In recent months, I've started to figure out that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to work out. Instead, the correctness of your methods is determined by the goal(s) which one wants to achieve.
When I was in high school, I wanted to attain the best overall conditioning that I possibly could, so that I could have a broad physical capacity to lean on for the three sports I participated in. I did this through Olympic lifting, cardio, and weight training (never at the same time though).
After high school, as a member of the UW-Oshkosh tennis team, I tried to maintain a high physical capacity, but I could sacrifice some of the fitness domains I had needed for, say, hockey, in order to build higher capacity in other fitness domains that transferred better into my tennis game. Since I wasn't playing hockey anymore, I no longer needed to be able to ride somebody into the boards to keep them from getting the puck. I sacrificed some strength gains for increases in agility and stamina, capacities that transfer specifically to the tennis court.
After my college tennis career ended, I no longer needed those sport-specific capacities. Instead, I decided that it was more important for me to (as the famous CF One World t-shirt goes) "train to not suck at life". I wanted to be able to do everything well, without excelling in any one specific area. I wanted to be able to handle any and all challenges that life could possibly throw my way. I need to lift up the trailer in order to hitch it to the truck? Thank you, Mr. Deadlift, I'm so on that! My brother's frisbee got stuck in the tree? Good thing I can do pull-ups. Hurricane just hit the gulf region? F*** off, Katrina! Where those sandbags at?
In my opinion, CrossFit offers the best prescription for gaining this anti-sucking-at-life capacity. This is not because CrossFit is the best program out there. It is because CrossFit is the best program out there for achieving MY goals. Is it the best prescription for a middle-aged woman in her 50's who just wants to feel better, lose a few pounds, and do so in a comfortable and hassle-free manner? The answer could be either yes or no.
So just how is the answer yes? If the woman above does CF, she will undoubtedly feel better and shed some pounds. Will it be in a manner that is best suited to her personality and disposition? Most likely not. But damn would it be effective at those first two goals of hers...
But how exactly is the answer also no? The woman above could change her diet, or could start doing yoga, or pilates, or buy a bowflex, or get a personal trainer at the local Globogym who would have her doing supersetted lateral raises and dumbbell curls and tricep press-downs and a host of other terrifying isolation exercises that I don't even want to think about now. The point is that, as CFHQ is so fond of saying, "each person's goals are a difference of degree, not kind." This doesn't mean that pilates or yoga or Mr. Globogym McGee wouldn't be able to achieve that same goal. Those methods might help her achieve her goals more slowly, or in a more comfortable, less "painful" way.
It is very much a difference of degree, not kind. And what that means is that, as I started by saying, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to work out. But there are sure as hell "better" and "worse" ways of going about achieving those goals of yours. It all depends on what those goals are, and perhaps more importantly how you want to go about achieving them.
When I was in high school, I wanted to attain the best overall conditioning that I possibly could, so that I could have a broad physical capacity to lean on for the three sports I participated in. I did this through Olympic lifting, cardio, and weight training (never at the same time though).
After high school, as a member of the UW-Oshkosh tennis team, I tried to maintain a high physical capacity, but I could sacrifice some of the fitness domains I had needed for, say, hockey, in order to build higher capacity in other fitness domains that transferred better into my tennis game. Since I wasn't playing hockey anymore, I no longer needed to be able to ride somebody into the boards to keep them from getting the puck. I sacrificed some strength gains for increases in agility and stamina, capacities that transfer specifically to the tennis court.
After my college tennis career ended, I no longer needed those sport-specific capacities. Instead, I decided that it was more important for me to (as the famous CF One World t-shirt goes) "train to not suck at life". I wanted to be able to do everything well, without excelling in any one specific area. I wanted to be able to handle any and all challenges that life could possibly throw my way. I need to lift up the trailer in order to hitch it to the truck? Thank you, Mr. Deadlift, I'm so on that! My brother's frisbee got stuck in the tree? Good thing I can do pull-ups. Hurricane just hit the gulf region? F*** off, Katrina! Where those sandbags at?
In my opinion, CrossFit offers the best prescription for gaining this anti-sucking-at-life capacity. This is not because CrossFit is the best program out there. It is because CrossFit is the best program out there for achieving MY goals. Is it the best prescription for a middle-aged woman in her 50's who just wants to feel better, lose a few pounds, and do so in a comfortable and hassle-free manner? The answer could be either yes or no.
So just how is the answer yes? If the woman above does CF, she will undoubtedly feel better and shed some pounds. Will it be in a manner that is best suited to her personality and disposition? Most likely not. But damn would it be effective at those first two goals of hers...
But how exactly is the answer also no? The woman above could change her diet, or could start doing yoga, or pilates, or buy a bowflex, or get a personal trainer at the local Globogym who would have her doing supersetted lateral raises and dumbbell curls and tricep press-downs and a host of other terrifying isolation exercises that I don't even want to think about now. The point is that, as CFHQ is so fond of saying, "each person's goals are a difference of degree, not kind." This doesn't mean that pilates or yoga or Mr. Globogym McGee wouldn't be able to achieve that same goal. Those methods might help her achieve her goals more slowly, or in a more comfortable, less "painful" way.
It is very much a difference of degree, not kind. And what that means is that, as I started by saying, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to work out. But there are sure as hell "better" and "worse" ways of going about achieving those goals of yours. It all depends on what those goals are, and perhaps more importantly how you want to go about achieving them.
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I've decided that, along with the bull**** products I find in the marketplace, I want to try to learn about and outline some different nutrition/diet strategies that are out there. I believe there are 95 different diets listed here. I'm going to try to get to every one of these eventually...
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The First Annual WiscFit Burpee Challenge is officially beginning on January 1st, 2010. 100 days of burpees! What could be better?!?!? Every day you do one more burpee than on the previous day. For example, on day #1, you would do 1 burpee. On day #2, 2 burpees. And etc. etc., until you're doing 100 burpees on day #100. If you miss a day, you have the option of doing the burpees you missed, plus 10 extra burpees for every day missed. If you miss days 11, 12, and 13, you would owe 66 burpees plus day 14's burpees on day #14 (11+12+13 (day 11-13) +10+10+10 (day 11-13 penalty)). Simple, right?
I tried this last winter and ended up tapping out around day 71. It sucks, especially if you fall behind a day or three.
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I did manage to get around to programming some workouts. I decided that, since I haven't maintained any sort of real physical capacity in the recent months, I am starting from little more than scratch. These first two weeks will be a 2-1-2-2 cycle (2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off). Four days a week... That's good, right? The workouts will start getting posted next Monday (12/28).
Just a few noteworthy items...
The warm-up that I am referring to will be pretty much similar to Dutch Lowy's warm-up, which can be found here. I picked up a great tip from the CF One World site a little while back. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and warm up for that entire 15 minutes. This makes sure that your body is in fact ready to handle the rigors of the main workout.
In case you don't get it (or I forget it), "S/S" stands for "Skill/Strength" work. This is either to warm-up a movement that will be in the main WOD with some load, or to load up a separate movement and go after some raw strength work.
The WOD (Workout of the Day) section will generally include only one workout (I'm attempting to fry my system early on so I can get the DOMS out of the way at the very beginning of this workout cycle).
The finishing work is going to include some light skill-based work (handstands, planks, core work, stretching, etc) that will help to cool your body down after the WOD.
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