Just finished week 7 of my crossfit program. I'm going 4 days a week now, plus I'm working out on my own at least one day of the weekend. I need to start running soon.
My whole body feels stronger now and I have way more energy at work and when going out at night.
Last week I found my deadlift max of 225 pounds. I'm not really sure how good or bad that is, but think it's probably in the "okay" range. I'm hoping to have that up to 245 in five or six weeks when it's time to try it again. Is 300 attainable by the end of the year? I don't know enough yet to know the answer to that question.
I haven't found my max squat yet, but I squatted 160 pounds doing multiple reps (5 sets of 3), and it was challenging but reasonably doable. I suspect my one rep max is probably 170 or above. When I started back in early December, I think I was doing sets of 145 pounds, which I think was challenging mostly because I wasn't used to the movement.
On the scale, I'm down 5-7 pounds. This is okay progress, but I'm sure I could do better than that if I committed to an actual diet. Meh. We'll see.
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11 years ago
3 comments:
I encourage you to keep it up. Just be courageous and you`ll soon get through!
paleo diet works great together with crossfit.
Might i suggest you read Starting Strength, and/or look into powerlifting. Because there's girls i know who trained for ~2 months, in the 70kg bodyweight class that squat 300+.
Building muscle has two components: proper exercise, and proper nutrition. Protein is really important. at least 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight. (Any bodybuilding site will support this). LOTS OF CALORIES ARE NECCASARY.
Under proper exercise also falls PROPER FORM. You cannot learn this from a textbook. You either learn this by experimentation, over the course of a year or so, or you find a proper coach.
Strength is not necessarily muscle size, which is built with sets of 8 repetitions. Anything above 12 repetitions is just silly.
Strength is moreso defined by how much of our brain we devote to controlling those muscles we use. Which is why this girl squats 300 easily, and you do not.
To train your BRAIN to work effectively with large amounts of weight, you will need proper form first. Secondly you will need to do low repetitions, which you are doing correctly, to gain any form of strength. I recommend wendlers 5-3-1, and westside barbell.
Now, another note on nutrition. Muscles, as any part of our body, require ENERGY to build. And as a perpetuum mobile has not been invented yet, your body needs fuel to build them. You cannot quickly lose weight and gain muscle. Pick either one.
Gaining muscle means eating A TON.
Look up the human sex hormone chain too, no low-cholesterol for you anymore, as testosterone comes from cholesterol.
So: want to gain muscle? eat a lot.
Want to become stronger: proper form, low repetitions. Vary your exercises (box squats/deadlift off of a stack of plates).
Want to get shitty gains and almost no strength: do the random workouts crossfit provides for you. You WILL end up overtraining, yes you will lose weight,quickly, and you will lose muscle in the process.
Google up some block periodisation schemes, westside barbell, and nutrition if you want to make gains.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo1tU1YqPp0 This guy is a tribute to what some classic workout schemes can do. There hasn't ever been one crossfitter to set a squat world record.
Also, crossfit claims to train people to be a jack of all trades. While you can certainly be good at cardio AND be reasonably strong, training both at the same time is not the most effective way to become good at either. You want muscles? powerlifting or bodybuilding.
You want to be good at long distance running? Get anorexia and start running.
There is no such thing as a 300lbs powerlifter who can run marathons. Nor is there such a thing as a crosfitter who can squat a 500.
Tl;dr: crosffit sucks. Either you become strong, or you become fast. Eat more if you want to be strong, and for god's sake, train properly, and have a plan.
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