I am nearly done with week 6 of the latest FBB training cycle and have been enjoying myself in the gym more than I have in recent memory.
One aspect of the program is the introduction of a leaderboard, something I have not really had since my days training at a local CrossFit affiliate. But even then, it wasn’t a true comparison because it was just my lifting up against whatever was programmed that day for the members. With FBB, the leaderboard is divided into levels and age groups, something I did not understand the power of until I began paying closer attention.
Of course there are people who I would say reading is not their strong suit. For example, many days the scoring for a specific exercise is the weight x the total reps. Other times, the score is the last weight used in the last set. Today I saw that someone apparently used 1,900lbs on their last set of 12 strict presses. There is no way I can compete with pressing 1,900lbs. I would love to meet that animal.
Anyway, the leaderboard…
I have just been logging my lifts solely to have them loaded into the system that FBB uses. It is nice when I look at the programming for the day and see the notes the system pulls up, showing me immediately the weights I used last time. In the intention of the exercise is to increase weight, it helps seeing it there compared to sifting through my journal. Once I started to look at the leaderboard after I dropped my numbers in, I realized that was a big motivator for me. I don’t want to increase weight solely to increase weight. This program utilizes a lot of tempo and pauses, which I want to make sure I am doing before I add anything extra to the bar. That being said, I have absolutely added more weight knowing it will be on the leaderboard. That has proven beneficial for me primarily in two ways.
First, I know that I have pushed myself harder. I looked back on some of the earlier sets and movements before paying attention to the leaderboard and know for a fact I was capable of more. The leaderboard has helped me a great deal there. Second, I have been comparing myself to my younger self as well as a lot of the 20-somethings in the gym. There are some real monsters where I work out. For example, I watched a guy bench what would be an RPE9 for me, except he did it with his feet off the floor and for reps as a dropset. In the past, that would get in my head. Now, seeing a leaderboard filtered by men of the same age, I have regularly been at or close to the top. That has given me a little bit of confidence and helped me realize I am not always as weak as I might feel.
With the traditional lifts, I had expected this to some degree. My deadlift has been coming back without even really focusing on heavy singles. One day after deadlift sets of 6, I felt so good that I took shots at a heavy single and ended up pulling 500. I won’t like and say that was easy, but that number has always been a big benchmark for me, so it was nice to know it was still there even on a day when it wasn’t programmed at all. The strength of this program for me has been the variety of movements, many I have spent years ignoring.
Rather than skip a movement because I hate it (i.e. any type of a lunge variation), the only time I have skipped something is if I am physically not capable of doing it. My left knee is still somewhat jacked and Lord only knows why. I am careful with it and do not want to end up in a place where I try to progress too quickly and do more damage. These new movements for me have been a fun way to challenge myself. I look forward to them now. Movements such as split stance RDLs, cyclist squats, ring push-ups, GHRs, etc.
All of these exercises, combined with the time component and progressions have me feeling far better than I have in years. As the scale is slowly dipping down as well, I imagine a lot of these movements will become a bit easier. And if they don’t, that is fine because at least then I will weigh less.