Workouts

My posting as of late has been almost non-existent. I find between my work and family, I haven’t taken much time to write. I know as my children get older that more time will come to me. That’s what I have scheduled anyway.

I do find time to exercise though. Having twins and doing a long commute, I leave at breakfast and get home at dinner. Often, I’d stay up after the kids and the wife have gone to sleep to have my workout time. I have to say that kind of schedule doesn’t bode well for resting. I’ve since moved “my time” to the early morning. Now, I get to bed at eight or nine and wake around four am. It works for me. I write this as an example of how I chose to fit health in.

By far, the best method for my fitness has been Evolutionary Fitness and Crossfit. With diet, the best method I have found is eliminating grains, starches and refined sugars and eating vegetables, nuts, and pasture-raised animals. Without doing “cardio”, I am 8% body fat. I’ve been following this kind of regimen for 5 months now. I think at 33, I am in much better shape than when I bicycled across Alaska in 2000. I think I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been except when I wrestled in school.

I have never been in “super” shape, but I seem to be heading towards that direction as I get stronger. It hasn’t been hard. The workouts are extremely taxing, but they feel so natural that I don’t procrastinate. I also don’t seem to lose much in the breaks I take. It’s good. It’s very good.

I was feeling energetic at first, but into the third round I called it quits. I was exhausted and I mean completely beat. I started with 15 minutes of jump rope and then did following for time…

1. 50 squats
2. 20 horizontal rope pull-ups
3. 20 burpees
4. 40 squats
5. 15 horizontal rope pull-ups
6. 15 burpees
7. 30 squats

It was only 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Still, I was so exhausted, I had to skip the 10 pull-ups and 10 burpees. I can’t believe how wiped out I was. I think I’m going to have to name this session the squat, pull and burp.

Given my recent post linking to a study on chronic weightlifting, I’ve enjoyed 2 days of no strength training whatsoever. There’s something to be said for rest. Now that I’ve had a few days of rest, my body feels a surplus of energy and I’m ready to do some rounds of training.

There’s also something to be said for taking a break from a restricted way of eating. I don’t eat bread or flour, but when I saw the line at Tartine was short, I decided to stop in for a quiche and a coffee. Honestly, the quiche is delicious and I had intended not to eat the crust, but I ate it anyway. It was good that I ate it because most grain-based food always ends up feeling like glue in my mouth and I was reminded of this. I was also quite sluggish after the quiche. Having these deviations back to grains reminds me why I don’t choose to eat them.

Rest from training, eating black-listed foods… it all serves as a reinforcement. It makes exercise and eating well sustainable. Rest and variation, it’s the way to go.