Saturday, March 30, 2013

In and Out Again

Alright you slug, make it quick.

SATURDAY'S WORKOUT
FS/KB Circuit/Turkish get ups
Goblet Squat 5 x 5 @ 16 k
these are getting a lot better
Ab wheel (bottom to top) 3 x 5

..and away goes the slug.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Now About That Diet.

A great (overused adjective) article on diet a few days ago from T Nation. Just a note to any CF gyms out there who might need some help with keeping your clients safe and getting them strong I do programming for a nominal fee. You can contact me at campmac15@gmail.com.

THURSDAY'S WORKOUT
2 rounds of
FS/KB circuit 5 ea/KB swings 10 ea
Deadlift 3 x 3 @ 255
Floor wipers 3 x 10 @ 95
Been a while since I did these and my wrist has been giving me problems so I stayed light.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sequester Program

Worked out with my friend Kwasi this morning. He is an old school power lifter. I told him about my sequester program and it goes like this. Play sports in high school, graduate from high school, spend the next 20 years safely sequestered on a bar stool, start working out again when you are around 35 to 40. The reason it works is because you didn't hurt yourself, kind of like being sealed in tupperware for 20 years. You start back in fresh and uninjured.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
FS/KB circuit/Turkish get up
Press 3 x 3 @ 95
Back Ext. 3 x 10

...and out feeling fresh, like daisy.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Riff on FMS

That's Functional Movement Screen. Gray Cook came up with it. I was obsessed with it for a while mostly because I liked Gray Cook's turkish get up tutorial. but then I found a thread on the Starting Strength forums and someone made this comment. "This industry is about creating opportunities to generate revenue, not producing results. The relevance of this product/system is not that it allegedly identifies movement irregularities, but that it has associated remedies that people are all eager to pay for because it's science. the whole system merely provides the appearance of knowledge and competency for people who do not understand that most irregularities can be fixed with the right cues and strengthening, nor do they care." I believe it was posted by a guy named Limie Josh.
Trainers will come up with all sorts of convoluted balancing exercises and strange tricks to convince the potential client that they are weak, inflexible and lack balance. Then they can offer to cure those ills with X number of training sessions. sounds like snake oil. As was pointed out in the thread you could get all the information you needed about a client by watching them walk across the room, watching them pick something up off the floor, watching them squat and watching them sit down and stand up. This week, I guess, is going to be "Bash a Trainer" week kind of like wack a mole.

MONDAY'S WORKOUT                                                                                                                           3 rounds of                                                                                                                                                  Flexible Steel/KB circuit (6 ea)/Plank :30/ KB Swings 10 ea

Goblet Squats 5 x 10 @ 12k                                                                                                                          Kind of pathetic but I really suck at squats and hope this goblet squat thing 2 x a week will help.
Did planks instead of the ab wheel today because I am still sore from Saturday.


  

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Bosu, Rubber Balls and Bullshit

Every time I see a trainer have one of their clients do "functional training" by doing 1/4 squats on a bosu  or some weird balancing act on a big rubber ball I throw up a little in my mouth. I have never seen someone balance on a rubber ball to get a heavy box off the shelf at the supermarket. I have never seen anyone stand on a bosu and do 1/4 squats or tiny little dumb bell curls. It just doesn't happen. The first thing I think when I see a trainer do these things is "what a tool." So get it together. I think it was Dan John who said the foundation of any fitness regimen should be: pick up heavy stuff, carry it across the room and put it on a shelf. Dead Lifts, Farmer's walks and Presses will get you about as functional as you'll ever need to be.

SATURDAY'S WORKOUT
FS (flexible steel)/KB circuit 5 ea @ 12k/TGU 1 ea side @ 12k/Ab wheel starting at full ext. and coming up and going back down slow and controlled.

Goblet Squats 5 x 5 @ 16k
getting much better at controlling the down portion and exploding up. Another couple of months on this and then back to back squats.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

A Few Notes on Diet

Should I eat Zone? Should I eat Atkins? Should I eat Paleo? Should I eat South Beach? Should I eat like a powerliter? Should I eat like a runner? Should you just STFU? Here are my diet recommendations: cut out all processed grain products, eat quality protein and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, cut out all sugar, have some fish oil each day, have some apple cider vinegar in a cup of water 3 times a day and drink about 10 glasses of water each day. if you are hungry eat more if you feel full eat less. If you want to lose weight exercise more and eat less if you want to add mass eat a bunch and lift heavy. On Sunday eat whatever you want.
So there you have it. I have saved you hours of worry and hundreds of dollars. You're welcome.

THURSDAY'S WORKOUT
3 rounds
Flexible Steel/KB circuit/KB swings 10 ea single arm
Deadlift 2 x 5 @ 245

...and I'm outta here.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

You Are All Going To Die!

Lenny Bruce used to open his show with that. It scared the hell out of people but it was true; its not if its when. There is a Brazilian study that uses your ability to sit down and stand up as a predictor of mortality. So if you are a trainer this is the first test you should administer to your clients and if they score low get more money up front.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
2 rounds of:
DROM
KB circuit
Plank

then
3 rounds of  10 ea. single hand KB swings
Press 5/3/2 @ 90/95/100

...then stretch and go home. :60 minutes or 1 hour.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Sport or Spectacle

I was in a restaurant on Friday night talking with some people about whether or not crossfit has succeeded in branding itself a sport. They were of the opinion that it had. This was based on crossfitters saying it is a sport and competitions being televised. My counter was that they have not so much created a sport as they have created a spectacle. Just because its on ESPN doesn't mean its a sport, just because a bunch of people say its a sport doesn't mean its a sport. If they had some standards, some non subjective scoring method and some legitimacy in the field of athletics then maybe we could call it a sport but until then its just a spectacle. Like looking in the rear view mirror of your car and seeing the little car go out of control, start spinning just as the truck enters the freeway and you know something bad is going to happen and you can't stop looking.

MONDAY'S WORKOUT
2 rounds
DROM
KB circuit
Ab wheel 1 x 5 (I started these in the fully extended position and rolled back to the kneeling position sort of a negative. I wanted to get a sense of being fully extended and the type of bracing that is necessary to pull back to kneeling)
Goblet Squats 5 x 8 @ 12K
(starting at the bottom and exploding up, working on speed out of the bottom and flexibility)

...and then i stretched and went home about an hour.  

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

...or Strongish.

I never seem to get strong as fast as people that I hear about. Either I am just kind of weak sauce or they are lying. I prefer to believe the latter.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
3 rounds of:
KB circuit
DROM
Turkish Get up x 1 ea

Press 5/3/2 @ 90

...und, das ist alles.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Duff-Nuts and Deviations

It has been several years since I have had a donut and yesterday seemed the perfect time to break that dry spell. One jelly donut please. It was as delicious as I remember them being. I am so glad that I don't belong to some draconian, fascist group of health nazis that insist on changing my life and keeping me accountable.
The donut, like the cherry cheese danish are necessary parts of life. To deny yourself these is to be only  half-alive.
The simpler the better on the workouts.
MONDAY'S WORKOUT
I did the Flexible Steel exercises at home.
One round of:
10 halos/5 windmills ea side/10 bootstrapper squats
Dead lift 5/3/2 @ 235
2 more rounds of the above KB circuit
back ext. 3 x 10

I figure in about six months I should have everything I need to do all my workouts at home and that will make my happy.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Those Darn Scientists and Athletes


World and Olympic champion weightlifter Tommy Kono said,
"There is a "diminishing return" for an excessive amount of work. When your workload gets to the point of fatigue, all the previous good lifts performed beforehand will be erased by sloppily performed or imperfect lifts..."
Elite power lifting coach Konstantin Rogozhnikov said:
"The mistake of many athletes (and coaches, my comment) is they do not know how to stop in time. It always seems to them that they are not doing enough and they ought to do more....More does not mean better."
(both of the above quotes were taken from Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel)
What do those clowns know? The genius of crossfit will put them in their place. Here is workout 13.1
There is already 12 unconfirmed reports of injuries including labrum tears, blown out disks, hamstring pulls and one guy dropped a bar on his teeth.
Crossfit has this science thing licked and they know best. Here is a link to a video showing how things are done.
solid performance.
(...and once again, just in case, this is facetious)
SATURDAY'S WORKOUT
A new warm up:
leg swings Forward, back, side to side 10 each way
arm circles double and single front and back
10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs
fire hydrants
wrist circles

10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs

tactical frog series

10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs
5 single hand swings and 5 snatches ea 
The above is going to be the warm up for awhile as I am trying to get a program together that I can do without the dubious honor of belonging to LA Fitness.
Bench Press 5/3/2 @ 140

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Revisting

Riffing on Monday's post about the sister in law that wants to become a trainer. It seems as though folks have somehow gotten it into their heads that just because you work out you can become a trainer. Kind of like saying because you have driven a car for a few years you think you can become a race driver. My area is over run with boot camps and little gyms that are headed by people who were told by their friends that they were really good and should become a trainer. Like people telling you are really funny so you should become a comedian. There seems to be a disconnect between being kind of good at something and putting in the work to be truly outstanding.
Being truly outstanding is a lifetime pursuit, a constant search for more knowledge and experience and investing the time and effort to really know your subject matter.
I would see this all the time in CF gyms; someone would post some decent times in the benchmark workouts and they would get kind of strong, they would go to a week end certification and the next thing you know the newly minted "coach" is on the floor teaching a class. It takes years to develop the critical eye you need to teach someone to move properly. It certainly takes a lot more than just being good at exercise.
In closing, don't let me catch you doing that shit or I will call you on it.
And here is a link to my article How To Injury Proof Your Crossfit Gym.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
Ellip 5 minutes
DROM
Did Dan John's warm up there are 2 videos one is the warm up with goblet squats and the other is doing the Bootstrapper squat which is what I substituted for the goblet squats.
2 rounds of:
10 halos ea way
5 windmills ea side
10 bootstrapper squats
Press 5/3/2 @ 85/90/95
Back Ext 3 x 10

Monday, March 4, 2013

It's Not Much of a Blog

...but I'm sort of attached to it.
Went with a further simplification today. I was in and out of the gym in 1/2 of an hour. I felt good. I am going to try to get in the DeFranco Agile 8 and Simple 6 every day for a month and see how I feel. Knowing, though, of my predilection for grand plans and precipitous falls we'll see how that plays out.
My sister-in-law came over yesterday and said she tried CF last week. I proceeded to try and talk her down. She wasn't all that impressed with it so that is good. She does, however, want to become a trainer because she has been working out for two years and she figures she pretty much has it wired. She's friendly enough, good with people so despite her complete lack of experience she will probably be fabulously successful. What are ya goin' to do?

MONDAY'S WORKOUT
Ellip for 5 minutes
DROM
5 halos/3 goblet squats/1 TGU each side and 5 wall touches
Deadlift 5/3/2 @ 225
Farmer's walk out and back with 2 65 lb dumb bells

I did the above as a circuit with rest between.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Please Hold

I have been sick again. It started right after the workout I did last Monday and is only just now going away.
I did the 55 workout which, in this incarnation, was 1 goblet squat/10 push ups/2 goblet squats/9 push ups  down to 10 goblet squats and 1 push up.
It was fun. Tried some get ups but my shoulder opted out so I stopped.
I have an article up on the Breaking Muscle site called How To Injury Proof Your Crossfit Gym
It's a fun read so get on it.