Lazy bones

I've been lazy in posting to the blog the past couple of weeks. That workout bonanza whooped me good, for sure.

Yesterday:
Underwaters X 5 (four at beginning one at end)
8 half lengths kick training(if there and back is a length, otherwise 16)
4 half lengths stroke training (almost got it down! Finally!)
Then:
5.19ish miles, 53 mins...not happy about the time, but factor in a 20 knot wind, 90+ degrees and the swim, it's not too bad.
Then:
Deadlift started at 135, ended at 265, seven reps as per the WOD.

Ridiculous article!

It's official...Men's Health is now dumb. I used to peruse the files there occasionally just because it forces me to re-evaluate where I'm at and what my motivations are. (Am I being lazy? Am I overdoing it? Am I working out for selfish reasons or to be a good steward of my body?) Seeing hairless meteros with washboard six-packs along with the implication that I'm not as valuable a human being as they are tends to give me a gut check. It's just pride, pure and simple. But now I have ammunition, and they gave it to me. :)

Mind over Muscle...Title of article. This is silly. Unless you or someone you know is going to die or receive serious injury, you don't need to push it this far. Actually, most people won't be able to, anyway. Me doing Fight Gone Bad because it's fun and challenging is drastically different than me doing FGB because someone threatens my friend's life if I don't perform to a certain standard. I know what the author is getting at, but please...That's only going to create a "Do it till you drop" mentality, which is not healthy. The body needs rest and easy days! You could argue that Crossfit creates this mentality, too, but Crossfit's safety record speaks for itself. Not to mention the scalability of the Crossfit workouts...Anyone of any fitness level can do it. I'm about to digress so I'll continue with the article.

Run Another Mile subtitle...
The info on glycogen is totally and completely WRONG. Scientifically speaking, the body stops using glycogen just glycogen after a few minutes (depends on the person) of continuous activity. The reason it does this is because your brain runs off glycogen, and if you run out, you die.

What REALLY happens (lots of parentheses here, sorry):
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is the actual source of energy for your body, all energy pathways are dedicated to producing it. The body uses Phosphate Creatine (PC) to create ATP once the stores are depleted in your muscle cells (1-4 seconds). Once the ATP stores are exhausted, you switch to ATP+PC (4-20 seconds), and then to ATP+PC+Muscle Glycogen for about 20-45 seconds. After this, you switch to primarily glycogen for 45-120 seconds. After this, you switch to Muscle Glycogen+Lactic Acid for appx 120-240 seconds. (Speaking of lactic acid, it's hard to not go into a monologue about Crossfit, but I'll wait till later for that one. :)) Next is Muscle Glycogen+Fatty Acids, which goes from 240-600 seconds (or longer, since most of us run for longer than 10 minutes....). Going longer requires the complete oxidation of carbs and fat. Don't ask me to say the previous sentence in English, I can't!
So the point I'm getting to is this...yes, we do get tired in part because we run low on glycogen; however, the article is misleading in the fact that they only mention one energy pathway that is not meant to provide a long-term source of fuel for our body. They also don't mention that when you start an activity all the energy pathways become active; time and intensity determine which pathways become dominant. For some reason I can't post a graph to show this, so click here to see it. The free Crossfit Journal also addresses this briefly, and they show a graph as well. They also address it in other journals, but right now I'm to cheap to buy them. :P

Bench Press Your Last Rep subtitle....
Hmmm...Seems kinda strange...Maybe I'm just not understanding what they are saying. Sounds to me like the author says to practice form with an unloaded bar (good idea!) and then change your form with a loaded bar (what?!?!). Why change form after practicing it the right way? I don't get it.

Pedal Faster/Swim Another Lap subtitle....
Again, they aren't giving the complete story. There is research to suggest (which I'm more inclined to believe than disbelieve) that the whole 'lactic acid threshold' is a bunch of poop. There's an "I can't take this anymore" threshold, there's an "I need to stop for safety reasons" threshold, see above where I talked about what really is mind over matter.
Lactic acid is a FUEL source for your body...When you hurt, you hurt because you're breaking down cells. You don't flush it out, you use it to keep going! Just how do they think you 'flush it,' anyway, sweat? Exhalation? Boogers? I don't' know.
The reason interval training works has nothing to do with a 'lactic threshold.' When you specialize in short, intense training, you double the size of mitochondria in your cells. Mitochondria are like reactors...They turn fuel into energy. The bigger they are, the more you can burn, the more lactic acid you can use, the faster you can go or the longer you can maintain high-intensity exercise.

Do That Last Crunch subtitle...
Do you know what crunches are good for? Crunches. Conditioning is great, but it doesn't really help you in real life (other than getting lots of attention from the opposite sex). Want some good ab exercises? I'll take your crunches, and spot you some Janda situps. Take a weight (that you can handle), hold it in front of your chest as you are in the rest position for situps. SLOWLY, squeeze the glutes (placing a basketball or volleyball between your knees works well to practice), raise, and exhale powerfully on the way up. Rest at the top, repeat going down.
I'll take the previous two and spot you some weirdos. (Name came from a friend that called me a weirdo for doing it. :)) Find a back extension machine. Get on it and face forward (opposite of doing back extension). Adjust the height so that your bottom sits slightly on the top when you are on it. In one smooth motion, lean all the way back, return to top, and lean forward and touch your fingers to your toes. Repeat until vomit appears. Well, maybe not that many times, but you'll get tired. There is a plethora of other good exercises, too, check out Crossfit and DragonDoor for more, both links are on my sidebar.

The article does have one good thing. The emphasis on form is critical. Good form leads to good reps leads to strength and healing. Invariably, bad form almost always leads to injury, be it large or small.
Something else I don't get though...They tell us that the brain saying to quit is really a safety measure to keep us from getting injured. Duh! Why circumvent this? If my body says it's time to quit, it's bloody time to quit!! I do this all the time. It's not being a wuss to admit that you aren't physically prepared to do something, it's realistic. Yeah, sure, you may be humbled, but what's the point of pushing on to an injury? (I had to learn this one the hard way.)
Of course, knowing the difference between "I'm tired/fatigued" and "I should not/can not continue" takes time and practice. It also takes patience. I learned the difference with martial arts. Some people learn it with running, some with lifting. The point is, there is a difference, and yes, you can push past fatigue, even extreme fatigue, but be prepared for the consequences.

I think my ranting is done for now. Adios!

Danny