"Discussion Point:The Warm Up"

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." - Mark Twain.

Does this:

appropriately prepare you for this?

To put it more clearly, is there an any warm up activity that will fully prepare you for the physiological maelstrom that is Crossfit? The answer is probably no, not entirely because the physical stressors created by many metabolic conditioning sessions are so extreme that if you took your body to anywhere near that intensity for anywhere near long enough during a warm up, it could potentially cause two things to happen. Firstly it would excessively deplete your energy levels (muscle phosphogens and glycogen stores) to such a level where you would struggle to complete the actual WOD. Secondly it could phsychologically create some sort of doubt as to whether or not that is a place you actually want to go.

Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating not warming up. A warm up serves to perform several essential functions. Done properly a Warm up will stimulate the Muscular Skeletal System, Cardio Vascular and Respiratory Systems and Neuro Muscular System. But can they be stimulated to a sufficient degree to prepare them for something like "Fran or Elizabeth" for example. The problem faced when preparing for crossfit workouts is in the very nature of the methodology: Activities that are "Multi Joint, Tri Metabolic pathway and that works all three muscle fibre types at near maximal intensity" is a pretty tough ask. How do I overcome this challenge? With difficulty. My WOD today for example was "Diane" - 21-15-9 of 100kg DL and HSPU. My warm up consisted of:

750m Row 2.15/500m Pace (many will argue not long enough/not intense enough. They're probably correct)

50 Double Unders (5 sets of 10 - I'm crap and appear to be getting worse)

DL 60kg x 5 - 5HSPU

DL 80kg x5 - 5HSPU

DL 100kg x5 - 5HSPU

In between each short couple I did some ballistic stretches of the shoulder and hamstrings and some completely irrelevant static stretches. In terms of the principle of Specificity I felt this was OK (appropriate muscle groups taken through appropriate movement patterns with concentric and eccentric muscle work)

I then spent 10 mins delaying the start of the WOD ( chalk hands/check the bar/pop to the bog/blow my nose-you know the drill),because I knew, despite my preparation I was about to enter a world of pain. The oxygen deficit you experience with a WOD like "Diane" is just disgusting. You hammer your phosphogen stores mercilessly and pillage oxygen from your myoglobin stores to such a degree that you know there's no happy ending. The time it takes to recover from such a short WOD is testament to the potency of the work involved. Any way, the end result? No matter what I do, a bit light the deathstar here I never feel quite complete/ready for the work I need to do.

However Diane - 2min 35secs - a PR by nearly 4 mins!!

I know - this sort of disproves my point a little. This doesn't always happen mind you.

As you may have noticed I can get quite down on myself over my perceived weaknesses, so I'll savour the moment, even though I'm still struggling to recover from the WOD itself. Despite my recent sleep depravation and shabby diet of late, everything just seemed to click. All three rounds unbroken, with the HSPU' feeling fantastic. Have been doing a lot of elevated work of late which seems to be paying off. Chuffed to bits with this. When I started crossfitting I looked at WOD's like Diane and thought there's no way I would ever be able to do thatRXd so this is something for me to savour.Would appreciate any comments on Warm up work that works for you guys.

"Nobody can go back and make a new beginning,but anyone can start today and make a new ending" - Maria Robinson

"The 21 Food Rules Every Guy Should Follow". Really cool article here by a guy called Nate Green. Without beating you over the head, it is a nice sensible approach to helping sort out your diet.

Skills practice - Pistols

If you think below parallel back squats were the kiddies, have a little play around with these bad boys. In terms of motor unit recruitment and flexibility, nothing can really hold a light to the single legged squat. Still practicing mine off my plyo boxes. To see how it's really done check out Crossfit HQ Elite trainer Adrian Bozman here.

Probably not the best idea considering the muscle soreness I was still suffering from my "Mini Cindy" a couple of days ago. 5 sets of 5 on each leg helped me work up a good sweat and got the vascular shunt mechanism to really flood my quads and posterior chain with a good blood supply.

2nd Cycle of 5-3-1 Week 1 Bench Press

76kg x 5

87.5kg x 5

100kg x 16 ( 1 more possibly with a spotter?)

WOD:

AMRAP 15 Mins

250m Row

5 Power Cleans 80kg

7 Burpees

9 KBS 24kg

75m Uneven farmer walk (32kg +40kg)

4 rounds + 55m rowing

Due to the relatively low reps on each exercise, each part of the WOD managed to be completed unbroken, which made the workout pretty intense. My circus freak short legs means that my rowing efficiency is not the greatest. I count my dynamic strength as one of my strengths in most workouts, but when rowing I really struggle to maintain a high power output over a sustained time period. Apart from the 1st round I had real trouble keeping to under 1.50/500m pace. Over such a short distance this is pretty poor.

Pleased with the power cleans. Did them as singles and really concentrated on delaying the second pull until "pockets" and felt pretty snappy, despite the fatigue factor later on.

Burpees were burpees, never nice, but with a low rep count no problem.

The eccentric phase of the KBS I found quite tough due to the fatigue in my quads, but again a relatively low rep requirement meant it was manageable.

The farmer carry was quite tough on the grip, but good to get some quality isometric work in.

Overall a tough WOD which taxed both dynamic and explosive strength components, as well as overloading the ATP-PC and Lactic Acid pathways quite effectively.

I know I bitched a little yesterday about not having enough time to train - today was a one off, so I made hay whilst the sun shined. Good times!

"The Perils of Self Programming and training alone"

Rest Day

Training over the past couple of years has been, in the main, a pretty solitary experience. Following crossfit principles, I have sought to make my training as diverse, functional and intense as possible. However, there is an inherent problem when you march to the beat of your own drum. With all the best will in the world, and I am pretty self disciplined in this respect, you end up programming what you like rather than what you need. When you train by yourself, you are only answerable to yourself. If the truth be told I have been a wee bit guilty of cherry picking my workouts. Without seeking to make excuses, my lifestyle (family, work etc.), often means that I have to squeeze in workouts when I can. Very often I simply do not have the time, energy levels or mental fortitude to engage in what would be the most appropriate workout pertaining to my particular deficiencies. Having said all that, lets keep things in perspective, despite my frustrations I can snatch, do muscle ups, overhead squat my bodyweight, perform full squat cleans, and cyclical "butterfly" pull ups. All functional movements a couple of years ago I had never even heard of.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that it is easy to fall into the trap of being a little "glass is half empty". I have to remind myself not to dwell on, or get demotivated by my perceived failings, weaknesses or frustrations. Yes we would all like the luxury of unlimited time to train. I would love to be able to focus on my olympic lifts in the morning and rip into a screaming metcon in the evening. I would love to be able to warm up appropriately for every session and finish off with a lengthy cool down and post WOD meal (zone paleo of course). But my reality does not afford me these luxuries. It can get a little frustrating when you follow the crossfit main site and see all the crossfit celebrities preparing for the games, talking about three WOD's a day, zone dieting, busting PR's left right and centre and then see them destroy a benchmark workout in the California sunshine. Just remember, their reality is not your reality and there is equal merit to be found in dragging your arse into a freezing garage at 10.00pm on a freezing night in January because that is the only time in your day you can fit it in. Accentuate the positives and remember you are developing fitness for the rest of your life, not for tomorrow.

What has also given my training a real boost of late is the fact an old mate from school and former rugby team mate has just moved in around the corner, and is swigging the kool aid in a big way. We are both inherently very competitive and after training by myself for such a long time I have loved the energy and competitive edge training sessions now have. It is great to have somebody to "go at it" with and to compare myself against.

It is all well and good comparing times to all your virtual training partners in the community, but there is no real replacement for the "in the flesh" competitive element training alongside somebody else brings. This is true of metcons and strength sessions. But in true crossfit style there is a genuine thrill in seeing someone else produce top drawer performances alongside you, and praise and encouragement are always free flowing in an environment of mutual respect.

"The Funny Thing About Human Beings"

I am a huge Paulo Coelho fan.cinemagia.files.wordpress.com/ 2009/05/paulo_c...In his book "Like the Flowing River" he quotes his friend Jaime Cohen;

"We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the future. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we never lived." Pretty much sums up modern life unfortunately.

"Ageing is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength" - Betty Friedan

What with being closer to forty than thirty, I'll gather any cold comfort I can get. What I can safely say is that the opportunities presented to me by crossfit over the past two years has resulted in me being, at the ripe old age of 36. most complete athlete I have ever been, that being said there is still a long way to go, as there are numerous skills, fitness components and energy pathways that are still unacceptably weak. Todays WOD was a classic case in point, and the dichotomy of emotions I experienced at the end sort of summed up one of the frustrations of being a fledgling crossfitter who feels there just isn't sufficient time to get all bases covered. "Patience young Skywalker" I must constantly remind myself!

WOD:

85kg Shoulder to overhead x 5

20 Double unders

120m 25kg sandbag carry

5 rounds

Time 12min 2secs

Before the WOD started, I was dreading the shoulder to OH portion, as my previous experience with "Freddy's Revenge", really made a mess of me and left me questioning the wisdom of attempting to put my bodyweight overhead consistently with a heart rate of 170+. I anticipated having to jerk the weight, and possibly having to partition the reps. Surprisingly each set was completed unbroken with all reps being push presses. The strength bias again appears to be really paying dividends, as I felt strong and controlled with each rep. Thats where "good times" and me parted company.

The double unders were just vile and this portion of the WOD turned into a real gut check. Double unders has always been a real weakness, but my focus on strength of late has resulted in me taking my eye of the ball as far as more skill based aspects of fitness are concerned. Today felt as if the principle of reversibility was giving me a lesson in "how dare you neglect your skipping you feckless fool". I have regressed from what Helzy at Crossfit Northern Ireland described as "the moshpit" back to the "temper tantrum" and by the end I was having a f****** tantrum. When fatigued it is really difficult to summon the appropriate concentration needed to co-ordinate to many different joints and muscle groups smoothly and efficiently. The fact that I still have to take a bounce between each rep also means I am having to perform significantly more work than needed and therefore gassing more quickly. Ironically I did get slightly better as the WOD progressed with round 5 being broken down into 12 and 8 reps - that was the best f the day, enough said. If I want to get anywhere near what Helzy describes as "floating", I have a lot of practice to get done!

The sandbag carry was OK, but Holy DOMS Batman from yesterdays WOD meant that by the end it was more of a drunken stumble than a run. But all in all a good workout with all three metabolic pathways getting a good seeing to. Just off for an ice-bath and 20 mins of myofascial release work on my foam roller for recovery (in my dreams, there's a dirty nappy with my name on it somewhere.)

"Get comfortable with the uncomfortable"

If you are a student of crossfit, you'll probably recognise these words as the mantra of James "OPT" Fitzgerald, winner of the inaugural crossfit games. As well as being a stellar athlete, OPT is also one of the deepest thinkers when it comes to exercise science and individual programming for athletes, that you are ever likely to find. That guy has probably forgotten more about training than the majority of us will ever know. If you think you know fitness, check out his website, it's a real eye opener to realise how little you actually know. I considered myself fairly well read until I checked his reading list, yet another gut check! His mantra perfectly sums up the sort of mind set you have to have if you are going to consistently emerge unscathed from the dark holes that are often created in a crossfit environment. Less erudite individuals will tell you to "suck it up", the sentiment is the same. Of late I have had to suck it up a fair bit.

The garage was even more foreboding than usual this evening. Two little ones sleeping early. Very tempting not to bother. I really didn't fancy it. But I managed to drag myself out there and got a bit done.

WOD:

OHS

5 x 5

"Mini Cindy" (10mins) 5 pull ups, 10 pressups, 15 squats

The plan was just to play around with the OHS's as a recent bout of tendonitis in my wrist has curtailed my overhead work drastically over recent weeks. The focus in my strength workouts of late has been on the DL, SP and B Squat, with the OHS not really getting a look in. I warmed up with a couple of high rep sets on 30 and 40kg's and they felt really good. The working sets then went 60, 70, 75, 80 and 85kg's. I wasn't planning to go beyond 60 but the wrist felt fine. The strength work I've been focusing on of late must be working. I even did one final set at 90kg and managed 3reps, which is a new PR. Have definitely got more pop in coming out of the hole as a result of the fast eccentrics I've been trying to focus on. Not quite sure whether fast eccentrics are way to go throughout the movement, but that bottom portion really felt snappy.

My PR for a full Cindy is 26 rounds so I thought maybe 16 or 17 rounds would be a good target to shoot for. In the end I managed 16 rounds 5PU's, 4PrUp's. Fairly pleased with that. Hugely surprised at how gassed I was at the end, but I really did attack it at the early stages. Considering how loath I was to set foot in the gym, overall a fairly pleasing nights work

What's the big idea then?

Well I suppose the essence of this blog lies in my desire to share ideas, training methodologies and generally chew the fat with regards my pursuit of optimum fitness levels. Using primarily the Crossfit training concept along with an amalgam of various strength training techniques (eg.Westside Barbell, Jim Wendlers 5-3-1 system) I will seek to become as well rounded an athletic performer as my limited genetic potential will allow. I do not profess to be any sort of expert in any aspect of training, although i do possess a fair degree of experience in a range of athletic endeavours, many of which will become apparent as this blog unfolds. I am embarking on a journey of discovery and enlightenment. You are welcome to hop along for the ride.