Workout Journal - Deadlifts - 345 Pounds for Three Reps

Today at this mornings CrossFit Class we worked on our Deadlift Strength, we achieve this by doing sets of three reps each and working up to our max weight set. The last time I did this workout I got up to 315 pounds. It's been a while since I did this exact workout but I have been working on straight leg dumbbell Deadlifts at home and of course Front Squat and Back Squats which helps leg strength in general. Today I got right up to 345 pounds for three reps and this was after lifting a substantial amount of weight before my max 345 pound three rep set Deadlift.

Video samples taken from (www.crossfit.com)

Workout Routines - What to Workout and How Often

It's very important how you breakup your workouts throughout the week, much of it depends on how much time you have to workout and how often you can get a workout in. If you can only workout a couple of days per week then over training will most likely not be a problem and you will even be able to do your entire body each workout with plenty of recovery time between workouts. If you're like me on the other hand, and get some sort of a workout in most days of the week, then you need more of a strategy so as not to overwork muscles or become run down.

The first thing to remember is to listen to your body, if muscles are soar then leave them alone, they have not recovered yet. Generally a muscle that has been trained to failure will take at least 48 hours to recover in a healthy and somewhat younger person, with older age it can take even longer. If you normally have lots of energy and your body is saying it just wants to take it easy then again it probably needs a break for a day or two. Getting a good sleep and eating healthy foods/supplements is also very important for recovery.

It also depends on the intensity of your workouts. Are you training a body part or muscle group to failure or are you doing a workout that works a muscle more for speed and endurance? Workouts that are short, explosive and focused will strain muscles more and require some rest days between hitting them again, while workouts that are longer and more paced out will tire the muscle but in most cases the muscle will be ready to go again in a much shorter period of time.

For me I plan my workouts day by day because I just never know what to expect since I go to a CrossFit Gym and I find out the workouts for the day when I get there. I have no set routines and I like it this way because my body is always guessing and my workouts never become boring. I take a look at what body parts I did the previous days, what muscles are sore and then I work what ever muscles are ready to go and perhaps have not been trained too much the previous days. I try to do at least one upper body muscle and one lower body muscle each workout but this is not a rule I stick to all the time. Also keep in mind that your genetics play a role in how you need to hit each muscle, you may be OK hitting a genetically strong muscle once a week while other weaker areas need several higher intensity workouts to gain strength and body balance in them.

Make sure to watch my YouTube Video on this subject as I cover other areas related to Workout Routines and regularity:

Workout Journal - Power Cleans - 195 Pounds for Three Reps

Here is a quick Workout Journal Entry I forgot to post from yesterdays CrossFit workout. We did 6 weight increasing sets of Power Cleans with three reps in each set. I maxed out at 195 pounds and there was no way I was getting any heavier than that on this day...

Video samples taken from (www.crossfit.com)

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!