Getting back into shape

A couple months ago I was at a party and someone introduced me as a Crossfit gym owner, I watched as their eyes gave my body the quick once over.  At that moment, I felt like explaining myself for being skinny as hell. I know that I didn’t look like a guy that had been doing CrossFit for almost 10 years.  I had not been training regularly for over a year and I was in a long standing “maintenance” phase.  There were a variety of excuses I could have made:  focused on work, injured finger, I was healthy enough, but the point was at that moment, I realized it was time to get my ass back in gear.

I pulled out my phone and checked the workout of the day for the following day.  The workout was heavy back squats for strength and a 15 minute amrap with wall balls, toes to bar and box jumps.  Classic stuff and a great test for where I’m at with my strength and conditioning.  I decide to do this the following day.

If you have ever gone through the getting back in shape process, it can be pretty painful.  My typical experience is that my mind is in denial with what my body can really do.  I always remind myself that no matter what happens, to listen to my body, be smart and most importantly, stay consistent.  The body will respond and improve over time.

The workout started with 5×3 back squats and I was pleased with working up to 255 for the day.  Not bad, I thought!  Although my central nervous system was fried, so I knew the conditioning portion with more squatting in the wall balls was going to be rough.

The first two rounds went great, unbroken, nice pace…but going into the third round I was hands on my knees, staring at the clock and dreading picking up the ball again.  I suffered through two more rounds and called it quits after round 4, with about 2:30 left in the amrap.

Now I know what you are thinking, I should have just kept going and done what I could for the remaining 2:30.  Even if it was a couple reps.  This is true, and if I was in a competition, I would have.  But I am not too proud and the primary purpose of the workout had been accomplished.  I knew what I needed to know about my current state of fitness to make my decision for how to best move forward with my training.

I hit a brick wall both physically and mentally in the workout and was sore for the next 5 days.  While my body and ego were recovering, I thought about how I could most efficiently address these issues.  I needed to toughen up mentally to handle the volume, gain some muscle and strength back and specifically, strengthen my legs.  There was a program I had heard about for years, that I had always wanted to try, that seemed to fit these needs perfectly.  It is called Mass Made Simple by Dan John.

Next post we will review how it went and how the principles behind this program can relate to your CrossFit, health and fitness goals!

Team training!