WOD and Workout Approach

So you may be wondering why I'm only posting my WOD, or Workout of the Day, about 3-4 times per week. Most of us our conditioned (no pun intended) when it comes to fitness to think that more is better. But my current approach, influenced heavily by Mark Sisson's book The Primal Blueprint and his website Mark's Daily Apple, has a definite less-is-more focus.

I was, of course, skeptical, believing that weight loss success would require at least 6 days a week of heavy cardio. This was the approach I took when I started this journey almost two years ago as described in my Inaugural Blog, and even though I could not sustain it (lack of time/constant injury), I believed it was the correct approach. It wasn't until I started to do some research as I started out with Crossfit IV last November that I learned there was an approach to fitness that was not only more sustainable, it was more effective.

While I will get into more details in future posts, the basic workout philosophy I learned from The Primal Blueprint and have been using ever since is as follows:

• Lift heavy things 3 times per week
• Move frequently at a slow pace
• Sprint, all out effort, every 7-10 days

Of course, this workout plan is only one aspect--the diet is the most important component--and Sisson provides a nice overview of both the diet and workout basics on The Primal Blueprint Diagram page. The good news is, you can essentially follow this from home without any expensive equipment and do quite well--in fact, if you subscribe to Mark's Daily Apple, you will receive, for free, all the tools and resources you need, including videos of body-weight exercises that take care of the "lift heavy things" component. What it looks like for me is:

• Crossfit 3 times per week (I'll explain why this is the best way for me to get my lifting done in a future post) which provides a nice combination of functional drills that incorporate lifting and mobility workouts
  
• Walking, mostly my dogs, every day, 1-2 times per day, along with frequent leisurely bike rides, and at least one long hike or bike ride each week
  
• Windsprints or bike intervals ever 1-2 weeks

I have found this to be a perfect blend--easy to follow and fit in my busy schedule, varied enough to keep me interested, motivated and injury free, and, perhaps most important, fun. As a result, unlike past workout initiatives, I've been able to stick to this one much longer than a few weeks.

So here is today's WOD--and hopefully the above gives it some perspective:

WOD for 4-14-12

Warm Up:
400 M run
Samson Stretch
Air Squats
Abmat Sit Ups
Planks

WOD:
AMRAP 8 (As Many Rounds as Possible in 8 minutes)
5 Man Makers
10 Ball Slams

What's a Man Maker?