Wednesday 18 April 2012

Crossfit session 53 (Wednesday) and fasting

We did sit-ups today, which means only one thing... ass crack rash!! It really hurts today, I think it's been a while since we did sit-ups, I clearly need to get some ass callouses happening like I have on my hands!

In case you have no clue how doing abs could cause a rash on your ass-crack, there are actually lots of Crossfitter blog posts about it, for example - http://www.fitbomb.com/2010/11/infamous-abmat-ass-crack-rash.html. Just one of the fun side-effects of doing Crossfit!

Fasting


So, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to try intermittent fasting, which is really big in the paleo community. If you're interested in what it's all about, Mark's Daily Apple has had a great series of posts recently about the reasons why it can be beneficial.

I'd already stumbled on the leangains website, which is one of the most commonly referred to methods of incorporating fasting into your routine, but one of the trainers at my gym also mentioned it and said he'd found it really helpful at cutting some weight, so I went back and had a better look at it. Note that the leangains guy is not paleo, but lots of his clients are, so instead of eating the carbs he mentions, I eat sweet potato.

He recommends a 16hr fast (14hrs for women) and an 8hr feeding window (10 for women) daily. There's more details about it on the website which vary depending on your routine and work hours, but for me it means finishing eating by 10:30pm and then not eating again until 1:30pm the next day. You can have coffee and tea during the fast but that's it.

For people who usually skip breakfast this probably sounds easy, but I've never ever been someone who skips breakfast, so it was a huge change for me, even just mentally. To be honest though, it was way easier than I thought it would be, I think this may be because I've been mostly paleo for a while now and my body has adapted to fat burning instead of sugar burning, so it complains initially for food and then gets on with burning fat (I hope!). Previously if I'd have skipped breakfast I would feel so hungry it would make me feel nauseous and I'd be really cranky, so it's good to know that I can go without food and I won't get faint or shaky or anything, which is great news if there's a zombie apocalypse!

So for the last two days I've done 15hr fasts and I've had no issues, I get hungry when I get up but it goes away and then I get hungry again at about 11-11:30, but I just drink water and it goes away. It's actually really convenient to fast as well, because it means I don't have to bother organising breakfast when I get up, so I get to work earlier!

I won't fast every day because some days I just really like eating breakfast, but I am definitely going to continue experimenting with it and see how I go. Anyway onto Crossfit..

Warm-up


10 x dips (red and orange bands)
10 x squats

x 5

(50 dips, 50 squats)

Strength


We worked on our hang power-cleans to get our 3 x 5 rep max. I quite like power-cleans, even though I don't really have the movement completely down yet.

Here is a video of one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzQJB9XHd5c (she makes it look easy)


I think I did something like 8 reps at 20kg before one of the trainers told me to add some weight and stop messing around with tiny weights cuz my technique was fine! So then I did 2 x 5 reps at 25kg and again got told to add more weight, so I then did my 3 x 5 reps at 30kg. I still got told to add more weight, but 30kg was heavy enough!

So that's 33 power cleans total.

WOD


20 x box jumps (I wussed out and used the small box)
10 x dumbbell push-press (7kg dumbbells)
20 x ab mat sit-ups

x 5

(100 box jumps, 50 push-press, 100 sit-ups)

This was a pretty easy workout, very quick, I think I completed it in 12mins something. Again one of the trainers was trying to get me to go heavier, but I tried the 10kg dumbbells and they were just too heavy for 10 reps and unfortunately they don't have any weights in between.. which is kind of annoying because the 7kg ones were a bit too light.

After that we worked on some stability exercises and then went home! Woo.

Push-press




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