Full effort is full victory.” – Gandhi

This journal entry will be a bit of a deviation from the norm. I recently swapped my barbell for some high heels two weekends ago, when I stepped on stage at the 2014 National Physique Committee (NPC) Pennsylvania States & Pennsylvania Classic in Allentown, Pennsylvania. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you’ll know I already posted some photos, some thank-yous, and some of my thoughts on the whole process.

Believe it or not, this contest was very not planned for me. I decided about five weeks prior to the contest that I was going to enter. And while the first three weeks of my quick little four-week prep were relatively drama- and trouble-free, the week before the show and the weekend itself was a crazy time filled with some last-minute errands, mishaps, scrambling, and self-doubt. The Sunday before the show I almost withdrew due to some personal issues, but I wound up seeing the contest through, and I couldn’t be happier that I did.

I Faced My Fear

I’m a competitive person by nature, but not necessarily against others. I’ve always felt that my greatest competition is myself, and I suppose that’s why I was placing so much pressure on myself prior to this show. Last year when I competed at the 2013 IFBB North Americans, I was not at my best, or even close to my best. I stepped on stage over-dieted and flat, and as a result placed outside of the top ten, which hadn’t happened to me at a national show in several years until that point.

And as any athlete knows, a placing like that is a hard pill to swallow.

So when I decided do this show, it was with one goal in mind – to conquer my lingering fear of the stage. To get back up there and prove that I had what it took to place well, and to prove to myself that I was capable of presenting a much better package than what I put on stage in 2013. And while I achieved that goal – I won both my classes! – I felt I walked away from this show with so much more than I had anticipated.

Competing in Figure Is Tough

I have been competing at the national level in figure since 2008, and it’s a competitive, cutthroat level to be at. It’s high pressure. Everyone there is there for a pro card and while there is comradery in a sense, there is also an overwhelming feeling of animosity. Everyone there has invested a lot of time, effort, and money into the show. Everyone is serious about the sport. The pressure weighs hard. And if you happen to be a high-pressure individual like myself, it can be a very damaging environment to be in, mentally and emotionally.

The last thing you ever want is for a process that you began to make you feel strong to wind up making you feel like a failure. I know personally, at some point in 2012, I began to fall out of love with figure, mostly because I forgot how to enjoy and embrace the process. I had become so focused on getting a pro card that I ceased to enjoy or take in any part of the journey itself.

It’s why I changed my focus with my training. It’s why I took a year away from the stage. And it’s exactly what made this most recent show I did so amazing. I did this show simply because I wanted to, and for no other reason. I didn’t do it for a pro card or for recognition. It wasn’t a huge national show or a pro qualifier, but in a sense, it was just as valuable to me, if not more. Doing this show helped me to remember how to breathe deep, step back, and enjoy the journey to the stage – something I hadn’t done in years. And as a consequence, I remembered just how much I love competing.

While I don’t intend on doing any more shows this season – I have a few CrossFit competitions coming up – I’m anxious about being back up on the national stage this coming year. I hope to see continued improvements in my physique and, most importantly, in my mental approach.

Training Log

5:30am Training Session

“Helen” – 3 rounds for time:

• Run 400m
• 21 Kettlebell Swings
• 12 Pull Ups

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic

25 minutes hike in a 25lb weighted vest

Mobility

• 20 minutes dynamic warm up
• 5 minutes foam roll, PVC pipe dislocates

Weightlifting

• Snatch Balance to a heavy single then 80% 3×2
• Power clean to a heavy triple then 95%x3, 90%x3
• Clean Pull to a heavy 4 then 95%x4, 90%x4

Strength

• 5 rounds in a 25lb vest, (x) Pull Ups + (x) Push Ups – 60 seconds rest between rounds. Go to technical failure, not total failure
• Strict Overhead Press 5×3

Gymnastics

• Accumulate 2:00 in L Sit
• Leg Drag Ups with feet on rower 3×10
• 5 minutes Freestanding Handstand practice

Capacity

“The 30’s”

• 30:30 (work/rest) on C2 x30

Accessory

• Unilateral Half Kneeling Kettlebell Press 3×5/side
• Unilateral Kettlebell 3-1-3 tempo, 3×5/side
• Powell Raise 3×10/side superset with 3×15 Rear Delt Row

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Allison Moyer. Allison is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner ofAlli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet. Read all about Allison’s unique approach to training and diet every other week.

The post If You Want to Win, Face Your Fears (Athlete Journal 23) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

– Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the concept of success – of what it means to be successful and of how we define success, both as a society, and as individuals. I’m in prep for a figure show right now, and while I’m still passionate about being successful in figure, I’ve noticed a lot of changes in how I approach the process of competition prep and the world of subjective sports as well.

How Do You Define Success?

One definition of success, “the attainment of popularity or profit,” is probably what most people think of when they think of success. Fame. Fortune. Things. Stuff. Big house. Nice car. Wife, kids, white picket fence, and so on. But when I was searching definitions of success, I found this one as well: success is “the correct or desired result of an attempt, the achievement of a desired aim.”

That definition is the one that truly defines what success means to me. It’s taken me years of hacking away at this fitness thing to figure out what what it takes for me to feel like I’m living a successful life, and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with the figure trophies on the shelf or the magazine published photos or the CrossFit competition medals. It’s far less tangible than that, and yet far more meaningful.

Living Life With Passion

Success for me is about living my life with passion. It’s about being an example to my clients and to others. It’s about working hard but enjoying the grind, embracing the process, and not getting so caught up in the concept of being “better than” another person that I lose my sense of self.

When I think about success I think about consistency, discipline, dedication, hard work, and balance. What makes me feel successful isn’t necessarily lifting more weight than the person next to me, or placing higher at a figure show, or getting a faster “Fran” time. What makes me feel successful is the sense of satisfaction that I get from putting in hard work, and from knowing, deep down, that I gave it my all.

Success is the progress I see in myself as a woman, as a coach, and as an athlete on a day-to-day basis as I work to make positive changes and achieve my goals: keeping bodyfat low, increasing my lean muscle, hitting all the numbers in my training sessions, gaining strength, working on my gymnastics weaknesses, working on my education so I can be a better coach to my clients, and trying hard to be the best woman I can be for my fiance.

Success, for me, can be defined at its most basic level in terms of self-improvement. Of being better in some way, shape, or form today than I was yesterday. And as I get ready to step on stage in figure, in a sport of pure subjective comparison, I’m working hard to keep that at the forefront of my mind. I’m constantly reminding myself that it’s not about being better than anyone else. Success is simply being better than your previous best.

My Own Progress

And I am better this year than I was last year. I’ve made significant improvements to my physique. And of course, any time that I’ve ever generated some positive change – whether it’s been getting stronger, gaining lean muscle, or dropping some bodyfat – I find I have a host of people asking me about how I did it. What’s the secret? What’s the trick? Or the hack?

And the thing is there is no hack, or trick, or secret. To be successful, stop defining success on other peoples’ terms and start defining success as it is relevant to you and your own life. Abandon comparison as best you can and focus on self-improvement. If you want to be successful, instead of asking others how they achieved success, start looking at what you need to do in order to live a life you regard as being successful.

And for God’s sake, be willing to work. If you want lower bodyfat or improved metcon times or just to be strong as hell, it’s going to take a ton of work. Consistent, day in and day out work. And frankly, it doesn’t matter what your goal is. Fitness-related or not, the best things in life, the things worth having, are the things that take effort.

Life beyond the barbell requires hard work, too. Relationships, professional, or work-related success – these are all the result of a lot of labor, a lot of brutal effort, and a lot of damn hard, grinding, seemingly endless work. So be willing to embrace that fact.

Success is what you define it to be. To hell with what anyone else thinks. The secret is, there is no secret. Just figure out who you are, what you want, and what’s important to you. And then get in there and get your hands dirty.

Training Log

5:30am Training Session

1000-1200m jog to warm up

15x hill sprints (approx 200m), 60 secs rest between efforts

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic

30 minutes open row at about 80% effort. Every 3-4 minutes, 20 second sprint

Mobility

My lats were sore, but otherwise I felt surprisingly good today – foam rolled, stretched, lots of overhead reaching, and PVC dislocates.

Weightlifting

• Jerk BTN @ 5RM, then 95%x5, 90%x5
• Push Press @ 8RM then 95%x5, 90%x5
• Jerk Dip Squat @8RM, then 95%x8, 90%x8
• Snatch + Hang Snatch 2×2 @ 75%, focus is on technique not weight

Strength

HBBS 6×2, no belt. Focus on upright torso, drop weight if torso falls forward

5 rounds, 5 strict pull ups, 30 sec rest

Gymnastics

90 seconds accumulation handstand hold against wall

10-8-6-4 Ring Pushups, Pistols (each leg)

90 seconds accumulation bridge hold

3×10 strict TTB

Capacity

20-10-5

Hang Power Clean

Burpee Box Jump

Accessory

3×10 Powell Raise

3×10 Pendlay Row

The post If You Want to Succeed, Put in the Work (Athlete Journal 22) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Every experience, no matter what it is, has something to teach us. This past weekend I competed in my first big individual CrossFit competition, the SteelFit Championships, and it was an incredible experience for me on many levels.

A brief explanation – the SteelFit Championships are the product of a series of what they call the “Core Four” qualifying competitions. Athletes compete at the qualifiers, and then the top-placing athletes move on to the finals, which are held on the New Jersey beach at the end of June. The competition I did this past weekend was a qualifying competition.

And I’m proud to say that I not only made it to finals, but I also set a personal record in my jerk and finished first in the third of four WODs that day. Those were the high points. But despite the competition being peppered with those incredible highs, there were also some pretty deep lows.

It’s never an easy thing having your physical weaknesses exposed and vulnerable in the heat of competition. Gutting through thrusters at a snail’s pace while other athletes blew through them made me feel like I had wasted an entry fee and a two-plus hour haul to New Jersey. And failing on my back jerk during the bear complex strength ladder, when I had seen women ten-plus years older than me lift that weight, made me question myself and my abilities as an athlete.

As always, I draw similarities between aesthetic and performance-based competition. Much like putting your physique on the line for a figure show, competing in CrossFit is about putting your fitness on the line. And regardless of which you’re doing, it’s certainly a very raw, vulnerable, and scary position to be in.

But here’s the one thing I took away from the combined highs and lows of this experience: I DID IT. I proved myself capable. I took on a challenge that was far past my comfort zone and I conquered it. I struggled, sure, but I also dominated. I failed miserably at points, but I also succeeded. And I placed third. I qualified. I will be going to the finals in June, and out of the hundreds of athletes who competed in the qualifiers, that makes me feel honored and privileged.

No, I didn’t win my division, but that’s okay. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn. Winning is wonderful, but it doesn’t foster self-improvement. Learning, however, does. I’ve had time to both celebrate the victories of Saturday and reflect on the struggles that kept me from placing higher. I know what I need to do differently, I know how I can be better, and I am aware of the weaknesses in my fitness that I need to improve.

Every experience is a teacher. And you can’t learn if you play it safe and hang out where you’re comfortable all the time. I learned a lot from this past weekend. I look forward to putting my fitness to the test at the end of June and learning from that experience as well.

I tapered down the week prior to the competition, reducing all of my weights to no more than 65% and keeping all of my aerobic work at 80%. I also didn’t do any 100% effort metcon work, and everything I did was paced with rest breaks.

Training Log

5:30am Training Session

Ran 1600m at about 80% (kind of went off of how I felt). Rested exact time it took me to complete the 1600m, then ran a 1200m at that same pace. Rested exact time it took me to complete the 1200m. Did the same pace/rest ratio with an 800m and a 400m.

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic:

3x1000m row – again, easy pace. Nothing too strenuous. Rested between intervals until I felt ready to go again.

Mobility:

Lats and traps were in HELL today. I spent most of my time attempting to get those two issues ironed out.

Weightlifting:

• 1 Snatch + 1 Hang Snatch EMOM x15

@ 50% for five sets, @55% for five sets, @ 60-65% for five sets

• 1 Clean + 1 Hang Clean EMOM x15

@ 50% for five sets, @55% for five sets, @ 60-65% for five sets

• Jerk from rack EMOM 6×2 @ 55-60%

Strength:

Back Squat 6×2 @ 55%

Conditioning/Capacity:

5 Rounds, paced

• 10x Pistols
• 10x Wall Ball
• 10x KB Swings
• 10x Burpees

60 seconds rest between rounds

Accessory:

3 rounds, not for time:

• Wall Walk/Climb 4-6x
• Skin The Cat 4-6x
• Strict TTB 10-15x
• 3×10 Pendlay Row

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Allison Moyer. Allison is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner ofAlli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet. Read all about Allison’s unique approach to training and diet every other week.

The post Every Experience Is a Teacher (Athlete Journal 20) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

– Unknown

The older I get and the longer I train, the more I realize that the most incredible experiences of my career have been the moments that came at the end of some long and challenging roads. The harder I’ve had to work and the more I’ve had to struggle, the more I’ve come to appreciate the achievements.

It’s not so much that nothing worth having comes easy, but that it’s a shame to miss out on incredible experiences simply because the path looks too treacherous. Had I allowed fear of struggle to stop me, I would have never done a figure show, stepped in front of a camera for a photo shoot, traveled and given seminars, learned the Olympic lifts at age 29, or competed in my first CrossFit competition.

And let me tell you, winning my class at a national level NPC show, giving my first seminar at the Fit4Life Expo in Arizona, dropping beneath a barbell for a perfect snatch, placing third in my CrossFit competition, and seeing myself published in an international fitness magazine for the first time were all some of the most awesome moments of my life. All of those moments were only possible because I was willing to walk the hard road.

Fear is a paralyzing thing, but at some point you need to be willing to push past it. You need to stop looking around for the path of least resistance and instead look for the path that leads to your goals. To what you truly want for yourself in life, even if it’s the difficult road. Difficult roads can lead to some beautiful destinations. But you never will know if you’re too scared to take those steps.

Training Log

5:30am Training Session

6,000m row with varying stroke rates every 1,000m

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic:

1 mile incline walk in a weighted vest (25lbs)

Mobility: Lat warm up, kettlebell halo to get my shoulders going, bench T-spine, inchworms, lunges with a reach, some foam rolling, PVC pipe dislocates, banded shoulder work.

Weightlifting:

• Snatch @ 65% 6×2
• C&J @ 65% of jerk 3×2 (1 clean + 2 jerk)
• Clean @ 65% 3×2
• Snatch Push Press + OH Squat @ 65% of Snatch 3 sets of 3 push press + 4 OH Squat

Strength:

Back Squat 6×6 (higher volume day of my Russian squat cycle)

Conditioning/Capacity:

20 minutes EMOM

• 5 Thrusters @ 85
• 5 Burpees

Accessory:

• 10 slow, controlled “Skin the Cat”
• Powell Raise 3×10
• 10 minutes double under skill practice
• 50 GHD situps

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Allison Moyer. Allison is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner ofAlli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet. Read all about Allison’s unique approach to training and diet every other week.

The post The Hard Road Is Worth It (Athlete Journal 19) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

– Dr. Phil

Can you believe I’m quoting Dr. Phil? I can’t. But I do love that quotation, and I do believe it’s true. Lately I’ve been dealing with some personal issues (who isn’t?) and an injury, and frankly it’s begun to affect my ability to remain focused on what I need to do. I’ve had more brat attacks in my training lately then I care to admit – kicking the ground, throwing things, the double stomp, wall kicks, you name it. Failed lifts and crappy performance will do that to you as an athlete.

Sometimes Life Gets to You

Combating a hand injury coupled with being overwhelmed in work and personal life makes training with a purpose a damn struggle. I can’t focus. I can’t get my mind into my lifts, which is completely not like me. And that makes everything worse. I feel like less of “myself” when I feel disconnected from my training. So on top of my personal stress and my injury, failed lifts and simply “going through the movements” in my workouts make me feel even more disheartened, like I’m becoming a really bad version of myself.

I know we’ve all been there. All of us. There’s just no escaping those periods in your life when you are distracted, disconnected, or let down by an inability to focus on your goals or to perform well in training. Sometimes staying centered is hard.

Maybe you are dealing with an injury. Maybe someone did or said something hurtful. Maybe you have been left alone, are feeling ignored, or are struggling to figure some things out. Maybe you’re struggling with your diet or your training. Maybe work is getting to you. Maybe your life is shifting. Maybe you feel stuck or under pressure. Maybe you feel judged, rejected, alone, or invisible.

I’ve come to realize no matter who you are, sometimes life gets to you. Even if you’re an athlete and your training is your life. Even if you think you’re immune to it, any and all of these circumstances can upset your personal self-belief and disrupt your focus on your goals.

What’s the Solution?

So what the hell do you do? I’ve found self reflection works best for me. Take yourself away from the personal stress, the work pressure, the need to feel like you’re hitting certain weights, losing fat at this speed or that, or hitting certain training goals. Just step back, take a deep breath, and get your center back. It works. Trust me. I’ve been doing it the last few days, and I already am starting to feel better. I feel rejuvenated and centered on doing what I need to do to be my best. So if you feel off, take some time to get back in touch with yourself and find your center. Take a step back and a step out and reconnect with who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing.

At the end of the day, things can’t be perfect all the time. Training through personal struggle or adapting around an injury is simply part of living. We can be overjoyed when life goes our way, depressed when it doesn’t, or we can establish a sort of steadfast peace with which to approach all of life’s circumstances, both good and bad.

Knowing yourself helps establish that peace. If you know who you are and you believe in your abilities, then life (whether good or bad) can’t do much to upset that. Circumstances affect us only if we allow them to. Injuries only hold us back if we refuse to adapt around them. No one can shatter our self-belief without our permission, and life can only rock you if you are standing on unsteady ground.

So be strong in yourself. Be firm in who you are and what you want and confident that you already have what you need to succeed inside you.

“Do you know who you are? Don’t ask who you are – act on who you are. Action alone delineates and defines you.” – Witold Gombrowicz

Training Log

5:30am Training Session

20 minute AMRAP

• Bike .25 mile/rest 30 seconds
• Row 200m/rest 30 seconds
• Sprint 200m/rest 30 seconds

(I made it six rounds plus the bike and row of the seventh round.)

• 3×5 Dragon flags
• 50 V-ups
• 50 Supermans

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic:

• Run 1600m @ 80% with 20 second pace bursts every 60 seconds
• Row 1600m @ 80% with 10 hard pulls every 60 seconds
• 50 L-hangs

Mobility: Lat warm up, kettlebell halo to get my shoulders going, bench T-spine, inchworms, lunges with a reach, some foam rolling, PVC pipe dislocates, banded shoulder work.

Weightlifting:

• Power clean + Push jerk @ 75% 1-1-1-1-1
• Snatch from low blocks to heavy single then 80% of that for 2 Snatches + 1 OH Squat x5
• Clean with pause at knee @70%, @75%, @80% x4, @65%, @60%
• Snatch @ 65% EMOM 3x

NO MISSES!

Strength:

Strict overhead press 6×2

EMOM x10:

• Even minutes: 4 Strict pull ups
• Odd minutes: 6 weighted pistols (3 each side)

Conditioning/Capacity:

A. 400m Farmers walk with dumbbells and a weighted vest. Weight to be at least half your bodyweight, which for me is 62.5lb. I only had 40lb dumbbells, so I went with 80lbs. I wore a 25lb weighted vest. Everytime you set the weight down, 5 burpees. (This was hard. I realized my grip sucks!)

B. “Karen’s Got Issues”

3 Rounds:

• 10 Wall balls @ 20lbs
• 15 Wall balls @ 14 lbs
• 25 Wall balls @ 10 lbs

(Begin again with the 20lb ball)

Accessory:

• 100 double unders for time
• Tabata L sit 15:15, 8 rounds
• Bent over barbell rear delt row 2×10-12
• Banded face pull 1×50

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Allison Moyer. Allison is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner of Alli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet. Read all about Allison’s unique approach to training and diet every other week.

The post Know Who You Are (Athlete Journal 18) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I had a very rough workout yesterday. I was so sore and super tight. I couldn’t get my lats to release, despite time spent mobilizing. And as soon as I reached for the barbell to warm up, I knew I was in trouble. The bar alone felt like a million pounds.

My programming called for me to snatch and clean to a max, and while my snatch came to within five pounds of my personal record, it was littered with misses on the way up, which I hate. And my cleans were terrible – my tight lats held me back in the front rack position, and my elbows were so slow getting around the bar. I felt like my body weighed a million pounds and my hips had absolutely no snap. In fact, about ten minutes into my training, I felt like quitting. Even my conditioning (one of the sauciest EMOMs I’ve ever done, involving deadlifts, box jumps, and burpees) which I usually love, was twenty minutes of hell. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My body was screaming. I wanted to be done the moment I began.

I walked out of yesterday’s training feeling like a wet rag – stiff, sore, and seriously doubting my abilities. Why am I sharing this? Well, because it happens to everyone, regardless of ability or athletic talent, regardless of how well you eat or recover or train. Whether you just go to the gym to stay in shape, are prepping for a show, or are gearing up for a race or competition, there will be days when shit just doesn’t click. Some days even 75% of your max feels like a thousand pounds. Some days you can’t find the willpower to push, because honestly some days it just isn’t there, be it mentally or physically or both.

The process of becoming better is slow, and it’s going to be spattered with hard days. But quitting won’t get you there any faster. You have to be willing to take the bad with the good and ride out the rough workouts in order to experience the superhuman ones. Accepting and even embracing the toughest of training days is part of what builds athletic resilience. It builds character and puts commitment to the test.

Don’t allow one bad day or bad workout to defeat you. Remember why you’re doing this and stay focused on your goals. Weather the bad days and embrace the good. And be open to the process. Remember, progress is never linear, and we learn just as much from failing as we do from succeeding.

5:30am Training Session

1,000m warm up

EMOM (rotate), in a 25lb weighted vest:

• Minute 1: 2x Wall Walk + 10 shoulder taps
• Minute 2: 200m row
• Minute 3: 10 Heavy Wall Balls (20lb ball)
• Minute 4: 10 Burpees

(5 rounds)

P.M. Training Session

Aerobic: 20 minutes running drills, focused on form and movement efficiency

• 60 seconds Run @80-85%
• 60 seconds Backwards run @80-85%
• 30 sec High knees
• 30 sec Butt kicks
• 60 seconds Run @100%

(5 rounds)

Mobility: Lat warm up, bench T-Spine, dead bugs, lunges with a reach, some foam rolling, PVC pipe dislocates, banded shoulder work.

Weightlifting:

• Snatch @ 75% EMOM 3x
• Snatch @ 85% EMOM 4x
• Snatch @ 65% EMOM 3x

(NO MISSES!)

Clean and jerk @ 75% 5x

Snatch pull @97% Snatch 3×3

Snatch DL @ 105% 3×3

Strength:

• Strict overhead press 1×5@65% 1×5@75% 1×5@85%
• Good morning 3×8-10
• Kettlebell windmill 3×5 each side

Conditioning/Capacity:

8 rounds of:

• 60 seconds AirDyne, all out
• 15 seconds Rest
• 30 seconds AMRAP Clean @95lbs
• 15 seconds Rest

3 Rounds (50lb sandbag)

• 10 Sandbag cleans
• 10 Sandbag front rack walking Llunges (10 each leg)
• 10 Lateral sandbag burpees
• 500m Row

AMRAP 8 minutes:

• 10 Weighted ab mat sit ups (10 lbs)
• 10 Deck squats holding 10lb plate

Accessory Work:

4 Rounds of:

• 30 Double unders
• 30 Walking pistols
• 20 Toes to bar
• 60 second Handstand hold
• Reverse Tabata L-Sit 10:20 for 8 rounds
• Banded rear delt fly 2×25

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Allison Moyer. Allison is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner of Alli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet. Read all about Allison’s unique approach to training and diet every other week.

The post Commitment Is An Act (Athlete Journal 17) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

go back to its old dimensions.”
– Unknown

What do you do when the thing you thought you loved is actually making you miserable? This is a question I asked myself at the end of my 2012 contest season in figure. It’s also a question I seriously have been contemplating again, with the start of the 2014 figure season upon me. And of course, everyone is asking, “What shows are you doing? When are you competing? Are you dieting? Are you prepping? Do you want to compete?” Blah, blah, blah.

The truth is, I’m not prepping. I’m not dieting. I don’t have any shows planned. And to answer the “do you want to compete” question – well, honestly, I don’t know. It’s not that I don’t love bodybuilding or figure, because I do. I have the utmost respect and regard for the men and women who choose to compete. And I owe a lot to the sport. Bodybuilding has helped make me into who I am. It’s taught me more about dedication, drive, and discipline than all of my other life experiences combined, and it’s part of the reason I’m such a formidable and strong athlete. Bodybuilding taught me about effort, and as a result, I am never afraid to work hard, to struggle, or to fight for my goals. But despite loving and respecting the practice, I’m still not sure if my head or my heart are interested in stepping on stage right now. It’s not that the sport has changed. It’s mostly that I have changed.

Two weekends ago, I attended the CrossFit weightlifting seminar, based on Mike Burgener’s curriculum, and am proud to say I received my certification. Part of what I loved so much about the weekend was being in a room of avid CrossFitters who love weightlifting as much as I do. Not only did I learn some invaluable knowledge about the Olympic lifts, which I can apply as an athlete to my own training, but I also learned about the application of the Olympic lifts in all avenues of sport, from CrossFit to general health and fitness. I also got to hear some incredible stories of how the instructors discovered CrossFit. They told us how it changed their lives, their beliefs about training, and what they knew about hard work. I heard about former endurance athletes who became CrossFitters, as well as former weightlifters, marathoners, football players, baseball players, bodybuilders – all were led to, and became engrossed in CrossFit.

One facet among all the stories told seemed to be paramount: everyone there stumbled into CrossFit because they felt stuck. Miserable. Frustrated. Bored. They were disinterested in their current athletic endeavors, just like I was. It’s not that I didn’t like competing in figure, or that I didn’t like the life I was living, I just felt like I was missing something in my training. A greater sense of meaning and excitement. New connections, new adventures, and new possibilities.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” CrossFit is life-altering. I don’t say that to be cliché or to make the anti-CrossFit crowd throw up where they sit. I’m saying it because it’s true for me, relative to my life. Even if you don’t CrossFit and have no desire to, think about what I’m saying relative to your own athletic experience. Sport is meant to change you. And CrossFit has changed me. It’s changed the fitness industry. It’s changed perceptions about beauty, about strength. It has challenged my ideas about human potential and movement, about what I can and cannot do. It changed how I view training, recovery, and nutrition. It has challenged my ideas about the way things should work. About mental toughness, willpower, and strength. Had I never tried CrossFit, I wonder how much different my life would be today.

Life is too short to be miserable in your endeavors. I’m not saying I won’t compete in figure ever again – deep down, I believe I will. But I’m not sure when or where, and I’m okay with that. I’m training hard, gaining strength, and focusing on embracing the challenges and new experiences CrossFit is offering me. Even if you don’t CrossFit and have no desire to, don’t shrink away from change or new possibilities. Don’t buy into believing there is only one way. Be open-minded and embrace new ideas and methods, even if they fly in the face of the things you have come to know and believe. Remember, if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. And if we aren’t changing, then we aren’t progressing – and becoming stagnant is a sure path to mediocrity.

NOTE: I picked a different training session for today. I had a weekend long seminar I was attending, so I was busy from 9am until about 5pm nightly and I didn’t have much time during the day to get a workout in. I knew I’d be mentally done by the time I got home from the day long seminar. So I had to get up, get at it, get it done, and this is how it went down.

5am Training Session

• Run 800m
• 50 Kettlebell swings (35lbs)
• 12 minutes to snatch to a max – This was hard. I had 12 minutes to get my gear on (shoes, Rehbands, belt), tape my thumbs, and THEN attempt to snatch to a max. I was thrilled. My PR is 105. I hit 100 here today.
• Push press 5×5 on :60
• Good morning 5×5 on :60

30 minutes, rotate through the following stations:

• Minute 1: 200m Run
• Minute 2: 8 Heavy manmakers (I used 40lb dumbbells. I know everyone defines manmakers differently – I did these as renegade rows with a push up. So 1 rep was 1 push up off the dumbbells, then one row, each arm)
• Minute 3: 8 Burpee box jump overs (24” box)
• Minute 4: 250m Row
• Minute 5: 10 Pistols, each leg

• 4×10 Skin the cat
• 50 Double unders (I’m still perfecting these, so this is more for skill than anything else.)
• 4×10 Reverse hyper

Today’s Thought: “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Allison Moyer is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner ofAlli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet.

The post Expanding Your Athletic Horizons (Athlete Journal 16) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I believe this “altered state” exists in any avenue of sport or athletics. In fact, I think it’s been the discovery of that altered state that’s made me fall in love with weightlifting, CrossFit, and figure.

Finding that altered state in weightlifting is something I’ve experienced minimally, but it’s the most incredible high in the world. For every 200 snatches I do, I probably have one that works well – so well that I almost want to pause in that moment where I drop beneath the barbell perfectly, where my hamstrings aren’t tight, my shoulders don’t hurt, my hips feel fast, the weight feels light, and nothing about the movement feels like a struggle. So many days with weightlifting something is sore, or tight. Or maybe you underslept, your mind is elsewhere, or 75% of your max feels like 100%. Or maybe you just can’t seem to find technical fluidity with the barbell. But it’s all worth it – all of it – for that few seconds when everything comes together perfectly.

I feel that altered state happens in CrossFit the moment my mind shuts down in competition and my body takes over. So many times in CrossFit I’m in tune with the pain – with the shortness of my breath, the difficulty of movement, the tightness in my limbs. But then, every once in a while, I discover those rare moments in a metcon that make me feel unstoppable, unbeatable. I’m aware of what I’m doing, and aware that I’m moving, but I’ve found the place right beneath my redline where my body just takes over and goes. It doesn’t matter that I’m tired, that my mouth is dry, that I can’t breathe, or that my legs are going numb. I’ve found some other level, beyond the pain, past the inability to breathe. And that feeling, the incredibly superhuman sensation, is what keeps me coming back for more.

I’ve found that altered state on stage in figure. So much of bodybuilding is spent in struggle. You spend days, weeks, months logging endless hours in the gym, suffering in a caloric deficit with the iron. You weigh, you measure, you portion. Your life becomes ounces of water, ounces of protein, grams of carbs. You skip social functions in favor of early sleep. So many days you wonder if what you’re doing is worthwhile.

And then, suddenly, you’re faced with this incredible physique in the mirror, a body you built through your own hard work and dedication. And you step on stage, and it all becomes worth it for that first call out. Every single shit moment that occurred in the last twelve weeks of your prep fades to black. It doesn’t matter if you’re so dieted and fatigued that you can barely stand it – hearing that your physique, the body you toiled over and struggled to shape, has been called out first, makes every painful moment of prep seem like an afterthought.

And sometimes, beautifully so, I find that altered state in my training. Sometimes I have training sessions that leave me so high I feel nearly other-world. It’s those types of training sessions, those moments on stage, on the platform, or in competition that make every single daily difficulty worth it.

“I can’t believe some of the things I’ve seen people do in sports – all sport. It seems all elite athletes, regardless of sport share similar qualities, they thrive in places of pain and pleasure that other people don’t. And it’s their ability to thrive there that allows them to perform feats at the highest levels of human performance.

– Billie Joe Armstrong

A.M Training Session

Jogged 800m to warm up

8-10 minutes mobility

6 Rounds of 3 minute intervals (go on the top of every minute)

• Minute 1: 200m row
• Minute 2: 10x Burpees
• Minute 3: 15 Med ball slams

3×10 Double unders (I’m working on these…)

3×10 Barbell ab rollout

P.M. Training Session

AEROBIC:

• Run 1600m/Row 1600m
• Run 800m/ Row 800m
• Run 400m/ Row 400m
• Run 200m/ Row 200m

(Record times)

25 minutes mobility- lats/quads/shoulders/hamstrings

WEIGHTLIFTING:

Clean

• @65% 1×5
• @70% 1×1
• @75% 1×3
• @80%1×1
• @85% 2×2
• @80% 1×1
• @70% 1×1

Clean + Hang clean + 2 Front squat EMOM x6

STRENGTH:

Front squat

• @60% 1×5
• @70% 1×4
• @80%1×3
• @90% 2×1
• @60% x3-5

Push press 5×3 EMOM

Weighted pistol 3×3 then 3×3 3 position pistol w/pause

METCON 1:

AMRAP: As many burpees as you can in 10 minutes. At the top of each minute (including the first minute), perform five snatches @ 65lbs. Record burpees. This gassed me more than I thought it would. I wanted 100 burpees. I got 86.

METCON 2:

5 Rounds:

• 10x Tall box jump (I did 30”)
• 20x Pull ups

ACCESSORY:

• 50x Hip extension
• 50x GHD sit up

GIANT SET

5 rounds:

• 5x Ring chin ups
• 5x Face pull
• 5x Pendlay row

3×10 Janda sit up

3×10 Reverse hyper

COOL DOWN:

15 minutes bike @ 80%

Today’s Thought: “Truthfully, this is how I approach each of my workouts: I want to be the best athlete I can possibly be. This is my mindset, my mentality. If I outperform others, that’s great, but it’s my focus to outperform myself.” – Channing Tatum

Allison Moyer is a nationally ranked NPC Figure Athlete, nationally and internationally published fitness model, an avid CrossFit athlete, BSN, C.P.T, C.S.N, C.N.W.C, and owner ofAlli Fitness Systems and Predator Diet.

The post The Athlete’s Altered State (Athlete Journal Entry 15) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in,

and it will come naturally.”

– David Ford

What a weekend. This journal entry comes at an interesting time for me. This week marked both the conclusion of the first CrossFit Open WOD 14.1, which is always an exhilarating time, and my return from the 2014 Arnold Classic, which was an amazingly motivating and uplifting experience, as every Arnold Classic is.

I’ve had an incredible two weeks. These past fourteen days have left me feeling grateful. As athletes, we all go through training slumps or ruts, whether mental or physical. Those times are always rough, but they also make me appreciate the training highs so much more. Perhaps that’s why I’m in such a good mood over my training lately. My trip to the Arnold was preceded by a five-pound snatch personal record (PR), and that was preceded by a huge front squat PR. My snatch PR now sits at 105 and my front squat at 190.

To top that off, while out at the Arnold I not only had the honor of attending Lydia Valentin’s Olympic Weightlifting seminar at Crossfit Endeavor, but I also finally got to train at EliteFTS in London, Ohio, something which has been on my bucket list for years. I trained legs with Traci Tate, wife of Dave Tate, and Jennica Kidd, fellow NPC Figure Athlete. Just to walk through the doors of the facility and stand in that atmosphere was inspiring. To know that I was using the same equipment that built some of the world’s strongest athletes was a humbling and encouraging experience, and it reminded me of something that I truly feel I needed reminded of – why I began doing this in the first place. And by “this,” I mean training in general, whether for cross country, figure, or CrossFit.

Getting into the iron at Elite reminded me how much I love to train. As a seasoned athlete, I think I lose touch with that sometimes. It’s hard not to. But I think all of us need to keep some measure of connection to that pure, raw, simple passion that we began with as newbies. When everything was new and fresh, and we were just so enamored with training that particulars, politics, and semantics weren’t even of thought.

Lately the industry has turned into such a squabble ground. There seems to be so much dissention among different arenas of sport – whose methods are right, whose methods are wrong, who is better, and who is weaker. You troll any social media network and you’ll find CrossFitters bashing bodybuilders, powerlifters slamming CrossFit athletes, and endurances athletes trying to defend their methods against strength athletes. Admist all the squabbling and fighting about the science and the studies, something has been lost, in my opinion: Passion. Raw passion.

No matter what training box you put yourself into, chances are what brought you to the gym and first placed your hands on the barbell was passion and pure desire. That’s one common thread that links all forms of athletics, semantics aside.

EliteFTS founder Dave Tate has spoken numerous times about the importance of emotion and passion when it comes to the iron. He doesn’t separate emotion from his training. In fact, he’s openly embedded raw emotion into his sport. He talks frequently about unleashing his demons in the gym, and one of my favorite quotations is:

The fight you had with your girlfriend that day? Gone. Your finals? Gone. Your work issues? Gone. Your bills? Gone. The asshole across the gym? Gone. The bullies? Gone. The hurt? Gone. The mental pain is now replaced with physical pain, but this is pain that you crave, because the load you’ve been carrying all your life is now resting on your back. And now you have the power to smash it…This is the only time that I’m truly free, free from the bullshit that other people and life has thrown at me. It’s all gone, just me and the weight – my passion. And that’s where I find my peace.

He’s not talking about training methods, programming, nutritional strategy, or how best to progress an athlete using periodization. To me, that’s all surface shit. None of us stumbled into the iron game because of methods. We stumbled into training because of things far deeper than that. The older I get and the more seasoned of an athlete I become, the more I realize how imperative it is to stay in touch with those reasons.

It’s my guess that all of us, regardless of discipline, spend more time in the gym than we do with our families. We have sacrificed a lot in the way of our personal and professional lives for love of the sport. We have challenged ourselves and pushed our limits, and that’s really what it’s all about. It’s not who is better or stronger or what division of sport makes a better athlete. It’s not about whose methods are backed by what studies. There needs to be less arguing and more getting under the barbell and doing. We need to be learning, teaching, and experiencing. We should be attacking our training with passion and respecting and revering others who attack their training in the same way.

There may be differences in disciplines and in methods. But deep down, I believe we are all the same when it comes to our training. We all are still touching a barbell for the first time, or experiencing the rush in enduring a physical challenge. We are all running the race, standing up beneath heavy weight, tackling our personal demons, and fighting internal battles. We are testing our limits and we are evolving in iron. We were all led to sport by passion, and that passion should keep us inextricably linked.

“Where there is passion there does not need to always be reason. Sometimes there is no how or why – that it makes you come alive is simply enough.” – Unknown

A.M. Training Session

5 minutes jog/walk

8 minutes mobility

3 Rounds for time:

• Run 400m
• Row 500m
• 10 OH med ball slams
• 20 Janda sit ups

Then:

4 Rounds (not for time):

• 1 Wall walk + 12 Shoulder taps
• 45sec Hardstyle plank

120sec Jump rope

8 minutes to stretch hamstrings and band out shoulders

P.M. Training Session

Row 15 minutes, with a 30sec all-out effort every 3 minutes

15 minutes mobility- lats/quads/shoulders/hamstrings

Weightlifting:

• Clean – every minute, on the minute (EMOM) 10×1 -I added weight each round to a heavy single. (I got to 140lbs. My PR is 150).
• Then drop to 65% for 4×2 EMOM (90lbs)

Strength:

• Thruster 5×3 – I used two warmup sets first. I warmed up with 55 and then 75. I am terrible at thrusters (both physically and mentally). I never did a triple with thrusters, so I was feeling this out. After warming up I went to 85×3, 90×3, 94×3, 100×3, 105×3.
• Good morning 5×3 @95

MetCon 1:

• Buy-in 25 Burpees
• Then 21-15-9 Deadlifts @ 145/165/185 and Box jumps @ 20”/24”/30”

MetCon 2:

• 20 minute AMRAP (this SUCKED):
• Run 300m/20 Hand-release push ups (HRPU) – This just annihilated me. I was dying. Got 13 rounds + 5HRPU.

Accessory Work:

• Pull-ups (I’m on Pavel Tsatsouline’s Fighter Pullup Program) so this was 7, 6, 6, 5, 4
• 3×10 Pendlay row
• 3 sets of Kipping ring dips, stop 3-4 reps shy of failure + 30 second ring support hold
• 3 sets of 20lb Wall balls, stop 3-4 reps shy of a redline, rest 60 seconds between sets.

Today’s Thought: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out and meet it.”

– Thucydides

The post Athlete Journal: Alli Moyer, Entry 14 – 3/6/2014 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

– Thomas Edison

When I was growing up, failure presented itself as something pretty damn clear and public – you failed a test, you failed to do pull-ups in PE class. In the adult world, it was the same way – marriages failed if they wound up in divorce, your football team failed if they lost, you failed if you didn’t get that promotion at work. In figure competitions, failure was glaringly obvious – if the judges gave you first call outs you were a success. And if not, well, you failed. CrossFit has proven to be the same – you either lifted the weight successfully or you had a failed attempt. Period.

I’ve also realized that some failures can be private and hidden, like emotional and moral failures – for example, failing to understand another person, to do the right thing, to say what you mean, to listen or to understand another person. But whether failure is private or public, it’s still tied to this black-and-white, win-or-lose, pass-or-fail mentality. It’s taken me a long time to understand the nuances of success and failure, and to see how they often intertwine and overlap. What is failure to one person can be success to another, and much of what we consider success or failure isn’t a result of actually succeeding or failing, but only our reaction to the experience at hand.

Failure is defined as a lack of success, but it’s been said that in order to achieve anything, you have to be willing to fail. In essence, if you’re looking for the path to success, you have to be willing to take some wrong turns at first. And the sweetest victories always seem to be the ones that are the most difficult. In fact, it’s been my experience that the level of satisfaction in achievement is directly proportional to the level of hard work invested.

“Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error may well top the list. It is our meta-mistake: We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. We have a misconception of what failure is. We see it as being a shortcoming when in reality it’s merely a part of human experience, and a crucial form of experience at that. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. It’s how we react to these experiences that defines them as failures – not the actual experiences themselves.”

– Kathryn Schultz

When I was five, I took horseback riding lessons. The first time I was thrown, my mother made me get back on the horse. “You always get back on the horse that threw you,’ she said. “Otherwise you’ll never ride again.” That stuck with me, and perhaps it’s part of why I have no problem with failing. Failure is easy. I do it every day, probably in a million different ways. I have been doing it for years. I have more missed personal record (PR) attempts then I have PRs. I have dumped months of work and wasted whole years, I’m sure, doing bad programming and utilizing incorrect diet methods. I’ve placed poorly in just as many shows as I’ve placed well. And even when I am pointed the right way and am productive, training hard, and setting PRs or placing well in figure, I am still not satisfied by the results. I am always pushing for more. I think it’s an athlete’s nature to never be satisfied, and I happen to also have a perfectionist personality.

I have never been afraid of failing, although I have been afraid of what others would think of me if I did. But experience, trial and error, mistakes, shortcomings – these are the things that teach us, mold us, and make us better. Often times, I’ve found I learn more from doing things wrong than I do from doing things right. Unfortunately, the way society views failure and success has embedded in us a fear of failing – a fear so deeply rooted that it often prevents us from even trying. No one wants to be regarded as weak or incapable. No one likes feeling like they fall short all the time.

But consider your mindset when it comes to failure. Instead of seeing a result as being a failure or success, view it as an experience. A simple part of what it means to be alive. And be open to experience in all forms- both good and bad. Failure is an opportunity. It’s a chance to do things better, to get them right. It’s a chance to test yourself, push your limits. Failing has always made a fighter out of me – it has ensured that I go on pushing for a pro card, no matter how many naysayers I have. In fact, I think failure has been one of the best things for me. Not having had my pro card handed to me on a silver plate has really made me who I am. It led me into strength training and CrossFit and also into alternative ways of nutrition and programming.

You cannot let fear of failure prevent you from being who you are or doing what you love to do. One of the best ways to achieve mastery over failure is not to stay down, tap out, or surrender, but to come back up out of the mud swinging, ready for round two and then some. As my mother said, you have to “get back up on the horse that threw you.”

A.M. Training Session

Warm Up: 6 minutes:

• Jumping jacks
• PVC pipe front squats
• PVC pipe overhead press
• PVC pipe front rack lunge
• Hip thrust
• Inch worm

Mobility: 6 minutes, focused on hamstrings, quads, shoulders

EMOM x6: 8-10 burpee squat jumps

Then

EMOM x12: Complex – 1 clean from blocks + 1 power clean + 2 front squat + 1 jerk

Then

EMOM x6: 8-10 burpee lunge jumps

6 minutes muscle up progressions

5 Rounds: 30 second elbow plank/30 second locust pose

P.M. Training Session

Run 1 mile for time: 6:40 – New PR today!

10 minutes incline treadmill walking

6 minute dynamic warm up:

• Inchworm
• Walking lunges
• Push ups
• Hip thrusts

1000m row @ RPE of 7

6 minutes stretching/mobility

• Clean @ 80-85% 3×3, with 3-4 minutes rest between sets. I took two warm up sets at 95 and 105 then started at 80% of my 1RM, which is 120. I felt good – really good – so I bumped up next set to 125. I still felt strong, so took it to 130 for set 3. For a triple, I was thrilled.
• Deadlift 5×3 @ 80%. I don’t deadlift much and my old 1RM was 275, so I based it off that, which set the weight at 220. This felt really manageable, so I’m sure there’s another PR sitting in there somewhere.
• Push Press 5×5 with 2-3 minutes rest between sets. I did 105 for a set but it felt light, so I used that as a warm up and did 115, 120, 120

MetCon1: 10 kettlebell swings, 1x wall walk with 6x alternating shoulder taps (x10)

MetCon2: 500m row, then 2x front squat @ 90% clean + 10 HRPU EMOM x8, then 500m row

Accessory Work

• Kipping ring dips (stop 2-3 reps shy of failure), then a 30 second hollow hold from rings
• 3×5 ring row with 2 second hold at peak contraction
• 3×10 rear delt fly
• 3×10 wide stance kettlebell deficit squat

10 muscle up attempts – I’m so close, but I just cannot get myself over those damn rings!

4 Rounds: 25 walking lunges (no weight), 500m run (more of a light run/jog)

10 minutes stepmill – I use this for booty lifting purposes, not really cardio.

Today’s Thought: “It was so risky and so scary and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was it shouldn’t be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It’s the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something’s difficult to come by, you’ll do that much more to make sure it’s even harder, if not impossible, to lose.” – Sarah Dessen

The post Athlete Journal: Alli Moyer, Entry 13 – 2/20/2014 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“If you believe in yourself, and have dedication and pride – and never quit, you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.”

 – Paul Bryant

It’s easy, as athletes, to get weighed down in the trap of defining our successes by comparison to others.

• Did I beat his or her time?
• Did I lift more weight than “so and so?”
• Did I place higher? Run faster? Jump further?
• Did I step on stage in better shape?

The problem with this is that defining ourselves only by comparison with others always sets us up for feelings of shortcoming, weakness, and insufficiency. How do you define “winning?”

I know it’s just my opinion, but in my last eleven years in competitive figure, and now in competitive CrossFit, I’ve learned that winning isn’t always in the form of a trophy. Or a first place finish. Or even in the form of public recognition.

Sometimes victory is simply not giving up. It’s pushing for those extra reps or adding another five pounds to your squat. Victory is being dedicated. It’s showing up even when you don’t want to. It’s doing the work that needs to be done even when you’d rather be anywhere doing anything else.

There’s victory in commitment – the quiet success of knowing you had a full day’s worth of nutritional perfection, or didn’t miss one training session, or that you prioritized recovery. That you got to bed on time, that you stuck to your training plan, that you made time to food prep.

There’s victory in self-improvement – the moment when you realize you just beat your previous best in the mile, or a bench press, or max effort pull ups. The moment when you look in the mirror and realize that you have gained size in your shoulders or that your abs are beginning to show.

Sometimes it’s winning to simply believe in yourself, to work hard towards your goals and live each day with purpose and passion. I consider it winning to not give up when I know I could, to remain dedicated even with external distraction and to push forward even when others doubt me.

It’s one thing to win over others. It’s entirely another thing to win over yourself. It’s true, self-victories are seldom celebrated, publicized, or discussed. No one is really going to care, other than you, if you just killed your workout or if you ate all your meals on point that day. And so there are times when the journey seems lonely, misunderstood, and even pointless. But there’s a reason you began – never forget that. And in the end, know that no matter what the outcome, the trophy or lack thereof, the self-victories along the way make it all worth it.

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”

– Aristotle

A.M. Training Session

120 seconds jump rope

6x400m – The goal here was consistency, not all-out effort. I based my run times off of my last tested mile time which was 6:43. The goal was to get consistent times across all 400m run, using sixty seconds rest in between each effort. I was happy with my results, and this felt really good. I averaged 1:40 for each effort.

EMOM x6:

3-5 strict ring dips

Handstand hold remaining minute

120 seconds jump rope

8 minutes to stretch hamstrings and band out shoulders

Weightlifting Session

I did this session with my coach at B.A. Athletics, Inc.

Clean to a heavy single – got to 130 then dropped to 85 for 5×2

Banded clean pulls 5×3 @115

P.M. Training Session

Run 2 miles @ 75-80%

7 minute dynamic warm up: 20 jumping jacks, 10 OH squats with barbell only, 10 V sit ups, 10 hip thrusts, 10 alternating deep lunges

Snatch 1×1@60, 1×1@70, 1×1@80, 1×1@90 – I failed here on the first attempt, but got back in it and got it for the second attempt. I was feeling super tight in my shoulders so I didn’t attempt the 1×1@95 that was programmed. Instead I stayed at 90% for another rep then followed the remainder of the programming which was 2×1@70.

Snatch high pull 4×2@80 – These felt good.

EMOTM x12: Back rack alternating lunge 3-4x, 8-10 pull ups (kipping)

MetCon: 10 minute AMRAP:

• 2 wall balls (14lbs)
• 2 burpees
• 4 wall balls
• 4 burpees, etc until time limit.

This metcon sucked. I usually love burpees, but I died doing this. I couldn’t breathe and I have no idea why. I got to twenty wall balls + three burpees.

5 Rounds (NFT): 5-10 chin ups, 3-5 plyo push ups, 10-30 second ring hollow hold

Accessory Work: 3×10 face pull

Accessory Work: 3×10 seated dumbbell lateral raise

15 minutes stepmill

Today’s Thought: “Sparta, Rome, the knights of Europe, the samurai… worshipped strength. Because it is strength that makes all other values possible.” – Enter the Dragon

The post Athlete Journal: Alli Moyer, Entry 12 – 2/6/2014 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Joy is the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose. When there is no joy in the action, then you have lost your sense of purpose.”

 – Charles Du Bos

I love this quotation because it speaks to the importance of joy in what you do. It is said that training is the creative outlet of the athlete. That training is, in essence, to an athlete what the creation of a painting is to an artist or a piece of literature is to a writer. So training, for an athlete, needs to produce a sense of happiness or fulfillment.

Does your training bring you joy?

I’ve tossed this question back and forth a lot in my own mind lately, ever since my dad asked me this several months back. Does my training bring me joy?

Regardless of whether you’re a powerlifter, endurance junkie, CrossFitter, or bodybuilder, any elite level athlete runs the risk of falling into the trap of training because we “have to” rather than because we want to. I’m sharing this because I’ve been that athlete and I’ve fallen into that trap, and because I had an epiphany yesterday that helped solidify the path I’m on.

Yesterday I did my first old school set/rep workout in months. Now, I do set/rep work in the form of squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows, and I’m all for implementing accessory work to bring up lagging body parts, correct imbalances, and help bolster weaknesses, but yesterday I did my first set/rep isometric and machine-inclusive workout in months. Don’t ask me why – it’s not relevant, really – but here’s what is:

I realized, with a full heart that I would rather hang myself then do one more mind-numbing lat pull down, bicep curl, or elliptical cardio session. Ever. I’ve had my fill in my life of “getting a pump” on the Smith machine or the leg extension, or trying to find some way to burn 500 calories in thirty minutes on an arc trainer.

It’s not that I’m bashing those methods – they just aren’t for me anymore. I spent the last year or so of my life (before I found CrossFit and Olympic lifting) being that athlete who hated her training. It was boring, mind-numbing, and dull. That style of training stopped speaking to my soul. It stopped inspiring me, to create, to be, to give my all and to do my best. If training is the creative outlet of the athlete, then creatively I was dead.

I know many athletes stuck in situations like this – going through the motions, training in one style or another because they feel they “have” to. This is a shame because for most of us training is not a job and we often don’t make a single penny doing it. In fact, most of us lose money as a result of our training addictions – straps, belts, implements, coaching, nutritionists, stage suits, entry fees, contest fees, gym memberships, and so on. For most of us, training is something we do voluntarily. We elect to spend our precious free time in the gym, beneath a barbell. So why on earth would you want to spend free time doing something you don’t enjoy?

Our lives are filled to the brim with shit we don’t want to do – work, appointments, and errands. Training is free time. It should elevate, stimulate, inspire, and speak to your soul. It should energize you, not drain you. It should be fun. It should not be on the list of things you have to do, but on the list of things you want to do.

Does your training bring you joy?

Ask yourself. Because if you have lost your love of your training then maybe it’s time you stepped away. Changed it up. Tried something new. People change. People grow and evolve, and it’s inevitable that what was once stimulating to you might not always be.

When I was running cross country in college I was stimulated by long distance running. And while traditional isometric workouts and machine-based cardio were once the basic structure of my training program, I’ve found, through CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting, that training for strength and performance is what really brings me joy. And yesterday I realized, harshly, that I cannot go back. And that’s okay. John Gruden said, “You can’t stay the same, no one ever does. You either get better or you get worse.”

Which brings me back to the original question my dad asked me:

“Does it bring you joy?” (He was referencing my newfound love of Olympic weightlifting and CrossFit)

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, does it make you happy? Do you like to do it?” he replied.

“I love it, Dad.”

“Then that’s all it needs to do,” he said. “If it makes your heart happy, then it’s making you better, and if it makes you better, then it’s worth the time spent.”

“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to act in accordance with our heart – not with what we think we should do,

or what others tell us we ought to do.”

– Marianne Williamson

A.M. Training Session

2 Rounds:

Row 1200m

Run 1200m

3×10 GHD

Muscle Up Progressions (10 minutes)

P.M. Training Session

20 minutes run intervals, 2 minutes on, 1 minute recovery

Power Snatch 1×3@50, 1×3@60, 1×3@65, 2×3@70

Snatch High Pull 4×3@80

EMOTM x12: Push Press 3-4x, KB Swings 8-10x

EMOTM x5: 5 Strict Pull-ups, 10-12 Kipping Pull-ups

MetCon: 3x Hang Power Snatch @ 65, 5x OH Squat at same weight, 250m row x5

Bench Press 4×4

EMOTM x5: 3-5 Strict Ring Dips, 5-8 HRPU

4 Rounds (rest whenever needed): Inverted Row 8-10x, DB Lateral Raise 6-8x

4 Rounds (no rest) 30sec elbow plank, 30sec hollow rocks, 10x candlesticks, 20x situps

15 minutes weighted vest incline treadmill walk, pace of 3.0-3.4, incline of 12.5, no hands

Today’s Thought: “Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.” – Alex Carras

The post Athlete Journal: Alli Moyer, Entry 11 – 1/23/2014 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.