Friday, October 21, 2011

Small setback in fat loss, but good gains in fitness

Today's Weigh-In: 206
Weighted Moving Average: 205.3

So I've gained back about a pound and a half, looking at my averages from the beginning of this month. Not what I wanted at all, and not what I planned.  On the bright side at least I have been keeping good track of this data and can now look at it and use it to stop myself before I get back into that old cycle. I want to keep losing fat, I want to get lean and jacked! I want to increase my strength-to-weight ratio, and be able to do 20 deadhang chin-ups. But that's not going to happen unless I bear down and do the work. My main issue is just eating too much, overall. Quality is 90% good, but willpower is weak during the early mornings and later in the evenings, and I tend to want to snack on nuts and stuff, which is probably what's putting me over my caloric requirements. I think I'll knock that off now.

My new training program is going pretty well. I'm on my second week, and while I've had to make some concessions due to time and other conflicts I've been pretty darn consistent. I got 4 workouts last week and 3 so far this week, with another one planned for tonight, *and* I'm attending the Crossfit Powerlifting Certification this weekend at my gym, Crossfit 714 so I'm sure I'll be lifting weights all weekend. I got the chance to attend the cert at the last minute (noticing a pattern here?) so it forces me to adjust my training schedule, but that's okay because I know it'll be super informative, and maybe I can apply some of the Westside Conjugate method principles to my own training as well as programming for our clients.

I've come to the realization that my right shoulder still isn't 100%, and I really can't snatch or overhead squat heavy right now. I will need to add in more mobility and rehab work to get it stronger, but in the meantime I'm going to stick to power snatches and heavy front squats, with some pressing to keep strengthening everything. Last week I got a PR power snatch of 165 (only 10 pounds below my max squat snatch), and this week I set a PR of 10 deadhang bodyweight chin-ups. It's only a 1-rep PR, but I'll take it!

If anyone is interested in the program I've created just drop me a line in the comments and I'll make it available.

Friday, October 7, 2011

A little experiment

Today's Weigh-In: 201.8
Moving Average: 203.6

Still making good progress. Still sticking to mostly Paleo foods. Had a bit of fast food over the weekend and definitely regretted it, and got right back on the wagon on Monday. I'm really hoping to get under 200 by the end of October, and I think it's doable, if I can avoid all the candy that's sure to magically appear everywhere.

I'm beginning a new 8-week training program on Monday. I went ahead and programmed 5 workouts a week for 8 weeks, targeting my weaknesses and continuing to build my strengths. It consists of sprinting, Oly-lifting, powerlifting, conditioning sessions, and a little bit of endurance work, in the form of either bike rides or intervals (rowing or running). I put a lot of work into it, and I'm hoping it will be a success. I'm also using this as an experiment in programming Crossfit-style strength and conditioning workouts over a long period of time, as I would like to apply some of this to my role as Crossfit coach. Our gym currently does workouts from Crossfit.com with an added strength program, which is okay, but I think we could be doing a lot better for our athletes by programming everything in-house. I'm brand new to this, so I'm going to use myself as the guinea pig. Hopefully I'll learn a lot about what works, what doesn't, how to manage volume, how much periodization to include, etc. Should be fun! I'll keep you posted as to the workouts themselves and how everything goes as I move through the next 2 months.