Rest day – Friday
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Andy’s making progress on his double under goal. Are you?
Go for a run before the snow comes, again. Try a 1/2 “Griff“, 400m run, 200m backwards, 400m run, 200m backwards for time.
Week 3 of the Goals Challenge is done. If you’re in on the challenge and we haven’t seen your journal yet, this is the last chance to check in. Take some time to reflect back over the last few weeks and make your adjustments going forward. What are you changing and why? Post to comments.
Reintroduce, Rotate and Reflect Fitness Spotlight
Fitness As A Fulltime Pursuit Wall Street Journal
18-31 27th Avenue
Checking in for End of Week 3…
Goal 1: Drop from 180 to 165…27% to 25% bodyfat
Overall better energy. Feel more physically dense, stronger, more endurance. Skin feels smoother, writing in journal everyday, and trying to sleep more. Cutting back on caffeine and adding more vegetables and fruit. Taking Omega 3/6/9, probiotics, CLA and various other healthful supplements.
Scale has not budged even though clothing fits better. I feel that I am gaining muscle mass, but have no way to measure that.
I eat wayyyyyy too much food. Not sure how to control portions. ALWAYS hungry. I continue to eat some carbs and a little sugar(dark chocolate, halvah), but I am slowly trying to eliminate them.
Goal 2: 10 kipping pullups in a row
Working on upper body, but no real gains. Weights are easy but bodyweight stuff is HARD!!! Need to work on technique of kip…any help with that would be greatly appreciated:) I do assisted pullups at gym and work dead hangs and grip work at Brooklyn Boulders.
Goal 3: Run 30 minute 5k
I ran ONE ten minute mile this week which was speedy for me. I cut back to a twelve minute mile on the second and went back up the eleven on third. I am doing cardio work 3/4 times a week now despite a bum knee. Need to do more speed work and get better shoes.
I am also bicycling, yoga-ing, dancing and doing a little bouldering. No MMA in January, just don’t have the time. Also, have not been to a pool yet. I really need to work on my swimming as well…again, finding time is the biggest challenge. I am determined to keep sticking with it though!
Overall, a great start. My mood and outlook is positive. I have more energy and stamina. But I need to do something different to kick off this weight loss!!!
How do I submit my journal? Do you guys just want a document emailed to you?
Thanks for everything so far!!! That goes out to everybody!
Email is fine, or if you’re using a hard book to journal just hand that in and we’ll get it back to you asap. Keep up the good work saysha!
Goals Challenge: Week 03.
1) Deadlift 250:
Working on strength 2Xweek. 5RM 215; 1rm 235 and Super Maximal Hold 300. This week concludes Phase 1 of heavy lifting, next week is an Unloading week where I’ll work on technique and accessory work (like improving grip strength which is a bit lacking on a 6/1/6/1) and other fun things before moving back into Heavy Mode Phase 2 for the next three weeks.
2) 25 DoubleUnders:
Despite the video clip, I’m still struggling. Still working my S/S/S/D/D rhythm. On a slightly related note, a co-worker threw down the gauntlet: 200 singles in one minute.
3) 40 Turkish Get Ups.
Up to twelve, and gave a demo in the commissary at work. I’m spatially challenged on this one if I can’t get to a gym.
Pose Running Drills:
I came to the realization that I need to scale this back during periods of heavy lifting. I’ll be picking this up again next week at a less strenuous pace.
Food: .
Eating like a caveman is much easier than explaining it to people: you say “I don’t eat grain”, they hear “I don’t eat carbs”. Need to up my protein intake. Thanks B&P for your help the other day.
Flexibility:
Picked up my Yoga practice again, it’s such a luxury after a morning of heavy lifting.
What went wrong:
• unexpected late night on Monday resulted in <5 hours sleep. Invoked my Six Hour Rule (no gym if less than 6 hours sleep) and it messed up my plans for the week. Recovered the Challenge goals but everything else fell by the wayside.
Week 3 Goals Challenge
First and foremost, I need to start writing in my journal every day. I have only been writing in it on CF days and have not been including meals…tisk tisk. I also need to admit (confess) that I got off to a slow start with the challenge; weeks 1 and 2 included 2 CF workouts each week and focus on nutrition but I was slow to incorporate the other aspects of my “plan”.
1. Eliminate the twinkie – still using the twinkie for multiple reps but form is definitely better. Found it difficult to work on pushups outside of CF days SO…in an effort to incorporate a variation of pushups into my daily routine (please don’t laugh) I started doing sink pushups in the ladies room at work – I thought the angle would be more effective than wall pushups. 10 pushups each visit: highest so far was yesterday at a total of 70 for the day.
2. 10 consecutive double unders – did my first double under last night!! I was so excited that I just stopped because I didn’t know what to do next. I think I managed to squeeze out 3 during our 4 minute warm up. Although they were not consecutive, I feel I am on my way.
As for workout, recovery and nutrition, I increased my CF workouts to 3x per week starting this month. My running workouts are currently being neglected as I am finding it hard to get out of bed at 5:00 am but have set a schedule that will allow me to get my 3-4 runs in each week and will force me to get the sleep I need to wake up that early! I still need to stretch more; I have a tendency to stretch the muscles that are tender from a work out and neglect the others; will use the worksheets from the mobility workshop to make sure I am getting a full body stretch completed. Week 5 for me on the Paleo Diet and still going strong; it is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The first two weeks were the most difficult with carb cravings all the time but now I look forward to creating new paleo meals and feel really good about what I am putting in to my body. I’m down 4 pounds on the scale and feel stronger. I plan to take body measurements this weekend. I am annoyed that I didn’t do this at the beginning of the challenge but think it is a good way to track changes since the numbers on the scale are only 1 way to gauge progress.
No laughing here, Stephanie! That’s a great idea – doing sets spaced throughout the day is a very good way to build strength. For anyone looking for their first push up, pull up, handstand push up, etc.: find a way to do a single set (not to failure) many times a day.
Saysha – David and I were talking about this earlier in the week. For pull ups this means having a place to do them at home, so a doorway pull up bar might be a good investment. I wouldn’t kip on one of these, but building your dead-hang pull up strength will help you get kipping pull ups. The Iron Gym one is pretty good, but they’re getting expensive, so try not to pay more than $30 for one. Here’s a link if you can’t find it locally http://www.asseenontvguys.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=195 .
I squeezed in a travel workout as soon as I woke up today – 10 rds of 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 squats in 11:02 (might have done 11 rds).
Goals progress
1) CF Total + 80 pounds: hit 3 x 275 on back squat (previous 1RM) and 3 x 385 on deadlift (previous 1RM 365). Haven’t pressed in a while so hopefully we do some SPs soon. Will wait until end of challenge for true CFT, but may do some heavy singles at the end of this strength cycle.
2) 30 muscle ups in under 20 min. I have been doing MU work every week but struggling getting my head through the transition. Or maybe struggling getting the transition through my head … or out of my head … hoping for a MU breakthrough soon.
3) 100 DU’s: got 61 two weeks ago. need to hit 70 this weekend to stay on pace.
1) 5 butterfly muscle ups – This is still a long way off. I have been working on butterfly pullups and have stung as many as ten together. Also holding a 65% success rate on single kipping muscle attempts following WODs.
2) 30 second hand stand – Held my hand stand unassisted for a record 10 seconds this morning after kicking off of the wall. Making an average of 5 attempts each morning after waking up. The only wall space I have to practice is right next to my bed so this is literally the first thing I do every day.
3) Shave 7 min from 5k – Finally clocked my 5k last Friday at 30:32. Ran 3 times since (each for a mile or less) focusing strictly on form and wearing vibrams. On each run I emphasized forefoot landings and on the last two I used a metronome beat of 92bpm.
Overall, I believe I’m making good progress. Week 3 was not as strong as weeks 1 and 2 as far as sticking to my stretching plan and keeping close track of my food intake.
Goal 1: 0/12 to 5/12 kipping pull-ups; still need to perfect push-off the bar step of the movement… though outcomes seem to vary between home and gym
Goal 2: I think my first measurement was taken when I was really stiff and when the knee of my back leg was not on the ground. I’m using the 8″ mark as my benchmark (lower of the two first measurements 8″ vs 10″). I’ll better know progress when I remeasure next week.
Goal 3: 11/20 strict presses @ 60#; need to balance out deficiency in left shoulder
Other good stuff:
- Eating more
- Including more veggies and fruits in diet
- Feeling rested (on average) after sleeping
Updates to plan / Changes to actions:
1) Cut back on some extracurricular activity
Work has been extremely busy. On top of heavy load at work, I’ve been adding some music related activities to my schedule. I need to eliminate some of these activities so I can keep focused on these goals.
2) Increase stretch frequency
I still think that I will stretch 4-5 days a week, and on the stretch days, I will add static or isometric stretching to the dynamic stretching I do in the morning. This means I need to stretch 2 X a day.
3) Mix up shoulder workouts
Use a mix of workouts that use both phosphagen and glycolytic pathways
Well, here we are about 3 weeks into the Goals challenge.
I’m not hitting my WODs consistently enough. I need to get up early, 5-5:30am, to get my workouts in. I’m missing my heavy lifting 2-3x a week. Looks like 1x week at most. Maybe I was unrealistic about the opportunities I have to be able to train this often. I’ll re-evaluate my plan and resulting goals, or figure out a way to have more access to weights. I also need to run more often. Again, a function of waking up early or working out late.
I can do met-cons and gymnastics wod’s, but can’t do heavy lifting without being at the gym. Investing in some bumpers and a barbell might be in my future. I currently have rings, an abmat and a 1 pood KB. I can find a barbell, weights and dumbells used on CL. Bumpers will need to be ordered. I can deadlift and clean the weight up to press, but will have to squat at the gym. I can’t afford racks at home.
As far as journaling, I’ve been using posterous to record my efforts. check me out: http://paulyc.posterous.com. That’s helped a lot as I always have my phone with me and I can post via email. I will post on the blog more often now that i’ve got this posterous thing down. I did fall off the wagon last week. I ran out of food, work was a stress and class was super busy.
Good news is my eating has stayed relatively consistent. It seems to be the one thing that I can still control fairly consistently. I’m paleo, with cheat meals. Most of my cheating comes on days with my son. Pizza and pancakes are a favorite. I’ve cut sugar in my coffee and replaced it with agave syrup. Delicious and make a noticeable difference. All the caffeine, but no sugar high. I’ve kept the 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee. No dairy, very little grains (only cheat days/meals with Trev), keeping lots of salad and veges with lean cuts of meat (beef, fish, shrimp, chicken and pork).
So week 3 was not as strong as weeks 1 and 2. I’m having a very hard time staying motivated and have convinced myself that it’s winter blues, lack of sunlight or something else unknown.
I’ve only run once this week and it was my hill workout. I’m glad I got it done but need to work on getting back to my morning runs. Morning runs always get done, night time runs not so much. What can I say? I’m sleepy in the morning. I did replace a run with a swim last week so I don’t feel like a total slug–The hot yoga has been awesome and last nights class was the best so far. I went really far in my poses and was sweaty as hell
I’ve been doing the negative push ups (which is what I think they are called) a few nights per week but, like the running, I need to ramp it up and not be lazy..where is my energy and motivation??
As for my diet, I’m still striving for paleo but am not as strict as I was in week 2..week 1 was all scones and week 2 I was starving. So I guess week 3 is somewhere in the middle. My days start great but mid morning I feel like I need a second breakfast-like a yummy PB sandwich! I had plenty of paleo food in the house and didn’t run out but made some poor choices while at work. My co-workers love to bake in their spare time; lucky me!-I’m only drinking one day a week and have had an easy time with this one.
Sleeping has been fine this week; 7-8 hours every night with no midnight stomping sessions from the princess upstairs.
So moving into week 4 I would like to be better able to plan ALL of my snacks, have some more will power saying no to the yum yums the folks at work bring in…I have my running plan and push up plans. I just need to do them. I feel great when I work out but it’s getting out the door thats the issue.