{"id":473,"date":"2011-11-28T15:27:44","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T22:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engrevo.com\/blog\/?p=473"},"modified":"2011-11-30T15:22:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T22:22:10","slug":"my-crossfit-trial-personal-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.engrevo.com\/blog\/my-crossfit-trial-personal-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"My CrossFit Trial: Personal Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

My latest endeavor is a 10-week CrossFit trial, which I’m about 10 weeks through.<\/strong> This post is about what I’ve been doing and what it has done for me. In a few weeks, I’ll have a post detailing what I think about CrossFit in general. These are my personal impressions, my next post on the subject will be about CrossFit methodologies and practices on a broader scale.<\/em>
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My schedule has been three workouts per week (MWF mornings), and I follow the programming designed by the head trainer of the box I attend.<\/strong> In preparation, I spent the spring on a dedicated strength program, then mixed in more high-intensity work over the summer.
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The first lesson I learned is that I had no idea what high-intensity really means.<\/strong> Daunting workouts with a screaming trainer got me seeing “the white buffalo in the sky” like never before.<\/p>\n

The first two weeks or so, the workouts were nearly impossible, and I was ravenously hungry outside of the gym. Then, almost like a switch was flipped, the workouts got easier (still hard, but they seemed more manageable), and I had no appetite at all for weeks three and four. I had to force down meals, even smoothies, and I was hot just about all the time. During this period, I went from about 10% BF to about 9%BF – pretty impressive and unexpected.<\/strong> Since then, my body fat has pretty much come back to where it was (which is fine with me, honestly).
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I attribute these changes after the first two weeks to increased mitochondrial fat adaptation.<\/strong> Whether I developed greater mitochondrial density, or they just got more efficient – I don’t know, or care. I’m impressed with the change though, because I had already been eating paleo, exercising regularly, and fasting frequently for over a year. I guess there is something fairly magical about working really, really hard.<\/p>\n

*UPDATE*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somehow I neglected to mention the great increase I’ve seen in capacity due to my CrossFit training. I measure my capacity with sprint repeats. I run as far as I can for 10 seconds, then rest for 60. When my distance drops below 90% of my max for the session, I call it a day. Comparing a test last week with my last test before starting CrossFit, my capacity (measured in number of sprints completed) has increased about 62%. Pretty impressive.<\/p>\n

*END UPDATE*<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Below is a before and after pic, though I misplaced my camera in the spring. So the before pic is from April (instead of September, I was leaner and more muscled by September), and the after pic is low res\/generally crappy. So it is basically useless, but I feel like a post of this nature needs a picture.<\/p>\n

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This before and after pic shows nothing but a tan. Maybe some shoulder development.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have also gained some skills I didn’t possess going in.<\/strong> My bar muscle-ups are much stronger, and my handstands have improved immensely, especially considering how little specific work I’ve put in. I had basically never done any olympic lifting, and now I feel comfortable with all the major lifts. The trainers have even helped me improve my form on lifts I thought I had down pat; they have helped me engage my lats and keep my head neutral on the deadlift, and I can get deeper in the squat without a butt wink through improved thoracic mobility (h\/t to KStar as well).
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I have really enjoyed the experience, but in the interest of balance, it’s not all great news.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like I am in a constant state of recovery. Despite being dedicated to recovery (described in detail below), I feel like I’m only really at 100% for the hour between waking and training on Monday mornings.<\/strong> This brings up serious questions in my mind about the benefits of CrossFit for general physical preparedness (GPP), which I’ll discuss in my next installment.
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My strength has dropped a bit<\/strong> (i.e. 1RM deadlift down from 400# to 330#), as I expected going in. I could probably keep it up if I dropped to two CF workouts per week plus a pure strength session.<\/p>\n

I have some shoulder issues (separated each shoulder playing hockey), and despite my best efforts to protect and maintain my shoulder health, I fear they are a little worse for the wear. I never do sumo deadlift high pulls (my one deviation from the workout prescriptions) or kipping pullups, and I work my shoulders with mobwods and lacrosse balls constantly. Still, my shoulders now each click in two places on full rotation, and are often knotted and nasty.<\/p>\n

It got a little better as time progressed, but I found it pretty stressful to not be doing my own programming.<\/strong> That combined with not knowing what the workout entailed until 30 min before it started really gave me fits. It’s a little paralyzing to not know what you can\/should do today because you don’t know what tomorrow’s training will be.<\/p>\n

These complaints are by no means a serious indictment of CrossFit – that will come in the next post. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

My Protocol<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As mentioned above, I trained MWF 8am.<\/p>\n

As has become my custom (thanks Leangains<\/a>!) I go into my workouts fasted with 10g BCAAs<\/strong>. Most days I trained on about 14 hrs of fasting.
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Immediately after my workout, it’s time for food and cold therapy.<\/strong> On days where most of the work has been lower body, it’s 50lbs of ice in the tub<\/a>. On more upper body days, I go up to the neck in our pool (it’s insanely cold – I’d guess under 45F). Wherever I soak, it’s for 25-30 minutes, during which I eat the first two servings of my post workout meal:
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Smoothie:<\/strong> whey, strawberries, banana, creatine, store-brand emergenC
\nEntree:<\/strong> 1 lb of chicken cooked dry
\nDessert:<\/strong> either 1 lb of sweet potato mixed with applesauce and whey or a few bowls of store-brand (white) rice chex with raw milk or colostrum. Not the most “Paleo” meal, but it’s gluten-free, and makes ~2000 cals in one sitting pretty palatable. The giant PWO meal is a huge help with recovery.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hit the rumble roller hard on afternoons, typically adding in a MobWod or two for what’s tight.
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Outside of the PWO meal, I typically eat two large meals a day, super clean paleo.<\/strong> I pretty much just eat beef, sweet potatoes, eggs, liver, bone marrow, pork, coconut oil, and cheese, totaling about 3000 cals\/day.
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Supplements are pretty basic<\/strong>: 5k iu VitD, 1 tbsp CLO, 8g creatine, and 450mg Mg-Malate with 35g Zn a half hour before bed. Min 8 hrs sleep, 9-10 most nights.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, but I don’t think I’ll join a box again any time soon. I’ll definitely be implementing high-intensity workouts (now that I know how intense that really can be<\/em>), but they’ll be less frequent, and I’ll do the programming myself.<\/strong> I’ll probably even throw down some classic CrossFit benchmarks (the girls<\/em>) on occassion. I’ll miss the trainer’s guidance\/encouragement, and the group warmups.<\/strong><\/p>\n