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Hey, hey! Caveman Klaus here again. I just made a big decision and I want to talk about
it.
What the hell have I done?
About ten minutes ago, I was online and I bought flights from London to San Francisco
for a 90-day period that basically gets me into San Francisco on October 6th and returning
to London on January the 4th.
What am I doing and why am I doing this?
I've had an itch, for a while, to basically go out, full immersion style, and train my
body. Get super strong, get cat-like and learn everything I can about strength and conditioning
training, Olympic lifts, and mobility work. Freeing up my hip flexors, my knees, and my
ankles.
I'm just about finished reading The 4-Hour Body. There is so much amazing stuff going
on out there in the States. There's a guy by the name of Kelly Starrett. He runs a YouTube
channel and a blog, MobilityWOD. WOD stands for Workout of the Day which is a crossfit
concept. He's interviewed in The 4-Hour Body, and there's lots of really awesome mobility
stuff for the knees, hips, ankles and joints. I want to meet this guy. I want to train with
him, learn from the best of the best, and I want to get super fit.
I've had luck on SanFranciscoCrossFit.com. It looks amazing. You are basically working
out on the beachfront right there at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. You're doing tire
flips, pulling sleds, rope work and throwing kettle bells while on the beach. It looks
like good stuff. So, I'm keen-*** to get out there and give this a crack. Learn from the
best of the best. Get myself super fit. So, I'm heading out on the 6th of October.
I'll be kicking it off with a dance event. One of my hobbies is West Coast Swing. I've
done this for a little over two years now. I'm going to go there and train a little bit
with some of the pros that live in the Bay area. I'm also kicking it off with this dance
event called "Boogie by the Bay," which is a four-day dance event. I'll do that, and
then I'll switch over and start my physical training.
It's crazy. I've got a little over two weeks now, and I've got a lot to make happen. Firstly,
when I get there I need to find a place to stay close to where San Francisco CrossFit
is—either a serviced apartment or another place. Maybe someone's got a spare room. I'm
open to whatever.
I also need to pack up my flat (look at all this stuff around me) or find someone else
to train with, or someone who I know in London who wants to take over my flat for a three-month
period. It's a grand a month, including all the expenses. The projector and stereo system—all
the tech you could want—if you could take over my place. Alternative to that, I will
pack it all up and stick it in storage. And, yeah, voom. Out of here in two weeks with
everything I need with me.
Why the heck am I doing this?
I've been training a fair amount of time, on and off, since I was about sixteen. I started
at my high school gym, and then went through university, where I did get pretty cut and
strong. I then let that fade while I was working in New Zealand. Now back in London, I've been
training on and off for a couple of times but in earnest probably in about the last
four or five months.
Four or five months ago, I discovered a website with strong lifts. StrongLifts.com. Check
it out. There's a guy Mehdi who runs that. It's based on German Volume Training. The
program is called 5x5, and that means five exercises, five repetitions, five sets. You
do all stuff with the Olympic bar: big, compound movements, squats, dead lifts, bench press,
overhead press, barbell rows. It's all about growing the biggest muscles in your body.
It's been great, but I'm not really hitting my midsection. I need to do more to get some
kind of definition now. I'm starting to get a few niggles around my knees, ankles and
hips, so now I'm starting to get heavy.
Where am I at right now?
I'm 76 kg and I have about 15 percent body fat. Now, I'm going to bare all of that. It's
helped me by thickening up my chest and my arms. That's the function of also doing dips
and chin-ups. My midsection is not looking that great.
This is a way to measure your body fat (which is not particularly accurate). Use some calipers.
You find the top of your hip. Come in an inch. Up about another inch. Grab a chunk of fat.
It's not very pleasant. You keep squeezing down until that clicks, and then it clicks
in and tells you your body fat percentage. Mine is about 14 or 15 percent. I want to
be sub-10, but preferably around 8 percent body fat. I'm going to go out here, and I'm
going to kick my ***, and work hard, and learn as much as I can.
So, why am I doing it?
It's not just about physical fitness. For me, it's about consciously developing whatever
it takes (mindset, strong attitudes, good habits), getting outside my comfort zone and
completely changing out the people around me. So, that's what I'm going to do.
This is the before photos, basically. As you can see, my quads have thickened up quite
a bit with the squats, which I like. Arms thickening up. Chest, about my midsection
through here, I want to get a lot more definition in that. My back has definitely thickened
up, but not so much definition.
So, that's me. I'm going to go and do this. I'm feeling pumped about it. I'm feeling good
about this decision. It's still on purpose. It's not just a diversion. I see this as a
great entry point to kick off this journey for me and work out what I truly want to do.
So, until next time.