30 Day KickStart!

Exercising and eating healthy was last year's (and many before that) most common New Year's resolution. The problem with most resolutions is that they lack the one thing that determines whether or not you'll stick with something...a plan. Habits take planning and time, and ultimately, exercising and eating right should be a daily habit that you make part of your life throughout the year. With my 30 Day KickStart, I've taken the part of the planning out of the equation, and I'll be along with you the first 30 days of this year to help you integrate it into your life. The last piece of the puzzle is you taking the first step and starting the program.

30 Day KickStart is a three part healthy living program.

1. The activity portion includes 3 workouts that are designed to be repeated for 4 weeks. They can ALL be done at home with NO equipment. All exercises have links to youtube videos. For the other days of the week, there are instructions for how to get more walking (or other cardio) and general activity into your day. The workouts also include flexibility and mobility work to keep your hips, knees, shoulders, and elbows moving pain free, and core work to help you avoid back pain (one of the most common issues people go to physical therapists for).
2. The nutritional tips require NO calorie counting or food journaling. Healthy diets like this are about limiting the types of foods that bring along health problems and weight gain, and eating more of the kinds of foods that promote health and healthy weight management.
3. The sleep recommendations are designed to allow your body to get the rest it needs to recover from workouts, deal with daily stress, and regulate hormones responsible for healthy weight management. 

Along with the program that you can customize to fit your schedule, you'll get one email a week to ask me any questions you have about the program and/or your progress. Nutritional tips can be Googled if you want to see the peer-reviewed studies that back them up, and the exercises all have videos linked to them. So the email is more of a time for me to help you integrate this program to your daily life and help with any issues you're having along the way.

I want to remove any barriers you may have to starting a healthy 2015, which is why I'm asking less than half of what you'd pay to train with me or another trainer in person! So if you're ready to start the 30 Day KickStart, click the PayPal link below and I'll email you the startup pack!

30 Day KickStart
$15.00

SILVERBACK 2.0

Silverback 2.0 is here!

This functional mass program is designed for any lifter looking to gain muscle that can actually move weight. For traditional lifters, the addition of heavier lifts along with some Olympic lifting will challenge your body in a new way, sparking some growth and breaking up any plateaus you may have hit in your pursuit of gaining muscle. Crossfitters may find the program especially beneficial as many are limited by their strength/size in competitions, but don't want to lose too much conditioning or gymnastics skills. In this split body program, you'll still squat, deadlift, bench, press, snatch, clean, and jerk, while working accessory and bodyweight exercises to aid your progress. Mobility and prehab workouts are included daily. 

CLICK HERE for a preview of the workout along with instructions on the structure of the program. 

The program is set up to run as a stand alone 5 week program, but instructions are given if you'd like to run it for up to 11 weeks. Included in the price of Silverback is 5 weeks of email correspondence with me to address any questions you have regarding the program, your nutrition/supplementation, and your recovery. 

Personal training sessions with me are anywhere from $45 to $61 an hour, but I'm selling the entire thing with correspondence for less than I charge for 1 half-hour session. 

Welcome to the jungle...

Price: 

$20.00

Simian: Week 3

Metcon intensity is down a bit this week as we're halfway through.

Week 3

Simian: Week 2

Watch your intensity as the week progresses. It gets real...

Week 2

Simian: Week 1

Simian is a program that's based around truly functional human movement. A high emphasis is placed on bodyweight movement proficiency because in the end, it doesn't matter how strong you are if you can move your own weight. There are a lot of multidirectional movements and less popular functional exercises that you won't find in traditional Crossfit programs that are put in to help you realize some of the gaps in traditional programming and how to address your weaknesses. Recovery is KING. If something hurts, you need to lay off an exercise, or you just need to back off a bit, do it. It's a 5-day modified push-pull split so you shouldn't have to worry too much about overtraining, but as the nature is with bodyweight movements, your grip is going to be tested. 

The basic premise of each day is this:

1. Prep

2. Skill
3. Load
4. Work
5. Play

Prep is mobility and prehab exercises, specifically the shoulder girdle and hands. Skill is where we practice high skill and resistance gymnastics/bodyweight movements in low repetition sets. Load is barbell work and includes Olympic lifts. Work is traditional (and nontraditional) Crossfit WOD's as well as sprint work. Finally, play is where we take time to freestyle around with movements in an unstructured, unstressed environment and can also serve as additional skill and mobility work.

Tuesdays and Fridays will have more load work than skill. Thursdays will be used as active rest, or a long/slow effort cardio day for running, swimming, climbing, slacklining, parkour, etc. Sunday is rest/mobility.

Here's the link to the google doc: Week 1

Sliverback: Week 7

Here it is. The whole thing is here. The old links from previous posts won't work so use this one for the entire 7 weeks of Silverback. 

Week 7/Full Program

Silverback: Week 6

Eat up, we've only go one more week after this...

Week 6

Silverback: Week 5

3 weeks left. Push the calories up if you're no on track.

Week 5

Silverback: Week 4

Changing up the beginning of the week:

Week 4

Silverback Week 3

Goodbye, shoulders...here's Week 3

Silverback: Week 2

Eat up and move some weight

Week 2

Silverback: Week 1

Welcome to the Jungle...

Silverback Mass Program Week 1

My 2014 Crossfit Open Experience

Open 2013 Standings

Worldwide

Participants: 84,720 men

Ending Rank: 3,052

Percentage Rank: Top 3.6%

Mid Atlantic Region

Participants: 6,600 Men

Ending Rank: 231

Percentage Rank: Top 3.5%

Open 2014 Standings

Worldwide

Participants: 126,720 Men

Ending Rank:2121

Percentage Rank:1.6%

Mid Atlantic Region

Participants: 9,300 Men

Ending Rank:174

Percentage Rank:1.8%

14.1. World Rank: 2705 Region Rank: 203

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:

30 double-unders

75-lb. power snatches, 15 reps

7 Full rounds

30 double-unders

6 snatches

Best regional finish in an Open WOD yet. Moved quickly, only messed up on the dubz twice.

Strength was the only limiting factor on moving the bar quicker on the snatches.

14.2. World Rank: 5199 Region Rank: 423

Every 3 minutes for as long as possible complete:

From 0:00-3:00

  2 rounds of:

  10 overhead squats

  10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 3:00-6:00

  2 rounds of:

  12 overhead squats

  12 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 6:00-9:00

  2 rounds of:

  14 overhead squats

  14 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Etc., following same pattern until you fail to complete both rounds

0:00 - 3:00 Complete

3:00 - 6:00 Complete

6:00 - 9:00 Complete

9:00 - 12:00

16 Overhead Squats

16 Pull-ups

8 Overhead Squats

0 Pull-ups

Did this WOD twice after not making it through the 14’s on my first attempt. CTB pullup endurance was the limiting factor here. OHS could be better, as I could have done more reps before time ran out. Butterfly kipped most of the pullups. Broke up into several sets for all pullup rounds.

14.3. World Rank: 2682 Region Rank: 214

Complete as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:

135-lb. deadlifts, 10 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

185-lb. deadlifts, 15 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

225-lb. deadlifts, 20 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

275-lb. deadlifts, 25 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

315-lb. deadlifts, 30 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

365-lb. deadlifts, 35 reps

15 box jumps, 24-inch

10 deadlifts, 15 box jumps

15 deadlifts, 15 box jumps

20 deadlifts, 15 box jumps

25 deadlifts, 15 box jumps

(6:04)

14 deadlift

Best worldwide finish in an Open WOD yet. Most fun I’ve ever had in an Open WOD. HR wasn’t up, back didn't round out, didn't fail any deads. Performed better than most guys my size on this one.

14.4 World Rank: 4911 Region Rank: 372

Complete as many rounds and repetitions as possible in 14 minutes of:

60-calorie row

50 toes-to-bars

40 wall-ball shots, 20 lb. to 10-foot target

30 cleans, 135 lb.

20 muscle-ups

60 calories

50 toes-to-bar

40 wall-ball

30 cleans (10:48)

12 muscle-ups

Did this WOD twice. Had 3min left for the MU both times and got 9 on the first and 12 on the second. Paced them out too much the second time since I didn’t want to fail any reps. TTB was in sets of 5, wall ball 15, 10, 5, 5, 5, and singles on the cleans. Used hips much more the second attempt on the cleans which kept my shoulders fresher for the MU. Confidence in muscle up endurance was limiting factor. Did my second attempt less than 24 hours after the first.

14.5 World Rank: 2007 Region Rank: 164

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of:

95-lb. thrusters

Burpees

Best worldwide AND regional finish to date after completing the workout twice. Cleaned up my burpee form to be more efficient and set the bar down 2 drops less than the first attempt. Paced it well, but pushed so hard at the 12-9-6-3 that I was destroyed by the end. Super happy with my performance and know know “where” I need to push to in order to get higher next year. Only limiting factor was cardiorespiratory capacity and lactic acid threshold.

Overall Takeaways:

1. I got stronger before the Open, but still lack the muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness for higher rep sets/workouts.

2. I learned how to strategize better on my second attempts, and should learn to strategize on the fly in my own training.

3. For my size, I’m not where I feel I need to be with bodyweight movements, but I’m stronger/more endurant than guys my size AND a lot of bigger guys when it comes to moving weights.

4. Muscle ups and high rep CTB Pullups are weaknesses. Deadlifts, thrusters, toes to bar, burpees, light snatches, and double unders are strengths.

5. The more strategic the warm up, the better the workout (most of the time). I need to implement this in my daily training to make the most of my WODs.

6. I need to be more confident in myself. I’m capable of more than I think I am, as proven by my second attempts.

7. I need to periodize out my year to allow more time for Open specific training.

8. My Oly weights aren’t that far out of Regionals range, but my form/efficiency needs work.

9. I didn’t lose much overall fitness during the Open even though my volume during the week was pretty light. Taking a few weeks a year like this will probably help with my overall recovery.

10. The Open WOD’s can’t define my year of training. A lot of things that I improved on this year were not tested in the Open, and I can’t discount the accomplishments I achieved this year based on 5 workouts.

11. I’m pumped with my my progress from 2013 and my finish this year, and cannot wait to see what I’m capable of throughout the next year.

Power Phase: Week 6

Getting near the end. Test week for clean and jerk...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqaZHVTj1e3WdHlwX1BiNFlPOXN1cnM3ZlNBcXpvRUE&usp=sharing