whistle's training log

6 rep session #3:

Little short on time, so we deviated from the plan a little today.

Bench Press - 140 lbs
Back Squat - 155 lbs
Shrug - 180 lbs

Metcon:

3 rounds for time:
15 dips
15 overhead squats (empty 45 lb bar)
15 situps w/15 lb plate
15 strict pullups
15 knees-to-elbows (still hanging from bar post pullups)

Time: 14:36

All sets unbroken 1st round, 2nd round knees to elbows broken 10 - 5, 3rd round pullups broken 8 - 4 - 3, knees to elbows broken 7 - 4 - 4. Grip was a big factor.

We have considered incorporating short, light weight metcon finishers when we can from now to the end of the cycle. I have a lot to do today, so the need to shorten the session and our need to experiment with adding in metcons brought up this little gem I did last summer from the CrossFit main page.

I don't think I remembered the scheme exactly as it was - the rep counts were more varied (like 15, 15, 10, 20, 15 or something) and the order of exercises was different (I actually think I scaled it to 15 dips and pullups because it originally rx muscle ups), but I simplified it and ordered it based on the logistics of our equipment layout. It was a nice finisher and gave a nice heavy sweat and muscle pump. Now time to conquer the honey-do list!
 
Well, as the current cycle passes the midway point, I inevitably start thinking of where to go next. I'm really happy with this current cycle (I look bigger and feel stronger than ever before - it works!), but I don't think I'm going to do another HST right away. I get bored too easy and have to switch things up to keep motivated. But I do believe in the principles of HST and will do it again later this year.

I'm considering a few possibilities.

1. Continue to focus on strength gains - maybe do a 5 - 3 - 1 cycle or something
2. Enter a 5k and do some running now that the weather is nice
3. Start a program to get more acclimated with oly lifts

Considerations:

I want to continue strength gains, for sure. And I want to meet the goal of a >300 lb deadlift and >225 lb squat this year. So, running the 5k will obviously put that on hold. But I really do love to race 5k. I don't care for the training, but the race is so much fun. It is such a thrill and such a huge payoff after weeks of training. I don't know if anything weightlifting-related has that huge of a payoff - at least for someone like me with no chance of winning a lifting or posing competition.

I want to start to work on conditioning a little as well, since beach weather is almost here and we will be making a few trips to the coast this year. I like the way I look now, but cutting a bit more fat would be awesome before hitting the beach. That way I can see what all my work doing HST has been for.

I know that come summertime, my neighborhood crossfitting buddies will be back home from school and want me to join them for the WODs (which is fun, I like doing that). That will obviously take care of any conditioning I might want. But I'd like to be stronger on the oly-lifts so I don't have to scale down quite so much. I've just never worked on them outside of CF.

I'm just thinking out loud here, I guess. Any suggestions/advice/input is welcome.
 
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whistledixie said:
...but I don't think I'm going to do another HST right away. I get bored too easy and have to switch things up to keep motivated. But I do believe in the principles of HST and will do it again later this year.

I'm considering a few possibilities.

1. Continue to focus on strength gains - maybe do a 5 - 3 - 1 cycle or something
2. Enter a 5k and do some running now that the weather is nice
3. Start a program to get more acclimated with oly lifts
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1. I'm still going to be cutting, so no hypertrophy for me just yet. Thus I'm considering a 5-3-1 cycle or two, as well.
Even if you do 5-3-1, you can still follow HST principles and increment the weight on your assistance exercises.

2. A 5k would make for a nice break. Aerobic exercise is a big part of personal fitness. Wendler is pretty clear about the need to get out of the gym and pursue more avenues of personal fitness beyond the power lifts. Of course, the huge caloric expense would limit (or stop) your hypertrophy, but it doesn't have to affect your strength.

3. Oly lifts are a terrific way to workout. They help you develop coordination as well as strength. Such workouts are not simple -- you need a good coach. Oly lifts aren't the sort of thing you can learn from a DVD...
 
I think you have to do what your heart and body tell you. If you don’t keep this sort of thing fun you’re likely to burn out and stop staying fit altogether like a coworker of mine who keeps doing P90X and falling off the wagon only to get chubby again. Got to keep it interesting and manageable.
 
From yesterday:

6 rep session #4

Warm up: 2 mile walk, warm up sets of bench, dead, shoulder press

Bench Press - 140 lbs
Deadlift - 180 lbs
Shoulder Press - 95 lbs
Pullup - BW+25 lbs

I ran out of time and had to cut it short. I had about an hour and a half before heading out of town yesterday morning. I took a walk with the dog, came in and started my warm up sets - moved on to the work sets and by the time I finished the shoulder press I was out of time. I guess I was dragging @$$ between sets or something. I decided to do one more exercise before showering and decided pullups were higher priority than dips and rows.
 
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grunt11 said:
I think you have to do what your heart and body tell you. If you don’t keep this sort of thing fun you’re likely to burn out and stop staying fit altogether like a coworker of mine who keeps doing P90X and falling off the wagon only to get chubby again. Got to keep it interesting and manageable.
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I imagine a lot of people fall off p90x before completing it. 90 days is a long time. I think it's like 6 or 7 days a week of hour-long high intensity workouts.
 
I can relate to this in a big way, whistledixie - the whole "what to do next" thing. You laid out 3 fairly different ideas as possibilities; 5/3/1 is strength focused, running is, well, running, and Oly is power-based. The question here in my mind is why do you really want to deviate from HST? Answer that first and I think it'll help you make your decision - and if not, I think the lot of us will be better able to steer you in a healthy direction.
 
_tim said:
I can relate to this in a big way, whistledixie - the whole "what to do next" thing. You laid out 3 fairly different ideas as possibilities; 5/3/1 is strength focused, running is, well, running, and Oly is power-based. The question here in my mind is why do you really want to deviate from HST? Answer that first and I think it'll help you make your decision - and if not, I think the lot of us will be better able to steer you in a healthy direction.
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I tend to get bored doing the same thing more than once. I did HST twice because I was so successful the 1st time around and wanted to maybe work a little more on hypertrophy while the weather is cold. Now that the warm weather is here, I not only want to change just to do something different, but I do want to work on some conditioning. And since it is such a great program, I'll definitely do it again later this year.

Through the years, I've kind of figured out that I need to switch gears every so often to keep my motivation high.

In 2010: I started the year off with some strength work for 12 weeks, then signed up for a century bike race and trained for that for 6 weeks, then spent another 12 weeks doing crossfit with some friends, then signed up for a 5k race and trained for that, then moved on to HST for 8 weeks. I sort of jumped around from one thing to another and liked doing it that way because of the variety.

To contrast, in 2009: I started a strength program and hit it hard for 3 months, then fell out of the loop after what was supposed to be a week off before restarting the same program. 2 months later, I picked it back up again and lost interest within a month. My trips to the gym became less and less frequent. I ran a 5k in late summer, training for 4 weeks prior. That sort of reignited my focus on exercise. I ran quite a bit for a few more months and did a little resistance training off and on with no particular programming until the end of the year.
 
OK - that said, 5/3/1 probably isn't what you would be happiest doing for sure. Why don't you do a hybrid cycle wherein you do both running and Oly work? Maybe flip flop it a bit....

Week 1:
M - Run
W - Oly
F - Run

Week 2:
M - Oly
W - Run
F - Oly

Maybe throw in some metcon work on off days? That'd get you far, far away from HST - but would give you a power base for when you return to heavier training AND would get you cut up fairly quickly if your diet is in line.
 
_tim said:
OK - that said, 5/3/1 probably isn't what you would be happiest doing for sure. Why don't you do a hybrid cycle wherein you do both running and Oly work? Maybe flip flop it a bit....

Week 1:
M - Run
W - Oly
F - Run

Week 2:
M - Oly
W - Run
F - Oly

Maybe throw in some metcon work on off days? That'd get you far, far away from HST - but would give you a power base for when you return to heavier training AND would get you cut up fairly quickly if your diet is in line.
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Great advice, tim - as always. I'm definitely interested in the o lifts. I've messed around with them, but I'd like dedicating a couple or few months practicing so I can actually work them with some decent weight.

TunnelRat suggested I look for some real life coaching on the o lifts. I think I might do just that.

I know I'm going to run a 5k in October, so I might put the running off until then.
 
I don't envy you, TR - :-) We've already started sipping iced tea and wearing our cutoff overalls down here in Hotlanta!

6 rep session #5

Warm up: 2 mile walk, warm up sets on bench, squat

Bench Press - 145 lbs
Back Squat - 170 lbs
Dip - BW+25 lbs
Pullup - BW+25 lbs
Shoulder Press - 100 lbs
Shrug - 195 lbs

Bench was okay - I'll make 150 on Sat for sure. Back squat was Hell. I successfully completed 3 sets of 6, but just barely. But 170 lbs was my 3 RM last cycle, if I remember correctly - so that's a PB.

I may start alternating dips and shoulder press for the remainder. And drop shrugs for the 3s, maybe start alternating rows and pullups. I need to keep the sessions under an hour.
 
I don't envy you, TR - :-) We've already started sipping iced tea and wearing our cutoff overalls down here in Hotlanta!
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I hear ya. I’ll never live where palm trees won’t grow outdoors ever again. This year did suck though because I had to where my shirt (usually just wear a T-shirt) at work three times this last winter. My coworkers made fun of me because I never wear it.

Are you doing 3 sets of each exercise? Going over an hour seem pretty long. Have you tried suppersetting any of the exercises to speed things up or will that screw you up during the heavy part of the cycle?

You might even want to try M-Time. I find it’s faster than doing regular sets especially when things get heavy. And AFAIK above 85% of your 1RM all your muscle fibers are being recruited from the first rep so each M-Time rep counts.
 
grunt11 said:
Are you doing 3 sets of each exercise? Going over an hour seem pretty long. Have you tried suppersetting any of the exercises to speed things up or will that screw you up during the heavy part of the cycle?

You might even want to try M-Time. I find it’s faster than doing regular sets especially when things get heavy. And AFAIK above 85% of your 1RM all your muscle fibers are being recruited from the first rep so each M-Time rep counts.
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Well, I guess it has more to do with training alone vs training with a partner. I'm used to training alone. Training with a partner this time around has had its pros and cons. One con is the additional time. We have a pretty good system going and it was working great to keep the sessions at an hour or less, up until 2 weeks ago. 3 sets of 6 for each exercise has been time consuming now that the weight is getting heavy (for us).

I love myo-reps. I've tried m-time and didn't love it as much.

With just the 3s left, I think we're on the right track with alternating a couple of things so that we only have 4 lifts per session instead of 6.
 
From yesterday:

6 rep session #6

Warm up: 50 jump rope singles, 10x shoulder rotations, 20 db swings @ 35 lbs, warm up sets of bench and deadlift

Bench Press - 155 lbs
Deadlift - 200 lbs
Pullup - BW+35 lbs
Dip - BW+30 lbs
Shoulder Press - 105 lbs
DB Row - 150 lbs*16 reps (total weight)

Cool down: rope climb, stretch, build swingset for my boy :-)

I had to take an extra rest day on Saturday and go visit an ill relative.

Big day yesterday. I don't know if the extra rest day made the difference or not but I felt very strong. I felt capable of more weight on everything except the shoulder press and the pullups. I played it safe because I exceeded my goals on both bench press and deadlift by 5 lbs and decided that was good enough.

Highlights of 6 rep series:

Bench press last cycle - 145 lb max for 5 reps; this cycle - 155 lb max for 6 reps
Deadlift last cycle - 170 lb max for 5 reps; this cycle - 200 lb max for 6 reps
Shoulder press last cycle - 95 lb max for 5 reps; this cycle - 105 lb max for 6 reps
Squat last cycle - 170 lb max for 3 reps; this cycle - 170 lb max for 6 reps

The 3 rep stuff is going to be fun this week!
 
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Those are great improvements over last cycle. I’m also finding that an extra day off here and there can really make a difference. Keep it going Dix.
 
I get it. Yeah I’ve had two training partners that I really liked because were got right down to business no messing around. To bad you didn’t like the M-Time. I’m finding I like it so much better for the heavy lifts than traditional sets. However, it does feel a lot different.
 
grunt11 said:
I get it. Yeah I’ve had two training partners that I really liked because were got right down to business no messing around. To bad you didn’t like the M-Time. I’m finding I like it so much better for the heavy lifts than traditional sets. However, it does feel a lot different.
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I liked it okay and some days it worked out really well when I experimented with it - but in the end, it kind of took me out of the zone to keep thinking about the seconds hand on the clock for every rep. There is sort of a rhythm I get into during a set and I like to sort of tune everything out from the minute I get in position. M-time took that away. Myo-reps was a great in-between for me. I'll probably experiment more with them, though. I like to keep it varied.

In other news:

I met with a guy that runs a small personal training facility in downtown. He runs it with another dude - both of them are from N Ga Barbell and have impressive backgrounds in powerlifting. I checked out the place and made an appointment later this week to meet the other trainer - who has a background and certification in olympic lifts. He studied under Mike Bergener, which is cool. I liked what I saw and look forward to learning more about their programming. This is looking like a good contender for my next fitness venture.
 
From yesterday:

3 rep session #1

Warm up: warm up sets of bench and squat

Bench Press - 150 lbs
Back Squat - 170 lbs
Pullup - BW+30 lbs
Dip - BW+30 lbs

Metcon:

3 Rounds of 400m run, 15 Burpees - for time

Time: 11:40

Cool down: rep out 85 lb bench press, 400m walk

I was on fire yesterday evening for some reason. Maybe its because I finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. I moved rather quickly from set to set - done in less than 40 minutes (including warm up sets), so I decided to throw in a metcon to get a little cardio/conditioning.

I was a bit more timid than I used to be doing this metcon. I use to attack them with everything I had - this time I was pacing myself a little bit. I ran the 400m a little slower than I could've and broke up the burpees 8,7; 10,5; 12,3. I almost injured myself doing high rep burpees last year, so I didn't want to risk it.

But I still got a great workout. I slept like a baby last night and feel really good this morning!
 
Met with my new trainer last night. I really liked everything I heard and saw from him and his partner. I signed up for a program starting on March 17. I will be in a group of 4, but we'll each get 1-on-1 sessions with him once per week. The program is split lower/upper body with upper on Thurs/Sun and lower on Fri/Mon.

This will be quite different than anything I've done before. I've always worked out alone or with friends, never been coached.

But the schedule sort of conflicts with what's left of my current HST cycle. If I spend 2 weeks on 3s and do a couple of sessions testing 1 rep maxes, I'll not have any down time between. I'm considering condensing the remaining HST sessions. Instead of 6 sessions of 3s and 2 sessions of 1s, I think I might just do 3 sessions of 3s and 2 sessions of 1s - then take a week off. This way, I'll only be 1 workout shy of a full 10 weeks of HST.
 
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