The expression says it all.

Whether you are in the RX’ed or scaled division, for some of you this might be your first individual competition. I wanted to give some pieces of advice that I am trying to follow myself going into Garage Games. First off, this is about you. At the risk of sounding cliche, you have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself. You train for yourself, so compete for yourself.  When Ben yells 3, 2, 1, GO! on that first WOD, don’t let the other competitors, spectators, and wild yelling distract you from the task at hand. Whether it be getting stronger, faster, or other goals you’ve set for yourself, this weekend you get to see how you measure up. The best part is, it’s in your control and no one else’s. You decide how hard you push and how you react to these workouts. Relax, set your pace, and give it all you have. Chances are you will surprise yourself.

Another important piece of advice I want everyone to think of, even if you aren’t competing this weekend, is to reflect on where you were a year ago. What goals did you have? Are you a better athlete? Do you have those 20 unbroken double unders? Did you PR that deadlift? No matter what the goal, it’s good to take the time and give credit where credit is deserved. You need to be proud of where you were then and how far you’ve come now. Recognize that and don’t talk yourself down because of goals you might not have reached yet. I’m also trying to practice this mentality. From a time at 5:30am when Stacey and members had no idea why I was at Fenway with a knee brace asking questions, to climbing a rope in front of thousands of people at the Crossfit Games; I am proud of how far I’ve come. I think I can speak for all the coaches at Fenway when I say we want you to be proud too.

So the moral of the story is tend to your injuries/mobilize your life away, maintain good mental health this week, and ask your coaches as many questions as you want; because you know you want and deserve the chance to prove why you work so hard at this. Let’s get after it together, wear green, and show how badass Crossfit Fenway really is.

Climbing rope in front of thousands.

September 22, 2011
Strength: Press 5-5-5-15+
(ideally final set is 60%-75% of best set of 5 for max reps)

WOD:
Boat Races
3 Individually Timed Rounds:
500m Row
400m Run
Rest 3 Minutes

On Deadlift Habits

Last time we talked about this in the blog, Eric referenced a video of Benedikt Magnusson setting a World Record Deadlift in his sock feet. Here’s another giant lift of his: 1015 pounds (that’s 461kg in real numbers) from a meet in Texas. Now, go watch this video. Then consider these three points and go watch it again:
1) His back is quite flat. I see worse rounding every day we do DLs, and I harp on you about it.
2) He is in fact wearing sock feet. It’s not the shoes – and I’d suggest it’s not the belt, either.
3) He sets the weights back down. He doesn’t drop them, he controls them back to the ground.

As an aside: I know some of you feel bad when you can’t lift more weight because I am all over you for keeping your back flat and not lifting the weight one vertebrae at a time. I know you grumble when you don’t PR your DL because I won’t let you lift like an asshole. Trust me – or at least trust Benedikt here – and know that doing it with good form will keep you uninjured and will result in building greater strength over the long run.

As another aside: I know you just deadlifted a huge amount. I don’t need to feel the ground shake when you drop the bar to know you just hoisted a PR. Next time, try exercising the full extent of your Range of Motion by maintaining your grip through the full eccentric component of the lift; in other words, try to keep ahold of that bar and set it down gently.

These are good habits for you to develop. They result in building greater back strength, avoiding injury, increasing grip strength, and generally being a stronger and more healthy individual. One day maybe you can be big and strong like Benedikt, but I’d rather you balance out some of that strength with an ability to (for example) scratch your own back.

But let’s get back to the gear. It’s not magic. I am here to offer you the idea that it may not even be helping you. It may be getting in the way of you realizing what you have to work on.

Your inov-8s do not make you versatile. Your Skinz do not make you tougher. You may PR your squat in new lifting shoes, but they do not make you stronger. You may PR a pullup workout with a new set of gloves, but they are not making your grip any stronger and they are not helping make you a better athlete. Any performance enhancing gear is just taking you – exactly as you are – and adding a few extra percentage points to today’s WOD “score” while not in fact making you stronger or better.

Your lifting shoes do not fix your squat errors, they mask them. What, you say?

On Elevated Heels

Let’s talk mechanics for a moment. What is the theory behind an oly lifting shoe?
1) Firm flat sole that doesn’t squish. Feet and ground usually have this in common.
2) Elevated heel.

Why the elevated heel? Many years ago as weightlifting technique for oly lifters went from from the split to the squat style, lifters realized that it was really hard to get to the rock bottom of a squat – to get as low as possible under the bar, while keeping the chest upright, back tight, and weight solidly in the heels. You hear us refer to this all the time at CFF as a “Good Squat”, and we work on you to perfect this a little bit every day.

Competitive lifters (back then, and somewhat now) want to get as low and as stable as possible, right away. Increasing joint mobility as a means to facilitate lifting bigger weights just wasn’t on their list back when the squat snatch was innovated. So, lifters sought shoes with higher heels so that they could squat down and maintain balance. The problem is that built up heels were – and are – a poor substitute for hamstring shortness, knee and hip mobility and, especially, ankle mobility. So now, lifters work hard on all that mobility to get as deep as they can… and then when it’s competition time, they wear the shoes to get just that much deeper and more stable.

For the athlete in training (and this means you and me), lifting shoes with heels cannot make up for an overall lack of mobility in shoulders and hips, but they can mask the problem for a while and let you lift a bit heavier while still having bad flexibility. One could argue that this allows your body to generate a more powerful neuroendocrine response and grow stronger faster, but I say that’s just a shortcut that sacrifices mobility for size at best, and pure rationalization for a fear of chronic inflexibility at worst.

The most holistic answer is to get more flexible and to get stronger, until you are flexible and strong enough to lift really heavy weights properly without a heel lift. The best way to do that is to train hard, through a full range of motion, and leave the heel lift in your closet until you’re going for the Gold Medal in London.

On Weaknesses, Ego, Logos, and Reality

Are you here to hide from your weaknesses? I submit to you that CrossFit Fenway is the place where we come to spend one hour getting intimately acquainted with our weaknesses. We spend that hour getting comfortable with being uncomfortable – we make friends with our weaknesses and smother them with acceptance while at the same time we strive through the exercises that we know will strengthen them out of existence one day.

For me, personally, I’d rather face the weakness. I’d rather keep stretching my wretchedly tight hamstrings until they get longer. I’ll keep squatting in my bare feet until my ankles go where they need to go for me to get all the way down and up under load, every time. I’ll get stronger and more flexible doing it. It will suck, and I will set aside my ego that cries “I could lift more in my oly shoes” and just keep squatting… because this is training time. Not sexy time, not ego time – this is the time when I will train and become stronger, faster, better. Twelve months from now no one will care what shoes or logos I wore for the past year, especially not me… but more than a few of y’all will be pretty damn impressed if I can increase my 1RM Press by 30kg in that time span. Myself included.

One day in the future, I may be strong enough to compete in the CrossFit Games, or at an Olympic Lifting meet. Once I’m there, I’ll have a choice to make: is it time to go for the max? Is this the time when I embrace ego and go for every advantage to get the competitive best on this one day? Maybe so. That’s what a competition is about, after all. That’s probably the right time for the gear.

You’ll see all the athletes at the Games wearing tons of gear, trying for their absolute max and reaching for every edge to get there. That gear will be covered in logos that beckon to the consumer inside all of us. I am here to tell you that those logos will do nothing for you. The logos you wear convey no fetishistic power that you allows you to absorb some reflected glory any more than getting a chinese character tattoo would make me deep, mystic, or inscrutable. It just looks silly.

Now, if I like a company and support the world that they are creating with their resources and endeavors, I’ll go ahead and wear a logo – without thinking anyone’s fooled into thinking I’m a better athlete for it. I do have Operation Phoenix charity shirts, and a few CrossFit Fenway shirts. (I think they’re good people doing good things in the world, but I’m biased.)

Ultimately though, you don’t need the gear to look like a CrossFitter; we are CrossFitters already by virtue of our choices and determination. I don’t need to logos to earn credibility; I will gain credibility with the reality of having a bigger clean and jerk. Until I am in the Games, most of the gear just gets in the way of my training.

On Tuesday, I RX’d the class workout at Fenway. Nothing crazy, but I made good time in it:
40 Pull ups
40 Burpees
40 Cal Row
40 Squats
That, plus a good Wendler Deadlift and Wendler Press. (I was eager to get after it after the holiday weekend.)

On Thursday, I did some Wendler Squats and went for a 1RM Push Jerk. The Jerk topped out at 80kg, which is good. I had maxed out around there eight months ago (see my old series or articles on the BWCJ quest), and then fallen off for a while since. I’ve been working to get back above that. Then Pat Padgett came in and egged me into joining him for a WOD of heavy cleans and awkward runs:
10 Heavy Power Cleans
100m MedBall Run (sprint carrying a heavy medball)
I chose 70kg – pretty darn heavy for me, but I figured I’d stretch. It was the perfect scaling, as the WOD came in at 8:12 – right next to Pat (who was doing 100kg).

So then Friday rolls around, and it’s DT.
12 Deadlifts @ 70kg
9 Hang Power Cleans @ 70kg
6 Push Jerks @ 70kg
5 Rounds For Time

Last time I even took a swing at this it was at 60kg, scaled appropriately. But just the day before I had cleaned that weight a whole lot of times, just fine… and I could jerk it at least once or twice… and there’s an 18 minute cap!

I might have scaled it down to 65kg, but something about that 18 minute cap and the extra 5kg and the memory of a Hero convinced me to stretch for it. (And after all, if I broke down on the cleans and jerks I could only struggle for 18 minutes.)

And so I entered the Hero WOD “DT” with ambition and an understanding that it might be a bit too ambitious for where I am currently. Turns out that it wasn’t; I finished DT as RXd in 17:18, just 42 seconds under the cap.

My last sets of jerks were 3 and 3. I felt good. Sore the next day, tired in the moment, but elated. In fact, I feel fantastic about this. I’m still getting stronger! I’m still getting faster! I’m making progress! But it was a conversation I had with Aaron Landes the next day that really brought another implication to light.

After the congratulations, Aaron told me a story about his first DT. He had made the first attempt at 60kg, just before we first met. Then 3 months later, he did it the first time as RXd, at about 19 minutes. A year and a half after that, he hit a new PR of 6:40.

Now that’s amazing progress. And, what struck me about it was that as I look at Aaron and see what a gifted athlete he is, his story tells me that 18 months ago he was where I am now. I am forced to acknowledge that I may only be 18 months from being capable of what he is doing, today.
I may be only 18 months from the strength and speed I admire in others.
I may be only 18 months from my own competitive shot at the CrossFit Games.

I am so grateful for that realization, and aware of the weight of that knowledge. I am grateful for all of you who share your own stories of growth and progress, because you mark a path that others can follow. Thanks to you I am conscious of my potential and know that I must consciously choose to grow if I am to fulfill it. Thanks to you I am invited to push harder, invited to work alongside you, invited to take those steps forward.

None of this happens accidentally, although all of it happens gradually. One step, one workout, one meal, and one sleep at a time I will stay focused on aligning my actions with my intentions… and one year later, I won’t have wished I had started today. I’ll be one year further along my path, instead.

Many gyms do their Murph on Memorial Day – a good day to remember Lt. Michael Murphy and all of our nation’s Veterans. Windy City CrossFit decided to take that remembrance a bit further and raise money for the Foundation. Eric got the invitation and decided it was just the sort of thing that CrossFit Fenway does.

And so yesterday we found ourselves gathering at 9am for one of the hardest workouts around, in honor of a great man.

Last time we did this workout was on September 11, 2010. Yesterday we got after it again, for the third time at CrossFit Fenway. The first time, back on April 6, 2010, only 3 of us went as RX – and we didn’t have any weight vests. This was different for all of us.

A bigger, stronger, faster, and more confident community came together yesterday.

David, a visitor from LA, joined us. He’s been with us this week sharing the experience of what it means to be part of our family. He went out of his way to tell us what you already know: you people, the members and coaches, make CrossFit Fenway a facility that stands apart from others. You are truly remarkable.

Five of our members took it on with the 20 pound weight vest. I loved working beside you and was proud of your efforts to get it done, but of all of us none prouder than Scrappy O’Leary. For her, that 20 pounds is about a 18% increase in her body weight. She took it on with guts and determination and did honor to Murph and herself. She finished the workout in 70:59. On her last lap, she was joined by her friends – our community – and it was a proud and beautiful moment to run with her to finish it out.

For myself, I’m pleased with my performance. 48:43 – a PR of 6 minutes and 11 seconds. I’m glad to be getting faster and stronger along with all of you. I’m even more pleased by the love and support you all showed for each other. I’m grateful for the money you raised for our Navy SEALs, to honor their service and sacrifice. Most of all, I’m honored to share this journey with you – the experiences of our lives.

Thanks, Lt Murphy.

Gift Certificates?

YES! Look, nobody gives books of Wendy’s Frosty coupons or McDonald’s Milkshakes anymore; you wouldn’t eat them even if you got them. A gift card to Starbucks is the “new Frosty”; just as lame, but with the added irony of using more plastic to buy a paper-cupped drink in pursuit of saving the environment with fair-trade boutique coffee. (Note: JT feels silly going into a Starbucks. Eric feels juuuuuust fine about it.)

Why not give (or get) something MORE awesome? Instead of saying “I want you to have high caffeine levels and a moderately increased sense of social responsibility”, why not give a gift that says “I want to share my passion and joy and friends and community with you! I want to share this nearly incommunicable experience of fun and growth and confidence and transformation! I want you to be a F*&#ing SUPERHERO.” Give a CrossFit Fenway gift certificate - and next year, you and your friends can pick out capes together for a gift exchange.

They’re not just for giving to others. You can ask for them, too! We get lots of calls all year long from people asking how they can give the gift of membership to their friends. Now, when making out your wish lists to give to neighbors, family members, and even awkward near-relations, you have the perfect choice available!

We offer these two ways:
1) Newbie! Want to have a complete neophyte try out CrossFit Fenway? We’re launching a special Fundamentals class in January. It will be capped to a very few members, and will be a 4-week (12 class) introduction to CrossFit. The goal will be to introduce the concepts, teach the fundamental movements, accelerate the learning and progress, and graduate members who are ready to jump into class at full speed! This is a great way for a deconditioned athlete (or your out-of-shape-yet-ambitious friends) to get started from scratch!

$400 will cover the entire cost of getting someone started with CrossFit – and it’s a gift they’ll thank you for the rest of their lives. Let’s be honest: losing 10 pounds will get them more positive attention than showing off a new iPad, for less money. Discovering a new life of fitness beats the hell out of a Kindle. And being able to take your bodyweight overhead? Priceless.

2) Member! Want to contribute to the training costs of your favorite CrossFit athlete? General use gift certificates are available in any denomination from $100 to $4,070. (Why $4,070? That’s the cost of a full year of Unlimited Access to CrossFit Fenway: just $13 per class. So cheap!) Buy one and your favorite Fenway member can apply it to any membership costs for the next year!

And then there’s clothing.

First off, we have Joe McGhee modeling the brand new, 4th Edition CrossFit Fenway T-shirt!

We’ve taken the same great material from the 3rd Edition shirt that everyone so loved, and combined it with our original slogan from the First Edition shirts! The result? An awesome t-shirt for working out or hanging out. Show the world that you choose strength; you choose CrossFit Fenway. Click Here to buy now, or stop in to CrossFit Fenway and ask us about it!

Not to be forgotten, we have also gotten a limited print-run “refill” of our popular 3rd Edition CrossFit Fenway T’s! These dark green beauties are perfect for WODding and representing. Tessie’s almost in stealth mode on the front, but she’s still squatting more. And that’s what it’s all about, right? SQUAT MORE.

The BIG surprise for the holidays? HOODIES! Yes, it’s getting cold out there, and we didn’t want to leave you hanging. These are awesome – full zip front, nice pockets, and a big distressed “Tessie” logo splashed across the front. On the back, CrossFit Fenway represents. Tell everyone about the Finest 15 Minutes of Your Day, wearing a kickass CrossFit Fenway hoodie. Just $50 for all sizes, check the Store to buy one or come in fast! We didn’t get too many of these for the First Edition Hoodie, so I think they’ll sell out before you’re doing HSPU under the chimney (with care). Check out the majesty! Eric models “teh new hotness”:

Looking for something a little more aggressive for the female-bodied CrossFitter? We’ve still got inspirational Tessie Tanks, too! Great xmas gift, and I personally love the ribbed tank. Oh, if only American Apparel made these in a size appropriate for barrel-chested men; I’d wear these daily.

That concludes the holiday shopping options for now… more great Fenway products will come along soon enough.

But in the meantime, NO LOAFING – SQUAT MORE.

It’s been a good two weeks. I’ve been logging my sleep – not as consistently as I can, but for the first week at least I kept good track. Just the awareness that I had a goal helped. Looking at my sleep log, I can see that my totals were definitely in the right vein: 8.5, 7.75, 8.25, 8, 8.5, 6.5, 8.5, 7.5…

Where do I lapse? Easy – Monday nights. Even if the Patriots aren’t playing, I coach the 5:30 am and 6:30 am classes at CrossFit Fenway. That means I’m up at 4:30, and my regular bedtime routine just slays me. It’s hard to force myself to get to sleep at 8pm on Monday nights, but I’m just going to have to try harder.

What’s my strategy to fix it? On Mondays I’ll eat earlier. It’s the scheduled Rest Day in my program, so I don’t have to schedule food around workouts. I can start cutting off my food by 5pm, just to give my body that natural “wind down” cue that will have me in bed at 8.

My water intake has been excellent as well. I’ve been doing a great job of getting 64 ounces a day – and I’ll be trying to increase that over the next two weeks. It’s really been easier than I thought. The key has been starting early, and not forgetting to drink water through the middle of the day. Keeping a bottle with me at all times really helps.

Training? It’s been a mixed bag. I’ve had some great successes: my times are good in metabolic WODs, and I hit a PR front squat at 85kg – which is my bodyweight – but I have yet to replicate that in a later attempt. In terms of sticking to the training schedule, my problem has just been that I tend to do too much. I love working out with the classes and trainers at CrossFit Fenway, and so I’ll frequently jump in and do a WOD on a day when I had planned to just do strength or technique work.

I don’t think this is going to kill me, but it may dilute the impact of my strength focus. In other words: I think it will make me a better overall athlete, but it may slow down my progress towards my specific goal of a bodyweight Clean and Jerk. I’m not concerned enough about it to make a change yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

The only place I’ve really dropped the ball on my initial plan has been on the mobility WOD. I started off well, getting the first 5 days in a row… and then I fell off the wagon. What is needed is for me to make it an ingrained part of my training routine, and I didn’t stick to it long enough to make it a morning ritual. I’m going to give it another try – but this time, I’m going to make it a scheduled mid-afternoon activity: something to get me moving in the middle of the day. Let’s see if that approach is any more successful.

Overall, it’s a good start – even if just because I’m starting! I’m starting to make some progress on strength and technique, my bodyweight is starting to come down a touch, and I’m finding out how to tweak my program to get more effectiveness and adherence.

If YOU are ready to make an audacious (but SMART) goal and want some help planning how to get there, just send me an email and let me help!

Here’s some workout logs from the past two weeks:

Tuesday, 10/26

DL 120kg x10, Back Squat 5 sets of 3 reps at 80kg.
Snatch technique work.
WOD: AMBAP 15. 2 Baselines + 30 situps.

Wedsnesday, 10/27

Front Squat 75kg x3
WOD: Three rounds of 15 Hang Power Cleans @ 60kg, 15 burpees. 7:20.

Thursday, 10/28

DL 120kg x12
WOD: AMRAP 16 of 8 pullups, 8 pistols, 8 DL @100kg. 7 rounds.
I still need a hand to stabilize my pistols. Frustrating, but I’m not going to add another thing to focus on at the moment.

Friday, 10/29

DL 120kg x13
WOD: Fran. 10:24 RX.
This was a PR for me, but still slow. Definitely demonstrated that I need more speed out of the bottom of my squats and must work on my strength.

Saturday, 10/30

WOD: AMRAP 20. Buy-in run 1 mile, then AMRAP Box Jumps (20″) and WallBall (20#) in an ascending ladder, 1-2-3-… 13 rounds total.

Sunday, 10/31

C+J Technique Work.
WOD: 3 rounds for time: 500m Row, 20 Lateral Burpees, 400m Run. 18:28.
Then: 6 minutes to find a 2RM Clean and Jerk. 70kg, failed 75. Should have gone for 72kg…

Monday, 11/1

REST DAY

Tuesday, 11/2

Front Squat 80×3 (PR), 85×1 *PR*
WOD: 10 Power Cleans @ 70kg, 20 Toes To Bar, 30 Burpees, 40 KB Swings (24kg), 50 Double Unders. 10:51, painfully slow.
Power Cleans were slow at this weight, sitting right at my current max. Double unders need more work, always.

Wednesday, 11/3

Jerk technique practice. Snatch technique work.
Back Squat 80kg x12.

Thursday, 11/4

Bench Press: 70kg x3, 75kg x2. I guess it counts as a PR, as I’ve never benched before in my life.
DL 120kg x15
WOD: 3 rounds for time: 12 Dips, 24 Goblet Squats (24kg), 36 Box Jumps (24″). 13:21 – red band assist on dips.

Friday, 11/5

Clean and Jerk technique work.
Front Squat: 70kg x9, Squat Clean 60kg (fail 65kg).

Saturday, 11/6

Beast of the East Competition judging. Long day, went from 6am to 2am. Wish I’d had time for a WOD…

Sunday, 11/7

REST DAY.

Monday, 11/8

OH Squat 5×5: 52kg
WOD: 4 rounds for time. 20 Back Squats (@60kg), 10 Box Jumps (30″), 50 Double Unders. 21:02.
This was a tough one. I flew out to San Francisco this morning, and did the WOD after I landed at CrossFit Mountain View. 6 hours of flight and an hour of car rides probably ain’t the best warmup for what can only be described as a gawdawful pile of squats, but I’m very glad to have made it through. Thanks to Alex for the hospitality and coaching!

See you in a few more weeks with another update…

There’s a few things you might want to prepare that happen outside the tight timeframes of your WODs, though.

Timing: Get there early enough that you’re not hurried or harried – being ready for the athlete briefing means you get the full information and aren’t running around frantic trying to find your heat or details that you could have gotten the first time around. Athlete meeting is at 8am – you may want to plan to have your car parked and walking in by 7:40 am.

Parking: Speaking of getting there early, print out a map the night before. Understand that Route 30 is the main access road, and it is just a 2-lane road with No Passing for the majority of it. Traffic can back up hard if things go sideways on Saturday morning, or it can be a nice cruise. Once there, you’ll find that CFNE is buried in the back of a commercial/light industrial office park. Their parking lot will get overwhelmed by the first 30 cars. There are 180 athletes, 40 judges, 20 volunteers, and god knows how many spectators in attendance. So parking will be out of control, and you may be parked on the side of the road a long distance from the facility.

Packing: You’ll be walking to get there, and crammed into a tight space, and probably having to move all your gear multiple times during the day. Prepare for a walk, and make sure your supplies are in easily portable containers. No pile of loose crap – get a duffel bag, athletic bag, or plastic bin to haul your stuff. Plastic bins also double as handy seats, so I’m partial to those. Bring a blanket: it rarely hurts to have one to wrap up in or sit on the ground for comfort.

Essential equipment: Food and water. Bring a water bottle. Keep it filled from the tap. Bring food. Cook extra chicken breasts tonight and bring them. Power bars? Sure. Grab a fistful of those fun-size LaraBars from the locker room at Fenway and take those, too. Big jar of almonds? Great. Almond butter? Fine. Jarred baby food is the favorite game day nutrition of at least one CFF Coach.

Whatever it is, bring enough calories to keep you going throughout the day. Budget for 300-400 calories after every event, plus loads of water. Nothing too hard to digest. Bring it with you, because trying to go out to eat during the day will Suck.

Eating out: I don’t advise it. It’s a long haul from CFNE to anything resembling a grocery store or restaurant, and you run the risk of getting stuck in traffic. Take what you need.

Non-obvious equipment: It’s an 8 hour day of competition, at least. There are 9 heats of each event. You will spend a great deal of time sitting around, recovering and taking time away from cheering. So bring a chair… and WARM CLOTHES. Sweatpants and sweatshirt to keep you warm during the cold weather we’ll be having tomorrow is essential. Stay warm and loose between workouts – don’t vacillate between boiling and freezing. You might want an umbrella – you might be stuck outside in the rain waiting for your next event.

There will be more that isn’t mentioned here, but I figured a quick last minute list of considerations might help some of you as you prepare to launch into your first competition! Good luck, sleep well, and I’ll see you all out there.

Fortunately, we’re coming back strong in a big way with this one. Justin is a star athlete here at CrossFit Fenway. Always motivating his classmates and driving the top performers to go harder, funny and helpful… oh, and he also raised more money for Fight Gone Bad 5 than anyone else at Fenway. Yeah, he’s a rock star – and he always wears his CrossFit Fenway shirts to represent his home box when he goes on the road.

This month’s profile can be read by dropping down in the Member Profile menu up top, or you can just link there from here:

CrossFitters Anonymous

At the end of July, I finished up 3 months of constant experimentation on rigorously strict dietary regimens. All of those projects are documented here. I achieved great successes, not the least of which was affirming the knowledge in my core that I was capable of making hard choices, one at a time, until I reached my goals.

Reaching our goals is something we’re all about at CrossFit Fenway. We’ve invited all of you to write your goals on the wall at CrossFit Fenway. Stating a goal is important; it’s the first step to getting there. However, it is only the first step.

Stating an intention without formulating a plan is like wishing on rainbows and falling stars. It’s very nice, but it’s not going to generate results – regardless of the opinions of countless hippies and devotees of “The Secret”. (Please don’t spend your money on “The Secret”. You already know the secret. I’ll remind you next time you see me in class – just ask me.)

Similarly, it’s said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. That’s true: the simple act of making one choice at a time gets us to our goals. But choices are all around us, all the time. We have a thousand desires, an infinite possibilities. Making choices without an over-arching guiding principle does us no good, either.

Results are generated by aligning our choices with our intentions. Every choice, in every moment, must be aligned if we are to make optimal progress. Make enough choices that aren’t in the direction you’re pointed, and you will never get there. It’s like trying to walk that journey of a thousand miles by stumbling about in circles.

What’s my goal? Complete a body-weight Clean and Jerk in the next two months.

In order for a goal to be effective, it needs to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Specific? “Get in shape” is not specific. “Crack a sub-5-minute Baseline time” is specific. Measurable? Again, we do that well in CrossFit: it’s one of our central tenets. Attainable? We’ll see, but I’m saying “bodyweight C&J” instead of “bodyweight Squat Snatch” for a reason. Relevant? Certainly, increased C&J capacity is relevant to my larger overall themes of becoming a more effective athlete and human; explosive hip opening power is central to many other performance domains. Time-bound? I’ve got two months.

Many of our members have a goal right now to be in peak performance shape for the Beast of the East competition coming up soon. More of you have personal goals based around movements you’d like to perfect, benchmarks to achieve. How do you break down the “big goal” into smaller task goals? How are you aligning your choices with your intentions? Can you do more? Why wouldn’t you? What’s stopping you?

With those questions in my mind, I sat down to evaluate where I was in my training and diet. I’ve retained good habits gained from making hard choices 5 months ago: I don’t consume caffeine. Artificial sweeteners and soy only sneak in to my diet in trace amounts from sauces or flavorings. I’m very strictly still not consuming any grains or legumes. Dairy? I love it, and it didn’t hurt my progress when I included it in my Phase 3 Paleo Experiment. I’m keeping it. I’ve gotten lax about including too many nuts and fruits in my diet, not enough protein, and definitely way too much sugar… particularly in the form of ice cream.

I do love ice cream. Then again, I love cigarettes too – and those aren’t making a comeback anytime soon.

So, my bodyweight Clean and Jerk by January 1. I’ll take three major approaches to get there.

1. Increase my strength.
2. Improve my technique in the olympic lifts.
3. Decrease my bodyweight.

Yes, I will do these things simultaneously. In order to work on all of these things, I’ll need to be in good enough physical condition to train hard across all these axes – and that means proper self-care and continuing my regular CrossFit training to maintain my general physical preparedness.

I covered all the things I’ve done to get in better shape over the last 6 months. What haven’t I tried to improve my performance? Fish oil, for one. Adequate hydration, for another. Getting serious about my sleep schedule for a third. Proper stretching and flexibility work (such as following the Mobility WOD). So with that in mind, here’s a few lifestyle changes I’m going to try for the next two months to help reach my goals:

• Vitamins – morning and evening
• Fish Oil supplementation – morning and evening
• Log Water Consumption: 5 glasses per day minimum
• -  Target: 64 ounces. 1/2 gallon, or 2 liters.
• Log sleep time, down and up. Target 8+ hours

In addition, I’ll also make a few tweaks to my food intake:

• Reduce nuts and fruits in diet to maximum 300 cals/day
• Evening meal: no food after 7pm.

Finally, I’m updating my training each week to include a little more focused strength work and some oly technique to get me to my particular goal:

• 2 days Olympic Lifting technique progressions
• 3 days Heavy Squats and Deadlifts
• At least 3 days of CrossFit Fenway WODs
• Daily: Mobility WOD. Start at Day 1.

Oh crap. That’s a lot of training time, and y’all know that time is scarce for me, as a man with 3 jobs and more “extracurricular activities” than is strictly considered rational. Fortunately, it’s not a whole lot of gym time. Let’s break out that schedule to make it manageable:

Each morning upon rising: read mobility WOD while prepping breakfast. Do Mobility WOD at home.

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday:
- CrossFit WOD with Class (finest 15 minutes of my day, 1 hour total)
- Olympic technique progressions after class (15-30 minutes).

Wednesday: Heavy Squats or DLs (30-45 minutes)

Thursday:
- CrossFit WOD with Class (finest 15 minutes of my day, 1 hour total)

Friday: Heavy Squats or DLs (30-45 minutes)

Saturday: Olympic Technique Drills after Invasion

Sunday:
- CrossFit WOD with CrossFit Fenway Competition Team (What, you didn’t know? Our Beast of the East athletes get an extra training session each week to prepare for the event.)
- Heavy Squats or DLs (30-45 minutes)

Now, I travel. Lots. This schedule will have to get flexible to accommodate my travel, and that’s fine. A few missed steps won’t keep me from my goals, though it will slow me down some – and I haven’t left a whole lot of time for missteps. I’ll also probably end up doing a lot more than 3 days of CrossFit Fenway WODs each week, because I just have so much fun working out with you fine people!

Ultimately, I’ll be updating this blog every week with benchmark measurements, stories from the training, and observations about life and choices as I work towards this goal. Hopefully y’all will ride along again… and put together your own plans about how you’re going to reach your goals!

I missed my goal of gaining 10 pounds in a month. Why did I fail to meet those targets?
1) Didn’t eat enough. My average calorie intake was only 3,332 calories per day. My target was 4100.
– By the math I did at the start, that would have suggested that I would be 6 pounds short of my target, but instead I was only 2 pounds short. Why is the math off? A longer data set would give us more clues.
2) Didn’t sleep enough. I fell way short of my goal to sleep 8-9 hours per night, and averaged only about 7 hours instead. I’ll work on this.

However, I did manage to gain 8.3 pounds in those 4 weeks, and keep my body fat ratio exactly the same! I added weight completely proportionately, which is an outstanding result in my opinion.

My strength also increased, even more than the proportionate mass gain would suggest. This 4.6% increase in lean body mass resulted in significantly larger gains in my Deadlift (130kg x1 went to 140kg x3, with NO deadlift work during that time), and of course my squats got much heavier in that time (from 65kg x16 to 90kg x15).

More than anything else, I learned to let go of my fear. Eating more is not, in fact, going to turn me back into the “old JT” – a big fat guy who weighs 260 pounds and can’t run more than 100 meters at a time. Even dairy isn’t going to do that. I can eat relatively clean and in quantities large enough to make me ill, and as long as I’m doing CrossFit and lifting heavy stuff, I’ll just get bigger. Stronger. More capable.

This is an enormous relief – and even a bit of a surprise, for me. I had thought my metabolism to be destroyed, burnt out after 32 years of abuse. Apparently the human body is more resilient than I thought. My temperature is running hot these days, processing all these calories, but I’m not holding excessive piles of those calories as fat, which is great!

Ultimately, this has been a 3-month-long experiment in three different kinds of paleo eating. I’ve documented everything that went into my mouth over that time period, and shared the process and the results as openly and completely as I can with all of you. I’ve learned a lot about myself in this process, and hopefully the rest of you have seen things in this experiment that you can take and incorporate into your own nutrition plans.

I’m tired of writing everything down. I’m going to take a break. Maybe I’ll spend the next three months writing about gender politics and philosophy, but I won’t be food logging for a while. I don’t want to become too obsessed over this food, and it’s my intention to take the fear out of food (for all of us) instead of creating more eating disorders.

So I’ll be relaxing: I will still eat big for a while, and lift heavy, because I want to get bigger and stronger. And, I will do that in a laid back, relaxed manner that will hopefully demonstrate to you (and me) that you can incorporate hard-learned dietary lessons into your daily life without being a compulsive food journaler.

I hope you enjoyed this, or at least found it useful. Thanks for all the comments and questions and support, throughout this process. I’m grateful to share it with each and every one of you – and wish you all the best in your own experiments.

This body is the only toy you’ll ever really own, people. Have fun playing with it.

Monday, July 26th

4 eggs (280/4/18/24)
Cheese (110/1/9/6)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
1 cup whole milk (150/12/8/8)
Salad w Grilled Chicken (250/3/6/30)
Pistachios (170/2/15/6)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
Beef Jerky (120/3/2/23)
2 Chicken+Cheese burgers (480/6/24/58)
2 Turkey+Cheese burgers (440/2/20/58)
Fage greek yogurt + 2 scoops whey protein (270/11/0/55)
1 cup whole milk (150/12/8/8)
Ice cream (260/28/14/6)
Totals: 3670 calories. 132g carbs, 148g fat, 426g protein.
– Oh, finally. Enough protein. Whew, that’s a relief. Feels good, man.

I’m looking into signing up with a local organic CSA food share for meats to increase my quality, so if you have ideas let me know.

Tuesday, July 27th

1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
sockeye salmon (170/0/9/22)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
2 Chicken+Cheese burgers (480/6/24/58)
2 Turkey+Cheese burgers (440/2/20/58)
Almonds (190/2/16/5)
Almond bar: Mareblu Naturals (180/11/12/5)
12 oz steak (600/0/21/90)
3oz cheese (330/3/27/18)
Totals: 3710 calories. 88g carbs, 161g fat, 448g protein.
– It was a busy day at the gym, and I got by just drinking my calories. At least I got plenty of protein!

Wednesday, July 28th

Almonds (190/2/16/5)
4 eggs (280/4/18/24)
2 oz Cheese (220/2/18/12)
3 cups whole milk (450/36/24/24)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
Beef Jerky (280/22/6/42)
12 pieces Sashimi (360/0/3/84)
Sesame bark (160/10/11/4)
Chicken+Cheese burgers (240/3/12/29)
Turkey+Cheese burgers (220/1/10/29)
2x Mahi Mahi burgers (240/0/10/36)
Totals: 2970 calories. 96g carbs, 136g fat, 337g protein
– Another long day, but loads of good protein at the end of it helped compensate for not eating enough protein consistently through the day.

Thursday, July 29th. 85kg body weight.

4 eggs (280/4/18/24)
Cheese (110/1/9/6)
3 whey shakes (480/6/9/90)
Longhorn Trio: salmon, chicken, sirloin (860/24/37/107)
Broccoli (150/12/0/18)
Mozzarella (160/2/12/16)
1 cup whole milk + 2 scoops whey (330/16/8/48)
1 pound, steak (800/0/28/120)
ice cream (280/36/12/10)
1 cup whole milk (150/12/8/8)
whey shake (160/2/3/30)
Totals: 3760 calories. 127g carbs, 144g fat, 477g protein

Friday, July 30th

You’ll just have to ask. I’m done writing this down for a while.

However, I am more than happy to help you develop your OWN meal plan to meet your goals, and to answer any questions about what I’ve done over the last three months. Good luck – and I’ll see you at CrossFit Fenway!