Systems Vs. Methods: Why trainers are needed. Part 1

This is going to go on for a while so I'm gonna break this up into as many parts as needed to not loose your attention. Circuit training, High Intensity Training, Interval training, etc. All of these have been around for along time, nothing is as cutting edge as the infomercial says it is. The name brand does not negate itself from common implementations of achieving a specific physical response. Its really all the same depending on the goal, creativity and how hard the user is willing to push themselves. Regardless of how you go about it, whether its CrossFit, Zumba, or Boot Camp there is not replacement for Coaches and Trainers.

I want to start by saying that the System of certain home programs such as P90-X, and Insanity are useful, affective and not bad ideas.  Do the work and you can probably achieve that lean body you wanted and great Cardio response. It's the method that concerns me.

Did you earn your T-shirt? You bought whatever it is that you saw on T.V. and you ready to go...Day 1 goes by, week 2 goes by next month is here. Did you work out? How many people thought that they were going to use this product and ended up leaving it on the shelf or did not continue as long as they were supposed to.  There is no accountability for the lazy. A trainer is there to motivate, keep you honest and most importantly present. Managing rest times, reps, movements and you not pressing pause or getting distracted by things going on inside of your house.

Just do what I do. Is it really that easy? Even if you modify the movements do you know what a Squat or Lunge is supposed to look and feel like? Have you ever seen a person move with no awareness of how their body should move through space? Should you be doing this movement at all? With a Coach or Trainer your movement patterns can be assessed and corrected. Form and technique should always come before intensity.

Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire. Did you feel this out? Did you talk to a doctor or fitness professional before pursuing this? Moving on.

Progressive Overload. Are you getting stronger, faster, or better now that the box set is done. Probably not, which means that you are probably only good at body weight movements and all your doing is maintaining. Now if that is the desired goal, just repeat the DVD's over, and over, and over and over again. Sounds boring. In most cases, you reach a point where you can't go any further. Where is the variety, and new challenge. What if you want to Bench Press or Dead Lift more. You can't achieve that with the Kettle Bell set at home. And besides, who doesn't want to be stronger?

Thanksgiving and beyond

Turkey, ham, collard greens, macaroni and cheese. Sweet tea, sweet potato pie, potato salad, cranberry sauce and rolls. This is what I was raised on. If you are from the south, or Italian or just come from a family that knows how to do work in the kitchen then you might be somewhat worried about the holidays if you eat what you would consider clean or healthier. When you  are a guest in someone else' house the last thing you want to do is be rude and not eat, you know that you need the food or your blood sugar will drop and you will be a cranky asshole while everyone is laughing and watching football. You don't want to bring your own Thanksgiving Dinner because then you are really rude. What do you do? Because it's not just turkey day you need to worry about, you got Big Baby Jesus day and New Years and the Super Bowl all within a 3 month window. Pressure, pressure and a little more pressure to not undo all your hard work, not to mention if you are like most clean eaters the minute you eat gluten, Crisco, cheese or something you removed from your lifestyle you just don't feel right at the end of the meal. So, here are some ideas.

LET IT BE! If it is just the one meal, eat. Pick the closest foods that wont do a lot of damage and enjoy. As long as you follow up your meals back to the regular routine you will be fine. Make it a treat day.

BRING FOLLOW UP FOOD. If you are staying for a few days, bring some things to sandwich in between the holiday meals. At least things that will keep you functioning somewhat the same. Ultimately its going to come down to maintaining your caloric intake.

DETOX. Remember the things that aid in cleansing your system; Kale, Coconut Milk, Lemongrass tea, Asparagus, plenty of water.

STRENGTH DAYS!!! Maybe you are trying to add a little mass. Well these are the calories to get it done. Lift hard and heavy and eat. Seconds, leftovers..etc.

JUST RELAX AND WORKOUT. Your skills and strength are not just going to vanish into thin air. As long as you maintain your training schedule you will be fine. You may be somewhat slow if you eat bad for a week or two but the work can still be done and once your system is back to normal you will be just fine.

Breaking the Pull-Up Plateau

I have covered this with many of the ladies at my box but it is a bigger issue not just with females but amongst males as well.  There is no difference in the muscular blueprint between men and woman, only size, and with size comes more contractile force which is why men typically tend to have achieved pull-ups early on in life or through training. That's it. However, even though men tend to have bigger or stronger muscles they still reach a limit to their ability to do high repetitions of pull-ups, strict or kipping.  Depending on the programing you follow you might not be getting the volume or movements necessary to do more pull-ups, so here are some suggestions.

LOSE WEIGHT: I'm not saying that you are fat but there may be a strength to weight ratio issue working against you. If I can see your ribs and 6 pack then obviously I'm not talking to you. If you are some what bigger and you know it would be easier if your belly was smaller then it might be.



KEEP THE BAND: Yes, coming off of banded pull-ups is a great accomplishment, but if you are not able to rep out 10 strict pull-ups as a warm-up then you may need to develop more Neuromuscular co-ordination, and volume. Volume adds to your muscular endurance which adds to your ability to contract more often with less recovery. Use the band that challenges you around the 8th-10th rep. Simply do more pull-up.

LIFT LIKE A BODY BUILDER: CrossFit in general doesn't supply accessory movements to their strength routines. Pull-ups, Cleans and the occasional rope climb are simply not enough, especially for the needs of people who want results faster. Add a 2 day regiment of traditional weight training to your schedule to do movements that promote strength in elbow flexion and shoulder extension and horizontal adduction. Bicep curls, lat pull down, Rows, and reverse shrugs. Or look at a standard Back and Bi's day in a muscle magazine.
 


WEIGHTED: To increase your relative strength try weighted pull-ups. Allow yourself the appropriate work to rest ratio and  make them apart of your weekly regimen.
 
Just some tips guys, I hope they work out for you and if you got questions please ask.

More than I could chew: Regional Workout 4

In the process of becoming a CrossFit Games competitor you and I have to make it through the preliminaries. The "Open", which is how it sounds, open to anyone willing to try.  Then the Regional's, which is a step above and in some cases beyond.  I started to incorporate one Regional workout per week into this cycle of training. The volume of the actual Regional weekend alone is enough to crush your Central Nervous System and send you back home with an evil headache. So that is why I decided to break the WOD's up over the course of many weeks. To give me the volume and load of 1 workout and the ability to recover fully before the next one.  This was what I felt a way to identify possible weaknesses and gain experience of Dave Castro's imagination.  Anyhow, this particular workout  put me in a position that I have only been in twice. Here is workout 4;

For Time:                                                                          Tonage/volume Breaks down to:
50 Back Squats (135/95)                                                     150 Squat: 14,250 lbs
40 Pull ups                                                                         120 Pull ups: Body Weight
30 Shoulder to overhead (135/95)                                          90 Sh to Ovh: 8,550 llbs
50 Front Squat (85/65)
40 Pull up
30 Shoulder to overhead (85/65)
50 Overhead Squats (65/45)
40 Pull ups
30 Shoulder to overhead (65/45)

I knew that this was going to be hard, to me it was the most intimidating workout. Which is why I chose it. The first round is more than the average volume of a resistance training piece. By the time I was done with the Shoulder to overhead at 135# my heart felt like it was going to explode, I didn't rush or try to fly through it, I just wanted to stay moving. It took me 9 minutes, 3 of those minutes where the shoulder to overhead. After performing the weight change, Which I thought was supposed to be 115# (my mistake), my body acted as a turtle noticing an eagle swooping down upon him.  My mind went into "holy shit, what am I doing?" mode and my body wanted to protect itself. Every time I tried to pick the bar up I dropped it, every time I tried to stand up to work something sat me back down. I thought how?  How were these amazing athletes able to tackle this workout along with the ones before and after this one in a weekend.  I know I'm not at that level yet, I can be honest and say that, which is why I broke the workouts up, However I was not going to scale them because now is the time for me to be aggressive and take a few challenging WOD's under my belt. I need to have that feeling and that stress for adaptation. I sat there and watched the clock tick, it was time to stop and revamp my programming, at least specifically for this workout. I will spread this WOD out over the course of the week. 3 sections as the Metcon of my day. Now I know there are factors of performance, hydration, warm up, stars aligning, Pluto isn't a planet anymore, whatever the case may be. The factor I do want to touch is the atmospheric factor.

I train by myself.  It's because of my goals, my programming, work and location that I have to do so. If I could workout with others I would but I really don't get that opportunity to often.  I took 2nd in the Mid-Atlantic Hopper so I guess that means something about what I been doing.  Now how much of that competition is a fair representation of the rest of the region in the up coming season is unknown. I do know this, the Atmosphere, the electricity in the air, the fans and supporters of not just the sport but of you change everything. In that setting who knows what tasks you can accomplish, how far you can push yourself, how long you go unbroken or go past your previous PR. I think Mr. Castro may have considered the Human Spirit as a deciding factor and how it can be altered by the setting it is in. There is a very different feeling from working out alone, with the community of your box and then in a competition setting. Same goal, but different outcomes and possibilities. Maybe that is what's going to be the difference between my DNF today and success down the line. I don't know for sure, I do know this, there will always be a WOD that makes you cringe, my goal is to finish it however I can.

From Gym Rat to WOD Killer: How I caught the bug.

Puking. Cliche as it sounds that was my body's first response to CrossFit, I didn't actually know what CrossFit was. Somewhere in between muscular fatigue and central nervous system overload I found my self praying to the Porcelain God like I just finished a long night of drinking.  What did I get myself into? I love this, I suck at this but I want to get better. Those were just some of the thoughts running through my mind, and I thought I was in good shape. I grew up doing gymnastics since a child and wrestling through high school. After a very inactive 4 years I started working out at 22. Doing the basic 5 day plan, back and bis, chest and tris, legs, you know.  I was good too. I made great strength and superficial gains. I carried this into the Marine Corps and started lifting a lot more. Taking "Animal" supplements and "No-explode" hitting 2 a days. Life was good. At 185lbs and 9-11% body fat I was squatting 405 for sets of 10 and 500 for 3-5. My Dead Lift was 550 and was benching 315 for reps even put up 405 once. I thought I was good. I ran my Marines 5 days a week in the morning for 3-7 miles, distance depended on their behavior or lack there of.  I ran a 22:20 5k give or take seconds consistently. I was considered to be in great shape...Let the humbling begin.

It was 2010 and my wife and I had been living in Okinawa Japan for just about a year, my wife says "come to Warrior Training with me".  Of course I said okay, I had been to one of her group workouts before and thought nothing of it. Piece of cake, right. Turns out it was CrossFit (still something I never heard of.) put on by MCCS. Since they were not affiliated they called it "Warrior Training". The warm up was great, tough but good. Then I was introduced to Tabata and everything changed. 1st set: Push ups, 2nd Set: sit-ups, 3rd set:LUNGES!!! A feeling came over me that had only been obtained through hard leg days, or mixing too many adult beverages. I haul ass to the nearest bathroom and let her rip, the Super Pump 250 didn't help. After 5 minutes I got my act together and finished the work out. I was devastated, all these housewives and unassuming guys were making me look bad. That's when I saw that I wasn't as fit as I thought I was. Have I been living under a rock or something? Where did this regiment of exercise come from?  I wished I was exposed to this in the beginning. I was obsessed. I started taking my squad to the classes, I was searching videos on Youtube, anything and everything CrossFit related I watched.  I started to do less traditional resistance training and more of this crazy stuff. I was hooked. Still am. Thanks Honey!

Controlling Chaos

I love the idea of being "generally physically prepared", it keeps me confident in my ability to accomplish any task, within reason. In the Marine Corps as a 5811 Military Police Officer, my tasks stretched from standing a gate and saluting officers to breaching and clearing a structure. Everything in between would be 3-12 mile runs and humps (hike with 30-100+ lbs of gear) to climbing walls and conducting convoys and security patrols in combat zones. So the idea that I had to be physically ready to carry myself and a fallen brother in all his/her gear and weapon was on mind constantly. What happens when the sh*t hits the fan?

The same applies to CrossFit, what happens when the hopper brings out something you weren't ready for or something you just didn't practice enough?  Alot of people struggle with not getting the attention needed or the time under tension to progress or compete with certain loads, movements or rep schemes. Sometimes too much variation weakens our ability to transfer skills or maintain strength.  What I have found that personally works for me is to have a major movement template span across a 2 week period. If you are like me and don't hit Shoulder Press every week your numbers drop or you just don't feel as strong from one week to another. So it is important that I press every week. My work schedule or weekends are crazy so it is important to have consistency that will always allow me to improve or build on if I miss a day or two. I often hear 2 common statements from CrossFitters that can be a factor in their programming, its either "I haven't ---fill in the blank--- in so long" or "I felt like all week long we did so much---blank--my--whatever body part--is done".  My response is usually, "that sucks".  I am not a fan of cherry picking WOD's, I try not to,sometimes you have to suck it up and do the work. However an athlete also has to listen to their body in the event of too much or not enough variation and consistency. So this is how I managed to program my consistencies and variation. Spread over 2 weeks my training FOUNDATION looks like this:
 Sunday         Monday          Tuesday          Wednesday        Thursday           Friday         Saturday
Wk1    rest      Oly ME         Squat            Active Rest       rest/mobility      Oly DE          Press
Wk2    rest      Oly ME         Deadlift         Upper psh/pu    rest/mobility       Oly DE          Press

These are my Strengths but how I implement the strength that day may vary from how my body feels based on the MetCon done the day before. I may use the 5-3-1 method on a Sqaut or Deadlift day, or maybe I will do more of a hypertrophy/endurance style day of training working in accessory movements such as lying HS curl, leg extensions, GHR's or if your lucky enough to have one Reverse Hyper Extensions. I always perform a max effort day for Cleans or Snatches usually in the form of 2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1, then a dynamic effort such as pulls from blocks, segmented lifts, etc. For my upper push/pull day, it's usually weight pull ups and ring dips. The beauty of hitting these movements is that after you do weighted sets (5x5 or 6x3) you feel super light when you go back to unweighted, so you could do a max effort set or something like 2x10-15 at the end. So now that I have my Core Lifts locked in all I have to do is program my MetCon. I generally program for 4-5 days a week, 1 being in a specific domain of time or work. Check it out.
Monday- 3-5 movements, 8-15 mins, with moderate weight and reps
Tuesday- Metcon with a skill I suck at when fatigued (Double unders) usually under 20mins (chipper).
Wednesday- 20minutes+ 5k row/run, Swim or Bike
Friday-Heavy and under 6mins.
Saturday-Something I may have missed over 2weeks, quick and heavy 5-10mins.
I also may use the Core lift from that day in the workout at high reps low weight or vice versa. Ultimately it comes down to what is YOUR goal. Is it weight loss, mobility, cross training or competing. Since mine is competing, I push myself to have strength, versatility and endurance.  Step back and look at how random the Games are you will see the pattern. Push, pull, drag, squat, run, be fast or last longer. That's basically it, make those fit into your routine with progressive overload and things should pan out.  Find what you need to do, plug it and go hard.