Twelve days with out a post, that is Christmas for you. It has been a busy couple of weeks

Christmas Party
The Crossfit Canberra Christmas party was a lot of fun. The day started with 'Fight Gone Bad.' Due to numbers we went in two groups, the first group was staggered to fit everyone in and at the end there was only Doug and I. Now we have the new rower it was possible for Doug and I to go head to head, what joy. I had beaten Doug the last time through but this time he was determined to win. I looked at my last FGB break down to calculate my averages on each station and then added one more rep per station, this was my target. But the pressure of competition was to much for me and I ended up adding 25 more reps to my total. Doug is a lot stronger than me, that is just the way it is. we kept very close on all stations except for the push press and the rowing machine. I believe that my size gave me an advantage on both of these. Doug had also smashed his PR but was a little disappointed that he did not beat me, that is the beauty of competition. Doug wants the highest FGB score in the gym and I want the largest total in the gym, we will be able to spur each other on.


First Work out back
I have always been plagued with back problems. Never really serious but enough to cause some limitation and major inconvenience at times. I am tall, fat and rather lazy, that must be the trifector for chronic back pain. Ever since I have been working out it has gotten a lot better, but when I have a small break the pain seams to return. This was just the case over the last two weeks.

On Sunday I hit the gym for a strength session, I new that I would have to take it easy and work back up to my prevoius weights. I have been told that doing squats with in an hour of waking is not good for you spine, So to work in with my Christmas sleep schedule we started with bench press as I had just rolled out of bed. Bench went well, I took it easy and had 80kg as my work set. Next I moved on to the squat. I only got to my third warm up set when I had to stop. The back was already giving me some signals. This time i listened and thank full i did, I am now ready to get back into the gym to night.

Feats of Strength
A couple of gym records and PR were broken on the weekend.

First, My Girlfriend really stepped up. Due to me not being able to complete the session she decided to play with the deadlift. New to deadlifting, my girlfriend who is extremely fit was used to RDLs before we started to work out together. To see how far she could go we just kept adding weight on to the bar for x5. Her final round was at 90kg and I believe that she still has a lot to go, at the end of the lift she shugs the bar, and this was were her weakness was. With a little bit of training and removing the arms from the lift she will be doing 110kg x5 in no time. Then again she does have great definition in her shoulders, maybe we should just let her do what works.

Arjang the Record Assassin
On Sunday i had a good friend of mine visit from Sydney and I took him straight out to the shed. Arjang and I have been friends since school and is the fittest guy I know. . Some of his feats on the weekend included 2x40kg chin ups on the rings and 56 kettlebell swings in 2 min. This was his fist attempted with the KB, his technique was not perfect but it was still an amazing display of strength/fitness.

Arjang, is not only a good friend but my original crossfit inspiration. Arang has never been involved with the Crossfit program, it is his workout philosophy that is aligned with crossfit.

Extremely fit and a little bit crazy (In a good way) Arjang has always been an inspiration to me. One of my first attempts at the lifting weights was going to the Police Boys club in Turner with the boys. I would work my way around the gym equipment with no real plan or idea. Every now and then you would hear yelling echoing across the gym, the cry would transitions from vengeful warrior to wounded animal and back again. At its source you would find Arjang. He had found some equipment that he liked and then proceeded to smash him self with it. At the end of his workout he would fall to the ground the wasted husk of a man. lying spread on the floor, his belly and chest almost exploding as he sucked in as much air as possible. All the time with a smile.

Of course, most of the people would look at this as a little crazy, but isnt this the same look us crossfitters receive from the Joe Average at the gym?

Some things I have learned from Arjang.

1. If you cant visualize a real life application to the exercise you are doing, don't do it, its not natural.

2. Goal of strength and fitness should be to move your own body weight not to be the guy with the biggest biceps.

3. It helps to be a little crazy, people that are 'normal' will never be anything more than Joe Average.

Now all this happened almost twenty years ago. Over these years I prevailed with the norm, each attempt to hit the gym was with a strict program with traditional sets. I never enjoyed it, i would then quit, rinse and repeat. If I had just learnt from Arjang, afterall, he is "the fittest guy i know".