I told my coach, Dave, about the 20 squats with 70 kg, and how although it took less than a minute, it made me feel like I'd been carrying a backpack up a steep mountain for three hours. He said this shows that I wasn't using a true 10-rep max for 20 reps; doing so would have taken a lot longer. Doing ten would have been hard to finish, and each one after that would have been a "sheer, miserable act of pure will and struggle" or words to that effect. So what my endeavor actually was was a shot at homing in on my true 10-rep max, which might be more like 85 kg.
While I would have liked to think I really did something TOUGH, this information doesn't surprise me. I'm not a real risk taker, don't like to suffer (although that is relative--some people think I love to suffer!), and hate to even think about not completing a set. So, I did a set of 20 that basically I knew I could complete, though heavy. This weekend I'll try to find a 10-rep max for real.
On the other hand, the CrossFit workouts at the gym are getting so good that maybe I should just do whatever's on tap in the gym every other day like I've been doing lately, and let the results take care of themselves. We've fine-tuned our programming a bit and added a lot more joint planning of upcoming workouts. They're more intense as a result of that and of adding more of a consistent, serious strength component, pursuant to the CrossFit Journal article "Strong Medicine." I don't want to beat myself up too much at home in view of this!
While I would have liked to think I really did something TOUGH, this information doesn't surprise me. I'm not a real risk taker, don't like to suffer (although that is relative--some people think I love to suffer!), and hate to even think about not completing a set. So, I did a set of 20 that basically I knew I could complete, though heavy. This weekend I'll try to find a 10-rep max for real.
On the other hand, the CrossFit workouts at the gym are getting so good that maybe I should just do whatever's on tap in the gym every other day like I've been doing lately, and let the results take care of themselves. We've fine-tuned our programming a bit and added a lot more joint planning of upcoming workouts. They're more intense as a result of that and of adding more of a consistent, serious strength component, pursuant to the CrossFit Journal article "Strong Medicine." I don't want to beat myself up too much at home in view of this!
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