Reputation from sunshinesmile

sunshinesmile got a reaction from Melixxa in I Want To See Before & After Pics! July 5, 2013

Here's my progress. My heaviest weight was 240lbs. After 8.5 months I am a 150 lb girl!
Surgery date: Oct16 2012
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sunshinesmile got a reaction from Melixxa in I Want To See Before & After Pics! July 5, 2013

Here's my progress. My heaviest weight was 240lbs. After 8.5 months I am a 150 lb girl!
Surgery date: Oct16 2012
[ATTACH]15117[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]15119[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]15120[/ATTACH]

sunshinesmile reacted to Fiddleman in Fun strength training ideas? July 15, 2013

Amy- I still think that sledge hammer idea sounds great. I almost was going to do this, but got hooked on full body workouts instead.
There are also a billion full body strength training exercises you can do and you do not need any equipment at all, just you!! These are a lot of fun and you can do them anywhere.
The following is a beginner workout you can do with just your body and should keep you busy for 3x a week for about 3-4 weeks until you are ready to move onto intermediate body weight workout.
You can start a warmup with 5-15 minutes of running. this is not meant for speed, just to get the blood flowing before the next set of warm up exercises. You should run between 1/2 and 1 mile. when you come back, start by doing push ups, planks, sit-ups, air squats, lunges, etc. These kind of exercises suck at the beginning, but after a while they are a lot of fun and you can increase intensity by just varying the exercise a little. Do 10-20 reps for each warmup. You should have a light sweat going by the time you are done.
If you have a roller, spend a few minutes rolling out your muscles: hamstrings, calves, back, etc.
One exercise I like also doing as a warm up is like a push up but you hold the top and bottom for 10 seconds at a time before switching to up or down position. Repeat for 10 reps. It will give you a great upper body warmup, a little fatigue but not much.
Do your stretches. I like doing arm shoulder rotations, forward circles, backward circles, full body circles, forward in place lunges and plank variation that involves starting in a push up position, dropping to elbow one at a time and raising to full push up position, repeat 10 x.
A beginner body weight exercise is the dynamic sumo squat where you start with feet together and then jump into a sumo squat with butt back, flat back and hands on ground. Jump back and repeat for about 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat for 4 sets.
A second beginner body weight exercise is combination backwards lunge and 4 count ladder. Start standing up straight, do two deep lunges backwards with back straight, chest up and hands together on back up head. Next go directly into a 4 count. A four count is 1. Drop down with knees bent, 2. Jump directly back into push up, 3. Jump directly back onto feet in dropped down position and 4. Stand up straight. Repeat up the ladder 1 rep, 2 rep 3 rep and 4 rep. Then repeat down the ladder 4,3,2,1. Go up and down the ladder 1 more time.
A 3rd beginner weight exercise is combination pointer and thumbs up ladder. The pointer exercise starts with you on you hands and knees. In a controlled movement, lift you right arm and left leg up, keeping both straight with shoulders and hips parallel to the ground. Hold for 1/2 second. Lower. Repeat with left arm and leg. This is a great back stabilization exercise. That is 1 rep. For thumbs up, lay on the ground with you arms perpendicular to your body, out to the side. Now lift both arms up and squeeze your shoulder blades together with your thumbs in the up position. Really feel the squeeze as your chest and chin come off the ground. Bring your arms back down to complete 1 rep. Complete a ladder of pointers and thumbs up from 1 to 4 reps performing first pointer and then thumbs up in each set up and down the ladder.
Finally, do your cool down stretches to reduce lactic acid and make recovery far easier. Always eat a lean meal after your strength training workout out. It can be a recovery shake or it can be a good balance of macronutrients including lean Protein, good carb and good fat. I like to have a few teriyaki meatballs or a chicken skewer, a 1/2 banana or apple with a spread of 2 tbsp nut butter. If I have a shake, I like to have something that is high whey percentage with BCAA chain and creatine hgc. There are a lot of good shakes out there if you want to drink a shake post work out.
Again, there are a billion different body weight exercises you can do. When you want more, just ask. I find these enjoyable and the workouts are short. Each exercise is slow and controlled so you never feel rushed. Yet, it is a really challenging way to build up your strength that you can get real results from in a short amount of time. In as little as 3 weeks, I promise you will like the results. It would take months of isolation exercises to achieve the same results, maybe years. And then you might not get there because free weight exercises are non functional a d generally not natural movements for your body. Body weight exercises are functional exercise and feel natural to you. That makes them much more enjoyable to perform once you get the basic movements down.
As an aside I like to have 6-7 small meals a day focusing on protein to hit about 1 G protein per ideal body weight 180 for me). I do workouts like these 3 x a week and cross fit 2 x a week. The core of these workout is 20-30 minutes ( does not include warmup or cool down). That is over before you know it, but you will get an excellent full body strength training workout.
Keep all movements controlled and in good form. Make each move deliberate and in clockwork. It may feel a little slow. that is ok as you are aiming for good form and activation of many muscles groups for each body weight exercise. I promise you will get a good body strength workout after these. Your shirt will be soaked. The important thing is to keep showing up for every workout 3x a week. These body weight exercise will be a very effective use of your time and your wallet. I find these to be fun workouts.

sunshinesmile reacted to Fiddleman in Just joined Crossfit today July 15, 2013

Actually I think it gets easier after 3 months, but that is just me. Best advice I can give you is keep showing up, don't miss an appointment. Improvement comes from always trying to better yourself. Don't directly compare yourself to others in the box. There are people who are super fit and people who are just starting out. However, it might be good to have a role model. If you can afford it, get a trainer. This was key for me because we come from a non athletic background and need the help to catch up, so to speak. Again, that holds true for me but may not for you.
An hour before the workout, eat a balanced meal or a good Protein shake that balances the macro nutrient ratios. For food, I like to have 2 apple slices with nut butter and 1-3 ounces of lean Protein or a Protein Shake and 2 energy squares from nuts.com. 15 minutes before the workout, take your amino acids. I like to take catalyst, but you can really take any form of the complete set of amino acids. Recently mark! gave a good recipe for an amino acid mix he prepares by hand on a response to one of my fitness threads on fat %. The amino acids make a huge difference in your stamina and response during the WOD. Really, it does. I do not know the exact science behind it, but it was recommended by my trainer many months ago. In fact, at the end of my first session with her.
Always do a warmup. Always. You do not want to hurt yourself during the WOD. Spend time to work on mobility after warming up. Stretch, stretch and stretch. My biggest weakness is mobility, but I have been working on it for 6 months.
In the last few weeks, I have just started to make huge gains in my lifting stamina, technique and strength because mobility is finally improving. Form is everything. Repeat. Form is everything. Do not curve your back on dead lifts. Always keep your butt back, chest up and back flat or slightly inverted. Do not get cocky and lift too much in a WOD as that is only going to hurt you. Do not show off. you are not in cross fit to impress anyone, but yourself. stay super focused. Push yourself. Turn off any negative self talk. It is only you and your workout.
if you need a preworkout drink to help with concentration and focus, by all means take one. I take c4, Hyde and no explode 2 at different times. You have to cycle on them for your body to remain effective with them and not to intoxicate your liver or kidneys. I have been good so far, but will be getting blood work done soon for my 1 year post op. knock on wood.
After the work out, cool down and stretch. Stretch, stretch and stretch. You do not want sore muscles to bite you in the ass the next day. Drink a high quality recovery Protein Shake. I drink synth 6 now and it is high calorie for 40 g, but complete worth it. The extra calories (400) mean nothing in scale weight, but mean everything in building lean muscle. My weight is dropping and body fat is dropping daily. You want to eat as clean as possible to support your cross fit workouts. Cross fit is like Paleo fitness so it is best to eat Paleo nutrition to optimize your efforts.
There is a careful balancing game when calculating how much to eat to hit the sweet spot of leaning out while gaining lean muscle, not losing lean muscle. It has taken me months of trial and error, but think I have a natural eating flow that is easy to maintain and also supports goals of leaning out and gaining lean muscle while being active intense workouts 5 days a week. Others can help you put together this eating plan, but it is really individual based pong your body composition, weight, height, etc.
Take some BCAA and creatine with your shake after working out to optimize muscle repair. Always take large amounts of Omega 3 to combat stiffness and soreness. I have not felt sore once the next day when taking the BCAA and Omega 3 supplements. This week I just started experimenting with 10 g creatine monohydrate before and 10 g monohydrate afterwards and man, it makes a huge difference. Some guys in the box are loading with way more creatine, but it is not really worth it to go above 20 g. Creatine monohydrate is cheap.
And most important, have fun and always look on how to improve during every workout. I promise you that cross fit is going to add a new dimension to your life and your presence around others. Stick with it. Push through the pain as long as it is good pain. Do not push through bad pain as you do not want side lining injuries. Talk about your successes and challenges on VST. VST continues to be a problem solving atmosphere for fitness because there is a lot of existing experience ( like aroundhdk, mark, btb and mike ross) and new experiences ( like me and others).
Hope this helps. It is a bit of a mind dump, but these tips have paved the way to my success. Sorry for the long verbose length of this post, but there are truly a lot of balls you need to keep in the air to optimize your success at Crossfit. Next year, I hope to be competing with the big guys at regionals.
Can someone pin this post? It is good information.