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Started Crossfit - update - I'm less fat now

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Special K said:
Are all the 1RMs part of normal Crossfit workouts, or another class you are taking? Do crossfit workouts normally involve 1RMs?
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1 reps are never part of the traditional XFIT "workout" or "WOD." By and large most wods are metabolic conditioning workouts (a variety of HIIT) that work with lower weights. That said, most XFIT sessions are structured to include a strength session that largely focuses on compound lifts.

The programmer at my box is big into Olympic lifting, and that translates into his programming. FWIW, the strength part of our workouts is quite similar to what I used to do back when I played baseball in college.

For example, we are currently in the third week of a 4 week strength cycle. First week involved finding a 10RM (different exercise based on the day of the week). Second week involved finding an 8 RM. Third week is a 5RM. Fourth week is deloading. Our current 1RM was used as a benchmark for assessing where you should be each week. E.g., the 10RM target was ~70% of your 1RM, 8RM was 80%, and 5RM was 90%.

I've never gotten the sense that my box records 1RM just to show off big numbers. It actually makes no sense as those numbers would not be seen by anyone outside ofthe gym.
 
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Sho'Nuff said:
Saw a bunch of gains (some huge) in various lifts this week.

Up 25# in power clean
Up 50# (!!!!) in Overhead squat (huzzah for mobility workouts)
Up 10# in strict press
Up 5# in split jerk

And a nice surprise (which I should have expected but did not) - my endurance while running has gone through the roof. Its been cold as hell this winter so I basically did not run for the past 4 months. When i last ran I could barely go 400m at a reasonable pace before huffing and puffing. The other day I ran 2000m and while I was tired, I was not gasping for air.

Medical numbers are great now too. Had a physical the other day and all my numbers are perfect. BP is 110/60. LDL and HDL numbers are both very good, etc.

Overall I'm very happy with my progress.

Also - while I am a bit abashed to admit this as a 38 year old man - I am quite proud of the fact that at the annual post open party last Friday my gym named me the "most improved male athlete for the year 2014-2015."
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Congrats you old man at 38. Seriously though nice job! Soon you'll get to enjoy the sheer fun of demolishing younger guys (usually in their 20's) in competition. FWIW I'm 37 and squatting over 500 raw@205, these young bucks don't know that late 30's-mid 40's is our prime for strength. 😉
 
SP33Demon said:
Congrats you old man at 38. Seriously though nice job! Soon you'll get to enjoy the sheer fun of demolishing younger guys (usually in their 20's) in competition. FWIW I'm 37 and squatting over 500 raw@205, these young bucks don't know that late 30's-mid 40's is our prime for strength. 😉
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Yeah my near term goal is to beat most of the younger guys in the gym, which is quickly becoming a reality (except for the really hard core guys).

Long term I want to catch up with some of the more fit ladies in my gym. One of them finished ~40th in the North East region in the 2015 open. She can humble everyone in our gym with the exception (perhaps) of the head trainer, who finished ~200 overall in the north east region (mens).

Also - holy sh!t at your 500lb back squat. That is HUGE! I haven't tried to one rep back squat in a while, but I bet I'm only in the low 300s.
 
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Minor update - PR'ed a bunch of stuff recently.

Power clean - 05/28 - Up 10 lbs to 240
Strict Press - 05/28 - Up 5lbs to 150
Push press - 06/02 - up 10lbs to 180
Split Jerk - 06/02 Up 5lbs to 210

Based on my push press I should be able to split jerk quite a bit more, provided I get the technique down. When the weight gets heavy I get nervous and my split gets narrower, leading to a fail. Working on trusting myself to get under the bar.

Taking it easy with heavy leg workouts (deads, various squats, etc.) for a bit. Dealing with a (hopefully minor) hamstring issue. Basically I'm getting a "twingy" type of pain at the very top of my glutes and in towards my hips when I do things that really stress that muscle group. Deads in particular aggravate the issue. The pain itself is not that bad, except that it makes it very uncomfortable to sit (especially in a car). Been going on a couple weeks, but it seems to be getting better (albeit slowly). If it continues I will be headed to the doc.
 
try working on push jerks, it'll help your split jerks out quite a bit (it's a less scary version of getting underneath the bar)
 
finbarqs said:
try working on push jerks, it'll help your split jerks out quite a bit (it's a less scary version of getting underneath the bar)
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Good advice, but push jerks require a significant amount of flexibility that I don't have yet. I think I just need to stop being a pussy and get under the bar. 🙂
 
finbarqs said:
flexibility in your shoulders? it should have the same flexibility as split jerks.
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Hips and ankles. If you have trouble overhead squatting like I do, you will likely have trouble push jerking. I have poor dorsiflexion in my left ankle and relatively poor hip mobility. Not so bad as to affect my front squat, but its definitely a problem when I overhead squat. Causes me to lean forward a little bit, which makes it hard to keep the weight positioned correctly when it is overhead. Very, very easy to dump the bar when that happens while push jerking. Split jerking doesn't present the same issue because the lifter is dropping under the bar by virtue of a wide lunge, instead of a semi or full squat.

Interestingly if you watch competitive weightlifting at all, you might notice that Chinese weightlifters doing clean and jerk will often use a push jerk to complete the movement, where as Russian and American weightlifters often use a split jerk. Maybe I'm way off base, but I think the reason for that difference is that Chinese weight lifters have better overall flexibility and mobility than their U.S. and Russian counterparts.

See 3rd video down of this link:
http://mastrength.tumblr.com/

Compare to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np0oOCE2Ic0
 
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Ran my first 5k in, well, forever today. Did pretty well I think. Finished 72nd overall (out of 430), and 13th in my division (30-39 year old men). Time was 24:24 with a pace of 7:48 seconds per mile.

Not bad considering I could not run around the block 6 months ago.
 
Shaved 2:16 seconds off my "Helen" time today. Did the workout in 11:19 seconds, down from 13:35 seconds six months ago. Pullups are blocking me from getting a sub 10 minute time. Going to have to work on them a LOT as they are becoming increasingly problematic in a lot of workouts.
 
Congrats on the success and fat loss.

Although PRs always have me questioning form. I have seen people at the gym hit their PR with sloppy partial movements.

For instance a true squat has the hips going below the knees and lower. In fact, I personally don't consider any of my squats to be a PR without going butt to ground. Then squatting on the way up, some people raise their butts way before their knees. They end up lifting with their lumber spine (especially L5) instead of their legs. Some will push off with their toes instead of their heels. Great way to get injured over the long-term for short-term gains, just to look cool lifting heavy weights.

I never lift a heavy weight that cannot be replicated with 90% perfect control and form. While a little cheating is good in moderation, sloppiness is never acceptable.
 
bradley said:
Congrats on the success and fat loss.

Although PRs always have me questioning form. I have seen people at the gym hit their PR with sloppy partial movements.

For instance a true squat has the hips going below the knees and lower. In fact, I personally don't consider any of my squats to be a PR without going butt to ground. Then squatting on the way up, some people raise their butts way before their knees. They end up lifting with their lumber spine (especially L5) instead of their legs. Some will push off with their toes instead of their heels. Great way to get injured over the long-term for short-term gains, just to look cool lifting heavy weights.

I never lift a heavy weight that cannot be replicated with 90% perfect control and form. While a little cheating is good in moderation, sloppiness is never acceptable.
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Thanks, and I totally agree re: form.

I will be honest and say that I am severely mobility limited with my squat. I can get my butt below parallel so I can do a valid rep, but I definitely cannot get my butt on my heels, much less on the ground. This is due to poor dorsiflexion in both ankles (left ankle in particular), as well as poor (but improving) hip mobility. That said, I have a trainer or partner watching me lift at all times, and they are aware that I want to do the lifts correctly. I also do a lot of lifts at lighter weight (particularly during WODS) because I do not want to screw up my form.

That said, all PR's I've posted are "true" PR's that were accomplished with good (or at least reasonably good) form. Heck, some of them would not have been possible if I used bad form, because so much of olympic weightlifting is about achieving good leverage and conserving momentum where possible - two things that require good form to achieve.
 
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Your approach to getting lean and fit is very reasonable and sound. I enjoyed reading the chronicles of your transformation and journey. I just like to give food for thought.

I personally limit myself to 1RM and cheating until I need to hit a new plateau. One rep maxes are how powerlifters build strength/endurance and recruits the nervous system more than actual muscle tissue. Exercising at reps in the 4-14 range is optimal for muscle growth, while being fairly decent for power/strength/endurance and connective tissue.

Of which... I also believe it's important to attempt moments with reps at 14 and beyond to improve form. But more importantly, exercising at a higher rep range develops the joints, ligaments and tendons. You can also recruit more fast twitch fibers in a higher range by increasing speed. Mixing up the speed of exercises is too an important part of the confusion principle.

I see well-meaning guys at the gym focusing too much on their egos and power/strength and not enough on building connective tissue. The first thing sacrificed with this decrease in mobility is form. As they become more muscle-bound, their bodies become more incapable of truly good flexibility and form.

Don't know if you have seen this video.... but I find it an excellent source regarding squat form. I also like Alan Thrall's squat tutorials. The squat is the number one exercise people get most wrong at the gym. Compound exercises especially - such as the squat - should start with 100% proper form. Once I got the form down the gains came so much easier, although I am constantly trying to improve in this area.

How To Squat: Layne Norton's Squat Tutorial - Bodybuilding.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2b8UdqmlFs

Another great way to increase strength and flexibility is basic body weight exercises, including pull-ups, chin ups, muscle ups etc. I've been body building since my teens, yet only recently did I begin developing enough pure strength for 1 arm pullups, for instance. These bodyweight exercises made me realize how inadequate pushing iron is at building true gymnastic strength. It's very humbling.
 
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Bump for update - been fighting some injuries so the lifting stats are all over the place. No major injuries - just ticky tac stuff with the exception of some bad hip cartilege inflammation that gave me awful sciatica for months. I pretty much had to push the pause button on Crossfit for a while to let that heal. When I had that inflammation everytime I would go to crossfit I would come home feeling good, only to be in agony for days afterwards.

Also - my bodyweight has plateued at right around 220 lbs. I could probably eat better (ok, I KNOW I could eat better) - but my body composition has changed so much that I don't really care about the number anymore. Its telling that I'm 220lbs and can fit pretty comfortably in pants that have a 34" waist.
 
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Woot. Starting to get pretty strong. Did a clean complex yesterday. Complex involved doing 1 clean from the floor, followed by one clean from the hang position (weight can't touch the floor), followed by 1 touch and go clean. Managed to do all 3 with perfect form at 215lbs, which is just under my previous 1RM
 
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Huzzah! Today I achieved one of the goals I set about a year ago - pushed up a 300# back squat - 15LB increase over my prior PR.
 
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Yes I did. The box I go to is also having an internal team competition as well, based on the open workouts. Are you doing the open?
 
Sho'Nuff said:
Yes I did. The box I go to is also having an internal team competition as well, based on the open workouts. Are you doing the open?
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Same for me and yes I am. Hoping there are a lot of body weight WODs... I am on a higher level on those than I am on high weight WODs...
 
GasX said:
Same for me and yes I am. Hoping there are a lot of body weight WODs... I am on a higher level on those than I am on high weight WODs...
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Haha I want the exact opposite. The bodyweight stuff still gasses me like crazy (I f*cking HATE burpees). I'm much better at the heavy weight based WODS. Hoping they include a 1RM clean and jerk in one of the workouts like last year. Would be fun to see how much I've improved.
 
Sho'Nuff said:
Yes I did. The box I go to is also having an internal team competition as well, based on the open workouts. Are you doing the open?
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I am this year. I qualify for the 45-49 master's this year so I'm hoping that the smaller pool will work in my favor. I don't think the standards change until the 50-54 master's though.

I'm also hoping for bodyweight wods since I'm on the smaller end so I struggle on the heavier weight wods.
 
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