The Epiphany

I had an epiphany today, it goes like this:

As many rounds in 15 minutes of:
10 Knees to elbows (holding a 20 lb med ball w/ feet)
15 Ring Pushups
20 Walking Lunges (with dumbbells of course)
all done with 20 lb weighted vest.

Okay, so it isn't like your ordinary epiphany where you figure out where you left your keys or how to fix that situation with your friend, but it is what goes through a trainer's mind. And I will be doing that on Tuesday. On another note, I had my heavy day today. I cut it down to just two moves so I could focus more on these two in particular:
7x3
Shoulder Press - Started at 95 and worked my way up to 135 (note that my 1RM at the beginning of this was 140 and today I was able to do 3 at 135)
Deadlift - Started at 155 and finished at 255 (265 i only got 2 reps)

As I said in my other post, I up my blocks on Monday and I am ready. Falling off of the zone does more than just make you unhealthy, it makes you unhappy. When your body is on a schedule, you feel much better. You don't have any crazy ups and downs with your glucose levels and things are pretty level (even though they don't always seem that way). I noticed the difference when I ate a ton of carbs over this holiday and my blood glucose was all over the place. It really does affect my moods when I keep the food intake balanced.

I think I'm going to zone for the rest of my life...

Metabolic Derangement

Well, my family made sure that I didn't do anything but eat and hang out. It was good seeing everyone and I ate a TON. You could basically say that for every block of fat I have been eating, I moved them over to the carbs. There was just so much good food. I can feel my blood glucose levels are all over the place and am glad to be zoning again.

So after a little metabolic derangement and inactivity, I worked out today and let me tell you, it was tough. I worked mainly on skills and flexibility within the overhead squat. I will be back at it tomorrow lifting heavy.

I guess this is why I tell people not to take more than a few days off of working out...

Monday I make the move to 18 blocks 5x the fat and I'm welcoming the extra food. With finals coming up and school ending, I will have the time to hit my workouts like I want to without the crazy sleep deprivation (not good for recovery).

Oly Lifting

Sorry but it has been a few days since I've updated this thing.

I have adjusted well to the new diet and loving the workout routine. Strength is my weakness, but it is fun to change up the programming for awhile. I will be attending a Crossfit Olympic Lifting Certification Seminar in February, so that gives me a bit more of a drive to practice the Oly lifts.

I am actually eager to bump up to 18 blocks. I have found that eating 4 meals a day is more practical for me. I have now divided up my 16 block 5x fat prescription to 4 meals of 4 blocks each.

I'll keep everyone posted on the happenings of the program.

P.S. On a side note, I am extremely sore from sprints that we did on Saturday.

Closing Day 2

So, I am feeling my body adjust to the insane amount of fat I'm consuming. I was a true glutton throughout high school so the amount of food doesn't bother me, but I have never eaten this much fat (albeit healthy fat). Zac and Dave said they went through this low energy feel like crap period so I guess I will get over it too. At the end of the second day I am feeling better with it already.

I would have to say that the highlight of my day was the workout. Once I started warming up and getting ready for the power cleans I felt great. My weight was nothing impressive, but I went up to 175 for a couple sets then backed it down to 165 to work on my form.

After that, the 30 lb vest and I went to work:
10 min for rounds of:
4 Box Jumps
4 Plyo Push ups
4 Pull Ups

I made 9 rounds but could have made ten if I someone had been there to hold me accountable for the last 45 seconds. It was tough, I was really feeling my performance decline due to the increase in calories.

All in all I'm totally excited about the new training regimen. Its allowing us to throw some creativity into our workouts and train ways that I've never trained before.

Some side goals I have before the end of the three months:

-Gain proficiency at the Clean and Jerk and the Snatch.

-Practice Pistols over and over and over until I'm able to incorporate them completely into a W.O.D.

-Gain Flexibility

-12 consecutive handstand pushups

-Turkish Get-Up Kim

-Push Press Ernesto

-Deadlift my car (not the equivalent weight, the actual car)

-Climb Mt. Franklin with a 135lb bar overhead. (active shoulders the whole way)

-and last but not least... brush up on my Espanol.


Adios Amigos!

First day

Today I started the workout regimen and playing with the new block prescription.
The workout:
Back Squat 7 x 3 (135,185,195,195,200,200,205)
Deadlift 7x3 (135,185,205,215,225,235,245)
Push Press 7x3 (95,115,135,145,155,160,165)

It was a definite change from my usual crossfit regimen. I had fun with this one.

My first meal with 5x fats left me immobile for a bit. This is going to be a long journey for sure, but I am stoked to get to the results which I have no doubt in my mind will come. I have plenty of room for improvement.

Here is some of my starting data, I'll have my body fat % up here soon.

Weight: 171 lbs
Height: 6' 2"

My 1 rep maximums for some major moves are as follows:

Shoulder Press: 140 lbs

Deadlift: 305 lbs

Bench Press: 225 lbs

Weighted Pull-up: 85 lbs

Power Clean: 200 lbs

The Mass Gain Experiment

For the next three months I am going to be playing around with an experiment with an aim to ultimately gain mass and strength. Taking into consideration Crossfit’s 10 recognized fitness domains and the necessity of optimizing physical competence in each of them, I will be working on my biggest weakness: strength. I have never had a problem with my endurance or speed. I came into Crossfit with an endurance background whereas most of the Crossfit world before getting exposed to crossfit came from a bodybuilding type regimen focused mainly on strength.
This experiment was first done by Robb Wolf and I will be performing my own by mostly mimicking his methods.

Methods for diet: Prior to starting the experiment I have been on 16 blocks and doubling the fat. I will be starting the experiment at 16 blocks with 5x the fat. This means that for example, a two block snack would be: 2 blocks carbohydrates/2 blocks protein/ 10 blocks fat. Every two weeks I will up my block prescription by 2 blocks. The extra fats will all be from healthy sources: almonds, peanuts, seeds, and oils. The food will mostly be paleo, but it will not be all paleo. I also plan on 2 cheat meals per week.

Methods for exercise: As far as my own personal workouts go, they will not be crossfit. A true crossfit regimen takes into account all of the 10 domains and trains them all on a regular basis. I will not be doing this. I plan to work mainly on strength training with doses of the other domains thrown in. I will be training major structural moves at or above my 6 or 7 rep max, sprinting and rowing short distances, as well as training the Olympic lifts and I will not be doing the 3 days on 1 day off scheme. However, this program will vary and I will not be sticking to this 100%, I’ll find out what model works best as I go. What I will have at the end of this experiment is results and a detailed log of the workouts and daily food intake documenting how I got there.


Other info: As far as I know, I am going to lose my abs for the duration of this experiment. My performance during high intensity workouts will also decline, but this is all short term. I know that I will be eating an inhuman amount of food and as Wolf stated, he didn’t feel well during his own experiment, but at the end of the 3 months I will be back to eating normally and on a true Crossfit regimen hopefully with some more muscle.


Everything starts Monday, November,17.