strong workout

Well, today's WOD had to be modified for me, but it was still good.

3 rounds
5 Muscle ups (I did progressions)
10 box jumps

2 rounds
15 HSPU (I used an abmat and two weight plates)
20 HEAVY KBHP (I did 20# med ball squat cleans)

1 round
25 pull-ups
30 burpees

Time was something like 19:28, pretty slow, and it can get a little frustrating. However, the burbees at the end were tough in a mental way, and it's been a while since I've experienced/enjoyed that. At around 20 I decided to rest for a couple of seconds, then try to bang out 5 as fast as possible, repeat.

It's been a long time since the HSPU, but I like having the abmats to gauge my ability. And I have to say, I feel pretty weak in the shoulders. However, some of them were free standing HSPU, so I'm happy about that.

I've only worked on muscle ups once before, so this was the first time to try progressions instead of jumping MU's. I really want to work out this and HSPU, so I think I'll start doing them on my own before or after the WOD.

Was talking to Andrea about her MU attempts, and she mentioned she has small hands and thus has weak forearms. ...I have small hands relative to my size, so perhaps this is why my forearms die so quickly with pull ups. I'm getting used to the fixed bar technique-wise (though I still want to do the butterfly kip someday) but my hands still tire out after about 5 pus. Pretty sad for someone who could do 27 pu's in the blue room.

My back feels fine, I'm glad I've been taking it easy. However, I'm tired of missing more than one class a week. I want to get back into the groove, where I xfit 5-6 days a week.

Saw the DO

So yesterday the plan was to wake up at 6, have breakfast, go to the 6:45 CFOT, go to work and use the PTO's gym to shower and change, work, and then go to see Dr. Craddock at 10:30. Pretty busy eh? Anyway, it all went to crap because I woke up at like 6:45. Not exactly sure what to do, I decided on going to the PTO gym and work out there. Rode the bike, ran a little, did some bench press and dips; all stuff that didn't affect my already affected back.

So when I went to see the D.O. I said, "you know, I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with my back. Do you know what the injury exactly is?" After adjusting my back, he noted that the L4 and L5 were twisted, which is right about where the pain is, and commented on some other stuff I can't rememeber right now. Anyway, the point is that when I asked him if he could give me a definitive diagnosis, he said, "No, not really. ...It could possibly be the illiopsoas, but your syptoms are very unusual."

So I'm still in the dark. After seeing a Doctor of Osteopath, an Orthopedist, and a massage therapist, none were able to give me an answer. Not knowing really bugs, me, it's my nature to learn about stuff. However, even if I don't know what's exactly wrong I know what I need to do: stop doing stuff that hurts.

Doc told me I shouldn't work out 36 hours after the adjustment, so today looks like it'll be my rest day. My back still feels discomfort, but I expect to go to CFOT tomorrow in the am.

rowing and sledge

Well, today was a row day:

2k row

I did it in 723.7, but I could have done it faster if I wasn't trying to improve my technique. When it came down to the last 100m, I had a choice: either to keep going using the new and more correct technique, or should I use my older, faster technique? I decided to use the faster technique, and although it is suppose to be less efficient (I bend my knees too much when moving the seat forward, causing me to use my calves and other weird muscles) my 500m rate went from 1:55 to 1:41-1:43. This was interesting because it wasn't a matter of endurance for me because I had juice at the end to sprint.

Did some sledge work afterwards, this was the first time we've had the opportunity to use this exercise and I loved it. Jerry seemed quite impressed with my aggresion, guess all that martial arts training helped out. Here's an animated gif of the exercise, have to say I think I look a little... crazy.



The back felt ok the whole time, but now it feels like it's been working, so I might have to lighten everything up again. Ugh. Oh well, if this is what it takes to get better, then this is what I have to do. Not sure if I will go in to CFOT tomorrow or if I will hit the bike or run for a bit, this will have to be a game time decision.

Think I should make a list of exercises I know don't make my back feel worse, this will probably be short but here goes:
sit ups
pull ups
box jumps
air squats
push ups
running
knees 2 elbows
jump rope
burpees

injuries, the story of my life and a picture diary

Well after doing the light deadlift on Thursday my back started to act up. It wasn't pain, but strong discomfort. Nevertheless, I had to back off and give it some rest. I wanted to participate in the Helen challenge, but with my back as is I could not do any form of kb swing, so until the next challenge.

I've decided to start a picture diary. I take a picture of myself every Wednesday after the workout. Right now I've only got two weeks worth of pictures, and I have to say, nothing is as humbling as seeing a picture of myself with indoor lighting and a flash. I'll post the progression after eight weeks. I was inspired by a friend of mine, Taylor, who sent me this pic talking about how he's changed in about seven months:

After seeing this I thought it would be cool to do this. I plan on taking the weekly pictures and perhaps make an animated gif of me morphing into what I become.

Day Three, the Deadlift

Well, today involved the deadlift. Because of the back I went light, 95#s and did 10, 15, 20 reps in the three rounds. The WOD Rx'd:

Three rounds
Deadlift 10 (245#)
knees to elbows 20


Here's a vid I saw that really, really helped me with my deadlift form:

The Deadlift from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

After the wod I did the long conditioning:
500m
40 squats
30 ab mat
20 push ups
10 jumping lunges (per leg)

Three rounds took me like 26 min, but I was glad to do this workout, I've really missed crossfit. I'm going to really have to listen to my back to see how it responds to today's workout. My back felt slightly sore from yesterday's workout, but it felt like good muscle pain, not bad muscle pain.

Day Two, Double unders

Chriss is in charge of the next two weeks, and I've noticed him talking a lot about double unders. Well, today we got an opportunity to work on them:

50 double unders

40, 30, then 20 of
KB swings (Rx'd is 72#)
box jumps
abmat situps

50 double unders

23:16. With this being the first real week coming back from the back injury, I dropped KB swings down to 36#. With such a light weight, this workout became a lot, lot easier. I felt kind of bad, but when I tried to bump it up to 42#, I could feel my back being used, and not in a good way. Anyway, the double unders took an immense amount of time, although attempts counted as well, I only got three in a row once, and twice like three times. So most of it was one attempt, reset, attempt, reset, etc. A very slow process.

Tried to work on the butterfly kip, with very, very limited success. I can't figure out how to recover from the first rep to wind up for the second rep, very frustrating.

Day one

So today begins the first day of the first full week back. This was some met-con:

200m
25 ring dips
400m
35 push press (65 #)
800m
45 wall ball

My time was 20:16 or something like that. Definitely not a fast time. This was really good to get some of the rust off, the wall ball motion felt really, really foreign. My hip felt, tight, but as I get back into form it'll get back to normal. Ran in the VFF's and it was tough as my calves have STILL NOT FULLY RECOVERED from Wednesday's workout. I think I'll bring a pair of more regular running shoes for at least the next two days.

A week of sloth

So I saw the DO today, feel great now that everything is back in alignment. However, now I can't workout tomorrow. That means I only worked out twice this week. I was ok with the idea of not working out the past two weeks because my back freaking hurt, but now that I'm feeling better and I've realized I've only workout out twice, I feel lazy. Then again, my calves, back, chest and abs are all still sore from Wednesday's workout, so whatever.

So next week I plan on attending more (duh). I'm thinking I'll make Thursday my rest day. That way I'm working out on a 3-1-2-1 schedule.

Soreness taken to a new level

Since this happened last time I was expecting it, but today my calf soreness is so sore is almost debilitating. My abs are also extremely sore, and my back was feeling a little off yesterday, so I'm a little undecided whether to go workout at CFOT or to go bike and use some weight machines. The though of using machines kills me, but because they don't require core strength they won't agitate the back.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone, I imagine Jerry's got something evil cooked up for this special day.

Running in my VFF's

So yesterday we had 5 sets of 400m sprints. Like a fool, I decided to do all 5 sets. Originally I was thinking 3 rounds, but I got caught up and decided to do it all. The first round was awesome, I loved how the shoes, or lack of shoe, felt. I think the biggest thing is that I suddenly feel my toes and have to use them.

It was also weird wearing them in the gym. I had to be careful how I land off of the pull up bar. The lack of padding was very hard on the balls of my feet.

It's such a radically different workout that I shouldn't have gone all out first time. At the end it felt like I had some swelling underneath the ball of my right foot, my heels ached some, and my calves were already feeling it as I left the gym. But the intensity of calf workout is the main reason why I want to run in these shoes. Hopefully this will really get my left calf up to strength, and I will stop experiencing the sensation of an icepick being shoved into my ankle everytime I come down hard on my feet.

On a slightly separate note, yours truly is now the proud owner of what is widely considered the ultimate pose running shoe: the Puma H street. Last time these babies came up on the 'bay I lost out, but this time I learned my lesson, and the student became the teacher. Behold, my electric blue Puma H streets!

Soreness: should you work out?

On Wednesday I was still pretty sore from Monday. It was the type of soreness where merely pressing the area hurt. Still I knew that if I kept waiting for the soreness to go down I'd never improve, so how do you walk that fine line of training vs overtraining.

Well, the standard seems to be if you're still sore after the warm up, you should still rest. After the warm up on Wednesday, I didn't feel sore, so I decided to go for it, albeit at a scaled down version:

5 rounds for time
400m sprint
30 abmat situps w/ 15# medball
10 pullups (Rx'd was 20)

My time was pretty slow, but back to what I want to talk about: soreness. It seems that when you're getting back into the swing of things it's ok to workout if you're sore, but after a while one should avoid forgetting recovery for the sake of activity. After all, working out breaks your body down, and you only get stronger after you recover.

In terms of treating soreness, there are many different areas to focus on, as is pointed out in a great discussion on the crossfit board about soreness:

1. Nutrition - We know that going on the Zone, Paleo, or whatever suits your training often results in a performance skyrocket.
2. Sleep - Critical. Not enough quickly sends performance down the toilet. Bulgarian Olympic weightlifters sleep 9 hrs/night plus a 3 hour nap between training sessions according to Dan John.
3. Active Recovery - Easy, fun, physical activity. Non-strenous to your level of conditioning. Biking, swimming, rock climbing, whatever.
4. Social Time - Hanging with friends/family/significant other. Having fun. (So does 4 hours in the mall count as relaxing..?)
5. Alone Time - Prayer, meditation, thought gathering, journaling.
6. Cryotherapy/Contrast Bath/Contrast Shower - a nice tingly way to ease soreness and improve recovery. Featured in the Performance Menu.

I think working out on Wednesday was a good thing, but if I'm ever this sore after like the fifth week of xfit, I'll be taking the day off.

back in action.... kind of

Well, went into the gym on Mon and did Tabata Something else; something light since I'm still unsure about the back.

20s amrap, 10s rest
8 X pullups
8 X pushups
8 X sit ups
8 X airsquats

I have no idea what my score was, I couldn't keep track since there wasn't any pen/paper to be had. It was good to be back, Jerry's got an essentials class going on now, thing was huge, like 20 people. Working out with the VFF's is pretty strange, when I land from the pull ups I have to make sure to land on the balls of my feet.

The day after the back felt.. not quite right, so I took today off. Also, I'm getting sorer by the minute. It's good to be back.

Physical therapy Thursday was pretty good, I was sore from all the exercising I've been doing, but it felt like I'm getting stronger with regards to the full range of motion. Monday I noticed that the first six inches of a calf raise were relatively easy, but it was that last two inches I couldn't do with the left, while I can easily do it with the right. So while my left seems strong enough for everyday activities (walking, climbing stairs, etc.) it's not strong enough when it's really pushed, like running wearing vibram five fingers or box jumps.

Anyway, yesterday I noticed a slight improvement (or am I just imagining it?) with those last two inches of a calf raise. It was still difficult, almost impossible, but when I tried to fully point my toe, my ankle didn't suddenly collapse like it did on Monday. Yay for progress. Here's the exercise routine they currently have me do:

warm up on bike for 5 min
3 x 10 leg press with left leg only @ 160#
3 X 10 calf press @ 100#
Stretch calf
3 X 10 calf raises
2 X 10 rounds on a BAPS board
2 X 10 one legged ball squats
10 min stic therapy (think that's what it's called, help me out Danny)

Doing leg press reminded me of when I could leg press 600# ten times easily. That's pretty strong, so why is my front squat max three rep max 185? I mean, that's less then a third of my leg press workout, not even my max. Why? I'll tell you why, it's because leg press isolates the leg muscles, they take the core completely out of the equation. As I try out old exercises in the PTO gym after riding the bike, they are so much easier, and not just because I'm stronger; they're easier because I engage the core when I lift.

Before Crossfit I didn't understand how to engage the core, I thought I needed to only focus on one, maybe two muscles (e.g. pecs for bench press). Now that I keep my core tight when I exert effort, everything is just so much... easier.

Speaking of the core, I decided to see a great massage therapist on Thursday as well for my back. The pain has been downgraded to "mild discomfort". I'm really not in pain anymore, but I can tell that I'm still not right. The masseuse, Jette, was awesome, she explained to me that my pain would indicate an injury to one of the four abdominal muscles, particularly the obliques.

While giving the massage, she suggested I work on posture and my core muscles. I told her about how I'm working on it. She also mentioned that my pelvis is really out of whack, so good thing I'm going to the DO soon.

All signs seem to point to how important it is for me to continue working on my posture and engaging my core. Thank goodness I found crossfit.

...If I experience no pain on Monday, I plan on getting back to crossfit.

Road to recovery: looking a little bit longer

Well, stopped by CFOT yesterday, and after talking to Jerry and Chriss pretty much the only exercises I can do are ab mat and lunges. I did the air squat warm up, and practicing good form I used my spinal erectors. And even that slight work reminded me my back isn't where it needs to be for me to start doing any kind of load bearing exercise. Ended up doing like 30 lunges and 150 ab mat situps. After that I went over to the PTO gym and rode the reclining bike for 30 min.

The funny thing is, even though I saw the Orthopedist I still don't know exactly what's wrong. Why? Because he never actually told me. He only said all the tests came back negative. He's a bit ditzy, so I think he simply forgot to tell me while I was there for PT on my calf. Anyway, I'll be seeing him tomorrow so he can tell me what's wrong.

Speaking of the ankle, they therapists are having me do a lot of calf exercises and stretches, and I got a pretty good workout out in on Mon, it felt pretty sore yesterday. After the workout they hook me up to some device (forget the name), it has pads they stuck to my calf and send tiny electrical impulses though my leg. ...I think I can buy one of these devices for like $75, and if so I'll start doing these workouts on my own and save myself the time and money of going to therapy. But for now, I'm seeing what they're having me do.

Maybe they can switch and start working on my back. I know the insurance company doesn't like it if you treat two different problems at the same time, so perhaps after this week I can finish the calf work and start the back work.

Road to recovery

Well, on Friday I rode the reclining bike for 30 minutes. I def noticed a difference in strength between my right and left foot. It felt strange to be back in a Globo gym, just felt bad for all the poor schmucks who don't know any better. After the 30 min ride, my back felt a lot more relaxed. When I feel my lower back with my hands, I can feel this... knot on the left side. I plan on using a foam roller tomorrow to stretch it out some, and do some ab work.

While I was at the PTO gym I thought of an old nemesis exercise of mine that shouldn't aggravate the back, the preacher curl. I decided to try just one rep of 65 lbs, a weight that always gave me trouble (60 was easy, but I could never figure out how to get past that amount). I tried it out, and it was easy as pie. I was tempted to see how much farther and heavier I could go, but I decided not to test my luck and get out while my back was still feeling good.

...I plan on returning to CFOT this tues, with therapy on the ankle tomorrow.