Cutting The Fat

I am still having a great time with workouts this week. This morning we focused on the power snatch. It’s a bit tricky to pick up as it involves a series of coordinated moves followed through in one movement.  If you stumble at any of the steps you will lose your power and fail – as I learned a number of times this morning.

The movement allows you to push more weight overhead than one would think. I can’t push quite as much as in a push jerk since I’m starting from a hang clean position and need to clear the weight off the floor up to shoulder height then up into an overhead press position.

For beginners like me, a fair amount of limitation lies in my fear of tossing 100+ lbs over my head while dropping to a crouching position beneath it.  Nevertheless this was fun and I enjoyed it.

Workout

• 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps of max weight power snatch
• Completed: 85 lbs/3, 95 lbs/1, 95 lbs/1, 105 lbs/f, 95 lbs/f, 85 lbs/1, 85 lbs/3, 85 lbs/3

Because I’m still learning, I didn’t do just 1 rep maxes.  I did what I could at somewhat lower weights as I’m trying to learn the movement.

Weight is down a bit more today.  I think if I keep at it without slipping over the weekend I’ll probably get past my plateau so I’m going to push through this!  I had another great workout today.  Not sure where this new energy and strength is coming from but I’m not going to fight it.  Perhaps I’ve finally turned another corner?

Also the Kung Fu academy called last night to see where I was.  Some of you know I’d been attending kung fu classes twice a week on weekdays and once on saturdays.  I graduated to green belt a couple weeks ago and once I did the class schedule changed such that I can no longer make it on weekdays.  I still go once a week on saturdays but that is a 30 minute make up class and I’m falling way behind.  Tonight I’m going in for a kickboxing class then a personal long fist training with one of the instructors.  I should be pretty exhausted tonight and should probably take off tomorrow from working out.  Here’s what we did this AM:

Warmup

• 800 meter run
• bear crawls up and down gym

Workout

• 3 rounds of
  • 1 minute situps
  • 1 minute medicine ball cleans
  • 1 minute 75 lb push press
  • 1 minute ring pull-ups (jumping)
  • 1 minute plank
• Score – total number of reps:
  • 79, 79, 70
  • Total 228

Saturday I’m attending a ‘pose’ running clinic which I’m pretty excited about.  I will do a follow-up to shoes and running form then.  Happy hump day!

I am loving my workouts this week.  I’m not sure why, but out of the blue I am feeling much stronger than I have in a while.  Perhaps a little fall off the wagon was good for me.  Last week I worked out 6 of the 7 days of the week so maybe being a little more consistent has helped as well.  Previously I was doing 3-4 days a week.

Here was the morning:

Workout:

• 21-15-9 of
  • 185 lb dead lifts
  • box jumps
  • ring dips (assisted with band – though I graduated to the mini-band today!)
• Time: 9:22

As for progress, I’m a bit upset that I haven’t done a better job of taking good pictures to track my progress.  As my weight has fluctuated the past couple weeks due to these long wedding weekend binges, I’m looking for other signs of progress this morning as I keep an eye on buckling down for the next 1-2 months.  I found a picture from the end of December at a holiday party and one from this past weekend.  I was pretty pleased with how much these face pics are testament to what a little over 2 months of Zone Diet and Crossfit will do for you.

Before

After

Let’s start with the workout because I enjoyed this morning and felt like I’d actually gotten a bit stronger since we did something similar.

Warmup

• pass throughs
• overhead squats
• situps
• supermans
• ring dips
• pull ups

Workout – Fran

• 21-15-9 of
  • 75 lb Thrusters
  • pull-ups (assisted)
• Time: 8:34

I was away in Virgina, Thursday through Sunday at a friend’s wedding.  I had an amazing time and expecting that eating well would be a challenge.  I basically folded before I even headed down the turnpike figuring that I’d just enjoy myself and not care much about what kinds and what amounts of food I ate.  I expected to fall off track and get right back on but the damage today is depressing!

I’m up 7 lbs from where I was thursday morning. I know I know…water etc.  I have been fairly (sorry for the detail) constipated since I left which I mention for two reasons; one is that it is partly responsible for the weight, and two, the difference between eating clean and eating per zone/paleo style has a significant positive impact on digestion, evidenced by the fact that my digestive processes all but stopped when I fell off the wagon.

I’m not a huge believer in regret when it comes to my diet and workouts but I do believe in learning from your own personal feedback.  My body is clearly telling me that 3 days off, and yo-yo-ing is not the best thing I can do for it.  Next time I am faced with such a challenge I think I’m going to pick specific areas to allow myself to slip rather than just go all out.  Maybe I can do a 90% on, 10% off type approach.  I’m not really sure now but I know next time I’m away like this I’m going to plan a bit more and stay true to my healthy lifestyle more appropriately than I have this time.

For the record, how I gained the weight was by eating freely at all meals.  I had dessert at most meals and 3 or 4 servings of dessert.  I ate several rolls with each meal as well as an abundance of alcoholic drinks; wine, beer, and lots of sugary margaritas.  I drank little water.  I also slept poorly, definitely less than my normal 7-8 hours a night.  I tried to eat a fairly balance breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit at the hotel buffet but in the form of powdered eggs, processed sausage, and fruit that clearly came out of a can of syrup.

I complained often on the trip of being overly tired and not feeling great.  I should know better at this point that while eating like crap is easier, it never makes me feel better.  The food all weekend was good, but I can’t honestly say I enjoyed eating it (save for a pulled pork sandwich that was amazing).

So today I’m back on track, writing things down, and setting a new goal.  I’ve done well on my program and have consistently kept off somewhere between 12-20 lbs.  I’m going to consider this Phase II of this program since I still am trying to get down to about 160 lbs, which is about 15-20 lbs more.  Today marks that start of this new phase where I am going to be as diligent as ever.  I’m too close to let the goal slip away at this point so stay tuned and help me track my progress!

I loved today’s workout.  Actually I hated part of the workout but some of it I really loved so while I had to really push through parts I hated the fun parts felt almost effortless.  here we go:

Workout:

• For time
  • 10 thrusters with sandbag
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 sledge hammer throws left hand
  • 10 sledge hammer throws right hand
• Rest two minutes
• Repeat for total of 5 rounds
• Times:
  • 2:02 (worst time)
  • 1:54
  • 1:44 (best time)
  • 1:45
  • 1:45

This was the first time I’ve done these hammer throws.  Basically you’re swinging a sledge hammer down onto a big tractor tire.  There’s a little bounce when you hit it that if used correctly you can put the momentum right into your swing for the next rep.  Love it.  Burpees still suck.  It’s the pushups that kill me.  My chest sucks.  I must spend some time working on these.