Strength Training with Blonyx – 3 Month Wrap Up

PR City! (population: This Guy!)

My three month strength training phase with Blonyx’s Creative + HMB has come to an end. So without further ado, here are the results:

Squat: Previous 1RM: 265lbs

New 1RM: 280lbs

Press: Previous 1RM: 135lbs

New 1RM: 150lbs

Deadlift: Previous 1RM: 405lbs

New 1Rm: 425lbs

I saw measurable growth in all three foundational movements that I tested and trained over the course of the three month window. While I am not thrilled with my overall numbers, I kept my expectations in check and am happy with the growth thus far. I attribute some of the growth to an increase in my overall volume over the last three months but I am also confident in saying that using Blonyx during this last phase allowed my body to keep up with the increased demands. Very rarely did a feel sore, lethargic or operate at a reduced strength capacity as a result of any previous training session.

As I have mentioned in past updates, new PRs continued in areas that I was not necessarily focusing my training on, at least specifically speaking. Even more encouraging was that I maintained or exceeded my own expectations on metabolic training days. Usually when training focus shifts from metabolic to strength, you are left with small deficiencies in the fomer Basically the ol’ robbing Peter to pay Paul dealio.

Additional PRs:

Push Press: Previous 1RM: 175lbs

New 1RM: 195lbs

Snatch (squat…of course):  Previous 1RM: 165lbs

New 1RM: 180lbs

2000m Row: Previous best: 7:06

New PR: 6:57

Filthy 50 WOD: Previous best: 29:30ish (dating back to Jan ’14)

New PR: 23:56

 

Summary:

After reflecting back on the past three months I can say that I am pretty happy with Blonyx. I did see measurable gains in my lifts, my metcons did not suffer and I did not experience an overabundance of muscle soreness or energy depletion that could be expected when increasing training volume. For the regular Joe athlete like myself I would recommend this supplement. I hope that I could give insight for the weekend warrior type athlete who had doubts about supplementation because the primary sources of information they receive are from high level or professional athletes. Sometimes we just need a bit of advice from the perspective of someone just like us. If you want to catch up on how this whole process went for me, look back to this blog https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/43104339/580/ to get started.

As always, thanks for reading!

 

Strength Training with Blonyx – Month 2 Update

Update!!!…. I can now lift cars over my head. Actually any vehicle that would typically have an engine, see picture below.

I most recently finished month two of my Wendler strength training program that is coinciding with the use of Blonyx’s HMB+. To catch you up on things, the three lifts that I have been performing are the squat, press and deadlift. Rather than add the typical auxiliary work that is to be expected with the program, I have used my box’s regularly scheduled programming. I have found that the movements being programed typically hit all my needs. If there is a shortage of exercises (or they are in excess) of what I require, I have made alterations to the programmed WOD.

Month 2:

Just as I noticed in the first month https://fitforfire.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/strength-training-with-blonyx-1-month-update/, all of the reps of final working sets in month two have gone up. Keeping in mind that month two is at a higher weight than month one and also more than the first Wendler cycle I did back in Nov-Jan, results are encouraging. I have added additional strength training once a week that mimics some of the three foundational movements I have been performing without compromising my ability to perform the main movements. A typical week has had me perform the squat, press and deadlift while also incorporating push press/jerks, front/overhead squats and snatch. Volume per week has also been sporadic at best as I typically perform all prescribed workouts at my box that may have movements that mimic that are in my own training.

Blonyx Benefits:

If I was to give only one piece of feedback about using Blonyx thus far, it would pertain to my perceived ability to do more work with less recovery. To give you a better idea of what I am working with, here is a bit of an explanation….

A typical schedule for me runs in eight day increments based off of my four on, four off schedule. Here is what a week could look like whilst taking out all committments/obligations and variables like extra shifts, injuries, ect.

– 10hr shift days: I will typically do one of the foundational lifts programmed with Wendler, mobility and auxiliary gynmastic work.

– 14hr night shift days: I typically sleep in on these days to prepare for the shift. Workouts in the afternoon for 2-3hrs will consist of strength training and the regularly programmed WOD.

– Days off: First day off has me follow roughly the same routine as night shift days as I recoup sleep from night shifts. The other three days I will add another workout in. For these three days it would not be uncommon to see a strength training workout, prescribed WOD and then a gymnastic/bodyweight based workout or a skills workout (varying intensities depending on rx’s WOD)

The reasoning behind the schedule explanation is that I wanted to show what volume of work I am performing. This schedule has been pretty typical since January. What I have found since supplementing with Blonyx is my body’s ability to perform at or near its highest level (not “a high level”, just my own personal level…mediocre and loving it!) on a more regular basis. I can go from a strength training session of push presses, into a WOD with OHS or a ground to overhead movement and then into a skills based workout like handstand walks without feeling debilitated the next day….most of the time. I have truly noticed better recovery results since starting to use the product, which has coincided with an increase in training volume. Had I continued with my four WODs a week programming from last year, with little supplemental work, I do not think I would have challenged/stressed myself enough to notice the difference that supplementation makes. My only rule of thumb is to listen to my body and scale up or down accordingly.

Final Thoughts:

One of the biggest reminders that I will throw out there is that I do all of this training for me. In other words, I am not trying to be a supremely awesome Crossfit athlete on course to make Regionals or the Games. I was drawn to this style of working out because it best suits my needs as a firefighter. What I am trying to do, which is not very measurable until I am in the latter half of my career, is prepare my body for doing the same work at the same level of efficiency up until the day I retire (and remain fit into my retirement because we are prone to dieing young). If I become “good at Crossfit” as a result, so be it. Crossfit was initially designed for protective services members as a way to train “functionally.” So I suppose that my “Crossfit Games” is a 30 year competition whereby finishing 1st means that I retired in great health, staved off cancer, do not suffer from congestive heart failure and I am able to keep up to my kids (who have better moved out by then!)

 

Thanks for reading the update, retests go in July.

 

 

 

 

2014 Crossfit Games-Regionals: A Judge’s Perspective

A congratulations are in order for all that competed in this years Crossfit Games- Regionals. For the individuals, it takes a truly special, dedicated athlete to even make it that far.  If you failed to reach your own personal goals, know that making it to Regionals is a huge step in your development. Look back on it with pride and satisfaction as the thousands who watched you over three days marveled at your athleticism and determination. For the Teams, congratulations on putting together a group of like minded and determined athletes who came together to realize their goals of competing at the next level. Some of you may not be “Individual” athletes but a team is the sum of its parts and you were a key cog in getting five other people to the next stage in the Crossfit Games. We all work through WODs together at our local boxes and you folks continued that teamwork and camaraderie on the biggest stage your region has to offer. For the winners, there is work to do. You are now a Crossfit Games Athlete.

As a judge I was able to get up close to the action, interact with other volunteers, athletes, Games support staff and even Dave Castro himself. We get the privilege of going onto the floor before, during and after the events, something that spectators do not. This allows us to see the inter workings and ultimately be part of the experience that only athletes get a taste of. So with that privilege comes great responsibility (kinda like Spiderman….get it?). As judges we are partially, but nowhere near fully responsible for which athletes make it to the Games, which athletes make their own personal goals and which athletes fall short. We judge and enforce the movement standards, we keep teams and athletes in their order and make sure they follow the parameters set by HQ for the competition. We watch for the false starts, the parallel vs. full depth, the full hip and knee extension and the two foot on the mat finish to assist in determining who is going to California. So with that said, should we be doing all of this? and better yet, should volunteers being doing this?

The Judge:

Perhaps we should start at the qualification stage of becoming a Judge. In 2013 you were initially required to have completed the Crossfit Level 1 Trainer Course and then the Online Judges course. Due to a lack of volunteers in our region, the CF-L1 requirement was dropped. I volunteered both last year and this year and because I met both requirements I never looked to see if a CF-L1 was required in 2014. It is entirely possible that someone with a CF-L1 cert and someone who has completed the online judges course is still not properly prepared to judge at such a high level with so much on the line.

The next step would be the experience factor. Let’s say that you have your CF-L1, completed the Judges Course and are part of an affiliate where you attend 3-5 times a week for the last three years. Is this enough experience to make you a great (not kinda Ok, or slightly acceptable, this is friggen Regionals we are talking about) Judge? How are your own movement standards? Have you ever coached someone? When was the last time you applied what you learned in the CF-L1 course to an athlete other than yourself? Maybe Crossfit is your first and only sport and you have never had any sort of education in human kinetics and no athletic background. If not, welcome to the largest faction of Crossfit “athletes.” This lack of experience does not make you a bad person, nor does it make you a bad athlete, but it is entirely possible that it makes you a not so great (remember, we are going for great, not just ok) Judge.

Lets focus on personality….are you an asshole? Good! You are well on your way to becoming a better judge! During the Open did you judge your fellow competitors at your box? How many “NO-REP!!” did you yell out? Or were you one of those athletes who gave that quizzical look to your fellow gym mate when they didn’t reach full extension? You know the look. The slight wince, the shoulders move up closer to the ears, maybe a quick glance around to see if anyone is going to call your no-rep, and then back on counting as if nothing happened? Maybe you say to yourself “oh it doesn’t matter, so-and-so is not going to the games so I’ll just give him/her one” well now so-and-so is going around the gym all ecstatic about their spot on the Leaderboard, or about their new PR that never actually happened. That is not fair to them. So if you couldn’t no rep someone at your box who is certainly not going to Regionals, how in the hell are you going to muster up the courage to no-rep the scary-as-fuck looking Lucas Parker when he is two points away from sealing the deal to California? He is looking for that same little look in your eye and before you can even contemplate reconsidering a no-rep he just busted out the remaining 205# overhead squats like its a de-load week. Too bad, so sad, too friggen late.

So the good thing about all of this….it is not your fault. It is not your fault that you suck as a judge, its HQ’s. They “prepared” you by maybe requiring you to take the CF-L1 course, and had you go online for 60min of judging. They set the parameters of what they require out of you. You as a judge are a volunteer, you are not compensated, not a professional, a volunteer. Their “Head Judges” did their very best to ensure that you were upholding the standards of what is expected but those gentlemen and ladies are compensated and have at some point achieved a higher level of training than you. They are also few and far between. Those “Head Judges” have two of three on the floor to watch upwards of fifty athletes at a time. The expectations of you are absurd given your lack of experience, education, competitive level, personality, ect. because you are just a volunteer. They may not even know that this is your first time ever judging anyone at any Crossfit event and your coming out party just happens to be the most important days of competition in many of the athletes lives.

An aside:

Hey athlete who argued the no-rep on the squat, the ring dip, the burpee, ect., suck it! You are supposed to be a Regionals level athlete. We both went to the athletes meeting where the movement standards were displayed and explained. You had the opportunity to ask any question that came to mind and every chance for you to not get a “NO REP!!” was given. It is not your judge’s (who is volunteering by the way) responsibility to make sure you get to full depth (which was explained earlier does not equal parallel). If it is anyone’s fault, it is your own for not videotaping you own movements during training, and perhaps some piss poor coaching. Oh you say that the judge in the other lane was giving the other athlete the rep? Well we have established that there is a very real possibility that judge may suck. Lucky for you, a full depth squat and a parallel squat takes roughly the same amount of time, but you just wasted it. As they say in boxing, don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. I would love to just sit back, watch you destroy the workout and set an event record. That means we are both done, I can get up off my sore knee a bit sooner, grab a bite to eat and get ready for the next event or maybe even go watch one from the stands. But when you decided to half-ass the movement and then waste time complaining, well you just ruined both of our experiences.

Conclusion:

I wanted to bring up the issue of using volunteer judges because it has been a hot button issue during all the Regional events. In my own region I saw some one get a good rep while using their face and then top of their head to achieve an overhead squat. I saw tons of muscle-ups without full extension and I saw one athlete complete an exorbitant amount of ring dips where they started each single from the dip position rather than lockout-dip-lockout. There were bad rope climbs, strict handstand push-ups, ect ect. This year we even saw an event record in Australia (Team) set by a team who’s judges failed to facilitate the proper flow of the workout by not holding athletes back at each station until the teammates in front of them were completed. It was such an egregious error and yet the result remained unchanged. In a “professional” sport where athletes have to pay for their invites and judges have to volunteer, a lot of much needed changes exist.

 

Strength Program with Blonyx

The time has come to get serious about strength…..

Now that the Open is but a distance memory, a faint silhouette as I drive away from it while flipping the bird, I enter the first strength training phase of 2014. The good people of Blonyx have asked me to write a review of their HMB+ Creatine product as it pertains to my performance during the three month phase. I will be following the Wendler 5/3/1 program through the duration of the three months as I feel it is the most appropriate program for me and I have yet to reach a plateau that require a larger amount of volume and specialization that you may find with other programs (ie. Russian Squat Program, Smolov). I will be supplementing with this product during the phase, taking the recommended daily dose during training days and one serving on off days.

So what is Creatine? As defined on Examine.com (I seriously recommend this site):

Creatine monohydrate is a molecule, produced in the body, but also found in foods, mostly meat, eggs and fish.

Creatine confers a variety of health benefits, including neuroprotective and cardioprotective properties. It also improves power output and is often used by athletes to increase high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass.

Creatine’s main action in the body is storing high-energy phosphate groups in the form of phosphocreatine. During periods of stress, phosphocreatine releases energy to aid cellular function. This is what causes strength increases after creatine supplementation, but this action can also aid the brain, bones, muscles and liver. Most of the benefits of creatine are provided through this mechanism.

Now lets get some info on HMB:

HMB (short for β-Hydroxy β-Methylbutyrate) is a metabolite of the amino acid Leucine that, along with KIC (α keto-isocaproate) and isovaleryl-CoA, mediate the effects of leucine. Approximately 5% of dietary leucine is oxidized into HMB, and HMB appears to be the main metabolite of leucine that more effectively prevents the breakdown of muscle protein.

When compared to leucine, HMB appears to be significantly more potent on a gram per gram basis at attenuating the rate of muscle protein breakdown but is less effective than leucine at inducing muscle protein synthesis. Due to this, HMB is marketed as an anti-catabolic agent (purposed to reduce the rate of muscle breakdown) rather than an anabolic agent (purposed to increase muscle mass).

Human trials don’t normally tend to be structured to properly assess the effects of HMB, as most of the studies are a standard diet paired with an exercise regimen investigating the role of HMB in promoting muscle protein synthesis (of which it is similar to leucine in the sense that there are positive results, but quite unreliably so); the limited evidence that assesses HMB during periods of muscle loss are either underpowered or not in athletes.

HMB, currently, appears to be a pretty interesting supplement for the purpose of reducing muscle wasting during periods where muscle atrophy is accelerated (cachexia, AIDS, bedrest) and should theoretically work in athletes on a calorie restricted diet but is not fully established for this role yet (which is a notable issue, since Glutamine has a large dichotomy between clinical and healthy populations).

This is not a scientific journal, this is a blog so I will limit the amount of info that I include. It you want to know more, go to http://examine.com/supplements/HMB/ and read on. I will also include a International Society of Sports Nutrition Journal review which is a great (yes….also sciency and boring) read on HMB. ISSN position stand on HMB supplementation

Here is the label on the product for more information, any further info about the product itself can be found by clicking the banner pictures.

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So how are we going to know if this product actually works? Good question if I do say so myself!

I set my baseline 1 rep max for three different exercises. By following the Wendler 5/3/1 formula, taking Blonyx, giving feed back on a weekly basis and then comparing monthly results, we may be able to see a direct correlation between supplementation and strength training. I will also not be abandoning my metabolic conditioning programming as set by my coaches at the Crossfit affiliate I workout at. Nor will I avoid training the same body part twice in one day (unless the rep scheme/load are too similar). If this product is going to help with muscle repair, limit or reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and assist in muscle growth, lets test it in the athletic parameters that challenge my body and the product.

So here are the numbers I am working with….

Squat: 265lbs

Press: 135lbs

Deadlift: 405lbs

Standing at a svelte 6’1″, 180lbs I clearly need to work on strength. Did you notice the number beside the word “squat”? That is sadly not a typo. A year ago, coinciding with starting Crossfit, I was introduced to this crazy ass thing called a “full depth squat.” What is this new fangled squat I speak of? Well apparently your hip crease needs to go below the knee on  the eccentric (lowering) portion of the squat prior to standing back up to full extension. I used to destroy the seated leg press in the community centre, and do not even get me started on my prowess of the half depth squat (ie. real way to squat!). Now that olympic lifting has glorified squatting to full depth and Crossfit ridiculously makes people squat to hip-crease-below-the-knee to properly gauge a good rep vs. NO REP!! I have had to adapt. One year ago I found it difficult to full depth squat 135lbs for reps. This was not a flexibility issue, it was a strength issue. I have come a long way but now I have only reached a realistic base from which to work. This is the reason why strength training is going to be essential in my development as a healthier, stronger and more well rounded athlete, firefighter, human being.

*For the not so obvious Crossfit fanatics foaming at the mouth in anger (who are we kidding, they probably just glossed over this blog, read that part, moved on and now link it to their Facebook crying about “the haters”)…..I am totally kidding about the ridiculousness of full depth squatting. I was an ill informed moron who was not squatting properly during my early years of “training.” Thankfully with the help of excellent trainers I have begun to build strength, flexibility, ROM where previously I had ignored.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Thank you for following along!

 

2014 Crossfit Open 14.2 Prediction

Hello again everyone,

So tomorrow the 14.2 open WOD is announced and just like last week it is time to speculate (& inevitably be wrong) on what it will be.

What so I think?

If I was going to put money down I would guess that the next thing we see is a triplet of movements with a lengthy time frame, an AMRAP. I believe it is too early for Crossfit HQ to up the weight similar to what they did in 13.1 with the Snatch/Burpee ladder. The topic of inclusiveness that we discussed has to continue in to week two. HQ needs another workout that allows everyone to score but allows the top athletes to pull away. This is not to say that the weight won’t go up in Weeks 3-5. I am sure we will see a Clean and Jerk / Burpee ladder. I also think we will see a workout that was a high rep requirement with multiple exercises that increase in technical difficulty and only allow the top athletes to progress through ie. 13.2. That time is not now though my friends. Along with maintaining inclusiveness, we will see something different. As in, we will not see a repeat of a WOD. HQ needs to keep us interested and they can’t keep using the same BS of repeating past Open WODs to “see how far we’ve come.”

Now the prediction….

18min AMRAP

5 Deadlifts at 225# for men
10 Pull ups
15 Box Jumps

What do you think it will be?