Easy day

Did some light swimming w/ my daughter. Elbows are a bit pissed at me from TKD practice so no 'bell work today. Looking to re-do week two starting on monday.

ETK Get-Ups

Alternating 16kg Get-ups for 5 min.


A little extra work:
24Kg GU 2 each side

24kg Snatch 6/6

5 Tactical Pullups

ETK - Week Two

Clubbell 1min
Z-health Neural Warmup

WorK:
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
1 Minute Active recovery (Jumping Jacks)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Right
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Right
1 Minute Active recovery (Jumping Jacks)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Right
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
12 minutes total

3 Tactical Pullups

TKD

Kick ass TKD work out today.

All the usual warmup, hundred or two situps, JJacks, deep squats, pushups.

Worked on forms for 1/2 the night and then spent some time on combos.

Finally we finished up with several rounds of full contact sparring.

I gave some and got some. I'm wiped.
The guys commented that I have A LOT of power and I will be a real threat when I get my form/technique dialed in.

I need to work on some VO2MAX conditioning so I can survive several minutes of fighting.

I also made a real effort to keep my mouth closed, so as to not present an easy loose jaw knock out.

Came home and ate 2 1/2 burgers, a bowl of zucchini and some terrific brown rice my wife made.

Life is great!

Variety Day

Warmup:
Wall Squats x10
16kg Halos x10
Pumps x10
Repeat 2x

Swing Skills:
16kg One-Arm swings
30:30 Protocol for 5:30 seconds total.

Additional Work:
24kg C&P x5 Right
rest
24kg C&P x5 Left
rest
Double 24kg C&P x5

4 Tactical Pull ups


UPDATE: Due to a childcare problem I am home early with the princess.
So while she is having a play date I managed to work on some Clean & Jerks.
Did Double 16's, single 16's and some single 24's.

Not bad.

I even managed to sneak in 4 Princess Get Ups.

TKD, GU, and thoughts on which cert next....

First TKD work out in at least 2 weeks. And I feel it!

We did a lot of cool combo's. Punch, rev punch, backhand. Repeat.

Also worked on my one-steps, which I patently suck at. I dont know why I have such a hard time learning them. More practice.

got home and did 5 mins of Getups, which is part of the program minimum.

I will not do that again. My knee way tweaky from some RKC Hip flexor stretched on hardwood. Ouch!

I was weighing the decision on whether I should get my Z-Health R-phase first, or my RKC first.
I was definitely leaning towards Z, but in this post I heard from a lot of high powered folks who have both RKC and R,I,S,T Z-certs.

Needless to say I am going RKC baby!

ETK-PM Week One

ETK Day One - Week One

Clubbell 1min
Z-health Neural Warmup

WorK:
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Right
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
Repeat for 12 minutes.

3 Tactical Pullups

RKC Arm bar & pvc pipe(roller) shoulder work.

The YMCA -& Program Minimum

Had a great meeting with my local YMCA. They are VERY interested in introducing kettlebells in to their facility. There are a few things to hammer out, costs, programs etc...
On the whole it looks very positive for me.

Came home and did some more one-on-one training w/ my wife. She has made some relly great progress on her DL & Swings.

I am really looking forward to working in tandem with her!

Afterward I did day two of ETK-Program Minimum.
Today was Get Up day. I used a 16kg and did alternating GU for 5 minutes.

Did some RKC Armbars to finish up.

ETK

ETK Day One - Week One

This is all about greasing the groove and bumping up my conditioning.
As such, I will be using a 16kg

16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Right
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
16kg 1H-Swings 20reps Left
1 Minute Active recovery (easy jogs)
Repeat for 12 minutes.

Thoughts:
My form is getting much better. My weakness is not being tight enough at the top of the swing.

Evening Training

With the best client ever. My Wife.

Trying to teach her to swing properly with my new found HKC knowledge.

Teaching is harder than it looks.

We started a stick along hte spine to talk about form.
Did some DL's
Next some pendulum swings in DL position.
Worked up to hike passes.
Even did the towel between the legs to get her to feel the hammies activating. Apparently chicks dont dig that one.

The hardest part for her was that nice flat back at the bottom of the swing. In time we did manage to get it.

I say again, teaching is tough!

ETK and ETS

Enter the Kettlebell & Embrace The Suck.

Ok kiddies, time to regroup.

Yup, we're talking Right of Passgage (ROP) from Enter The Kettlebell (ETK). I really like the ETK manual that Anthony DiLuglio from www.artofstrength.com wrote.

So here's how things went (there was one small problem which I will touch on later.)

Warmup
2 minutes of Clubbell warmups
Z-health Neural Warmup 1

Repeat for 10 minutes:
16kg Halos 10/10
Pumps
Wall Squats
Total repetitions = 2 2/3

RKC Hip Flexor Stretch

16kg Deadlift x3 (just to find the grooove)

Work Phase:
Repeat for 12 minutes:
24kg 1H Swings 10 reps (1 side only, switch hands on next iteration)
1 minute of Active Recovery**
Total number of cycles: 7.5
total # of Swings = 80
total weight slung = 4,232.8 Pounds
**Active Recovery = Jogging in Place, Jumping Jacks, Cross Jacks, Full Body Tension Planks

Mobility/Cool Down:
RKC Hip Flexor Stretch w/ pigeon stretch added

16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

Foam Roller on shoulders/back.

----- Total Time = 50min ----

So, what was the small problem I mentioned earlier. Well, I got back to my desk and discovered that I was supposed to do 20 swings not 10!
So today was practice. Feel the groove.

Embrace The Suck.

What a Master RKC says about me!

Andrea was my Master RKC Instructor for my HKC certification. She was an absolute pleasure to work with. After the class I was able to talk with her one on one and developed a nice repoir.

From that chat I was able to write the "My HKC Experience - and what I think you should know" post (both on my blog and on Dragondoor's website.)

Here is her public reply in the DD thread:

Sean
I could not have said it better than that.Thank you for taking the time to interview me and write down your thoughts and recommendations. Everything you said is so important to anyone thinking about attending an HKC.

Sean's attitude is the kind we are looking for: serious about becoming an HKC, professional and willing to work hard. As I told my group, by becoming an HKC, you have not just passed a cert, you are joining the RKC family. When you walk out that door you are representing me, Pavel, John and all the other
Masters, Seniors, TLs and RKC's around the world. It is something that is earned, not just given by showing up.

For those that do not pass right away, it's not the end, but the beginning.You have 90 days (3 months) to retest.

For most of my group, it was an issue of needing more reps - more time to get the form down. Or in case of teaching, getting experience of teaching movement to others. I fully expect my entire group to become HKC's within a month.

It was a pleasure and honor working with every participant. I look forward to them continuing on their journey to become RKC's.

I would like to thank Keira and her assistants for their help and
expertise. And a special thanks to Keira who's professionalism made the HKC experience a success.

Andrea

Man, she is one top notch kinda lady!


Surround yourself with people who are better than!

Snow!

Great snowman snow on the ground and I have to go to work! Curses!

Going to do Z-health R-phase while I wait for the streets to clear a little bit.

Monday Waterboarding...

Warmup:
Z-health R-phase ~30min

(From my successful HKC certification.)
Work: 30sec rounds, 7 seconds to transition to next move

• 16kg TGU
• Hardstyle Plank (Full and complete body tension!)
• 24kg Swings

10 minutes total.

I am drenched in sweat!


From my Advanced KB Training class w/ Andrea DuCane.

Skills training:

16kg Double C&J 3x5

Rest (still drenched in sweat!)

16kg Corkscrew-style Bent Press 2x5 (l/r)

Nothing but sweat baby!

Off to do some RKC hip flexor and Armbar stretches...
One of the best damn things I learned from Andrea was the RKC hip flexor stretch, aka the cross country ski stretch.
We followed that up with pigeon. Freaking awesome. I'm naming my 23rd child after her.

My HKC Cert and what I think you should know.

First and foremost, I am a newly minted HKC Instructor and I freaking earned that damned t-shirt!

About myself, I am a 37 y/o software developer for a DoE contractor in Los Alamos. I am not a trainer, I don't own a gym (or a gym membership for that matter!) . I have a man cave chock full of 'bells and other implements of destruction. In other words, I am your average kettlebell fanatic (with an eye towards training folks in kettlebells.)

The cert was taught at Komrade Keira Newton's (RKC II) facility in Santa Fe, NM. (dkbfitness.com). They even took down the barbwire and let the guards take the day off for this event! Keira rocks and is worth every shekel. If you live in NM and you want to learn hardstlye, she's the go-to gal!

So to begin, the manual says that the HKC "requires no previous kettlebell experience..." I will say this: It would take an exceptionally fit individual who is VERY quick at learning new moves to pass this cert w/ no experience.

There was an individual in my class who is a trainer and admitted that with no formal hardstyle kettlebell instruction, he thought he would breeze through this cert. He had his eyes blown wide open with in the first hour. To his credit he dug deep and soaked up as much as he could in the time that he had. He did not pass the final, but he said that he got his money's worth out of the training.

This is not a paper tiger certification. You are attempting to gain an INSTRUCTOR rating in three basic moves. Small technical errors that you get away with in your daily workouts or during a workshop will fail you in this class. How can you instruct others if your form is not ONE HUNDRED PERCENT PERFECT?

I don't know the exact pass fail ratio for my class but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50%.
Now this is not the end of the world for those folks. They can visit their team leader or send a video to the Master/Senior RKC demonstrating that they corrected what was wrong. But you only have 60 days to do it.

A great quote from Andrea: "To pass this class I need to be able to trust you to teach my mother or someones grandmother." She looked everyone of us in the eye as she said it. What a great way to make this personal. Damn straight I want someone who has perfect form and instructional ability to be teaching my mom!

Post HKC notes from myself and w/ Master RKC Andrea DuCane. (I conducted an impromptu interview w/ her after class. I did not think to bring a digital recorder to get her exact words, so I will synthesize what she told me and try to impart it to you.)

Greatest weakness each gender needs to work on prior to any cert:
Men: Not having explosive enough hip drive.Make that pelvis pop at the top of your swing!
Practice your 1H Swings, and Hand-to-hand swings. There was at least 1 student who admitted that he practiced mostly 2H swings. I totally understand why. For me 2h swings are easier. It won't help you pass the final exam.
Use KB deadlifts to get a feel for how to recruit your hips & glutes.
Tip: do some "cross-country ski" stretches to loosen your hip flexors up before you practice your swings. She noted that a lot of times, the hip flexors throw the brakes on before the final pelvic pop.
General Conditioning: Men tend to do well on the strength related work, but do poorer when it comes to gut busting conditioning.

Women tend to be weaker in the squats. Get your core activating; fire the glutes. Practice!
Strength: Women tend to do well on the conditioning related work, but do poorer when it comes to the challenges related to strength.

Both: TGU. These were hard for all of us. It is a VERY technical drill. All I can say is visit and RKC before hand. There are at least a dozen minor tweaks to have a perfect TGU.

Why the Low Sweep TGU instead of the RKC style High-bridge TGU?
This mostly has to do with effectively teaching the TGU in a reasonable amount of time. There is also less of an issue with shoulder stability in the low sweep method versus the high-bridge position. Once you master the low sweep, learning the high bridge for your RKC will be easy.

My own thoughts about appearance.
I looked at this cert as a job interview. I mean, how often am I going to meet w/ a Master RKC? I wanted to be damn sure she remembered me. And to remember me as a professionally dressed kettlebell enthusiast who is serious about representing HKC and dragondoor style training.

I could have easily showed up in my utilikilt and a wife beater t-shirt and all my tats showing. Instead I went to Sams Club and bought a nice moisture wicking shirt and long shorts for $20 total. I do recommend the moisture wicking fabrics. I sweated like a pig. Although I'm not really sure pigs sweat. But if they do, they should buy some of these new shirts, the freaking rock. Nuff said.

I also chose long shorts over pants so that the instructors would be able to see if I was activating my hams and quads like they told us to do. I really wanted to learn this, hiding poor form behind dark or bulky clothing would serve no purpose in making me a better instructor. There is a reason people who carry concealed firearms like to wear loose dark clothing!

Finally for those with an eye towards the RKC, Andrea cautions you not to overtrain the week before the cert. She has seen too many people fail because the were burned out from an earlier training session.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With permission I am posting a list of what you need to succeed:

Men: 5 Pullups/Chinups
Women: 25 Sec flexed-arm hang (this may have changed to 15 sec but I was too focused on myself to notice what the Amazons were doing.)

A decent amount of conditioning. Why? Its an all day course and the test is at the very end.
Whats the first thing to go to hell when you are gassed? Yup, your form. Make sure you are ready to spend 8+ hours training/learning.

I am not 100% sure about this, but I believe you fail if you blow 2 or more bullet points in any one exercise.(some bullet points have more weight associated with them.)

Swings

• The back is flat
• The heels are planted and the knees track the toes.
• The working shoulder is packed.
• The working arm is straight in the bottom position
• The kettlebell handle stays above the knees during the back swing.
• There is no forward knee movement (increasing ankle flexion) on the up swing.
• The body forms a straight line on the top of the swing: the hips and knees extend fully, the spine is neutral.
• The kettlebell forms an extension of the straight arm at the top of the swing.
• The bio-mechanical breathing match.
• The abs and glutes visibly contract at the top of the swing.

Turkish Getup (Low sweep version)

• Use both hands to lift the kettlebell from the ground at the start of the exercise and to return it to the ground at the finish.
• The wrist on the kettlebell side is neutral.
• The elbow on the kettlebell side is locked.
• The shoulder on the kettlebell side is packed.
• The shoulder on the free arm does not shrug up
• The heel of the foot on the kettlebell side stays planted.
• The knee touches the deck silently when descending into the half-kneeling position.

Goblet Squat:

• The back is flat.
• The shoulders are pressed down (scapulae are depressed).
• The neck is neutral.
• The heels are planted.
• The big toes are planted.
• The knees track the toes
• The elbows push against the VM in the bottom position.
• The ascent is initiated with a grunt.
• The hips ascend at the same rate the shoulders.
• The Hips and knees extend fully on the top of the squat.

Good luck Comrades, and feel free to ping me if you have any other questions about the cert...

The Hammer and Sickle

This Saturday I go to the Party Re-education Kamp at Komrade Newton's dkbfitness.com (they are taking the barbwire down for this weekend only!).

Czarina Andrea DuCane will be there to whip us loyalists into shape. Should we fail, it will undoubtedly be Komrade Newton's job to hide the bodies.

Not the first time I suspect. You don’t get to be a Level II RKC without proving your worth to The Party.

Failure is not an option for me. I have WAY too much riding on this. Actually, only my ego is riding on this, but my ego is very demanding. Its a guy thing.

Saturdays’ goal: HKC Certification.

With that in mind I wanted to push hard today and take Friday off so that I will be rested for all the Czarist torture DuCane will be dishing out.

So technically this is part of Brett Jones's RKC Prep routine. (Winter-2008 Hardstyle Magazine.)

Warmup:
Z-Health
Clubbells
16kg Halos 2x10 each direction
16kg 2H Swing 1x20

The Hammer: (no rest allowed comrades!)
24kg C&P 5/5 (left/right)
24kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16-24kg Clean Front Squat 5/5 (16kg in one hand, 24kg in the other.) Switch hands and repeat**
24kg 1H-Swing 10/10
24kg Turkish Getups 5/5
24kg Hand-to-Hand Swing 20
24kg Snatch 5/5
24kg 2H-Swing 20

The Sickle: repeat, but using 16kg. Again no rest
16kg C&P 5/5 (left/right) (easy compared to 24kg bell!)
16kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16kg Clean Front Squat 5/5 (no split here, jsut 1 armed C&P each side)
16kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16kg Turkish Getups 5/5
16kg Hand-to-Hand Swing 20
16kg Snatch 5/5
16kg 2H-Swing 20

Mobility/Rehab:16kg RKC Armbars 5/5

Foam Roller work - Upper body/shoulder emphasis.

** I was at work and only had a 16kg and a 24kg to work with.

Swing Torture - Yeah!

Z-HealthWarmup
2# Clubbell Warmup

16kg Halo's x2

24Kg 2H-Swing 2x10

24kg 2H Swings 5
5 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 10
10 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 15
15 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 20
20 jumping jacks
(No rest in between)

16kg Squat-Swing-Plank sequence: (note the change in the swings. Start high reps, end low)

1 Goblet Squat - 10 1H swings (each side) - 10 Pushups
2 Goblet Squats - 9 1H swings (each side) - 9 Pushups
3 Goblet Squats - 8 1H swings (each side) - 8 Pushups
4 Goblet Squats - 7 1H swings (each side) - 7 Pushups
5 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 6 Pushups
6 Goblet Squats - 5 1H swings (each side) - 5 Pushups

16Kg TGU 2/2

Shoulder Rehab:
16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

Clean & Front Squats, Presses, Swings and snatches

tick tock, HKC is 4 days away. Still a bit nervous. decided to do some conditioning w/ a 16kg instead of strength training w/ the 24kg.

Ideally I should have done multiple repeats of the main routine, but I hran out of my lunch hour. Perhaps tonight I will crank out some more swing torture.

Warmup:
No clubs today (forgot 'em in my TKD bag.)
Z-health neural warmup

16kg Halo 10/10

Main routine w/ 16kg bell:
Clean & Front Squat 5 reps
Swings 20reps l/r
Clean & Front Squat 5 reps
C&P 5 reps
Clean & Front Squat 5 reps
Get-up 5 reps
C&P 5 reps
Clean & Front Squat 5 reps
Snatch 10 reps l/r
Clean & Front Squat 5 reps

16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

Swings & TGU's

TKD was canceled tonight. Here is my evening workout:

2# Clubbell Warmup

16kg Halo's x2

16Kg 1H-Swing 10x2

3 Tactical Pullups

24kg 2H Swings 5
5 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 10
10 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 15
15 jumping jacks
24kg 2H Swings 20
20 jumping jacks
(No rest in between)

16kg Squat-Swing-Plank sequence:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 10 Pushups
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 9 Pushups
3 Goblet Squats - 7 1H swings (each side) - 8 Pushups
4 Goblet Squats - 8 1H swings (each side) - 7 Pushups
5 Goblet Squats - 9 1H swings (each side) - 6 Pushups
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 5 Pushups

16Kg TGU 5/5

Shoulder Rehab:
16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

1 Week till HKC!!!!

Still struggling w/ Tactical Pull Ups

Damnit.

I may ask Andrea DuCane if she'll let me attempt the pre-req pulls ups tactical style but allow me to do chins if I fail the TCPU.

Conditioning is ok. Next week I need to focus on TGU and Swings.

Swing Torture ala Keira Newton

Swing workout from Keira Newtons HKC Prep class.
2# Clubbell Warmup

16kg Halo's x2

16Kg 1H-Swing 10x2

4 Tactical Pullups

32kg 2H Swings 5
5 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 10
10 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 15
15 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 20
20 jumping jacks
(No rest in between)

Squat-Swing-Plank sequence:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 10 Pushups
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 9 Pushups
3 Goblet Squats - 7 1H swings (each side) - 8 Pushups
4 Goblet Squats - 8 1H swings (each side) - 7 Pushups
5 Goblet Squats - 9 1H swings (each side) - 6 Pushups
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 5 Pushups

Shoulder Rehab:
16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

PVC Rolls per Pavels Mobility Bonus file from KB Secrets

Swing Torture

Took this from Mark Reifkind's recent post about how he was getting back in to swings afer his back injury.

It turns out that it is a good routine for me, since I need to spend more time swinging.

What I like best is that sets are small, allowing me to really focus on my form.

Here's the workout
warmup:
Clubbells
16kg 1H-Swings x5/5 x 3

worksets
16kg 1H-Swings x5/5
24kg 1H-Swings x5/5

H2H transfers
24 kg x20 reps x 4 sets

Halo's
16 kg x10/10 x 2 sets
Arm Bar
16kgx5/5

this was a very compressed workout, which worked well for me today. I think I will spend some more time tonight with swings. I need to Grease The Groove!

A Little extra training @ Night

Tactical Pullups 4 reps

24KG C&P 5 Reps l/r

Did 1 Chinup and my elbow popped on the ascent.
did 3 eccentric chins (lowering, no ups.)

24KG C&P 5 Reps l/r

Tactical Pullups 3reps

32kg Push-press 3 reps l/r

Goblets, BUPs & Swings, OH MY!

More HKC Prep:

Strength:
Goblet Squat 5 reps
BU Press 5 reps
Repeat 5x

Conditioning:
16kg 1H-Swings 30:30
20 minutes

day off

I really tried to get in to it today. No Joy. Was even feeling too weak for TKD. Not surprising since wife & daughter are both virus vectors...

Tueday Night Might!

Tonight's numbers:

3 Chin-ups (elbow tweaked, so I stopped. I really should have warmed up first.)

Trying to amp my conditioning, so following Jordan Vezina's (RKC) plan from his Corrections PDF, I am striving to do 20 minutes of 30:30 2h-swings. Later on I will work on 1h-swings with the same numbers.

Swing Conditioning:
10minutes of 30:30 2h-swings w/ a 24kg bell.
But I had to break up the last three sets w/ longer than :30 rests. Oh well, not bad for day one.

Next up, my continuing work on Brett Jone's RKC Prep:

24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
Snatch 10 reps (I switched this w/ the swings at the bottom so I would be fresher for the snatches.)
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
24kg C&P 5 reps l/r
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
16kg Get-up 5 reps l/r
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
24kg Swing 10 reps
(skipped) Clean & Front Squat 5 reps (skipped)

3 more Chinups.

Why chin ups and not tactical pull ups like a real man should be doing?
turns out the HKC test allows for Chins or Pulls. Well, since I have less than 2 weeks to secure 5 chins/pullups, I have decided to focus on getting a success right out of the box. I will switch to pull-ups after the HKC...Well, I might work a few Tactical Pullups in here or there.

Light Lunch Routine w/ Wife

Partnered Swings with my wife.
5 2H Swings
10 2H Swings
15 2H Swings
20 2H Swings

We then moved to a Squat-Swing-Plank sequence like this:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 150 Sec Plank
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 150 Sec Plank
repeat till this final set:
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 15 Sec Plank

This was a very light workout for me. I was spending a lot of time trying to teach my wife proper form.

I am really looking forward to when she has this stuff down and we can both workout (hard) together.

Tae Kwon Do - Chinups

WAY sore from my HKC tuneup on Sunday, so no bells today.

Did some good kicking and hammer fist work today in class. Finished up with forms and 1-step sparring.

Truthfully, the 1-steps are the hard part for me. For some reason my brain has a hard time remembering these.

Came home and belted out some chin-ups. went and ate. Came back a did a few tactical pull-ups.

Time to relax now.

Sunday's HKC Prep w/ Keira Newton

On Sunday I attended a small tune-up class to make sure we were on track for our Jan 16th HKC.

As always, Keira (dkbfitness.com) is a fantastic instructor.

There were two other students, both in shape women who would put me to shame later on in the class. More on that later.

We began by trying the pull-up test.
For ladies, its either a 25 second hang above the bar, or 1 pull up. both ladies failed.
For men, its 5 pull-ups. Interestingly enough, we are allowed to do chins, which I may do just to make sure I pass.

I initially failed at my fourth tactical pull up (tactical = no thumb)

We moved on to practicing naked getups.
This is another classic example of why people need to see a trainer in person. I own the Kalos Sthenos DVD and have viewed it many times, but it was not until Keira provided finger feedback that I really started to "get it". ("push against my finger" "do you feel that" , etc...)
DVD's can only impart so much knowledge.

Next we worked on our Goblet squats.
These were different than I thought. I assumed GS went rock bottom, but we did not do that. We bent our thighs to 90 degrees and touched our elbows to our knees. You must maintain a nice flat back for this and press your chest forward. This helps bring your back more vertical. The 90 degree bend in my legs became quite tiring after a while. I didn't realize that rock-bottom squats give you a brief rest.

Next on deck, swings. the only real new info here was that over the past 2-3 months, I have been noticing a tightness on my the posterior side of my knee. I was thinking that this meant I was twisting slightly. Sure enough, when I demo'd my swing in front of everyone, they picked up on a few things.

1. my uninvolved arm was reaching far behind me, causing me to slightly twist on the down swing. They recommended that I keep my uninvolved arm even w/ my torso.
2. Keira noticed that my shoulder/lats were not staying engaged. A little more conscious thought helped some. Another tip that helped was to keep my thumb pointed back when I was at the bottom of the swing. What this ended up doing was forcing my to engage my lats more on the upswing. This tip came from a gal who is going to February's RKC.
3. I was too loose on my grip at the bottom. this was causing the bell to bonk my butt slightly. Just a bit more grip and my swings were back to where they should be.
   

So after all of our tunes ups, Keira had us do some "conditioning" work.

why is conditioning in quotes? Because saying it was conditioning would be akin to calling water-boarding a brisk shower.

I am pretty sure she was trying to kill us.

Well, actually the other two students (both full time disciples of Keira) were doing just fine. Me on the other hand. Well, I'm pretty sure my heart exploded inside my chest cavity. Several times.

It was more or less something along these lines:

Partnered Swings.
You do 5 2H Swings. Your Partner does fast & loose drills.
Partner does 5 2H Swings. You do fast & loose drills.

Next do 10 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

Next do 15 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

finish up with 20 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

We then moved to a Squat-Swing-Plank sequence like this:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank
repeat till this final set:
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank

all in all, it was a great 3 hour class.

T-12 days till my HKC cert!

New Years Day Workout - RKC prep

Z-health warmup

24kg Double C&P 5 Reps
40kg Swing 20
32kg Clean and Front Squat 5 reps l/r
40kg Swing 20
24kg Get-up 5 reps l/r
40kg Swing 20
24kg Snatch 5 reps l/r
32kg Swing 20

Publish Post

Happy New Years + some goals...

Happy new year!

My short range goal:
Attain HKC Cert in two weeks

Mid range goal:
Attain RKC Cert this summer.

Long range goal:
Start training folks in the proper use of kettlebells.
Ultimately it would be great to open my own place. We'll put that in the Longer range goal.