Update on what's been going on

Sorry about the long break in posts, I have been really busy with a lot of stuff going on in my life, both fitness related and just being a busy college student. This post is basically going to just be a recap of what I’ve been up to, and some information and opinions on some other things. It may also turn into something completely different as I write, who knows. We will find out though, as I stick to my rule of only checking for spelling and grammar not content when I look over at the end. (For those who may question why I don’t really plan what I am going to write or why I don’t check what I’ve written, it is simply because I want people to read this and hear me, so I type how I talk, and you can’t take something back when you speak, so I maintain that rule.) Anyway, let’s get into it.

As a Kinesiology major at the University of Maryland, we are required to take physical activity classes. These can range from cardio-kickboxing to basketball to bowling. Well this semester, I decided to take two of them because it fit into my schedule and I wanted to. This semester I am taking intermediate step aerobics and intermediate swimming. The intermediate really just means that there is a range of total beginners to people who are really advanced.

 For those who don’t know much about step aerobics, it is steady state cardio done by doing different choreography based around a step. We will do different kicks, and other “dances” in order to get our workout in. There is definitely some coordination required because you need to hear the instruction and then figure out the right move to make. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. When I registered, my thought was that it is basically glorified walking, and sometimes I still feel like that, but when I start thinking that, our teacher shows us why it is more than that and will push us harder or make us do harder choreography. After we finish with the aerobics part, we will then do different bodyweight or light weight exercises to do some strength training as well. It is definitely something people should try for the sake of it, I mean it is quite interesting. Plus, admittedly, being 1 of 6 guys in a class of 40 isn’t the worst thing either.

For swimming, especially intermediate swimming, coming from a swimming background makes this class pretty easy. For the first few weeks we were doing mostly technique and stroke work, not real swimming workouts. Instead of tailoring the workout for different abilities (we separate into lanes of different abilities, I am in one of the top 2 lanes) the teacher would just write up a plan and have us do it. Since my lane is all people who had previously swam competitively, we would finish the workout in maybe 15 minutes and be done. In a way I liked it because last year I would swim occasionally but most use it as active recovery from other things, now I was getting that in class. Recently we finished doing stroke work, so we now do actual workouts, but even for a while it was still just one workout and we would still finish way ahead of everyone else and be done with plenty of time to spare. Now, finally the teacher has modified the workouts, and given options to make us do more work in the same amount of time. We generally still finish before most of the other class, but by the time we do finish, we actually feel like we did a workout, obviously nothing compared to what we had all done in high school but still something where we were pretty fatigued.

Due to taking step aerobics and swimming, both of which being on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my plan has changed quite dramatically from what I was hoping to do at the beginning of the semester. My goal originally was to squat daily, well I’m at the point where I can come into the gym 3-4 days a week outside of that. I can’t come in Mondays simply because I am way too busy, so I try and do Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturday and/or Sunday, but even getting all of that is sometimes a stretch. I live 20 minutes walking from the gym, so the inconvenience is sometimes an issue where I don’t have the time to make the trek, then workout, then trek back. While that is just an excuse, it is still a reason I’m not coming in as often as I’d like.

With me not coming in as often, I now officially do squat whenever I come in, except I have only been front squatting because of an article I read basically saying why front squats are better than back squats (http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/when-in-doubt-do-front-squats-25-tips-for-better-front-squats). I will go to a heavy triple and then add in some lighter sets for volume. I plan on going back to back squats once I hit an actual plateau. I also do a lot less conditioning work, both for time sake and because I rationalize that I get it during step aerobics and swimming, so my focus becomes squatting, then pressing (I will alternate strict press and bench press) to a heavy triple, and then depending on time, I will work on pull ups. If I have time after that, I will either do a quick metcon or I’ll do some core work or work on different skills. Recently I have begun working on handstands and handstand pushups, I still have a long way to go on them, but I am progressing.

I have unfortunately recently encountered some knee pain in my left knee. For a while it was only during heavy squats, so I would just lighten the load because I wanted to continue squatting to avoid losing too much strength and to maintain neurological proficiency. Then when I would feel fine, I would have step aerobics which is pretty high impact and my knee sometimes will flair up and feel really tender and then it becomes even worse so I have been in a constant struggle of wanting to maintain and not wanting to be in pain, and then when I have taken rest, and feel totally fine, I’ll go back to squatting and then when I try and push it even a little, the pain starts to come back again. It seems that I am in a vicious circle of even though I rest, I am still doing some high impact work with step aerobics and therefore my knee never truly gets to rest. I am considering working on pistols (single leg squats) in the event that it might be muscular imbalances and not structural, and if it is structural, I’ll find out really soon after starting.

We shall see what will happen with my knee and with these classes, hopefully everything ends up well and I really want my knee to feel better. If not, I am considering buying knee sleeves for a little compression but mostly just for the warmth and increase blood flow to help with preventing pain.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give a good update.

Like always, if you have any questions or things you want me to talk about, either comment or let me know personally.

After a long break....OUCH!!!

Some may know this, but I spent this past summer working at an overnight camp. For me, that meant 9 weeks of camp of pretty much no actual exercise plus the 2 weeks after and the week prior. All in all, I took 3 months off of exercise either because of camp or basically just being lazy for those weeks surrounding. 

I do have some serious advice both personally and for anyone else…. DO NOT TAKE OFF 3 MONTHS FROM SQUATTING!!!!! DON’T EVER DO IT!!!!!

My plan for when I came back to school (for anyone who read about what my supposed plan was back last semester of doing 5-3-1 or Juggernaut, well it changed) was to daily squatting, Bulgarian style. I’d squat to a daily max and then do 2-3 triples at about 80-85% of the daily max. Also, I would be alternating back and front Monday-Saturday and then do overhead squats and light deadlifts (focusing on form, speed, and power, not weight) on Sundays.

Here comes the reasoning behind why you should never take off 3 months from squatting. I decided to do an easy squat workout last Tuesday before my CPR training session for work (o yea, I’m a personal trainer and work on the weight/fitness staff at the gym at school). I worked up to a relatively heavy set of 5 back squats. Unfortunately I had lost a LOT of strength in these 3 months. I was only able to get weights that I’d warm up with if I were doing a heavy day just 3 months ago. While losing that strength sucked, the main part is the fact that I couldn’t walk for another 4 or 5 days. I felt soreness I hadn’t felt in 7 years. It took until today, both for scheduling purposes as well as with my legs being sore, for me to squat again. After 5 hours, I’m feeling good, so hopefully I should be ok even though I did a tougher workout today.

Let’s just hope that I never decide to take a 3 month break and I will never feel this way again.

REMEMBER: DO NOT TAKE A 3 MONTH BREAK FROM SQUATTING!!! IT HURTS SOOOO BAD WHEN YOU ARE BACK AT IT!!!

Hopefully now though I’ll be able to get close to my daily squatting and get my numbers back to where they were pretty quickly.

The Toughness of Camp

These past 2 months have been quiet for me because I have been working at an overnight camp with limited access to Internet thus making it very difficult for me to post anything. Camp has been tough for another reason; I have had to sacrifice a lot of my fitness unfortunately. Working with kids all day and all night tires you out extremely, almost to the point where you have to spend all your free time sleeping because that’s what you need. There are also extremely limited materials at my camp to do much of anything. Obviously I can always run and do bodyweight stuff, but I haven’t, and that is my fault. There have been a couple times where I have been motivated and had the energy to workout, but the times where I am motivated and have energy at the same time are few and far between.

Working at an overnight camp is very difficult. You are overworked and underpaid, and everyone knows it. You are essentially working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you are surrounded by little kids who drain all of your energy. You lose sleep, you may not eat as much as you’d like. All in all, it is very tough, but if you treat it right, you can learn a lot in general, but also about yourself.

There is something that I thought about while at camp though that should last much past camp and hopefully have a positive impact on my fitness. Simply put, it is Mental Fortitude.

A lot of people don’t always realize that the most successful athletes or those who better get what they want are also mentally the strongest. Being mentally tough applies to so many situations that it almost isn’t worth even attempting to name everything. In the realm of fitness though, imagine going for a 1 rep max on your back squat; it will be tough and you don’t know for sure if you will be able to stand up out of that hole, but the mentally tough know that they have put in the work and are willing to push themselves past the sticking point to stand it up. Or say you are doing a 2K row, it is going to suck, and you know it’s going to suck, however the toughest are those who can push themselves past that suck and go even harder. Basically, being mentally tough allows you to go past the points that are hard and allows you to reach your goals.

Mental fortitude also has its place outside of the gym. In fact for everyone, including an athlete, the true toughness shines outside of the gym, whether or not you are willing to stick to your nutrition plan, getting enough sleep, keeping outside stress at a minimum. Essentially mental fortitude that takes place outside of the gym is doing all the things you need to allow to you perform your best inside the gym.

The mental aspect of life and fitness interests me more now than before because I have witnessed myself become slower, weaker, less fit, and not do anything about it. However, the fact that I realized it is now why I am so much more determined for when I get back to school to do what is needed of myself. Obviously I will need to focus on school work as well as my two new jobs, a personal trainer as well as a member of the weight/fitness staff, and my fellowship, but even with all of that, I will need to focus on myself and the plans that I have for myself.


Remember, if there is anything that you want me to talk about or discuss, just let me know either in the comments section or in some other medium.

CrossFit North Central Regional experience

This past weekend, May 31-June 2, I attended the CrossFit North Central Regional, where the fittest in the North Central region (North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin) compete for the three qualifying spots to the CrossFit Games in July. There is a competition for individual men, women, and teams comprised of 3 men and 3 women.
I was a volunteer and worked ticketing. It wouldn't have been a complicated position had everything worked, but instead the scanners for the tickets had some issue each day of the weekend, and was a different problem each day. Even more so, I was the only one who had any idea of how to fix it, so I was spending at least an hour each day fixing the scanners.

More importantly though, this was my first CrossFit competition that I have been to, and it was absolutely incredible. The abilities of these athletes were amazing, but also inspiring. Beforehand, I have always had the drive to better myself as a person as well as an athlete and my fitness. After seeing this weekend, I am even more inspired to work hard and possibly achieve a level of fitness where I could be considered "one of the fittest in my region". I'm not sure if I could ever compete at the games, but being able to compete at regionals would be an incredible accomplishment as well as an incredible experience.

For me personally, the most amazing thing I saw was Elizabeth Akinwale on day 2. Day 2 comprised of 2 events, the 100's and the deadlift/box-jump. For the women, the 100's comprised of 100 Wall Balls (14lb to a 10ft target), 100 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 100 1 legged squats, and 100 dumbbell snatches at 50lbs. Elizabeth was the only women in the region to compete the workout, and after 13 regions' worth of women competing, there have only been 11 women to complete it, thus making it all the more impressive. What makes day 2 even more impressive is that after taxing the posterior chain all throughout the 100's workout, they then do 21-15-9 of deadlifts at 205lbs and box jump to a 24" box, a workout that is essentially all posterior chain. (Note: the above were the women's weights/heights) I think just completing that workout as a whole after having done the 100's is impressive, but she even set the event record by 12 seconds. That whole combination just blew me away.
If you want, you can see both of those events here:
http://games.crossfit.com/video/north-central-regional-live-footage-womens-event-5
http://games.crossfit.com/video/north-central-regional-live-footage-womens-event-4

All in all the weekend was incredible. I saw amazing feats of fitness, but even more so, I saw amazing examples of the CrossFit community. There were workouts were the last competitor in a heat was competing by himself for a little bit and all of the other competitors were right there cheering him/her on as well as the audience being the loudest for those last reps where the struggle was really seen. The best part about this community is that the audience knows what the competitors are going like, maybe not to the same extent, but they know what it feels like to be struggling for those last couple reps when you think you have nothing left.

Also, I got to take 4 amazing pictures.

This is with Dave Castro, the Director of the CrossFit Games. 

This is with Rudy Nielsen, Owner and Head coach at Outlaw CrossFit in Alexandria, Va, as well as the programmer for The Outlaw Way, a competitive CrossFit programming. He is also the coach of Elizabeth Akinwale.

This is with Elizabeth Akinwale, the winner of the North Central regional. She is such a nice and sweet person, and I couldn't think of a better person to represent our region, both physically as well as her personality.

This is with Deborah Cordner Carson (to my right), and Stacie Tovar (to my left), who finished 3rd and 2nd respectively. They were also very sweet and were very willing to take pictures even after all the competing. 

How to get back into working out and getting back in shape?

I have been asked questions similar to this by a bunch of people. Some of them were in great shape and worked out a bunch and something came up, others have never consistently done anything, either way, there is a desire to do something to get healthier and and workout.

I would say the person who is asking this question is already halfway there to starting to workout again, for they at least are willing to ask the question and care. Yes, they aren't actually working out, but at least they are asking the question and care somewhat.

Now, onto the actual question: "How do I get into working out and getting back in shape?"
Well, it really is actually very simple. I'm guessing that anyone asking this question knows someone who works out, someone who is in great shape, or someone who has transformed themselves through exercise. If that is the case, then it's easy; ask them if you can workout with them. You don't need to be doing exactly what they are doing because everything can be scaled, but if nothing else, you at least have a friend who is willing to work out with you. If you are completely deconditioned and haven't been doing anything, and just need something, then whatever it is that your friend is doing, then it will do wonders for you. I will advise though that you make sure that the two of you (or however many people you're working out with) incorporate some sort of strength training. It helps with building balance, bone density, and overall health.

If you are in the unfortunate circumstance of not being in the first situation, and you don't personally know anyone who works out at all, and you are really by yourself, then that is the time where you really need to be intrinsically motivated, and want to do it. You can have any motivation you'd like, but it certainly helps if it is because you want to better yourself for the sake of bettering yourself, and not for anyone else because if it isn't for you, then you're more likely to quit.

My first recommendation is deceptively simple. Set a goal. Whether it is to lose 10 lbs, be able to do some amount of pull ups, or even as simple as being able to pick up furniture and other things around your house with ease, set that goal. Make sure you are only setting one goal for now. Don't try and do too much or set too many goals.  I say that it is deceptively simple because the goal itself shouldn't be that difficult, but for some people it is tough to actually figure out what it is they want. For myself, I'm not even sure I have one specific overarching goal, I just felt slightly out of shape and wanted to feel better, and then I have set short-term goals since then, and for me, that's worked. For example, I have goal weights that I want to be able to squat, deadlift, bench, and strict press by the end of 2013 as well as other movements. Regardless of what it is, make sure you set a goal.

My next recommendation is to find a program or something that aligns with your goal. If your goal is to run your first 5K, but you're following a powerlifting program, then obviously that won't help too much. I know it sounds simple, but you just need a program that can help you with your goal.

My last, and most important recommendation is this: make sure you enjoy what you're doing. There are three components to being successful: doing what you should be doing, doing what you like doing, and what it is you are doing. If those three things don't line up, then you won't have long term success, but I feel like the most important is that you enjoy whatever it is you are doing, then your chance of reaching your goal is incredibly small.

I hope this can help anyone who has any or has been having any problems, and if I can help in any other way, let me know, I'm more than happy to help.

Some issues I'm having

I think my feet are getting smaller. But actually. Recently I have noticed that when I'm rowing on an erg, especially at a high stroke rate, that my feet start to slide a little bit out of my Vibram FiveFingers (yea, I'm one of those guys that wears toe shoes). Then today, I was squatting and when I was getting close to max effort weights, I was sliding in my shoes again on my way up, making it a lot more difficult to squat. I have never heard of people's feet shrinking, at least this early in life. One of my friends suggested it might be from the fact that I'm exercising more than I used to, but that doesn't make sense to me. I mean I would run at least 30 miles a week last year, so I was still being incredibly active, I just wasn't weight training. Plus, I have high arches and since I'm in minimalist footwear, my arch should compress and lower thus lengthening my feet. I really have no idea what the cause of this is, but it is starting to freak me out. Plus, I really don't want to have to go and buy another pair of shoes while I have a perfectly good pair that I've had for a while now.

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHY MY FEET ARE SHRINKING, PLEASE INFORM ME!!!


Another thing that has been happening is that I've recently been stalling out a little bit on my squat, and to a certain extent, my deadlift as well. I am still increasing my capacity at submaximal loads, but I seem to be stalling out and not being able to increase or sometimes even maintain near maximal loads. For example, I recently did a squat workout of 6x2 at 95% of my 1RM, and I could only get through 3 sets before having to drop to 90%, and then even then, that was still quite tough, tougher than I thought it should have, especially because the 1RM is over a month old. I understand that the body needs to be stressed in order to adapt, and adaptation is the key when exercising, but I am starting to feel that I can't even stress my body as much as it needs to in order to adapt.
I'm not having as much trouble with my deadlift as with my squat, I really just have days where I'm feeling really good and can pull a lot, and then there are days where I can barely pull any weight (relatively) at all. For example, the other day, I set a new rep record at 82% of my 1RM, but I had trouble pulling at 86%, it's been really weird for me,

This has been incredibly frustrating for me because my focus is on gaining strength, and in 2/4 exercises that I focus on in strength, I'm barely able to see any gains. Even more frustrating is that on the overhead press and close grip bench press, I am seeing gains at a similar rate to when I first started lifting. That shouldn't be happening at all; when someone just starts lifting, there is so much inexperience that a person can make gains at every workout just because they are so behind where their body can be, but with me, I shouldn't be making gains like this, I mean I'm setting either a rep record or weight record every single workout. Yes, it is quite the confidence booster to keep me going, but I am almost in shock at the gains I'm making there, and then complete lack of gains in my squat and deadlift.

If anyone has any advice for how I can continue to increase my strength numbers since it seems I'm stalling out a little, that'd be great. I know that I don't have too much time left this semester (and then I'll be at camp, so I'm not exactly sure what I'll be able to do while I'm there) and then when I get back to school in the fall I'm going to commit to Wendler, but until then, the only thing I can think of is just increasing my capacity at submaximal loads and hope that can translate.

Finding a new and informed plan

After a great experience at CrossFit Haven and seeing how they programmed as well as the community, there were a few things I wanted to do when I got back to school. I wanted to try and work  out as much with the club at school as possible to emulate that community feel, and I wanted to get stronger. My desire for strength was a different desire than before. Before, I just wanted to get stronger for the sake of being stronger as well as some aesthetic desire. Now, it is completely different. I wanted to get stronger because that was the main limiting factor in my MetCons, I wasn't strong enough to do workouts as prescribed, and when I could, I didn't have the muscular strength and endurance to maintain a high intensity throughout; rarely was it that I was gassed in workouts, it was more that my muscles were gassed.
Now I began a journey of focusing even more on strength, although I didn't really know how to. When you want to get strong, who do you turn to? The Powerlifters! I searched the internet tirelessly for different powerlifting programs or strength programs trying to find one that was both simple and effective. I eventually found Jim Wendler's 5-3-1 program which has you work off of percentages of your 1 rep max. Unfortunately, I found this at a terrible timing. One cycle is a month, but I found it 2 weeks before spring break where I would be going to Panama City and wouldn't be able to lift at all for the week, so I wouldn't be able to start the cycle then. When I got back, there was a little less than 2 months left of school, and that isn't enough to see enough gains; based on everything I read, you want to do at least 3 cycles to start seeing real gains. So now I couldn't do Wendler's 5-3-1, so I didn't know what to do.
Another issue I came upon was the issue of weight and body composition. Like the majority of people, I'm not completely satisfied with my body composition, even though I'm fine with my weight. However, also from everything I read, in order to gain strength, it helps a lot to add on weight. The problem I was facing with that was that I had been trying to eat cleaner and with that, my weight was slowly dropping, but I now theoretically needed to gain weight. Do I sacrifice my diet to gain weight and gain strength or do I maintain my cleaner eating and hope that my programming that I was using would be enough to maintain strength gains? I'm not sure if I made the correct decision long term, but I decided to dirty up my eating a little bit, in hopes to maybe gain some weight and increase my strength. I haven't weighed myself since I have been at school, so I don't know if my weight has gone up, but I have been getting stronger.
For my programming, I decided to change it up a little bit. I am now squatting Mondays, strict press Tuesdays, deadlifts Wednesdays, close grip bench press (due to it translating better to the overhead press) Thursday, pull ups for strength followed by a heavy MetCon Friday, Saturday has either another heavy MetCon or a benchmark/hero wod, and then recovery swimming Sundays (Monday-Thursday also include MetCons after the strength). I have also adopted a little bit of Wendler in that I am now generally going at slightly lower weights and higher reps while also maxing out for reps on the last set of each workout. For the most part, it has been working.

Here I am now, with a slightly dirtier diet and caring a little less about what I eat (I like to think I'm still not eating crap, I'm just not being as strict), and trying my own modification based on the time restraints I have to do all I can to get strong without completely ignoring my conditioning. But hey, at least I know basically what it is I want to do now, so at least I have a plan.
And when I get back to school in the fall, I'm going to do Wendler 5-3-1 the entire school year. I'm pretty sure I'll still need to get stronger, and hopefully that will help.

Gotta love having a desired plan, realizing all of the logistical issues, and then creating a whole new plan that may or may not work out.

What winter break taught that will last forever

Normally when people are on breaks from school, they just use it as a mental break to relax and do whatever it is that they want to do. I didn't do anything like that. Yes, I did go home; Yes, I did see friends and enjoy myself, but winter break wasn't truly a mental break. I was taking a class online which took up more time than I thought it would, but I still did have time for myself.

My winter break consisted of doing work for my class, studying for my personal trainer certification exam, hanging out, and trying something completely knew, going to an actual CrossFit box (for those who don't know, for some reason CrossFit gyms are called boxes instead of gyms) (shout out to CrossFit Haven in Glenview IL, it's a great place to work out and learn, great people, great time).

My class was Motor Control and Learning, just a class that I'm required to take.
For my certification, maybe it was because when I'm bored I look up things about fitness and working out, or the fact that I'm a Kinesiology major, but the exam didn't seem to be too hard for me, then again I would have felt quite embarrassed had I not passed, so I probably ended up spending too much time studying for it. In the end, I did pass though which was good.

What I really learned though during this break, was about CrossFit (I don't mean for this blog to be only about CrossFit, it just happens to be what I do, however there are certainly merits to a lot of other strength and conditioning programs, it really just all depends on your goals and desires). There is so much you can learn online, but then actually being a part of a box is completely different. Ask most crossfitters that work out at a box what their favorite part of crossfit is, and I guarantee one of the top 3 things is the community; the community is something you really can't learn about online or understand if you're working out in your garage or at a globo gym, it's something that has to be experienced. The community is working out with like-minded people, working out with people who have similar goals to yours, it's something that can't really be put into words no matter how hard people try to do so. However, for me, after experiencing this, if even for only a month, it helped solidify for me why I want to keep CrossFit in my life for the all of the foreseeable future, both hoping to join a box full time after college, but also doing CrossFit on my own.
More of a side note, but I also learned different ways of programming and ideas of combining exercises for different time domains. I couldn't imagine some of the workouts that we ended up doing.

In the end though, I ended up learning how I now know what I want to keep in my life for the rest of my life, and I learned something about CrossFit that I couldn't really imagine until experiencing it. I'm glad I was home during the winter, and I'm glad I have something checked off for things I want to do for the rest of my life.

Why I want to do what I want to do

A lot of my friends don't really know what they want to do with their lives, a lot don't even have their majors decided, but that makes a lot of sense...I mean it's my first year in college, there is no need for them to have it all figured out. But then that creates the question, how do I know what I want to do is what I want to do, and why do I know so early?

To answer that, I have to really start, oh, probably 8th grade. I suffered my first sports related injury then. I was playing baseball in the house league and my team was in the world series. It was the second game in the best of 3 series, and we had already lost the first. It must have been either the first or second inning and I was up, and I hit a ball hard to the outfield, definitely something I could turn into a double. I slide into 2nd base feet first and make it safe easily, however I knew right away that something was wrong. My right thumb was in terrible pain. It must have come down and hit the ground too hard, a complete freak accident. I called time, had my coach come over and told him that I knew my thumb was broken. Unfortunately, 2 of our players had already left for their respective summer camps, so we only had 10 players left on the team. My coach decided that were just gonna try and get me back to the dugout asap to figure things out. I end up stealing third on a pass ball, and do the same thing going home, and I end up scoring. Next I grab an icepack and do all I can to numb my thumb. One of my teammate's parents was a nurse and did a quick check on where there was pain and how much and what not. She basically said that as long as I numb it up, and take some ibuprofen (which she happened to have) that I most likely wouldn't do more damage to it by playing (it was my throwing hand, not my glove hand). I kept playing, did well, then later found out it was actually broken pretty badly and was lucky I didn't do more damage.

Fast forward to sophomore year swimming. The day before my birthday we were doing a dryland workout, essentially just a lot of different circuit work, and during one of the sets of clapping push ups I felt a tweak in my shoulder. I sat out the rest of dryland and thought I might be better once I was in the pool. My first stroke in the pool proved me very wrong as I could barely do it. I ended up sitting out the rest of the season for some unknown and undiagnosed injury. I literally had 4 X-rays and 3 different mri's within the next 2 years since it was a pretty constant injury and nothing was ever shown to be wrong. I was in physical therapy to strengthen up my shoulder, but I was still in some level of pain really until last year where one day I just realized that I wasn't in any pain.

Sophomore year also, I hurt my knee in marching band, my doctor believes that it was a viral infection of the bursae because the symptoms aligned with bursitis, however the blood test was negative for bacterial and then one day that pain went away. My first day back in gym after that, I sprained my ankle playing basketball. Total freak accident, I jump up for a rebound and land on someone's foot and sprain it.

Then, like I mentioned earlier, last year when I was running a 10K, I suffered a stress fracture in my 3rd metatarsal of my right foot.

Basically, I have not had a good injury history. (honestly, that's just a small chunk of it all. I have had so many tweaks and bumps over the years, it's hard to remember them all. In fact, my mom nicknames the radiology department of the hospital by me after me because I was there so often).

One might ask then, "why not be a physical therapist? you've had so many injuries, you can help others rehab their own". That would make sense, except why would I want to be reactive when I could be proactive? I think a reason for a lot of injuries that people sustain are because they simply aren't strong enough, or flexible, or have the right level of conditioning. I want to train people to help them to not only be more fit, but also for those who are active, I want to help reduce their probability of sustaining an injury.
Now don't let that fool you into thinking that I don't want to help people get more fit. I am also very interested in that. I mean I have seen myself grow and it amazes me how some hard work can work so much (note: I still have a long way to go, I was just starting from nowhere), and I actually find joy in seeing people go do active for the first time. I mean everyone knows that America has health issues, and if I can even make a little dent in that, that'd be phenomenal.

The next beginning of my journey

As you hopefully read in the last post, seeing that there was a CrossFit club beginning on campus really changed everything for me. I had heard of CrossFit and I had seen the Games which looked incredible, but I didn't really know how to apply it to myself. Then again, I didn't try too hard either to figure out how. Then, one day I decided to go to one of the workouts. Luckily, I had already done some of the exercises incorporated so that when I got to my first workout, I at least knew how to do everything, I just didn't know how hard it would be. My first workout was 5x5 of deadlifts working up to something heavy followed up by Fran. For those who don't know what Fran is, it is a deceptively terrible workout. It is 21-15-9 of thrusters at 95lbs and pull ups, oh, and you do that as fast as you can. Luckily I was spared and only did it at 45lbs, and since I couldn't do any pull ups, I did jumping pull ups. If anyone says that is easy, then go ahead and try the regular Fran.

After that workout, I was hooked. CrossFit was what I wanted to do, I just didn't really know how to do it. That was when I did what I do whenever I find something new and awesome. I dedicate all of my time to learning about it, from how it started, to the Games, how to program, everything. Within a week, I had an opinion on just about everything CrossFit related, and if I didn't, then I would go to my dorm, and within an hour of looking up stuff online, I could give you one.

After that first workout, all "bodybuilder" workouts went out the window for me, and I tried to only do CrossFit style workouts. I loved being able to say to myself that I was working out at a high intensity. My main problem though was that I think I was following one of the aspects of CrossFit too closely. "Constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements". I know I was doing the later 2, but the constantly varied, I was doing that too much. I would literally walk into the gym, see what was available and just throw ideas together. There were times where I ended up doing shoulder presses 3 days in a row and then would go 2 weeks without doing them at all. My fitness was definitely still increasing, but I think it was because I was coming from a relatively low place so I only had room to grow. I needed to figure out a way to create some sort of system to make sure that I was following some of the basic tenants of what CrossFit is, but I also needed a plan.

Part of the ignorant person I was thinking I could work out everyday and be fine, I adopted what seemed to make a lot of sense to me. I watched some video of Rich Froning and he said something about squatting heavy Mondays and Fridays, heavy presses Tuesday and Thursday, and heavy deadlifts on Wednesday. So I figured I'd adopt that, and then for the MetCon to follow it, I would just make sure to emphasize the main muscle group in the MetCon as well.

At this point I was definitely seeing my strength numbers going up, then again this was the first year where I really dedicated time to lifting weights. I was also slimming down, I was also getting better at "cardio" also even though I rarely actually included anything.

I am so glad I found CrossFit, but that point was just the beginning for me. It only gets better.

First post/some background

I have been putting this off for a while now. My mom has been pressing me to start a blog that I could maintain, and now that I have some time without too much homework, why not?

For those who don't know me, I'm a student at the University of Maryland, and I'm studying Kinesiology. I am also a certified personal trainer as well. I am in a fraternity and a comedy group, and outside of those two things, I'm pretty much at the gym doing one thing or another (I'm actually at the gym now writing this).

My fitness journey has been just that, a journey. I have gone through many sports, programs, ideals, beliefs, whatever; it has been a long journey for me to figure out what I think works for me, and where I hope to be.

First, I have to go back to when I was 6. I was an annoying little shit, and my dad finally told me that if I just were a normal human being that he'd take me to a Bears game when I was 7. Then I was a normal little kid and played youth league soccer, baseball, basketball, flag football; heck, I even did karate. I did everything. I actually excelled at soccer a little. I ended up playing club soccer for a few years, and that sparked my interest in soccer. What a beautiful and underrated sport. I was always a little overweight even through all of that.

Then I hit high school and I decided to try swimming and water polo. Thank god for swimming. I didn't lose any weight, but it just all redistributed and looked a lot better. I loved them both. Unfortunately I hurt my shoulder sophomore year swimming and had to sit out the season and most of the water polo season. I tried coming back junior year but it didn't work out, so I just did water polo, I liked it more anyway.

After high school, I got really into running and actually now do barefoot running (unfortunately I usually end up wearing my Vibram FiveFingers because of where it is that I'm running or working out).   I did a 5K at the end of that summer. If you are ever in Chicago at the end of a summer, do the Elvis is Alive 5K, it is so much fun.
I then spent a year in Israel before college where I ran a ton. I even did 2 10K's while there. Unfortunately, during the second one, I suffered a stress fracture in my 3rd metatarsal, and I was pretty much out of commission for 6 months because it wasn't officially diagnosed for 4 months and then I was in a boot for 2 months. After that I couldn't do anything lower body because I had to build back normal strength in my foot, so I just did basic upper body crap while I was working at my overnight camp.

Next, I come to school and I took a weightlifting class for my degree and did basic body building stuff because, quite frankly, I didn't know what else to do. Then, I came across a flier that there was a CrossFit club starting on campus, and quite frankly, my life has been changed ever since then (that wasn't supposed to be a stupid statement also, just that things actually have changed for me).