Two Days, One Post

(Me and Sophia)

Yesterday I went to the base gym and did a short Press.  It was interrupted because I got a chance to coach a few guys on some Olympic lifts.  I have had fun coaching in Edmonton but I am really looking forward to running our first Boot Camp in Calgary.  After Three of us did a Tabata Row session and I rowed 1010m.  

Today I just did a short Deadlift.  315x5, 320x5, 325x5.  I think my 5 rep PR is 340lbs.  I am in Calgary for a few days with my dad so I am looking forward to another O-Lifting session.

Some Great Advice

Yesterday I had yet another embarrassing performance. I attempted to break my Angie PR, which is a few seconds shy of sub 20, and failed miserably. Ben had some good advice in the comments section of my previous post and Pat emailed me today with some great advice.

I think to summarize things I need to start listening to my body and doing my own programming. When I am working midnights I have to scale back my training and intensity of my training for two reasons. 1> My body isn't getting the sleep it likes to run on and 2> I am sleeping during the day with light beaming into my room (see Ben's comment on why this is bad).

I think there are universal laws that dictate a template that can be used to optimize training with diet, programing and sleep BUT everyone is biologically different and will run best at certain levels. Pat, for example, only gets 6.5 hours of sleep a night and still puts up impressive PR's. Although I could operate with that amount of sleep I do not think I could PR like that.

Just a side note, while I was in Afghanistan a good nights sleep was non existent. Every night was riddled with turret shifts or interrupted by the bad guys. Combine that with the stress of getting shot at and having shit blow up all the time, my body was definitely under high levels of stress. After 5 months I went on three weeks of leave in Italy and Greece with my girlfriend and mom. I was a freaking zombie....I hardly remember major events that my mom and girlfriend can easily recall. All my body wanted to do was sleep.

I need to geek out more on the effects of cortisol (stress), on the body. Long story short, I think that everyone needs to minimize artificial stressors and stop inducing a large cortisol response from irrelevant stuff such as, driving to work or too much cream in their coffee.

For myself, I think if I want to hit PR's I should get more sleep and program ME days and longer time domain MetCon's for my days off. Now an insightful quote from Pat...

"Finally, so many people want to do a CF studs training program and think if they do the exact same thing as OPT, Kalipa, Josh E, they will be fit like them...but no one thinks is my life outside the gym the same Do I work the same as these guys? Do I eat the same? Do they have the same responsibilities as me? The same stresses? We can not expect to achieve max results for following programs that do not consider our individual lives and incorporate a balance between training and recovery (which is 100% based on life outside the gym)." - Pat M

I Need to get More Sleep...

(Tyler hits his first Deadlift PR at 275lbs! Good Job Tyler, you are improving more and more every day)

Deadlift ME x 1

Worked up to only 385lbs, a full 35lbs off my PR. I didn't expect to pull 420lbs today but I was dissapointed in my lift. I took the 9 hours of sleep I got every night as a student for granted. I am lucky if I get 6 hours working shifts....I am blaming this to some dips in performance. What does everyone else think???

21-15-9

GHD situps

Ring Push-ups

4:52

Keep on Pressing

Press

5x5

Max Fit USA

4 rds for time:

250m row

25 double under's

6:40

Missing some posts

So I am behind...yesterday I snatched. I was warming up....hit 65kg without a problem and caught 69kg but ditched it hard trying to save it. I bruised the shit out of my ass and it just threw off the rest of my workout....was really frustrating.

The day before last Tyler and I did a Back Squat and Press WOD

Today was another variation of "Running Grace" from Max Fit USA

15 Clean and Jerk @ 137lbs

400m Run

10 Clean and Jerk @ 137lbs

400m Run

5 Clean and Jerk @ 137lbs

400m Run

12:20

Going to take a few days off....

Good Luck Guys

(good luck to the guys this weekend in the Ontario Challenge)

Max Fit USA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

20 19 18 17 1 6 15 14 13 12 11

Power Clean 137lbs

Push-ups

18:28

No Bicep Curls Allowed

(This image is going up in my gym for sure)

Max Fit USA

3 rds for time

10 Ring pull-ups

15 Deadlifts 225lbs

1000m Row

20:52

Was really gassed today....didn't eat enough. Tough WOD. My brother did it too with 115lbs on the dead and jumping pull-ups...he clocked in a minute slower but really gave a great effort. I hope all of my future clients have his work ethic.

"Running Isabel"

Max Fit USA WOD

Run 800m

Power Snatch 30 reps 135lbs (scaled 115lbs)

Run 800m

16:34

3:20 run, 9:20 "Isabel", 3:54 run

Isabel is tough. I let my technique degrade too much. If I were to try this Rx'd I would really have to focus on technique.

GO CROSSFIT CALGARY!

(Picture from CrossFit Games Twitter Feed - 6th event was a 1 rep max snatch. The winner snatched 240lbs after 5 BRUTAL leg intensive WODs the previous days)

As of right now CrossFit Calgary took 2nd place in last affiliate team cup workout!!!! They were top 5 going in so we will see how the points hash out. I am very happy and cannot wait to congratulate them in person. I look forward to meeting OPT and AFT. I will definitely pick their brain on how they program because they have phenomenal stats. Two males and one female in the individual events (top 16) and the affiliate team taking 2nd place!! UNREAL!

Front Squat - worked up to 105kg (231) x 3...new PR for 3 reps. Think I can do 110kg next time.

30 Muscle Ups for time: PR is (9:51)

10:59

CrossFit Games Fever!!!

(Picture courtesy of CrossFit Games, the Twitter feed- The Deadlift workout after a 7.1km run with BRUTAL terrain!!)

OK, I am a bit of a geek but I have been following the games closely today on twitter and the games site while I go about my business today. It is getting exciting, I am listening to the CrossFit Radio right now.

Press 3 sets of 5, then:

Max Fit USA WOD

5 rounds for time:

15 KB snatches Right Arm

15 KB snatches Left Arm

15 Back extensions

15 Double Unders

14:53

Trying to hit more Variance

If you have been following the CrossFit Games you have seen the difficulty that will be involved in day 1. Not all the events have been released but the first two look brutal! I hit a workout today on no sleep and low energy to see how I would feel....it crushed me.

Max Fit USA WOD

10 rounds

275lbs Deadlift 3 reps

Ring Dips 6 reps

Knees to Elbows 9 Reps

23:53

Tomorrow I will be rested and I will hit another couple WOD's. I am excited to see how the Games turns out. CrossFit Calgary did awesome in the affiliate challenge....they were top five leading into the last event but slipped to 13th. Still a stellar effort! I am really looking forward to working with them.

Congratulations Dani!!!

(Dani crushing Helen @ the 4 Horsemen box)

Dani got her first Muscle Up the other day!! After a lot of work it finally all came together. You can see the video here. GOOD JOB DANI!

Nutritional Content has moved

(Dani was in Toronto with Monica picking up some gear and ran into Brad Pattison from the TV show At the End of my Leash.)

For those of you that do not know, I will be doing all my nutritional posting on my affiliate site now. You can check it out here. Pay attention to it as I will be blogging about various topics in detail.

Today was a easy Day....I worked on my weakest lift...The Press. It is still improving and I am happy. I also did a lot of technique work on the Split Jerk.

O-Lifts with my Old Man

90 kg (198lbs) and 95 kg miss - BW is currently 82kg (180lbs)

So I had a great session of O-Lifting with my Dad. He found all of my major errors. I have a lot of technique work to do...but the next time I max out my Clean and Jerk I will put 100kg overhead. You can see in the video I could have put up 95kg but my jerk technique is terrible and I chickened out. When I get enough cash I am buying and Eleiko bar...they are fantastic and the difference between a normal bar is day and night.

Do Olympic Bars Really Break?

Diane

21-15-9

225lbs Deadlift

Handstand push-ups

11:04 - happy - my hand push-ups are getting better.

So today I heard that 4 Olympic Bars were broken at the gym from dropping weight overhead. What do you think? I am calling bullshit because of all the people (that should be fired) that dislike CrossFit. I will investigate this and get back to you all.

I am almost through the Greg Glassman Speech he gave to the Marines in the CrossFit journal. I can't wait to get to the part in which he suggests all the US military civilian PT people should be fired. What did everything think of that series of videos?

Happy CANADA DAY!!!

HAPPY 42ND BIRTHDAY CANADA!

Nicole

As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 minutes:

Run 4oo m

Max Pull-ups

Score rounds and Pull-ups

7 rds 101 Pull-ups

I am happy with this effort because I crushed my last effort. I could had time at the end to do some more running but decided not too...I am not happy about that. People that crush this WOD (150 plus reps), seem to do it in 6 rounds and just do a lot of pull-ups. I might try that next time, pace the run and hold on to the bar for more reps.