MEBB Deadlifts

ME Deadlifts:
135x3
185x2
225x1
260x1-Put belt on
285x1
315x1
345x1
370x1
395x1

Black Box- 10 rounds of "Cindy"
6:24

All in all, the deads felt okay. My back feels it, nothing went wrong. The 395 went up fine. I stopped there.

Soccer

Played soccer today. I have sat out this season due to recovery. We have 2 games left. Today, only a few guys from the other team showed up, so we ended up playing 5v5, small sided for about 45min.

I felt good, had some quickness off the ball. Playing soccer is fun. I really like taking the fitness built through CF and applying it to sport. I do think CrossFit is a sport in itself, but too many people just do it and nothing else. They totally miss how much "the moves" transfer to sport and make one better. I am looking forward to Tom telling me how he is golfing this year after hitting CrossFit hard for the last 8months. Sean, I would love to see you play some volleyball again and here how you game has improved.

Sport is CrossFit. It combines the 10 physical skills and sits on top of the pyramid.

WDW WOD#2

For time:

30-20-10

35lbs Plate swings (plates had handle, like KBs)
Dips (on gravitron, no assist used)

5:30ish

This was the second WOD done on vacation. I had a fun time with my family at Walt Disney World. I ate a ton of food and gained 10lbs. I really had a good time.

WDW Workout-Fran like

WDW Workout

21-15-9

25lb DB Thrusters
Pull-ups

3:55

Done at the hotel gym. It was not bad, had a lot of machines, some dumbells and a cable cross over machine, with a pull-up bar mounted over it. The thrusters were unbroken and the pull-ups were 21, 15, 6-3. I finished the last set of thrusters at about 2:50, but had to wait for some other Dads to finish there set of cable cross-over flies so I could do the pull-ups. I waited about 35s, but truth be told, I was smoked by this point.

High Bar Back Squats

High Bar Back Squats

45lbsx3
135lbsx3
225lbsx3
260lbsx3
295lbsx3

The 295lbs felt a little weak. I lost some midline stability on the 2dn and 3rd rep

Post
5Rounds for time
100 Single Skips
4 MUs
4:13

MUs done in basement, rings hanging about 14" below my pull-up bar.

Going on vacation, last post for about a week.

DB Thrusters/Chin-ups

30-20-10

25lbs DB Thrusters
Chin-ups

4:54

All thrusters unbroken, chins were broken 30, 10-5-3-1-1, 5-1-1-1-1. Effort 3. I ate about 2lbs of nuts last night and was feeling it this morning.

Ring Dips, KBs, GHD Sit-ups

For time:

21-15-9

Ring Dips
2 Pood Kettlebell Swings (CF style)
GHD Sit-ups

5:24

Good fast METCON. I did this one at 5am. I felt good. This was a 4 on the effort scale.

I am going to track how much effort I had for each workout. This is more of a point for me, as this blog is my training log. Here is my effort scale:

5-Full Effort, weights feel light and it is easy to dig deep
4-Almost full effort. I have that extra-push
3-Medium effort. I am working and focusing on giving it all I can. Weight feel heavy, but they are moving
2-Low effort. I am finding it hard to dig deep, weights are heavier then they should be
1-No effort, I just do not have it.

The purpose is to see if there are patterns to when I am at 4-5 vs 2-3. This will give me one more data point (beyond time and loads) to evaluate my training. So, looking back if I see a several cycles of 4-5s on the workouts, I must have been doing something right, performing optimally...eating well, resting, who knows. Likewise, if I see 1 and 2s, then I must be doing something wrong.

Overhead Squat ME

ME Overhead Squat (OHS)

45lbsx5
95lbsx3
115lbsx2
135lbsx1
155lbsx1
165lbsx1
175lbsx1
185lbsx1 (PR)
195lbsx1 (PR)

My weight this morning was 168.5lbs. I have not done singles in OHS in a long time. 195lbs went fine, but I did not want to over do it. First ME day in 6 weeks.

Post: Deadhang pull-ups (pronated grip): 22

Helen-like

3 Rounds for time

Run 400M
20 1.5 Pood Kettlebell Swings
4 Muscle-Ups

9:41

The MUs were 4, 2-1-1, 1-1-1-1. The swings were unbroken. Post I did about 10 deadhang MUs. I am working on these.

Enter the Zone- book review

After 2 years of following the zone based on CFJ articles, CF discussion boards, I finally got around to reading the actual book (I wonder how many "zone heads" have read it). Here is my take on it:

First, it is written in the first person, which I understood to be Barry Sears talking to me about how great his diet was and how it will get me to my zone. The zone is a state of physical/mental/emotional connection. It is the same state athletes (or anyone gets into) where things seem smooth and effortless. This is THE ZONE, the zone is not the ratios of 40/30/30. The purpose of the diet is to allow the body to ENTER THE ZONE. I did not know all this before reading the book.

I had a few issues right off the bat with how the ratios of 40/30/30 were determined. First, Sears seems to be just saying lower your CHO intake, less insulin will be released and less insulin release is very good thing. This is nothing new to anyone reading this blog. Insulin seems to be one thing that prevents someone from entering the zone for a variety of reasons. The two main ones are impairing the breakdown of fats for energy (thus having less energy and more body fat) and increasing the production of bad eicosanoids. But, I disagree with how he determined that 40% is the ideal spot. If 40% is better then 60-70% (the standard Rx'd), why isn't 20% CHO better then 40%. He did go over it, but I did not buy it.

The 40% seemed to based on the ideal of keeping the PRO/CHO ratio 0.75 or 3gms PRO/4gms CHO. Why? Becase we do not want more PRO in the diet and less CHO because higher PRO causes insulin release and the body needs CHO to provide glucose for the brain. I wholeheartedly disagree with both these points and in fact disagree with them so much that it changed my opinion about the zone. I understood these 2 points as being the reason for the 0.75 ratio of PRO to CHO.

The first ideal just makes no sense. Let's see, eating too much PRO will cause insulin release, so we should eat more CHO (which I am sure causes even more insulin release then PRO). Also, I do not know if PRO causes much if any insulin release. In the CF nutrition certs Robb Wolf said it does not, fat causes a little and CHO causes a lot. It seems like if the point is to not cause insulin release, then eating more PRO and less CHO is the answer.

Next point, ketones will be made by the breakdown of fatty acids in the absence of CHO and these can effectively be used by the brain for fuel. This is well know and accepted. Again, Robb Wolf writes about this in the IF stuff. Maybe it is a personal belief, but if the entire reason the zone requires a PRO/CHO ratio of 0.75 are these 2 points, I disagree with both points. I think better insulin control comes from eating less CHO period.

One point to be made is that excessive PRO consumption is viewed by the medical establishment has potentially causes kidney damage. This has been proven wrong, but perhaps, 15years ago, Sears did not want to rock the boat too much advocate more PRO because it was widely accepted that the body needs very little PRO and too much will destroy the kidneys.

The point was made the zone diet is a caloric restrictive diet and once ideal body weight is loss, additional fat blocks should be added to increase the calories. I guess it should be fat blocks because PRO will cause insulin release;). Otherwise, mono saturated "good fats' were encouraged. Again, the accepted range of fat in the diet is 15-30%, so a 30% fat diet is not too controversial. Maybe Sears again, did not want to rock the boat and say right from the beginning fat should be 60% of total calories.

The rest of the book is nothing new. Sears talks a lot about maintaining the proper amount of good to bad eicosanoids. This is summed up as managing insulin levels as insulin will cause more bad ones to be bad and next, ensuring a diet of enough EPA (fish oil) to prevent the excess formation of the bad eicosanoids. While Enter the Zone was written 15 years ago and this may have been news then, it is not now. So, the best way to manage the production of good eicosaniods is to prevent excessive release of insulin and ensure adequate EPA intake.

The entire last part of the book has one to believe that eating a zone diet will cure just about everything. While I can see that many of the things Sears talks about may/can improve with controlling insulin and producing less bad eicosanoids. A zone diet (40/30/30) will not cure just about everything, but controlling insulin and managing eicosanoids maybe very beneficial to treating/improving the quality of almost everyone life, I personally think there is a better way.

Food quality is stressed a lot in the book. Sears states PRO should be lean sources, CHO should be low in glycemic index and fats should be mono saturated. Again, this is PC, but nothing new. He does talk about the occasional "cheat meal" but stresses all meals should be eating in the zone portion. This is an important point, but since I do not agree with zone ratio of 0.75, I do not know if I need to get 3gms of PRO for every 4gms of CHO, or if I just combine CHO, PRO and Fats at the same meal. It is well know that combining fats and PRO with CHO will slow digestion and slow insulin release and essentially change the glycemic index of food. Oh, I did learn full fat ice cream is a low GI food...why it is full fat and that fat slow its digestion, thus slowing glucose in the blood and therefore slowing insulin release. But, non fat ice cream is a high GI food because there is no fat to slow its digestion. Makes sense doesn't it?

But, I did take something away from the book and that is it is possible to Enter the Zone through diet, but I doubt for everyone it is 40/30/30 diet. For some, it might be 1gm PRO per body weight, somewhere between 50-100gms CHO total per day and like 40 fat blocks. Others might do well with like 150gms of CHO, about 0.75gms PRO/BW and less fat. A blanket 40/30/30 is better then nothing, but it is not the best way.

I do for the record, think Zone blocks are an excellent tool to track macro nutrient intake. If anyone is wondering how their diet is effecting anything...sleep, performance in the gym, mental focus, I think it is important to measure and track nutrient intake and using the block system is an excellent tool. This is why I think zone paleo is necessary for true elite fitness. I do not think zone paleo is 40/30/30 of meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds..etc, but rather it the ratio of macro-nutrient that allows an athlete to reach peak performance and ENTER THE ZONE. So, it may be 20/30/50 or 10/40/50 or whatever. I also think this is probably only useful in people who have ample experience with diet and exercise as this experience allows them to truly learn (from trial and error) what works for them.

I am just about done with Good Calories Bad Calories. And yes, it totally changed the way I view food. It is a very dense read, but I skipped around and read the areas I found interesting and skimmed through the stuff I already accepted to be true. I will finish it this weekend and write up what I learned next week.

Rowing METCON

For time:

Row 500M
10-8-6-4-2
HSPU
L-Chin-ups
Row 500M

8:04

Felt okay, effort grade 3. This was done on rower at work. Damper 7, foot pads 3, bare feet.

Squat Progression

Squat Progression
Weight 135lbs
Sets done on the minute

Back Squat: 5-5-5
Front Squat: 3-3-3
Overhead Squat: 1-1-1

Time:9min

This was a rebuilding session focusing on squat. It is based on the CFHQ overhead progression. BS and FS felt fine, OHS were a little less then tight. I need to tighten up.

Double Unders/Muscle-Ups

Max Rounds in 15min

5 Double Unders (DU)
2 Muscle-Ups (MU)

12 in 15:44

This is a very scaled WOD with the intent of working 2 skills I am not that good at, DUs and MUs, but also letting me get a medium timed (10-15min) METCON in. I chose 5 and 2 because I wanted to stay in motion and I thought if I added any more reps per set, it would take too long.

I started this workout with the ideal of doing 10 rounds. I did 10 in 11:44 and kept going for 15min. I really shut down on the last round of MUs, with it taking about 2min to do the very last MU. The DUs were mostly done as s-s-d-s-s-d. One set was s-d-s-d, and one was d-d-d-d. The consecutive DUs were "kamakzi jumps".

KB Snatches/Sit-ups

For time:

40 1 Pood KB Snatch (20L/20R)
75 Sit-ups
30 1 Pood KB Snatch (15L/15R)
50 Sit-ups
20 1 Pood KB Snatch (10L/10R)
25 Sit-ups
10 1 Pood KB Snatch (5L/5R)

8:44

METCON working opening and closing at the hip. Everything was slow, focused on form for the snatches. First time doing them since injury. Everything was unbroken.

About 20min later:
1 Min POSE running, 1min rest x5 intervals

Focused on staying upright, and pulling my foot up, but also using the recoil of the foot hitting the ground.

HSPU/Weighted Chins

For time:
5-4-3-2-1

FROM HSPU- done on parelletes with head touching floor on each rep.
Weighted Chin-ups- plus 2 Pood Kettlebell

8:57

The HSPU were broken per round as 5,3-1,2-1,1-1,1. They were the hardest. I did do 5 in row, my previous best was 4 in a row. The weighted chins were all unbroken.

Back Sqaut-Rehab

Long warm-up:
Foam roll
DROM
CFWUX1

5min jump rope-Double under pratice. I managed 10 s-s-d in a row.

Back Squat-high bar, all the way down in WL shoes
135lbsx5x3

First time with barbell in 1 month. Kept it light. Focused on form and getting all the way down. I did not bounce out, but held the bottom position for about 1sec on every rep.