23 December 2008 - - The Bear & The Tale: Part II

'Are you serious? I'm working out here!'

"Jack of All Trades, Master of None, Though oft better than Master of One"*

-Adam Savage

The following has been in the draft section for a few days, oops, most of the italics denotes fresh.  

Beauty and the Beast. Diane and the Bear. A bit of a mix mash, but today I hooked up with Diane and Sam had his first tussle with the Bear workout. Let's talk about Sam.

Sam's WOD: The Bear

Power Clean

Push Press

Back Squat

Push Press

Front Squat

Gradually increase weight following successful rounds until failure. Rest as desired between rounds.

Load up one bar and perform the above continuously for four repetitions without letting go of the bar once started. From Power Clean to Front Squat is one repetition and then it is 'touch and go' on to the next rep; remember no letting go of the bar or resting it on the ground.

Successful Rounds: #55, #75, #85, #95

Failure was incurred after two and a half reps at #105. Following this round, the weight was brought down to #75 and seven repetitions were completed, quite brilliantly I might add. Good stuff Sam.

After having started, I remembered that way back the last time I did the Bear the front squat followed the power clean. Whatever, it was still functional and still very intense. After searching around, many variations of this workout exist, and the Crossfit Journal has a good article on it. And actually, Crossfit St. Louis, just posted this very article.  Check it out if you like. I would put in a link, however, in addition to my ass being lazy, it is also...

The Tale of the Shrinking Ass: Part II

Before Sam performed Bear, I performed Diane.  

Brett's WOD:  Diane

For Time Perform the Following...

21 - 15 - 9 

Deadlift #225

Handstand Push Up

Brett:  ~ 19:00 as Rx'd

hmmm, maybe I was just not running on all cylinders this day; sometimes you just feel it, can't say I did, but maybe too that is just because my PR is in the ~12:30 region.  Considering that, 19 minutes really sucks, but not surprising.

If you look back to the previous and initial post to this tale, what prompted its telling was a bit too much wiggle room in the posterior and both immediate southern stems from therein (for absolute clarity thighs/quads), in my once recent snug and well fitted slacks.  This finding was unwelcome, and a sort of reflection on the reasons for (loss of muscle mass) and the possible solutions forthcoming ensued.  Fleeting... fading... the thoughts have been difficult to ground and direct.

I travel a lot, approximately a third of the year to give a number, and keeping fit while 'on the road', despite the numerous articles providing '10 great tips for doing your thing on the road', is quite difficult. I'll save that speal for another day, but lets just say that my time here at home and in my usual surrounding is valuable to me.  

I believe Crossfit is not only an excellent path to general fitness for life, but also a sport, as there are some out there that do nothing but Crossfit; in the gym, performing the WODs, three on one off or some plan of similar sort, as there sport. For me, achieving a PR in Diane is not a goal but a hopeful measure.  The WODs that Crossfit has to offer are not events, but training and a measurement of said training.  I train for an unpredictable life, my current fruit of training includes a vast array of sport.  There was once a month stretch over this past summer where I played multiple games of Tennis, Golf, Ice Hockey, trained consistently in Martial Arts, swam, and even travelled to Atlanta for a 7's Rugby Tournament. An uncommonly busy month to say the least, but extremely exciting, and in the spirit of the holidays, I am as extremely thankful for the opportunity to do all that. 

'Jack of all trades'*

In a soon, I imagine, failed attempt to keep it simple, the Crossfit method is an excellent module for reaching, maintaining, and surpassing general fitness and athletic capability (I believe), but as varied as its workouts are, from strength to purely metabolic and everything in between the spectrum,  and also its (main page) assumption that workouts are performed consistently from day to day, where does that leave those with often occurring interruptions and yet high desire to progress and 'grow stronger everyday, week to week'.

This is what I have been pondering in past times.  ?Upon return to homestead; jump into the daily WOD regardless of what it may be, go solely 'heavy' (ie. backsquat, Deadlift, 5x5, 3x3), focus on heavy and gut busting workouts such as Diane, Heavy Fran, Grace, etc.?  For now I have been mostly doing the first or designing workouts to fit the needs of all the 'Nothing To It'ers' (thus revealing my thought process: general to specific).  

I will most likely expand on this further, but for now, the best thing to do, like that of the origination of the Crossfit method, is to experiment, gather results, and refine.