First day of summer :) Best time of the year for mine. And to celebrate this passing of the seasons I decided to do some of the Art of Strength Providence DVD for my "variety" day.
Warmed up with 3 x Turkish Get-ups with both hands and then proceeded to do rounds 2 to 6 on the DVD. There are some really good combos in these rounds. Cleans, floor presses, squats into sumo deadlifts, windmills into over head squats to name a few. The windmill/overhead squat combo is quite good. Got through it pretty well. Quads are feeling it a bit at present. I do warmup with 3 x 10 Goblet Squats generally but I guess the variation in squatting coupled with the volume is contributing to said quad soreness.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday 30/11/09
ROP - Light Day
5 ladders x 1 rung Clean & Press / Pull-up
7 mins. KB Snatches (98 total - 45L/48R)
Felt pretty good tonight. Clean & Presses felt easy and the pull-ups were solid. Snatches with both hands were fairly good although got a bit sloppy with the left hand when starting to fatigue. HR was around the 160 to 165 mark between sets.
5 ladders x 1 rung Clean & Press / Pull-up
7 mins. KB Snatches (98 total - 45L/48R)
Felt pretty good tonight. Clean & Presses felt easy and the pull-ups were solid. Snatches with both hands were fairly good although got a bit sloppy with the left hand when starting to fatigue. HR was around the 160 to 165 mark between sets.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Reflections
The training week wound up this week with the Rite of Passage "Heavy Day" on Saturday. 5 ladders of 3 rungs Clean & Presses for 60 reps total plus 30 pull-ups. Finished with 218 swings in 8 minutes. This was a bit of a grind due to working out later in the day following a fairly heavy lunch. Bit sluggish but was able to really work through it.
This week is week # 4 on the ROP and I intend to do the press & snatch test this coming Saturday. So the week will look like thus:
Monday - Light Day ROP (5 ladders x 1 rung C&P / pull-up) & Snatches
Tuesday - Cycles of the Art of Strength DVD
Wednesday - Medium Day ROP (5 ladders x 2 rung C&P / pull-up) & swings
Thursday - Loaded cleans & get-ups & swings (24 kg bell)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Snatch & press test
We'll see how we go.
This week is week # 4 on the ROP and I intend to do the press & snatch test this coming Saturday. So the week will look like thus:
Monday - Light Day ROP (5 ladders x 1 rung C&P / pull-up) & Snatches
Tuesday - Cycles of the Art of Strength DVD
Wednesday - Medium Day ROP (5 ladders x 2 rung C&P / pull-up) & swings
Thursday - Loaded cleans & get-ups & swings (24 kg bell)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Snatch & press test
We'll see how we go.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Doubt
Found myself listening to an interview with Steve Cotter this morning on my way to work. He speaks about training with kettlebells, how he got involved, what his prior training history was, etc. There were a couple of nuggets in the interview.
"Training is a luxury and not a necessity." - This really puts things into perspective. Training should be an adjunct to your life and not the sole purpose of. Each workout is a privilege and should be viewed as such. Steve drew the comparison with a lot of African nations where the notion of "training" in a western sense is non-existent. He said that they are a people that will walk up to 2 hours to a physically demanding job and then back home. Surely the notion of getting home to hit the stairmaster would be laughed off by most.
Steve also speaks of doubt in reference to children and adults. Kids have the advantage of having little doubt and can ride bikes and do big jumps or skateboard, etc. Doubt is ingrained by our parents and society in general over time to the point where as adults we are often paralyzed by doubt. As an almost contradiction to the above statement, training is where you can challenge your doubts by pushing into new areas, new challenges, etc. and come out a better person. Steve and the interviewer Mike Mahler, were very much in favour of training improving you as a person and that any gains in strength, without the subsequent gains in character, are almost futile.
Would really encourage you to have a listen. You can go to Mike's website www.mikemahler.com.
Training last night was a variety day in the Rite of Passage workout. Did 5x5 loaded cleans with a 24 kg KB alternated with 5x1 get-ups with the same bell. This was topped off with 3x10 swings again with the 24. This was the first time I've used the 24 in a training capacity (aside from carrying it around to move it) and I must say I was pretty happy with how it went. There was a small part of me when I was going the get-ups that thought "if I drop this I will probably kill myself or at best, hurt myself bad". Herein lies the difference between doing kettlebell work or barbell work - the continual requirement to focus on what you are doing in order to prevent injury.
"Training is a luxury and not a necessity." - This really puts things into perspective. Training should be an adjunct to your life and not the sole purpose of. Each workout is a privilege and should be viewed as such. Steve drew the comparison with a lot of African nations where the notion of "training" in a western sense is non-existent. He said that they are a people that will walk up to 2 hours to a physically demanding job and then back home. Surely the notion of getting home to hit the stairmaster would be laughed off by most.
Steve also speaks of doubt in reference to children and adults. Kids have the advantage of having little doubt and can ride bikes and do big jumps or skateboard, etc. Doubt is ingrained by our parents and society in general over time to the point where as adults we are often paralyzed by doubt. As an almost contradiction to the above statement, training is where you can challenge your doubts by pushing into new areas, new challenges, etc. and come out a better person. Steve and the interviewer Mike Mahler, were very much in favour of training improving you as a person and that any gains in strength, without the subsequent gains in character, are almost futile.
Would really encourage you to have a listen. You can go to Mike's website www.mikemahler.com.
Training last night was a variety day in the Rite of Passage workout. Did 5x5 loaded cleans with a 24 kg KB alternated with 5x1 get-ups with the same bell. This was topped off with 3x10 swings again with the 24. This was the first time I've used the 24 in a training capacity (aside from carrying it around to move it) and I must say I was pretty happy with how it went. There was a small part of me when I was going the get-ups that thought "if I drop this I will probably kill myself or at best, hurt myself bad". Herein lies the difference between doing kettlebell work or barbell work - the continual requirement to focus on what you are doing in order to prevent injury.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Victory
By way of introduction, this blog is to serve two purposes:
1. To be a workout log of my adventure with kettlebells.
2. To pour out my thoughts on all matters.
Firstly - I am working my way through the Enter the Kettlebell book and DVD. I completed 4 weeks of the Program Minimum which is essentiall 4 days of KB swings/Jogging and Turkish Get-ups. (google KB swings and turkish get-ups for videos). A fantastic program that was simple and effective.
Following the program minimum you launch into the Rite of Passage program. This program introduces KB Clean & Presses and KB Snatches. You do a C&P in a ladder format along with Pull-ups followed by some rep-work with swings or snatches. Quite brutal but again effective. This morning was a "medium" day of 5 ladders with 2 rungs of Clean & Presses and Pull-ups. Essentially you do a C&P with your left hand, a C&P with your right and a pull-up and that is the first rung. The second rung is 2 left hand C&P's, 2 right hand and 2 pull-ups. This completes the ladder. You rest for a minute or so and repeat 4 times. This is followed by 10 minutes of as many reps of KB swings you can do. This morning I reached 225 :)
This is the third week of twelve of this program and so far I am liking it. The workout lasts no longer than 40 minutes including warmup and is exteremely portable (all you need is the kettlebell) so will be useful for the next few weeks or so.
Secondly - random thoughts. Had a win over Telstra today following a complaint about a final mobile bill that was a lot larger than I expected. Was basically told by a telstra customer service person that my final bill would be around $250. When I was billed $550 I was a bit affronted. 15 mins. later on a call to Telstra and the situation has been remedied. Reinforces the need to take detailed notes on calls to the Telstras, AGL's of the world (employee name, employee id, time of call, date, etc).
Till next time.
1. To be a workout log of my adventure with kettlebells.
2. To pour out my thoughts on all matters.
Firstly - I am working my way through the Enter the Kettlebell book and DVD. I completed 4 weeks of the Program Minimum which is essentiall 4 days of KB swings/Jogging and Turkish Get-ups. (google KB swings and turkish get-ups for videos). A fantastic program that was simple and effective.
Following the program minimum you launch into the Rite of Passage program. This program introduces KB Clean & Presses and KB Snatches. You do a C&P in a ladder format along with Pull-ups followed by some rep-work with swings or snatches. Quite brutal but again effective. This morning was a "medium" day of 5 ladders with 2 rungs of Clean & Presses and Pull-ups. Essentially you do a C&P with your left hand, a C&P with your right and a pull-up and that is the first rung. The second rung is 2 left hand C&P's, 2 right hand and 2 pull-ups. This completes the ladder. You rest for a minute or so and repeat 4 times. This is followed by 10 minutes of as many reps of KB swings you can do. This morning I reached 225 :)
This is the third week of twelve of this program and so far I am liking it. The workout lasts no longer than 40 minutes including warmup and is exteremely portable (all you need is the kettlebell) so will be useful for the next few weeks or so.
Secondly - random thoughts. Had a win over Telstra today following a complaint about a final mobile bill that was a lot larger than I expected. Was basically told by a telstra customer service person that my final bill would be around $250. When I was billed $550 I was a bit affronted. 15 mins. later on a call to Telstra and the situation has been remedied. Reinforces the need to take detailed notes on calls to the Telstras, AGL's of the world (employee name, employee id, time of call, date, etc).
Till next time.
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