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.