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Andi's crossfit and bulking journal


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I saw you posted that you weren't putting any weight on, do you think it may have something to do with your training? I don't really know much a out crossfit but it seems to be very high cardio. Do a few months on a powerlifting programme dude you'll love it would recommend 5/3/1! Hope everything's cool your end bud

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It could be, but when I wasn't doing Crossfit I put on a lot of fat, I went up to around 20% body fat. I think I still need more food during the day, I think I'm getting around 2500 cals at the moment on training days.

 

Other than that everything is cool cheers!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah of course.

 

I've not managed to get to the gym for two weeks now! It's really pissing me off actually. Hopefully I'll be able to get a stronglifts session in on Saturday morning, but I have a gig in Corby in the afternoon so I'm not sure there will be time. Once I move back into my own house, when I have a bathroom again, I'll be able to get back to the regular sessions.

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Still struggling to get to the gym, but hopefully should be back in my own house next week and so can get back on the horse.

I've been reading a lot of Kelly Starrett's Becoming a Supple Leopard book, and really want to get some mobility work into my regime as I think this might be the key to my squat form problems, which in turn is stopping me from progressing with the weight. Does anyone else have a good mobility program?

 

Also, I need to find another 500 calories per day from somewhere....

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Still haven't been able to move back home, and so haven't made a crossfit class for coming up to 4 weeks!! Instead, I've been spending at least 20 minutes per night, over the past 4 nights, on mobility work. I've never ever stretched properly, and spend most of my time sitting at a desk, so I think every joint and muscle has less range of motion than it should. I have trouble even getting into the start position for a lot of the stretches in the "becoming a supple leopard" book, let alone actually putting any of the movements into practise.

I've realised that my main issues are tight adductors and hip flexors, so I've been working hard on these with the couch stretch, and also something that resembles yoga's lotus position, not that I can fully get into it yet. I've been seeing a noticable improvement every evening, and so hopefully next time I squat I'll be able to keep my torso upright and my knees out with more ease than I have been able to previously.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally managed to get back to the gym last week for two sessions. I'm going to try my very best to get there for at least 4 sessions per week for the foreseeable future.

 

I'm still remaining steady in my weight too, at around 67kg, far too light for someone my height, 5'11". Calories are still only around the 2000 per day mark though, so I can see where this needs to increase, I just wish there was a more convenient way of doing it. I'm sick of making 3 smoothies per day, and I'm thinking of looking into doing something like a 1000 calories brutal breakfast that I can take to work. Any tips?

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Finally managed to get back to the gym last week for two sessions. I'm going to try my very best to get there for at least 4 sessions per week for the foreseeable future.

 

I'm still remaining steady in my weight too, at around 67kg, far too light for someone my height, 5'11". Calories are still only around the 2000 per day mark though, so I can see where this needs to increase, I just wish there was a more convenient way of doing it. I'm sick of making 3 smoothies per day, and I'm thinking of looking into doing something like a 1000 calories brutal breakfast that I can take to work. Any tips?

Nice one dude! Must feel great to get back into training!

 

For the calorie situation, I may have some help.

I'm not sure Wales has them but if you do then go to Holland & Barrett's, they have vegan pastries, sausage rolls, burritos etc. also they have sieten, tofu,, flapjacks you name it! If there aren't any in Wales then find a store when you're touring and stock up

Take a smoothie to work dude, with a couple of scoops of protein powder/juice/creatine, you can't really go wrong with breakfast biscuits too! (Check they're vegan obviously)

 

Anyways hope I've helped mate haha

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Yeah we have them, I get my peanut butter and flaxseed from there, I'll have a look what they have that I can grab for work snacks next time I go in.

 

I usually take two smoothies to work, one green ish one, with spinach, banana, mixed fruit flaxseed and protein powder, and the other one is oats, almond milk, protein powder and peanut butter.

 

Cheers for the advice.

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Finally managed to get back to the gym last week for two sessions. I'm going to try my very best to get there for at least 4 sessions per week for the foreseeable future.

 

I'm still remaining steady in my weight too, at around 67kg, far too light for someone my height, 5'11". Calories are still only around the 2000 per day mark though, so I can see where this needs to increase, I just wish there was a more convenient way of doing it. I'm sick of making 3 smoothies per day, and I'm thinking of looking into doing something like a 1000 calories brutal breakfast that I can take to work. Any tips?

 

 

hey Andi, maybenot worked out the calories in my breakfast smoothie in my journal, but im sure if you wanted more you could add in a little sugar, more peanut butter, another banana, another scoop of protein or even all 4........it tastes better than it sounds. i used to make peanut butter flapjacks too which are handy for carrying around. just mix oats, peanut butter and protein powder together, spread out on a baking tray and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top, bake till they look edible, and thats it. beans i find are a good bulking food also, as they dont contain peanut butter and are fairly clean, just have 2 tins instead of one etc.......

 

mike

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Great stuff, thanks guys. I'll give this a go. I think I'd get less annoyed with making the shakes every day if I was to just make them in bulk. Perhaps if I get enough containers to last me the week, and I prepare them all at once on a Sunday afternoon it would be less tedious.

 

I'm going to spend some time looking at things on myfitnesspal in the coming days. I don't want to get back into the habit of logging everything I eat on there, but as long as I know I'm getting something like 2500 good calories on rest days, and 3000 on training days I'll eat least start to see some gains. I just need to stick at it!

 

What do people do as a recovery style shake? I've been using the Thrive lemon-lime recipe, and although it's delicious, it's a little bit of a pain to make up every night. I'm tempted to just go with a scoop of protein powder and 500ml of chocolate soy milk or something.

 

What protein powders do you both use too? Seeing as you're also UK based?

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for the post workout shake, protein and simple carbs is the way, so the chocolate soy milk and protein would be just the ticket, or a scoop of unflavoured protein in fruit juice etc............if you have cravings for sweet things, after a heavy workout is the best time. i use myprotein.co.uk unflavoured soy protein for eveything good stuff and not too expensive

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Warm Up:

2 lengths bear crawl

30 second handstand hold

2 lengths bear crawl

10 push ups

Repeat twice

Lift:

Floor press (9x3 dynamic effort) - 40kg

4 x Max effort strict handstand push ups into kipping HSPU

4 x Max effort strict ring dips into kipping ring dips

WOD:

Tabata - bear crawl

Tabata - plate twists

Third session back after a long absence, and it feels good to be back at Dawn Patrol! A bit of an odd one today, I've never done floor press before, and wasn't sure how heavy to go, but seeing as my bench 1RM is only 60kg I did this at 40kg. I did do a set at 50kg, but I couldn't move the weight fast enough to qualify it for dynamic effort, so knocked it back down.

 

I tried to get a strict handstand push up out, but nothing was budging, no surprise there. I quickly bust out 10 kipping handstand push ups however, and so for the remaining 3 sets did these the recommended way, of having two plates either side of the abmat, to increase the range of motion, which made a significant difference! I only managed 1 rep, 2 reps and then another 1 rep like this, mainly because I kept coming away from the wall. I think this is just some technique work though really.

 

Ring dips I did all as strict, but only managed 4,3,3,4 for the sets.

 

What an odd workout! On paper it looked to be easy, but the bear crawls and plate twists quickly mounted up to be really strenuous, especially on around the 4th or 5th sets.

 

Finished up with some couch stretch, and then onto work. Back again tomorrow

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Warm Up:

3 rounds of

7 burpees

7 box jumps

5 bar hang with 90 degree rotation

30 seconds partner push pull

Skills practise:

Muscle up practise

Pistol practise

WOD:

16 min AMRAP

200m run

30 DUs

400m run

50 DUs

Another great session, although there was only two of us in the class today. Perhaps the cold dark mornings are getting to people.

 

I'm still no further on with my muscle ups, although admittedly I've not tried in several weeks. I think the key thing I need to master for the next stage is consistent chest-to-bar pull ups. I really do struggle here though, I cannot seem to get my chest to connect with the bar at all. I don't know whether it's a strength or mobility issue, likely both. When doing them on the rings I find it a lot easier, and I can get my chest to the rings much more often, but the pull is in a different position on the rings than it is with the bar, and is more of a row. Perhaps this is key to me understanding my difficulty here.

Pistol practise is coming along. I'm now using a plate as a counter balance for my right-leg, and they're coming along well. My left leg is some way behind, but I'm working through the progressions to get there.

 

The WOD was a good lung burner. I started off flying, with 30 chained DUs, for the first time in ages. This wasn't to be repeated, and I was mostly getting chains of around 10, occasionally 20ish. Still enough to chip through the WOD though. I ended 40 DUs short of completing my 3rd round.

 

As of today I've changed up my eating habits, incorporating easier to make recovery and mass gainer shakes. I'm hoping that this helps me to continue to make them, as the other ones were getting very tedious to make every evening, and I'd found myself skipping them because of that, instantly losing myself 500 calories per time. I guess it's part of working out as a vegan that I just need to get used to, if I was still taking whey it would be much easier to add this to some milk/water and the shake is made.

 

I'm looking to get at least 2500 calories on rest days, and 3000 on training days. Hopefully I'll start to see some weight gains, and hopefully not too much fat gain. I'll keep a close eye on this as it's shot up before when I tried to gain quickly.

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I can't do it freestanding yet, although I think I'm now confident enough to start to try and get a few seconds away from the wall and build up from there.

 

My handstand push ups are currently kipped, I can't do them strict yet, but it's something to aim for. I guess it would require being able to strict press at bodyweight, which I'm nowhere near yet.

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Warm Up:

200m row

4 rounds of:

10 wide air squats

10 banded pull through

10 bar good mornings

1 length spiderman crawl

 

Lift:

OTM 12 x 2 dynamic effort low box squat - 60kg

OTM 8 x 1 banded deadlift - 80kg + 15kg band resistance

 

WOD:

3 x 12 banded kettlebell swings

3 x 12 weighted step ups - 20kg

3 minutes max toes-to-bar - only had time for one set, which was 10 reps

 

Low box squat felt pretty good at 60kg, I don't think I could have gone heavier without losing the dynamism required, and I had to really concentrate to keep my chest up and knees out. Getting there though!

 

Banded deadlifts worked out to be 95kg, approx 80% of my 1RM. These are a weird exercise, but I busted through the 8 sets on the minute. It felt heavy, but manageable.

 

The WOD wasn't too bad. I went for a 16kg kettlebell and a red band, but I think I could have gone to the purple band for this as it wasn't too strenuous. I did the weighted step ups with an empty bar as I'd never done them before, and wasn't sure what to expect. This weight felt good, but I could have gone a little heavier for a bit more intensity I think.

 

We ran out of time in the class to do the full 3 minutes on toes-to-bar as I had to get to work, but I did one max effort set anyway just to get them done as I've not done these since coming back from my break.

 

I'm really enjoying getting back into the swing of things at the box. This is my 3rd session this week, so it's a scheduled rest day tomorrow and then back in Saturday.

 

Still on for 3000 calories on workout days, and 2500 on rest days.

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Two brutal sessions on the weekend, and my legs aren't thanking me for them now.

 

Saturday:

Warm up

5 minute personal warm up

5 minute snatch warm up

Lift

8 x 2 OTM power snatch - 35kg

WOD

With partner

60 back squat - 60/40kg

60 wall balls - 9/7kg

800m run

60 front squat - 40/30kg

40 wall balls

600m run

60 overhead squat - 30/20kg

20 wall balls

400m run

Completed in 27 minutes. I chose the lighter weight for all the movements so that I could actually make it through the workout. Kudos to my partner Gavin, who despite being considerably stronger than me, making sure I did exactly 50% of the work in this, no shying away. On the last run I thought my legs were going to give way beneath me!

 

Sunday - Barbell club:

 

Warm up:

Spiderman lunges

Front squat holds

Clean and jerk technique and drills

 

Lifts:

Rounds of:

High hang clean

Below the knee hang clean

Clean

Jerk

 

5 x 2 jerk

 

The above drilling was done several times, I didn't count. The emphasis was on nailing technique, rather than adding weight. This was my first time doing squat cleans in several weeks, and my technique has suffered accordingly. For this reason I worked up to 37.5kg and stuck there for the rest of the session. It's a light weight, but it meant I could really concentrate on getting into each position correctly, and quickly. For the first time ever I felt really comfortable dropping into the squat, but I suspect that comfort would have vanished if the weight had started to go up.

Jerk technique has also suffered and I need to drill this a lot. I need to make sure my front foot comes forward enough, and my back foot stays on its toes.

All in all, an excellent weekend at the box, and for the first time in ages I made 5 training sessions in 6 days. My legs are in bits today after Saturday's insane workout, so today is a rest day. Back to dawn patrol in the morning.

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