Am I Stagnating?

stag·nate   [stag-neyt] verb, -nat·ed, -nat·ing.
verb (used without object)
3. to stop developing, growing, progressing, or advancing.

Last night at the dojo, I had a conversation with Sandman regarding training & improving.

My problem is this: I hit the gym 3-4 times a week. I am getting stronger. The workouts are not easy. My cardio is pretty good. BUT, as I phrased it to Sandman, I haven't had the urge to puke or poop my pants in quite sometime. Not that I want to be the guy that couldn't hold his bowels or keep his innards...in. But I feel like there is another level...I know I have another gear left...but I need to figure out how to get there!

The simple solution here is to change it up, which sounds good in theory, but when very few workouts are the same...it's hard to get more variety than that.


So how does one fix this problem?
The immediate first thing that comes to mind is to remove my own roadblocks. There is a plethora of fitness and exercise information available, beyond that, any creative mind (...but not too creative, don't get crazy) can draft a series of butt-kicking workouts to keep things fresh. I have the very bad habit of saying to myself, "I'm not doing that...". Time to kick over some roadblocks and keep it moving.

Variety is the spice of life. In one of Ross Enamait's books, he provides a 30 day training schedule and to my knowledge (I don't have the book in front of me) none of the workouts repeat. In addition, Crossfit repeats occur rarely. Maybe my idea of variety isn't varying enough...perhaps I need to have chicken, steak *and* venison. Perhaps a parsnip or two in my workout salad.

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Whenever I workout, I have a fairly decent idea of what I want to accomplish; I try to stick to a structure, and I have days where I want to accomplish either X, Y or Z within that structure. Once X is off the board, the next workout tackles Y or Z and so on. Perhaps removing the option is the way to go. On Day One, I will do Z, Day Two Y, Day Three X...

So, what are you going to do about it.
First and foremost, I plan to open up the playbook a little bit. I haven't touched Crossfit Fran in awhile (she and I flirted a bit for awhile...she rebuffed my advances). I should dial her up more often...Angie is another Crossfit beauty I should spend a little more time with as well.

...and so my wife doesn't maim me, these are workouts, not people. ;-)

More circuit exercises for time or rounds & general physical preparedness (GPP) sessions, a la Ross, should make a comeback too. And simply for low hanging fruit: more bagwork!

Time to revamp, evolve and progress. Yoshukai strong --that's what it's all about.
OSU!
-CM