More Strength work

Warmup: run 400m (no side stitch), ME, 40 wallball in and 40 1P kb swings in alternating sets of 10. Wallball sets were with 14# ball except 2nd set was with 10#, DL skill practice. I still can't string them together at all, but they regularly get high enough. Also, my 1P KB swings are getting SO Much stronger. The first few reps of a set really easily get overhead now - i think I even managed to get my first 10 consecutive today, though the last few reps were much weaker.

WOD:
Deadlift 3x7
Warmup 10 x 45#
115-125(f r3)-115-120-120-125-125

Cashout: 100 air squats

(3 x 30sec static hold w/ active shoulders once we got home while Daniel made dinner)

Comments:
Well - I am definitely stronger than I used to be :-) Not too long ago, doing this workout at 100# would have been a challenge. Though there is something about this movement that just occasionally eludes me (usually around rep 3).

I was trying to be really good about form today, and I ditched any rep that felt like it was coming from my back instead of my legs. If I were being strict about it, I really failed more sets than just #2, because for several of them I had to make several attempts and shake things out a bit in order to get rep 3 to go up. I generally never had a problem with rep # 1 or 2.

Ironically set 7 was the best set I had all night. I finally decided to try the reverse grip, and all three reps went up, no problem. Made me want to try again with more weight, but I was already one of the last to finish.

While I was hanging around keeping nez company while she finished her set, I decided to work my air squat - keeping my form as clean as possible. So I did 100 squats - not for time, just slow and steady. My form on these has really improved. As long as I am being conscious about it, my knees hardly wobble at all now.

When we left, Max said he was planning on making us do something evil - but it's only 1RM clean and jerks. I'm a little disappointed it isn't a metcon-y thing since we've done straight strenght the past two days, but we did just embark on a "strength cycle" so we might as well take it where we can get it. I'm hoping to finally manage to clean 65# or more tomorrow.


Health:
I got my Direct LDL test back today - and the number was better than the calculated - but not much. 138 instead of 145. I was stressed about it at first, but I've done a little research, and there are definitely questions out there about whether high cholesterol really has the causal relationship with heart disease that current medical thinking says it does. And there are even some studies out there that say high cholesterol has some beneficial effects. Looking at it from a "whole picture" point of view: I am in the best shape I have ever been in pretty much every aspect - strength, aerobic conditioning, and body composition. As long as my good cholesterol stays high, I am not going to worry too much about the total or the bad.

Also - I assume this is completely unrelated - my right hand felt particularly numb/tingly this morning - it's better now, but still different than it usually is. No idea what that's about. Last night when I was finished with the 21 bench press reps of the empty bar my right arm really did feel as if it was going to give out on me - I wonder if it's related to that.

Sleep:
11:34 - 7:45 I got up around 5am and did not manage to go soundly back to sleep for the rest of the night. I know I slept some, because I remember a few dreams, but it was not restful sleep. I had a low grade headache (maybe dehydrated?) when I woke up, and I think that is the reason I was not able to get back to sleep. When I finally took some advil around 6:30, i had better luck getting back to sleep.

Food:
9:30 coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk.
11:45 cottage cheese with almonds & cinnamon - 1.25 cups
3:25 1 bowl "magic slowcooker chicken soup/stew" w/ almonds. It was delicious!
7:45 16oz milk
8:00 2.5 mango chicken sausages, 1 cup sauteed spinach, 2 oz walnuts
8:30 16oz milk
12:00a 2 zma
forgot to take my vitamins today - DOH!

Tune-up?

Climbing:
5.9(c), 10a (f)

I was pretty tired tonight, and the gym was packed, so i only got in two climbs. The first was an exceptionally friendly 5.9 that I only did a fair job of getting up. It was clean, but it was cot graceful. Then I got to try a new 10a. I had a rough spot at the start, but it was smooth sailing after that. Daniel said I looked really strong - with a few moves, in particular, that I would not have been able to pull off in the past, and it felt good.

Blood Test:
I went to the dr. for a checkup today, and asked to get a blood test done. Here are my vital statistics:

Blood Pressure: 98/66
Weight: 125
Lipid Panel:
Cholesterol: 237
Triglyceride: 32
HDL: 86
LDL Calculated: 145

Fasting Glucose: 87

I have no idea what any of it means. I'm a little concerned about my cholesterol and LDL levels - they're both listed as "borderline high" levels, but my HDL is 26 points higher than than the bottom of the "extremely healthy" range. so maybe it is the reason the total cholesterol is high, and positively offsets the high LDL cholesterol. I read on one site that a ratio of Total Cholesterol to HDL Choleserol of 3.5:1 is good, and lower than that is better, and this is a ratio of 2.76:1.

Sleep:
11:40 - 7:55 - slept pretty well. minimal waking up. some overheating. daniel thinks i may be experiencing gluconeogenesis (big long funny word that essentially means overheating) due to the increased intensity of my workouts and decreased carb intake.

Food:
Fast 9:30pm - 1:07pm
1:07 coffee w/ 2/3 cup milk, 1.25 cup cottage cheese, 1.5 oz slivered almonds, 1tsp cinnamon
1:30 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
5:30 1.5 oz spiced cashews
8:30 1 bowl magic crockpot chicken. 16oz milk
9:20 16 oz milk, 2 little squares chocolate

Never quite got around to eating lunch.

By the numbers

So, it's been about six months since I made some pretty radical changes to my diet. I made two major changes: one to my macronutrient profile, and the other to my eating schedule (Intermittent Fasting). Although these changes have been extremely positive to my performance and body composition, I figured I should get my blood tested, just to be safe. I do eat a lot of eggs, after all, flying in the face of years of conventional medical wisdom.

Some quick facts about me:

• 6'4"
• 175 pounds
• 10% bodyfat
• 32 years old
• Caucasian male
• Don't smoke, rarely drink
• Vegetarian for 27 years
  

MACRONUTRIENTS
I changed my macronutrient profile to a high-fat, high-protein and relatively low carb schema, that typically looks like this (daily):

• 2k - 2.5k calories
• Fat: 50%
• Carbs: 20%
• Protein: 30%

I try very hard to eat whole, natural foods and avoid prepackaged stuff. I eat a LOT of eggs (4-8 daily), drink a lot of milk & kefir, eat unholy amounts of nuts and nut butters, and make up the rest with vegetables, cheese, tofu, soy/wheat protein products (ie, tofurkey), and coffee. Sugar, grains and alcohol are extremely minimal. And yes, no meat.

I supplement with Fish oil, a multivitamin, glucosamine and ZMA. I've recently started exploring BCAA's as well, with encouraging results.

INTERMITTENT FASTING
I typically fast from 8pm-noon (16 hours), five days a week. I don't really count it as a fasting day if it's less than 16 hours, but I will occasionally go as long as 20-21 hours. Not often, though. I prefer working out fasted.

TRAINING
CrossFit ~5 days a week, plus climbing 2-3 days a week.

BLOOD TEST RESULTS
My results in bold, the figure in parentheses is the "normal" amount. According to Kaiser.

• Blood pressure: 129/79
  
• Glucose, fasting: 86 (60-99 mg/dL)
• Cholesterol: 135 (<239- mg/dL)
• Triglyceride: 41 (<199- mg/dL)
• HDL: 77 (>40- mg/dL)
• LDL: 50 (<129- mg/dL)
• ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase), serum: 18 (<36- U/L)
• Creatinine: 0.98 (<1.3- mg/dL)
• Glomerular Filtration Rate: >60 (>60- mL/min)
• Thyroid Stimulating Hormone: 2.6 ( 0.2-5.5 uIU/mL)

SHORT VERSION: ALL CLEAR
I don't know what all these things mean (what the hell is Alanine Aminotransferase?), but it all looks to be well within normal bounds, at any rate, which is good. The cholesterol numbers seem pretty fantastic, which was the point of this whole experiment - I celebrated with a plate of four scrambled eggs. I'll need to do some research into the other stuff to try and figure out what it means, but at the moment I don't see any red flags here. Full steam ahead!