120501

Day 1 is officially underway. I am excited that a good number of people have already expressed interest in following along with me. That's the ultimate goal. I want you all to follow along! By doing this together we can hold each other accountable. "As iron sharpens iron, so do men sharpen men" and all that jazz. "Men" here being the Biblical "men". This programming is easy to follow for women as well! That's the beauty of Crossfit- it is universally scalable. Meaning everyone can do the same workouts, just at different levels of weight and intensity. I will be glad to assist anyone who would like me to scale the workouts for them. We are here to help each other! Anyway, I got up this morning and took pictures of my upper body. This is my starting point- my blank canvas if you will. Here goes something.

 As you can see in these mildly embarrassing photos I an starting to display that "30 year old guy with a desk job" midsection. You may be thinking at this point, "This guy isn't fat. He obviously has some sort of body-image problem." I would like to introduce a phrase into your vocabulary. "Skinny Fat". This is a term that was designed to answer questions about the female physique, however, it fits in this situation. Here is a link to a pretty good article about the concept http://www.crossfitsouthbay.com/2011/05/skinny-fat/. Basically it is a concept that a human body can have a very high fat content over a relatively low muscle content resulting in a physique that does not look overly large (and thus "fat looking"). This results in the person being extremely "fat" although their appearance does not give this impression. Many of us fall into this category. I was unable to take my body fat percentage today (hopefully I will be able to do so very soon), but I assure you it would be exceptionally high. I was, however, able to generate some other numbers. I hereby submit my starting numbers, for your reading enjoyment:

Weight: 212.8 lbs

Waist: 38.5 "

Chest: 43"

Neck: 17.5"

Right Bicep: 16.5"

Body Mass Index: 28.9

Blood Pressure: 132/81

Resting Heart Rate: 59 beats per minute

Not altogether ugly numbers. However, lets take a closer look. I'm 6 feet tall. 212 lbs in certainly an unreasonable number. However, taken with my body fat percentage it becomes a whole other situation. My body mass index (BMI) is not all that important to me, simply because it is a number that includes a lot of variables. It should be noted, however, that the Department of Health and Human Services claims that a normal person should have a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9. They go on to state that a BMI of 25 to 29.9 constitutes an individual who is "Overweight" and that anything over 30 is classified as "Obesity". I'm approaching that number. Much more disturbing is the fact that my blood pressure was measured as 132/81. This is classified as "Pre-hypertension" and is directly related to the development of high blood pressure, heart disease, and kidney failure. Again, I am 29 years old. My resting heart rate was actually fairly low, but it has always been low. This is probably a credit to my previous life as an athlete, but I have certainly not been helping the situation in recent years. On to my first day itself.

I began the day with a protein shake. I wanted eggs, but we had none. That will be fixed my this afternoon. I headed to the gym (Crossfit Tuscaloosa, inside the YMCA downtown) around 8:45. As this is my first week I started with a couple of Benchmark numbers. I will be doing these Benchmarks in with my other workouts every 60 days. They should take about a week to complete so that you get an accurate reading on the numbers. Each of them takes a good bit of energy out of you, so don't try to do them all in a day. Here is my schedule for the day-

-1 Rep Max Back Squat

-"Fran"
     Notes: This is THE benchmark workout for Crossfit athletes. The workout is as follows:
        21 reps of thrusters @ 95 lbs (65 for women), 21 pullups
       15 thrusters, 15 pullups,
       9 thrusters, 9 pullups
       This scheme is known as 21-15-9. There is no rest between any of it. This is done as quickly as 
       possible, with the goal being the fastest time. A thruster is simply a front squat, with an overhead        press (Push Press) after it. The most elite Crossfit athletes finish this workout in sub- 2 minutes. 

Rest at least an hour

-Barbell Gymnastics
     1) 5x3 Clean and Jerk @ 70% max (rest 45 seconds between sets)
     2) 4x3 Snatch Balance- NO Heaving (rest 60 seconds between sets)

-Strength
     1) 3x5 Tempo Deadlifts- Heavy (rest 60 seconds between sets)
         Notes: Tempo should be 3 counts from floor to knees, then explode past knees and drive hips
         to bar. 3 counts back to floor. 
     2.) 3x3 Strict Pullups + Max Effort Kipping Pullups (rest 60 seconds between sets)
          Notes: This should be one unbroken set of strict pullups then, without dropping from the bar, 
          a max effort set of kipping pullups. 

Rest several hours, probably until after work

-Conditioning
     4 rounds for total reps of:
        2 minute AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of:
           40 Overhead Squats (OHS) @ 65#
           60 Doubleunders (simply jumping rope, where the rope passes under your feet twice each time)
            Notes: Rest 2 minutes between each round

*UPDATE*
- I ended up putting up 255 lbs for my 1RM Back Squat. Not a terrible starting point.

-Fran time was 7:59. My wife does this workout (at the women's weight) in around 2:30. I'm looking forward to testing this one as I got through this. I think I will see a LOT of improvement.

-I ended up having to wait until after work to complete the barbell gymnastics and strength stuff. I did not know what my 1RM on clean and jerk was, so I just used 135 lbs. This was sufficiently stressing. I also just used 135 on the deadlifts for the strength portion. Part of this process is going to involve me rehabilitating my back, so I have to keep that in mind and not pull too much weight on my deads. The workout for 120502 will be up shortly.