Friday, February 15, 2008

Swings, Just Swings

The name is Swings, Just Swings. I'll have my protein cocktail shaken, not stirred, thank you.

Well this has been a rough week for me, both physically and mentally. To be honest, I am glad the week is over. Just for the fact that next week HAS to be better. I pushed myself through most workouts and didn't feel too enthusiastic. Although today offered a glimmer of hope. Actually felt a little more like myself today. This is good.

Today, I performed two-handed swings. That's it. (OK, I did do a few sets of forearm extensor prehab work in between, but those don't really count for anything until I am able to perform my snatches and clean & presses without pain.)

2-Hand Swings: 16kg - 20, 24kg - 10 (this was my warmup)

2-Hand Swings: 32kg - 15, 15, 15, 15, 20, 10, 10

That's it! 100 swings in total.

I can say, in my opinion, that 20 reps are considerably harder than 15 reps. More than only 5 reps worth.

On Z-Health... I found a certified Z-Health trainer not too far from me in NJ. I may try to hook up with him over the weekend, circumstances allowing. Maybe he can point out to me all of my shortcomings. Physical shortcomings. No, wait, anatomical shortcomings. No, that's not right either. Postural shortcomings??? Well, maybe he can help fix me. =P

Tomorrow night on Showtime is a big MMA fight. I'll record it to see if it's any good. This is an added bonus I get for switching to Showtime for Dexter, now I can see guys (and gals) submit one another. I think I'd like jiu jitsu. Also on Sunday night on the Military Channel at 10pm EST, an hourlong show about the Spetsnaz, followed by another hour on the Army Rangers. Interested to see if they mention kettlebells.

OK, gotta go. More over the long, 3-day President's Weekend. Does anyone agree that Ron Paul might do better in the polls if he wore Zubas?

6 comments:

Franklin said...

Great job with the swings! (Thank god I can do these again as my elbows have doing great these last few weeks.) On my swing days I turned to your fabulous 24kg x 5/5 one hand swings on the minute for 10 minutes into a complete workout. Today I did 20 sets where at the 12th set I switched to the 16kg and did 6/6 until 20 sets are completed. My plan is to stick with this until I can do the 20 sets with just the 24kg.

Howie B said...

Thanks Franklin, nice job yourself! I used to think that one couldn't get as intense a workout by performing swings versus snatches. I now know better. Swings can be just a grueling as snatches. I was concerned that by giving up snatches for a while it would hurt my chances of preparing for the RKC Snatch Test, but I now don't think it would make too much of a difference. Working up in time and numbers on one-handed swings should definitely be able to get one ready physically for the snatch test. And if you ask RKC Taikei, he'll tell you that one-hand swings are harder than snatches.

Franklin said...

Hey thanks Howie, its really appreciated and its so fantastic to be KB training again. I agree with RKC Taikei regarding swings vs snatches (BTW check out his form with double 32kg swings on one his recent blogs videos ... flawless!), they absolutely toast me and I never have hand/grip issues since I learned to loosely hook the bell. Someday I will get back to snatches but at the moment I am more than challenged with swings and jerks. Yesterday I did some TGU's with 24kg and they felt great ... real slowly with my eyes on the bell at all times. I forgot how great that one was but then again its no accident that TGUs+swings = ETK Program Minimum.

Keep up the great work and you can bet I'll be pulling for you at your cert.

Aaron Friday said...

Ron Paul would certainly do better if the others wore Zubas.

Jujitsu? yeah, I think you'd like it. Japanese style was really hard on my hips and back because of the high throws, so I stopped. Brazilian is what I'd go for now.

Howie B said...

Aaron, my biggest limiting factor these days is time. Not sure if pursuing something like jiu jitsu would be worthwhile if I can only train once or so per week. What do you think?

Aaron Friday said...

Hell yes! Once a week is plenty unless you want to compete.

Fact #1: Most people who show up for martial arts have no talent for it. You've already proven that you do.

Fact #2: Most people who do martial arts rely on their MA classes to provide conditioning. You've got that covered on your "off" days.

Fact #3: A person who shows up once a week, regularly, is ready to roll and expects to see results. You will.

The general advice of 3 days/week is for beginners. You are not a beginner. Ever wonder why some people are 5th Dan in 4 styles of karate?

You don't have to start over with this stuff.