Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

This is good for a giggle and a waste of 10 minutes. Checkout the Simpsons Movie Avatar Maker Here’s mine:

Weekly Crossfit exercises round-up:

Tuesday 17th July

Classic circuit training here:

15 High Box Jump
30 Double Unders (skipping where the rope goes round twice per jump)
15 L Pull Ups (I could only manage knee raise pull ups)
30 Sit Ups
Run 430m
15 Dumb Bell Cleans
30 Lunge Walk
15 Ball Slam
30 Press Ups (Push ups for you Yanks)
Row 430m

Time (Box height, DBells each)

20:55 (30″, 17.5kg)

This was well hard and I was a mess by the time we finished.

Thursday 19th July

An odd one this one, not for time but for the max weight you can do in each group of rounds. I increased weight once I had good form:

5 rounds of: 1 Snatch + 3 Over Head Squats.
Then 5 rounds of: 1 Snatch + 2 Over Head Squats.
Then 5 rounds of: 1 Snatch + 1 Over Head Squats.

Group 1: 40 – 40 – 40 – 50 – 50
Group 2: 50 – 55 – 55 – 55 – 60 –
Group 3: 60 – 65(PB) – 67.5(F) – 67.5(F) – 67.5(F)

On the first attempt at 67.5kg I managed to drop the bar on my head! Not something I’d recommend to be honest, but fortunately it was a glancing blow as the bar was on the way down from back to front and looked a lot worse than it was.

Snatches are fun, I enjoyed this one.

Friday 20th July

5 rounds of
5 Dumb Bell Deadlifts
5 Dumb Bell Cleans
5 Dumb Bell Push Presses
5 Dumb Bell Front Squats

So each “round” is 20 lifts in total, and you can’t put the dumbbells down in the round. It’s the push presses I find hardest. I did this back in April and did the same weight, but this time it did feel easier to be fair.

15 – 17.5 – 20 – 22.5 – 25

Saturday 21st July

“Angie”
100 Pull Ups
100 Press Ups
100 Sit Ups
100 Squats

34:50

A signature Crossfit workout, Angie is hard. Each exercise must be done in its entirety before moving on to the next. And a 35 min workout is a long time for Crossfit. Now, everything hurts: My wrist is sore, I have a blister on my right palm, my forearms ache, my right elbow is tender, both my shoulders feel like they’ve been stamped on, my back ache’s, front and back of thighs both feel sore. It would be quicker to say what *doesn’t* hurt! Damn it was hard.

Still, no pain, no gain and all that. It’s been interesting over the last few months, as I’ve seen a few people come down the gym, never to return. There was a guy the other day apparently, who’d heard that the actors in the film the 300 Spartans, had all been doing Crossfit style workouts to get in shape for the film (which is true) and he’d looked it up and came down as he wanted to get fit and sculptured like them. It appears there was just one snag: he hadn’t factored in the “hard work” element to getting fit! When he realised that he’d actually have to work out, sweat and perhaps suffer a bit, that was it, he was gone. Lol.

I’ve just had my driveway “cleaned and treated” by a trio of dodgy Paddy’s. It’s bizarre timing as the wife mentioned only on Sunday about the state of the drive (weeds and moss etc) and she also slipped on its slipper surface yesterday. That’s pretty much the only reason I said yes, and that they weren’t that expensive.

However, that’s not the point. The sales patter the guy had was excellent, and hit ALL of the major influence factors proven to get people to buy: Reciprocation; Consistency; Social Proof; Liking; Authority and Scarcity. He also had several upsells and downsell in his pipeline designed to maximise profits.

Sales patter:
– He informed me that they were doing the estate and had already done some of the drives round the corner. Social Proof – TICK.
– He said that it was normally £180, but he’d do it for £90 – Reciprocation – TICK. (actually I paid £50 in the end, also he used the Contrast Principle here too).
– He was a very affable fellow, full of smiles, and trying to give me the impression he was doing a favour, just for me. Liking – TICK.
– He was only “in the area today, we won’t be here tomorrow”. Scarcity – TICK

Post agreement Upsells (I’ve said yes once, I’m more likely to say yes again, Consistency principle – TICK.):
– Upsell 1 – Repairing my uneven driveway, he “Does block paving for a living”. Authority – TICK.
– Upsell 2 – Fascias and Sofits redone in PVC.

Downsell (the principle here is if you’ve tried upsells and they don’t work, then try a down sell. He was quite deliberate to wait till I’d definitely said no to the upsells before offering me the downsell):
– They put on the “Summer” coat on the drive, but lucky me, they had just 1/2 a tin left over of extra special Winter coat stuff. *Just* enough to do my drive, and they’d put on this extra durable coat for a very low £30 more. 😉

All in all, a masterful sales performance.

If you’re interested in learning about this subject and the psychological triggers that make people say yes, I can’t recommend this book enough:

UK Link – Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion
USA Link – Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion

Woohoo, I love Crossfit Total days! Simply put, Crossfit Total (of CFT for short) is:

• 3 single reps of Back squats
• 3 single reps of Shoulder Presses (or Military Press if you prefer)
• 3 single reps of Dead Lifts.

Then you sum the best lifts from each exercise (one from each), to give you a Crossfit Total, which is a nice strength number with which you can compare to previous Crossfit Totals to see how you’re getting stronger. It also lends to my strengths, which are my strong legs basically. Last time, my Crossfit Total was a very respectable 330kg (726 lbs).

So, without further ado, here’s how I did (F = Fail, PB = Personal Best):

Back Squat: 130 – 140 – 145(PB)
Shoulder Press: 50 – 55(F) – 52.5(PB)
Dead Lift: 140 – 160(PB) – … <= I didn’t do the 3rd lift as my form was poor on the 160 (back was too rounded), so I stopped there.

Crossfit Total = 357.5kg (or 786.5 lbs)  Which I am exceedingly pleased with! 😀

Monday 9th July

20 mins of:
7 x Thrusters @ 40kg
7 pull ups.

I managed 9 rounds, limited by wrist pain mostly. I must work on my form, especially regarding the descent of the bar back to my shoulders.

Thursday 12th July

21 Hang Squat Snatch
21 Knees to Elbows
Run 430m
15 Hang Squat Snatch
15 Knees to Elbows
Run 430m
9 Hang Squat Snatch
9 Knees to Elbows
Run 430m

Colin – 19:21 / 20kg

This is a tough workout, I managed half of the Knees to Elbows properly, the other half – my knees just couldn’t get up as far as my elbows. (If you don’t know, Knees to Elbows is done whilst hanging from a pull up bar, and you pull your knees up to touch your elbows.)

I was pleased with this workout though, simply for the running, as I managed to do all 3 runs without walking, though I’m sure having my 6 year old running along side me helped a lot. 🙂

Friday 13th July

Front Squats: 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3

70 – 80 – 90 – 100 – 105PB – 110PB – 70

I haven’t done front squats for a while so was reasonably confident of the PB here, and wasn’t disappointed with a 10% rise. The main factor again though was wrists and fingers. I know in theory that there should be virtually no weight on my wrists and fingers with the bar in the rack position, but at the bottom of the squat, it just seems to slide down so that I have to push the bar A LOT to keep it on my shoulders. If I position the bar further back on my shoulders, it either sits on my collar bone (at 110kg, that’s bad!) or my shoulder bones. I’ll get their though, one day.

Crossfit Clean and Jerk Video

And now for the video of my Clean and Jerk that I did the other week. At 80kg (176 lb, or 12 stone 7 if you’re English) this is nearly a body weight lift for me (88kg).

https://www.colinmcnulty.com/blog/images/crossfit-clean-and-jerk.avi

My form is not quite there, there’s a bit of an early arm bend at the start of the clean and the jerk is shallow (I should get lower under the bar), but to be honest, at that kind of weight it starts to get more than a little scary!

I’ve just taken alife expectancy test which gives my expected life expectancy as:

Which is not bad, but not great. The feedback was interesting, particularly the bit about alcohol, which to be honest was a bit fo a shocker! I know I drink a bit too much generally, however I don’t get wasted every night or anything, but 15 years, wow!

	+ 2.0	You have noted that you lead a fairly stressful life. Identifying and lessening the sources of your stress, if you can, could add one-two years to your life depending upon just how much of a change you are able to make.
	+ 0.5	Minimizing or cutting out your caffeinated coffee consumption completely could provide you with about half a year more in life expectacy
	+ 15.0	Some alcohol might be healthy, but not at your rate of consumption. Alcohol in the amount you are drinking is a poison to your liver, your brain and your nervous system in general. Cutting back now will have an immediate benefit. Cut back your drinking to 1-2 glasses (4 oz wine per glass, 2 oz spirits per glass, 8 oz beer) or less will add 15 years to your life expectancy
	+ 2.0	If it is ok with your doctor, taking an 81 mg aspirin every day improves your hear and brain health and could help you delay or escape a heart attack or stroke. Taking an aspirin each day, perferably in the evening, could add 2 years to your life expectancy.
	+ 1.0	There is a clear link between the inflammation of gum disease and heart disease. Do a good job of flossing daily and you could add a year to your life expectancy.
	+ 1.0	The more you can get fast foods out of your diet the better. While you are already doing a pretty good job of doing so, completely removing fast oods from your diet could add a year to your life expectancy
	+ 1.0	Red meat is the primary source of potentially life-shortening iron. Cutting back your read meat consumption to 1-2 days per week or less could add 1 year to your life expectancy
	+ 2.0	Increasing your exercise regimen to 5 days a week could add 1 year, to 6 or 7 days a week could add 2 years to your life expectancy
	+ 1.0	Examining yourself for cancer could add a year to your life expectancy
	+ 0.5	Being in touch with your health care provider annually is very important to your strategy to screen for and prevent illness. Getting the appropriate blood tests on a regular basis could add a half a year
	+ 1.0	Decreasing your systolic blood pressure (the first of the two numbers) to 120 or even lower could add 1 year to your life expectancy
	+ 0.5	Getting your blood sugar checked could add half a year to your life expectancy

It’s going to be hard to get red meat to 1-2 days a week on the Zone Diet. And I’d struggle to do Crossfit more than 5 days a week max.

So basically, it’s the booze, which to be fair I knew already. In the last 6 months I’ve sorted out my eating (The Zone Diet Plan) and exercise (Crossfit) and next on the list is to knock the booze on the head, well…. maybe not completely! 😉 The plan is actually to drop down to only having a drink on the weekend, one day.

EDIT

I’ve just gone back and re-taken the test, this time putting what my answers would have been 6 months ago before started Crossfit and before starting the Zone Diet. There’s the result:

That’s astonishing!

Defenestration – The act of throwing something (particularly a person) out of a window!

What amuses me most about the word, is that to De-…. something is to normally take away something, e.g. to de-throne. So the word implies that in not being thrown through a window, you are perpetually in a state of “Fenestration”! And were you to be thrown through a window, and then thrown back again, would that mean you were REfenestrated?!?

I love the way the web answers questions I didn’t even know I had!

The Etymology of Defenestration

1620, “the action of throwing out of a window,” from L. fenestra “window.” A word invented for one incident: the “Defenestration of Prague,” May 21, 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly and a secretary were tossed out the window (into a moat) of the castle of Hradshin by Protestant radicals. It marked the start of the Thirty Years War. Some linguists link fenestra with Gk. verb phainein “to show;” others see in it an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in L. loan-words aplustre “the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments,” genista “the plant broom,” lanista “trainer of gladiators.”

This is a cracker, I had to post this:

This Flat is up for rent in Belfast. Its was on the agents website with was a photo of the bathroom.

The agent has subsequently de-linked (but not deleted) the bathroom photo, which I’ve reproduced here:

Can you work out why the Estate Agent pulled the photo? 😉

Monday 2nd July

Back Squat
5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5

Colin – 100 – 120 F(4) – 120 – 122.5PB – 100

Previous PB for 5 reps was 120, so it was alarming to fail to match that on the 2nd round.  It does look silly when you have 120kg on a bar and put 2 x 1.25 polos on the end!   😉

Tuesday 3rd July

3 rounds :
50 Squats
30 KBell Swings 20kg
20 Press Ups.

Colin – 14:27

I surprised myself with this time.  Because the 2 people either side of me finished sub 10min, and where I was in the gym, I wasn’t able to see anyone else working, so was convinced I was way behind when by the end of the 2nd round, I was already having to break the squats down to sets of just 5.  Virtually the whole 3rd round was sets of 5 squats, and push ups were down to 2’s and 1’s by the end.

I was amazed when I realised I’d finished before Steve and Richard!   I fear the freak result, if only for what it will mean for the next time this workout comes round.