KETTLEBELLGUY

345 lb deadlift, PR

At Crossfit at 6AM. Eric, Matt, Tomas, Randy with Brian and Jerry coaching.

Feeling good this morning but a little concerned about my left shoulder.

Today we did Crossfit Total (CFT). This was my first time.

CFT is your combined weight from your best attempt out of three for:

Shoulder Press
Back Squat
Dead Lift

I felt like I might have a decent chance at a good showing because my deadlifts had been going well in the past. The shoulder press and squat had me more worried.

A deadlift is really a safe movement. If you can’t pick it up, you can’t pick it up. With a press or squat there is more potential for losing the weight.

We had a lot of fun going through the movements. Eric and I worked together and pushed our totals as high as we could.

When it was all said and done I had accomplished what I would have considered to be the impossible. I came in with the highest total. I actually had the highest deadlift. Tomas was right behind me on total score.

Tomas and I are two of the biggest guys at the gym and for metcon (metabolic conditioning) workouts you would not expect us to come in at the front of the pack. It was very interesting to me to see that in a pure strength workout we came out first and second out of five in today’s class. My total was 715 and Tomas was 705. Tomas did a better back squat while I came out ahead in the deadlift.

We were both feeling good because it’s rare (or never) that we lead the pack.

Now that I fully understand the CFT I will do better next time just because I will not hold back the way I did today. Also, by the time we do it again I should have increased my strength.

It really brings up a lot of interesting questions about size and what people are able to do. At 6’3″ and 250 lbs I have a lot of distance to cover and a lot of weight to move compared to person 5’3″ and 120 pounds. That is one of the main reasons I am always lagging behind in quick movements like pull ups or burpees.

On the other hand my size is an advantage for movements like deadlifts. I proved that, at least to myself, this morning.

It was nice to have a really successful day. My left shoulder was bothering me this morning and I was concerned about what our workout might include. Once we got into the lifting my shoulder was ok and has not hurt for the rest of the day. If we had done something like 20 pull ups and 20 push ups for multiple sets I know my shoulder would most likely be hurting this evening.

Weather continues to be wet but not too cold. Tomorrow night I have a deployment that I will need to go to Cleveland for in the evening. I am hoping for the best but usually with something like this it ends up being an all night job.

This was day two without a Blackberry. Life goes on in spite of that.

Here a picture of Chris who set his deadlift PR the previous day, 345 lbs.