I had two questions that are sufficiently related that I can tackle them in one post. One relates to training, the other to adrenal fatigue Here are the two questions:
1-
I noticed you posted on coach rut’s site about doing the wendler 5-3-1, which i had heard of before. i looked it up, and i noticed the similarities it had with the layout of MEBB program with the rep scheme and all, except that the wendler progresses with sub-maximal weights while in MEBB, its always a max-effort.
would you mind commenting on sub-maximal progressions vs. max efforts for improving strength (which do you think is better?). and do you think the wendler 5-3-1 could be mixed with metcons similar to MEBB programming?
2-
Hey Robb,
Awesome entry. It’s like it works, indeed.
Question: I’ve got a client (and this holds true for myself as well) who I suspect is suffering from major adrenal fatigue. Way too many hours working, way too little sleep, way too much stress. Is there a way to quantify this/get some kind of cortisol measurement we can track? Going by feel is tough–some days he reports he feels great but performance is dragging; by same token I occasionally feel great on 3 quad americanos spaced out over the course of the day but fear that might be overkill and would love a way to quantify it!
So, I’ll tackle my training first, then the adrenal fatigue issue as the two are related. For the past several months I’ve been following elements of both CrossFit FootBall and Coach Rut’s Max Effort Black Box. I’ve made some good gains on these programs but when I was visiting Rut a few months ago he told me about the Wendler 531 program. Now, having done CrossFit or some derivative of CrossFit since early 2002, the Wendler looked like my old power lifting days. It progresses folks in a very measured way that generally keeps one within ones means, but it DOES have Some Max effort elements to it (in answer the question above). It is just a different format than the MEBB. Both approaches attempt to control volume and intensity with an eye on progress. Both are appropriate when married to smart met-con or other accessory work. I’m not going to go into the details of the 531 program, you should buy the damn thing as it’s only about $20 and worth every penny. I will mention roughly how I have structured the training.
Day-1 Press-531 progression
Accessories- Rope climbs, Dips (Ring or bar). I have progressively loaded the rope climbs by adding more assents each week (up to 11 now in about as many minutes, no feet) and the dips (5 sets of 10, increasing load each week).
5-10 100m sprints, typically with a 50m build up and then 85-90% top speed.
Day-2 Dead Lift-531 progresion
Unlike day 1 I actually put the focus lift after an accessory lift, in this case the power snatch. I do these on the minute and have progressed from 10 x 1@ 60kg to 10×1@70kg. The full OL’s hurt my knees…no way around it for me, so power and split variants are it. I then do my DL progression and have wrapped up with 3 x 20 Good Mornings. I have progressed that loading from 40kg to 60kg over the course of a month. They fracking SUCK.
Day-3 Bench-531 progression.
Accessories- On the minute I did 5 reps of 60kg push press. Each week I added a minute and am up to 10 minutes. I’ll likely change this up in the next cycle as it is just miserable.
Ring work from Coach Sommers site. Varies with the day but many front levers, skin the cats and back levers.
Then a favorite from Crossfit football: 100m sprint max chest to bar pull-ups, rounds in 12-20 min. I walk back on these get fully recovered and try to haul ass! Absolutely LOVE these types of WOD’s. I will finish with a set or two of Krock Rows- As many 1 arm DB rows as you can do in a set. Sounds easy, but they suck.
Day-4 Back Squat-531 progression
Accessory-
On the minute for 10 minutes, 2 power cleans. I started this at 85kg and have progressed it to 95 kg.
Front Squat- 5×10 @ 85 kg. Have progressed this up from about 70 kg. I fracking suck at FS and these things just make me want to poop my pants.
This schedule is broken up over 7 days. I drop in a few 200-400m repeats in the mix, a little hand stand work and other gymnastics moves.
Results: I’m stronger, leaner and look bigger than when I started 5 weeks ago. I’ve been following a low-ish carb plan similar to what Mat detailed a few days ago. Met-con? Not really sure, have not played with it. I suspect it sucks, but if I’ve learned anything over the past 5-6 years is if I’m strong, I’m only about 6 weeks away from being in GOOD shape. At age 37 and about 180 lbs I back squatted 405, DL 445, pressed 175 and benched 265 (don;t laugh!). I think I could turn a mid 3 min Fran by simply pacing and not blowing myself up, I might give it a shot. That said, I’m of a mind to NEVER do anything I am not excited by and find fun. At this stage, given my travel, and other demands, doing 25 min Met-cons in which I see the “White Buffalo In the Sky” is not much fun.
Which leads me to my other topic, adrenal fatigue. For those of you unfamiliar with this condition, your adrenals begin to give out do to too many life demands. Sleep, stress, training can all take their toll. I think I’ve had a mild to moderate dose of this condition for a LONG time. I have always burned things pretty hard, taking upwards of 18-20 units in my chemistry undergrad while being president of the Chemistry club and VP of the Pre-med club. For several years the schedule of starting a gym ran like this : Up at 5 am, train people all day 5 days per week. Write for various message boards, maintain a blog, travel most weekends (I was on the road 38 weekends last year). Big issues of travel include: sleep problems due to time zone change and the stress of putting on certs. I love doing them, but I do not sleep well the nights leading up to a cert. Food: I get gluten doses pretty consistently on the road, no matter how careful I am. This combo of shitty food and bad sleep really takes me down at the knee caps.
Then we have coffee. Nicki and I have a 15 shot, stove-top espresso maker that I have routinely drank 2 of before noon. then I’d have another latter in the day. did I mention the espresso machine we have in the trainer lounge at NorCal?
What my adrenal fatigue boiled down to was this: Crushing fatigue most of the day, only perking up a bit in the evening. This is a reversed cortisol profile in which I have higher levels in the evening than morning. this is about a stage or two away from the full systemic melt-down that leaves on in bed, immune compromised and generally feeling like death. Cortisol competes with testosterone for the substrate pregnenalone. High cortisol means insulin resistance, low strength and slow recovery. Excessive metabolic conditiong makes things worse. What’s excessive? You never make progress, you feel like absolute death doing anything over a few minutes duration. I’ve also had 4-5 sinus infections in the past about 8 months. No bueno.
The Fix-
I’ve talked to a ton of people about this. OPT, Josh Everett, Garrett Smith, and Scotty Hagnass have been the main folks. My shift towards CF football and ME black box was helpful from the Met-con perspective but I’ve benefitted from an even more strength oriented program that allows me to really control the volume and intensity of my training. I went off coffee for 2 weeks. I literally was hallucinating for a few days…it was WEIRD. I limit my days to 2-4 shots of espresso. I used to do 10-15x more than that…I seem ok at this level. I’ve used some adrenal recovery formulas like Orthoadapt. You really need to work with someone who knows what they are doing to get much out of this stuff. The fundamental thing however is you need to LIVE differently. I had to tweak my training, sleep and coffee intake. So far, so good. I’ve started studying Italian again and playing a little guitar in the evenings. I really try to create some down time in which I am not working on the gym, book, blog, emails or phone calls. I’m VERY thankful for the life I have but it’s easy for me to let this stuff take control of everything and leave no down time for restoration and unstructured fun.
The original question was “how can one ell the signs of adrenal fatigue?” Dips in energy in the day, feeling like death during met-cons, disturbed sleep, increased energy in the evening vs am. Low libido, lack of motivation. Constant, persistent muscle soreness (high cortisol makes muscles really stiff). One can also do and adrenal stress index, or ASI test. You need someone to help you interpret this process. You would also benefit from a DHEA-S test (free and bound). Don’t know what any of that stuff is? Get someone to help you, it is outside the scope of what I can easily cover here. Perhaps sometime in a podcast. I type at about 14 WPM with a 50% error rate so this stuff kills me!
Sorry if this is a bit scattered, but it’s what I’ve been tinkering with for a while. Something to take away form this is similar to the issue with PWO nutrition: Every person, every situation is unique and needs to be viewed as such. BUT there are some general guidelines that folks benefit from: Sleep, smart training, deloading periods (wendler has an unloading week every 4 weeks), do stuf that’s fun and unstructured.
Ciao! Time to practice my Italian and play some guitar.
thanks for the post! cool stuff
Robb- Any advice on finding someone legitimate to talk to about possible adrenal fatigue issues? Thanks for the info.
Sean-
Garrett Smith is a good resource:
http://www.DoctorAsTeacher.com/
You may have someone closer to work with, you’d just need to research your area a bit.
cheers.
Ah my friend, I wish I couldn’t relate. I am impressed that you went sans coffee for a spell, and have actually tried to set aside some time for yourself. You and Nicki continue to be an inspiration to me.
CJ-
I was kinda at desperation’s point AND I get the coffee question at every nutrition gig. I really felt like I needed that experience of going without so I could comment on it accurately. Similar to the mass gain experiment. I really love what I do, I just don’t want to do so much of it that I grow to hate or resent it. Tough when the life of an affiliate owner is just ass deep in all this stuff all the time.
Miss you dude!
Great post and interesting stuff. The take home message on adrenal fatigue reminds me so much of Mark Sisson’s stuff (particularly his “laws” on play, sleep, avoiding stress and using your mind), which are ironically the parts most people seem to skimp on. It’s (relatively) easy to eat right, lift weights and train; not always so easy to unwind a bit and get your zzzz’s every night.
And regarding your own training, the key nugget for me was your line ” I’m of a mind to NEVER do anything I am not excited by and find fun.” I think that’s something that’s easy to get wrong; I know I’ve been guilty in the past of doing what I thought I should do (distance running), not what I actually wanted to do (lifting weights). If someone could extend that mentality outside the gym and into life in general I think they’d be pretty happy.
Great stuff yet again.
Nick-
I’m of a mind to have a massively segmented fitness. I’ll let other folks run the 5k’s. Everything up to about 400m is fun (for me), so up to 400m it is!
Robb,
I’ve followed your blog for quite some time. This, by far, is one of your best posts… maybe because it resonates with me so much: both in regards to the strength training aspect and the adrenal fatigue. I have to laugh a bit as it is 0520 (on my day off!) and I am sitting cruising various Crossfit blogs and T-Nation articles sipping my first coffee of the day. Maybe I’ll follow your lead and drag my a$$ away from the gym+computer a bit and spend a little more time studying Dari and dig my guitar out of the garage.
Thanks for all the great posts and information. Your voice (among others) provides the grounded reality that the Crossfitosphere needs to remain relevant.
Cheers!
DOC
Doc-
Thank you and in Chinese medicine they would call the Guitar playing “Yin Building”. All this activity is very Yang…it;s like going to the ATM and just doing withdrawals. WE need some deposits to balance that out!
Yes very good stuff on the programming and thanks for being so forthcoming with the stress stuff.
Re: adrenal fatigue; Robb I was wondering if you thought this sort of state calls for increased carbs and/or calories as a strategy for recovery?
Obviously one would not want to under-eat in this state but I mean is there any logic to throwing in extra carbs/calories beyond meeting needs of activity/training?
Greg-
Extra carbs for me would be a major mistake, not sure for other folks although the DESIRE for carbs goes up. We are already wrangling with a situation of insulin resistance from the elevated cortisol…I;d be nervous of making that worse. Something I have been doing is just eating as much vegetable matter as I can. Soups, curries and I DO feel better with that. Might be an acid/base issue there. So, In a sense I;ve upped my carbs, but its been all quite low glycemic load.
Robb,
With all you do, it’s unfathmomable to me that you’re able to update this so frequently and in such a responsive fashion. Thanks for all you do–you’re changing lives for the better. Rock on.
Thanks Justin. I do fall off the map occasionally, but I tend to write in fits and starts anyway.
Robb,
do I ever hear you! If I didn’t have my Christa to keep me from living at the gym and drowning myself in coffee I would still be a zombie like I was about a year ago this time. I was angry, depressed and plain unfriendly, which is not me. I haven’t really found balance in the training yet but just improving my home life has made a big difference in how I deal with others and feel from day to day. I’m getting way more sleep and delegating a lot more of the training to my subordinate trainers. I still need to do more of that so I can focus on higher level stuff. I also only feel good when I lift or row, other metcons just drain the life out of me for days.
Pierre
Pierre-
We should call this Affiliate Owner Syndrome! It;s a fun but tough gig. You certainly need to work ON the business, not just IN the business or you will always have this insane schedule. Good to hear from you!!
Hi Robb,
I found the 531 templates to be almost perfect in lieu of my tendency to overthink training. Write down the sets and reps on a post-it, and figure out what I want to do for assistance that day, and have at it.
It’s been the most useful training book I’ve bought in years. I also really lke Mike Tuchsherer’s Reactive Training System book. The autoregulation of training has always been fascinating to me, and Tuchsherer was able to quantify and codify what tends to be an intuitive process, but it does take some tinkering and working with it to get a feel on how to use it.
Now if I can just wrap my head around a lower carb paleo diet, I’ll be good to go.
SHAF!!
I have really enjoyed the Wendler stuff thus far. I just tend to do too much, not focus on a long term goal etc. I really wanted to geek-out on the Olifts but they just ANGER my knees to know end. So I’ve been waffling a bit. CF FootBall and Rutman;s stuff have been good but I think I need even more focus, hence the Wendler stuff. The sense of accomplishment from progressing even the accessory movements is something that a completely randomized approach to training is tough to replicate. I will order the REactive Training System book today, sounds great and I’ve seen you mention it before. This is also stuff we are really trying to bring up in our trainers. A sense of seasonality and a need to shift gears for our clients. It;s good for the mind and body oddly enough! Hey, I actually have a stretch of time today if I can try ringing you again.
Hey HAAAWWTT re-evolving Paleo BOY!
Wish I could’ve heard you and Cordain speaking at Paleo Brands! History in the making…
I know what you mean by the adrenals being shot… When I overdo the Peets coffee, tequila or sleepless nites… I’m a WRECK!
Over the last few months, I’ve been doing my body temps and heart rates – they s*ck. I’m trying to recover my poor thyroid gland and adrenals (which is kinda hard after being 50 lbs overweight). There are actually a bunch of things that help bring up thyroid and adrenal health…
Here is info on adrenal support:
http://www.drrind.com/therapies/Adrenal-Support-Recommendation-Sheet
You mentioned Pregnenolone…. Preg is good stuff (haven’t tried myself) but many of our members at TYP and my Paleo buddies use low doses — it is like caffeine a little but it promotes improved hormone cascades, as it is granddaddy to many SEX steroid hormones.
SEX hormones are GOOD THINGS. *wink* Hey, say hi to Nicki!
-G
Grace-
If you and I were not married….oh DEAR!
Looks like a pretty solid list, I’ve always been a little nervous about pro-hormones but I know folks use them consistently and to good effect. Would you go for the oral or the transdermal forms of Preg and DHEA? I need to track down a good doc in chico to check all these numbers for me. Too damn busy to order out and interpret my own blood work.
BTW have you heard of Taurine (besides that it’s added to energy drinks)? It’s a conditional amino acid that is heat-labile and most of use don’t get enough (esp depleted in low thyroid and/or adrenal situations). Found in RAW GOAT MILK! I know you love that stuff! Wish I had ur cheese whiz around me *haa* You met my sis remember? We both take Taurine and notice more calm. It also burns body fat, raises HDLs, and improves immunity.
ALSO it activates the GABA receptors.
Taurine has helped a lot of my diabetics reverse their peripheral neuropathy faster (in addition to PALEO paleo paleo eating/living).
I put a bunch of info (do search ‘taurine’ from PubMed here coz I’m slo on posting:
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/2009/06/show-me-your-lipids.html
totally dig Taurine. One of the essential amino acids for carnivores, conditionally essential for us blood thirsty monkeys.
Robb, you’ve been on fire with the posts over the past week. Thanks for keeping us “fed”. I always love to see new stuff get posted!
Quick question that has been on my mind: What do you think about the Barry Sears videos that have been posted on Crossfit (the event in Orange County)? I’m sure that you would rather have had Cordain there to speak — I’m sure that some of the stuff said was a little bit off in your opinion.
Thanks,
Steve
Steve-
Barry’s stuff is generally good, but I disagree with many points which have come up. The cortisol/excess protein issue being one. the notion that a paleo diet is “hard” but weighing and measuring is “easier” seems tough to support. Barry attributes Ketosis to protein intake and does not seem to know the difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis or that ketosis actually has a therapeutic potential! Cordain has published over 150 peer reviewed papers, and his work appears to have uncovered the exact mechanisms for: Acne, skin pigmentation distributions in western europe, and ALL autoimmunity. He established a thermodynamically testable These are literally Einstein/Newton type contributions that are pretty staggering in their collective importance.
All that said, I always go back to: Give it a shot, see if it works. We Don’t need gurus of any flavor, be they nutritional or political. We need folks to think for themselves, experiment and run with the results.
Great post Rob! One of my favorites thus far! which is largely due to its relavance towards me, and I believe thats the common theme here ha. I’m sure I could ramble a couple paragraphs about my personal experience, but you hit the nail on the head. Find balance in everything you do. Persistance is nothing without progression. Without that ur just a bird running into a window over and over again…
Robb,
Greg brings up an interesting point that I’ve wondered about myself. Dr. Sears hypothesizes that having a protein/carb ratio greater than 1 causes the body to produce more than an optimal amount of cortisol. I’d debate the exact ratio, but I wonder if there isn’t something to this idea. I was having trouble putting on muscle when I was using the zone prescribed amount of protein and a couple of months ago I upped my protein intake significantly while keeping carbs about the same (about 12 blocks/day). Since then, I’ve been having some of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue you described, particularly soreness.
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the relationship between the protein/carb ratio and cortisol production.
Tommy-
It;s bullocks. this is some of the problems of a list of symptoms, it becomes a bit like tarot reading or astrology. Make it vague enough and everything is possible. NBow, if an acid/base issue ensues (inadequate veggies) we have a stage for increased muscle soreness. If what Barry Sears is saying is accurate the whole Inuit populations would be crushed under a lifetime of hyper-corticism. We see absolutely NOTHING like this.
Robb,
Good post, great to see you thinking about and addressing the adrenal issue head-on!
Thanks for the plug, mi amigo.
For those on the fence as to whether or not “adrenal fatigue” exists, it was first mentioned in the conventional medical literature since the 1920’s: http://drlowe.com/emailnewsletter/2009archive3.htm
Adrenals have a wide range of functioning levels, much like the thyroid. It is too bad that all too often conventional medicine falls into the simplicity of either the adrenals being completely broken, or completely fine. There’s many shades of grey…
Quite simply, it’s very close to an equation. Stress burns nutrients. More stress equals more nutrients burned. If one doesn’t get in enough nutrients and the stress compounds for long enough (work, kids, workouts, lack of sleep, stimulants, media, refusing to take time off, etc.), the whole system gets put behind the 8-ball and it takes a while to recover.
One of the reasons so many long-time CFers are tending towards more MEBB, 5/3/1, CA WoDs, etc. is that many of them inherently realize that too much long and/or hard metcon leaves them wasted for days…this is too much stress on the system, particularly the adrenals.
If anyone wants adrenal testing, my contact is easy enough to find here and in Robb’s post above.
Robb- I recently had to start mixing the decaff and the caff beans so I can get enough liquid to kep me happy but not get overloaded. Good on you for realizing balance was needed!
Robb,
14WPM?? You should check out Dragon Naturally Speaking. It’s a really slick piece of software that might help you decrease how much time you spend writing. Plus, you don’t have to be sitting down to use it so that basically translates to less time sitting in front of the computer screen!
I did some testing on it when I was working at the university and loved it. I’m a pretty fast typer, but we hooked up the president of the university with it and he was all about it.
Brendan-
I’ve seen that thing, I’ll give it a look again, thanks for the reminder.
Robb
From somebody who I think went that step further then you and went into complete adrenal meltdown i can tell you its a complete nightmare and as you mention a longterm problem to deal with. When i got sick initially I was essentially bed ridden for a week. Even getting up to cook was really taxing. But all i could think about at the time was getting back training. It wasnt untill after i got back training and had a minor relapse that i realised how crazy my priorities had got at that point.
And that leads me to my point. Adrenal fatigue/Overtraining Syndrome is a symptom of messed up priorities, ego, lack of alternatives to work and training, and a lack of self confidence in oneself to just let go and take it easy.
If people are going to use paleo to drive themselves to complete exhaustion instead of for better health then its doing more harm then good.
Kevin-
Bummer about your situation, I hope you are feeling better. My reluctance of sharing this topic (I’ve been kicking it around for almost a year) is that people will tackle the supplements and some other goodies merely as a means to keep burning the candle a bit longer…not a smart option, but people are going to do what they are going to do. I fully agree however with the ego and no “off switch” stuff.
Robb,
I am so glad you brought this up. I have seen adrenal fatigue in my clients over and over and it’s so hard to deal with nutritionally because my usual suggestions ( doing melissa urbans 30 day paleo challenge) or close to it, wreak havoc on people who are that stressed. It almost puts more stress on their adrenals. I had one woman who I urged NOT to do the 30 days straight off and she did anyway and ended up calling me in an emotional fit feeling all rollercoastery and crying all the time. She even had to cancel a speaking engagement for 100 people because she couldn’t stop crying.
In the CF world I think we are great at telling people to “just do it!!!” but it’s hard when you get someone who has so many other issues causing their adrenals to fail, and knowing who to send them to and where to start nutritionally and even physically with exercise,. I would love to see more posts on this!
Lauren-
Well…I think this ties around to what Ido said in some ways. If you are this woman’s coach, assessed her situation,recommended AGAINST a nutritional change because it might be too much for her at that point…well. If the person is so stressed and Type-A that they can’t listen to the advice they are PAYING for, personally I’d not invest a lot in that person. I have too many people who want help and do this silly thing called “Listening”.
I’m not trying to be a dick but high-drama clients an make you want to kill yourself.
Also I can’t wait to do the nutrition cert in december in fayetteville!
Robb,
Family friend just had an emergency appendectomy. She is 13 yrs old I believe. Do you have any experience with this stuff? Our good friend google seems to have a few hits in relation to: celiac, gluten, transglutaminase etc. I am totally unfamiliar with this subject and just wondering if you have ANY input. Thanks my friend.
Ben Wheeler
Yea, I’m pretty sure its an inflammatory issue, frequently from gluten. Normal flora gets displaced, appendix swells and gets cranky. bummer to hear about that.
Robb,
there is no question most people with adrenal fatigue issues are simply exceeding their ability to withstand stress. One aproach can be to lower stressors in general, another is to condition the system to withstand more stress.
For a crossfitter to jump into those highly demanding metcons in his first year of practice is a big mistake in my opinion. One should concentrate on building work capacity (ability to withstand physical stress) slowly and making himself more resistent to such stress. That is not just to simplt train and train a lot, but to use escalating volume/workout density control over one’s training, while monitoring recovery.
Increasing work capacity is a misunderstood concept that can help many adrenal fatigue folks. Of course initial recovery from an acute AF event should be primarly adressed.
Most AF complaining folks are bitches.. Instead of a completely passive aproach to recovery I prefer activly pulling yourself out from that black hole, through sound nutrition and supplementation and wise training choices. Most just prefer to rest it off…
Ido.
IDO!!!!
You have inspired me on all this brother. This is why our programming rolls out in blocks for our folks, trying as best we can to undulate the volume. That, and we have different programming for beginners, intermediate and advanced. Where i really see the wheels fall off the wagon is when sleep gets impacted. Either via training or life commitments. Oh yea, and CrossFit never has an off-season…
Robb..sorry this is off topic, but I had a quick question about Coconut oil. Most of the info I have read says that its great, but Dr. Cordain doesn’t recommend it. What are your thoughts???
Tristy-
Cordain likes coconut oil, just as a mix to a standards paleo approach. Coconut is awesome! Anti-micorbial, helps heal irritated gut linings, and YUMMY!
I’ve often wondered about this and whether I suffer from it or not. Likely I do (or did) at a low level due to the life-stress from autoimmune issues.
Interesting you talk of Yin and Yang energies – i did an article for my blog on the same topic (I live in a very “alternative” lifestyle area) in relation to overtraining etc.
http://crossfitwestcountry.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/recovery-energy/
These days I’m focusing on my Oly career and surfing – if I have energy left then I might “play” at some gymnastics or metcon work, but it’s not on my priority list at present.
Guts have calmed down – you were right about focusing on sleep, stress and food. Knock out all even slightly problematic foods, do lots of fun stuff/chilling out and sleep whenever you can… oh, and take your Vit-D3 – this is how you beat autoimmunity!
Nice schedule by the way 🙂
Chris-
That is a damn good schedule! And feeling good is tough to beat.
Robb,
I can’t thank you enough for discussing adrenal fatigue. I have probably had a mild form of this for quite some time and recently (last 4 months) it has definitely increased in severity due to huge amounts of stress. I had no idea what was wrong with me. I thought I may have had chronic fatigue syndrome or low blood sugar but you explained EXACTLY how I am feeling.
Robb,
Thank you sooo much for turning me on to Wendler 531. I have been doing CFSB and felt it was way too linear for me.
Quick Q: do you think 531’s big compound lifts (squat, bench, DL, press) could be combined with CF mainsite WODs as the accessories / metcon?
Still 3 days on – 1 off – with days 1 & 3 including waves 1 & 2 of Wendler (days 5 & 7 would be waves 3 & 4).
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Cheers, Chris
Chris-
I guess you could but I’d personally make the met-cons fit much closer to his recommendations for accessory work. For example, on the DL day you could do 200m row, 50ft weighted walking lunges, 5 rounds. then try to push the loading in that WOD for the 4 week mesocycle. A little LESS randomness might be a good thing.
would this help fibromyalgia? i take a lot of dietary supplements now. b vitamins and magnesium have appeared to help some. please let me know what else I could consider, that would help out a lot. gracias.
Great post! (I know it was a couple years ago but I’m new to this whole “gig” as you would say. I’ve been on a two year self-imposed program to improve my adrenals. I was burning candle at all ends and my adrenal exhaustion was causing almost monthly vasovagal syncope episodes. VERY annoying, not to mention dangerous. Haven’t had one in two years. Quit coffee completely (all caffeine). Now I’m merging onto this paleo path and it seems like the next level for me. Lots more energy, better libido, endurance (not even in exercise…just getting through the day). Next I think I need to work on this play/fun piece because my work is very demanding.
The wife and kids and I went to our first drum circle at a local gluten free restaurant (Ohana Cafe if you’re ever near Clearwater, FL) and I think we ‘re going to buy some drums for us and our four younger kids. It’s easy and doesn’t require anything but a semblance or rhythm. One day I’ll take piano back up but that’s just a dream right now.
Robb, I don’t have any biochemical things to share with you but I’m a techie and so here’s something back atcha: for typing faster than 14 wpm (and thus saving time for sleep and fun) get a speech to text program and a good quality headset. You’ll suddenly rocket to about 90 wpm if not 120. No kidding. Takes some dialing in, but not much and you’ll be off and running quick like a bunny.
If you use Windows 7, there is a built-in speech to text product: go to Start and type “Start speech recognition”. Make sure you have your headset or a mic plugged in.
If you use Mac, you can probably get a product like Natural Speaking by Dragon. I’d be shocked if they don’t have a Mac product and their stuff is really refined now.
Hope that helps you help the world (and yourself) more!
Hans! that is a great idea, and thank you for sharing your story.
Morning Robb,
I have been doing crossfit for 2 years now, Have had fluid retention, Low protein levels and just recently cannot wake up properly in the morning’s, feeling shattered all the time, even with going to bed at 9pm! Could this be Adrenal fatigue?? At a loss as to what it is. Should I stop exercising or carry on?
Cheers Suzanne
I’ve been suffering from adrenal fatigue for a couple years now.. I’m 21 and initially got it from overtraining pretty bad (alot of sports whilst cutting calories). I rested for a while and can train fine now.. i.e. my adrenals produce enough cortisol. I went to my doctor the other day and he said my adrenals were the best he has seen in a while, but I still had some mild fatigue. I lift weights about five days a week now.. but recently something has started where if I lift around five, I’ll get to sleep around eleven (with the aid of melatonin) but then I’ll wake up around five or six in the morning and can’t get back to sleep for another hour or so..
So my overall complaint is that I think I am producing too much cortisol. I have a pretty clean diet.. except I do eat ezekiel bread, sweet potatoes, and the occasional plain greek yogurt. Instead of lifting for an hour.. should I try doing crossfit in the morning (i.e. doing more short/intense workouts earlier in the day?)
Also, I forgot to mention. I’ve had lowish testosterone for the past couple years (ever since cutting cals). (free was just above the bottom third of the accepted range and total bounces around 300-400 on 250-1100 scale (I apologize I forgot the units)). Would I benefit from any supplementation?
Thanks alot. I really appreciate your time.
Respectfully
John Dorian
I would def seek out a functional med doc and get some help.