2017 - Started CrossFit February
Accomplishments
Started at 230lbs weight and ended at 212lbs
425 Deadlift (After tweaking my back a few week before)
345 Squat
6:20 Fran
7:12 Helen
Tripod to Handstand
Handstand PUs
Level 1 Course Completion
Spartan TriFecta 2017
Tough Mudder
Half Marathon (Never again, probably)
Learned to Snatch and Clean and Jerk
Comfortable in a deep squat
May Blood Labs were good
Failures
Did not get down to 205LBS
Focused on Low Carb Diet all year - I think Zone is better for CrossFit level of activity and recovery.
Bad Double Unders (10 Max unbroken)
No Muscle Up
Back Injury - Hurt for multiple weeks and still gets uncomfortable
Knee Tweeked Again - Hopefully nothing major
Now, what are my thoughts on a year of CrossFit. To be fair, I did not focus only on CrossFit and ranged from 3 to 5 classes a week. I did two tennis leagues and running OCRs. My CrossFit improvements are not significant but not bad for a 41 year old dude with an office job. I have improved in lots of ways, despite it not being my primary focus. Pullups, TTB and CTB are better but still can't string a lot together. Not good at Snatching but got better at Cleans. I improved in a lot of functional ways but it is a life time journey.
I believe CrossFit's principles are the way to reach fitness and health goals. Constantly varied, highly functional movements done at high intensities. With that said, I also agree with CrossFit's principle of Movement, Consistency and then, Intensity. Even then, I think nutrition is the core principle that is the most important because if not, you will risk injury, burn out and limited health improvement. Nothing is new here. I took the Level 1 this year and loved it. It was a great experience and learned a lot about CrossFit. The level 1 did not help much in fitness or movement but more of how CrossFit looks at fitness. I am completely sold on CrossFit style of Fitness. Everyone can do CrossFit relative to their fitness level.
I learned a lot about nutrition and rest throughout the year. I did low carb for most of the year and I feel my workouts suffered from it. Fasted works outs and low carb recovery periods would just build up after a few days of tough work outs. I would recommend looking into the Zone diet because that will help you eating the right food, the right amounts and at the right times for your life style. I only started doing this about 4 weeks ago but I can already say, I see a difference in energy and recovery. That is not exactly because of Zone but eating "Real food, mostly plants and proteins, some fruits, nuts and seeds, little starch and no sugar." Lots of people have heard this around CF but what I did not know until the level 1 was the rest of the statement. "Only as much as needed to sustain exercise and not increase body fat" That is where Zone comes in and makes the amount of food easy to program.
I am looking for to year 2. Probably another scaled Open but that is ok. I like the CrossFit community and regularly attend other Gyms like Rejoice and Allen. There are some good people at those gyms. We even did several family WODs at our house and on vacations. It is always fun to workout with others.
Lots of people know the Active Faith scripture, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength" but most people do not know the next scriptures says "Yet, it was good of you to share in my troubles" This recognizes that we get our strength through having a relationship with Christ but it is better as a community or friends to share in the suffering.
