You Are Not Born Strong - You Must Become Strong

I always find it funny when people assume that a person is just born a certain way. Sometimes we just assume a person is naturally lean because they are lean most of the time, or they are naturally strong because they lift a lot of weight in the gym, or they can eat a lot of food because they have a fast metabolism.

People make these judgements or assumptions because they only see part of the picture which is the final result, they don't see how that picture became what it is, what was involved in the making of that final result.

I stay under 10% body fat all year round but that does not make me naturally lean. It takes commitment to my diet and making sure I burn plenty of calories each day with exercise. I can get fat just like anyone else.

People tell me my strength is only because I have a lot of muscle on me, did they stop to think where I got the muscle from. Was this muscle always there? Did it just magically appear overnight? Or maybe it has taken years of pushing myself at the gym way beyond where most people are comfortable to venture. Muscle is a byproduct of strength, strength is a byproduct of effort.

Full Week of Workout Videos - Thursday Legs - Deadlifts CrossFit

47 minutes - 582 Calories - Average Heart Rate 145 - Max Heart Rate 192.

• Garmin Heart Rate Monitor Session Link

Location: CrossFit Langley

Warmup & Mobility

Strength:

• Deadlift - 225 lbs x8 reps (Legs & Back)
• Deadlift - 315 lbs x8 reps (Legs & Back)
• Deadlift - 365 lbs x8 reps (Legs & Back)
• Deadlift - 405 lbs x11 reps (Legs & Back)

METCON:

• 5 Rounds
• 8 Straight Leg Deadlifts with 65 lbs each arm
• 10 Ab Rolls
• 5 Pull-ups

Workout Journal - Squats - 265 Pounds for 6 Reps

Still chipping away at the Squats! We all know Squats build a great but (Glutes) and chiseled Quads ;) Anyways, my last Workout Journal entry for squats was almost exactly a month ago and I did 275 pounds for 2 reps. Today at CrossFit Langley we where working on 5 sets of 5 reps increasing our weight as we went up to achieve a maximum weight 5 rep set. My goal weight was 265 pounds and I hit the 5 reps with a bit of juice still left in the tank so I did one more for good measure.

I'm not sure what my max single rep Squat is but hope to get somewhere just over 300 pounds when we do our next heavy weight Squat workout.

Here are the set weights leading up to the 6 rep 265 pound squat set:

• 5 x 135 (Warmup)
• 5 x 185
• 5 x 205
• 5 x 225
• 5 x 245
• 6 x 265 

We finished up the day with a quick 6 round AMRAP of:

• 5 squats @ 135 pounds (nice and deep)
• 6 box step-ups
• 12 lunges

Video samples taken from (www.crossfit.com)

CrossFit Style - No Resting - Legs Only Workout

Today's full CrossFit Style (Sort-of) workout focuses entirely on legs, the reason it is CrossFit Style is because I rotate through my exercises with little to no breaks and incorporate elliptical as my extra cardio, so basically the entire workout is all cardio while still getting a complete leg workout in.

I do six rounds in this workout, the first three rounds rotate between squats, calf raises and 1 minute of high intensity elliptical while the last three rounds I switch over to sets of Leg raises and Leg extensions along with my 1 minute of high intensity elliptical again. The entire workout lasted around 25 minutes so I made it a 30 minute workout by finishing up doing my last 5 minutes on the elliptical. This workout was an easy 500 calories burned with my entire lower body getting worked over while also getting a full cardio workout. That's what makes the CrossFit concept (even if not entirely strict) supper awesome!

Daily Workout - Legs at Fitness World

Today I have a soar throat and I wasn't planning on doing a workout but someone else wanted to head over to Fitness World for a workout so along I went. It wasn't too bad, I only did about 40 minutes worth and no Cardio or Abs, just legs today!

• Squats with Squat Machine.
• Calf Raises with Seated Calf Machine.
• Leg Extensions with Universal Leg Extension Machine.
• Leg Curls with Universal Leg Curl Machine.

Total workout time: About 40 minutes.