I'm Back

After a couple of months hiatus from blogging, I'm back. Much has happened in that time. First, a few lift PR updates:-

Deadlift 1RM @ 190kg

Bench Press 1RM @ 110kg

Press 1RM @ 80kg

Back Squat 12RM @ 110kg(will attempt 1RM next week)

Power Clean 3RM @ 90kg

I'm pretty happy with the squats. My right leg isn't 100% yet, but I've been squatting minimum 3 times a week for the past 6 weeks and I can feel the difference it makes to my other lifts. Most notably, my Deadlifts are now much stronger.

Training overall has been pretty good. Have been making much progress with my volume focused program. Scale down the loads, increase the reps, stick with gradual weight increments then attempt a new PR after 2-3 weeks. I've been making steady progress so far. My biggest goal, lifting wise, would be to hit a 200kg deadlift by year's end. With my bodyweight hovering around 70-72kg, I'm happy with results so far.

Alright, down to gym happenings. The past couple of months, a slew of things have been occupying my time. I've had the opportunity to work with a great bunch of PushMore athletes on the POSE running technique in a one day workshop. Visible changes as well as perceived changes by the athletes themselves were fantastic. I'm looking forward to the next workshop already!

Also, I'm leading an "Active Recovery" series of sessions at PushMore for the next 4 weeks. Focus would be on speeding up recovery between workouts, improving mobility as well as performance. The athletes who participated in the first session were introduced to the concept of "therapeutic pain". Using simple tools like PVC pipes, golf balls and tennis balls, we worked on opening tight muscles and joints. It was quite a sight, 20 people or so, rolling around on the ground at the mercy of a tennis ball.

Another exciting thing has been the recent revamp of PushMore's main site. I love the whole concept of it and it's brought our main site right back on to the fast track. Go check it out here www.pushmore.com.my

Catch you soon in the gym!

Train!

Training has been progressing great so far. I'm seeing improvements on my POSE running technique. I'm actually looking forward to running workouts now!

Overall, my body's adapting to the increased volume of heavy workouts. I'm training 6 days a week now, usually doing two workouts a day. On the morning would be a strength & conditioning workout. Evenings would be interval runs or time trials. Loving the work. Oh, before I forget, hit my goal of a 1.5 times bodyweight bench press - 105kg!

However, the issue at the moment would be that I'm not running at 100% functionality. I have some discomfort on my left hamstrings and IT band, it's somewhat tight and uncomfortable in some positions. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, I've been experiencing pain on the back of my right knee when flexing beyond 90 degrees.

I'm planning to see my regular Chinese massage therapist to see if he can work his magic. So far, he has been fantastic with various pains/injuries that I have had, only thing is, visits to this guy are particularly painful. So, hopefully I can walk on Monday.. until then, training goes on!

Run!

Another long hiatus. Will make it a point to blog weekly from now on.

Anyway.

I've signed up for the The Northface 100. Basically it's a 100km race in the Singapore national park. How fun is that? I will be running in the 100km Duo category, because the 100km Solo race is by invitation only(basically, you gotta be a bad-ass ultra-marathoner). In the Duo 100km event, each partner will run 50km, and the total running times for both team mates will be totaled for overall ranking.

My partner in crime for this event will be non other than Paleobabe. And not forgetting, in PushMore Team B, it will be Edmatron and Juan. So the four of us are gearing up to run the gauntlet on October 9th.

It will be interesting for me for a number of reasons:-

1. The furthest I've ever run is 12km(at least I think it was 12km).

2. I run when a WOD requires. Other than that, I'd rather be doing some heavy lifting.

So, in preparation for the event, I have changed over my training to incorporate Crossfit Endurance running workouts combined together with strength and met-con workouts from Crossfit and Crossfit Football.

Coming into the third week, I feel that my POSE running is getting better and I'm starting to pick up speed on my runs. However, when doing sprint work, my POSE tends to disintegrate under fatigue, so more drills on that.

Strength wise, I've hit some new PRs. My new 5RM Deadlift is 165kgs. I've also managed a 51" Box Jump recently. And recovery between heavy workouts are getting quicker. As for squatting, I've been laying off full range squats because of suspected ITBFS on my right leg. The good thing is, I tried doing some low bar back squats today and they felt great. Bar angle and positioning on the low bar squat doesn't put my knee at a very acute angle, so I can squat!

More progress updates to come!

It's been a while..

Almost a month since my last post! Busy with happenings at PushMore and training as well, it's been a great month. Next week, I'm starting a new training cycle of workouts that combine Westside Barbell principles with Crossfit and Oly lifting. Will post on this later.

Training wise, my most significant improvement has been a new deadlift 3RM of 173kgs. I've not been able to squat as much as I would like too due to a strained tendon on the outside of my right knee, but it's been improving and feeling good. Have also been upping the number of my met-con workouts per week, I need to catch with Edmatron!

Other highlights of the month was a weekend at the Crossfit Singapore, attending a Crossfit Running certification with Dr. Nicholas Romanov, founder of the POSE Method. It was a fantastic learning experience with Dr. Romanov. With equal parts of coaching, philosophy and science, it's hard not to feel awed by Dr. Romanov. And at 59 years, he's in great shape! Put all of us to shame with his flexibility and strength! I'm trying to arrange for him to conduct a workshop at PushMore in Q4 of 2010, stay tuned for details!

With the rest of the gang at the cert.

Also, came back from Singapore with a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. Have been wearing them for about 3 weeks now, and I love them! I've used them for about 90% of my activities, although, I'm not quite used to wearing them for Oly lifting yet. The VFFs are extremely light and you really get a feel for the ground and how you interact with it. Haven't clocked up much running mileage yet, but have been wearing them for all the running workouts so far. So far, so good.

Halfway through weighted "J.T." with my red VFFs.

Until next time, train hard y'all!

Training review

Here's a long list of what I've been up to the past week and a half or so:-

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Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3

(Warm up - 70x5, 90x5, 120x3)

(Lifts - 150, 155, 160, 165, 170)

then:-

For time of:

15 Push Jerks @ 40kg

30 Pull Ups

10 Push Jerks

20 Pull Ups

5 Push Jerks

10 Pull Ups

Time: 4:07

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10 minutes AMRAP of 100kg Back Squats

Completed 47 reps.

*Note: This was hard! Had to rest two days after this particular WOD.

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CrossFit Total

Squat - 135

Press - 78

Deadlift - 182.5

Total of 395.5kg

then:-

5 minutes AMRAP KB Snatch @ 24kg - Completed 78 reps.

Rest 2 minutes, followed by

5 minutes AMRAP KB C&J @ 24kg - Completed 48 reps.

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Power Snatch 3-3-3-3-3 (50, 55, 60, 65, 65)

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For time of:

45 Deadlifts @ 100kg

45 Power Cleans @ 50kg

90m Racked Walk with 2x32kg KBs

Time - 14:35

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Press (60x5, 60x4, 55x4, 55x4, 55x5)

Five rounds for time of:

20 Pull Ups

30 Double Unders

Time - 11:13

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Weighted Pull Up (28kgx3x5)

Ring Dips with full lockout at the top (3x5)

Going for the new 182.5kg PR.

Enforced Rest Days

Rest, or you will be forced to rest.

The human body can only take so much before it shuts itself down for self preservation. After a particular hard two weeks of lifting, my body decided to "self-preserve". I had my first experience with a migraine. Though not nearly as bad as some cases that I have heard of before, it was painful nonetheless. Imagine having a constant headache with waves of nausea whenever you try to do anything other than lying down.

After a day of trying bed rest to recover, I finally visited the doctor who deduced that my condition was a combination of physical stress(workouts), inadequate rest, inadequate hydration(which I realised was true) and too much sodium(salt) in my diet(could be the steak and aglio olio pasta I had the day before) . So I was prescribed a bunch of medications which included pills for migraine, nausea, blood circulation and gastric. I ended taking the migraine pills and presto! I was better in about 30 minutes.

So, what lessons can be gleaned from this particular episode? My take would be to adjust the following:-

- Sleep: In the weeks leading up to the migraine, I was averaging 6-7 hours sleep per night. And during these weeks, I was squatting, pressing and deadlifting twice a week in addition to 3-4 met-con workouts spread throughout the week. My solution is to add in a short 30-45 minute nap during the day if possible.

- Hydration: I haven't really been particular attention to how much H2O i consume per day. I'm making it a point to drink at least 2-2,5 litres per day now.

- Nutrition: More fruits and vegetables to balance out the meat I am consuming. Also, will be paying more attention to my supplementation regime.

- Workout Intensity and Volume: Will be keeping a close tab on volume from now on. The 10 days leading up to my shut down had significantly more volume than the previous weeks.

Moral of the story? Balance is key. I need to pay equal attention to the different aspects of fitness and health - exercise, rest, nutrition and mental state. Ignore any one area to your own peril. For me? Lesson learnt.

The Quest For Level V

"What keeps you motivated?"

Ever thought of that before? What keeps you going, each day of your life? Be it career, family or fitness, the way to stay motivated is to have goals.

I've been CrossFitting for about 2 years plus now. In that period, I have seen some amazing improvements in all aspects of my fitness. And I just love the challenge of constantly varied, functional movements done at high-intensity. Yes, a mouthful, but that's what CrossFit is all about.

The question is, where do I go from here? Which brings me to the point of this blog. My current goal for the next 12 months is to achieve the fitness and skill level of a Level 5 athlete, using this Athletic Skills chart(courtesy of CrossFit Dahlonega) as a reference. And to that end, I will be using this blog to document my progress in my quest for Level 5.

The first step would be an assessment of where I currently am. I'm 28 this year, weighing in at 70kg, height at 166cm. Below are the requirements for a Level 5 athlete, with my current PRs in bold next to it. Text highlighted in red are skills that are at Level 5 and above:-

Hips

- Pistols: 25 per leg (To be tested)

- Back Squat: 2x Bodyweight (PR: 137kg, Goal: 140kg)

- Deadlift: 2.5x Bodyweight (PR: 181kg, Goal: 175)

- Vertical Jump: 30 inches (To be tested)

Push

- Push Ups: 60 on rings (To be tested)

- Bench Press: 1.5x Bodyweight (PR: 3RM @ 100kg, Goal: 1RM @ 105kg)

- Shoulder Press: 1x Bodyweight (PR: 77.5kg, Goal 70kg)

- Handstand Push Ups: 10 full range (To be tested)

- Dips: 50 on rings (To be tested)

- Dip: 1 with Bodyweight (To be tested)

Pull

- Rope climb: 20 foot climb, 2 trips, touch & go, no feet (To be tested)

- Squat Clean: 1.5x Bodyweight (PR: 95kg, Goal: 105kg)

- Pull ups: 40 dead hang (To be tested)

- Pull up: 1 with 1 x Bodyweight (PR: 55kg, Goal: 70kg)

- Muscle up: 15 (PR: 10 with full lockout)

Core

- Overhead Squat: 15 reps x Bodyweight (To be tested)

- Front Lever: 15 seconds (PR 5 seconds)

- L-sit: 1:30 (To be tested)

Work:

- 2 DB/KB clean & jerk: 150 reps in 10 minutes, KB@24kg (To be tested)

- Sandbag carry: 1 mile with 3/4 x Bodyweight (To be tested)

- 800 meter run: 2:20 (PR: 2:54)

- Row: 6k row in 20:00 (To be tested)

- Mary(5 handstand pushups, 10 pistols, 15 pull ups): 15 rounds in 20 minutes (PR: 14R + 5, 10, 10)

- 1 mile run: 5 minutes (To be tested)

Speed:

- 400m run: 1:04 (PR: 1:03)

- 500m row: 1:25 (To be tested)

- Snatch: 1.25x Bodyweight (PR: 62.5kg, Goal: 87.5kg)

As you can see, quite a fair bit of testing and work to be done. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be testing myself on all the remaining skills. Once my skill assessment has been completed, my training plan will be put into place.

Any thoughts, comments and suggestions that you may have for me would be appreciated. Over and out.