One More Time

I woke up less sore than I thought I'd be, so I headed back to Lahaina CrossFit to squeeze in one last workout before leaving the island.

Warm-Up:

• Row 500 meters
• 20 kettlebell swings
• 20 air squats
• 20 push-ups
• 20 push-presses
• 20 wall balls
• 20 pull-ups
• 20 lunges

We had fifteen minutes to complete the warm-up, which was plenty of time to finish all eight of the warm-up exercises. I was pretty sweaty by the end, though. And while I've never been a huge fan of the "Your Workout Is My Warm-Up" line, it felt apropos this morning.

Strength Skill:

• Push Jerks (5-5-3-3-1-1)

"We're not aiming for a one-rep-max today," Anthony said at the start of the workout. "We're just working on technique."

Nice. My form is rusty, and I couldn't remember my PR anyway. Once I got close to jerking my bodyweight, I called it a day.

Metcon:

"Baker's Dozen" - AMRAP in 13 minutes of:

• 13 kettlebell swings (53lbs / 35lbs)
• 13 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (53lbs / 35lbs)
• 13 toes-to-bar
• 13 burpees

Lucky thirteen. This was a doozy; after ripping through the kettlebell swings and SDHPs, trying to hang on for the toes-to-bar was a special kind of hell. It was enough to make me almost -- almost -- look forward to the burpees.

Result: 4 rounds + 40 reps as RXed.

After class, I lingered to chat with S and K, a super-fit couple in the 8 a.m. class at Lahaina CrossFit. We ran into them last night at the Old Lahaina Luau, where they work. Our family was wowed by S's beautiful hula dancing, and bowled over by K's gregarious charm. (Photos from our luau experience are on M's blog.) They're also two of the most friendly and inviting folks we've met on an island full of generous, warm people, and it was great getting to know them better.



You wouldn't ever know it from looking at him, but K told me that not too long ago, he was over 40 pounds heavier. Then, he and S started doing P90X (8 rounds!) and Insanity, and then moved onto CrossFit. Now, they're looking into Paleo. Sound familiar? I wish I could say that I'm just like S and K, but that would be wishful thinking; I could only hope to be as fit and strong (and nice!) as these two.

Maybe it's something in the water here. Or maybe I should move here to Maui and see if some of the mojo rubs off on me.

Happy Anniversary to Me

One year ago today, I attended my very first CrossFit class.

At the time, I’d just completed a few rounds of the P90X and Insanity home fitness programs, and had managed to build up a passable level of metabolic conditioning. After months of bodyweight resistance exercises and jumping around crazily in my garage, I signed up for 5 a.m. classes at CrossFit Palo Alto expecting that the programming would be challenging, but nothing I couldn’t handle with a little extra effort.

It didn’t take me long to realize that "a little extra effort" wasn't even close to being enough. This shit was hard, and I was just plain awful at it. My initial attempts at Olympic lifting were laughably inept, and I couldn’t jump rope to save my life. I had no trouble with dead-hang pull-ups, but when I tried to kip, it looked like I’d grabbed onto an electric fence.

I SUCKED AT EVERYTHING.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but each night before a workout, I'd crawl into bed with a pit in my stomach, scared of what evil plan Tim had in store for the morning WOD, and wondering how badly I'd perform. Once, Tim announced an upcoming workout on Facebook; I was so freaked out I couldn’t fall asleep.

But I never once thought about quitting, or even skipping a class. I was hooked on CrossFit – especially after watching last year’s Games and seeing someone my size kick ass at all the things I wanted to be able to do. I wanted to get better at CrossFit, and given my utter lack of athleticism (I’m a total nerd, yo), I knew that I wouldn’t improve unless I kept working at it.

So I did my homework. I peppered Tim with questions about O-lifting technique and studied his CrossFit "Fundamental Movements" instructional DVD (still the only one of its kind!) in an attempt to skill up. I bought myself a jump rope and made myself some parallettes -- and used 'em. I eventually amassed a nice collection of toys in my garage -- all so I could doggedly practice the same skills that XFitMama -- at that time, the only other member of our mighty 5 a.m. class -- was so easily cranking out.

Some skills took longer than others to learn, but every time a new movement clicked into place, I was over the moon. I remember the satisfying THUNK! of my heels against the floor the first time I properly power-cleaned a barbell. And I can recall exactly how it felt to complete my first successful kipping pull-up, muscle-up, handstand push-up and double-under. Each time, my excitement didn’t die down for days. Even with setbacks along the way – a failed PR attempt here, a less-than-fantastic Fight Gone Bad score there – I was gaining experience and confidence. And slowly, over the course of a year, I gradually got less terrible at CrossFit.

One year from now, if I’m still blogging away (and wouldn't that be pathetic?), I hope to be able to report that I continued to get better, stronger, faster. I’ll never truly be good at CrossFit -- but that’s the beauty of it: It'll never get easy or old. Unlike P90X or Insanity, I don’t have to pack it up (or repeat everything) after a few months. There’ll always be a new and difficult challenge to tackle.

And let's be honest: With me, there’ll always be plenty of room for improvement.

Starting Strength Takes a Big Crap on CrossFit, P90X, Insanity

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore is one of my favorite go-to guides for information on proper Olympic lifting technique. I've learned a ton from watching Rippetoe's online videos and reading his old CrossFit Journal articles. Sadly, he's one of many well-respected ex-CrossFit affiliate owners who appear to have had a falling out with the folks at CrossFit HQ, and he's no longer conducting CrossFit barbell certification trainings.

Still, I was a little surprised to read this recent article on the Starting Strength website, which takes great pains to slam the fuck out of CrossFit. The author, Damon Wells, musters some strong arguments against "muscle confusion" and "broad time and modal domains" as concepts that are "useless," the "opposite of progress" and "gimmicks promoted by greedy entrepreneurs." P90X, Insanity and CrossFit are called out as "glorified and well marketed versions of circuit training."

The bottom line in training is the realization of improvements that are quantifiable. A runner should get faster. A powerlifter should get stronger. An athlete should improve on sport-specific skills. By incorrectly training a carelessly tossed together hodgepodge of techniques, you are essentially training to be good at nothing. Some proponents of these methods preach the opposite: variety leads to improvement in everything. An example of this is CrossFit’s claim that they train for the unknown and the unknowable. Unfortunately, this is not how human physiological systems work. You become better at that which you practice, both metabolically and mechanically. Practicing everything makes you better at nothing.

The conclusion: "[S]trength training is more useful for humans over the long haul. The goal of training in general should be to develop a robust, injury resistant body that is harder to break. Strength training accomplishes this goal. As useful as it may be, cardiorespiratory training does not."

I'm a devoted CrossFitter, but I don't disagree with everything Wells has to say. One of my main complaints about CrossFit's main site WODs is the randomness of the daily workouts and the lack of consistent strength development or periodization. If my affiliate didn't operate on a Max Effort Black Box model (which emphasizes strength training over long, draining, random WODs), I don't know that CrossFit would hold my interest. Building strength is important to me.

But who says that enhanced metabolic conditioning can't also be a useful goal?

What say you?

I Don't Sweat -- I Mist.

The good folks at Re-Nest want you to know that there are lots of advantages to having a home gym that’s “both handsome and healthful,” such as: “[y]ou can watch television to make the time pass quickly during your 20-40 minute cardio” and “you are comfortable and completely at ease.”

YES! FINALLY! That’s EXACTLY what I want when I'm exercising: Complete comfort and ease! While watching TV to kill time!

Here’s Re-Nest’s recommended shopping list for starting your very own super-chill home gym on a budget:

• Hand weights – Savasa Hand Weight Set with Workout DVD. $14.99 - $24.99

• Body ball – Savasa Eco Body Ball. $14.95 - $24.00

• Exercise Mat – Natural Fitness Eco Yoga Mat. $29.99

• Gym storage – any bench, basket, chest, or cabinet: West Elm Nailhead Upholstered Bench. $349.00

• Free online exercise demos – sparkpeople.com. $0.00

• Free online fitness videos – Spark People's Youtube channel. $0.00

Total cost: Over $400.

That bench makes me want to put on some Coldplay and curl up in a Snuggie with a soothing cup of fucking chai latte. It does not, however, make me want to work out. I daresay that if you plan on using an upholstered ottoman in place of an exercise bench, you’re pretty much committing to either NOT sweating or investing in a Costco-sized pallet of Scotchgard.

And if you hate exercising so much that you need to stare at something on TV to distract you, just buy a Wii Fit. It won't get you in better shape, but at least it'll only set you back a hundred bucks or so.

Don't get me wrong. I’m not saying you have to accumulate a crapload of equipment to outfit your home gym. But if you have $400 burning a hole in your pocket, and you want to buy some stuff to enable you to ACTUALLY WORK OUT, consider these options instead:

Option A: P90X

What to buy:

• P90X DVDs. $139.80

• A door-frame pull-up bar. $38.00 (But feel free to upgrade.)

• A yoga mat. $13.95 - $19.95

• A bunch of resistance bands. $24.44

Total cost: Less than $225.

Option B: Insanity

What to buy:

• Insanity DVDs. $144.80

• A box of ShamWow towels to mop up your sweat. $15.61

Total cost: $160

Option 3: CrossFit Bodyweight Workouts

What to buy:

• Shane Skowron’s list of CrossFit Bodyweight Workouts. $0.00

• A pull-up bar. This time, let’s splurge on something nicer – let’s go for the StudBar. $139.45

• Olympic rings – prices on Amazon range from $39.95 (for rings by XFit Equipment) to $84.24 (for EXF Rings – I have a pair and love 'em)

• A kettlebell. Kettlebell King -- the cheapest KB seller I could find online -- sells them for about a buck per pound. For our purposes, let's start with a 35-pound kettlebell. $34.65

• Jump rope – I like Buddy Lee’s Aero Speed Hyperformance rope ($39.90) but you can get a basic speedrope (like Valeo's) for much cheaper ($7.74).

Total cost: $228 - $295

Option 4: Run (Barefoot or Close to It!)

What to buy:

• The Barefoot Running Book by Jason Robillard. $14.95

• OPTIONAL: A pair of Vibram FiveFingers. $75 - $100

Total cost: $15 - $115

Keep the change.

In Defense of CrossFit

Last week, Wired published a piece about the military's review of whether CrossFit, P90X and Insanity are -- as some believe -- too tough for our troops. Well, it looks like our CrossFitting peers in the armed services have something to say about that.

“I wish that the Army would come and study me,” a servicemember posts on CrossFit’s message forum. “At my current base, the fitness center is starting to push back against the many crossfitters…I find this attitude infuriating. Our Base has a 25% PT [physical training] fail rate. I wonder how many crossfitters are failing.”

...

“Every Soldier does Crossfit or they get their nuts smashed,” reads another comment on CrossFit’s forum from a company commander at Schofield Barracks, who cops to “puk[ing] my guts out” doing their first-ever CrossFit workout in Iraq heat. “I’ve noticed marked improvements in their performance, a lower injury rate, and an increased ability to perform at a higher level of physical intensity in full kit.”

“For those of you that are in the military,” the commenter adds, “stand up and help revolutionize the way we conduct physical training.”

Lesson: Push-ups and sit-ups won't cut it any more. (Unless you want your nuts smashed.)

(Source: Wired)

The Big 3: Too Much For Our Troops?

The U.S. military's concerned that our soldiers aren't physically prepared for CrossFit, P90X and Insanity workouts:

More troops than ever are flipping tractor tires, lobbing 50-pound kettle bells and conquering the Three Bars of Death in an effort to become “tougher, faster, hard-bodied freedom fighter[s].” But some of them are also working out until they puke, faint or suffer permanent organ damage. Now, a team of medical researchers have a message for recruits: you’re probably not fit enough for CrossFit.

Ditto for P90X and Insanity. Together, the brutally intense fitness regimes are “the big three” being studied and evaluated in a review of high-intensity fitness programs by the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

CHAMP's examination of "the big three" workout programs is just beginning, but researchers are hoping to publish results and recommendations in the next few years. Already, there are signs that fitness is on the decline in the military, which doesn't bode well for the formal incorporation of CrossFit, P90X or Insanity into our uniformed services' PT programs.

Thirty-five percent of American youth are unfit to serve because of health problems. Compared to the Army’s new new training regime, which wants troops to embrace yoga and calisthenics, start slow to avoid injury and sweat their way to basic fitness levels, CrossFit’s standards seem all the more extreme.

“Certainly, we are addressing a perceived lack of fitness among recruits,” [CHAMP medical director Col. Francis] O’Connor says. “People are doing too much, too soon, too fast. Participants [in high-intensity programs] need baseline strength and flexibility, and they simply aren’t prepared.”

But from my (admittedly limited) vantage point, all the CrossFitters with military backgrounds I've come across are insanely fit. I work out twice a week with a fortysomething Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines, and he routinely shreds our WODs. I've got to think that kids half his age are able to kick butt, too.

(Source: Wired)

Saturday's Workout

M and I didn't get home last night until almost 1 a.m., and I was ready to collapse before we managed to open our front door. I'd been up since 4:20 a.m. (CrossFit class waits for no one), and I desperately needed my beauty sleep.

Thankfully, the kids spent the night at their grandparents' place, so we got a couple of extra hours of shut-eye before dragging our asses into the garage to exercise.

"Isn't it pathetic?" M mused. "For once, the boys aren't here, and we could have gone out to brunch or the Farmer's Market or something. We could have gotten a ton of stuff done. But instead, we decided to work out in the garage."

Answer: Yes, we are pathetic.

M worked out to her Chalene Johnson DVDs while I did another day of my (customized and expanded) Power to the People program:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

And then, for no good reason (other than because we weren't in danger of being interrupted by a five-year-old demanding food), I pulled out my Insanity DVD set and did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit routine.

Big mistake.

At the time, it felt nice to get reacquainted with the pace and exercises in Shaun T's workouts. Having not done an Insanity workout in weeks, I even felt a wee bit nostalgic about the pulsing, mildly-annoying background music. The moves were just as challenging as I remembered, and I certainly broke a sweat.

But did I overextend myself today? Definitely. I'm zonked. After dinner, sitting beside my two-year-old as he watched a cartoon, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I realized that I'd collapsed on my toddler, and was using a small child as a pillow.

Tuesday's Workout

I woke up with sore hamstrings, so I decided to go easy on my legs this morning. After scouring my One-on-One set for a workout that requires zero lower body work, I popped in Tony Horton's "Diamond Delts" DVD.



Diamond Delts consists of three circuits of three shoulder exercises -- and each circuit is done twice:

Circuit One (2x)

• Pike Presses
• Military Presses
• 6-Direction Shoulder Flies

Circuit Two (2x)

• Pike Presses (again)
• Seated Shoulder Flies
• Bent-Over Shoulder Flies

Circuit Three (2x)

• Deep Swimmer's Presses
• Upright Row / Y-Presses (sort of like a dumbbell clean and jerk, if you were to muscle up the weight instead of exploding down below it)
• Lying Rotator Cuff Backhands

This was the first time I'd done this workout, but quickly concluded that depending on one's fitness goals, Diamond Delts is either a fantastic shoulder workout or a totally efficient way to kill a half-hour. In some ways, this workout is illustrative of one of the key differences between Tony Horton's Beachbody programs and CrossFit, in that P90X, P90X+ and the One-on-One series are focused primarily on getting you "ripped," while CrossFit prioritizes general fitness over physical appearance.

Yes, Tony also talks a lot about the importance of functional fitness, and a bunch of his workouts do more than just make you look good. For instance, P90X Plyo certainly helps develop power and speed, and Yoga X is awesome for building balance, flexibility and strength. But P90X and its progeny also rely heavily on isometric moves and advocate doing reps to exhaustion -- methods that are terrific for bodybuilding (i.e., developing muscle size and definition), but not necessarily optimal for building power and strength. Instead, the aim is to spend 90 days getting that "ripped" look when you take the "after" photo.

Diamond Delts fits right into this training approach. It's a thirty-minute session devoted entirely to shoulder exercises, and the reps per set that Tony recommends are all in the 8 to 12 range. When Tony flexes his back and shoulders for close-up shots (which he does repeatedly on this video), he's making his point clear: Do what he does, and you can get shredded like him.

And that's fine. Tony doesn't pretend to be ego-free, and I'm not going to, either. I'll readily admit that personal appearance plays a role in my decision to keep exercising regularly.

But keeping up appearances isn't -- and shouldn't be -- the ultimate goal. Getting "ripped" is a nice side benefit to enhancing fitness, but it's not enough to keep me motivated. For me, working to develop my general athleticism--  including skills, agility, speed, power, accuracy, endurance and strength -- is a much more sustainable and satisfying approach to exercise.

Don't get me wrong: I don't regret being introduced to the gateway drug to exercise otherwise known as Tony Horton. But these days, a workout focused exclusively on getting my delts to swell up like a bodybuilder's isn't exactly what I want to accomplish. So I found today's session to be a little disappointing -- mostly because it didn't resonate with me given my current goals. (But also because I'm kind of tired of Tony's and Mason's schtick.)

Tuesday's Workout

My hands are still bleeding, so I did the Insanity Pure Cardio workout this morning. I couldn't make a fist, though, so when Shaun T called for jabs, I did karate chops instead, which looked super-cool (naturally).

Sunday's Workout

I did Tony Horton's 20-minute One-on-One Killer Abs workout this morning, but M just got Chalene Johnson's newest BeachBody home fitness program, TurboFire, and wanted to test drive the HIIT 15 DVD this evening, so I joined her.

As with Chalene's other programs, TurboFire features colorfully-dressed and ridiculously peppy fitness zombies -- almost all female -- enthusiastically doing cardio on a brightly-lit studio set. HIIT 15 consists of three circuits -- each featuring three 30-to-40 second long sequences of jumps, squats, lunges, and the like.

HIIT 15's not as intense as (and definitely shorter than) a typical Insanity workout, and it's definitely geared towards a female audience, but I certainly broke a sweat. M's about to start the full 20-week TurboFire program, and it's possible I'll join her again on a CrossFit off-day just for kicks. Especially if, say, I happened to eat four mini-cupcakes earlier in the day.

Wednesday's Workout

When I drove up to my CrossFit gym for my morning workout, it was still dark. Looking back, I probably should have stayed in bed.

Today's torture:

5-5-5-3-3-3 Front Squats (I'm continuing to work on my form, so I'm still just shy of lifting the equivalent of my bodyweight)



4 rounds (for time) of:

400-meter Cradle Carry (run 400 meters while lugging a 45-pound weight plate)
15 pull-ups

It took me almost 20 minutes to finish all four rounds -- much of which was spent trying to: (1) catch my breath, and (2) get the feeling back in my arms.

When I got home, M was just starting her ChaLEAN Extreme workout, so I popped the Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVD in the player and did that, too. Bad idea. By the end of Shaun T's 40-minute beat-down, I was dead tired, and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet.

Round 3 / Day 89: Insanity Max Interval Circuit

I admit it: I cheated today during Max Interval Circuit. Instead of repeating the circuits three times each, I only did 'em twice.

And yet the workout was still crazy-hard.

(Thankfully, this was the last "Max" Insanity session of Round 3; I'm not sure I could have handled many more.)

Round 3 / Day 87: 2K4 Turbulence Training Workout A + RKC Man Maker + Insanity Cardio Abs

When the alarm went off this morning, I turned it off and fell back asleep. An hour passed before I groggily peered at the clock again, it was 6:40 a.m. -- only twenty minutes before the kids would pop out of bed. No time to fit in my entire scheduled workout.

Still, Man Maker training takes only 12 (interminable-seeming) minutes, so I knew I could squeeze in some kettlebell swings.

I'm glad I did, because after dinner tonight, when I finished the rest of my workout, I could feel the fatigue setting in. I'm not sure I would have had the energy to heave a kettleball around after lifting weights and doing Insanity-style core work.

Plus, I still had to take out the garbage. Garbage night is the bane of my existence.

Round 3 / Day 86: Insanity Pure Cardio

I kept telling myself: This video is only 37 minutes long.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help make this workout go by any quicker.

Plyo Primer

Want to learn more about the jump training featured in P90X Plyo and just about every single Insanity workout? The Art of Manliness just put up a lengthy post (with photos and videos!) entitled "Beginner's Guide to Plyometrics":

Plyometrics were developed by Soviet Bloc scientists during the Cold War. The leading researcher of plyometric training was a Russian scientist named Yuri Verkhoshansky. Dr. Verkhoshansky developed a system of exercises called “Jump Training” that used repetitive jumping in order to increase the speed and explosiveness of Russian track and field athletes. He published the results of his studies on this new form of training in 1964.

During the 1960s and 70s, Soviet Bloc countries dominated the Olympics thanks in part to Dr. Verkhoshansky’s exercises. Seeing that the Americans were getting their asses handed to them by the Commies, American track and field coach Fred Wilt started to investigate how they were training. He saw that the Soviets were doing a bunch of crazy jumps from boxes and skipping around like school children. Wilt took some notes, went back to America, slapped the moniker “plyometrics” on these new exercises, and started implementing them with his athletes.

Since then, sports teams across the U.S. and the world have incorporated plyometrics into their training regimens to help their athletes become faster and more explosive.

Read the complete article here.

(Source: The Art of Manliness)

Round 3 / Day 82: Insanity Max Interval Plyo

I'm so, so tired. Looking back, I can't believe I used to do multiple Insanity "Max"-series workout each week -- especially given my current inability to finish one without feeling like I just got hit by a truck.

Round 3 / Day 80: 2K3 Turbulence Training Workout A + RKC Man Maker + Insanity Cardio Abs

I worked my ass off this morning, cranking out pull-ups and push-ups and dumbbell rows and kettlebell swings and tuck-knee jumps. I went all-out, and completely wiped myself out by the end of my hour-long workout.

Why?

Because I knew we had dinner reservations at a Brazilian churrascaria this evening, where we had a rodizio-style chowdown, cramming into our open maws as many different cuts of various meats as our distended stomachs would allow.

And even now, hours after my last slice of lamb off the server's big-ass skewer, I'm way too uncomfortably full to go to sleep. Which means I'm not going to get enough shut-eye before tomorrow morning's yoga.

Sad but true: Outside of family and work, my life revolves around eating, sleeping, and making time for exercise.

Round 3 / Day 75: Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning

Holy shit. I'd forgotten how agonizingly hard -- and utterly humbling -- this workout is.

But I still love it.

Round 3 / Day 72: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I finished Plyometric Cardio Circuit without taking any mid-set breaks -- not even during the dreaded Ski Abs / In-Out Abs sequence!

It's kind of pathetic of me, though, to point to "not taking extra breaks" as some sort of awesome fitness milestone.

Round 3 / Day 65: Insanity Pure Cardio

Thankfully, this workout ended just as I was about to crumple into a sweaty, quivering heap.

I'm probably just misremembering, but I could have sworn this workout used to be easier.