Workout Journal - Front Squat Max 215 - CrossFit Baseline Test Time 4:25

I thought I would start something new today, I will be posting some of my workout achievements when I hit first time or new goals. For one reason, I will be able to look back and see if I have improved and also so I have a reason to keep pushing harder to reach new targets.

Today at my CrossFit Class we did Front Squats which by the way are much harder to do than Back Squats! I was able to pump out a max Front Squat rep of 215 pounds, and I do go all the way down to the ground - meaning my hamstring touches my calf muscle at the bottom.

We also finished the days workout (so after my max front squat set) with a CrossFit Baseline Test which starts out with a 500 meter Row, 40 Air Squats, 30 Sit Ups, 20 Push Ups and 10 Pull Ups. I did my CrossFit Baseline Test in 4 minutes 25 seconds, not bad for an old guy ;) Lots of room for improvement here since my rowing technique really sucks right now and that was a big portion time wise of the test. My future goal will be to get to under 4 minutes!

Heres how some of the movements needed to be performed in order to be considered full reps:

• Squats – Squat below parallel, hip crease below your knee crease. (I did mine hamstring to calf again for this)
• Sit Ups – Shoulders must start on the ground, sit up enough to touch the ground in front of you, and return to shoulder ground position.
• Push Ups – Chest to deck and arms straight on the top.
• Pull Ups – Chin over bar. Full extension at the bottom.

Video samples taken from (www.crossfit.com)

CrossFit Style - No Resting - Legs Only Workout

Today's full CrossFit Style (Sort-of) workout focuses entirely on legs, the reason it is CrossFit Style is because I rotate through my exercises with little to no breaks and incorporate elliptical as my extra cardio, so basically the entire workout is all cardio while still getting a complete leg workout in.

I do six rounds in this workout, the first three rounds rotate between squats, calf raises and 1 minute of high intensity elliptical while the last three rounds I switch over to sets of Leg raises and Leg extensions along with my 1 minute of high intensity elliptical again. The entire workout lasted around 25 minutes so I made it a 30 minute workout by finishing up doing my last 5 minutes on the elliptical. This workout was an easy 500 calories burned with my entire lower body getting worked over while also getting a full cardio workout. That's what makes the CrossFit concept (even if not entirely strict) supper awesome!

What I Eat to Stay Healthy and Lean

I have been getting requests to talk about what I eat, what is my diet like? So I made this YouTube video for you explaining what an average food day for me is like, I talk about what I eat when I am at home versus when I'm out. How I deal with not being able to control my eating situation like when I can't make it home or go to a friends or some sort of social function. I also talk about what kind of foods I snack on and I even go into some of the vitamins and supplements I take.

I hope you find this information useful and are able to apply it to your own daily eating programs.

CrossFit Style Upper Body Ladder Workout

Another CrossFit based workout for you, this one is based on using the "Ladder" format which means you start your set off with the highest number of reps (Usually 10)  and work your way down to 1 rep per set.

Here is an example of the Upper Body Ladder Style workout I did in this video:

• For the first round I did 6 different exercises with 10 reps each.
• For the second round I did 9 reps for each exercise and then 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and lastly for my final round I finished off with 1 rep for each exercise. For a total of 55 reps per exercise and 330 reps in total.
• I did the following exercises in each round - Dumbbell Press with 50 pounds in each hand, Wide grip pull-ups, Olympic dips, Sit-ups, Push-ups and Arm curls with 30 pounds in each hand.

I also show you how you can "scale" your workout to fit your level of fitness since not everyone can do a full push-up or pull-up ;)

This was a hard workout on my triceps since the Shoulder press, Olympic dips and Push-ups all hit my triceps hard. I did make it through with only a few small pauses and got pretty close to the 20 minute mark!

What is CrossFit?

If you've been watching some of my more resent workout videos, you will have noticed I have been doing more CrossFit style workouts lately. This is because I joined a CrossFit Gym a few months ago and it has really impacted how I now do my workouts.

This doesn't mean CrossFit is the only way to do a workout but I do have to say it is one of the most effective and efficient ways to get a great workout in the least amount of time with what I feel are the best results.

The nice thing about a CrossFit style workout is that it is completely scaleable, exercises can be substituted depending on your fitness level and what gear you have at your disposal. How many reps you do or weight you lift is also scaleable to your level so it does not matter how old or fit you are. You can start out with short, low rep workouts and then workup to longer harder workouts as your fitness level improves.

One thing to note about CrossFit workouts in general is that most of the exercises performed are compound based, which means they workout a bunch of muscles all at once as the goal is overall strength and endurance rather than perfect pecs or biceps ;) CrossFit programs are also heavy on the core muscle groups utilizing power-lifting moves that really engage the largest muscles in your body, this makes the biggest difference in terms of aiding your body to produce all the right hormones which build muscle and make you feel more energetic and healthy.

Many people feel CrossFit is a more of a culture or community, or way of life, much more than just working out!