Rise of Disease in the Modern World

If you've watched the news lately you are constantly flooded with higher rates of diseases like cancer, heart disease, autism, and many other auto-immune diseases.  It seems like doctors are extremely busy with all these diagnosis and treatment plans for their never ending number of ill patients.  Scientists are constantly working on the new miracle drug to cure cancer or autism.  Don’t get me wrong it is important that they are trying to cure these dreaded diseases but this should be our last resort for those cases that were unpreventable.  The problem is too little attention gets paid to why the rise in these diseases in the first place.  What if we could dramatically decrease the prevalence of these diseases?  Not with frequent doctor visits and tons of tests and some miracle drug but rather with a proper diet and an active lifestyle.  I’m not talking about an hour four times a week at your local globo-gym but rather a lifestyle of movement and physical tasks.  I’m not a scientist but I have done my fair share of research and have first-hand experience.

Inactivity and consumption of processed foods, grains (pasta, bread even whole wheat, oatmeal etc. etc.), and some diary can be detrimental to your health.  Obviously smoking and excessive alcohol consumption also has a negative impact on our health.  I’m going to assume everyone is aware of this so I’m not going to discuss it although the effects can be similar.  Anyways, these foods weren’t a part of our diet for more than 99% of human existence.  What does this mean?  Our bodies haven’t adapted and are struggled to cope with our less nutritious modern diet.  Every time you consume that greasy burger with French fries and a soda you’re putting a chink in your armor.   You may be lucky and never see any blatant side effects from your poor diet but you’d be the exception.  Also just because you may not eat much fast food and processed foods and you exercise, and are at a healthy body weight doesn't necessarily mean your healthy.  There are many other foods that many people don't realize are negatively affecting their health.  Also activity to be healthy is more than just going to the gym a couple days a week because this doesn't offset the issue that your probably sitting 8 hours a day at your job. Our bodies are these amazing machines that put up with whatever you throw at them to a certain point and then it says enough and stops functioning properly.  Perfect example is type II diabetes which is when your body stops properly utilizing insulin from the years of a poor diet high in carbohydrates and physical inactivity.  Insulin acts as a counter balance to keep your blood glucose levels normal and not too high.  Your body has created an insulin resistance and your pancreas kick into overdrive to produce more insulin but that only lasts so long.  Your body is now unable to produce enough insulin to keep your blood glucose levels normal.  Essentially your body was sick of dealing with years of your sugar-laden diet, inactivity, and carrying around fifty extra pounds.  Now there are some cases of type ll diabetes that may just happen and it wasn’t your fault and your body just failed you which again would be the exception and not the majority. 

Making poor diet and lifestyle decisions is just chipping away at your body armor.  There will be a day when your armor becomes to damaged and it stops functioning properly and this is when your screwed.  The potential for a serious health problem here is very high. There are foreign invaders that are constantly trying to get through our armor but when the body is functioning properly we are well equipped to handle these invaders because our bodies have built immunities to them.  The problem is when you put all these chinks in your armor your essentially weakening your body’s defense mechanisms.  This is when our body can no longer tolerate or put up with these invaders.  It is that bullet that finally penetrates through the armor that opens you up to many serious health issues.     

                         

The point I’m trying to make is to take care of your body before you have developed these health issues.  Doctor’s main purpose should be preventative not reactive.  What do I mean by this? They should be better educated when it comes to nutrition and giving advice to living a healthy lifestyle rather than reacting to diseases by prescribing drugs.   Yes medication may be necessary when the patient has the disease but the majority of the cases are preventable.  At the end of the day your health is largely up to the decisions you make.  So do yourself a favor and skip the drive-thru dinner and go make a nutritious dinner made with real whole foods.  Get your old running shoes from the garage and wipe the cobwebs off and put them to good use.  There comes a time when everyone wants to let loose eat something a little unhealthy and have some adult beverages.  You should reward yourself with a weekend evening night here and there but only if you’ve made the right decisions time and time again Monday thru Friday.

Modern Life & Sustainability

          I know this post has nothing to do with Crossfit or nutrition but since it’s my blog I’m going to write about it anyway.  Something has been on my mind a lot lately and it stems from human activity in the modern world and climate change.  This weekend I was spending the 4^th of July weekend on the beach with my family.  I couldn’t help but noticed the packed and overly crowded beaches.  This kind of put a damper on relaxing at the beach.  I was barely even able to see the waves because of the wall of umbrellas as far as the eye could see.  I guess this is just the world we live in nowadays.  The beach got a little less crowded and hot towards the early evening.  When the umbrellas were gone what was left behind was a bunch of trash which really got me thinking about human activity today in the modern world.  I saw beer cans, plastic cups, plastic water bottles, among many other things that did not belong on the sand and eventually into the ocean.  The thought of trash especially plastic washing into the ocean just makes me cringe.  I began collecting the trash I could see and quickly filled up a bag of trash.  I seemed to be the only one concerned with the trash or at least the only one bothered enough to do something. 

I find myself at odds with the majority of people these days and it’s not a good feeling.  What I mean by this is I can’t understand the way many people act and their complete disregard for our planet and sustainability.  We are all well-aware of human-influenced climate change at this point so the justifiable excuses are gone.  I just can’t understand how people can intentionally and even unintentionally leave trash behind especially on a beach where those same people come to admire its beauty.  If we all treated places like this eventually it will look like a landfill and then no one will want to visit.  I think humans have lost their connection with nature in the modern world.  I’m not saying let’s all retreat to the woods and live caveman-style unless you want too.  Seriously though people need to consider the consequences to their decisions and I don’t mean directly onto themselves.  We aren’t the only inhabitants of this planet and are actions directly affect everything else.  Earth supplies us with life and all it asks for in return is respect and thus far humans haven’t been holding up their end of the bargain.  The use of plastic water bottles still baffles my mind especially here in America.  We have safe water here that comes out of our faucets so fill up a Nalgene and take it with you simple enough.  If not buy a filter and purify your water.  Just think about how much plastic waste you are buying when you get that 24 pack of water plus there are another 7 billion people on this planet so just imagine if they were all doing the same thing Yikes!

                There are many things that need to be changed to allow a sustainable and less human-disrupted Earth but if people can start taking small steps and actions it can have a dramatic effect.  So next time you are out at the beach, mountains, or whatever destination you chose to enjoy make sure you collect your trash and properly dispose of it.  Also if you’re walking and happen to notice a beer can or some other article of trash on the ground; pick it up please!

Crossfit & Functionality

                Every fitness program should be measured in some capacity by their functionality towards your specific sport and everyday life.  Humans were asked to run, jump, climb, and lift objects all for survival.  These tasks have eluded us as modern society has become obsessed with convenience.  We drive cars everywhere, we can do almost everything from our computers and cell-phones.  After all this, we go to the gym and watch t.v. while jogging on a treadmill.  Then we use machines that have little to no carry-over into our everyday life.  Your fitness regimen should be making everyday life easier or making you better at your particular sport.  If neither of these apply to you it’s time to rethink your training approach. 

I was guilty of doing the Globo-Gym routine for years.  Looking back I realized how little functionality this type of training gave me.  I had little to no flexibility and my cardio was almost non-existent.  I found myself struggling to do other activities that involved larger amounts of cardio and realized people who didn’t work out nearly as much as I did had a higher work capacity.  This made me feel like my training hadn’t paid off at all.  I wanted my training to make me better outside the gym, and now was faced with the reality that my current routine wasn’t getting the job done.  I asked myself, "What do I do now?"  Everything I had done training wise hadn’t done much to my overall fitness. 

Eventually I stumbled into Crossfit and haven’t looked back since.  Crossfit is a very broad approach to fitness its mere definition is “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity”.  Greg Glassman the founder of Crossfit was the first person to measure fitness in a tangible way.  You get to test it with every single workout.  The ten components of Crossfit are accuracy, agility, balance, cardiovascular endurance, coordination, flexibility, power, stamina, speed, and strength.  If your fitness approaches all ten components you are going to greatly increase your overall fitness. 

              Crossfit isn’t perfect, but it has done a great deal in teaching people how to train to be truly fit.  The main training focus of Crossfit is using functional movements and not isolating muscle groups.  Human movement has become so poor and grossly neglected.  It is such a basic and beneficial way too train yet very few look at it that way.  Now there are naysayers, nitpickers, and keyboard rangers (those people who leave negative comments on Youtube with no merit or knowledge) who think Crossfit is a joke.  There are some in the “fitness world” that claim Crossfit is too dangerous and shouldn't be trained by everyday people.  This is nonsense look of course there is a chance for injury, but that’s the same with any sport or intense physical activity.  The human body is an amazing machine that is primed to perform complex and difficult physical activities.  Now if you've sat on the couch for the last 10 years and walked into a box and did a workout your chances for injury are extremely high.  You need to work into Crossfit or your other fitness endeavors slowly and learn to move properly.  If you can’t even squat correctly with just your bodyweight, you have no business performing a squat with hundreds of pounds on a barbell.  This is why you spend lots of time going through progressions and building up the tolerance to handle those movements.  The capacity to do a muscle-up isn’t built by swinging on the rings over and over again until you get on top of them.  There are prerequisites that should be mastered first such as strict ring rows, dips, pull-ups, and proper hollow-body position.  The great thing about Crossfit is it can take a different meaning for every individual and gives you the outlet to achieve your highest physical and mental potential.

Paleo Diet & Modern Society

      For people who don’t know, Paleo is a diet that is based off what humans ate during the Paleolithic period.  This is way before heavy agriculture and farming.  Humans ate what they could hunt like lean meats and seafood.  They also gathered fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.  For most of our existence this was the extent of our diet.  We didn't eat things like processed foods, grains, and dairy foods because these weren't available.  Only since the last 150 years or so have we really started to consume these foods.  This is why a lot of people have problems digesting diary and grains because it goes against what we were meant to consume.  It goes against our genetics and what our body properly utilizes.  This is how we use to look and it wasn't with some crazy diet or fitness plan.  It was with daily physical tasks and eating what nature presented us.

       
         The Paleo diet in a nutshell is to consume lean meats, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruits, little starch, and no sugar.  It is a great diet to losing unwanted weight and preventing debilitating diseases like diabetes and can treat many autoimmune diseases.  Do you think diseases like diabetes were as prevalent thousands of years ago as it is today?  It is our modern diet full of refined sugars, grains, and trans fats that are at the root of the rise in obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimers, and many other debilitating diseases.  It is a high fat moderate to high protein low glycemic diet that is the best approach towards burning calories.  It also includes all the phytochemicals from the fruits and vegetables that have endless health benefits.  Now I’m not saying all grains and diary should be avoided but they should be reconsidered.  I will never give up drinking Organic whole milk as long as I’m lactose tolerant.  I think a good start to approaching the Paleo diet is to cut out all those foods and see how you feel.  Then slowly introduce some of these foods back into your diet.  You may notice that you're lactose intolerant or have a gluten intolerance.  This is a good way to see what foods help you feel energetic and perform better.

People like to make weight loss and diets so complicated and are always looking for the newest fad cleanse, crazy diet or some shortcut.  Drinking a gallon of water with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup isn't the answer.  Like seriously just listen to how crazy that diet sounds.  Spoiler alert there is no shortcut but rather dedication and commitment to living a healthy lifestyle.  “Anything worth having is worth working for” that is a quote I firmly believe in.  If you approach your health as a lifelong venture rather than a quick fix you’ll be much healthier and satisfied.  People nowadays are so obsessed with convenience and can’t understand that things take time.   No wonder these diets don’t work for the majority of us because they are so extreme that they cannot be sustained.  Once people quit or are finished they go right back to eating the same foods.  Being healthy is not the most convenient or the easiest thing to do but it’s about being dedicated and committed to making the right choices.  I’m not making these choices for tomorrow I’m making them for when I’m 60 and 70 and feel and look great.

The Modern diet based by the USDA shows a pyramid with grains at the bottom recommending 6 to 11 servings a day, vegetables and fruits in the middle with 3 to 4 servings a day, then lean meat for 2 to 3 servings, and fats & oils are told to use sparingly.  The problem with obesity in this country isn't fats it is CARBS!    Heart disease and higher cholesterol levels aren't associated with fat intake rather the types of fats you consume.  Hydrogenated oils and trans fats clogs arteries but Monounsaturated and Omega 3 fats are very beneficial to your health and can be excellent energy sources.  These Omegas also have great abilities in reducing inflammation and promoting healthier brain function.  When consuming the right kind of fats they are an excellent energy source like fish oil, avocados, coconut oil, nuts, and seeds.  Carbohydrates are the primary food source of the USDA food pyramid.  This is no surprise since the Grains Food Foundation, the Whole Grain Council, and many other grain based companies are spending millions lobbying to make sure their food remains a staple of the American diet.  What would America do without their morning bowl of cereal?  High glycemic foods and inactivity are what is leading to our obesity and diabetes epidemic.  Vegetables and fruits are a key staple to both diets which is about the only thing I really agree with of the USDA food pyramid. 

 

My diet usually consists of lean proteins like fish, chicken, turkey, and lean cuts of beef.  I also try to consume as many vegetables as possible and some fruits.  For my fats I consume fish oil, almond butter, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and many other nuts and seeds.  I don’t regularly consume grains with the exception of a few such as lentils, Ezekiel bread, and an occasional morning bowl of cereal.  I do drink whole milk which I think is a great source of calories if you’re not lactose intolerant.  I get the excess of my carbs from sweet potatoes.  I tend to keep my calorie consumption on the higher side since I don’t really have a problem of putting on too much weight.  I need to replenish the calories I burn daily to maintain optimum performance.  These are just my own thoughts and research and what I found has worked for me.  I am open to any opinions or questions people may have about the Paleo diet.

Movement is the simplest way to approach your fitness and overall well-being.  Obesity is becoming a real problem in this country.  Even with fitness and gym memberships being at an all-time high.  Why is this happening then?  First of all people a generation ago walked a lot more and didn’t drive their cars everywhere.  They engaged in physical activities outdoors and not because they were trying to lose weight or get a six pack.  It was because this is what people did for entertainment.  Back then they didn’t have hundreds of tv channels, Netflix, Internet, video games, and every sporting event known to man.  Humans nowadays have become less active and our always consumed with our modern technology.

               If you look even further back at our ancient hunter gatherer ancestor they would make even the fittest athletes of today look well mediocre.  They spent their time walking through difficult terrain, building shelter, chasing after prey.  They were able to move through tough environments at lightning fast speeds and all while staying injury-free.  Genetics were placed in humans to be able to complete all these tasks.  You didn’t have obese and physically unfit humans then because they wouldn’t have been able to survive.  Now we are changing our genetic make-up by being lazy slobs for lack of a better term.  We have weaker lower bodies, are less mobile, and have less bone-density which makes us more prone to osteoporosis and fractures.  Our bodies are a shadow of what they used to be and will continue to decline even further.

The new generation of thinking is that to be physically fit and healthy they need to go to the gym four times a week for an hour.  There is a reason why a lot of people who are frequent gym goers look the same and aren’t physically fit.  Four hours a week of jogging on a treadmill and doing machine weights is not going to make you healthy.  There are 164 hours left in the week of sitting at your desk, lying on the couch, and making poor dietary choices.  Spending four hours at the gym is fine as long as you’re not screwing it up the rest of the week.  Walking is the simplest form of movement yet none of us take advantage of it.  I stumbled upon an article about the advantages of walking on Marks Daily Apple link can be found here. There are endless planes and modes in which to move your body yet we focus on so few of them.  We can walk, sprint, climb, crawl, swim, and bike.  Being fit and healthy isn’t something that is quick and easy or maybe even convenient.  The latest cleanse, fat burner, or 5 minute abs aren’t going to get the job done.  The sooner you realize this and start making lifestyle changes that will promote overall health the closer you will be where you want to be.  

       

          Look I know everyone has got to start somewhere; and the idea that fitness and heath isn’t achieved through four hours a week at 24 hour fitness is kind of unsettling for many.  Nobody is saying cancel your gym membership and ditch the treadmill well maybe the treadmill.  It’s just important for people to realize that fitness and health is a lifelong journey that never ends.  Now I’m not saying we need to start to sleep outside, consume raw meat, and be a barbarian; unless you want too of course!  We need to remember what amazing gifted physical tools our bodies were meant to be and what they have the capacity to do.  Make better decisions like walk to the store right down the street instead of driving, take the stairs, participate in sports, get outdoors more often.  Also what’s probably even more important is diet.  A favorite quote of mine is “abs are built in the kitchen” which pretty much sums up this notion.  Basically you can’t expect to be fit and healthy without sound nutrition practices.  Personally I think Paleo is the best way to eat.  I will talk more about that on a post coming soon.  These are just some of my thoughts and some spurred on from Mark Sisson’s post.  I am open to any questions or opinions on the subject.

Ring Hspu Wod

Monday WOD

Tuck to HS Practice

Bench Press 5/3/1+

WOD: 5RFT of:

3 Ring HSPU

10 C2B Pull-Ups

                Today I started off with a gymnastics movement and it wasn’t pretty go figure!  Then I was on the Bench which would be the end of this cycle.  I hadn’t hit a good number last Monday and had been on a taxing hiking trip over the weekend so I figured I was down a few lbs.  I hoped that I would get a decent number on my last set @225lbs.  I ended up with six reps @225lbs nothing to brag about but I can’t complain.  Then I came up with the following WOD on the fly five rounds for time of 3 Ring Handstand Push-Ups and ten Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups.  Neither of these movements am I particularly good at actually I am horrible at them.  Ring Handstand push-ups are a very new movement too me and I figured why not through them into a Wod.  The ten C2B were a low number but I figured that with the ring HSPU they would be tough.  I was right and wasn’t able to go unbroken though all my sets.  My ring HSPU were ok but not great.  I definitely see a few faults and one of them is I’m not putting my head down.  This break in my cervical spine leads to poor position in my lumbar spine also.  This makes the movement a lot harder and more inefficient than it should be.  Even some of the best in the world struggle with this movement and have the same spinal faults.  It’s just something that I’m going to have to work on.  The video is below and the reason I picked this song because I felt like I was literally going to break my neck on the ring handstand push-ups.

GreenRidgeMD

            Over the weekend Scoob and I headed up to Green Ridge State Forest in Western MD for a hike and an overnight camp.  We set off around 11 am on Friday and had our hiking packs and gear in tow.  The weather called for some rainy weather which had us a little on edge since temps would be in the low 40s at night.  The drive to the ranger station was about 90 mins where we needed to check in.  We got permission to camp and drove near our hiking site.  We probably drove a half an hour on little to no maintenance roads. We had to drive across the river to Paw Paw, West Virginia to get some beers for the camp since there was nothing for miles in MD.  The town had that little old quaint feel to it I guess this picture pretty much sums it up.

          We had parked the car and started our journey down the Canal towards Paw Paw Tunnel which was built in 1836 by pure man power.  They carved this tunnel through a 1,000 ft ridge.  We thought about how many people who were here chipping and blasting away at rock close to 200 years ago.  Today there was absolutely nobody in sight.  The tunnel was probably the highlight of the trip. The tunnel is over 3,000 feet long but felt like about a mile.  It quickly became pitch black, cold, and wet.  It was hard to find our footing walking in the pitch black with divots and puddles.  At the other side it opened up to steep rocks with mini waterfalls pouring down them.

       
 We hiked for miles just surveying the landscape of mountains and rock faces to our left and the river to our right.  We saw and heard a lot of wildlife, climbed up and down ridges, and crossed streams.  We began to lose track of time and realized that our daylight hours were running short.  We thought we would need a solid hour to establish a camp site, set up camp, and get a fire going.  We realized that all we had was sheer cliffs to our right and the river to our left.  With no sign of a valley we began to wonder if we were gonna have to climb up one of these rock faces.  With the threat of severe storms we did not want to be in low lying ground close to the river.  We finally found some terrain that was bearable but we needed a way to cross the canal without getting wet.  We spotted a log that laid across the canal and realized this was our only option.  So we tight roped across it with our packs on our back making this slow and difficult but we both made it across.  We scurried up the hill and found a spot in between two ridges and next to a abandoned railroad bridge.  We started setting up camp and assembling our tent.  We gathered wood and tinder and set up a fire ring.  We finally got the fire going and then a downpour came and completely ruined our hopes of a bonfire to stay warm and a hot meal.  We decided to cut our loses and get our tent up before dark.  We decided to eat tomorrows breakfast tonight and cook the meat in the morning if the elements cooperate.  We ate our hard boiled eggs and sipped on our Pabst Tallboys until we decided to turn in.  The first two hours of sleep were not horrible until I was woken up by what seems to be a bear that was passing through our camp.  I was kind of freaking out while something was walking by our tent and by the twigs breaking and the noise this thing was making it certainly wasn’t a possum.  I remained quiet and thought about how we had food lying around.  The animal eventually passed but sleep was going to be tough.  Next the winds picked up and were roaring around 50 mph and was making it impossible to sleep almost knocking our tent over.  We also heard plenty of coyotes yipping in the distance which was pretty cool as long as it was in the distance.  I got about one more hour of sleep towards the break of dawn and we were up and out around  7 am.

This trip made me realize a great deal of things in terms of nature and modern society.  Many of us look at people who are always camping and outdoors and think they are missing out on something or “why are they doing that”.  These people have found true joy and nature provides it.  There’s something to this so-called “roughing it” in the elements.  It exposes a lot of our weaknesses and shows how domesticated we have become.  For me this was not something I was proud of.  I felt like a little bit of a “landy” out there as Scoob and I like to call it.  There were many areas where I wasn’t as savvy as I thought I was.  This was a little disappointing but also encouraging in attempt to re-wild myself.  We had trouble starting a fire but it did start to downpour.  Also we didn’t take care of our food and store it in a safe place.  I also took my boots and socks off to cross the log but left them off for about an hour while trying to setup camp.  My feet became wet and cold and with no fire they were going to stay that way. We also had too much gear in our packs and made hiking rather difficult.  While all this may seem minor if we had been in stranded in an extremely remote part of the wilderness or it had been the dead of winter these all could have been the difference between surviving and not.  We hiked a total of about twenty miles between the two days and my body was feeling it.  All in all this trip was a starting point to see where my outdoor skills are and let’s just say I’m going to need some work especially if I plan on hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Strongman WOD

Bench Press                       3/3/3+

Ring Handstand Push-Ups  3xME

Strict Toes to Bar               3xME

6 minute time cap - score is total chest-to-bar pull-ups

20 Strict Pull-Ups

30 Kipping/Butterfly Pull-Ups

AMRAP Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups

Today I stole a WOD from Rob Orlando’s StrongmanWOD website the link is here http://strongmanwod.com/ .  On this site there are a lot of heavy weight circuits including tires, yokes, atlas stones, and just about everything heavy you could imagine.  This one was straightforward and only needed bodyweight.  It was a 6 minute time cap and you start by completing 20 strict pull-ups, then 30 kipping or butterfly pull-ups, then if you complete that you do as many chest-to-bar pull-ups in the remaining time.  This was a little bit of strategy and a whole lot of fatigue.  I tried to split my sets up in the earlier rounds so I would have something left for the chest- to-bars.  I did split the sets up but still didn’t have much to give during the chest-to-bar pull-ups.  I split the strict pull-ups into two quick sets of 10.  Then I hit 3 sets of 6 and 3 sets of four for the butterfly pull-ups I was hoping to get at least 5 chest to bar pull-ups and only got three.  I continued to plug away until the time was up.  My score was 23 chest to bar pull-ups.  I’m ok with that score but would have liked to have gotten 30.  So all in all during the six minutes I completed 73 pull-ups; 20 strict, 30 butterfly, and 23 chest-to-bars.  I’m looking forward to some active recovery at Sugarloaf Mountain tomorrow.

Little Bennett Hike

Today I met up with Scoob and we headed to Little Bennett Regional Park.  I never been there and it is so close by.  It has over 21 miles of trails and about 4,000 protected acres.  We just started hiking through the trails with nobody in sight.  The terrain was muddy from all the snow melt.  We walked across streams, flipped logs and boulders, climbed and swung from vines.  We spent the better part of the day just hiking and exploring uncharted territory. We hit a METCON of Muscle-Ups and burpees after about 7 plus miles of hiking.  This was not a fun metcon it quickly became a real struggle.  After looking back it was good to throw in a metcon towards the end of the hike when you’re not fresh and are a little tired.  If you can only perform when fresh and rested then what does that truly mean.  Overall we had hiked close to ten miles and did a little metcon.  I’m definitely going to revisit this place when it’s a little warmer outside.

Open WOD 14 3

Today I met up with Scoob and Greg and decided to hit Open workout 14.3.  I’m not signed up for the Open so it wasn’t being sent in but still wanted to try this WOD.  We loaded the truck up with the barbell and the incremental weights up to 315lbs.  I didn’t think there was any chance of getting to the round of 365 so I didn’t bring the extra weight.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the workout it’s an 8 minute time cap with 10 deadlifts @135lbs 15 box jumps 15 deadlifts @185lbs 15 box jumps 20 deadlifts @225lbs 15 box jumps 25 deadlifts@275lbs 15 box jumps 30 deadlifts at 315lbs 15 box jumps and finish off with 365lb deadlift.  It is an 8 minute workout so you go as far as the clock will allow you to do.  Many good competitors got to the round of 315 and a very few made it to the round of 365.     

 I have been dealing with my knee injury and this was the first lower body movement I have done in close to four months.  So I knew my strength was going to be way down.  I also elected to do step-ups instead of box jumps to save my knee which would eat up some clock.  We took the weights down to the local sports park and had a tape measurer looking for a 24” platform.  We finally found an electrical box that was 25” perfect.  We set the barbell nearby and set up for the WOD.  Greg went first and ended up with 97 total reps then Scoob totaled 60 reps.  Last I was up and we had now moved the barbell a little further from the box since it was making large divots in the grass.  I got through the first two rounds pretty quickly under two minutes.  Then on to 20 reps at 225lbs I broke them in to three sets of five and then did two triples totaling 21 reps oops!  I got to 275 and this felt much heavier then it use too but I haven’t done any lifting in four months.  I had developed a pounding headache and the deadlifts were just making it so much worse.  I got a triple and then just did fast singles.  I wound up getting 14 reps at 275lbs when time ran out.  I got a total of 104 reps, not bad for four months of knee injuries.  I think if I had been able to do box jumps and shortened the distance from the box and the barbell I could have finished the fourth round and wound up somewhere in the 130 rep range.  Looking at the video I used all back and little to no legs.  This was probably me sub consciously protecting my knees and a slight pull in my right hamstring.  I’m surprised how well my lower back held up.   I pride myself usually on my deadlifting form and how much hip torque I can create but there was little to no movement from my hips today.  Not all of my reps ended up on film but close enough.  Here is the video

Barn WOD March 18, 2014

         Today for the strength portion of the workout I started off with the bench press.  I got five reps at 220lbs which I feel good with since I used a pause at the bottom of every rep.  Had I just did touch and go reps I probably could of gotten around ten reps.  I’m guessing this has my max around 270 not as good as the Globo-Gym days.  Oh well, I guess that’s the small price to pay for not being a specialist anymore and spending more time developing my physical abilities in entirety.  Next I tried the heaviest weighted pull-up that I have done in quite some time with a 45 and 25lb plate totaling 70lbs.  I did three sets of three with this weight and it felt pretty good.  This got a litte tricky since the pull-up bar is about 8 feet from the ground and I couldn't just jump up there with an extra 70lbs.  After that I tested out the peg-board I had just built and installed.  It didn’t feel too great especially following the weighted pull-ups.  
         Next I moved on to the gymnastics part of the WOD.  I did a movement that I had never tried before tuck to a handstand.  I looked really horrible on this movement but it started getting a little better towards the end.  I will eventually outfit the upstairs of the barn with gymnastics mats so I can afford to roll over.  I then did three sets of bar muscle-ups and l-sits neither of these movements am I very good at.  For the three rounds of bar muscle-ups I got 6, 5, and 5 reps respectively.  Overall the workout felt good, I feel like I hit a lot of tough exercises.  The evening conditioning I opted out of because I had felt like my shoulder had taken a beating from the bench press, weighted pull-ups, bar muscle-ups, peg-board climb, and attempted tuck to handstands so I didn’t want to overload the joint.  I’ve attached the video of the workout below.  

GreatFalls Adventure

Here is a video from over the weekend out at Great Falls.  Just some creative fitness in a natural environment.

Gymnastics Wod 3 14 14

         Today I followed a structured gymnastics style workout rather than just picking a few random exercises and work on skill.  This Wod I found from Carl Paolis Gymnastics Wod website.  He has so much knowledge when it comes to gymnastics type movements and provides so many helpful technique and progression videos.  You can take a look at his website   http://gymnasticswod.com/ or look him up on Youtube.  I found a strength wod he posted a month ago which was four rounds for quality of 2 strict muscle-ups, 4 strict handstand push-ups, 6 strict pull-ups, 8 weighted pistols, and a 10 meter handstand walk.  I modified it a little bit since I can’t do pistols with my leg injury right now.  I decided to do four rounds of 3 strict muscle-ups, 6 strict handstand push-ups, and 9 strict pull-ups, and then a max effort handstand walk.  The workout was pretty straightforward but it was a nice change of pace focusing on quality rather than racing against a clock.  There wasn’t really anything worth noting during this part of the workout.  For my final set of strict pull-ups I decided to give it an all-out effort and wound up with 17.  Thought I should have gotten at least 20 but my upper body was already smoked.   After that I played with various transitions on the paralletes such as L-Sits to Handstands and crows to handstands.  I just recently started incorporating some gymnastics style training and I’m quickly beginning to notice the results plus this type of training is so much fun.  I think I’ll be hitting a hike slash climb at Great Falls tomorrow, hopefully I’ll get some footage.  Here is a video from today's training.

Barn WOD Video

Here is a video of a workout we did at the barn over the weekend, finally got around to editing the clips.  Take a look.
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Pinecliff Park Wod

Today I met up with Scoob, Greg, and Rob to hit a workout at Pinecliff Park right on the Monocacy River.  I loaded up the pickup truck with a bunch of equipment tire, sledge hammer, barbells, bumper plates, climbing rope, gravel-filled water jugs, and a kayak.  We looked around for a suitable place to do pull-ups but didn’t really find anywhere.  We brought the kayak to do a pull against the current with someone in the kayak the plan failed miserably.  So we then partnered up and switched between shoulder to overhead while the other partner does farmers walks or tire pulls.  Greg and I used 135lbs for the push presses and Rob and Scoob used 95lbs.  This couplet was a complete gasser and had us all trying to catch our breath.  The tires didn’t pull very smoothly on the asphalt so this was very taxing on the posterior chain.  We also came up with a truck push, deadlift, and sledgehammer swings.  The fourth person is steering and braking the truck as needed.  I was a little skeptical about doing a truck push with my leg injuries but they seemed to hold up alright.  My boy Scoob was in charge of getting the footage on the GoPro so he had it attached to his head for the majority of this workout.  Here’s the video check it out.

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Sugarloaf Mountain Hike

         Today was an awesome day with no reps, no weights, and no clocks to chase.  It’s just you and the mountain.  I had Scoob and Greg come with me to Sugarloaf.  We figured we would just hike, climb, boulder, and just have the mountain be our only obstacle.  We started with a hike slash climb about 800 feet up.  It got pretty interested here from the ice crusted snow and icy rocks.  We made it up and got an amazing view looking out on the horizon.  We played around with presses to handstands, handstand walks, boulder flips, and log carries.  It’s amazing how little I do these types of adventures but that is going to change.  It is amazing how much fun it is to use nature as your obstacle.  I got little clips from the day but somehow deleted the rock climbing we did which was the best part.  Oh well here’s the video take a look.

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Weekend Barn Workout

       Today was my first workout back at the barn and I had James, Scoob, and Greg join for a workout.  It was a lot of technique and working on some skills.  I had just gotten my first strict muscle-up the previous day.  I was pretty siked about that since I haven’t tried them strict in a long time.  I figured I’d give it a try and got five consecutive strict muscle-ups.  I also had been playing around with some of the moves from Prasara yoga such as crow press into a handstand.  We tried these from the parallettes and also did some rope climbing from my new rope.  I still can’t get a good foot hold and is making me crazy.  We also hit a pretty straightforward metcon consisting of a minute of floor presses and a minute of pull-ups rest and repeat two times for max reps.  Me and Greg did the floor presses @ 135 and James and Scoob used 95lbs.  My arms were fried from all the strict muscle-ups, parallette presses, and rope climbs.  Scoob finished with 133 reps, I finished with 127, Greg with 114, and James with 73 reps.  Planning for a little adventure up at Sugarloaf Mountain for a rest day.

Rest Week

1/2 mile swim

Morning WOD

2 min AMRAP(as many reps as possible) of Muscle-Ups

2min AMRAP of Floor Press

2 min AMRAP of GHD Sit-Ups

2 min AMRAP of Pull-Ups

2 min AMRAP of Ring-Dips

2 min rest between each exercise

Evening WOD 

15 mins of Various Handstands

1000m Swim for time:

          I didn’t really have much upper body lifting left that I haven’t already hit this week so I decided to do the above workout.  Two minute rounds of 5 different exercises for max reps with two min rest in between rounds.  The first exercise was muscle-ups and I got 8 on my first set not too impressive.  I waited about 20 secs and hopped back up and got 3 more and then I got two singles and missed a single right before the time was up.  Total of 13 muscle-ups in two mins I was shooting for 15 which definitely is possible.  For the floor presses I chose 135lbs and I managed 32 reps I can’t complain.  The GHD sit-ups were a dismal performance only managing 30 in the time period.  Really seem to struggle with this movement.  On to the pull-ups I got a total of 42 reps.  After this I really hit a point of exhaustion and could feel my breakfast making it’s way up.  I tried to regain my composure for the final round of ring dips but I was struggled and finished with a total of 37 reps.  So I got 13, 32, 30, 42, and 37 reps respectively. 

                I decided to condense my skill session and conditioning session into one workout.  I went to the Sport & Health club in my neighborhood and worked on handstands, and handstand walking.  I then tried a new variation of walking along the wall laterally on my hands this was a new and exciting change up.  Try walking on your hands laterally it gets tiring very quickly.  Now onto the conditioning which was 1000m swim for time.  I knew it was going to be brutal since I’m a land dweller and haven’t spent much time in the water.  I became quickly fatigued and felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest.  I took breaths and breaks about every 50m it seemed. The gym was closing so I had to call it a quits at the 800m mark.  I swam a ½ mile and it took me just over 20 mins.  I think with more time spent in the water I can get that down to the 15 minute mark.  Certainly no Michael Phelps but I’ll take it for my first real swim.  I’m looking forward to a long weekend of recovery after the 8 training sessions that took place Monday thru Friday.

Ring Progressions

Morning WOD

Incline DB Press  5/5/5/5/5/20

Strict Toes to Bar  10/10/10

Back Ext

Afternoon WOD

Ring Dip to shoulder stand

Skin the cat to l-sit

Front lever progressions

Evening WOD

1 min on: 10 pull-ups + ME HRPU

1 min rest – continue until 100 HRPU are completed

I’m kind of running out of strength exercises to do with my knee injury.  I decided to hit an old Globo-Gym exercise incline dumbbell press.  I thought it would be weird since I haven’t pressed dumbells on a bench in six months.  Also I haven’t done incline bench anything probably even longer.  I did my sets of 5 with 80lb dumbells.  Didn’t really seem to lose strength on this exercise probably could have gone up to 85s but I didn’t want to overload the shoulder joint.  Good to know that overall strength carries over to all kinds of exercises. 

For the afternoon ring workout I worked on getting up and over the rings and transitioning from a dip to a handstand.  This is very awkward and unstable, I got my legs extended a couple times but never was able to grab the straps and fully extend.  It became increasingly more comfortable during the five sets so just something that will take time.  The skin the cats were good, I'm really starting to get my torso parallel to the ground.  I took a still shot which is below I am parallel but I would like to maintain a more neutral spinal position.  I would come out of the skin the cat and try and hold an l-sit, this part needs some more work.  The front lever progression I would stick one leg out at a time.  These were pretty ugly but it's a movement I have never tried before.  Pratice. Practice. Practice. 

         For the evening wod I came up with 10 pull-ups on the start of every other minute + max effort hand release push-ups.  Then took a minute rest, stop the clock when you reach a 100 total hand release push-ups.  I took me 10:31 which 5 minutes were rest so 5:31 total work time.  Not bad certainly not great.  Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow!  I’m going try an EPSOM salt bath tomorrow since they seem to have so many benefits mainly in the recovery department.

New Training Day1

Morning session

Bench Press 5/3/1+

Weighted Chins

Weighted Dips

Weighted Sit-Ups

Afternoon session

Handstand Walking 5 x max effort

Freestand HSPU 3x ME

L-Sits

Light-Pole Climbs

Evening WOD

30 Muscle-Ups for time

                The morning session at Crossfit Grand Strand went as planned.  For my all out set on the bench press at 215lbs, I got five reps.  I’m pretty happy with that.  Then the rest of the strength session was routine.  For the afternoon session I went to these grass badminton courts in my neighborhood and walked on my hands for a while at least attempted too.  For some reason I seem only able to walk backwards on my hands.  Then I did some L-Sits on a bench, and then a played around with a few different creative things.  I didn’t do any work on the rings because of the 30 muscle-ups for time this evening. 

I got started with the evening WOD and got 10 on my first set, I was hoping for at least 12.  I took three breaths and jumped on the rings and got up and then lost the rings behind me.  It was a scary moment as both my shoulders got pulled behind me.  I jumped down and waited a few seconds to see if I had done any damage.  I didn’t I think so I hopped back up and knocked out 4 more.  From then on it was a couple sets of 3s 2s and a lot of singles.  I was frustrated from the start and the straps kept getting in the way of my grip.  I finished in 8:11.  Really not happy about the time but I think 30 muscle-ups for time might be a little ambitious for my skill on the muscle-up at this point.  It was a minute faster than the first and only time I did this workout.  I got my first ring muscle-up less than a month ago so I guess I shouldn’t complain.  It was a long day of training looking forward to some rest and recovery tomorrow.  Below is a video I took with my gopro of some muscle-ups

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New Training Schedule

I’m starting a new training protocol with a 1 day on and 1 day off approach.  I think this will be the best way to maximize my gains while minimizing the risk for overtraining and excessive fatigue.  Since my knees are still healing I’m only able to train upper body which makes my training a little redundant.  I will train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the rest of the days will be active recovery.  On my training days I will be training three times a day.  It sounds excessive but it isn’t.  In the morning I will do my lifting session which lasts around an hour.  In the afternoon I will be doing around 25-40 mins worth of bodyweight gymnastics skill training.  The evening will be my final workout which will consist of a metcon(metabolic conditioning) or some other sort of conditioning work.  This will last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes depending on the workout.  So I will be probably training a total of 2 to 3 hours on my training days.  That’s not that much and the workload is about the same.  Also instead of cramming it all in to one session I’m able to split it up and get more benefit out of each area. 

Variation of Cindy

METCON- 20 min AMRAP

5 HSPU

10 Pull-Ups

15 Sit-Ups

I decided to just work on conditioning today so I decided to do a longer Metcon.  I thought 20 minutes would be good. So I came up with the following, as many rounds of 5 handstand push-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 15 sit-ups in the 20 minute period.  I did this at the regular gym in my neighborhood.  I completed 11 rounds plus 5 hspu, and 10 pull-ups.  So in all I did 60 HSPU, 120 pull-ups, and 165 sit-ups.  I really felt strong on the handstand push-ups, I did all of them strict.  I only broke up one set due to me losing balance not a lack of strength.  On the pull-ups I didn’t break up any of my sets of 10.  The butterfly motion seems to get more and more efficient.  I think I should up the number of pull-ups to 15 per set next time.  The sit-ups are where I struggled the most.  I just seem to lack core strength; I think most of this is probably from neglect of core training.  I will definitely make an effort to get my core stronger.  All in all I felt good with this metcon since I never really took any rest during the workout other than the walk from the HSPU to the pull-up bars.  I think I will start doing two longer metcons a week while my knee is recovering to keep my endurance.

Muscle-Up Ladder

Morning WOD

Strength 5/3/1 Bench Press 3,3,3+

EMOM Muscle-Up Ascending Ladder

METCON- 1 min rds of:

Floor Press @135lbs

Pull-Ups

Sit-Ups

Rest 1 min & repeat 3 times

I am on the start of my third week of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 strength program.  I’m still only able to do bench press due to my nagging knee injury.  I’m thinking the start of next month I’ll be able to start doing the squat, deadlift, and strict press.  I am pretty weak on the bench press right now so hopefully this program will help with that.  On my top all-out set I got 6 reps @202.5 lbs. 

Then I was off to do an EMOM ladder of Muscle-Ups, min 1 do 1 muscle-up, min 2 do 2 muscle-ups and on and on until you fail to get the designated reps within the minute.  I felt a little shaky today on the muscle-ups.  I got through the first 6 rounds unbroken and was very fatigued going into the 7^th round.  I got 4 then I got two singles and failed on my final rep, one shy of advancing to the eighth minute… bummer!  All in all, I got 27 muscle-ups in 7 minutes with about half the time being rest.  Not too bad considering I got my first ring muscle-up less than a month ago. 

Now on to the Metcon which was a minute AMRAP of Floor Presses @135lbs, Pull-Ups, and Sit-Ups then 1 minute rest and repeat it three times.  So basically it’s 12 minutes of work and 3 minutes of rest.  I got a total of 234 reps, no idea what my reps were round by round.  This number was not too bad but I think I could get closer to the 300 range.  I haven’t done a WOD like this in a while but I think it’s a really good way to test your work capacity with very limited rest.  There wasn’t a ton of strategy in this workout just get after it.  The floor press I started setting reps to hit on the later rounds.  The pull-ups I just kept going until I could no longer get my chin over the bar.  Sit-Ups were pretty straightforward just up and down.  I think this exposed a weakness in my training and is a great way to test your muscular endurance.

Day 2 at the Barn

Second Barn Workout

Scoob and Greg arrive and we quickly get after it by staring with 10x2 Floor Press.  We struggled to get a proper set-up things were a little shaky at the beginning but we stacked the barbell on bumper plates so it was raised.  It began to smooth out a little and Scoob got to his working sets at 185lbs, I 225lbs and Greg 240lbs.  Greg seemed to be very strong on this movement.  I struggled to get comfortable with the awkwardness of this movement.  Scoob got some pretty tough reps.  Then we worked on some Handstands for about ten minutes. 

Now onto the metcon which was 3 rds for time of 20 shoulder to overhead @95lbs and 10 bar-facing burpees.  Scoob went first and was fighting for every rep after the first round.  The weight was probably a little heavy for him for this particular WOD.  He finished in 9 mins and some change. Then Greg went and the weight didn’t seem to be a problem for him going through the first two rds unbroken.  He broke up the presses the third round and finished with a time of 4:30. 

Now I’m up and wished I had gone first sine I had just watched all the pain and suffering and knew this workout was going to be a gasser.  I go unbroken on the first set but realize with my knee these aren’t strong push presses not much drive from the legs, which is the name of the game in this WOD.  Burpees felt fast and on to the second round I pick the bar up and realize that with no leg drive this is going to be really tough.  Get through it in two sets sprint through the burpees.  On to the final round and the presses are rough and I get through them in about 4 or 5 sets.  This really ate the clock up so I knew I had to hurry on the burpees.  Scoob and Greg are really cheering me on to get through this round.  I finished and clocked in at 4:54 not too bad, but not great.  I was hoping for a sub 4 minute time but I guess it wasn’t in the cards.  We were all gassed and glad to be done with the workout.  Heading back to South Carolina tomorrow, can’t wait to show my face back at Crossfit Grand Strand since it’s been too long.