The New Mexico Games and The State Games of America

I've competed in The New Mexico games in the sport of weightlifiting the last 4 years in a row. The New Mexico games were considered the weightlifiting state championships here in New Mexico. I knew The New Mexico games had numerous sports in the games. Everything from Archery, arm wrestling, badminton, baseball, BMX, pickleball, weightlifting, track and field, basketball, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, Beach wrestling, bowling, Bocce, Judo, & more. I never took the time to find out what the state games are. While investigating my next powerlifting competition I found more state games in Colorado. I found out that there is something called the State Games of America. It's an Olympic style competition of many sports that happens every other year. And the cities that host the State Games of America Changes each time also. In 2017 over 200,000 athletes over 50+ sports competed in the state games. I'm thinking of trying to qualify for the State Games of America at the Rocky Mountain State Games on July 21st in Colorado Springs CO. If I qualify the next State Games of America will be in Lynchburg Virginia July31st- Aug 4, 2019.

2018 CrossFit open results

When I first started working out crossCrossFit I was well over 300lbs and in horrible shape. I couldn't do a single burpee, double under, or pull-up. I still don't have great endurance or speed, and I'm still a bit overweight. But I've made huge improvements. As of this morning I've lost 79lbs and I can do all the exercises listed above. I knew I wouldn't do great in the Open. But I'd improved so much that I was excited to compete. I only finished in 14,844th and in the 47th percentile of the world. But I was so happy to have finished where I did. I've improved a ton. If things continue to improve the way I have, then next year's Open will be a wonderful experience.


Workout/ World ranking/Southwest ranking
18.1/196reps/17,591th 37th%/420th 33rd

18.2/11:56/ 17,080 39th percentile/851 38th

18.2A/205lbs/8603 69th/ 512 62nd

18.3/124 reps/ 13,003 59th/709 48th

18.4/21 reps/14,954 47th pecent/ 808 41%
18.5/31 reps/ 16,670 41st/873 36th percentile

Overall ranking/ 14,844 47th percentile/ 807 41st

Low back squat and higher calorie weekends

Most hard core Powerlifters squat with a low back squat. You can lift more from that position. I've used a high back squat all my life. Since it seems I'm going to be sticking with powerlifting I decided to start using a low back squat. Today was my first day using decent weight from a low back squat position. I built up to 5 reps at 300lbs using a low back squat. I always assumed it would feel uncomfortable. But it felt great. I felt much stronger and I seemed to pop out of the hole more naturally and effortlessly. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works it strength worse at my next meet.

I always struggle with my diet on the weekends. I thought of a simple fix I tried this last weekend and it worked. I ate 500 calories more on Saturday and Sunday, 1000 calories more total than I'd usually eat to lose weight. And I dropped my calories 200 a day during the week, which is also 1000 calories. It's the same calories for the week. I'm just eating more when I struggle and eating less the days I'm usually fine dieting. 

I weighed in today at 271. I've lost exactly 75lbs. 55 more to go until I hit my goal of being in the 220lb powerlifting weight class.

Next block, probably hypertrophy

I'll be getting my next powerlifting block today from my coach Vernon Smith. I'm pretty sure I'll doing hypertrophy again. That's bitter sweet. On one hand I seem to lose weight a lot quicker when I'm doing hypertrophy. Hypertrophy builds a lot of muscle, makes a guy look pumped, or swole (swole seems to be the new popular phrase). On the other hand my body isn't used to it. It hurts. And I struggle getting through the workouts. But I sure love the prospect of getting bigger and leaner.

I have another powerlifting meet on April 28th in Gallup NM. Its the NASA powerlifting (natural athlete strength association) state championships meet. I'm hoping to get a 450/300/500/1250

18.5 report

Today I competed in the CrossFit open 18.5. it was a 7 Min AMRAP

3-6-9-12-15-18-...

• Thrusters (100/65)
• C2B Pull-ups

I was worried about this workout. The most pull-ups I was ever able to do in a workout was 4. Today somehow I was able to do 13 pull-ups, for a total of 31 reps. I realize compared to other athletes my total will be horrible. But I'm really happy about how I did. Out of every CrossFit work out I've ever done this is the one I'm most proud of. 

After I was done with 18.5 I drove to my barbell club and finished the last recovery powerlifting workout. 

I'll be getting my next powerlifting block today from my coach Vernon Smith. I'm pretty sure illI be doing hypertrophy again. That's bitter sweet. On one hand I seem to lose weight a lot quicker when I'm doing hypertrophy. Hypertrophy builds a lot of muscle, makes a guy look pumped, or swole (swole seems to be the new popular phrase). On the other hand my body isn't used to it. It hurts. And I struggle getting through the workouts. 

18.4 and world ranking report

My CrossFit ranking has been updated. For 18.4 in the Southwest region I finished in 804th out of 1380, and was in the 41st percentile. Worldwide I finished in 14,400th it off 28,357, ranking in the 48th percentile.

Overall so far I've finished 14,381/28,357 and am in the 49th percentile. Overall in the sw I'm 782nd, in the 43rd percentile.

18.4 report and stupid diet decisions

This morning I did the CrossFit open 18.4. I woke up feeling beat the hell up because of the powerlifting meet yesterday. But I love deadlifts, so I was still excited. I finished the first set of 225lb deadlifts in 44 seconds. I wasnt able to get a single set of handstand push-ups. So my total was 21 reps. That's a really sorry 18.4 total!

I got really motivated about dropping more weight after yesterday's powerlifting meet. I know I shouldn't continue to try to lose weight. After 6 moths of dieting hard I should maintain awhile. But I'm not going to. I want to get to 220.

2018 USAPL New Mexico powerlifting state championships report

Me:
433 (state record)
297.5 (tied competition PR and state record)
484 (competition PR and state record)
1214 (state record)

Cody James
71/45/104/ 210

Today my son and I lifted in the USAPL New Mexico Powerlifting state championships meet. My son did great. He lifted 9/9
71/45/104 for a total of 210.

I didn't do very well. I missed my third squat of 455lbs. I'd been struggling with squats in training for awhile. So that didn't surprise me. My top squat of the day was 433lbs. 18lbs less than my last meet.

I pulled my pectoral muscle a little over a month ago so i assumed I'd do poorly in the bench. I was wrong. My third lift of 297.5lbs was easy. That lift tied my competition best.

I assumed I'd kick butt with my deadlifts today. My deadlift training has been amazing the last few months. Boy was I ever wrong. I made my first lift of 484lbs. My 2nd lift was a 525, which should have been easy.  But I missed it. I tried 525 again and missed it. It wasn't even close. This was surprising because my powerlifting coach and I thought I'd get a 550lb deadlift today. My lift was actually a competition best. But we expected more.

But, my powerlifting coach is pretty awesome. He warned me that because of how much weight I've lost I may struggle in the meet. He was right. I've lost 70-75lbs so far. I have anothe 50-55lbs left to lose. This is going to be a struggle. But it'll be worth it.

Emergency diet changes

I've been dieting consistently for 6 months. I've lost close to 75lbs. But I've been getting more and more hungry every week. I used to think it was a motivation problem. But I've learned since then that the increasing hunger is my bodies way of protecting itself for starvation. The hunger is the caused by the bodies matabolism slowing down significantly. This weekend I got so hungry I fell off the wagon. Long ago I lost 120lbs training triathlon and using a diet program called Diet Power. I continued to diet and lose weight continuously for a very long time. As I lost weight I continued to get hungrier and hungrier. By the time I got to my goal weight I was so ravenous that I ended up gaining all my weight back, and then some. I've learned my lesson. I now know what I need to do. I'm going to continue to diet until I get to 270lbs and then I'm going to reverse diet for awhile. I'm bouncing between 271-275 right now. So it shouldn't take too long to get to 270.

18.3

Crossfit open workout 18.3 was going to be horrible for me. It was a lot of exercises I knew I couldn't do.

 2 rounds:

100 double-unders

20 overhead squats (115 pounds)

100 double-unders

12 ring muscle-ups

100 double-unders

20 dumbbell snatches (50 pounds in each hand)

100 double-unders

12 bar muscle-ups

The time cap is 14:00.

I knew I'd suck at the CrossFit open 18.3. I've never done more than 7 double unders. I assumed I'd be stuck in the first 100 double unders the entire 14 minutes. But somehow I did 100 double unders. I had enough time to finish all 20 of the overhead squats and then 4 more double unders. I know 124 reps isn't very good. But for me, it was fantastic.

Somehow my ranking keeps going up instead of down. I wasn't expecting me to finish higher in the last workouts because the workouts get more technical.

For 18.3 world wide I ranked 10,936 out of 28,358 and was 61st percentile. That puts my over all place for the open at 14170 out of 28,358 which is the 50st percentile. 

For the Southwest region for 18.3 i ranked 591st out of 1,380 which is the 57th percentile. Overall in the Southwest region I'm 740th out of 1380 which is the 46th percentile 

CrossFit open 18.2

Even though im in horrible shape and probably shouldn't have. I joined and am competing in the 2018 CrossFit games. I was worried about workout 18.2. It was:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 reps for time of: Dumbbell squats with a 50lb dumbbell, Bar-facing burpees. Then is completed in 11 minutes Workout 18.2a is a 1- rep-max clean. 

I honestly didn't think I'd be able to finish the squats and burpees within the cut off time. A month a go I couldn't do a burpee the way CrossFit said I had to do them. But somehow I did them all. I finished 18.2 in 11 minutes and 56 seconds. That left me with 4 seconds to do a max clean. I barely had enough time for one attempt. The bar was loaded with 205lbs. I did it. It was close. But I got the weight up in time. I finished the 18.2 and 18.2A in time with a 205lb clean. I finished 18.2 a with a world ranking of 17,061 Wich is in the 39th percentile. I finished 18.2A in 8,595th in the world which is in the 69th  percentile. In the southwest region I finished 18.2 in 851st, 38th percentile. And 18.2A in 514th, 62nd percentile. Over all between the 18.1, 18.2, and 18.2A I'm racked at 14, 604th, 48th percentile. In the southwest region I'm talked in 768th, 44th percentile.

Powerlifting strength, CrossFit, and weight loss

As of this morning I weighed 271lbs. I've lost 75lbs so far. My weight loss is slowing down. My squat has been getting weaker more quickly as I'm losing more weight. My bench and deadlift strength gains have slowed significantly. But they're still going up so that's good. But as I'm losing weight I'm getting better at crossFit. I can now do pull-ups, double unders, burpees, and toes to bars. I couldn't do any of those a month ago.

Based on my loss of strength I'm changing my first weight loss goal. It was 220. Now it's 230. After I hit 230 I'll do a slow reverse, then maintain for as long as I reversed. After that I'll attempt to reach my ultimate goal of 220lbs. If you haven't heard about a reverse diet I'd highly suggest reading up on it. It's fascinating.