It looks like I am managing the return to the gym rather well, I must say (said in  an Ed Grimsley voice).  No pain, no stiffness in the shoulder just plain old tired muscles from lack of use for 2 months.

I have decided to be more realistic in my approach this time. The 2012 Crossfit Games basically informed me that I need to be in a hell of a lot better shape than I think I was, so a new approach was required. Going over what I lacked was easy, everything! figuring out what I should really work on was even easier, endurance. Throughout all the workouts or whatever else I did, I seemed to be gasping for air at some point. After 2 rounds of most AMRAP’s at the gym and it was star-seeing time. If I want to improve on something it was more cardio/aerobic work.

Enter Crossfit Endurance and a simple 6 week plan to improve endurance. After two weeks, today was the first noticeable improvement in my performance. I have modified the plan slightly to accommodate areas that had some previous issues(Achilles tendon) and that meant cutting down the running and replacing some of it with rowing. I am doing these workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first week I did 10 x 200M sprint rows on Tuesday and Thursday added 25 alternating oblique twists with 8lb ball from a v-sit position(that was not pleasant). This week it is 5 x 200m sprint row and 5 x 200M run with Thursday adding 20 burpees to the mix.

These days are not to include any olympic style lifting it is just for cardio and endurance. Just doing it for three days and I was not gassed after 2 rounds of a 15 min AMRAP today, in fact I felt pretty good until the arm got so tired I basically could not hold the weights any longer.

We shall see what happens next but so far it is encouraging.