Long Cycle ?!?! Day

Yes, it is finally here!! If you are familiar with my blog, I always talk about inserting a day of Long Cycle work into my routine. And then it never seems to happen.

Well today it finally happened!! This was a very interesting workout, I must say. Not ever practicing Long Cycle, and being in my current recovery phase, I went out with the 16kg bells and gave her a test drive. Here's the scoop...

Long Cycle: 2 x 16kg - 7 minutes @ 6 rpm

Treadmill: 20 minutes, easy walk with incline

L-Sits - Tuck: 3 sets of 15 second holds

So my first attempt at Long Cycle and without trying too hard I hit 42 reps. IKFF Rank IV / WKC Rank III for me in this lift is 54 reps. Not too shabby. I also performed this (and yesterday's jerks) with a dry shirt. A little bit of water would have made my rack a bit easier to hold and would have definitely helped increase my numbers. Nonetheless, this is good!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It's not as bad as it sounds. Actually, it's not really bad at all.

Lately I have been pushing things forward, working with the 24kg and 28kg bells. Well I started to develop some muscle soreness in my forearms. To give myself the chance to heal and get stronger I decided to drop down for the rest of this week and work with the 16kg bells. Here's today's session....

Jerk: 2 x 16kg - 7 minutes for total of 58 jerks

Snatch: 16kg - 6 minutes for total of 92 snatches

Jump Rope: 2 min on / 1 min off for 5 rounds

I could have pushed for longer sets with these, but that would have defeated the purpose of active rest. I do notice that my muscular endurance has dropped since working with the heavier bells. As such, I think I am going to drop down in bell size for a bit longer and work on my endurance and pace, you know some of the "finer" points of kettlebell lifting.

Qigong and Rope

Today was a planned recovery day.

Qigong: Eight Section Brocade routine with some friends.

Followed up with

Jump Rope: 2 min on / 1 min off for 8 rounds

My rope endurance is definitely starting to increase. I lot of trip ups today but I noticed that my pace is increasing and I also tried mixing in a little more variety. Most of the trip ups came from my criss crosses. I need to work on my timing.

Timed Set Day, 24kgs

Today was timed set day with the 24kg bells. I didn't feel like 100% going in, still some lasting soreness from last week's training, but luckily the temperature was on my side today.

Here's the skinny...

Jerk: 2 x 24kg - 3-3/4 minutes @ 8 rpm - total of 30 jerks

Snatch: 24kg - 4 minutes @ 12 rpm

Rope Work: 2-1/2 min on / 2 min off for 4 rounds

I have now improved my jerk set by 6 reps since last test. (That's a 25% increase! Wow!) So now that means I accordingly increase the volume on the days I train my sets/ladders.

Snatches didn't see any improvement, but that could be because I was totally spent after the jerks. The rope work was difficult too. There was a lot of tripping today. Not just because I increased my set time, I was tripping up right from the get go. I must have fried my CNS.

Kettle...

28kg Snatches

Today was Snatch Ladder Day. I was still a bit fatigued from yesterday's jerks, but since it's Friday I need to get this session in before the weekend.

So today I decided to start working some of these heavy ladders...

Snatch: 28kg -
5/5
7/7
9/9
5/5
7/7

Swings: 24kg - 10/10, 12/12

I stopped the snatches a bit early because I started to feel the skin on my palms starting to pull. And I am not looking to tear my hands up, so better to stop while technique is still good. That's it for the week. On Monday, it's timed sets with the 24kg.

28kg Jerks

Jerks today! Jerks today!

Working a bit heavier today, I performed a few short ladders. Here it is...

Jerk: 2 x 28kg - 5, 7, 9, 5, 7, 9, 4, 5 (with 2 min rest in between sets)

Rope Work: 2 min on / 90 sec off for 5 rounds

That's all/enough for today. Tomorrow we snatch!

The Usual

Nothing exciting today. Just punching the clock.

Jerk: 2 x 24kg - 4 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 24kg - 4 minutes @ 12 rpm

Rope Work: 1 minute on / 45 seconds off for 10 rounds

That's it. Next workout scheduled for Thursday.

(Quick) Assistance Work

I was "pressed" for time today, so it turned out to be a relatively quick session. Moved at a pretty quick pace between all sets.

One Arm Press: 24kg (L/R) - 10/10, 8/10, 6/8

Bumps: 2 x 28kg - 15

Overhead 1/4 Squats: 2 x 28kg - 10

Bumps: 2 x 28kg - 15

Squat: 1 x 24kg - 10, 2 x 24kg - 5, 2 x 24kg - 5

That's it. Have a nice weekend!

The Emperor's New Shoes

Today I had snatches on the agenda. Along with that, today was the first time for me to try out my new Olympic lifting shoes. I ordered a pair of Do Wins from MuscleDriverUSA (see below).

And let me tell you that I really like the way they feel. I definitely felt much more grounded than usual. Nice and planted into the ground. Good!!

OK, on to the workout...

Snatch: 24kg - 4 minutes @ 12 rpm

One Arm Overhead Quarter Squat: 28kg - 15/15

Snatch: 28kg - 5/5, 5/5, 5/5

Clean - 28kg - 6/6

Jump Rope: 2 min on / 2 min off for 5 rounds

Tomorrow I have an Assistance Day planned. Yippee!!

I've Fallen In Love (Again)

It's my Gymboss interval timer. I've fallen in love with it again.

On the docket for today was jerk intervals followed by jump rope intervals. Here's the outcome...

Jerk: 2 x 24kg - 6 sets of 8 reps with 90 seconds rest in between sets

Jump Rope: 5 circuits of 1 min on & 30 sec off, followed by 5 circuits of 1 min on & 1 min off

That's it for today.

New Hat

It's about 30 degrees F outside this afternoon and it feels just about the same in the parking garage. It was cold. But I did pick up a new Under Armour hat to wear while training. So at least my head stayed warm. =)

Relatively easy day today...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 3 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 14 rpm

Treadmill: easy 20 minute jog

Tomorrow I break out the 24kg bells and really start to work. Jerk ladders on the agenda.

Frozen Fingers

Baby, it's cold... in... garage!!

Once I get moving, my core temp goes up quickly. I'm even sweating in the cold. But my hands don't have that luxury. They get cold!

Anyway, still ramping up this week, here is today's workout...

Jerk: 2 x 16kg - 6 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 16kg - 8 minutes $ 14 rpm

I was happy with the session until the end when I realized that if I had only banged out another 10 jerks, that I would have completed my Rank III numbers! Oh well, it's still nice to know that this is now an easy workout for me. =)

Tomorrow is going to be a "special" variety day. Stay tuned...

It's Cold in That There Garage!

OK, the holidays are behind us. I'm still working on getting over a recent cold that has now hit everyone in the family. I'm back to work so that means it's time to get some consistency going in my training once again.

Not having too many opportunities to train during the holidays, I plan to scale back up over the next two weeks. This week, I will be training with the 16kg bells. Next week, the 20kgs. And the following week back to the 24's.

I'm down in the parking garage of my office building and given the cold weather here in the Northeast, it's a bit chilly down there. I toughed it out today with two quick and easy sets, just in time before my hands got too cold.

Here's today's session:

Jerk: 2 x 16kg - 5 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 16kg - 6 minutes @ 16 rpm

That's it and that's all!