iWORKOUT - Front Squats, Food Porn, and Furballs

[EPolis13]

So, I started a new round of 5/3/1 yesterday, and I thought it might be nice to start up a log to track my progress. I also recently started repping for iForce back in March and have some nice new products to try out and assess how they help my performance.

A little background on me and how I got to where I am today might be helpful to those who may ask "Do you even lift?" I played sports all throughout my childhood (soccer, basketball, softball, and track, namely), and I continued to play both soccer and softball in college. Before I went to college, I suffered a total knee blowout in a soccer game and lost all of my scholarships, womp womp. I had aspirations of hopefully one day playing some big league soccer, but those hopes kinda vanished when I had to get all 4 ligaments in my knee replaced at the ripe age of 18. I was pretty bummed, no doubt, but I just decided to use it as motivation to recover as quickly as possible and play all 4 years in college. It wasn't an easy road: I had to undergo a hefty amount of painful rehab, had to wear uncomfortable, cumbersome knee braces, and suffered a total loss of right quad strength and size, sprint speed (which was, at one point, my biggest strength), and my athletic confidence. I had to do a lot of work, both physically and mentally, to get myself to a place where I was strong enough, fast enough, and confident enough to take the field once again. Long story short, I played all 4 years in college with no major issues.

Once I graduated, I got bored pretty quickly. I didn't have anything to work towards, didn't have a training plan to follow, and was just generally displeased. I got into half marathons, but I hate running, so..........yeah. That didn't really work out so well. Plus, all the training was taking a toll on my grandma knee. So then I randomly got hooked up with a personal trainer who was also a fitness competitor. She talked me into competing, and I actually enjoyed it. My preps were always relatively "easy" in the sense that they were never > 8 weeks, I never really did any cardio until I was about 2 weeks out, and I ate close to maintenance until 4-5 weeks out. I competed a total of 3 times and did pretty well, but I got sick of that, too. There was still something missing, and I was tired of feeling tired and hungry all the time. Ain't nobody got time for that. This girl likes to eat.

Cut to 2012. I started dating a guy who was an avid CrossFitter (inb4 negs) and I started working out with him. I will tell you all, it was the FIRST time in about 8 years that I had felt athletic again. The more I trained and the heavier I lifted, the more alive I started to feel. I was squatting, deadlifting, pressing, and everything else-ing more than I had ever been able to in my entire lifting career. I got faster, more flexible, and more confident with each workout. Now, let me say this: I have never operated like your average CrossFitter. I never just do the group workouts every day and leave it at that. I train for it like I would train for a sport: I follow very specific programming and I do extensive mobility and accessory work in order to improve EVERYTHING. I work the core lifts (HBBS, deadlifts, front squats, OH squats, bench press, strict press/push press, clean and jerk, and snatch) every week and will then add in "skills" work as a warm up (handstand pushups, dead-hang pull-ups, double unders, various kettlebell work) or after my lift in order to keep them sharp. When it comes time to focus more on my conditioning, I will start to do more of the group workouts.

I know there's a lot of negativity around CrossFit, and it's not unfounded. There are boxes that have really sh***y coaches and dumb programming. Those boxes disregard proper form and execution, they encourage people to use weight that is far too heavy, and they do dumb things like heavy tabata deadlifts at 225# for 10 minutes (not kidding, I've seen it). The lack of standardization of CrossFit bothers me, and it always will until something changes. Olympic lifting is extremely complex and takes years to master, and I am not surprised that there are thousands of YouTube videos of CrossFit fails because of this. My box, in my opinion, is pretty great. The coaches ALWAYS stop people when their form is off, they actually MAKE people drop weight if their lifts look like garbage, and 1 of our coaches is actually an Olympic lifter - as in, he was in the Olympics. We also have a Foundations class that is required for anyone who wants to join full-time. They take 1.5 months to teach people everything with light weight. Maybe my box is in the minority, maybe not, but at least I'm at a place that does it right. I've never once felt uncomfortable nor have I felt like I was at risk of injuring myself. And, if it makes you feel any better, I can't kip for s**t. OK, off my soapbox

I broke up with the CrossFitter, but I continued to train, because I absolutely loved what I was doing. I felt better and looked better than I had in years, and I wanted to continue to increase my lifts and improve myself. For the last 8 months or so, I've worked a random strength program to get my core lifts up a little. Here's what it looked like:
8 - 65% 1RM
5 - 70% 1RM
5 - 75% 1RM
5 - 75% 1RM
3 - 80% 1RM

My starting and ending 1RM stats were:
Clean and Jerk: 95# - 155#
Snatch: 90# - 115#
Bench: 100# - 145#
Strict press: 75# - 105#
Push Press: 100# - 135#
Deadlift: 185# - 295#
HBBS: 135# - 205#
Front Squat: 85# - 165#
OH Squat: 90# - 125#

Looking back at these numbers........what WEAK sauce on those starting stats, sheesh. I am pleased with my progress, but I am having issues specifically with snatch and strict press. Both issues are related to form deficiencies, in my opinion. I even think my clean could be WAY better with some form help. I am jumping forward, which means I'm pulling too soon and am having to compensate by chasing the bar forward. I also have watched some videos of myself, and I need work on the hip extension. I'm basically using my raw strength to get the bar overhead in both lifts instead of using the momentum of the hip extension. I also SUCK at catching stuff down low - both the clean and the snatch #s listed above are power clean and power snatch - not full. Particularly troublesome is the snatch - I wobble a lot down at the bottom and end up ditching the bar behind me. To help me with this, I've hired a coach. I start working with her this Sunday and I'm excited to start working to correct these issues. I think I'm going to basically have to start over, weight-wise, and re-learn the lifts. I'll do whatever it takes, because I'd love to be able to clean and jerk 1.5x/bw at some point. Like a sir.

I just started 5/3/1 on Monday and here are my lifts so far this week:

Monday:
Bench
95x5
110x5
125x5

Front Squat
100x5
115x5
130x5

Conditioning:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 burpees
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 sit-ups

Tuesday:
HBBS
130x5
145x5
165x5
105 - 3 x 10

Skills:
Snatch
EMOM (every minute on the minute) 1 snatch from 1st position (right at the hips), 1 snatch at 2nd position (just under the knees), 1 snatch from the floor. All at 40% of 1RM for 8 minutes. At the bottom of each rep, I held the squat for 2-3 seconds. These were all full snatches caught down at the bottom of the squat each time.

Conditioning
15 min AMRAP of 3-6-9-12-15-18-21, etc deadlifts at 40% of 1RM followed by 200m sprint w/a 14# medicine ball
I finished 7 full rounds plus 17 out of 21 deadlifts. Did I mention I hate running? Only when chased......

Boom, goes the dynamite



My current PWO supps are as follows:
2 scoops Hemavol, 200mg caffeine
When Conquer comes out, I'll be adding that in I use Compete during my workouts, as well.

For the food porn and furball part of the title, here's the scoop: I love to cook. I cook every day, and don't eat out that much. I've been cooking with my mom since I was a child, and I really enjoy being able to feed myself nutritious, yet delicious food. I got quite creative when I was competing, actually. Prep for me was far less miserable than it is for most people. I'll be sharing recipes from time to time for those who are interested. Also, I have a dog named Trotter. He's a great little dude, and I've had him since I was 24. He's been with me through 3 jobs, 2 boyfriends, and a lot of failed recipes. He keeps me happy and he's pretty awesome. Some of you may already know him For those who don't, here ya go:

Alright, goodbros, I hope you enjoy following along. Please let me know if you have any questions. And if you have any tips/tricks, etc, I'm all ears, too!

[LoudyRowdy]

Loudy is first...cuz hes that important...

[neddo]

Smiling pic ftw.

No ice cream pics doe; recipes = good to go.

[joregorn]

So, I feel I just read a short story about your life. Will there be test questions throughout the log?

[ERGOGENIX]

Walloftext/10

[|ceman]

Pick me!


- Are you over 18 years old?
Yes

- Do you live in the United States?
Yes

- Have you ever tried a diuretic product before?
Yes

- Are you able to provide a review and before/after pictures?
Sure

- What event is it that you are preparing for, and when will it take place?
I have 5 shows I plan on competing in between 6/29 and 8/31 in NPC Women's Physique

[Diesel0022]

You're wrong

[Valhallabound86]

Impressive story. Crossfitters usually get made fun of more for the 'holier than thou' attitude that seems to leak from every pore in their body. But it does teach some solid lifting techniques.

in4 the long haul.

[EPolis13]

So, I feel I just read a short story about your life. Will there be test questions throughout the log?

Yes, hope you were paying attention. It's not open book.

[dbone1026]

Never pictured PC as someone who would wear zebra pants

Love my Rehband Knee Sleeves as well

[joregorn]

Yes, hope you were paying attention. It's not open book.

shyt

[nugget5]

Woof

I mean tl;dr but in.

[mordag]

in before trotter

strong deadlift @295

I am also doing a 5-3-1, can't wait to see results!

[powercage]

Never pictured PC as someone who would wear zebra pants

Vertical stripes make me look taller.

[dbone1026]

Vertical stripes make me look taller.

I thought stripes were slimming

[powercage]

I thought stripes were slimming

That too

[EPolis13]

Impressive story. Crossfitters usually get made fun of more for the 'holier than thou' attitude that seems to leak from every pore in their body. But it does teach some solid lifting techniques.

in4 the long haul.

Yes, that is very true and I do agree that a lot come across that way. Rest assured yours truly thinks that everyone should train in a manner that suits their goals and that they enjoy.

[VaughnTrue]

in on this!

[powercage]

There better be a plethora of knee high socks in this thread

[EPolis13]

There better be a plethora of knee high socks in this thread

You know it

[EPolis13]

Smiling pic ftw.

No ice cream pics doe; recipes = good to go.

From last night: Protean Strawberry Creamsicle ice cream

[EPolis13]

Just got back from today's workout. Felt good today, but my legs are trashed and I think I'm going to take a rest day tomorrow.

PWO: 2 scoops Lemon Drop Hemavol, LCLT, Taurine, ALCAR
Intra: Compete Fruit Punch

Strict Press
60x5
70x5
80x5

OH Squat
75x5
85x5
95x5

Skills:
Strict dead hang pull-ups 3 x 8 (see, we don't always kip )

Conditioning:
6 rounds for time (with a 15 minute time cap):
9 burpee box jumps (I did Rx+ and jumped on a 30" box. Rx for women was 20)
6 toes to bar
3 handstand pushups (I did Rx+ and pushed up off of 2 45# plates)
Final time for 6 rounds: 10:56

My strict press still feels like chit. I just hate feeling weak. We hardly ever really see strict press in a competition, but it's obviously beneficial to work it to build a base for things like push press and push jerk. I just hate that I can't seem to get that # into double digits. I tend to drop my elbows right as I start the press and that just makes it harder than it needs to be. I get stuck about half way through and then can't get my head through. I get very frustrated on this one. I've set my 1RM a little lower with this lift to really focus on form as much as I can. OH squats felt pretty easy. Squatting of any kind is my jam. OH is incredibly difficult due to the shoulder involvement. The slightest movement will make you ditch, but it's an awesome total-body movement.

I've been using Hemavol consistently now for about 3 weeks and I like the effects it has on my endurance. It seems to help when I'm reaching that REALLY uncomfortable point in the WODS where I want to quit. I did not take any breaks today except for breaking up my toes to bar into 2 sets of 3 during rounds 4, 5, and 6. It also makes my shoulders really vascular and pumped when I do shoulder work, which I love. I definitely have a thing for vascularity. Kinky!

I've done 3 days of conditioning, I think I'm done for the week, haha. Tomorrow I will sleep.

[joregorn]

IMO from hemavol the endurance factor is >> than the pumps. I like adding some CIT mal to it and some more GG really puts it on another level for a stim free.

[EPolis13]

IMO from hemavol the endurance factor is >> than the pumps. I like adding some CIT mal to it and some more GG really puts it on another level for a stim free.

Yeah, I agree. I definitely can feel a difference since I've started taking it. I still get uncomfortable, but it just seems that once I push through that reaaaaally uncomfortable point, I'm fine. Before Hemavol, I would not be fine, haha.

[powercage]

IMO from hemavol the endurance factor is >> than the pumps. I like adding some CIT mal to it and some more GG really puts it on another level for a stim free.

Gotta pick your battles tho with GG when adding to hemavol as with some movements you can get pumps that are more detrimental than anything else.


Itd be a great choice for endurance work where hydration is needed

[EPolis13]

Gotta pick your battles tho with GG when adding to hemavol as with some movements you can get pumps that are more detrimental than anything else.


Itd be a great choice for endurance work where hydration is needed

Agreed. Massively pumped legs with heavy squats wouldn't be ideal, ESP if I was going to follow with conditioning. On those days, I go with just 1.

[joregorn]

Gotta pick your battles tho with GG when adding to hemavol as with some movements you can get pumps that are more detrimental than anything else.


Itd be a great choice for endurance work where hydration is needed

Have not experienced that yet, but that is a good point.

[allieninja]

in after doze pants.

[LoudyRowdy]

Allan...tell your little boss, tanky, to contact iForce so we can help flavor GG for a small...eh eh eh eh eh...fee

[BigBoLuke93]

I only came for the Ice Cream.. but I guess I'll stay for some lifting. That's cool too