Lead-off this morning’s workout with the following bout of MetCon work:
Barbell Whip Snatch* to full Overhead Squat: 95lbs x 6 reps each round
Reverse-Grip Pull-Ups: 45 x 6; 70 x 6, 6, 6
Weighted Dips: 45 x 7; 70 x 6, 6, 6
Four rounds of that, concentrating on the quality of each exercise’s reps as opposed to attempting to squeeze in everything in minimal time. Overall time was a distant second concern. Notice that the rep scheme here for each exercise was such that the time-under-tension fell at approximately 10 seconds. This was not by accident, as I was targeting work on the anaerobic energy system. I should have increased the weight a bit on the whip-snatch to OHSs and decreased the reps to 4 or 5, as I ran a little over time-wise here (approximately 12 seconds TUT to complete 6 reps, i.e. approximately 2 seconds per rep).
*Think explosive barbell muscle up, with a little more hip kick. Or, somewhere between a power snatch and a barbell muscle-up. Note: googling “whip snatch” or “power snatch” is…er…an interesting experience to say the least, and not necessarily safe for work 🙂
Then it was on to some more unilateral work — and some marked improvement in the function of my right leg’s pistol ability. Good news!
Single-Leg Deadlift (reaching variation): 25lb plate x 7, 7, 7 (each leg)
Pistol Squats: 25 lb plate for both right and left legs x 7, 7, 7 (each leg)
These two exercises were done in superset fashion. Nice to see the functionality in my right leg returning so quickly.
And in other news…
My contention has always been that diet success has more to do with one’s ability to adequately manage emotion and situations more than anything else. Knowledge, combined with emotional maturity, can overcome any obstacle (be it weight issues or otherwise). And to that end, NPR’s Morning Edition ran a story this morning (Rational or Emotional? Your Brain on Food), that you might find interesting.
Hmmm, you say — leptin…what’s that hormone all about again?
Stephan, of the wonderful blog Whole Health Source, did a fantastic Leptin / Lectins series a while back (part I, part II, part III) that you might want to revisit after having taken in the NPR stories. It always comes back to the avoidance of sugar and grains, doesn’t it? How simple can you get? Eating a healthful diet doesn’t require advanced intelligence, but it does require a bit of determination — and probably most important, emotional intelligence.
And then we have the follow-up to the Rational / Emotional story, Why We Gain Weight as We Age, with lots of discussion on age-onset muscle loss (sarcopenia). All that’s required is the proper stimulus, though, coupled with the proper diet, to maintain healthy muscle mass well into one’s later years. Just ask Art DeVany and his lovely wife, “Wonderwoman” about that.
Theory to Practice 
Keith,
Have always loved and admired your focus on form and technique when performing these exercises. I took some exception to a recent article on CFJ:http://journal.crossfit.com/2010/02/at-the-chalkboard-perfect-technique.tpl for this very reason. When I do WODs at my affiliate, I concentrate first on doing every rep with full range of motion and as good technique as I can manage. Everything else is secondary for me.
Ryon
There’s a fine line between grinding through with acceptable technique flaws, and pulling the plug when technique degrades to the point of unacceptability. It’s of those things that’s tough to define, yet, like art, you know it when you see it. This is where having a knowledgeable eye around is so very valuable. Sometimes (often times?) GG is his own worst enemy (re: the whole Robb Wolf debacle), and in an effort to make a point, he uses overblown/bad analogies. He did save himself at the end of the clip, when he spoke of the guys wife and her Oly technique; acceptable, albeit not perfect. Can she still derive benefit from the movement, even if done imperfectly? You bet. I just wouldn’t have her push the envelope here.