Yama's Pull Up Progession

Kinesio Tape or Rocktape Unfortunately Doesn't Work On Me

Yesterday our local crossfit ART qualified physical therapist held a seminar on kinesio tape or Rocktape. He's been applying it to my shoulder once a week for weeks now. I tore a muscle in my shoulder in February, confirmed with an MRI and it has been very slow to recover. I leave the tape on my shoulder  shower and bathe with it on for 5 days, not really sure what it's doing. I went along to the seminar with my wife in the hope of understanding what the benefits of Rocktape are. I see 50% of crossfitters at the games using it and I was feeling left out because they are all obviously getting some kind of performance enhancement from it.

Seminar was broken into part 1 alleviating pain, and part 2 taping for performance
Here's what we did at the seminar/break out practice sessions

Lower Back

Put 2 strips up your back, helps when you deadlift.
You can feel the tape is there, maybe it helps as a cue because you can feel it stretching when your back bends and it signals to you that you have lost the lumbar spine and should either reengage it or discontinue the lift.

Knee / Calf

Use 2 strips to surround the knee, one piece from ankle up side of leg, split a piece from the ankle, up each side of calf.
The lower leg one seemed pointless. Knee one did give some support in the squat. Not as much support as a knee sleeve though.

Shoulder / Upper back
Put a strip in a sideways "V" shape on your scap to your arm/lat.
Make a "#" sign in tape on your upper back.
This is to lift the skin to allow blood flow for recovery.

Performance 1 - Falling Over Test.
Partner kneels as if shooting a gun, other partner pushes from one side. Choose the side that is the weakest. Apply tape from groin upwards towards nipple. Retest and test subject is magically stronger.
Demonstration was a massive difference.
My wife and I tried this and didn't notice anything different. Lots of other people noticed a difference.

Performance 2 - Balance Test
Partner gets on all fours, raises left arm and right leg, other partner pushes down on right leg. Take the weakest side and then apply tape from lower back diagonally up over back.
Demonstration was a massive difference.
My wife and I tried this and didn't notice anything different. Lots of other people noticed a difference.

Performance 3 - Grip
Put tape on your wrist then spiral outwards finishing back at crux of elbow.
Demonstration was a massive difference.
I tried this by hanging on a pull-up bar for as long as I could with each hand before and after.
Before and after results were the same time.
This test resulted in the what appeared to be the whole room convinced of the powers of Rocktape. Everyone was impressed by this before and after test and I felt ashamed for not feeling the big difference that everyone else did.

Performance 4 - Thruster
Put tap from spine along arms on both sides. Tape from buttock up both sides of spine towards neck.
Demonstration was a massive difference.
We ran out of time for everyone to try this one.

Conclusion
Rocktape seems to help a lot of people. After yesterday I've seen a lot of people feel immediate benefit from its application. But it has no place in my gym bag. For me it has no effect and I'm glad I attended the seminar because now I know. My wife and I also had a lot of fun putting tape on each other for 4 hours, later on we had fun in the bath taking it all off. I gave the Rocktape we received at the seminar to a friend, hopefully he'll be a responder.

It would be more worthwhile spending the time I would use applying Rocktape before training on mobility exercises to loosen up my tight glutes and hips to get a more upright position in the bottom of the squat.

Things that are worth buying in for training (and one person's belief in them)
Lifting shoes: 80% effective, 20% placebo
Heels lifted for better position in the squat (effect), feet feel sucked onto the floor and solid giving a feeling of security (placebo).
Whey Protein: 100% effective
Casein Protein: 100% effective
Wrist straps: never tried them
Gymnastics Tape: 100% effective
Without it my skin tears, the proof is there. Therefore with it on I feel more secure.
Knee Sleeves: 60% effective, 40% placebo
Slight help out of the squat, injured knee noticeably less painful after a workout (effect). Feeling of security having them on (placebo).
Rocktape: 100% placebo
Feels nice having it stuck to you like you're a crossfit games competitor. Helps rehab and performance in most, but so far I have not experienced any benefit.

Some links I found on the internet on Kinesio tape
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22796389
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2182471/Kinesio-tape-Researchers-say-evidence-works.html

Size On for Korea

As of today I weight in at just under 78kg, 14% bodyfat.
The workouts for Korea have been released and the Chikara Nokorimonos team will not make it past day one due to the requirement of 6 muscle ups for the women. So there's one thing left to really gun for and that's event #2


Event #2 is 3 rep max overhead squat with the barbell taken from the deck.

The Target

Size on 12kg up to 90kg in 22 days.

The thinking behind this exercise is bigger people move more weight.

The Plan

Eat 4,000 calories on training days paleo and whey shakes post workout and during the day, casein before bed.
On non training days skip breakfast and eat a normal 1,800 paleo calories.
Plenty of sleep
No met-cons
Creatine
Reps schemes in singles or triples.
Sundays: Rest
Mondays: Rest
Tuesdays: OHS test, C&J test
Wednesdays: Rest
Thursdays: Jerk practice
Fridays: Front Squat 5x3
Saturdays: Deadlift 5x3

Typical Eating Day

coming soon.

2013/05/09 Starting Stats

Clean and Jerk: 82kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 85kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 80kg
Weight: 78kg
BF: 14%


2013/05/14 Week 1 Stats

OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 85kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 80kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 80kg
Weight: 81kg
BF: 14.9%


2013/05/21 Week 2 Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 95kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 90kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 82kg
Weight: 83kg
BF: 15.5%


2013/05/28 Week 3 Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 95kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 90kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 84kg
Weight: 83kg
BF: 15.9%


2013/05/31 Competition Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 84kg
OHS 2 rep max off the deck: 89kg
Weight: 84kg
BF: 16%


*** 2013/06/03 UPDATE ***

Okay so it's just after Regionals and my experiment was a failure.
My target was to put on 12kg but I only managed 6kg. My lifts did go up but not to the 100kg that I was hoping. What I learned was that it's a longer and more gradual process and you can't fast-track getting fat.

I managed to put on 5kg in the first week, then seemed to plateau. Also I wasn't very diligent in getting 5,000 calories in on lifting days. It's a lot of hard work to remember to eat breakfast, chug protein post workout, as a mid-morning snack, after lunch etc.

I also changed my technique from clean and jerk, to clean and dip-drive-pop-head-under to get the barbell to back rack. So I stopped practicing the clean and jerk hence no results there.

Next Step

Putting on a lot of weight fast to lift more weight fast was a quick fix to lift more at Regionals. Now that's done I need to get back to work on the real holes which are flexibility, rack receiving confidence, and proper 1st pull technique off the floor.

Time to go back to paleo with some basic liftting. I expect a slow decline back to around 78kg/13% bodyfat by August.

Custom Open Leaderboards

Kie's prediction for the Crossfit Open 2013

After my predictions for the 2012 Crossfit Open last year, I'll have a shot at predicting what to expect this year. I am a crossfitter who is a fan of all the games dating all the way back, and know all the open and regional workouts. Again, this is just for fun:









Prediction Workout 13.1 -
7mins AMRAP
Wall balls

Reason: It's all inclusive, crossfit is taking everyone's $20 so they'd piss too many people off if they put pull-ups in the first week and loads of newbie's and girls would lose interest straight off. Everyone can do wall balls and programming burpees again would be too ridiculous. Just as likely to be another single modality that everyone can do. In the rules we might even see a 6" target for wheelchair users

Prediction Workout 13.2 - 

10min AMRAP 

Clean and Jerk 40kgx30, 75kgx30, 100kgx30, 120kgx30

Reason: Everyone loved the snatch WOD 12.2 last year, it brought about loads of PRs and gyms went crazy. Can't do it again and we haven't had a clean and jerk workout since Open 11.2. Rich and Dan to demonstrate face to face.

Prediction Workout 13.3 -   

18min AMRAP

5 Wall climbers, 

9 grasshoppers, 

14 SDHP@40kg

Reason: There has to be an 18-20 minute AMRAP gasser with 3 different modalities in it. The above 3 could be changed for box jumps, wall balls, push-ups, toes-to-bar, K2E, hang cleans, cleans, light deadlifts. Also SDHPs are in the judges course.

Prediction Workout 13.4 - 

12min AMRAP

150 Knees-to-elbows

50 Jump over box

30 Muscle Ups

Reason: Following on from 11.4 and 12.4 there has to be a 10 minute nightmare followed by a 2 minute nightmare to suck all energy out of you so that you fail that muscle up. Big guns will cruise into a 2nd round, fit guys will re-do the WOD in the hope of getting to the muscle up, mediocre guys will get significantly less reps separating the league table clearly. Also Knees-to-elbows are in the judges course.

Prediction Workout 13.5 - 

7min AMRAP

Chest-to-bar Fran Ladder

Reason: There has to be away to compare to last year, that's what crossfit is all about: Timing workouts and measuring against last time to see how much you've improved. Saying that though, you could choose any of the 2012 Open workouts to use as a comparison. I'll go with this one because the results will give people the opportunity to compare 3 years.

Comments:

1. I wanted to put in overhead squats because they haven't been in since 2011. But I like them too much and that has to cloud my judgement.

2. I wish my wrist didn't hurt, otherwise I'd be hammering my heavy Clean and Jerk efficiency.

3. I wish my wrist didn't hurt, otherwise I'd be hammering thrusters.

4. I've been working on wall balls.

5. I've been working on chest-to-bars

6. I've been working on HSPU & Pistols just in case but I hope they don't come up because I'm sh*t at them (most say these are Regionals only exercises, but other than running and concept 2 rower, you can't count anything out that can be filmed continuously and all garage gyms will have equipment for).

Some say kettlebells will make an appearance this year, but they haven't yet so I steered clear of them. Wouldn't be surprised if they popped up though: 13.1 7min of 1.5 pood? KBS in 13.3? 150 KBS in 13.4?
7. Double unders should be in there, they are bound to come up. But where do they fit into my prediction?
8. I'll update this post after the open with the actual workouts and a review.

Update - Here are the actual WODs

13.1

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 17 minutes of:
40 Burpees
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
30 Burpees
135 pound Snatch, 30 reps
20 Burpees
165 pound Snatch, 30 reps
10 burpees
210 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

13.2

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
115 pound Shoulder to overhead, 5 reps
115 pound Deadlift, 10 reps
15 Box jumps, 24" box

13.3

Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 mins of: 

150 Wall Balls, 20/14 lbs, 10/9 ft 

90 Double Unders 

30 Muscle Ups 

13.4

As many reps in 7 mins as you can of:
3 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
3 Toes To Bars
6 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
6 Toes To Bars
9 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
9 Toes To Bars
12 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
12 Toes To Bars
15 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
15 Toes To Bars

13.5

AMReps in 4 mins:
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 reps
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 rep
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 rep

Testing Sups

Animal Cuts
No Effect, didn't feel any different, didn't do anything it said on the tin.

Launch
Pre-workout supplement
No effect

Ripped "Juice" EX2
Unmatched Appetite Suppression - Tear Fat Away!
No Effect, taken pre-workout, no euphoria, no increased energy, ate breakfast, huge lunch, big dinner after.

Testosterone Sups

Was reading an article on the BBC about this guy Dr Jeffry Life in Los Angeles who's 74 and stays lean and keeps muscle on with weekly testosterone injections. Sounds like a treatment with no side-effects and can keep you living for longer. So with my latest iherb order I chose "T-Male" as my free sample. Took it in the morning and felt nothing. 

Afterwards I read a bit about it and it contains something called "tribulus" which does not increase testosterone. What it does is increase libido, and having sex makes your testosterone levels rise.

People on the blogosphere, Robb Wolff, bodybuilders etc are always talking about how they had low testosterone and increased it with diet or other life-tweaks. I have no idea what my "bound" testosterone and "free" testosterone is so I'll be sure to get it checked on my yearly health check. I think it's something I should monitor as I get older to make sure it's not declining. People get old, so people move less, so people get fat, and testosterone goes down. I believe what Dr Jeffry Life says when he explains that getting old is not directly related to a decline in testosterone levels. Stay active, keep eating clean and you can keep testosterone levels constant throughout life and live leaner, longer and healthier.