great time. Heard a lot that I was already familiar with, but seeing qualified coaches teach movements as well as Greg Glassman explaining CrossFit was very informative. I took some time off from regular lifting to prepare for the cert, didn't want to go in terrible condition.

I'm about to start a new cycle. I'll be doing CrossFit, with one out of every 3 training days being a lifting day. This is a little less than what I have been doing, but I'm trying to balance things out a little better; my metcon and muscle endurance have been suffering lately. First 8-10 weeks I will be working on the Deadlift and Jerk. The deadlift program will be following Mark Phillipi's deadlift cycle, Jerks will be a simple periodization. I'll be including a lot more supplementary work to help improve muscle endurance in the bodyweight movements. That's all for now, more details later!

Post-Black Box

I just finished my last lift of my first 3 weeks of the ME Black box accompanied by the "heavy" CrossFit workouts. I'll go ahead and restate my program for the first 3 weeks.

Day 1: ME Front Squat
Day 2:XF
Day 3:ME Deadlift
Day 4:XF
Day 5:ME Press
Day 6:XF

Myrecovery has been excellent, even with school and not the best eating. Doing one lift on the BB days is hardly a stress. The CrossFit takes a little more to recover from, but given that I have hit PR's in all the lifts this month, it looks like it wasn't too much to recover from in a day or two.

It looks like my goal of continuing to increase in absolute strength while CrossFitting is working very well. I hit 430# on the deadlift, an increase in 25 lbs over my last PR, a 270# (15# increase) Front Squat, and a 150#(5# increase) Press. I don't know if this says my program wasn't good before, or if the ME Black Box is just a really good program. My thoughts are that I was overtraining before, looking back I realize I was working around 85-90% most of the time, and at high volumes. I once did a 295# backsquat for five reps. My 1RM is 305#, so there's a problem there somewhere. I'm also hoping that by constantly working with the XF workouts using heavier weights, I'm contributing to my absolute strength, even if the intensity is fairly low compared to my 1RM.

For now, I'm going to take a week for some lighter work, incorporating some abs/back and push/pull circuits. I'll lay off the lifting for one week, and then onto another 3 week BB cycle, repeating Fran, Diane, and Elizabeth during that time, while trying some other strength-oriented CrossFit workouts. My lifts for next time will be:

-Clean
-Push-Press
-Back Squat

My overhead strength is a major concern, so I will be using the push-press this time, even if it means I will have two "total body" movements on this cycle. I'll also be slipping in some weighted pull-up work, but it will be irregular.


The experiment continues.

Nobody said this was going to be easy

I've gotten a few weeks of CrossFit under my belt, and it's still tough. Really tough. My metabolic conditioning is still so sad that the strength I have gained can even be put to use. Nothing ever feels "heavy", even loads of 225# deadlifts or 135# cleans. I just run out of energy and my muscles burn like the fire of 1,000 suns. Here's some scores I've racked up lately:

Diane: 5:23
Elizabeth: 14:50

The difference right there is pretty telling. While a Diane should be shorter for just about anyone, my Diane time is semi-respectable. With a little HSPU work, I'll be doing pretty well. But when faced with a movement like the full squat clean, requiring a much greater range of motion and a higher work capacity, I was quickly incapacitated. I got through the first 8 or 9 reps ok, but after that it was a struggle. Each rep turned me into a wheezing, coughing, shell of a man. Maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it will be a long ways coming before I can manage a workout like "Elizabeth" in any sort of decent time.

I'll be updating shortly; within 3-4 weeks I will have repeated the workouts, and if I'm doing anything right, my times should be much-improved. Like I did with the Fran, I'll take a guess at scores to be. Diane: 4:30. Elizabeth: 12:00.

Nothing's wrong with having some goals. (Except when you don't get anywhere near them!)

Back in the saddle again.

This is the first day of my new cycle. As I alluded to in my last post, I'm doing a combination of the "heaviest", most strength-oriented CrossFit WODs in addition to the ME Blackbox. The schedule will be a 6-on-1, alternating blackbox lifting days (generally one lift per day, 5x5 first week, 5x3 second, 5x1 third, repeat; weights increased each set) with CrossFit. The lifts I chose were the front squat, the overhead squat, and the press, in addition to a little deadlift work. I went with the front squat because it really hasn't gone up any, even since all of my strength work over the past 6 months or so. I did primarily back squats, but I thought I would see a little improvement for the fronts! I will be doing deadlifts and OHS on the same day. I'm so close to my deadlift goal, so there's not reason not to lock down on it, and the OHS will help with my midline stabilization (here is a short blurb from CrossFit Oakland on midline stabilization), which will in turn help my CrossFit and hopefully my other lifts. Lastly, my press still sucks, so I will blackbox it until I'm where I want to be!

As I said, today was my first day of the new cycle. Last week, I messed around and did "JT" @ 19:07 (suck!) and another workout, not of importance. I just got done doing "Fran". Literally, I'm sitting in a broken down sweaty heap trying to type this out. My time was 6:17, which is actually 1:13 faster than my last Fran, which was during my 100% CrossFit phase. Very interesting, eh? The issue this time was clearly metcon and muscle endurance, but sheer strength was never a problem. While workouts like Fran play to my strengths after my long lifting cycle, it's pretty clear that strength is a huge factor in CrossFit workouts. If you don't come from some sort of strength training background, or make strength work a part of your routine, you'll find yourself wanting one day. So, I'll go ahead and make myself a little bet, and experiment, a goal of sorts. I'm going to have a 5:00 Fran in one month, and a 4:00 Fran in 3 months.

I'll let you know how it goes.

A minor update; thoughts about the next cycle

I went to The Weight Room yesterday, and worked on my jerk and deadlift 1Rm. The Jerk was weak. Even though my press has gone up, my jerk is at 170. I thought it would be a lot higher, but I couldn't seem to keep my elbows locked. Next time, I think a lot of the problem is in the technique.

My deadlift was another story, I pulled 405, my first time at 4 plates. Thought I had some problems with rounding my back a little, and I raised my hips early out of the hole, it felt like I had a lot left in me. I think my goal of 450+ will be coming sooner than I thought.

Other than that, I've been going over some ideas I have on future training cycles. I still want to get my powerlifting goals, but I've been itching to get back into CrossFit. I wonder if I can get where I want while CrossFitting? The deadlift and press are a given in time, especially if I were to do something along the lines of the ME Black box by Coach Rutherford. I think there's still some juice left in those lifts without having to do anything too complex. Beginning my work back into CrossFit doing workouts like Fran (21-15-9 95# thrusters and pull-ups), Diane(21-15-9 225# deadlifts and handstand push-ups), and Elizabeth(21-15-9 135# cleans and ring dips) would certainly boost my pulling and overhead strength. But like I have said before, nothing quite compares with putting a lot of weight on your back and squatting it.

Anyways, I've got 3 weeks left of the Performance Menu Mass Gain cycle. I'm on the strength portion of it, lets see how it goes.

Some Progress

Well, I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the PM mass gain cycle. I've gained a decent amount of weight, about 10lbs. What's more exciting, is that for every exercise I have gone for a 1RM in, I have set a new PR.

Here's my new PRs: (all weights in #'s)

Press= 145 (from 140)
Clean = 193 (from 185)
Snatch = 135 (from 115)
Weighted pull-up = 135 (from 115)

I'm still going to attempt 1Rm's on deadlift and back squat. I'm a little nervous about getting under the bar again - nothing else compares to putting heavy weight on your back. But I'm pretty confident I can set a new PR in the deadlift.

The next 3 weeks in is the strength cycle portion of the program. I've made some PRs without doing any low rep work the pass month. Some of that is probably the additional mass, some is probably getting some much needed rest. I'm looking forward to some higher numbers after I do some serious strength work and can use this added muscle to the fullest.

A new tactic

Well, I’m glad that I wrote down my goals last post. Honestly, I forgot what they were. No worries, I’m nowhere near them!

My powerlifting kick quickly went from general-strength-leaning-towards-straight-up-powerlifting to just powerlifting. I can’t remember the last time I did a CrossFit workout. I found that once things started to get hard, and really wanted that weight, I couldn’t risk being beat from a CrossFit workout that I had done in the few days leading up to my lift. I went from the Starting Strength program (3x5 on the major lifts, linear increase in weights) to the Texas method (weight increased on a weekly basis, high volume, low intensity on Monday, low volume high intensity, hopefully PR on Friday).It worked, to a degree. I’m stronger. I’ve pulled a 305 Squat with good form, done 295 for 5. Deadlift is up to 400, which came up with ease. I believe my Press is at 145 now. Not bad right? Squat got a little better, and I put 60 pounds on my deadlift, and 30 on the press.

Except…. It’s taken months. Looking back over the past 2, my progress has stalled. Some days, I would have “good days” the weight would go up easy, and I felt like I could do a ton more. Other days, I had to fight for the same weight, or possibly less! But, I’m going to stay true to my goals. I’m not going to stop till I get my lifts. But perhaps, I’m in need of a change of tactics. So, for the past 3 weeks, I’ve been on the Performance Menu “Mass Gain” program. It’s a 7 week cycle, 3 weeks for hypertrophy, one week for unloading, and another 3 weeks on a strength oriented program. Honestly, I don’t really care about the lifting right now. My daily workout is consuming 6000+ calories (hopefully) a day. Here’s a sample of my daily menu

2 cans of coconut milk

Half pound of peanuts

One pound of meat

A dozen eggs

….plus some regular food in there.

I figure this will give my body some time to recover, grow, and hopefully put on some pounds to make my upcoming powerlifting cycle a little more fruitful. I’ve put on about 10 pounds so far, I’ll be making updates on how it goes.

Reevaluations

By some standards, this was a disappointing month. But first, let me explain what I've been doing for the past week, and a little spiel on Rippetoe's books.

As I said in my first post, I'm taking some time to do powerlifting and eventually weightlifting (olympic). Why? They interest me, and I would also like to build strength and explosive power. I feel it's something that I lack. I'm going by a modified version of Rippetoe's novice program highlighted in both Starting Strength and more in-depth in Practical Programming. Both are very good books. Starting Strength provides a concise analysis of the major lifts: the back squat, press, bench press, deadlift and power clean. Now, the book is geared towards teaching others the lifts, but this is not to say that you cannot learn the lifts yourself if you are a beginner. They can be somewhat technical in nature; if you're used to say, Dan John's writings, which might say "do this", Rippetoe's books will say "tell your trainees to 'do this', but this is why you are really telling them to do it". Pick it up though, you won't be disappointed.

So, I wanted to get into the lifts, and still do a little CrossFit. We have a Saturday park WOD, and I'd like to work in a "girl" once a week. Rippetoe's novice program (it feels a little weird being a novice) involves 3 workouts a week, back squats every workout, and cycling through bench press, deadlift, and overhead press. You wind up doing 3 exercises per workout, with some sort of pull-up or chin-up supplement added on for good measure. For squats and presses, it's 5x5, for deadlifts, 1x5. That's not his only program, but that's the general idea for his beginner program. Progress for the novice is linear, the stress is so large that adaptation happens quickly. Weight will go up every workout, 5 or 10 lbs depending on the exercise.

In order to accommodate CrossFit into the program, I took the powerlifting down to two lifts per workouts, and I took the bench press out of the equation. Rippetoe, Rutherford, and many others will say that the bench press doesn't transfer well into overall fitness or athletics. And really, I don't like the bench. I worked in pushing supplement instead. So here's what 2 weeks of my program might look like:

Week 1
M: Squats, Press, pull-up ladder
T: "Fran"
W: Squats, Deadlift, ring push-up burnouts
R: Rest
F: Squats, Press, 3 efforts of max pull-ups
Sa: Byrd Park WOD
Su: Rest

Week 2:
M: Squats, Deadlift, ring dip ladder
T: "Helen"
W: Squats, Press, weighted pull-ups
R: Rest
F: Squats, Deadlift, plyo push-ups
Sa: Byrd Park WOD
Su: Rest

I started out with fairly low weight on everything, moving up 5 pounds on the press, 10 pounds on the squat, and 15 pounds on the deadlift per workout.

Here's my previous max efforts:

Press: 115
Squat: 305 (poor form, more of a quarter or half squat)
Deadlift: 340 (rounded back, again not great form)

So, I recently went for my max effort on squats after a month into the program. I expected a new PR. I warmed up, working up to 185. Easy. 235. A Joke. 275. More weight!
305. Oh shit. Coming out of a deep squat, I hit a wall somewhere around parallel. After being helped up, I went for 300. Again, no dice. So what's the deal? I've been at this for a month!

It seems that it's time to reevaluate things. Not necessarily my goals. But maybe they need to be refined, so I'll state them here:

Press: 160
Back Squat: 355
Deadlift: 425

I'm a long way off, so my little weightlifting experiment will take a little longer than expected. 16 weeks? Can I even put a time frame on this. not really. So I have to keep plugging along. Sometime you don't reach your goals as quickly as you would like. Some days you'll be sick, tired, stressed, or over trained. But with good programming coming from research and experience, you'll improve. Today, I'll pick the bar back up and once again start working towards my goals.

A Step in the Right Direction

I went to a USA Weightlifting certification this past weekend. My muscles are a little tight from two nights on cheap motel beds, and I'm surprisingly sore from the lifting we did (it was all at low intensity). But I'm coming back a little wiser, hopefully.

You can read all you want online. You can actually learn a lot in the process. That's all I have done to learn so far in my journey to first become fit and then instruct others properly. I read all of the CrossFit journals, we just got a subscription to performance menu, and I browse through everything from weightlifting message boards to NSCA journals. I've bought and read a couple of books, Rippetoe's have been really helpful in learning how to correctly perform the power lifts.

But there's something to be said for hands on instruction, and for learning directly from someone who has had years of experience. Not only do you get the benefit of their knowledge, having that person teach you. You get to see how that person teaches, their little tricks, their demeanor. The interaction between teacher and student is not something that can be read about. It is something that must be learned first-hand, both through seeing someone else teach, and through teaching yourself. No one can be expected to be a great instructor because they keep up with all the latest fitness crazes, what all of the big names are saying at this moment. You can tell clients "well, so-an-so says you should do a power clean like this, and that's why you should do it this way". Anyone can gain that type of knowledge. Any mildly determined person can find that out. You have to be able to effectively instruct based on your own experience, and your teaching style, also in a way that others can understand. It's something that takes time, research, and practice. It's something I'm working on, and this weekend felt like a step in the right direction.

Goals

For the past year or so, I've done CrossFit. It was a pretty natural progression from typical bodybuilding, being informed by one book from Barnes & Noble, onto "SEAL" training, until Matt and I wound up in a local park semi-nauseous and dripping sweat after an attempt at 2/3 of a Chelsea.

I was never very large or athletic. 2 years ago I was 150#, which isn't much at 6'2". Playing rec basketball, I only had one shot on the hoop. All air. Soccer wasn't much better. Through CrossFit, I realized that while some were born with a high level of athletic ability and fitness, real fitness could be created. I was never going to be much of a body builder, putting on mass for me is hell. Plus, it wasn't really that fun. But after a couple of months of CrossFit, I saw significant improvements. Times dropped by minutes, workouts didn't need to be scaled. I could lift more, run faster and go harder. Above all, I liked it. I looked forward to the workouts, even as the nervousness crept in when I realized it was time to do a "Fight Gone Bad" or a "Filthy Fifty".

Some people come to CrossFit because they need it. Cops, Firefighters, military. I came to CrossFit because I liked the workouts, and even more I liked the kind of fitness I was able to attain. There's many arguments about CrossFit, some say it isn't good for you. Some say it doesn't work. After a year, I feel like I can disprove both. But some disagree with it's definition of fitness. Maybe some aren't impressed with the work capacity of a 30 round Cindy or a 3 minute Fran? (no, I can't do either) But I am. The point is, I like CrossFit. But I don't need CrossFit to survive.

That's why I'm stepping back a little.

I'm taking some time to get into power lifting and Olympic weightlifting. Why? I like 'em. My new cycle involves 2 days of CrossFit, one a "girl" day and one is our regular workout in Byrd Park. The bulk of it however is power lifting at the moment, following plenty of advice from Rippetoe's Starting Strength and Practical Programming for Strength Training. I want to be able to back squat 400, and deadlift even more. A bodyweight shoulder press wouldn't be bad either. All pretty ambitious considering my starting point, but why not be ambitious?

Will my Cindy score suffer from a little CrossFit downtime? Of course. Will my Fight Gone Bad score be respectable after a couple months of power lifting? Maybe not. And while I'm enjoying power lifting right now, I'll be back to routine CrossFit soon enough. Hopefully, I'll come back the strongest I've ever been.