How long did it take you to reach your goals?

[Ari Kestler]

I kinda have a similar journey, did mostly body building type routines in college, didn't work out for a year after, came ot medical school, starting working out, no real goals, found CF, tried it for 2 weeks, had to scale everything so much and no direction got me thinking...what's the point? Read every nutrition thread ever posted on the board, but skipped all the fitness stuff ("what do these CF people know"), read about SS, started doing it for a bit, got bored, tried CF again, still not strong enough, but stronger... continued back on to SS...still no real goals keep in mind... so now I've decided to write things down and actually develop goals... as above...

I'm 5"8 and about 170...so I think all of these goals are attainable, I think I'll get the ring and HSPU stuff first, and the squat/DL/clean later.... long term I want to be healthy (eating right and being physically active) and happy so whatever gets me there...

I'm basically planning on doing an SS-like program for legs, and ring stuff/isometric holds for upper body... either MWF or alternating upper/lower body days...once I reach these strength goals, I'll shift to include a little metcon in my routine...So right now I'm squatting 3x a week, DL 1x and PC 3x since I'm super weak at it and want to get it going.... I'm doing the SP 2x a week just because while starting out with the HSPU I don't feel like I'm really doing any serious shoulder work... I'll keep you all posted...

Also as of now

BS 205
DL 265
SP 95
PC 95

Can't do a ring dip (which is odd since I can do 3x12 bar dips and 3x5x45; I know rings require more stability but I was expecting to be able to do at least a couple clean ones), Can do numerous ring pull ups....

So I'm hoping in a year or so I'll be where I want to be, but I start rounds in July and I have a bad feeling my training and sleep will suffer...

[John Alston]

The Quest for the Awesome is never over... I'd like to make a 100kg snatch this fall. That'd be around 2 years for that. 120kg would be about 1.5 x bw, too.

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

This is interesting. Got me to thinking too.

I powerlifted competitively from the time I was 15 until I was 20. Best lifts were low 6s squat and dead and mid to low three bench. Never could bench well.

As I aged, I continued the power bodybuilding lifestyle and got into some bad stuff that I shouldn't have. Got real big, fat and strong and eventually got a wake up call and scared myself into getting myself fit again. That was when I was introduced to xfit about four years ago. Made it my goal to get my weight under control - at the time I was 280+.

Started doing more met con and eventually and slowly started getting rid of some of the weight. Joints healed up after years of abuse from heavy stuff.

My real goals are to be fit and physical. My numbers goals are to be 240 by the time I'm 40 and 220 by the time I'm 50.

Strength wise, I have some ideas in mind and I've talked about them before. I tweaked one of my quads this morning and it's then I realized that I don't need to even think about going ME at my age.

To that end, I want to technically master the olympic lifts before I ever think about putting any weight that would be considered remotely serious. I once thought about c&jing about 150 to 160 and snatching about 120. But I think it's more realistic and healthy to think about mastering the technique with weights that are about 25 to 35% less than that before I ever consider putting that much weight on the bar and heaving it overhead.

It's taken me three years to get til where I'm constantly in the mid 250s. after an ocassional good feeding weekend, I'll be in the low 260s. After a heavy event training week, I may be in the low 250s. I'd like to be 250 by the end of May. But I'm not going to try too hard. Just nice and slow. I've made some life changes that hopefully will keep my weight on the downward path.

I see everything as long term. I'm in this for the long haul. No short term solutions.

Ya know?

All the best,
Arden

[Kevin Perry]

I had several long term goals for different areas. Strength, Gymnastics, Crossfit, Oly:

I actually have them listed in a log starting at BW, 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x and 3x BW for Squat, Deadlift, Press, Bench, etc. I have reached 2x BW on some lifts but it was only for a week or so before I lost the strength again.

MY biggest goal has been to reach a weight of 150lbs at a height of 5'4" (bah an inch shorter than I thought I was.. found that out today at the doctors). But im reasserting and sticking with basic Crossfit focusing on some ME days and Ring days and doing the workouts I enjoy especially after finding out that I have a condition which is causing a lot of my medical (as well as mental) problems and I can't tackle my long term fitness goals until I have taken care of my own physical and mental health first. it is unfortunate but at least I found the cause of my problems and can begin the healing phase I guess. But you can be certain that my motivation is huge and I will always have goals to attack for CF, Oly, and Gymnastics.

[Jane Michel]

Ari how is the handstand/HSPU work going?

2 weeks ago I saw someone at the gym doing wall HSPUs and felt inspired, thought that I was being a pansy. The next day I waited till the free weights room was empty, cleared a space, and practised kicking to handstand against the wall, cartwheel style, then holding handstands against the wall. Did that for another two days, then came across Roger Harrell's article here http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/19 and found today that starting from a lunge is easier and more "precise". Will probably try the face facing wall handstand soon.

[Ari Kestler]

IT's going well...I'm practicing static holds pretty much every other day and sometimes 2 days in a row. Basically static hand stand hold against a wall for 1 min broken down into 2 30s sets....once I can do that I'll start practicing the kicks. I'm also doing static holds for muscle up grip, L-sits, planche and lever progressions... after all this My upper body is totally wrecked which makes doing ring dips/pull ups and assisted HSPU difficult...but I'm still going through with it...working my way up to 3x8...closest with the pull ups (will add weight soon), dips still suck, and I'm doing triplets since my hands/arms still violently shake when doing dips... the HSPU progression push ups aren't that difficult, so I can do quite a few, but I don't really feel like they are doing anything...

I'll check out that article from drillsandskills.... thanks


as an aside...if I wasn't doing SS inspired squat 3x week, clean 2x week, DL 1x a week I feel like my legs would waste away....waht do gymnasts do for their lower body? I'm practicing pistols every other day too, basically just the movement, no real weight bearing, I'm using my hands for support...hopefully add this to the list of things I can do in a few months...

[Steven Low]

Tumblings and vaulting... plus leg plyo

Don't overreach too much, heh. If your performance starts decrease you may want to take a couple days off at the very least. Too much soreness is bad.

What's your current workout look right now?

[Ari Kestler]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

What's your current workout look right now?

Day A

Isometric planche/lever progression, still at the beginning for both, so frog stance and tuck front lever
handstand holding against a wall
L sit practice - basically just doing a static hanging leg raise

I shoot for a minute on each of these, broken into as many sets as needed, when I achieve one full minute I'll progress with the planche and lever, on the hand stand i'll start practicing away from the wall or negatives, the L sit will eventually be legs out and then when I can do that I'll remove it and start incorporating L pull ups

Squat 3x5
DL 1x5
Hang power Cleans 5x3
HSPU Progression - raised pushups
Ring pull ups 3x8 - can't do 8, so it's really as many sets as needed to get to 24, once I can do 3x8, I'll drop down to 3x5 and add weight and work my way up again
Ring dips 3x8 - same as above but can only do 3max on each set, so generally do 5 sets of 3...this is taking a lot longer to progress than i thought... but at least my shaking has gone down a bit...


Day B is basically the same in terms of holds, the DL is dropped and the clean becomes a full power clean...I'm cleaning 3x a week because my clean is weak and is a relatively new movement to me... once it starts getting intense I'll probably just alternate DL and Clean days...

Days are done a la ss MWF ABABA....


I don't think it's too much each, its just harder to do the pull ups and dips after all of the static holds...but I assume that's a good thing...

I might start working in some CF-like workouts since the school gym is closing and I might join an affiliate to workout there...

[Steven Low]

Hmmm, the minute thing only works for the first couple progressions for planche and front lever. So keep that in mind. Eventually you will have to use a combination of different exercises as well as eccentrics and concentrics to progress.

Normally I don't like any reps past like 6 or so if your aim is strength, but since you need the time up on rings I think it's better for you at this point. Perhaps you should add some support holds into your training.

I would suggest getting some more skill work in on rings like the support holds in your off days. That will help IMMENSELY. I would prefer 4-5 workouts per week but with the base part of SS (3x5 squats and the clean/DLs) I would not suggest that at this point.

[Ari Kestler]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Normally I don't like any reps past like 6 or so if your aim is strength, but since you need the time up on rings I think it's better for you at this point. Perhaps you should add some support holds into your training.

I would suggest getting some more skill work in on rings like the support holds in your off days. That will help IMMENSELY. I would prefer 4-5 workouts per week but with the base part of SS (3x5 squats and the clean/DLs) I would not suggest that at this point.

Well for example the pull ups...since I can't do 8, the 3x8 is really a 5x5... I could just keep it as 5x5 and add weight when it feels easy?

What type of support holds would you recommend?

How would you design a 4-5 day schedule with SS only on 3 days?

Thanks!