Physically, I felt like I had a pretty good week. Crossfit was going well, jiu jitsu was good, and I was feeling strong. So I decided that on Saturday I’d skip my normal 531 routine, and do the CFT, or “Crossfit Total” workout. Basically, finding my one rep max deadlift, squat, and press. One of my New Year’s goals was to improve my 1RM in each by 10%, and I added onto that goal by making my “official” Crossfit goal of the summer to have a CFT of 525. Last time I did the CFT was in December, and my total was 480 pounds.
I started off with a good warm up, doing each of the lifts a few times with moderate weight. I decided to start with the deadlift.

The deadlift is about as simple, direct, and unequivocal measures of strength there is. Load up a bar. Pick it up. I did one last warm up lift at 205. Then I did 225, which tied my previous best. That felt pretty good, so I opted to try 245 next. Got it 80% of the way up, but couldn’t complete it. I think on a good day I could. Dropped down 10 pounds to 235, and did that, though it was a little shaky. Even “only” doing 3 maximal, or near max lifts, really sucks it out of you.
Next up was the press. If the deadlift was the ultimate test of “pulling” strength, then the press is the ultimate test of “pushing” strength. I’ve also found that it’s the slowest to improve.
I started off with 90, and did that. Did 95, tying my old max. Did 100. Tried and failed 105. Again, I was about 80% of the way to completing that. There was a little girl at the drinking fountain next to my rack. She must of just finished up the kids jiu jitsu class. She watched me fail and gave me some nice encouragement: “You can do that, you were so close!” I rested for a bit, then tried and failed again. I decided to split the difference and dropped down to 103.5, and succeeded.
Last up was the back squat. I wrangled up Sexy Joe and Ryan to spot for me, since there’s no good way to fail or bail out of this lift. I knew that I was going to break my old 1RM, but I needed 186 to break 525 total. Did 175, tying my old max. And since I was in a crunch for time (since the Crossfit class was getting ready to start, and I was taking up their space), I went for broke and put 190 on the bar. And then lifted it. I felt fine doing it, I know I could do 195 or 200, and maybe 205 or 210.
So, a total 528.5. I got 10% more on my deadlift. And I was painfully close on the press (9%) and squat (8.5%). I’ll keep working on the 531 sequence, and I’m sure I’ll get those last two by the end of the year.
I changed into my gi, grabbed some water and took a few minutes breather. But then it was open mat time. Kicked things off with Purple Belt Tim. Went went slow and played around some. My back muscles felt pretty drained after all the lift, so it was pretty hard to keep any kind of posture going! After a while we switched up, and I rolled with Bacon a few times. Mostly on the defensive, but he only tapped me once. Tim was watching and gave me a thumbs up afterwards.
So, at this semi-mid-point of the year, life is good. I’m healthy. Lighter. Stronger. And I feel great. It’s time to start thinking about a new Crossfit goal.