Wednesday 10.24.12

Are you Keeping a Journal??

"Dear Diary, Today at CrossFit I front-squatted the world."

Uh, no. Not that type of journal. I'm talking about a workout journal. Quick: what was your 1RM backsquat from last week?? Do you remember? Ok, well what happens when the strength WOD is to do 75% of your one rep max and you're going,"Was it 185? Or 195....or was that the time before last when I backsquatted...." Or what happens when you not only have a backsquat max to remember,but you have a front squat  max, deadlift max, strict press max, push press max, push jerk max, split jerk max, power clean max, hang clean max, squat clean max, clean and jerk max, snatch max, hang snatch max.....you get the picture. Most importantly, HOW WILL YOU  KNOW IF AND HOW MUCH YOU HAVE IMPROVED???? If I don't remember what I lifted last time, how will I know how much more I was able to do this time?? 

This applies not only to lifts, but also to workout times. How fast did you do Fran a few weeks ago? When we do it again in a few months, how will you know how much more awesome you are now??? I mean, I guess you could search through the pages of this blog for the day we did Fran and look at the whiteboard picture, but that sounds like a gigantic waste of time. And just wait until we have 1000 blog posts worth of tiny pictures to sort through. 

Here's the deal: get yourself a 99 cent notebook. Each day, record the workout, your time and any modifications that you made. Also, write a couple of sentences about how you felt or things that you did in the WOD. For example, write about how you did all 20 of the kettlebell swings unbroken. That way, next time you do 20 KB swings, you know that you've done 20 unbroken before, and you should hold yourself to that standard again. You can also write notes about how you felt tired, energetic, weak or strong. Add your food for the day in there and you've got a recipe for figuring out what foods make you feel great and what make you feel not-so-hot. 

If you want to get technological with it, you can record your WODs with an App for your phone. Do a search for CrossFit and all sorts of things come up, but some that I've heard good things about are: WOD Panda, MyWOD, and Xercise. There's Apps for food journaling also - even ones where you log your food via picture so that you can accurately record portion sizes.

Whether you use a spiral notebook, a composition notebook, an App, a computer or a hammer and chisel, RECORD YOUR WORKOUTS! It's a way to celebrate your accomplishments and get better faster!

Welcome, Josh!

Strength: 5x3 3-sec pause front squats

WOD
5 rounds:
400 m run
20 ring dips