Please bear with me through the first part of this blog post, I promise it will lead to something halfway relevant to the title. But first....
I'm sure when some of you joined, the last thing you thought part of your training would include would be Olympic/Power lifting. Some, if not most of you, had never done a power clean, deadlift, or snatch, or maybe you hadn't even done any work with a bar before. It was new to you, and at one point, I'm sure the majority of you were a little anxious, maybe even skeptical, about performing these movements. Of course, we can program classes that don't involve bar work, heavy weights (relative to your strength), or no weight at all, but we do this in order to provide you with the best training and best RESULTS possible. With proper nutrition and adequate rest, most workout regimens will provide some type of result. However, weight training, combined with aerobic exercise has been proven to produce results much greater than each of them alone. This is science people!
For clarity sake, I think it is important that you understand Jason and I aren't looking to turn any of you into competitive Olympic lifters; that would be a decision better left up to you. However, to be clear, the reason we coach the movements and warm up the progressions is so that you can safely, efficiently, and effectively perform these movements under heavy loads. When it comes down to it, I could seriously care less who has the most weight on any of the lifts because the weights are all relative to YOUR strength and ability. Of course I'm excited as hell when any of you reach a new PR, but the main reason we train in these movements and preach about proper nutrition and recovery is so that you get stronger. Adding muscle and strength to your frame has countless benefits, one of which it allows you greater capacity to train. Take Fran for example. 21-15-9 of 95# thrusters and pull-ups. Now this is a very simplistic narrative, but stay with me here. Say it takes you 8 minutes to complete. Now, in six months, you've gained strength in your strict press and front squat, so that 95# seems lighter than it did six months ago, and you've gone from 8 minutes to 6. Getting stronger allowed you to increase your capacity. You've gotten the same amount of work done in much less time, and that is what our goal is. The ability to perform more work in a given time domain, to move more weight over a set number of reps, or to complete the same amount of work in less time are all measurable progress, and when we can do that, our fitness level, and health, positively changes. So, in short, we aren't performing weighted movements to turn you into meat-heads, we use bar work to increase strength, which allows you to do more work, build more muscle, burn more fat, and increase your fitness and health. Plus, strong people are harder to kill.
Now, back to my main point of this post. Like I said earlier, I'm really not that concerned about who lifts the most weight. It's cool and sexy and impressive, but what I'm seriously concerned about is your health. Five years ago, when I began my "journey" at CrossFit Dubuque, I was seriously out of shape. I had smoked for a few years, I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and had zero motivation to do anything physical. I made a decision to take my health seriously and to hold myself accountable for whichever way my life was going to go from then on. Fast forward five years. It's been a great trip so far, I've made some great friends, had tons of fun, and have been successful at turning my health around. Remember I titled this blog post "Numbers That Matter"? A couple weeks ago I had a blood test done just for the sake of curiosity (which I guess is really fucking weird to the nurse's when you call to schedule a blood test for no apparent reason, but whatevs). After getting the results, I realized exactly how much training and proper nutrition had paid off. All of my levels were good. But of most concern to me were the cholesterol levels:
Total Cholesterol: Less than 200 is desirable, 200-239 is borderline high risk. My total was 113.
HDL ("Good" Cholesterol): Less than 40 is at risk, > 60 is very good. My total was 63
LDL ("Bad" Cholesterol): 100-129 is near/above optimal. 150-199 is borderline to high. My level was 35. Actually the Doc said he had only seen it that low maybe one other time.
Triglycerides: Less than 150 is normal, 150-199 is borderline to high. My level was 76.
You can see by the results, the past five years of training and consistent (not constant, because you know I love me some wings and beer) nutrition habits have paid off in ways much bigger than a PR deadlift. In five years, I feel I have somehow reversed the hands of time, or at least extended my life by a few years. Of course I'm going to continue to train to be stronger and reach new PR's, but not because I have any delusions of being the strongest or setting any records. I will train to become stronger, just like you will, so that I can perform better, which will allow me to increase my capacity, which in turn will positively affect my health and fitness levels, which will lead to our ultimate goal of living longer, happier lives.
If you are interested in getting your blood tested, speak with your Dr; I would encourage you to do so. Having the knowledge of where your levels are will give us a great place to start and a year from now, will be great information to compare to. Keep training hard in the box to get those numbers on your lifts higher, but more importantly, to get better numbers on those things that really will extend the number of your days on this earth.
Coach Craig
