Workout of the Day:
Three sets of:
Single-Leg Deadlift x 5 reps each leg
(Use barbell if you can, otherwise use KB or DB)
Rest 2 minutes
Bench Press x 5 reps
Rest 2 minutes
(Make some use out of your rest period and stretch or roll your quads and calves.);
and then,
Six rounds of:
Suicide Sprints – complete every 90 seconds (the sprint should take you approximately 20-25 seconds, giving you approximately one minute to rest between sprints)
Richard and Patrice - A studly Invictus Couple
Resolutions? No, Goals for 2010
Written by Invictus Member Richard Madrid
Has anyone made a New Year’s resolutions and actually followed through with it? Or, as my wife Patrice asked, has anyone made a resolution and then couldn’t remember it? I know I have, so this year I am vowing to set some achievable goals, not resolutions.
Resolutions are normally too broad and all-ecompassing. For instance, if some one says “I want to be healthier, so I am going to eat right and go to the gym.” The problemto me seems that those resolutions weren’t clearly defined. Resolutions also tend to be vague and/or hard to accomplish, whereas proper goals are specific and measurable. Instead of “I will lose weight this year,” a better goal might be, “I will lose 30 pounds.” Instead of “I will help people more,” make it, “I plan to go to Catholic Worker (for example) once a month.” These goals are specific and measurable, and much more likely to be achieved.
Good goals must also be realistic. The easiest way to set attainable goals is to know where you are currently. For me, I have been able to easily track my fitness progress over the past year. When Tall Thom Knapp first encouraged me to check out Invictus, I had already dabbled in some of the benchmark CrossFit workouts like “Fran” and “Cindy,” experimented with ring dips, and was getting reacquainted with old-fashioned barbell workouts. My first ”Fran” time was around 15 minutes, and I only finished about 10 rounds of “Cindy.” For the rest of 2009, my numbers in these workouts and other strength lifts improved and will serve as a baseline to help me set my 2010 goals. So my current numbers are:
- Fran – 4:31
- Cindy – 21 Rounds
- Deadlift – 365
- Squat – 300
- Bench Press - 245
I also have major flexibility issues due to years of not listening to my mother (sorry mom) and I would like to improve that area as well. So, my 2010 fitness goals are:
- Fran – Sub-3:00 minutes
- Deadlift – 500 lbs.
- Squat – 400 lbs.
- Bench Press – 300 lbs.
- Increase bodyweight to 185 lbs.
These goals are specific and measurable. This way, if I don’t meet a certain goal, I can look back and analyze what I did wrong or didn’t do at all and try again. Whether they’re achievable, well, that’s part of what will motivate me to make 2010 even better than 2009 – and now I have a whole community that can help keep me accountable.
So what are your 2010 GOALS?
my goal is to look as sexy as you do rich!
good article and good to see you crushing it at an affiliate finally!
Great blog and workouts!
Question for Invictus Member Richard Madrid:
Do you think you can achieve your deadlift, squat, and bench press goals without increasing your bodyweight to 185 or are those goals only attainable with added bodyweight? I am very interested in learning how strong someone can get without adding bodyweight (i.e. an Olympic lifter in weight class)?
Ben, that is a great question! I’d like to hear Rich, CJ or Calvin comment on what part adding weight has and what part nutrition has to achieve those goals.
Right on dude! Great article…
Here are mine:
Clean and Jerk 250lb (might need to increase this)
Run a sub 7 minute mile
80 consecutive kipping pullups
Bench Press 275lb
10 parallet Handstand Push Ups
Good post Richard. I touched on this point in my “5 Tips for Fitness Success in 2010″ article originally posted here: http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/2010/01/monday-january-4-2010/. Thanks for expanding on the topic. However, I would be careful not to set goals such as “lose 30 pounds”. While this goal is specific and measurable, it can also be arbitrary. How do you come to the conclusion that 30 pounds is the amount you must lose to look good, feel good, etc.? This can snowball into an obsession over what the scale says as opposed to living a healthy lifestyle.
Ben, you can definitely become stronger without a net gain in weight. Although, you will likely lose fat and gain muscle in the process. It depends on the rep ranges you train in as well as your nutritional intake. Olympic weightlifters, as you noted, are excellent examples of athletes with superior strength to bodyweight ratios. Pyrros Dimas, for example, at 85kgs (that’s 187.4 pounds for us Americans) clean and jerked 213kgs (469.6 pounds) for a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOWcrqOSevs
My goal was to get heathy and not injure myself. But that didn’t last long. So now my goal is to not injure myself again.
For Ben F., I definitely think one can get stronger without adding too much, but for me the weight gain is a separate goal anyways. It’s trickier than I thought, and I am trying to do it with whole foods and milik as opposed to weight gainers. for me, eating enough food is tough because of my schedule. Patrice and I eat so late at night because of her schedule as well, that we usually only make enough food to eat for dinner. lately, I have barely had any time to make it to the gym as well. And the Navy doesn’t feed us enough when we are out at sea so I am trying to solve that problem.
hey McD, if you stop by again, i need your contact info, or need to know of someone who does.
My 2010 goal so far: kick Courtland’s ass in the fitness challenge.
Nothing can interfere with my goal. NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ben and Michael,
I agree with Calvin that you can get stronger without a significant net gain in weight. There’s no doubt about it and it’s been well documented. Dimas is a phenomenal example.
That said, it is not always the most efficient way of getting stronger. Athletes routinely periodize their training to emphasize development of one aspect of their fitness over another. For strength development, I would probably argue that Richard would most efficiently reach his deadlift, squat and press goals if he was willing to compromise other aspects of his fitness – such as cardio/respiratory endurance and body composition. His goals are pretty aggressive (2 pounds per week on those lifts is not easy to maintain over the course of a year for someone who has a job that requires him to be drug-free) to be achieved on a diet that has kept him around 170 lbs. If I were training him for these goals, and not for GPP or his Fran goal, I would probably change his program and his diet substantially. These are absolute strength goals that will be easier to achieve if he adds mass to help accommodate his strength gain.
But what to do about his pesky Fran goal if we make him a pudgy lifter? That’s the rub. We’d need to do our best to keep his overall fitness somewhat stable while we are bulking and getting him stronger. My opinion is that longer strength development cycles with mini conditioning cycles would be his best bet. Something to the tune of a 4-5 week strength cycle followed by a 1-week conditioning cycle (this is not to say that there would be no conditioning at all in the strength or vice versa, but rather refers to focus of the cycle). The conditioning cycles would serve two purposes, to help keep his overall fitness at a reasonable level and to unload him and help him recover for a new bout of strength programming. We would assess progress at each point and tweak programming as needed.
Maybe more than you asked for, but there are a lot of ways to skin this cat. EVERYTHING depends on your goal. With a client that has multiple goals like Richard, I would probably ask him to prioritize them so we knew where to focus first.
If your goal is relative strength, lifting the most possible weight in your weight class, then your program methods change accordingly. Different goals MUST equal different programs. But I still might want you to gain a little temporary mass and then back down.
Good exchanges today. No other gym or training group ever provided so much well informed debate, in my personal experience.
WOD –sub’d a.m. yoga (ginseng), and p.m. ice skating (keeping in mind the CF admonition to try new sports)…I had only been about 3 times in my life before today. It took some time, but I accessed all of the yoga, martial arts and CFI prompts that I could and I was up and skating in a few minutes. CFI and Ginseng core work has definitely improved my balance and control…I think I pretty much hugged the wall every other time I tried ice skating. I didn’t mind falling a few times, and it gave me a renewed appreciation for speed, figure and hockey skaters.
Enjoyed it so much that my wife and I made the resolution to try 25 new training/play events (e.g., trapeze training, kayaking, aikido session) this year–ones that get us out and using the things we’ve gained with crossfit and bar method.
Cheers.
Courtland,
Your post is among the best I have seen. I love hearing that our members are out testing their fitness and challenging themselves to learn new sports. It is indeed an often forgotten CrossFit principle. I also believe that seeking out and enjoying new experiences with your friends and loved ones is one of the most important things you can do for your relationships. We would have loved to have seen you at the gym today, but way to make the most of your active recovery day.
Great advice Calvin & CJ,
than 25, but still training for crisis.
Just like to add journaling on sleep & fuel intake helps also … I’ve found times when I needed to increase the fat %, times I’ve needed to get more sleep to heal up. And its really helped to review Robb Wolf’s info in the xfitforum & his site periodically. But I’m different that Richard, I’m 57 and heal slower
Rich-
I recently went on a hard gaining program for a month after seeing a lot of weakness in my strength game. I agree with CJs approach of periodizing training- which is not exactly in line with the Crossfit principle of always maintaining a well rounded GPP but to see the kind of fast gains I was looking for in a one month period I had to focus on one thing. Inspired by 70sbig.com I did a month of GOMAD (Gallon of Milk a Day) with organic non-homogenized whole milk. I also ate everything in sight that wasnt a complex or processed carb. Pretty much my diet was milk, eggs and meat with just enough veggies to keep everything moving along if you know what I mean. No protein powders or the like but I was probably taking in 6-7000 calories per day literally eating to the point of discomfort all the time- it wasnt much fun. I was squatting 2-3 times per week, deadlifting once a week, pressing twice a week and benching once a week based on my major goals being to improve my squat and press. In a month I went from a bodyweight of 207 to 235 and put 45 lbs on my squat and 25 lbs on my press. Deadlift went up approx 45-50 lbs but mostly from squatting so much, bench went up 20 lbs or so. I stayed on a linear progression of increasing lifts by 5 lbs per session with 2 fail days only on press (putting 10lbs per week on your press is a lot more than 10lbs per week on your squat). To avoid losing all metcon ability I did a short heavy metcon once a week similar to Crossfit Football and a longer burner once a week with bodyweight or lightweight kind of stuff. I didnt run all month.
A month after I am weighing in around 215-220 and have maintained or further improved all strength gains. I have started working my metcon back up to where it was and everything seems to be going well aside from a few setbacks (taking a week off twice from being sick). My goal is to get back down to the 210-212ish range and maintain my strength gains, but the specific weight I end up at isnt a big deal, if I end up heavier and lean and keep the strength I am happy with that.
I wouldnt recommend forcing it into a month period- I had a lot of overuse pain in my hips from heavy 5×5 squat sets. I had a specific timeline to get my strength up based on sectionals competition upcoming, but periodizing is a great way to focus on your goal for a temporary period. Also I would say you will see gains a lot faster if you arent afraid to gain a little weight while focusing strength training knowing that you can go back to a tighter paleo diet afterwards and shed the excess. Its pretty hard to get strong without also getting a little fat- no big deal, keep the strength and shed the extra later. In my opinion, you can re-gain your metcon back in a shorter period of time than you can put on strength, so it made sense for me to lose some metcon and put the strength on with enough time to get my metcon back before the competition.
Great responses. Thanks everyone!
I don’t train for olympic lifting meets, powerlifting meets, track meets, or gymnastic meets. And I definitely don’t train for the CrossFit Games. I do care about my general fitness, but I don’t enjoy or see any added benefit to running long and slow. Instead, I like to lift heavy and do short and intense met-cons. That was pretty much CrossFit back in the day. I care about my overall health and longevity, however performance and longevity are at odds with each other. Similar to being strong and lean. It’s possible, but those goals are at odds with each other. Hate to say it, but it reminds me of bodybuilding: bulking (get strong) and cutting (get lean).
More discussion…
Thanks for the post. It was informative and interesting.