Friday morning I went to Crossfit for what appeared to be a relatively simple workout. 5 rounds of rowing 300 meters and approximately 1 minute of kettle bell swings. I knew regardless of the workout I was going to go to Crossfit but I was actually excited about the WoD.
When I arrived I read the prescribed workout which was rowing 300 meters, and doing kettle bell swings with a 50 lbs kettle bell, and the two scaled versions doing 250 meters and then swings with a 40 lbs kettle bell, or doing 200 meters of rowing with swings done with a 25 lbs kettle bell. In hindsight I think I could have done the prescribed workout, but I chose to do the 250 meters of rowing and swings with a 40 lbs kettle bell.
Round 1. It took me just over a minute to row 250 meters, I got a little confused with the instruction of the coach. He suggested that in the beginning we do short quick strides to build up momentum then transition into the regular strides, I took this to mean to row short quick rows the entire way through which caused me to lose time, a longer stride would have been far more efficient. I was able to finish the rowing in just over 1 minute. In first attempt at kettle bell swings I did 27 swings.
4 minutes of rest.
Round 2. The second round I picked up some time and was able to do the 250 meters right at 1 minute. My coordination was still off in terms of transitioning from the short strides into the longer ones. I fumbled a bit from the short strides to the longer ones, just a lack of muscle memory. When I got off the rower I got right into the swings and completed 27 swings.
4 minutes of rest.
Round 3. The third round was tough. I was able to finish the rowing in just under 1 minute. This time I finished 28 swings.
4 minutes of rest. During this rest period I realized I should start thinking about a goal to reach with the swings, so I figured I would shoot for another 28 swings.
Round 4. The fourth round I had to dig deep, my legs felt like jello. My start on the rowing was poor, but I was able to finish the rowing right around 55 seconds. I transitioned quickly and was able to start my swings right at the top of the second minute. I completed 28 swings.
4 minutes of rest. I though about the previous round and decided that I should count backwards from 30 as I intended to get 30 on my last round. I also had to get it in my mind I would have to pick up at least 2 seconds on the rowing to have enough buffer time for some extra swings.
Round 5. With about 30 seconds left of the rest period, I put my feet into the stirrups of the rowing machine, prepared myself mentally first to finishing 250 meters in under 55 seconds, and then second to do 30 swings.
As Brian the coach counted down from 5 seconds my hands tightened up, 4 seconds I flexed my feet in preparation for a big pull, 3 seconds I crouched into the starting position building the kinetic energy in my legs to push, and in my back to pull, 2 seconds I looked right at the computer to make sure one last time it read all 0’s, 1 second, my body fully loaded like a spring ready to explode, let’s go…If this had been a race I’m sure it would have been one of those controversial moments where the video replay has to confirm that there wasn’t a fault at the start but just unbelievable anticipation and execution. I finished the 250 meters in 54 seconds.
I was able to undue the straps in less than 2 seconds, and I dashed to my kettle bell. With everything I had I started my first swing 1 second before the start of the full minute. By the time 30 seconds had passed I had only done 14 swings, I had to push myself to pick up the pace. I pushed hard, when Brian yelled 20 seconds left I had just completed 22 swings, I pushed harder with 5 seconds left I had done 29 swings, I gave everything I had and completed three more full swings.
It felt fucking awesome, I completed 142 swings. I know I could have gone up if I encounter this workout again I’m going to go up in both weight on the swings, and the rowing. I had such a good workout I didn’t do anymore work today.
I have a distinct feeling that I’m going to be disappointed with my weigh in on Sunday. As hard as I am working I can tell from the way my pants feel, and how I look in the mirror that I haven’t slimmed down at all, perhaps it’s a direct result of not following through with my plan to do more cardio.
It’s been about three weeks since I’ve done regular cardio sessions during the week with my weight training. It’s also been about 3 weeks from my last big movement in the scale, is this the Achilles heel in my present program which needs to be changed?
Should I start to do more cardio and reduce my weight training, or back away the Crossfit classes and sessions? I haven’t figured out what’s the most effective for my body.
I believe in the principles of Crossfit, I understand the concept of activating your bodies metabolic pathways, and how doing short intense workouts activate the metabolic pathway which not only burns fat but stimulates muscle growth. Is this what an obese person like me should be concerned about?
Is it necessarily important to active both when you need to lose over 50 lbs, if I was already 200 lbs, I would only consider Crossfit as I would only need to lose about 10 lbs of fat yet build muscle?
I know endurance cardio works to lose weight; I’ve lost significant amounts of weight 3 times in my life now with straight cardiovascular exercises. In this fourth attempt I’m trying to build muscle, yet where I am presently on the scale at 289 lbs is not a good place. It’s better than 372 or 443, but it’s not a good place to be, not enough room from the 300 lbs marker, and still 39 lbs from 250 lbs.
I also know the scale isn’t everything but when you are carrying too much weight it’s not good for your health. Enough studies show that people with less body weight live longer than those with more body weight regardless of the composition. Again if I were 200 or 190 lbs I wouldn’t be concerned about the scale, once I reach these numbers it won’t matter what I weight because how I feel and look will be more important.
As I type this I’m debating whether or not to go to Crossfit tomorrow morning for the WoD. I probably will go because it’s two exercises 300m of rowing, and 2 minutes of kettle bell swings…I’m going…because I’m debating it…I’m going…fuck you little devilish fat guy you are no longer allowed to make decisions about workouts.
My diet this week has been good but obviously isn’t 100 %; I’ve got to get back to using the food diary every day. I haven’t been over eating or binging, but I have not been eating regularly enough twice this week I went 5 or 6 hours without putting anything into my body, which made me feel like shit when I did eat.
I have one more day this week to give it my all, and then two days to figure out what my plan is for next week.
Daily Recap
07/28/2011
Daily Recap
I started my morning with a 6:30 AM Crossfit class. The prescribed WOD 4 sets of 2 squat cleans, with a 7 minute AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) 4 dead lifts, 8 ring-dips or push-ups, 12 box jumps.
Another first for me this week, my first go at doing squat cleans with weight. It’s a difficult maneuver for me as my shoulder flexibility is still low and I can’t get my elbows up into the rack position fast enough. The key to the squat clean is to get under the bar as fast possible, Brian told me that as the weight gets more challenging that newer people tend to a clean and squat, meaning they get the bar into the racked position before the squat.
I did a couple of sets warming up with the bar, then 2 sets with 75 lbs. My technique was good here, I then moved up to 95 lbs and my technique still was strong. I could feel that I was getting the depth that is necessary in the squat portion. My work sets started at 115 lbs. I did two sets here, feeling pretty good I went up to 135 lbs. I should have stayed at 115lbs.
My first set of 135 lbs was good but I needed to spend more time regrouping between reps. This is somewhat an unnatural move, but once you have the reference points as to what you should feel or where your body should be it’s not that bad, unless you are using weight which is too much for you. My second set at 135 lbs and my last work set was not pretty.
The video shows what happens when you act stupid. Neither of the reps that I completed looked good, and between the two reps I lost my footing and rolled my ankle. It still hurts.
A good squat clean here…
The Metcon portion of the workout was challenging, but had I used more weight with the dead lifts I know it would have required that extra bit of intensity that I’m always looking for, the thing that sucks with my short Crossffit tenure is that I don’t know what weights I can handle. I was able to complete 6 full rounds in the 7 minutes; I was shooting for 5, so it was a good result.
It’s hard not getting ego inovled because the more skilled Crossfitters make you fell stupid especially when it’s a woman half your size and doing more weight than my big fat ass, yes I am a sexist pig and having a woman who weighs maybe 125 lbs doing dead lifts with 30 more pounds than this 289 lbs fat guy crushes my manhood just a bit.
After Crossfit, I went home took Benny Boy for a walk and then headed to WSC. This was my first workout with Ali this week and I felt it necessary to do some chest, and triceps work today.
Motherfucker…Ali apparently missed me or needed to just kill someone today because that’s what he did…
He had me warm-up with two minutes doing jump rope with a weighted rope. We then went right into chest presses, I did two sets of 20 alternating dumbbell chest presses while laying on a resistance ball each of these sets were followed by 1 minute of push up position planks.
I then was told to do flat bench dumbbell chest presses. I started with 15 reps at 55 lbs, then 10 reps of 70 lbs, and 6 reps of 80 lbs. In between each set I was again told to jump rope this time 30 unbroken seconds at a time.
At this point I thought the chest was done, that’s when we moved into the studio where he set up cones. They were setup roughly the same distance apart from each other, Ali told me to do suicides. I of course thought he wanted me to do suicide sprints, on my first round of suicides I sprinted the entire way. When I sprinted through the last leg of my first suicide he tells me to keep going. I looked at him like “what?”
I did 4 more suicides consecutively. This was followed up with about 2 minutes of rest, and then I did 5 side shuffles along the same course as the suicide sprints. At this point my heart rate was high, and I had to calm myself quickly to do a walking plank. The walking plank involves getting into the push-up plank position then walking sideways until you are told to stop.
Ali had me do more chest work while lying on the resistance ball to do more dumbbell presses, push-ups, and cable flies. In the hour session 40 minutes as dedicated purely to my chest, the remaining time was used to work my triceps, get my heart rate up, and do some light core work.
As painful as this session wash, and as tight as I felt walking out of the gym, I overall felt great from the two workouts.
My workout this morning with Ian was all about pulling motions, which placed the focus on the back muscles. The bulk of the work occurred on the lap pull down machine. He varied the positioning of my hands, the number of reps, how long I would hold the weight at the bottom of the pull, and the actual weight. You could have almost considered it one big set of work.
An example from one part of this big set of back work was how we began. The first motion I performed was to do a wide grip lat pull down for 8 reps, then I moved my hands closer together and did 8 more reps of lat pull downs, and finished part one with 8 more reverse grip lat pull downs. Immediately following this first part I did the exact same cycle except this time I had to l hold the weights at the bottom for 2 seconds. Ian had me work through 3 or 4 more progressions each one different from the previous one.
It’s hard for me to do Ian’s sessions justice because during his workouts I’m so focused on the actual work I don’t keep track of what we’ve done. He believes in workouts which make the mind body connection, often times in his workouts I find myself saying I can’t do something because my brain tells me I can’t, then he pushes me past the mental block and I’m able to do it without a problem. It’s almost like a defense mechanism, like my brain telling my body “don’t do that or you will die”.
After my workout with Ian I felt the urge to go to Crossfit, so I went to the 9:30 AM class. I had to go to Crossfit today because when I read the Metcon portion of the workout the night before, that evil part of my brain started saying “you can’t do that”, “it’s too hard”, “go do something else”.
I had to beat the devilish part of me to death precisely with the Metcon that he feared.
The WOD involved doing 5 sets of 1 rep of split jerks, followed by 3 rounds for time of 20 burpees and a 400 meter run. A split jerk is another of the Olympic Lifts at Crossfit.
Today was the first time I’d done split jerks with weight.
Video of a proper split jerk
Video of my 5th 1 rep split jerk, note I lost balance according to Brian because I shot my back leg out too wide causing me to lose my balance, I’m lifting 155 lbs.
When it came time for the Metcon, Brian instructed everyone to scale the burpees to a level that can be done at a faster speed. Having done a similar workout the previous day I knew doing 20 would slow me down too much, so I decided to do 15 burpees which was the next level down from the prescribed workout.
After the first round of burpees and the 400 meter run, I felt like ass. We were given 2 minutes of rest between rounds. I was focused on calming my breathing down, and watched the clock as it ticked down to the start time of my second round.
Round two I did the burpees much faster than round 1, yet the run was awful, I felt like shit, and could barely get past a jog. I tried picking my legs up faster, and take longer stride but I just couldn’t get them up.
When I got back into the gym and took my final rest before the last round, I was not looking forward to the burpees. In fact if the gym had gotten blackout dark, I would have disappeared. Watching that clock tick down to my start time was like watching a bullet come at my head in slow motion.
The first five burpees were good, the next five sucked, and the final 5 was all guts no style. In trying to finish my final run, it felt like I was running in sand, in fact halfway through the jog, I started to dry heave while moving. If I had anything to puke up I’m sure I would have, you know it’s a good workout when you lose the bile from your stomach, I know I’m becoming a workout zealot. I finished the Metcon in 14:45 which is for sure in the bottom third of everyone who went to Crossfit yesterday yet it wasn’t the lowest.
After the two workouts I had today, a third one just didn’t seem smart. I did end up spending some time today at the driving range hitting some golf balls, it’s the first time I’ve picked up a golf club in 10 years, it made me realize that I have to do more stretching and keep my body loose.
Brian and I had brief discussion on working out too much, and how I am perhaps addicted to the mental challenge. I am not sure if I’m addicted or if it’s just how focused I am on my target weight. I know I will slow my pace down at some point, but I haven’t figured out where that point is, maybe I’ll figure it out soon, but as of today I’m sticking with what I know.
My workout with Ian this morning was focused on vertical pressing the bulk of the stress was placed on the shoulders. For the most part the session was mentally taxing, as many of the movements involved actions which I don’t do often or have never done before. This was for the most part a low intensity workout, then towards the end Ian tells me you’re not going to like this, so get water and be prepared.
He called it the 12 minute meltdown, or perhaps he should have called the 12 minutes of hell. The prescribed movements of hell included 20 burpees, with 2 steps forward and 2 steps back of a bear crawl, and 1 minute of sprinting on the treadmill. I would do this for 12 full minutes.
During the first round of this misery the burpees took a long time. I’m not sure if I was still sore from the day before, or if I was just too stiff to work. I’m not sure how long it was taking but I do know through Ian’s body language and the words used in his encouragement that he thought it was taking longer than expected. My first sprint was at 6.5 mph. I figured at this point I would most likely finish 3 full rounds.
Round two, the work clearly was speeding up; I could feel that I was getting the reps done faster. It’s at this point Ian tells me that we are going to do 4 full rounds regardless of the time. I sprinted 30 seconds at 6.5 mph, and then finished at 7 mph.
Round three, I was moving faster than my first round but slower than my second. The bear crawls at this point became tedious, each step forward, and back felt like I was lugging around deadwood. The sprint for 1 minute was done at 7 mph.
The fourth and final round was the slowest one I had, but the output was everything that I had left in the tank. My final sprint was at 8 mph.
Overall I spent 16 minutes doing the four rounds, this was about as intense of a workout that I’ve felt. It’s surprising how taxing it is to give everything you have for less than 20 minutes. When I finished my initial plan to do an hour of cardio at the end of the day was thrown out the door.
In the evening I was walking the dog, and I had a few moments of dead leg those steps where your leg wants to give out.
When watching the video below, I would like to make sure Kent aka Dark Ninja, Sherri, and Dwayne watch the entire video.
I did something very stupid as well, while cooking a roasted chicken, I touch the handle of the hot pan which had just come out of the oven with my bare hand. You can see the indention mark of the end of the handle. I’ve been icing it all night, put burn crème on it, and have taken 3 Motrin, my hope is that it will feel good enough that I can keep working out. If need be I am going to tape my hand with some moleskin on the spot that was burned the worst.
I almost think I did it subconsciously to create an additional challenge in my life.
While doing some cardio this morning I briefly watched the Today show with Kathy Lee Gifford and some named Hoda, isn’t that the name of an energy supplement? I think that’s about as likely to be her actual first name as I am going to be a ballerina.
Maybe I have this visceral response because I think Kathy Lee Gifford is the antichrist, I actually revel in watching that yenta age, note to Kathy Lee you have a turkey neck now and shouldn’t wear outfits that expose your neck and chest line. I was fixated by her neck, I think what drives me insane about her was the holier than thou attitude she used to have when she was partnered with Regis Philbin.
I think Kelly Ripa is obnoxious yet I enjoyed the fact that when she replaced KLG that the show’s ratings increased, good job skinny hot lady with large Asian head.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have surprised that Kathy Lee and Her new partner Hoda would have a nutritionist on who was about as bright as my dog after drinking the leftover beer in my recycling bin. Before I get into my rant here, I think nutritionist should tell everyone that what they do isn’t scientific and is basically shit that was made up by other nutritionist. They also somehow believe that the food pyramid is a healthy way to eat food. Thanks George McGovern.
In any case I think if any of you out there have a very attractive daughter who may be a crayon or two short of a full box, yet has a fantastic disposition, you should steer her towards becoming a certified nutritionist. This entire field seems to be run by “nice attractive people” who continue to preach principles which are based on shoddy theoretical principles somehow these fake scientist apparently tell us what to eat, and how to eat it.
I know I’ve defamed an entire profession and like my own business I’m sure there are some really good nutritionist who don’t fit the profile I’ve defined and that some individuals take what they do serious enough that they study their discipline critically and don’t regurgitate shit.
Going back to this bobble head on the today show, Hoda asked this nutritionist about certain foods and the cost of foods. Ms. Bobble started to talk about eggs, and how that white eggs and brown eggs have the exact same nutritional value, and that brown eggs just cost more, and the reason they cost more is because the grains they feed the hens which lay the brown eggs more grain so that additional cost is passed onto the consumer…
While the above statements maybe true when solely talking about factory farmed white or brown eggs.
I wanted to become Don the Magic Juan and lay my strong pimp hand across this woman’s dumb mouth. What the fuck is the difference? Being a nutritional bobble head of course she just regurgitates what the American Egg Board spouts out.
What a real professional would have said was that the color of the egg is insignificant to the nutritional value of what you eat that the question consumers should ask how were the hens reared which laid the eggs?
The reality of egg color is apparently purely a matter of the types of hens that lay them, the most common hen which is used is a White Leghorn which lays white eggs, and the brown eggs are laid by New England Red Hens. The color of the egg is about as important to its nutritional value as is the color of your car to performance.
When comparing the mass produced industrialized eggs and those of pasture raised free range eggs the nutritional difference is significant. According to a study published in the Animal feed Science and Technology journal the eggs that come from hens that are deprived of greens, and spend their entire lives indoor are deficient of Omega-3’s, in fact pasture raised hens lay eggs which have 10 times more Omega-3’s than those produced in factory farms.
Further pasture raised eggs have 4-6 times the Vitamin, contain 1/3 less cholesterol, ¼ less saturated fat, 2/3 more vitamin A, and 7 times more beta carotene than eggs from factory raised farms.
Knowing all of this information above do you still care about the color of your eggs? Would you be willing to pay an extra couple of dollars for a dozen eggs that are pasture raised regardless of the color knowing that each egg packs anywhere from 2-3x the nutritional value of the cheap factory eggs?
Most things in this world are “cheap” for a reason.
It’s no wonder that we are sicker, fatter, and going to have the first generation of children which are expected to have a lower life expectancy than their parents; it’s the first time in 200 years. With all the crap that is sold to us, and all the bad information preached as gospel by the nutritionist, and at times even our own doctors is it any wonder that today being fat is normal?
So I guess my ultimate point is the next time a pretty, nice lady starts talking to you about nutrition and tells you that she’s a nutritionist run like, or use your best Don the Magic Juan pimp hand and set her straight.
Daily Recap
I worked out at Crossfit this morning, it was my last session with Liz for a couple of weeks, she’s going away to get hitched, so congratulations Liz I hope you guys have lots of “fun”, with lots of “bonus” activities, and feel “great” the entire time.
Out of all things I expected this morning the workout she had planned wasn’t what I anticipated. The warm-up involved volume training which involves doing a set number of reps at the beginning of each minute for a series of minutes prescribed by the coach. If you finish early you prepare for the next minute, in today’s case I had to do 4 ring rows then finish the minute doing jump rope. We did this for 8 minutes.
The warm-up wasn’t what was unexpected, but the resistance training today involved bench pressing, which I didn’t realize is part of the Crossfit model. It seems to be too much isolation work to truly be part of Crossfit, or maybe I’ve misunderstood the philosophy, in any case I was happy to oblige. Doing chest work for me is something that I truly hope for, as I am desperately trying to reshape the man boobs.
Being obese sucks in every way possible, but being a male who is obese who packs pounds on in the chest is like having to dig your own grave, it’s difficult and humiliating. Not that anyone has ever made a pass at me, or tried to snap my bra in the back, but it is emasculating to be a guy and have a chest that doesn’t sit up but sags outward like saddles on a horse, putting on any shirt over the last 8 years was like having my balls cut off each and every day, if I could imagine a hell in Dante’s world it would be to have these man boobs forever and having to take my shirt off at a pool or the beach with a crowd full of women over and over, this particular hell would be silent just looks glances, double takes, and the internal thoughts that would run through my head.
Yes everyone I have better cleavage than any woman I know.
The only remotely fun part of man boobs is being able to pull a Peter Griffin from Family Guy and pick up the entire mass of meat and lick my own nipple…not that I’ve ever done that…
Doing the bench press Liz planned 3 sets of 3 reps. We ended up doing a few warm up sets with the bar and light weights. I started my work sets at 165 lbs, and then moved up to 175 lbs for the second and 185 lbs for final set. It felt good; the last time I benched over 175 lbs I was in college.
Following the bench press we worked on the overhead squat. We didn’t use weight but spent more time reviewing the overhead squat technique, doing them with just the bar. After the first warm up set I needed to stretch and was put through a few positions which made me want to cry. The only reason I didn’t cry was that every instance of my “ow” turned into an on button for Liz’s laughter. She’s the best!
The session ended with something called Tabata. Until today I was reading that word as Tabatha, and thought to myself what did this woman do to someone to have a workout named after her, she must really be a bitch, not realizing it’s actually Tabata the last name of a doctor who came up with this type of training. I guess the theory behind the work is that doing 20 seconds of intense work followed by 10 seconds of rest followed by 20 seconds more of the intense work is the most efficient way of burning fat. You can read more about it here.
My workout involved doing push-ups, squats, and push presses. I had to do each exercise for 4 minutes, following the Tabata pattern of 20 seconds on 10 seconds off, and didn’t take any extra time between exercises. It doesn’t seem like much but it’s an ass kicker.
With the push-ups I was able to do about 3.5 rounds doing regular push-ups; the final 4.5 rounds were done on my knees, by the end of the final round I could barely get my chest off the ground from my knees. I found that over the 4 minutes I was able to complete 50 push-ups. The squats followed immediately after the push-ups. In 4 minutes I did 81 squats. The last thing I did was 78 push-presses.
Its incredible how much shorter those 10 second breaks get as the workout continues. I think by the last set of push-presses it felt as if I didn’t’ take a break at all. It was a nice way to start the week, and I wouldn’t have expected anything less than Liz to burn her laugh in my mind for two weeks with Tabata, a nice parting shot.
When I walked home I felt like I had a good workout but I wanted to go back and try today’s prescribed workout at Potomac Crossfit, I chickened out partially because I didn’t want to be told I’m stupid for over training, but I know I could have done the squats today, and the Metcon at the end but chose not to and do some extra cardio.
With this extra drive left in me I did some cardio in the gym in my building. I did a treading session on the Elliptical trainer, following the treading I did 5 sprints on the treadmill to make sure I got 50 full minutes of cardio. The sprints felt great, I was doing 1 minute sprints on, and 1 minute of walking. I did most of the sprints at 7 mph, and did the final one at 8 mph. It feels good to be able to run, as much as I dislike it, I appreciate the fact that I can do it.
So after a really strong week of working out and good meals, I’m disappointed that I only dropped a pound especially because when I weighed myself Saturday morning I weighed 285 lbs. I’m not sure how to take the small weight change; it’s disappointing and a bit disheartening.
I’m trying to replay the past week in my head, and I don’t recall any one thing which didn’t go well, I ate well, I worked out well, perhaps my sleep wasn’t perfect but 4 out of the 7 nights I got 7 hours of sleep. This next week I’m going to have to push myself hard, I will for sure have to amp the cardio work to get a deeper caloric burn.
My schedule this next week:
25
26
27
28
29
8 AM Crossfit
7 Am Ian
7 AM Ian
6:30 AM
6:30 AM
Cardio
Cardio
Boxing
Crossfit
Crossfit
Cardio
Cardio
Cardio
As far as the weight loss competition looks like Sherri picked up her first win. She lost 6 lbs in her first week back from Europe. Nice Job Sherri! Dwayne has gone MIA, we haven’t heard any updates form him this last week, and my attempts to communicate with him have gone unanswered. I hope he is doing well and not falling into the emotional abyss of shame and self pity. Dwayne if you are reading this you are stronger than that, just work your way out of it…
The constant thought I had this week was, how long can I maintain this pace? It’s starting to affect my life, when a session gets canceled or moved it greatly affects the rest of my day, and when exhausted my overall brain function becomes reduced to the point of being catatonic.
The amount of time I’m spending working out is also causing me to have little to no personal time for myself to go out and enjoy life.
Ian made a comment last week which has stuck with me, like a fish bone caught in my throat. He said that you can’t have people a training team on staff forever. Essentially I do have a training staff. I’ve made lots of personal financial sacrifices in order to keep this pace going; perhaps it’s time to start pushing myself, especially when I know that most of the weight loss is a result of my diet changing.
I think maybe going into this next week I’m going to reduce my workouts to just one a day maybe get a second one in on Wednesday. I’m giving it some serious thought. I want to get to 250 lbs so bad that it’s hard for me to take a step back.
I want it now, I want it right away, and I want it today.
Should I take a step back? What can I do? I have the entire weekend to think about…
Daily Recap
I had originally intended to workout at Crossfit in the morning, and then do some cardio in the evening, but after my Crossfit workout I was done. I’m sure the heat being over 100 degrees didn’t help fuel my lack of motivation for a second session.
Liz had me warm up with five minutes on a stationary bike, it’s the kind of bike which has the handles that you push as you pedal, I’m not sure what this is called but it was a weird combination of movements. Following the 5 minute bicycle work, we did some volume training, doing 4 ring rows and then 4 push ups at the top of each minute for 7 minutes.
It took me about 26-30 seconds to do the 4 ring rows and 4 push ups, with the remaining half a minute I would rest and prepare for the next minute. I had a major win in this area today; I was able to do all of my push-ups from the proper push-up position and not from my knees, I did 28 push-ups today albeit they weren’t continuous it’s the first time I’ve done 28 total push-ups since high school.
Being Friday I was almost certain Liz had squats planned for me today, little did I know she really had lots of squats planned for me. When we initially started working the back squats with just the bar I was tight from the day before, getting my big butt to parallel was almost impossible. Of course Liz being the great coach that she is, she had me do pretzel twisting like stretches, which I found excruciating. Every time I whined and said “OW” Liz would laugh.
We tried again to do just the bar but I was still having a problem with getting past parallel, so I tried stretching out my inner thigh. Liz of course had a fantastic solution for this; I sat against the wall Indian Style then placed a 25 lbs dumbbell on each of my knees causing my legs to touch the ground, opening up my hips, while dying on the inside a little bit. After this painful event, I was able to get my big butt down to the proper position.
My work set involved 3 sets of 5 reps. I started my work at 165 lbs and worked up to 195 lbs on my last set. Not necessarily an impressive feat, but it felt fucking awesome to do a proper squat. As a super big fat guy one of the hardest things to do is to get up and down from a seated position, so doing squats had a physiological limitation, at some point your upper body weight pulls or pushes you into an uncomfortable or possibly dangerous position, so being able to actually do a correct squat feels like I’m stabbing the fat guy inside of me with a pen.
My tiger blood was strong this day.
It would have been an awesome workout if not for the Metcon Liz had planned, an AMRAP (as many reps as possible), for 12 minutes doing 10 suitcase dead lifts, a farmers walk, and 10 squats, did I mention that the first two exercises required me to hold two 55 lbs dumbbells, and the final one I had to hold one of the 55 lbs dumbbells. I was able to finish 6 full rounds and about 8 reps of the suitcase dead lift. My vocal outburst in this video below were involuntary, I don’t remember doing it.
When it was all said and done, I felt emotionally awesome, and physically like a pile of dung. The afternoon cardio session was canceled by…me. I think my legs had enough, and the constant feeling of ass from being vaporized by the humidity was cause to call it a week.
Ian texted me this morning that he wasn’t feeling well, so we pushed back our workout time to 9:30 AM, of course when he arrived I was stuck in several phone calls which caused us to get a late start.
After a few frustrating minutes on the phone, I was ready to throw some metal around. Tuesday’s workout with Ian involved pushing, so today’s workout was all about pulling motions. We started with a quick warm-up of 25 jumping jacks and 25 burpees, yes more fucking burpees.
After the warm-up he had me start with some core exercises which were variations of a superman, I think he was trying to get blood flowing to my lower back and abs, because as soon as we finished three 30 second holds I started doing back rows from the ground. While my back was on the ground I had to get my legs in a bridged position, then grabbed the bar on the smith machine and pulled myself upward, we did 3 sets of pulling underneath the bar each one progressing to a more difficult variation.
He had me continue to work with the smith machine doing upright rows with the bar and a couple of 25 lbs plates, and I did what’s called a suitcase dead lift which is essentially a one armed standing row. We continued down this back workout by doing a few sets of dumbbell bent over rows with a 50 lbs dumbbell, as the sets progressed I had to hold the dumbbell at the top of the row with my back contracted.
From the dumbbell rows Ian had me continue rowing from a push up plank position. In this awkward position I followed a progression which eventually led up to doing a one handed back row from a planked position, then while holding the dumbbell at the apex of the row I had to bring my knee toward my opposite elbow. My brain couldn’t comprehend what I was doing, so I told Ian I can’t do this, he told me that my brain was in revolt and that I could do it.
As the workout progressed from here I found myself doing standing cable rows, abdominal work, and a variation of mountain climbers while in a planked position. This workout was mentally taxing to the point that I wasn’t concerned about the overall output, but more about each individual movement’s technique.
Immediately following my late workout with Ian I had a session with Ali.
Ali also decided it was a day to blow up my back. He also had me start the session with some bosu footwork, and you guessed it mountain climbers and more fucking burpees. I found myself doing more dumbbell rows, and more planked dumbbell rows. I think I spent at least 10 minutes of this workout in a push plank, or elbow planked positions. We transitioned quickly between exercises and I found myself doing abdominal work along with my back work.
I had to put my mind in a happy place in order to survive a taxing day. Today is the first time that I’ve felt all of my back muscles. I can’t imagine what I’m going to feel like tomorrow morning.
For dinner I made fish tacos with cod. The recipe is quite simple cod cut into 1 inch pieces with marinated with lemon juice and taco seasoning. The taco sauce was a simple mixture of equal parts mayo and crème fresh, with 2 tbsp of taco seasoning and cilantro. I also sautéed some onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cut up some tomatoes. I ate two tacos with a corn tortilla, most of my dinner though was a salad of spinach, cilantro some red peppers, tomatoes, tossed in salsa. I had another great dinner, with lots of flavor and it was easy to make.
At Whole Foods today I saw that they had some Harpoon Caught Swordfish so I bought a fillet which was just less than a pound. Whole Foods had a flyer on Swordfish which showed several recipes and 5 cooking techniques for the swordfish, so I picked it up and decided that the Pan-Seared Swordfish with Summer Salad and Arugula was the simplest and the fact that I had most of the ingredients at home already made it a simple choice for dinner.
Here’s the recipe:
2 nectarines or peaches, diced
½ Cup diced red onion
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon se salt
6 cups baby arugula
3 ½ teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 (6-ounce) swordfish steaks, about 1 inch thick
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Using the nectarines, red onion, cilantro, ¼ teaspoon of salt and lime juice you toss in a mixing bowl to create a “summertime salsa”. Then take the arugula and 1 teaspoon of the olive oil, and toss in a separate bowl.
I took my one fillet and cut them into two pieces each weighing about 7 ounces. I used a dry rub, on both sides which was a habanero based fish rub; I also lightly salted and peppered the fish. The recipe calls for searing the swordfish in a pan for 6-8 minutes. I decided to use dry heat and broiled the fish. The Whole Foods Card calls for 7 to 8 minutes for 6 oz steaks, I cooked them for 9 minutes in the broiler.
The arugula olive oil mix serves as the base to your plate, which is topped by the summertime salsa, and the swordfish the cherry on this yummy dish.
What I found incredible out this meal was how simple the preparation was and how much flavor I tasted in the salad, and fish. Lime juice is a great tool in cooking, coupled with cilantro it taste fantastic. The arugulas slightly bitter flavor created a nice counter balance to the salsa.
I’m recently learning that food doesn’t require heaping mounds of sauce, in fact in the past food was more of a sauce delivery method. I don’t think I could have distinguished the difference between chicken, pork, or beef because it would be consumed with so much sauce it might as well have been sauce with a side of protein. The same went for salads; I would have to add so much dressing to the salad that the greens in it would wilt, looking like wet pieces of paper.
The biggest change in my life over the past three plus months is my eating. Without this change I would not have lost the amount of weight which I have, I’m sure that if I had continued to eat the way I used yet kept up this present workout regime that I would have lost only a fraction of the weight which I have lost, the workouts involve such small periods of time. Over the course of my life I’m sure the time spent preparing, thinking, and eating food dwarfs the amount of time spent working out, yet too often people only focus on the physical aspect of creating motion and trying to “burn” away the weight. We are so confused about what you actually need to lose weight.
It’s an emotional change which triggers a conscious change in what you decide to put into your body that makes the difference. This is something that has taken me a long time to figure out, and it is something that Fitness Ridge helped me start in terms of day to day activity but this understanding that I had to change myself and how I viewed food was something that I can only be discovered on your own through difficult times.
It’s frustrating to know that I have spent most of my life not really eating food, but just devouring calories. Meals in the past were more about satiating a bizarre addiction to large amounts of empty calories. That term didn’t register with me until about a month ago.
I’ve heard it all the time “empty calories”, what they should be called is useless calories. They were worth calories because they didn’t give my body what it needed to function. The worst part about it is that I really didn’t even enjoy the taste of what I was eating, it was a compulsive drive.
Today I find myself finding joy in a simple dish of broiled Swordfish, arugula salad and summertime salsa. Simple components put together to provide my body the nourishment it needs, and satisfies my emotional need to taste something. When things taste good it’s incredible how much more satiated I feel overall. I think 4 months ago 3 out of every 4 meals ended in being full but not satisfied with what I ate, I now find the only time I’m not fulfilled with my food is when I choose to eat out, and that choice is at a place that only serves crap.
Lime juice, cilantro, red onion, and nectarine bits were like having a taste bud orgy in my mouth. I am looking forward to discovering more flavor combinations like the one I learned today. How much better is life when you not only eat enough, but eat well…
Daily Recap
9:30 AM Crossfit Session
This morning Alison the coach for this session showed up a bit late, so the actual class was shorten by a few minutes. We started with a 5 minute pre-warm up for jumping rope.
The jump rope time was supposed to be broken up with variations of jump rope. It was a players choice of either the standard jump, one legged, double-unders, or “running man” which I have no idea what that’s all about. In any case I stuck with doing just regular jump rope; I’m just beginning to feel comfortable jumping, and find it amazing how quickly I can go from feeling light and nimble to feeling like a big fat ogre. My goal was to go for as long as I could, take short 10-15 second breaks and then pick it up for more time jumping. My coordination was a bit off, as I kept dropping the rope, and had a hard time getting started.
This five minute jumping rope was followed by a Crossfit warm-up doing a few reps of 5 different Crossfit motions. We were told to use a light weight bar, and do 3 Shoulder Presses, 3 Push presses, 3 Push Jerks, 5 Good Mornings, and 5 Squats. This was done for 8 minutes. The prescribed warm up time actually was 10 minutes, but I think Allison cut back so we had more time to do our weighted push presses. I finished about 10 rounds during this part of the warm-up.
When the 8 minuets was over Allison led us in a bit of stretching, preparing our bodies for the push jerks and eventual Metcon. We had about 20-22 minutes to complete 4 sets of 3 connected push-presses. What I mean by that is we could rest between sets but during a set we could not rest, which meant as soon as we reached the top of the press we would have to return the bar back to that starting position, and immediately push again.
This video is not from today, but I wanted to put one in to show a push press.
My work set started at 125 lbs, eventually working up to 145lbs on my final set. It felt good; a few times I could feel my right shoulder hinder the use of a heavier weight. In fact as the weight got heavier I’m almost certain my right said trailed my left to the top of the motion.
The final part of the workout involved our Metcon of the day. On the surface it appeared to be really easy. 5 Burpees, 10 box jumps, for five minutes. To put it succinctly it sucked. I was shooting for 6 rounds, but ending up doing 5.
The first two rounds I felt good, and could feel how strong my legs and body have become. Beginning with the third set of burpees I was looking for mommy. Doing the box jumps on the middle level stand turned out to be harder than I expected. This is the highest that I’ve worked with box jumps, so in terms of technique they looked like shit; I just couldn’t keep it connected. I should have started with the lower stand.
As soon as Crossfit ended, I had ate an apple, a piece of Mahi Mahi, and drink a quart of water before my 11 AM session with Ali, I did this while walking to Washington Sports Club.
11:00 AM WSC Ali
In mentally preparing for my workout with Ali I had to tell myself I wasn’t tired, and that I was ready to punch the lights out. The reality of how I felt was, a baby who wanted lunch, and a nap.
We started with Kettle bell swings, doing two handed Russian Kettle bells, and one handed figure eight kettle bell swings. The video below we actually shot at the end of the session because I forgot to record it during the beginning. You will see the video is longer than it needed to be because failure has a price. Every time I dropped it Ali had me go for another 30 seconds.
My first round of boxing after the kettle bell swings was weak. I don’t think my legs were ready for boxing. I had to push myself hard to get the energy to pop the gloves. In between boxing stints Ali had me do crunches, and planks to work my core.
He also had me to a really crappy set of work involving squats, and flipping the heavy bag across the aerobics floor. You can watch the video below, the expression on my face should tell you how bad it sucked.
Ali also worked some chest work into the session. I did a bit of chest the day before, but I think Ali wants to see how much weight I can push. Before doing the dumbbell chest presses, he had me go through a cycle of a 45 second push-up planks, then 10 reps of falling forward with a medicine ball toss and push-up, another 45 second push-up plank, 10 assisted push-ups pressing down on the medicine ball, and resistance band flies on one knee.
After the cycle above we went right to the bench. I did 1 set of 10 reps using 55 lbs, and tried to do 6 reps at 85 lbs dumbbells. I was able to get 3 reps in with the 85 lbs dumbbells before my right side failed, I actually got a 4th rep in with my left side, but the right shoulder just couldn’t’ handle it.
He had me move from this position to a lying back on the resistance ball, where I did 20 reps at 35 lbs. Ali then had me go through another cycle of planks, medicine ball toss, plank, push-ups, and flies.
The rest of the session involved more boxing, more core work, and a final set of kettle bell figure eights. When we were finished I was ready for lunch, and a nap. Yes I have been complaining for lunch and a nap most of the day.
Originally I had planned some cardio in the evening, yet I decided I needed to take care of some personal things. I do plan on adding another workout tomorrow to make up for today. Crossfit workouts are turning out to be more draining than I originally anticipated.
I took some time for me today, and don’t have a problem with it. This is a marathon for the rest of my life, and not a sprint to some arbitrary number that I have in my mind.
I've been meaning to post for quite some time a list of websites that I find useful, and perhaps could benefit someone else who is attempting what I am presently undertaking. I've broken it up into two parts, first nutrition, and second physical activity.
Both of these websites are great resources to find locally grown pasture raised meets, dairy, and veggies. If you want grass fed grass finished beef these two websites are the places to look.
I think the Paleo Diet is one of the better methods of nutrition out there, if you are interested in the concept this a great starting point. They do refer often to Robb Wolf's book, but it is one of the few website that offer phone consultations to help a person into a Paleo lifestyle, further it lists life events that Robb Wolf teaches personally.
This is a great resource that helps identify types of fish which are either produced or caught sustainably. You can also buy a pocket guide or download the apps.
This website is a great resource to learn about sustainable farming, and gives a brief overview of their methods which can ultimately equip you with the right tools to ask the pertinent questions to those at farmers market. Be warned not all vendors at the farmers markets are true farmers.
Lance Armstrong’s foundation website which has an online food diary that you can create, and even has listings for various foods and the caloric content for those foods. I use this regularly to help make my food choices.
Crossfit is not the be all end all in fitness but for overall methodology I think their system is sound. I appreciate the intensity of the workouts, and find that it's truly a new excuses attitude which is sorely missing from most exercise regimes. The best part about them if there isn't an affiliate near you, Crossfit posts a daily workout that can be done from home.
This guy is a meathead with a brain. His website is highly informative in all areas of fitness, and the picture above should be a testament to his dedication to long term health. I visit this website every time I have a question about something because he normally has written about it at some point in his life.
Okay so this is a little bit of workout porn, but the woman is in ridiculous shape. What I like about her website other than the soft core pornography, is that most of her workouts are short intense and don't require much equipment. If you don't believe me try one, and then you will realize that what she's doing is actually quite functional if not entertaining.
Okay I had to leave you with one of her youtube videos:
07/19/2011 Daily Recap
Welcome back to “That Sucks Tuesday”. Ian has been texting me since Friday about working out this morning. He’s wanted me to perform a workout that he planned for me two weeks ago, so his eagerness has been apparent for quite some time.
When Ian starts a session with a dynamic warm-up it normally means dynamic motions. Turkish get-ups as part of the warm-up is a clear sign of dynamic motions during the work-out.
We started by doing 1 set of incline chest presses using 50 lbs dumbbells. This first set was called something similar to “wear out your chest before we start the work”. I did 20 reps of chest presses starting in a neutral position then rotating the dumbbell so the bottom of my fists would face each other.
Immediately following this set I did two exercises, assisted push-ups, and shoulder presses. I started by doing 10 push-ups, then 10 shoulder presses, then I did 9 push-ups and 9 shoulder presses, I did this continuously until I reached 1 rep per movement.
This was followed up by treadmill sprints. We worked for about 5 minutes on the treadmill half the time walking the other half of the time sprinting at 7.0 – 8.5 mph.
The rest of the workout proceeded in this manner, doing a power movement, followed up by dynamic actions or motions that would cause me to sweat. We finished the session with doing planks, and abdominal resistance.
It feels good getting the juices going again, and pushing me. I am happy to have that fire back. Two weeks ago it truly felt as if I wasn’t going to be able to continue my pace, so now that I have this drive back I have to develop a plan to maintain this mentality longer and more focused.
Originally I planned a cardio session in the afternoon, I didn’t’ post this Monday, yet in my mind I knew I wanted to work my stamina and endurance but after my session I decided I wouldn’t do any cardio in the evening.
After two days of being back on a solid meal plan has made me feel good about this week. I hope the scale shows the same.
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