Sunday, Febuary 28th, 2011 - Back Squat Day 50

Standing Shoulder Press
80lbs x 5 reps
100lbs x 5 reps
120lbs x 5

Back Squat
165lbs x 5 reps
255lbs x 1

Weighted Pullups
20lbs x 6
20lbs x 6

Saturday, Febuary 26th, 2011 - Team Metcon

Team Metcon with J to the A.
20-16-12-8-4
45lb DB Thrusters
20 - 20" Box Jumps
12 - Toes to Bar

5:55ish

Later in the day
Back Squats
115lbs x 10 fast back squats
205lbs x 1 rep
255lbs x 2 reps

Friday, Febuary 25th, 2011 - Jamming out to Nirvana

Day 48 in a row...

15 minutes of pushups, mountain climbers, burpees and air squats with the guys at work.

5 hours later

I did not want to squat at all.  Pandora some Nirvana and what do ya know....

135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 3

Thursday, Febuary 24th, 2011 - Getting CRUSHED fuels the fire

Man, did I get CRUSHED yesterday.  It was like my 1st day of Crossfit all over again. 2+ years of Crossfit and I'm a bit smarter this time aroud.  Woke up and was dying to get back in the gym.  Hammys were tight, upper back was tight.

Not sure about the upper back.  I got my 3rd session of rolfing done before I came in to CFWC and he did work on some shoulders and traps...soooooo who knows.

AM
Lots of stretching
30 second Handstand Holds x 3

PM
Lots of stretching
OHS
75lbs  x 15 reps
95lbs x 10 reps
115lbs x 5 reps

Back Squat
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

GH Situps
1x15

Febuary 23rd, 2011 - That suck't - Day 46

Front Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 5
Back Squat
255lbs x 1

1000M Row
50 KB swings @ 52.5lbs
30 toes to bar

11:54 - rx'd

Well what can I say...working out on your own in your garage just doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to metcons.  I'm a hell'uva lot stronger buy, my cardio is dog shit right now.  I finished the row in 3:38.  I told CK that I wanted a DNF at my 15th toes to bar.  Glad he pushed me to finish.  It never felt like I wasn't strong enough to finish a rep.  I just could not get a breath in.  Both my planks were cramping big time.

Tuesday, Febuary 22nd, 2011 - You are now entering the Black hole of squatting

Day 45 of Back Squat Project

I feel straight up like A$$.   I feel so run down.  During yesterdays row, I just felt like giving up.  This journey of squatting has been reassuring that I can accomplish ANYTHING as long as I don't give up.  My hips feel like they have been beaten with a sledgehammer....ok I'm being very obnoxious when I say that.  Hips just feel so sluggish.  My back feels tight.  My shoulders feel weak.  I'm tired.  I can keep going, but I'd rather be positive and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I truely feel that your body will only do what your mind allows it.  My body wants to quit the squat project and say that it's stupid.  However, I'm telling my mind that we will continue the journey and continue the struggle.

I was so proud of my mind and body this afternoon.  As horrible as I feel, I pushed through the dark hole and continued my training.  I hurt my shoulder back in early December and didn't lift anything heavy overhead for about 8-9 weeks.

So feeling horrible and week...I pushed myself to lift something heavy and continue to get stronger with weights overhead and had success.

Standing Shoulder Press
70lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
115lbs x 5

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

Monday, Febuary 21st, 2011 - squatting and rowing

Back Squat
135lbs x 3
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

Row 2k - 8:36

Sunday, Febuary 20th, 2011 - Day 43

Did alot of foam rolling and trigger point release last night, so I wasn't feeling too bad.  The hips actually felt average.  I can tell I'm starting to enter that "black spot" of training.  I'm feeling run down, tired and sleepy.  Overall, I just don't feel as strong.

I'm trying to compensate by eating ALOT of meat and veggies and sleeping as much as possible.  Overall the day didn't pan out too bad.

Front Squat
95lbs x 3
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 1
205lbs x 1
225lbs x 1
260lbs x 1 - fail
255lbs x 1 - 5lb PR

1k Row
3:56 - 13 seconds off a PR.  Wasn't intending to PR...just wanted a good fast 90% row.

Saturday, Febuary 19th, 2011 - Squat Day 42

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 3
205lbs x 2
255lbs x 1

Power Clean
2x3 - 135lbs

Tricep Press down - 2x8

Friday, Febuary 18th, 2011 - Day 41 of Project Back Squat every day

The hips are so beat to hell and my upper body feels recovered from Tuesday's metcon.  Upper body it is...

Standing Press
75lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
105lbs x 5

Barbell Shrugs
105lbs - 3x5

Weighted Pull Ups
5x3 - @20lbs

Negative HandStand Pushups
1x3

--------------------------
8 hours laters
Back Squat
185lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

Weighted pullup with my son holding on to me - 1 rep
I think he weighs about 35lbs

Thursday, Febuary 17th, 2011 - Mucho Squato not enough foodo

Had a good day with the family and running errunds and what not.  Didn't really consume much of any food.  Oh well...what'cha gonna do. 

All these air squats over the last two days have done a number on the hamstrings.  WOW are they tired!

Very light paced 3:00 minute row.  Finished 528 meters...just goes to show you how slow of a pace this was.  I wanted some blood flowing before I threw some weight on the bar.

Back Squat
135lbs x 3
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

Wednesday, Febuary 16th, 2011 - Partner named Cindy

Bench Press
135lbs x 5
145lbs x 5
155lbs x 5

I was trying to think of a fun workout to do with another guy at work.  My shoulder/bicep was a bit tight & his knee has been bothering him, so I was trying to get creative. 

5 Rounds of Team Cindy
5 Dead Hang Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Air Squats

Each partner does 5 total rounds of Cindy, but one is resting while the other does his round.  Untimed WOD, but it was something cool to try out.  Nothing too strenuous.

Front Squat
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 1
205lbs x 1
225lbs x 1
Back Squat
255lbs x 1

Tuesday, Febuary 15th, 2011 - He's Baaaaaackkkkk!!!!

1st day back to CFWC.....

3 rounds off the clock, focusing on effort:
Row 150m
25 Doubleunders
-rest in between rounds
This was untimed...but I was pulling a 1:27 pace on the row.

Complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes:
5 Push presses 95#/65#
10 Squats
20 Skiers (over barbell)

Scaled this to 65lbs.  Finished with 9 rounds + 5 reps.  Totally sandbagged this metcon.  With the loss of some upper body strength, I didn't want to push my shoulders beyond what they could handle. All in due time...all in due time.

After the metcon...I kept the string of squatting everyday going.  I'm pretty happy with this.  255lb didn't feel heavy at all.  Especially after 2 mini metcons.  It's becoming very natural to squat heavy.

Day 39 Back Squats
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 2

Monday, Febuary 14th, 2011 - Rolfing Part 2

Today was the 2nd of 10 rolfing sessions.  Last time I got my shoulders and bicep worked on.  Today we started on the feet and calf.  It was explained to me and it makes perfect sense that I have imbalances in my feet which lead to imbalances in my shoulders.  The posterior line is out of wack and we'll get it all fixed.  Started with my left foot and calf.  It wasn't all that bad.  The pain was no worse than anything I experienced with Tina's house of pain.

After the left side was done, I stood up and there was a visual difference in my left foot and my right foot.  I felt like my foot was planted on the ground much more securely, stable if you will.  You could see the difference in how the right foot rolled in and the left foot was perfectly even.

Then came the right foot and calf.  OMG, I thought I was going to die.  The imblance was much greater on the right side.  Which explains some of the tightness I get in my right hip.  Long story short, we got some good kinks out.  We also noticed that the right quad is bigger and stronger than the left.  In the coming weeks we'll work on this.  Go in for session 3 next Wednesday.

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

30lb DB Push Press each arm x 20

Metcon
Row 90 seconds for max meters (425 meters)
-no rest
20 Unbroken KBS 45lbs
-no rest
10 Unbroken GH Situps
-no rest
5 20lb weighted pullups

Didn't time this...just wanted to breath a little hard.  If all goes as planned tomorrow, I'm hoping to make the 7:15 Will County workout.  We'll see what the day brings.

Sunday, Febuary 13th, 2011 - Damn it feels good

When I woke up this morning...or should I say when I went to bed this morning...
I went into work last night to work from 10p-6a.  We assisted a neighboring town with a fire at 1:30 a.m.  Got back to the station around 3:45am.  Slept until 5am and had to go to the rollover accident.  Got back to the station and had to leave to my other job.

Fast forward to 9pm tonight...

Supersets of
Skull crushers & Tricep Press Downs
2x10

Back Squat
135lbs x 5

Front Squat
205lbs x 1
225lbs x 1

Back Squat
255lbs x 3

Power Clean
135lbs x 5
170lbs x 3
185lbs x 3 (15lb 3RM)

Anyways, like I was saying when I went to bed this morning I would have never thought I would be putting up those power clean numbers.  This whole squatting everyday project was not my idea.  I got this idea from Dave Lipsons blog.  He puts 450lbs on the bar every day.  He's currently on like day 200+.  I'm just amazed at the strength that I've gained in the last 30-40 days.  All my lifts have gone up from simply lifting heavy shit every day.  I did have to scale back my metcons a bit.  I'm doing 2 maybe 3 metcons a week.

My upper body is recovering nicely.  I feel as though I crushed yesterdays "Baseline" WOD.  My biceps are kinda sore from the pullups.  The pullups felt easy when I did them yesterday.  Today's soreness is just a reminder that I have to ease the upper body back into working out.

All in all....I'm very satisfied with todays progress.

Saturday, Febuary 12th, 2011 - Come on hips....fire when ready

So looking back at things that last PR on back squats last Saturday took alot out of me.  I'm suprised it's taking this long to recover from 305lbs.  My IT band and TFL muscle just feel wrecked.  Tried out some Kstar stretches, but I must do them more.

I was reading about Austin Malello and he spents like 20-30 minutes on mobility a day.  Holy crap...that's focus.  Hope he does well at the Games.

Saw my friend the Garage Crossfitter did a WOD called "The Baseline".  I remember doing this WOD when I was at Crossfit of Naperville 2 years ago.  I want to say I finished in the low 6 minute range.  Let's give it a go.

Not before my beloved Back Squats though.
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 2
255lbs x 1

"Baseline"
500M Row
40 Air Squats
30 Situps
20 Pushups
10 Pullups

4:17 - RX'D

Holy Snikes Batman!  I would have never guessed that I would finish that fast.  I did the rowing, squats, situps and pushups in my 3 seasons room.  I had to run though my house and exit through the garage.  That's where my pullup bar is.  I timed myself how long it would take to go from the bottom of the pushup position to get on the pullup bar.  I took 10 seconds.  I think this spring when it's not -100 degrees out, I'll take the rower in the garage.  I think sub 4 minutes is completely doable.

Friday, Febuary 11th, 2011 - Need to eat more

I've been consuming less food the past few days and I feel it.  I feel run down and tired.  Not a tired like I haven't slept enough.  A tired like no energy.  More meat & veggies is a must.

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

30lb DB Press
1 x 15 reps

Thursday, Febuary 10th, 2011 - Even on your bad days...you still have to squat

Life is too short to not have fun.  You just have to work a little harder on staying focused.  That's exactly what I've been doing lately.  I don't think I've ever been this focused.  It's been almost 10 weeks since my original injury.

I've cut a bit back on my food intake and the increase of rowing has helped my weight come back down to 187lbs on a empty stomach.

My hips and butt have been knotty.  Spent alot of time breaking all that crap up today and tons of Kstar MWOD's.  Felt alot better.

Note about recreation and family getting in the way of squatting yesterday day.  That totally came out wrong.  Fitness is only part of life.  It isn't life itself.  I put fun and family before my fitness and that's ok too.  I was focused enough though that I still got my squats in before bed.

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
275lbs x 1

Weighted Dead Hang Pull ups
15lb DB x 5
20lb DB x 5
20lb DB x 5

Jumping up to the 20lb db was tough.

Wednesday, Febuary 9, 2011 - Holy Sh!t & Dammit

So this is technically Day 32 of back squatting more than 250lbs on the bar.  I say holy sh!t because I didn't even realize I passed 30 days.  I say dammit because family and recreation got in the way.  I won't say what time I did this, but I completed the squats before I went to bed.

I think I might have convinced a brother fireman to give Crossfit a try.  Tomorrow, he's going to give 50 burpees for time a try.  Love ya  bro....it's been a long 12 months apart.  He's been in paramedic school for the last year.

Back squat
75lbs  x 10 reps
135lbs x 3
205lbs x 2
255lbs x 2

Another reason to say dammit.  I  did tonights squats in my cold ass garage.  It's like -8 degrees out.  I don't even know the temp in my garage.  I was in jeans, snow gloves, snow jacket.  Anyways, I exploded my jeans doing squats.  Blew the ass wide open.  I guess 32 days of squats has made my ass bigger.  Cool beans!!!

Tuesday, Febuary 8th, 2011 - Starting the day early

Run down...wore out...banged up...

Came home this morning from work and I'm very crabby.  The last few weeks has worn down on a brother.  Had a conversation with a few fellow coworkers and they had the same feeling.  It's been very busy at work lately.  Yesterday went a little like this.  Do the house work and rig checks, go shovel out a bunch of fire hydrants that were covered in 4-5 feet of snow, group workout with the other 3 stations, cook dinner for the troops, and somewhere in between all that my station ran about  12-13 calls.  Needless to say dinner was awesome, but it got interrupted about 3-4 times.  The medics didn't eat dinner until about 9:30 p.m.

So, I got home and took the boy to preschool and got some quick work in.

Hand Stand Pushup Negatives
1x3

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 3  - Cool side note about about squats.  I flew through these.  No rest, just kept stacking weight. 
265lbs x 2  - I was pressed for time, so it was a big rush.  Go depth though

GHD Situps
1x15

So, now I'm off to pick the boy back up from school.  On a parting note...working out this early released some aggression.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testing out that Bum shoulder

Push Press
75lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
105lbs x 5

Jeremy
21-15-9
95lb Overhead squats
Burpees

Jake - 5:35 not rx'd (75lbs)

Not bad...just disappointed in how much strength I've lost overhead.  In retrospect, on 05/06/09 my time was 6:36 with 21lbs.  Huge improvement...rock on man!

Monday, Febuary 7th, 2011 - Please don't make me go in the weight room

I tell ya...I was avoiding the weightroom like the plague.  I wanted nothing to do with it.  Thankfully, I caught a 20 minute nap this afternoon.  It helped, but I'm still dog tired.

Back squats
135lbs x 1
205lbs x 1
260lbs x 1

Power Cleans
135lbs x 3
155lbs x 3
170lbs x 3

I think that's the heaviest I've gone with 3 reps.  Felt fast enough I feel beat up.  Not nearly as fast as I can though.  The 3rd rep was a challenge.  I'm off to bed and it's not even 9:30 p.m......

Sunday, Febuary 6th, 2011 - Ugh...what did I sign up for?

Today, squats have never felt heavier this heavy.  I didn't have a whole lot to give. So it went a little something like this.

Back Squat
135lbs x 5 - felt oh so heavy
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1 - a struggle

Row 600 meters - 2:11
 - rest 5 minutes
Row 600 meters - 2:14

Saturday, Feburary 5th, 2011 - Wings and beer don't stop the squats

MAN, I almost let the day slip away.  Anderson Silva with an amazing performance!  WOW!

Started squatting at 11:47 p.m.  and finished by 12:08 a.m.  This technically counts, but I don't know...I almost let my 30 days straight of squatting lapse.  Yikes....let's not let this happen again.  What can I say, UFC, beer and wings came before squatting tonight.

Back squats
135lbs x 5
205lbs x 1
255lbs x 1
285lbs x 1
305lbs x 1 (MAJOR F'ing PR....that's a 15lb PR....not to mention it was below parallel and I was in jeans)  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.  I can't wait to get back to Crossfitting in the box.  I go see my rolfer on the 2/14.  I'm hoping for a return on 2/15, we'll see what the future holds.

Febuary 4th, 2011 - Excuse this little rant...

I experienced some first hand Crossfit bashing.  So at work, there's a trainer that's been coming in to get the troops in better shape.  He's been jockeying for a sale for the past few months and he's here on a trial basis for 3 months.  Comes in 3 days a week.

Background on this guy...Highland Games competitor.  Joined Crossfit Tri Cities for 6 weeks and hated it.  He claims he had a 600lb deadlift and upon leaving Tri-Cities he had a 500lb deadlift.  Before I knew any of this information, when I first met him, he told me that he did Crossfit for quite sometime in his garage before Tri Cities even opened up.  His reasoning why Crossfit sucks is that it made him run more than 200 meters and he got weaker.

Judging upon physical attributes alone, I can tell he's not a well rounded fitness guy.  5'9, roughly 240-250lbs with a noticeable belly.  During his sales pitch he demonstrated an "inch worm" pretty much just a walkout with your hands and then walk your hands back to your feet.  He comes up out of breath.

Tries impressing me with his claimed "120 kilo" clean and jerk....whatever man.  So during his workout today which consisted of 2 rounds of "air squats, lunges, jumping lunges and jumping squats", he starts talking about how horrible my squat form is and that Crossfit "SQUATS" have fucked up my hips.

So he goes on about how stuipd Westside Barbell is and how high bar squat is the way to go.  I kindly disagree with him and inform him that I low bar squat.  Then he informs me that I won't get stronger by doing "heavy low bar squats".  I need to do "olympic squats".  Whatever that means and that the only way I'm going to get stronger legs is by doing "olympic cleans".

I was about to give this guy this business, but then we caught a fire alarm and had to leave.

I'm in no shape or form the strongest, fastest, smartest guy.  However, when you attack a person's workout regime for no reason, other than not being able to do it yourself...is BS.

Is Crossfit perfect.  Of course not, but Crossfit is perfect for my fitness/lifestyle goals.  It's helped me become thinner, faster and stronger.  Do I want to have a 600+lb bench press, 800lb deadlift and have a big belly?  Nope.  I like being 185lbs.  Running a sub 25 minute 5k, a bodyweight power clean, ability to do a deadhang pullup, do box jumps like nobody's business.  As far as I'm concerned, I'm functionally fit.  Not to mention, my gut doesn't block the vision of my manhood.

His closing statement before the fire alarm was "All Crossfit people want to do is get a faster Fran time.  Fran isn't even a functional workout.  Yeah sure it's kind of impressive, but kinda pointless".

Onto today's workout...

Weighted deadhang pullups
10lbs x 5
10lbs x 5
15lbs x 5

DB Seated Press
30lb db each hand x 5
40lb db each hand x 5
55lb db each hand x 5

Front Squat
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 1
205lbs x 1

Back Squat
265lbs x 1

Thursday, Febuary 3rd, 2011 - Day 26 of squats

Just finished another 48 hours at the firehouse.  I worked an additional 24 hours today for a friend of mine.  He'll work 24 hours for me in May and I'll have a week off.  I came home and crashed.  God bless my wife, she let me take about a 2.5 hour nap.  I woke up and still felt beat to shit.

Bless her little soul.  I walked in the door and eggs and bacon were being served.  So after all the calls we ran and all the snow we shoveled, I dug out 2 fire hydrants nearest to my home.  They were buried under about 6 feet of snow.

Took it very easy today...then 9 p.m. came

45lb KB Swings x 10

Back Squat
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 1
235lbs x 1
275lbs x 1

Row 1 min - 303 meters
rest 90 seconds
Row 1 min - 317 meters
rest 90 seconds
Row 1 min - 301 meters

Wednesday, Febuary 2nd, 2011 - Talk about a tough day...

Soooooo much snow to shovel.  I shoveled TONS of snow to allow our fire house the ability to respond to calls.  Just a rough rough day.  Not to mention my hamstrings are going through some MAJOR DOMS.

I looked at that squat bar and just dreaded it.  I made a commitment and I'm glad I'm sticking to it.  Had I not had 24 days in a row of squating under my belt, I might have quit.  I'm finally at the point, where it doesn't matter how I feel, I know I can squat 250 without any major problem.  It's just my routine.

Back Squat Day 25
135lbs x 2
185lbs x 1
255lbs x 1

Tuesday, Febuary 1st, 2011 - Holy Sore batman!

WOW!!!  My lats, shoulders and general back were extra sore.  Not to mention my legs and abs.  Had to do mucho stretching to loosen up my lats.

Back Squat
135lbs x 2
185lbs x 2
250lbs x 1