SS A

Squat 265 3x5 - backed off ~10% to drill better technique and bar speed
Press 150 fail (4-3-3) - one more rep than last time, would have liked to get 3x5 but still happy with the progress
Deadlift 315x5 - backed off to work on better technique

Got antsy and decided to do some Oly lifting afterwards. Snatch is rusty, worked up to 145 power snatch. Jumping a little early, I think next time ill drill the positions with real light weight, like 75lb.  Cleans felt pretty good, jerks a little rusty, worked up to 235 clean and jerk (15lb PR). No doubt the last 6-8 weeks of lifting has helped, I think I can clean 240-245.

Mock Meet

I met with my friend's coach this morning to go over some meet strategy and practice judge's commands.  I also planned to hit my openers.  I was running on 3 hours of sleep and no food, but it turned out ok actually.

Squat: did 405 for a relatively easy single.  Coach said it was the first one that actually slowed down, but didn't look too hard.

Bench: hit 245 for a paused single.  Was somewhat difficult, so I think I'd realistically expect something like 250-255 at the meet.

Deadlift: 405 went up really easily.  I might change my opener on this to 425.

So apparently, I have shit form in all my lifts, with the least shitty being my squat.  Coach bro might be trying to sell his coaching services, but he might be right.  It's exciting to hear because maybe I've got a long way to improve technique wise.  My deadlift is the worst offender apparently, and he says I actually have overdeveloped erectors because my deadlift is basically a straight legged deadlift.  Looking forward to potentially fixing that.

CFFB 092812: Volkswagen 4.0

ASWOD
5x3 power clean @ 172.5

DWOD
The Volkswagen 4.0
15-12-9:
bench press @ bodyweight (scaled to 155)
pullups @ +50lbs (scaled to 20)

19:58.  After the first round, pretty much everything was done in triples.  Could have shaved a few min off maybe if I didn't have to share the bench with someone and waste time looking for someone to spot me.  Pinned myself to the bench in the first round.  Get some.

SS B

Front squat 235 3x5 (PR)
Bench press 196 3x5 (1lb PR - combo of kg/lb plates, thought I was supposed to do 195, just realized I was supposed to do 200)
Power clean 190 5x3

I think I have 1-2 more SS sessions before I call it quits. The primary reason I'm stopping is because I'm going to be out of town a bunch of days in October which will preclude me from lifting consistently for 2-3 weeks. I'm pretty sure if I picked it back up after those 2-3 weeks with a 15-20% reset I could continue with some more LP gains but at that point in mid to late October I want to be starting my Outlaw training and getting back to the oly lifts. While I'll probably be leaving some gains in the tank I'm happy with the progress I've made in this relatively short time frame. On my 5RMs I'm guessing I've added 30-35lb on both squats, 15-20lb on my bench press and press, and 20-30lb on my deadlift. I don't have much reference for my power cleans but I know for sure they've gone up, probably 15-20lb.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 3: squat

280 x 5
315 x 3
350 x max -> got 8.

Theo 1rm of 443.  Finally had a reasonably good day today.  I will attribute this to the good rest I got the last couple days.

Accessory:
squat 185 x 5 x 10
adductors 155 x 5 x 10

Tomorrow is a rest day, and then I'll have a quick mock meet on saturday with my friend's lifting coach to go over judges' commands and such.  Was supposed to do that last weekend but got sent to Boston for recruiting.  I think I'll try to hit my openers and leave it at that.

squat: 405
deadlift: 405
bench: 250 (?)  It'll be a paused bench which might be really damn hard.  I've never pause benched before.

CFFB 0920712

ASWOD
3x5 squat @ 285 (upped my rest times to about 5 min)

DWOD
5xME HSPU (5-4-4-8-6; switched to 95lb press for last two sets)

I owe 8x100m/1m rest later, just ran out of time.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 3: bench

175 x 5
200 x 3
225 x max -> got 9

Theo (new formula) 1rm of 292.5.  Not bad.  Bench is like my only lift that's actually going up...

Assistance:
Bench 120 x 5 x 10
Row 120 x 5 x 10
Curl random shit

F me in the a

SS A last night - got rocked, combination of getting close to my actual 5RM and feeling tired all day

Squat 285 3x5 Fail (5-2-2)
Press 150 3x5 Fail (3-3-3)
Deadlift 345 1x5 Fail (1x3)

Decided to cut back the deadlift to focus on better technique, also decided to try the deads with my lifting shoes on with a double overhand hook grip, that probably made them a little harder than they needed to be. I was reading through the SS FAQ the other day and Rip talks about how you shouldn't work to failure on any set, partially cause it takes a huge toll on the CNS and also because your form inevitably breaks down and because your bar speed ends up approaching 0. I'm going to drop my squat 15-20lb as well because my last reps have been getting exceedingly slow and I think my actual 5RM right now is probably around 295. Trying to do 3x5 at 97% (285) of my actual 5RM is a recipe for slow reps and shitty form at my current stage. I'm gonna keep the press at 150 next time because I think if I feel a little better I'll be able to hit 3x5.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 3: deadlift

265 x 5
325 x 3
360 x max -> got 7

Theo 1rm of 430.  I think this calculator's getting kinda ridiculous, so I changed the spreadsheet formulas to use the actual wendler formula of weight*reps*0.03333+weight.

Let's see how the last 2 months have been (with the new formulas, I'll just list the theo from each workout):
press:
167, 173, 172, 169, 162, 164 (terrible!)
deadlift:
367, 435, 432, 466, 465, 444 (better than press at least)
bench:
273, 287, 279, 293, 280
squat:
397, 433, 442, 420, 424

It's really been up and down.  I'm going to give this at least until the end of the year before I reevaluate.

2012-09-25 SS Week 2 (MB)

I failed to wake up this morning, so I skipped track club to lift in the evening. Week 2 has come to a close and my squats and deadlifts are starting to feel pretty heavy. Today will be the last day I take a 10lb increase on those lifts.

These PRs are kinda cheap cause I've never really tested my 5RMs before.

Progress this week:
Squat: 175, 185, 195 (PR)
Press: 105, 110 (PR)
Bench: 155 (PR)
Deadlift: 255, 265, 275 (PR)

Accessory today:
60x4x10 Curlz (Yang said it was OK)

CFFB 092512

ASWOD
1x5 deadlift at 390
4x20 bar dips (assistance; PR: 20-20-20-18; almost there)

DWOD
30 1.5 pd KB step-ups @ 20" box (subbed 40 lb DBs & 24" box)
50 strict pullups
100 banded good mornings (subbed GHD back extension)

Did the step-ups in 2 sets then tackled the pullups and back extensions together.  26 min, nice leisurely pace.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 3: press

Terrible workouts the last few days.

115 x 5
130 x 5
145 x max -> got 4*

Theo 1rm of utter crap.  I loaded the plates wrong, and after getting all psyched, did an awkward first rep before realizing my mistake.  I fixed it and went at it again, but felt really awkward and only got 4.

Press:
75 x 5 x 10
Pullups: 5 x max.

CFFB 092412: shit day

ASWOD
3x5 squat @ 285 (fail: 5-4-3)
3x5 press @ 125 (fail: 5-5-4)

DWOD
It was either go to the gym with the good squat rack or go to the gym with the place to do box jumps and sprints, soooo....subbed todays DWOD with 8x100m sprint rows with 1m rest between.  Best time was 17.4s.

Today was another one of those days where I had a clean weekend and missed all my lifts.  Am I at my potential for linear programming?  Disappointing if so.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 2: squat

Squat:

265 x 3

295 x 3

335 x max -> got 8.

Theo 1rm of 415 grrrrr.  This weekend was hella tiring.  Got two hours of sleep thursday night.  Then like 5 hours friday night.  Saturday night was ok, but I didn't land today until 11:30, and didn't get to the gym until about 12:30am.  I'll take 8 reps in this case.

More squat:

185 x 5 x 10

Adductors: 5 x 10

SS B

Front squat 225 3x5 (easy)
Bench press 195 3x5 (PR, challenging but definitely 10+ lb left in the tank)
Power clean 185 5x3 (felt heavy but definitely room to grow 10+ lb, 205 would be sick)

Lifting marginally hung over and on 4 hours of sleep sucks. No way I'd hit all the lifts if this was back squat, press, deadlift day. Gotta recharge and get my shit together for Tuesday's SS A, gonna be rough. 

CFFB 092212: Partial credit for effort

DWOD

"Fight Gone Worse"

Complete three rounds of 1 minute at each station. Rest 1 minute between rounds.

DB Thrusters - 50 lbs (subbed 95 lb barbell thruster)
Power Snatch - 95 lbs
Box jump 20"
Push-press 95 lbs
Row for calories

So my goal was just to score 10 at each station (except 5 at power snatches and 15 on the rower).  That lasted all of the first round then tapered down to ~7s, then ~5s in the third round.  I'm gonna ballpark my total at 110.  I know I've done a CFFB wod like this before, but I couldn't find it on paintrain.  So I dunno.  I need to lay down.

CFFB 092112

1000m row warmup

ASWOD

5x3 power cleans @ 170 (reset down 10lbs to work on form)

DWOD

On the minute for 12 minutes:
10 true pushups (scaled to standard pushups)
15' rope climb (subbed 3 towel pullups with 3 knees to elbows in between)

Got 6 rounds and no more pullups were possible from curlz yesterday.  Rowed the remaining 6 minutes as an inadequate punishment.  Got like 1400m.  Gonna hit saturday WOD because I could use the volume.  Leaning out a bit.  Feel like anything is a shitty sub for rope climbs, I could definitely have done rope climbs with shot biceps, but towel pullups is a no go.  From what I remember of HS, rope climbs were sweet.

SS A

Longest lifting session so far. Took two hours to complete, left the gym at 10pm. Everything was hard as shit.

Squat 280 3x5 (PR)
Press 145 3x5 (PR)
Deadlift 355 3x5 (PR) - first day not going touch and go in an attempt to keep my form sound, still looked a little hairy though.

Next A day is gonna be rough. Need to maximize sleep and food intake between now and then.

Felt like a 3x5 whore today

Came down with a strange fever last night and slept like shit and had crazy visions but it was gone by morning, so I went in the gym with the idea of taking it easy, but found more gas in the tank as I went along.

3x5 press @ 125
3x5 shrugz @ 275
3x5 barbell curlz @ 95
3x5 squat @ 280

2000m row cooldown at an average 500m split of like 2m15s.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 2: Bench

165 x 5
190 x 5
215 x max -> got 10.

Theo 1rm of 285.  Not too bad, but technically a worse rep max than 200 x 14.  Honestly I think this 1rm formula is really wack, but I use this spreadsheet made by some dude, and it'd be annoying to change all the formulae.

Then:
120 x 5 x 10
DB rows: 60 x 5 x 10
Curl 90 x 5 x 10

SS B

Front squat 215 3x5 (PR by default of never 5RM-ing a front squat, got another 20-30lb in the tank I think)
Bench press 190 3x5 (PR, feel like I got another 10-15lb in the tank)
Power clean 180 5x3 (Getting heavier but 195+ should be manageable)

5/3/1 Cycle 2 week 2: Deadlift

DL:
265 x 5
305 x 5
340 x max -> got 11

Theo 1rm of 470.  Less than the 490 I managed last week.

DL:
190 x 5 x 10

Leg raise: 5 x 15.

I've got a couple of work related trips in the next couple of weeks, which might interfere with training, but such is life.  I'm going to be going to Boston this Thursday -> Sunday, and Orlando next Saturday -> Thursday.  THEN I'll have about 3 days until contest.  Not ideal but such is life.

2012-09-18 Track Club (MB)

20x100m on the minute. My legs are dead, and I think I strained a hamstring. Times were between 13 and 16 seconds. My fastest times were the last 5 reps. Good workout.

CFFB 091812

ASWOD
1x5 deadlift @ 375
3x5 bench @ 170 (assistance; backed the load off a little bit because of shoulder soreness)
DWOD
5 rounds:
30 kb swings in a min
1 min rest
1000m row for each failed round. 2 pd RX, scaled to 45 (forgot my 1.5 pd at home).  No failed rounds.  Last time I did this I got 30-30-27-20-30 (121111).
Legs have never burned so bad...

2012-09-18 SS: Week 1 (MB)

SS Week 1 complete

Lift (starting weight on 9/13) [ending weight today]
Squat (145) [165]
Bench (135) [150]
DL (205) [240]
Press (95) [95]

Notes:
I have been eating and sleeping more in the past week or so. My scale tells me that I've already gained some weight. It is mentally difficult to switch from metcons to pure strength, but I'm gonna attempt to stick with it. Still rock climbing and doing sprints 1x/week.

5/3/1 Cycle 2 week 2: press

Press:
105 x 5
120 x 5
135 x max -> got only 6 :(

Theo 1rm of 155.  Not exactly sure what happened; weight just felt super heavy today.  I suspect the heavy drinking and lack of sleep during the weekend was detrimental.

More press:
80 x 5 x 10
Pullups: 5 sets to failure.

CFFB 091712

ASWOD
3x5 squat @ 275
3x12 GHD situps

DWOD
Shoulder sore from who knows what...probably incline DB pressing on saturday, last 2 sets were sketchy and wobbly.  So didn't really want to push my luck with heavy DB snatches.  Instead:

1000m row then 5x100m sprints with 1min rest.

Weekend in review

Sat

Yoga in the AM then ran hill sprints in the afternoon. Did 8 rounds of 15s full intensity sprints for distance. The hill was a stretch of sidewalk adjacent to the Capitol building (Capitol Hill), no idea what the grade was, nothing crazy but certainly enough to deplete whatever energy source I was using in a few seconds. Rested 5+ minutes between sets, cut the last three sets down to 12s because I was hitting a wall right around 10-12 seconds. Nice to mix it up a little bit, ran the sprints with a girl from the gym who was a distance runner in college with a sub 5:00 mile in her prime. Yes I covered more distance on the sprints than her. C'mon what kind of question is that?

Here's the hill


View Larger Map


 ---

Sun

SS A

Back squat 270# 3x5 (PR)
Press 140# 3x5 (PR)
Deadlift 345# 1x5 (PR)

Squats were hard, haven't gotten 8+ hours of sleep in a while, need to catch up this week if I want any chance of hitting 280#. Press felt ok, definitely room to grow, 145# will be hard but I'm pretty confident I can hit 3x5. Deadlift is getting heavy, doubt I'll be able to go touch and go past 355#.

Assorted strength training

Didn't make it to the gym yesterday because the jeep was in the garage and I was dependent on someone else for a ride.  Hit it hard today instead...

3x5 bench @ 180 (fail: 5-4-4)
5x3 power clean @ 180 (PR; pretty sketchy though, my form is not baller status)
3x5 incline DB press @ 65 (PR; should I even track assistance exercise PR's?  I guess so...)
3x10 chins

And a little homebrew condish:
10 rounds:
100m sprint row
45s rest

Couldn't hit peak power like I usually can, I think the power cleans robbed me of any explosiveness I had in the tank.

SS B

Front squat 205x3x5
Bench press 185x3x5
Power clean 175x5x3

This concludes my initial 4 weeks of my modified SS program. I'm going to continue for (tentatively) another two to three weeks. My goal is to max out linear gains in all of the lifts, I will stall out on some lifts faster than others over the next few weeks, and in those cases I will reset 10-20% on those lifts while continuing the linear progression on whatever else I can, I've also considered cutting some of the jumps from 10lb to 5lb. Based on how the lifts felt this week I think I can get to the following weights before I exhaust the linear gains.

(current 3x5 working weight/expected)
Back squat 260/275-280
Press 135/145-150
Deadlift 335/355-365
Front squat 205/225-230
Bench press 185/195-200
Power clean 175/190-200

End of year goals I just decided on:
Back squat: 320 (~2x bodyweight)
Front squat: 300 (cause 300 is a sweet number)
Press: 160 (~1x bodyweight)

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 1: squat

Squat:
245 x 5
285 x 5
315 x max -> got 10.

Theo 1rm of 420.  Was kind of disappointed here.  This week has been really strange, press was terrible, deadlift and bench were great, and squat was really bad.  I didn't sleep too well last night and I had a few beers before gym so that could have had some bad effects.

Accessory:
Squat 185 5x10
Leg press 3 plates 2x10
Leg curl 170 3x10 (just did some random stuff)

Houston Texans training manual

http://assets.houstontexans.com/assets/fanzone/Texans%20strength%20manual.pdf

It's pretty awesome.

One of the first things that MB will notice is that they are very against protein supplementation and protein powders.  I'd just like to point out, in my defense, that these guys are eating 5-6k calories to fuel their workouts, so the 15-20% of calories from protein (which they recommend) would total to 225-275 grams of protein, which is almost right in line with 1g/lb bodyweight.  Thus THEY don't need more supplementation.  Since I only get ~100g from regular food, I need another 100g :)

Starting Strength revisted

I've decided to do SS again, only this time with way less cardio. My reasoning behind doing SS is that strength gains are among the slowest gains I see while doing CrossFit, but among the most important factors which determine how well I do, and how tired I am. For the next few months, I plan on prioritizing strength in order to eek out all the beginner gains I can before coming back to metcons. I still plan to attend track club 1x/week, and I might do a single metcon during my 2 day rest period (between thursday and sunday) -- at least until the weights become sufficiently heavy.

Starting weights --
Squat: 145
Bench: 135
DL: 205
Press: 95
Power Clean: 115

I'll update with progress/notes every week.

As for the recommended calorie surplus, I'm divided. I don't really understand why I need to eat a surplus of calories. I figure that with my scaling back of metcons, I should have plenty of calories to rebuild my muscles. If I don't find that I'm gaining weight in the next month, then I will reconsider. However, I might start drinking more milk :).

CFFB 091312

ASWOD
1x5 deadlift @ 365
3xME pullups (12-10-9)

Not totally disappointed with the pullups result, as I haven't done ME pullups in weeks.  Just forgot them.  Shoddy.

DWOD
Sprint 50yds every 30 seconds for 8 minutes.  Skipped one every 2 minutes because I dislike the discomfort of being totally gassed and also because wahhhhhhhhhh.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 1: bench

Bench:
155x5
175x5
200x max -> got 14.

Was looking forward to my formula giving me a hilarious theo 1rm and was not disappointed: 315lbs.

Bench some more:
120 x 5 x 10
Barbell row:
120 x 5 x 10
Barbell Curls:
90 x 5 x 10

What drives you to do what you do?

Matt and I had a pretty extensive discussion about this.  For now, we're just talking about your current fitness regimen.  This includes any sports/outdoors activities/strength/cardio/etc training.

Why do you do your current regimen and what do you hope to get out of it?

My answer (copypasta from gchat):

so i think the big thing

  is i really enjoyed

  the SS experience

  with getting stronger regularly

12:59 PM and seeing aesthetic results

  i was in marathon shape before

  <6 min mile

  ~9min pace for 26 miles

  i think that's reasonably good

  but i felt super weak

  and not athletic

  and i think my personality is like

  gravitating towards the extreme

  aka i will either be purely endurance

1:00 PM or purely strength

  i don't really like being in the middle

  of like

  decent at everything

  aka my personality is completely at odds with CF

 me: ok so health and aesthetics are also concerns

  like

  i don't wanna be 300lbs @ 30% bf

  and squat 800

  i think i look reasonable

  like

1:04 PM better than marathon shape imo

1:18 PM me: anyway in conclusion

  i'd say it's

  that i want to compete in weight/powerlifting

  with the side requirements

  that my health isn't adversely impacted

1:19 PM and also i maintain the ability to do pretty much any physical activity i want

And Matt's answer:

Matt: i think it can all be boiled down to: they're hard

  at the end of track club, i feel more tired than i felt doing anything

1:26 PM doing lots of sprints back to back is really really hard mentally and physically. i can barely breath, my muscles are burning and it results in me just wanting to be better

  it also has the added benefit in helping me out in almost any sport that requires running

1:27 PM rock climbing - it's hard. it takes, strength, technique and patience to get better. it's a sport that allows you to explore the world in wide open, beautiful spaces

  it also has metaphorical benefits,-- "getting to the top," "overcoming challenges"

1:28 PM it's a very unique sport that is fun to improve at

  CF - again, fucking hard. im always dead at the end of workout. getting better at CF will make me in better shape generally, which is nice

1:30 PM what i'm saying is that i get more utility out of doing things that are hard

 Matt: emotionally

 Matt: i feel good about myself, am more confident in general

  this is not physical utility

  this is general Matt utility

1:31 PM now, why do I want to get stronger? well, i like doing all these hard things, but i also really like improving at them

  to improve at CF, track club (and , to an extent, climbing), i need to be stronger

  however, it's the slowest improving factor

  so prioritizing it for a bit makes sense

  unfortunatley for me, gaining this weight is gonna screw me for climbing

  but i'm willing to take that

1:32 PM so basically, i want to get stronger so i can get better are doing hard things

 Matt: cause when i do hard things, i feel really good

What about you guys?

Tues SS A

Squat 260x3x5
Press 135x3x5
Deadlift 335x1x5

Big day at the gym last night as these weights were the 5RMs I was going off of when I started this linear progression 4 weeks ago. I've gotten stronger without a doubt, 1) because I couldn't have done 3 sets of 5 at my 5RM on the squat and press a month ago, I guess you should only be good for 1 set of 5 at your true 5RM without significant rest? 2) because I have room to grow still, there was never a doubt during any set whether or not I would get all 5 reps, granted some reps/sets were slower than others, but I'm confident I can continue adding weight, no clue for how long though.

Overally very happy with how last night turned out, the previous SS A day from last week definitely felt harder than last night's so I was expecting last night to be by far the hardest day of the last four weeks. Gonna do SS B tomorrow, not really concerned about that cause I have a lot of room to grow on my front squat and power clean. I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing for a few more weeks and see how things go.

2012-09-11 Track Club (MB)

5k time trial.
Time: 22:59

At the airport

About to board a plane to Sofia, Bulgaria. Really enjoyed reading some of the posts from the last few days, especially Ricci's rant. On Saturday I did some Airdyne intervals for twenty minutes. On Sunday I did a four minute Airdyne tabata to warmup. Then spent thirty minutes to find a one rep max on back squat: 275 lb (pr). Finished with another four minute airdyne tabata. On Monday I did some intervals of box jumps, situps, burpees, lunges and running - nothing crazy. The burpees were the first pushup/upper body movement I've done in the last three weeks (besides the airdyne). They didn't feel terrible; oddly, the box jumps were where I tweaked my shoulder. I'll let you guys know how Bulgaria and Greece are. Ricci, I'll bring you back a Crossfit Athens shirt.

2012-08-11 CF (MB)

A. Tabata
Each of these is 20sec on/20sec off for 4 minutes.
Tabata Handstand Hold
Tabata Row
Tabata Pistols (one leg per 20)
Rope Climbs

B. Metcon
100-80-60-40-20
Double-unders
10-8-6-4-2
Man-makers 35# (scaled to 30#)
Ring dips

DNF @ 22:00min

Notes: I was just about to start the last round. Scaled the double unders to DU-SU-SU, then eventually SU. The ring dips were scaled with a band.

Yang sent me this yesterday. I haven't had a chance to read the discussion yet, but the post was interesting: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/n5oni/three_years_of_crossfit_3x5_lifts_531_olympic/

CFFB 091112: Never Forget

3 rounds:
9 power cleans @ 225 (scaled to 135)
11 HSPU (scaled with 1 plate on the ground)
101 yard shuttle sprint

22:07. Was looking for sub 20.  HSPUs kicked my ass after all the pressing yesterday.  No SWOD RX'd today.

5/3/1 cycle 2 week 1: Deadlift

Deadlift:
245 x 5
285 x 5
325 x max -> got 13 wuuuut

Theo 1rm of 490 HAHAHA yeah right.  Felt really good today.  Did something like 5, reset, 5, reset, 2, reset, 1.

More deadlift:
190 x 5 x 10

Leg raise: 5x15.

EDIT: FYI I'm using the formula (36*weight)(37-#reps).  This gives somewhat reasonable results when you use <5 reps, but obviously this breaks down the more reps you do.  I think I can do 37 reps @ 95lbs which should give me a theo 1rm of ∞.

CFFB 091012

ASWOD
3x5 squat @ 270

DWOD
5 rounds, rest as needed:
5 push press @ 185 (scaled to 135)
max reps dips

Got 19-13-15-13-8. 

After the first round I'm sitting next to the power cage and these two toolbags come over carrying a bench and just start moving the pins around and taking the plates off the bar.  With me sitting right there clearly using the apparatus.  Turns out they wanted to box squat (95 lbs and 135 lbs respectively).  Their discussion in between their sets was focused on bodyfat percentages and supplements.  I was hating my life having to listen to their ignorance.  The one dudes knees couldnt have been more than 3" apart at the "bottom" of his box squat.  I've never wanted to see an ACL snap more than in those moments.  Usually this stuff doesnt bother me, 95% of the people in the gym are doing stupid exercises IMO anyway, but these guys were just rude, no etiquette, and clearly had no idea what they were doing.  The encouragement they were giving each other on 3x10 box squats was ridiculous.  "3 more bro.  Think light.  You got it.  It's money.  Money, in the bank bro."  I shit you not.  Non stop.  The whole time they were lifting.  /rant

SS B

Front squat 195x3x5
Bench press 180x3x5
Power clean 170x5x3

3-4 min rest between squat and press sets, 2 min rest between power clean sets. I feel like I have a lot of room until I plateau on the front squat and power clean, bench has a little bit of room to grow. The next two sessions I'll be lifting at my original 5RMs from 4 weeks ago, should be interesting.

5/3/1 cycle 2: week 1 Press

Press:
100 x 5
115 x 5
130 x max -> got 9

Theo 1rm of 165.  Kinda unhappy with this because I got 130 x 10 in week 3 of last cycle.  I'm hoping it's just random variation.  We'll see how the next weeks go.

More press: 75 x 5 x 10
Chins: 5 x failure
Dips 5 x 10

Active Rest

Ran 5.2 miles today, felt relatively easy. Then played some golf, walked 18 holes. (Klein, third round of the year, 4 over, how do you like them apples?)

CFFB 080712

ASWOD

5x3 power clean @ 177.5 (PR)

DWOD 1
Sindy
8 min amrap
5 strict pullups
10 pushups
5 squats @ 185

5 rounds with maybe 45 sec overtime

DWOD 2

3 rounds for time:
10 ring pullups (subbed strict bar pullups or chinups)
10 sandbag cleans @ 135 (subbed PC's @ 115)

Got through 1 round and thought I was gonna fall asleep.  Threw in the towel.

Hangboard Training

I've been climbing for about a year now. I started by treating it as mostly a social endeavor, and as a way to stay active during the winter months. In March of this year, I began taking the sport more seriously by following a periodized training schedule. I saw huge improvements from this, especially in my endurance and technique. Earlier this week, I completed my first 5.11 -- the hardest route I've done yet (still not impressie, though).

There are tons of books and blog posts that talk about the relative importance of strength and technique. At the end of the day, they're both really important; having only one is not an option. However, I can honestly say that my biggest constraint right now is my finger strength.

Enter the hangboard.:



Hangboards are considered one of the best tools for increasing finger strength. I installed my hangboard above my bedroom doorway 2 weeks ago, and I've started training on it 2x/week. Experts say that training more than this is a recipe for disaster (injury). A typical training sessions takes about 20 minutes -- 10 min warmup + 10 1 minute exercises. Exercises range from hanging from different holds with different grips, to pull ups, to hanging with arms bent, leg raises, etc. I've already started noticing a difference in my climbing, and my hangboard sessions have become easier. Once I can do the entire entry-level routine, I'll move on to intermediate. Looking forward to seeing how it helps.

Deload week

For deload week I'm doing the following:

40% x 5
50% x 5
60% x 5

50% for 3 sets of 10

Accessory for 3 sets of 10 or 15.

Basically I'm reducing everything to about 60% of normal volume.  Hope this deload is worth it!  I've felt really antsy this whole week because I haven't been able to lift heavy...

CFFB 090612

ASWOD

3x5 bench @ 177.5 (fail: 5-5-4 again...grrrr)
3x5 squat @ 265
3x5 inclined dumbell press @ 65-60-60 (assistance)

DWOD

Was going to do it when I got home, got sidetracked, gonna tack it on tomorrow and spend a nice couple hours at the gym.

Watch people exercise on ESPN 2

Last three days are probably the only ones worth watching. Schedule here.

No wod to report

Doing something later, not sure yet.  At work I'm prepping for my trip to Bulgaria and Greece next week.

That means searching for crossfit gyms in Sofia and Athens.
In Sofia, here's what I found: http://www.ultimatetraining.bg/ - the first (and only, I think) crossfit gym in Bulgaria.

In Athens, there seems to be a pretty legit crossfit gym: http://www.rcaprimal.gr/.

I've sent emails through both websites letting them know I'm coming through (Josh, any suggestions?), and that I don't speak Bulgarian or Greek.  God bless google translator. 

SS A

PRd my riding time home from the gym last night (9:55), almost a min off my previous best. 

SS this morning on about 7 hours of sleep cause I'm an idiot. Lifts were the slowest they've felt ever. 

Squat 250x3x5

Press 130x3x5

Deadlift 325x5

Up to 6-7 min rest on the squats, 5-6 min rest on the press. Deadlifts are still touch and go. Off to CT for a few days. Hoping to cash in 8-9 hours of sleep a night and get ready for next weeks lifts, which will be at my 5RMs from when I kicked this whole thing off.

2012-09-06 CF (MB)

A. Skill.
Tabata Mash-Up:
Push-Ups
Jumping Lunges

*Alternate exercises until you have completed each 8 times.

B. Metcon
500m Row
20 Ball Slams (35# -- scaled to 25# cause they ran out of 35s)
40 DUs (scaled to 1DU+1SU+1SU = 2 DUs)
400m Row
16 Ball Slams
32 DUs
300m Row
12 Ball Slams
24 DUs
200m Row
8 Ball Slams
16 DUs
100m Row
4 Ball Slams
8 DUs

Time: 18:37

Really slow here. DUs slowed me down big time.

Tuesday 120904 (AK)

Conditioning:
4 rounds of Run ~500 meters, Rest 1 minute between sets.
2:01
2:03
2:07
2:06

Lift:
Lunges 4-4-4-4-4
95-135-155-175 (failed on second rep)-165

On my failed rep, I tried to clean the weight back up to my squat stand.  Was way too afraid to push it with my shoulder and had to offload all the weight and put it back on for my final set of lunges :(

2012-09-05 CF (MB)

A. Strength
Jerk
1-1-1-1-1
125-145-155-165-175 (PR)

B. Metcon
For Time:
1000m Row
then
21-15-19 at 135# (scaled to 115#)
Push Jerk
Power Clean
Back Squat

Time: 26:46

Slow and steady here. Went out of my comfort zone with the weight, but glad I did.

SS B

Halfway through week 3, hips are still tight as shit after running sprints on Saturday, pretty crazy. Didn't affect the squats though which is good. I'm pretty sure in another week I won't even want to do any conditioning cause these off days in between lifting days are going to start being mad important.

Front squat 185x3x5
Bench press 175x3x5
Power clean 165x5x3

Speed on the front squats was good, plenty of room to grow there. Bench was a little slow but not as hard as I was expecting. Still tweaking some things on the power clean but singles at 165 are pretty much a breeze now. Looking forward to the next few weeks as the weights get closer to 95+% of 5RM while I hopefully get stronger.

Lifted after all the classes were done tonight, best part about riding home at 9:30pm is you barely have to stop. Forgot to start my watch in time but probably would have PRed with a sub 11:00 time.

2012-09-04 Track Club (MB)

6 rounds of:
400m sprint
120 second rest

Splits:
1:21
1:19
1:20
1:22
1:21
1:22

The goal was consistency since last time my range was [1:04, 1:30]. Happy with the progress. Next goal is to stay consistent, but shave off ~2 seconds.

hero wod

Monday (active rest day)
2x10 minutes on air dyne

Sunday
Warmup: 5 minutes on airdyne
then...
Hero wod of Manion
7 rounds:
Run 400 meters
135 lb. back squat, 29 reps

Quit after five rounds (time - 29:50).

Saturday
10 minutes on airdyne (20 sec on, 10 sec off)
then...
6 rounds
15 squats
15 lunges
(time - 5:28)

Back to the gym

Strength
5RM deadlift @ 405 (fail: 3...grip is for sure the limiting factor)
3x5 press @ 127.5 (fail: push pressed the last rep of sets 2 and 3, real close though)

Conditioning
1k row: ~3:30 or something

2012-09-04 CF (MB)

Warmup:
3 rounds of:
5 pushups
10 body row
15 KB Swing (35#)

Skill:
3 rounds of AMRAP ring dips
12-8-7

Notes: I used a red band here.

Metcon:
"Broomstick Mile"
Using only the bar (45#).
Putting your bar down other than for the 400m runs earns 5 burpees per offense.

25 Back Squat
25 Front Squat
25 Overhead Squat
Run 400m
25 Shoulder Press
25 Push Press
25 Push Jerk
Run 400m
50 Squat Cleans
Run 400m
50 Hang Power Snatch
Run 400m

Notes: I dropped the bar during the cleans and had to do 5 burpees. I decided to use the 35# bar for the snatches as a result. I'm trying to do as many workouts Rx as I can, but it will be tough for me in the beginning. Hardest part of this workout was holding on to the bar.

Half Dome Hiking

Ok so I think I took this whole hiking trip too lightly.  This shit was very intense: 14 miles round trip with 5000ft of elevation change.  PLUS, the final few hundred feet are on a 70 degree incline with you basically dragging yourself up on steel cables: Scary.  AND we had to do all this in a day because we didn't have the foresight to book a campground or cabin.

It ended up taking about 11 hours.  I had quite a few episodes of leg cramping which were slightly solved by my furiously digging my knuckles into my leg in order to break up some fascia.  Next time I do something like this, I'm definitely going to bring more water + electrolytes.

I'm really happy that this coming week is deload week on 5/3/1 because I can't imagine squatting heavy right now.

August report + Sept goals

August goals:

Squat 370 3x5

Bench 240 3x5

DL 380 1x5

Honestly I have no idea if I made these.  A 5rm squat max of 370 will give me a theo 1rm of 415, which I've surpassed (in theory).  A 5rm bench of 240 is a 1rm of 270 (theo), which I've also (theoretically) surpassed.  380 DL 5rm is a 425 1rm, which again I've theoretically hit.  In conclusion I have no idea if I hit my goals or not, but I might have.

Sept goals (more like Oct 7 goals I guess):

- Keep going with 5/3/1.

- Hit a 1100 total at my first meet.

Fri/Sat/Sun + Sept Goals

 It's September, pretty f ing crazy. Here are my goals:

1. Continue with linear progression strength training 3x a week through Sept until I plateau
2. 1x week sprint/track/run
3. 1x week yoga
4. 90% clean diet for the month
5. 8+ hours of sleep a night

---

Fri

SS B

Front squat 175x3x5
Bench press 170x3x5
Power clean 160x5x3

// 3 min rest between working sets

---

Sat

Sprint work

5x200m sprints

// 3-10 min rest between sets, hamstrings and glutes were feeling it this morning, woke up feeling worse than I did after getting hit by a car.

--

Sun

Squat 240x3x5
Press 125x3x5
Deadlift 315x5

// Progressing nicely, did a good amount of hamstring and glute mobility with bands and lax ball, squat felt good even after the sprints yesterdays, assuming I can get a little more sleep than I have in the past two weeks I don't think I'll have any issue blowing past my previous 5Rm squat in two weeks. Press felt good too, some room to grow, 3x5 around 145-150 would be sweet. Deadlifts are getting heavy but I've been able to do them all touch and go so that's nice.