Squats and More Squats

The biggest component of Starting Strength is obviously the back squat. The program calls for back squats 3 days a week, increasing the weight every workout.

When I was in college, our trainer only had us do front box squats. So crossfit was really my first experience with getting really deep in the hole on squats. I always thought I had strong legs, but now I know its impossible to get strong without working those muscles hard. My years since college consisted mostly of bodyweight exercises, P90x, cycling, running and a little triathlon. Nothing that would really build pure leg strength.

My first day of starting strength, I had to eat a lot of crow when my initial number was only 115 for back squats. I know I could have done more, but starting low ensures that I can improve my form and not hit a wall in 2 weeks. If I had started at 145, I would have been dead really soon.

Now, the workouts are getting harder, but I'm nailing all the reps, and I think my form is good. I think I have a little butt wink going on, so I'm going to video myself and see how it looks.

Work Sets:

Back squat 3x5@ 155
Dips 3x5 @ 25
Deadlift 1x5 @ 205

Feet Placement for Squatting

One of the big things I like so far about the starting strength program is that the pure volume of squats is really letting me focus on my technique. tight core, neutral neck position, knees out, etc...

I hadn't really considered my feet position however. I always thought that I needed to splay my feet out to get good depth. This video from mobilitywod.com convinced me to give today's workout a try with a lot less angle-out foot position, and focus on clearing the hips and pushing the knees out.

Felt different for sure, but definitely doable.

Work sets:
Squat 3x5 @ 140
Press 3x5 @ 80
Power clean 5x3 @ 110

Chalking Up

I finally broke down and bought some chalk for my workouts at home. Not having any before never seemed like a problem, since I didn't know what I was missing. After working out a box for a while though, I really got used to having that bucket of chalk available for lifting. Maybe its mental, but my grip feels a lot more solid, and the bar definitely doesn't seem to tear up my hand as bad.

Kind of a tough workout today, since I had to do back to back days because of scheduling issues this week. Day off tomorrow should feel good.

Work Sets:
Squat - 3x5 @ 135
Dips - 3x5@15
Deadlift -1x5@185

Squats and Overhead Press

One of the big reasons I started this workout routine is to improve my overhead press. For whatever reason, my college strength coaches never had us do overhead presses. We did do a few light push presses as a warmup, but no strength work. At the time it made sense, since everyone thought that strengthening the shoulder would hurt a tennis serve. But now, I think that was idiotic. My shoulders are a mess, with a tear in one, and weakness in the other. From what I've read, overhead presses are one of the fundamental ways to strengthen the shoulder muscles and the whole shoulder girdle. Because of this, I'm really hoping to see some good progression on this lift.

An added benefit is increasing my squat numbers. I know I'm starting low, but this is letting me focus on technique and get used to the volume.

Work sets:
Squat 3x5 @ 130
Press 3x5 @ 75
Power clean 5x3 @ 105

Crossfit Games WOD 12.4

No rep!

This morning I attempted the Games Open WOD 12.4. This was a workout of 12 min, do as many reps as possible, in order, of 150 wall balls (see above), 90 double unders (jump ropes pass under your feet twice each jump), and then 30 muscle ups (go from the bottom of a pullup, to the top of a dip, on gymnastics rings). 

First off, I've never done that many wall balls before. I did my first and only wall ball workout a few weeks ago at a crossfit box. At home, I don't have a 20 pound ball, so I substitute thrusters with an empty barbell. Like everyone before me who has made this substitution, I have to admit it is no where close to a reasonable substitution. While the movement seems simple, once you start doing a ton, it becomes very easy to not throw the ball high enough, not hit the target, not bend down enough, etc...

Needless to say, those wall balls wrecked me. It didn't help that I had a ton of no reps, where I didn't hit the target. So instead of 150, I basically did 185. Not good.

From there I only had a couple minutes to pull myself together and try to get 90 double-unders. I've practiced these a lot, but I'm still no expert. I only got 49 in about a minute and a half, and then spent about a minute curled up on the floor dying. 

Again, here's a workout where the weight is not that demanding, but I believe that as I develop my pressing strength, that will make the wall balls a lot easier, and lead to saving energy for the next events.

Crossfit and Starting Strength

Last year I discovered Crossfit. I know I'm late to the party on this, but I loved the idea of mixing cardio and weightlifting. While I started by looking at the crossfit main site, the weights these guys (and girls) were using seemed a little ridiculous. 135 pound overhead squat!? I can't even get that amount of weight over my head to begin with.

My first solution was to hop in the way-back machine and start doing the workouts from 2003, a simpler time, when there was only one crossfit box and the same 15-20 people commented on the website every day.  I found myself competing, or trying to compete, with the woman above, Kelly Moore. She is a 115 pound fireplug whose only weakness seemed to be running.

Over a few months, I got stronger, faster, and fitter. I still couldn't do some of the benchmark workouts, and I was really being limited by strength. This really became clear after a month trial membership at a crossfit box here in Chicago.

Everything came to a head last week during the Open Games WOD 12.3. For those interested, it was a workout of as many rounds as possible in 18 minutes of 15 box jumps, 12 push presses @115 lbs, and 9 toes to bar. I had never attempted one toe to bar, so I knew that would be tough. But the killer was the push presses. I got 4 rounds, and almost a fifth. But it was clear to me that I was wasting most of my time on the presses. I needed to get stronger.

With my month membership up, I had the ability to revisit my training plan. I started looking up strength programs, at first with the idea of just adding some strength work in before my regular crossfit workouts. But the more I thought about it, I realized that I needed to devote entire workouts to building my base strength from the ground up.

I chose Rippetoe's Starting Strength for a few reasons. First, its a simple 3x a week program, focusing on compound lifts. Squatting, pressing and deadlifting should cover most of my needs at this time. While my equipment is lacking a little (no rack for bench presses, so I'm substituting dips; make shift squat rack on top of universal machine arm) I have been through the first three workouts and don't foresee any serious problems. Second, the lifting technique that Rip teaches is the same that crossfit emphasizes. This should help my strength gains contribute to crossfit improvement.

I know I can't say I am strictly following Starting Strength, since I've changed the bench press to dips, and I'm still working out on a 3 on, 1 off routine, but I'm expecting to see some big gains in strength, without sacrificing TOO much in overall fitness.

Hello Internets

Just wanted to have a place to collect my thoughts about work, working out, sports, and anything else going on. Going to be pretty random.