Back at it.... c&p

Been nursing some home improvement injuries (yes, dropping a solid core exterior door on your toe freakign sucks!)

Steve Maxwell Advancced Joint Moblity Routine
Some Relax into Stretch exercises for hips and shoulders
A few Z-health toe pulls

24kg C&P Ladders (note the decreased weight. I am trying to build back up w/o injury)
5 Rung Ladder x 3 sets Rest for as long as needed to hit 5 rungs per set.
Goal was for 5 sets, but called up to help the missus.30mins worth of C&P work...

Easy Peasy...

Five 2-rung ladders w/ 28kg.

50% Snatch effort w/ 28kg:
Roll the bones.....7
68 Snatches in 7min

Life interrupted + ETK: RoP

One of those crazy Days...
6AM KB class went well. I tortured them with John Wolf's EKG Bodyweight #1 Pre-Test, then had them do (5) 2-rung ladders, followed by :30/:30 snatches for 9 min.

Go to work and chaos has setup shop. Minimal Lunch, minimal time seated. go, go go!
Got home late and decided to do my C&P Medium day, but I did not add the Swings & Snatches like I normally do.

If I jam too hard at night, I can't sleep. So for today, 32kg 5x5 C&P.

See ya!

EKG Bodyweight Test + "Easy" C&P day

So far I really like John Wolf's Evolution Kettlebell Groundwork DVD. For those that practice martial arts, especially ones with floorwork, you'll like this. Most of the moves are done with a relatively light weight (12kg, double 12, some 16, etc..) but since you are in unique ground positions, these sizes are challenging!


Today was just a bodyweight pretest. I used it as a warmup, and it felt great. My hips really opened up thanks to the shinboxes and the sprawls.

Now I just need work to settledown enough that I can make it to my martial arts dojang so I can use some of these!


EKG Bodyweight Pretest, Level 1

8 rounds of tabata for each:
Shinbox Hip Extension: 3
Spinal Rock: 7
SL Kick+DL: 3
Mt Climber Sprawl: 5
Total: 18
Needed number to attempt KB Level 1 from EKG DVD: 18! Whew!

Now that I am warmed up, time for my "Easy" Clean & Press day... w/ 28kg
1,2,3 Ladder (oops, shoulda been 2 rungs lower than Hard day (4-2=2)
1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2
 Rest as needed...Its supposed to be easy day after all..

50% Snatch Effort w/ 28kg....Roll the dice and....3+6. the dice hate me today..9 "EASY" minutes...
Took a little tweaking to figure out 50%...In the end, I matched 4 reps on each side for :30sec total. Rested 30sec. Repeat...
Total Reps: 66

Hard Clean & Press

So last week I decided to drop the 28kg C&P ladders because I was stalled at 4-rungs.
Per ETK I should use a bell that I can press 5-8 times, which I cannot really do on my left side with a 32kg, but I dont have an interim bell, so I said, screw it! Lets see what happens.
So I cannot quite make 3 full rungs w/ the 32kg. I did give it the old college try. In the end I needed to take a page fromt he 'How to press a heavier Bell' bonus section of ETK and used my off hand to 'assist as little as possible' the pressing side.

Below is my routine. I think I will go back to the 28kg for next weeks Hard day and see how I do with 4-rung ladders. I am hoping I shocked my system enough to get a strength bump.

32kg C&P 3-rung ladders
L/R
1/1
2/2
3*/3
*assisted press on L side

1/1
2/2
3*/3
*assisted press on L side

1/1
2*/2
3*/3*
*push press on L side

 ===================

Rolled 7 on 2 dice....So, 7 minutes of 32kg 1H-swings
5-5-5-5
10-10
20 HTH
5-5-5-5
10-10
20 HTH
120 swings total. Whew!

Easy day, plus playing around w/ new exercises

Deadlifts. Pretty much have zero experience w/ deadlifting olympic bars. So today i found the rack empty.
Did a few reps @ 135, and few at 225. Cool, not bad for first time.

Also did my first weighted pullup w/ a 20kg bell on my foot. 2 reps. Again, not bad for my first time.

32kg C&P:
1/1x5

Pullups:
3 - 45s rest
4 - 60s
6 - 60s
5 - 45s
5

32kg C&P's

I have been training with a 28kg, but I seemed somewhat stalled on my heavy days. I am suppsoed to do 5 sets of 4-rung ladders. No problem on the first set, but I kept finding myself only able to do 3-rung ladders after that.

So today I decided to try a different approach, switch to a 32kg bell. My goal was to do 5 sets of 3-rung ladders, but became apparent I was not quite ready for that, so I did the following instead.

(32kg each side )
Set 1: 1,2,2
Set 2: 1,2,1 then 1 push press
Set 3: 1,2,1, then 1 assisted press (see ETK Bonus material)
Set 4: 1,2

No more juice, time to call it a day...

28kg Swings (medley of 1h, hth, and DARC swings)
106reps in 5min, resting as needed.

Loaded Cl + Some Snatch testing...

5/5x5 40kg Loaded Cleans
1/1x5 28kg Turkish Getups

rest

10 2h SW 44kg
5/5 1h SW 40kg

rest

5/5 32kg Snatches
1/1 40kg Snatch (PR)

C&P Easy Day | My First Ever SSST

Lunch:
Didnt have access to my working bell (28kg) so I bumped it up to 32kg.
5 Ladders, 2 rungs ea

30 reps total = 960kg = 2116#'s

6min of 32kg snatches.
5/5
5/5
5/5 (switched to lowering to rack before re-snatching)
5/5
2/2

44 reps total...= 1408kg = 3104#'s

5220# total..
-------------------------------------------------

Afterwork I was motivated by Brady Jones RKC to try my first SSST.
24kg Snatches. AMAP in 10 min.
I got 167. not bad for my first attempt.
FWIW: I hit 100 snatches at minute 4:45, so I am still able to meet my RKC requirement. :)

Heavy Day

28kg Clean and Press L/R
1,2,3,4   Rest 2min
1,2,3,3 Rest 3min
1,2,3,1 Rest 4min
1,2,3,1 Rest 5min
1,2,3,1 (almost did 2 reps at end)

Rolled the bones: 5min
1H 28kg swings, AMAP
104 total

So I played around with my rest times to see if I could hit that fourth rung...I think I should do 5min between all sets from now on.
I will shorten my rest period once I can hit 1,2,3,4 for all 5 sets.

Easy C&P + Snatches

single C&P  ladders
28kg 1,2,3 (mistake, supposed to be 1,2)
32kg 1,1 (experiment)
28kg 1,2
28kg 1,2
28kg 1,2


28kg Snatches (50)
10/10
5/5
5/5
5/5
Time: 3m20sec

Hard Day

28kg C&P Ladders
1,2,3,4
1,2,3 (brief rest) 4
1,2,3 rest 3
1,2,3,3
1,2,3,3



Snatches planned for later today.

Loaded Cleans...

40kg Loaded Cleans
5reps eas
5 sets

28 kg C&P + Swings + Sqt thrusts

ETK Heavy:
28kg C&P
5 ladders, 3 rungs ea

From an Alan Cosgrove Article:
28kg 2H Swings + Sqt Thrusts
Start at 8, ladder down...
So,
8 Sw, 8 Sqt Thrusts
7 sw, 7 Sqt-thrusts.....
1 Sw, 1 Sqt Thrust
Conditioning Suicide!

As written, it should be 15 and 15, but I am not ready for that...YET!

Aarons complex & swimming

Today was a fast day (needed to cleanse after my 2 week vacation with less than optimal food choices.) So my energy level was not very high today.

Some light swimming earlier in the day, then some kb complexes.

RKC Aaron Pierson sent me a complex to play with (using double 20's)

10 DSW
10 DSN
10 DCL&P
10 DSquats
10 deadlift+Burpees
10 Pushups

Felt good, all in all. I was a little worried about the dsn right after dsw, but i managed it well. Definitely took rests through-out.

Back at it! Rite of Passage with 28kg...

I was on vacation for two weeks and saw a dip in my pressing strength today. Not too worried. Another week and I'll be back where I was before my vacation.

Heavy C&P Day
28kg 3 rungs
3 ladders
Managed to do 1 more ladder of 2 rungs. Per ETK, I stopped when I could not bang out that 3 rep.

Rolled the dice and came up with 8min of swings:
28kg
2H swings - 26reps
5L/5R x2 (20 reps)
2H swings - 20reps
5L/5R x2 (20 reps)
2H swings - 20reps
6L/6R x2  (added 1 more on last set to hit 25 reps)
2H swings - 5reps
136reps total

Mon, Tues, Weds Rite of Passage

Monday was supposed to be easy day in terms of RoP.
Ended up slinging iron w/ my class:
(from MyMadMethods.com)

5 rung dl ladder
A5 rung sw ladder
5 rung gs+sw ladder

A1: Seesaw Press - 2 x 5-8ES
A2: Double Kettlebell Push Press - 2 x 15-20
A3: Explosive Push Up - 2 x 10-15
B1: Kettlebell Front Squat - 2 x 5-8ES
B2: Jump Squat - 2 x 10
C1: Double Kettlebell Row - 2 x 8-10
C2: Ballistic Kettlebell Row - 2 x 20
HE: Double Kettlebell Swing to High Pull - 4 x 30 sec ES

A1: Sprawl - 2 x 30 sec
A2: Jump Squat - 2 x 30 sec
A3: 2-Hand Swing - 2 x 30 sec
A4: Jump Squat - 2 x 30 sec
A5: Sprawl - 2 x 30 sec

B1: Goblet Squat - 2 x 30 sec
B2: Push Up - 2 x 30 sec
B3: Sumo Deadlift - 2 x 30 sec
B4: Push Up - 2 x 30 sec
B5: Goblet Squat - 2 x 30 sec
===============================

Tues: Off

===============================

Weds - Med day
A1. 32kg Loaded Clean 5/5 for 5 sets
A2. 32kg 5 sets of TGU

B1. 32kg Swings 10/10 for 2 sets

C1: 32kg Snatches. 2/2, 1/1 <- Grip/hand pain in Left palm is what cut this short. Need to work on my Left hand grip...

Variety Day - Tacfit and a 5k

Today was more or less a day off/variety day in my training regime.
After a week of working on my press w/ the 28kg bell I decided I wanted to try a 32kg press.

Military Press
28kg 3/3
32kg 1/1

Today was not really meant to be a 'weightlifting' day, so I left it at this.
I have pressed the 32 in the past, so this was no real feat or PR for me, but it felt good and the 32 is feelin lighter than it ever has. My goal is to do double 40kg C&P on my 40th birthday. I have 6 months to go, but I suspect I will hit this PR much sooner.

After that I did the Recruit level of Tacfit Warrior.
This is a bodyweight program that is geared more around dynamic movements similar to martial arts/military conditioning, rather than raw strength building (like Convict Conditioning, which is also a terrific program.)

The system uses a tabata timing pattern for each 4min movement. I did this w/ a medium intensity/speed.
Spinal Rock
Monkey Front Lunge
Plank Pull
Rear Sit Thru Press
Sit Thru Extension (my students hate these!)
Shinbox Kick.

All told, its about an 30min program and you control the difficulty by upping or lowering your intensity/speed.
I will be starting this program full time next week so this was just a regrooving of the movements so its fresh in my mind.

If you want to see what you an achieve with Tacfit style of programming, check out these vids:

Still feeling good and  a little antsy, I did a 5k run. This was probably my fist run in several months.
I utilize the Chi-Running method, which is very easy on the joints and feet. I wore my minimalist vivo-barefoot shoes and had no issues. I look back and think about all those crazy super-"supportive" running shoes I used to buy  and have to laugh at myself. My new shoes are no cheaper than the old ones, but my fit and knees dont hurt anymore.

Here's a vid explaining ChiRunning

Light C&P + SN

All with 28kg
(1) 3-run ladder

5/5 Snatch on the minute for 5 minutes.

Updates + Sissy Challenge...

Been a bit out of sorts lately, what with the fire. evacuations, etc..
Fortunately Joy and Lorilee came over Friday & Saturday to apply some much needed pressure to get me back into the swing of things...

Like most guys I work harder when there are women around who are stronger and faster than me.

Today's solo session was from Shane Englands RKC's 'The Edge Sissy Test Invitational '

Official Sissy Test Instructions:

Step 1:Start the timer

Step 2: Perform 25 burpees (If you do not know how to do a burpee, shame on you, and please do not attempt this challenge)

Step 3: Perform 1 kettlebell swing (If you do not know how to perform a proper kettlebell swing, shame on you, and please do not attempt this challenge). Bell size is your choice, but the weight should be moderate for you as you will be very tired and if your form breaks down Pavel will appear and kick you in the face.

Step 4: Perform 24 burpees

Step 5: Perform 2 kettlebell swings

Steps 6: Continue that pattern until you work down to 1 burpee and 25 kettlebell swings. If you are not smart enough to continue that pattern, then please do not attempt this challenge.

Step 7: Upon completing your 25th swing stop the timer. Note your time and go get a drink of choice.

Enjoy!


=================
My numbers (and remember we are at high altitude  6365')


325 burpees (the kind with pushups, no wimpy squat thrusts here!)
325 32kg two-handed Swings


1hr34min
Min HR: 82
Avg HR: 135
Max HR: 172
Calories: 1528