Category: Crossfit WOD Type Workouts

So I have modified the workouts to a 3 movement as outlined last post. I tried to go 5×5 but that was too little work. I am currently doing anything from 10 reps x 5 sets to 7 reps x 7 sets for each exercise. The problem I find is getting to heavy enough weights quickly enough to make it work. I find I prefer to build up to a heavy weight and if I don’t I find I am not effective and just don’t get the work I need. I am finding that for most exercises that 7×7 is working OK which puts me into the 150 rep range plus warmup.

I am sticking with the cardio, I purchased Insanity for Xbox and also Zumba for Nicole, even though I have done 3 of the 5 workouts myself. I am supposed to be losing weight but if I am honest with myself I am really not making enough of an effort. I have to cut out all the evening food, nothing after the workouts and bed early, that should fix it. The problem is that I have a harder time being motivated to lose the weight when I am performing well because I know I will lose strength and that makes me unhappy. But I have to. I can’t go into the summer at this weight, I need to drop about 20lbs ASAP to get ready for the HIIT system that I usually follow for the summer.

It’s weird too because I actually feel better for the cardio and I think I look a bit better, but let’s be honest, unless we are talking about 10lbs it’s just not significant. I think I will stick with the multiple exercise piece for now, I don’t seem to be getting burned out by it, in fact I feel better than I did. The weird thing is that I have been having knee pain for a while now which I think is due to adding muscle to my right leg and it hurts like hell all the time but as soon as I start squatting, the pain disappears. I think it’s the new muscle not being stretched or as flexible as it should be and it’s pulling on my knee. Whatever it is, it hurts. Not only that, I have been having niggling wrist pain too on and off since passing the Millennium. I can still bench but not with my suicide grip any more. Hopefully both these issues will subside once I get some weight off but I am not sure about the wrist.

Gymnastics is going well, we have the levels established now it’s time for routines and practice practice practice… We have a long time it would seem however it’s still the time that passes the quickest during the year. Once the New Year passes it’s like a slippery slide until competition and every year it seems to creep up on you at an alarming pace. Thankfully I only have 2 girls doing compulsory routines, the rest are going level 6 which makes my life a whole lot easier.

Working out, being a competitive athlete, being a gym rat or a fitness fanatic is easy for some people. Many of us, and I include myself in that group, find it easy to be motivated to do physical things, to be able to push ourselves to do things that are difficult or challenging. Some people, and again I include myself in this, may have issues of laziness or distraction in other parts of their life but when it comes to the gym it’s a different story.

Most of the time.

My history is a long one of competitive rugby, competitive powerlifting, Soccer, Diving, Swimming, Fitness Instruction and Personal Training. I am fortunate enough to have had exposure as a coach and trainer to many different disciplines including my second greatest athletic passion, gymnastics coaching. I call it my second passion because I put my own physical fitness journey ahead of everything else I do. I have to. If I didn’t then it would get swallowed up by other things and that would affect everything else in my life.

As I get older, people occasionally ask why I still work out like I do, why I don’t dial it back to walking a mile or two and doing some situps like most people my age. Well, that’s a easy one to answer, I don’t want to be like people my age. In fact, I refuse to be like most people I know my age and that is the point. My abject refusal to capitulate to my age is what drives me as much as anything. I know I won’t be able to bench 400lbs forever and with my back issues I know my squat will never go back over 500lbs but I am not about to step back from the edge of my ability for the sake of feeling comfortable.

This is the problem I have with most people however. For me, the times when it’s not easy are the times when I can prove what separates me from everyone else. Sometimes it’s easy, but sometimes it’s just a giant pain in the ass to have to do the work. The difference between a competitor and a recreational athlete is how they approach those times when it’s hard, when you just don’t feel like it, when you are in pain or have an injury. Those are the times that count.

I tell my kids all the time (not that they listen) that it’s not the 90% of the workout that matters, it’s the last 5 reps, the last 2 routines, the final push past the comfort zone that creates magnificence. Anyone can do the 90%, only the dedicated can get the last 10% done. I have a quote on my white board at gym that I feel reflects this perfectly and it’s the image above. Everybody likes to think of themselves as a beast or a high performing athlete but very few actually are willing to do what it takes to make the grade. I have high hopes for my girls this year that they will make it to level 6 for competition, but even though they know how far they need to go, unless I tell them to get to work, they are happy to stand around and go at their own pace. The normal pace, the pace of someone who is just there for fun, someone who doesn’t care about the competitive aspects of sport, someone who is average. I am not referring to the actual competitions where they will ultimately be judged, at their age they can’t really use that for motivation because they can’t create that urgency in their mind. However, I am referring to the internal competition, the contest with who you were last week, last month, last year. It’s the fuel inside a competitive person that makes them want to succeed, that makes them get on the bars when nobody wants to take a turn, that makes them ask for spot to do the skills they don’t like so they can get better at them, that makes them simply WANT to be better.

All day, every day.

I miss my competitive days, and I have to come up with new motivating factors all the time to fill that void, to give me something to focus on, something to achieve. I try to instil that in people all the time, from online forums to people I work with that they need something to drive them physically to do the work. But mostly I try to encourage that feeling in the young kids who can use it for the rest of their lives. We should all strive to be our best, but we should realize that the journey never ends, that there is always room for improvement and searching for those weaknesses and addressing them is bravery, it’s sacrifice, it’s uncomfortable and it’s the road to being the beast that resides in your heart.

Just a quick note on my rep count for Monday. I did deadlifts and pullups and in the process remembered these counts:

1-5 is 15 reps
1-10 is 55 reps
1-10-1 is 100 reps

My mantra for this cycle has been to keep things simple. I have tended to stick with Deadlifts, Cleans, Clean and Press, Bench Press and Squats. With the occasional treadmill jog thrown in for good measure.

I feel like I am in a groove of sorts and my diet seems to be on point as I am slowly retreating from my 274lb high point and am down to 259 at last count. I am trying to get back into keto to get the weightloss to speed up a touch but I am finding it hard with the milk I drink. I think I am going to have to give the nightly glass of milk a skip and try to stick with water for a few weeks and see what happens.

I have been using the new squat rack and for the first time in a long time I squatted 185 last week. My plan is to get up to 305 and no further, I am not in the kind of mindframe where I need a 400 or 500lb squat any more. I think having a 400lb bench a 300lb squat and a 300lb DL would be fine and would give me an even 1000lb total. At my age and history, I think that’s a reasonable goal.

It’s also time to plan for the winter. With the new rack in place this winter should be better than last especially since the pullup bar across the top of the rack is really handy, high enough for pullups not so high that I hit my head… I will need to figure out what to do for the next round, and I would not be averse to bringing back some DVD work for the winter. I can probably compact my heavier lifts into 4 days and spare 2 days for mobility / bootcamp type DVD work and cardio. It’s definitely something to think about.

I have been taking it deliberately easy on my calf for quite some time now. As of Saturday it was 17 days since the injury and after the treadmill guy replaced the motor the treadmill was once again up for grabs. So Saturday and Sunday I decided to do some stress testing. Saturday was mostly just walking at various predictably slow speeds, and Sunday was more of a jog/walk to see if my leg held up after Saturday and to see if it would take the strain. It went OK, I didn’t have any soreness next day and the pain seems to be staying away. Next test will be an Insanity DVD but with at least 5 minutes walking on the treadmill beforehand to warm up my poor gargantuan calves.

So not much to report since I took Friday off. Yesterday I did bench and dips again looking something like this:

@135 – 5×10
@185 – 4×10
@225 – 7×7

I wanted to go up to 275 but my shoulder was a little tenser, probably from spotting last week so I let it be. That was almost 140 reps anyway so…

I have to do some low squats this week in addition to my heavy DL day and Clean with Snatch or C&P day.