The weights seemed really, really heavy at the hotel gym today. I ended up doing thrusters with "30" dumbbells, and it was hard. Like, I had to clean them from waist to shoulders, my arms weren't strong enough to just lift them. 60 lbs should be an easy thruster workout, but it was hard!

Eventually I compared a "5" from the set of weights I was using with a "5 lb" dumbbell from another set, and realized that my set was denominated in kilos. 66lb x 2 = 132lb thrusters - no wonder they were heavy! That's real weight.

I don't think I've ever had the guts to pick up a 66lb dumbbell.

in the park w/ Tovar. Thanks to S for videoing this:

5 x (10 burpees - star jump, 5 pairs jump lunges, 5 candlestick slow-down, 30sec front plank)

10:05

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It's amazing what a difference 7:10am and 8:10 am are as wakeup times. Since I fall asleep around 11:30 - midnight normally (on my current schedule), Tovar waking up at 7am (like the last 2 times I had him), means I'm being awoken by screaming after having slept 7 hours. Tovar waking up at 8:20, like this morning, means I slept 8 hours, lay in bed a little, got up and made tea, and then heard him calling (when we respond quickly he doesn't need to escalate to screaming).

Yesterday:

Nasty Girls - 3 x (50 air squats, 7 muscle-ups[1], 10 hang power cleans, 83#) - ~11:30
Hey, let's do another workout - 3 x (20 burpees, 20 Dbl Unders[2], 30 GHD situps) - ~11:30

My traps are very sore, from the cleans I think. My bad shoulder/neck are a bit sore too, but considering the workout, they held up well. I think it was catching the cleans in the hang position that bothered the shoulder.

[1] ground assisted for transition, basically an inclined ring row and then a ring dip. Besides being hard, muscle-ups require a lot of shoulder flexibility and trying to learn them bothered my shoulder even before the injury. I think it will be awhile yet before I can do them.

[2] Subbed 40 single unders, as I am just learning to jump rope.

20 min: rounds of 5 kipping pullups, 10 push-jerks (15# dumbbells), 15 KB swings (25#), did 10 rounds + 2 PU. First time using KB, got significantly better at them as the workout progressed (learned to use arms minimally). Thighs sore (should have stretched more before learning KB), otherwise I feel great.

My buff body is slowly but steadily reappearing. Weight is down to top end of college weight (115#).

I'm starting back on CrossFit. I only went once or twice in the month since my rib has been healed because the evening schedule of the group classes was not working with my "one big meal in the evening" diet and general busy-ness (and desire to specifically do CF). So I gave up on the group classes and signed up with one of the instructors for personal training 2x/week.

I'm psyched! It will be great to actually have a workout schedule that is regular and planned around my other commitments. Yay! The few times I got in a good workout while on the Warrior Diet I just felt marvelous, so hopefully that will continue. The trainer was glad to hear I'm on that diet, he said that in CF diet is considered the base of the fitness pyramid, more important than exercise.

I told him my workout goals were to learn the CF system to the point where I can safely do all the exercises, including all the lifts, on my own, and understand enough principles to design and monitor my own training program. I may sign up for one of their Level 1 cert weekends down in SD w/ faustin in July (those things sell out 2 months in advance!).

I rocked the exercises tonight b/c of my mastery of kipping pullups (it was 10-9-8...2-1 of fake handstand pushups / no-hip situps / jump ups / pullups), which was fun. Kipping pullups are so awesome.

BTW, here is the famous anti-CrossFit NYT article from 2005: "Getting Fit, Even if it Kills You." The short answer is: yes, really intense workouts for people who are not used to them can be fatal. No one has yet died from CF, but ~6 noobs have ended up in the ER. Working a beginner too hard is stupid, and any CF trainer who does it is (in my unprofessional opinion) being criminally negligent. This does not mean that CF is bad - to the contrary, its intensity is why it is so good for the body and why so many people are so passionate about it. It's one of those cases where that which does not kill you makes you stronger. And that which, if an untrained person did it, would kill them, is the best for making a trained person stronger.

Also, the one-size-fits-all criticisms are ridiculous. I've been going to CF group classes for beginners, and every exercise has variants for people at lower levels of fitness or mobility. And this whole "time over form" thing is so weird - my classes were all about form. Maybe there are different subsets of the community? I guess I could see, once you get the basics down, some stupid people being obsessed about time, but just try sacrificing form when Rob Miller is watching. Your ears will be ringing (and deservedly so).

I was going to do a 1-month of warrior diet post, but it's gotten late somehow so maybe tomorrow.

My elevated mood the past couple weeks has really been noticeable! I don't think I've felt this consistently great since college. Not that my normal mood is bad - far from it - but this is even better. I think it's from the diet, but exercise is probably part of it too (it started most strongly after my first CrossFit day). I wonder if the sunlight could be another part of it? Based on my new familiarity w/ bipolar, I'd be worried about onset of mania if I hadn't experience this state safely many times in the past.

It's so wonderful that, whatever it is (diet & exercise I think), it is making me happier and more energetic, which exactly counterbalances the effects of sleeping poorly. So I have hope that even if I never cure my apnea, the way I've felt the past couple weeks will continue to ameliorate it.

Current status for the apnea, BTW: My tonsillectomy seems to have helped a little but not a lot. They advised me to next try a medical device rather than more surgery, so I'm getting a dental appliance that will keep my tongue from falling back while I'm asleep, and will generally increase muscle tone in my mouth. I used one many years ago, and it was too painful to wear. This new one is adjustable (in 2 directions, I think), so you can slowly get used to it, which should be much better. We'll see what happens!

Had my first CrossFit since the accident, it was great. Shoulder is pretty sore, but that's to be expected. In the long-run, stronger muscles make it happier. We did push-presses, 5-5-5-5-5, plus some misc stuff. I didn't remember my weight from the one time I'd done that before, so I was conservative and worked my way up to 75 lbs.

Lifting weights feels so good! I don't mean waving a dumbbell around, I mean using my whole body to lift something really heavy in the air. It makes my whole body tingle (in a good way). So awesome.

Today I read an article about how weights rule. The summary is:

1) weight training is the undisputed champion since it builds a bigger fat-burning furnace
2) bodyweight exercises and sprint training are the number one contenders - just look at some photos of gymnasts and sprinters (running, swimming, skating, cycling, it doesn’t matter..)
3) slow cardio is only good as a ‘break-in’ or as an add-on.

And it contains 2 sample workouts using this philosophy.

Also, I forget if I ever posted this, but I read a free Kindle preview of The Cardio-Free Diet, which is an entire book about how cardio blows and the way to go is to build muscle.

It made me realize how great Kindle Previews are for confirming one's prejudices. You only read the first few chapters of the book, so you get enough to think you've learned something if you already agree with it, but not enough detail that you might be able to see flaws. Awesome!

Anyway, I'm excited to get back into CF for awhile. I don't think I want to do CF in the gym long-term, because I eventually want to just get a good home setup so I don't have to go anywhere (or pay anyone) to exercise. But there is so much technique involved that it'll take at least a couple more months before I can ponder that.

A good example of the CrossFit philosophy is that they do kipping pullups instead of static ones. In a kipping pullup, you swing forward, back, up, push away from the bar, back, repeat.

It uses less arm strength, and thus you can do more of them. But that doesn't matter as a first-order effect, because you don't do a fixed number, you base targets on your ability. The important effect is that it makes core strength and coordination more important. You excel at dynamic pullups by coordinating many muscle groups, where static pullups are more about big muscles.

Actually, as a first-order effect, being able to do more is seen as an advantage:

What we care about above all other things is Power - that is; work divided by time or, equivalently, (Force x distance)/time.

The reason we care about Power more than strength or endurance or even speed, is that power output is what taxes the whole human system - and ellicits a neuroendocrine response. The whole point of most of our named workouts (and most of the workouts that aren't named), is to measure/challenge power output.

When we increase an individual's ability to output power we observe a corollary increase in absolute strength, speed, endurance and stamina. If workouts are designed to increase absolute strength, strength is the only area of improvement.

In other news, I hear they are working on a Planet Granite in the Presidio, which will have views, from the tops of the climbs, of the bay and the GG Bridge.