In the groove

I am starting to get some consistency back - with actually getting to the gym regularly, not my workouts they are never consistent!!! I can't help myself, I just love variety & there is soooo much out there now I have discovered.  My preparation this time around is focussing on INTENSITY. Now a lot of people go on about intensity but dont really understand the concept.  I found this great crossfit article that says it all (I am in the transition from bodybuilding to crossfitting at the moment!) 

"Intensity, as we define it, is exactly equal to average power (force x distance / time). In other words, how much real work did you do and in what time period? The greater the average power, the greater the intensity. This makes it a measurable fact, not a debatable opinion.

Intensity and average power are the variable most commonly associate with optimizing favorable results. Whatever you want from exercise comes faster with intensity. It’s not volume or duration or heartrate or even discomfort. Do more work in less time (without overdoing it), and you’ll get fitter faster." Pat Sherwood.  Find it at: http://journal.crossfit.com/2009/03/intensity-and-its-role-in-fitness.tpl

So anyway, I have had an epiphany in my training in that all the good shit that you want out of fitness - speed, strenght, size, endurance etc comes from intensity. I'm sure in the relatively short time I have been doing proper intense workouts (i.e functional or compound movements under time constraints) I have put on more muscle. And when you think about it, it makes sense. e.g I was doing shouler lateral raises yesterday& I did some at a slow controlled pace (like all good bodybuilders should) slow on the way up & slow on way down. Then I tried to see how fast I could go - not cheating but just going BLAM straight up to the finish position - you should see the striations come out then! And what was happening? I was recruiting more  type II muscle fibres in the first few seconds - which is the ones we all want to hit! So instead of doing slow/controlled & bringing in the extra muscle fibres at the last few reps, I was hitting them first. Anyway, it felt good & I guess time will tell. 

Unfortunately all this has come after nearly 10 years of training LOL!! But I guess that is the beauty of this sport, you are always learning something new, and if you're not, you're not TRYING!!! 

So anyway yesterday's workout consisted of: warm up- 10 chins, 20 air squats, stretches etc 

5 Rounds for time of: 

5 Deadlifts (60kg) & 10 burpees - (these are proper ones with the pushup at bottom, will post a vid of this soon) 

unfortunately somewhere throughout this my bloody watch stopped timing (must've bumped it) so don't know how long it actually took - I'll say 10 mins as a starting figure.

That was fun - so I did some more deadlifts & went to 70kg & just did 2 x 3reps. 

10 pull ups, 

Drop set on lat raises - 20,15,10,8lb (30reps all up)

Then cooled down with stretching. 

Had a cheat meal last night. Hadn't really planned to, but I just went with it - felt my food has been a bit low lately & have been worried that my milk supply was getting a bit low (still breast feeding!) so I went with it. Made homemade hamburgers with homemade mayo - damn nice!! and of course finished off with some easter eggs.  

Happy Easter everyone! Feel free to comment or just say hi - starting to feel like I'm just talking to myself, I guess I am LOL! 

xxx