This trip was planned for 2020. Glad to finally arrive. Aloha! |
“If you tell yourself you can’t, you won’t.” Dean Graziosi
TWISI (The Way I See It): CrossFit & Whoop have parted ways. I’m ok with that. The way I see it, fitness is “increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains.” The Whoop monitor does not measure fitness. It is an amazing device that monitors human vital statistics including pulse, blood oxygen levels and heart rate variability. While these statistics can be helpful for establishing training protocols and managing one’s health – they can also be misleading or distracting for improving fitness (improving work capacity).
I’ve recently started to wear a Whoop monitor again in order to get my sleep back on track and to monitor my heart rate variability which is a good indicator of physical recovery. Having good data helps me set realistic goals and holds me accountable to the plan. But, Whoop data is a snapshot of the past which can distract from the biggest influence on fitness: training effort (intensity). The majority of fitness improvements (increased work capacity) happen as a result of exertion during metabolic conditioning (metcons) & strength training workouts. Other improvements happen as a result of skill practice (ie, gymnastics). While a high heart rate measured by a wearable device might correlate to intensity, the best indicator is how you feel, not what your monitor says. I know when I’m dying. And, if you need to measure your fitness improvement, then repeat a workout you did in the past.
CrossFit and the CrossFit Games will be fine without a licensing & sponsorship deal with Whoop. I’m confident there are many other potential partners that align with the CrossFit methodology & mission eager to sponsor the Games. In the meantime, I need to get more sleep according to Whoop.
DR TOM IS IN TOWN! ** WED MAY 4TH, 7PM ** Former Diablo member and now Precision Care MD, Dr. Tom McCoy is in town next week! I’ve invited him in to talk about Precision Care and their combination of genetics & blood testing to optimize health. It’s pretty cool stuff. Register on the app.
MASTERS UPDATE The scores for the Masters have NOT yet been finalized! Video reviews are affecting placement. Some of the girls in Yvonne’s age group (60-64) have been severely penalized. Other age groups have also been affected. We should have final results by the end of this week. Yvonne currently sits in 5th place – qualified for the SemiFinals in June.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: “Earn your calories. Do something physical before each meal or snack. Eventually you’ll create a calorie deficit.”
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK: Complete 3 fasts of 14-16 hours. Example, if your last meal is at 7PM, do not eat again until 9AM-11AM the next day. Try to get 3 days of fasting in!
WORKOUTS – May Focus: Strength & Foundation (Newsletter / Calendar)
- Primary Strength: Back Squat
- Secondary: Broken Down Power Clean
- Skill: Strict Ring Dips & Posterior Planks
The week ahead:
- Mon – Back Squat 5×5. Metcon: 600m Run, 1m Rest, 400m Run, 1m Rest, 200m Run
- Tue – Clean Pulls & HPCleans. Metcon: 12 DB Snatch, 12 OH DB Lunge, 12 DB Strict Press #35/50
- Wed – Amrap 20m: 8 Bar MU, 15/20c Bike, 12 DB HSCleans, 15/20c Bike #35/50
- Thu – 5RFT: 4 Wall Walks, 8 Power Snatch, 16 Box Jumpovers #75/115
- Fri – Skill: Ring Dips & Planks. Metcon: Amrap 10m – 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats
- Sat – 8RFT: 200m Run, 5 Deadlifts, 8 Toes-to-Bar #155, 225
- Sun – Amrap 14m: 8 STOH, 18 WBs, 26/36c Row #105/155
CRAIG’S LIST (Stuff I’m Reading, Hearing, Watching, Using or Buying)
Learning from a Mistake: Coach Leka Fineman on her CrossFit Games Quarterfinal Experience. This is a big year for Leka Fineman, former Coach at Diablo. She is in her first year of the 55-59yo age group and she’s an experienced Games athlete (3x!). After the 1st day of competition, she was sitting in 5th place in the world! Unfortunately, because of her need to redo the challenging strength test (#4), she inadvertently forgot to enter her result from workout #3 – which gave her an automatic 0 for the workout. Had she submitted her score on time, she would have been in 2nd place in the world! Now, she sits in 31st place – one spot away from qualifying for the CrossFit Games Semifinals (top 30). But, there’s still a chance: video reviews of other athletes may help her move up in the rankings! Fingers crossed. Her blog post tells the story about her experience and mindset and how she’s handled this event.
** UPDATE ** as of 10:35AM PT – Leka has moved up on the leaderboard (W55-59) to 29th place! This qualifies her for the Semifinals, if it holds! Wow! What a ride.
Vacation Reading:
Craig: Sooley by John Grisham – Grisham weaves a motivational story of basketball phenom from Sudan into the political, economic and humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Fast, compelling read.
Yvonne: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. – The bookstore manager recommended this one and Yvonne can’t put it down, so I suspect it’s pretty good.
Make it an awesome week!
Craig
