CrossFit Milestones, June 2011
Warning: this post contains images of me barely-clad.
The start of this month was my two-year mark of doing CrossFit; in addition, today marks one full year of doing five workout days per week, without fail, for a full year. I’ve also been on a pretty strict paleo diet (plus dairy, although I haven’t had a lot of that) since January, and have just come off that.
The difference in my fitness level after two years of CrossFit is very significant. The biggest gains in the last year have been strength-related; my endurance is probably better but not dramatically so, and I suspect that, for example, my five-kilometer run time would be about the same. But I’m considerably stronger than I was this time last year, and this was amply demonstrated by Saturday’s CrossFit Total, in which I got a 130-pound shoulder press (not actually that impressive, but a big improvement for me), a 300-pound back squat, and a 405-pound deadlift—breaking the 400-pound barrier on the deadlift was a goal for the year, and I’m extremely happy at having done that almost six months ahead of schedule.
These are my heaviest weights on various lifts to date; for all of them except the shoulder press, power snatch, and snatch, I strongly suspect I could go heavier, but these are what I’ve actually lifted at some point.
- Deadlift
- 405 pounds.
- Back Squat
- 300 pounds.
- Front Squat
- 215 pounds.
- Hang Power Clean
- 195 pounds.
- Squat Clean
- 195 pounds.
- Power Clean
- 190 pounds.
- Clean & Jerk
- 185 pounds.
- Push Jerk
- 185 pounds.
- Overhead Squat
- 185 pounds.
- Thruster
- 165 pounds (I think).
- Bench Press
- 160 pounds.
- Power Snatch
- 155 pounds.
- Snatch
- 150 pounds.
- Shoulder Press
- 130 pounds.
No really big numbers, but I think these are approaching respectability, and are all vastly improved since last year—for example, at the start of June last year I hadn’t yet hit 300 pounds on the deadlift.
Aside from the weightlifting, I haven’t dramatically improved any particular movements in the past year. My pullups are about the same as they were last June, and my weighted pullups seem to have declined. I’ve been staying away from ring dips due to a shoulder issue, and am just returning to them. I still can’t do a muscle-up, and suspect I’m not very close to one. I can now do a full handstand pushup.
When I started CrossFit, I weighed 193 pounds; today I weight 190 pounds. This just goes to show that you can’t really use weight alone as a measure of fitness or health; my body composition is evidently rather different now, and what happened was that I dropped to 168 pounds in six weeks, and have been building muscle from that point to now. In the last month or so I’ve gained five pounds after being steady at 185 pounds for a long time, and I haven’t figured out whether the recent five pounds is a good thing or not.
My “before” and “after” photos (from May 2009 and today) are below. I don’t think they’re all that dramatic, primarily because my body fat percentage isn’t low enough for me to look really toned right now, but combined with the functional improvements I outlined above I think they tell a story of significant improvement.
24 Jun 2011 at 10:41
Cor! well done. g