OK, Shall We Get Started?

Easing back into things after a week off from suffering with a nasty sinus infection. Still not 100% but feeling well enough to start moving again. I am lucky that I made it through the entire winter with just one mild cold until this. Oh well.

So, today's plan was to ease back in without pushing too hard. Everything felt pretty good although I still need to work out the kinks in my snatches. Here's the low down...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 12 rpm

Treadmill: 10 minutes - light walk

Cool, cool!

Keeping Moving

Got good and sick over the weekend with a nasty cold and cough. I took yesterday off and was intent on just moving today. So nothing too great going on here now.

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

Snatch: 20kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm

Treadmill: 15 minutes - walking

Tomorrow I plan to slow down my snatches. I have about four things in my head that I'm trying to focus on and today's pace was too fast to keep track of them all. Otherwise, all went well considering how I'm feeling.

Goal Attained

Even though I've come down with a bit of a cold, I took advantage of my rest day yesterday to hit my goal in the Jerk. Today was another good day. I like seeing these. Positive progress on a consistent basis is great for the moral and one's enthusiasm. Here's today's session...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 10 rpm

One Arm Jerk: 28kg - 15/15

Swing: 20kg - 20/20

Treadmill: 20 minutes - walk/light run

Now that I've hit my goal of 50 jerks in 5 minutes, I will be shooting for 60 jerks in 5 minutes (12 rpm). I will also get back to snatching next week as my hand should be fully healed come Monday. Time to enjoy the weekend!

Inching Upward

Good training session today! I think I made a wise decision to stick to 5-minute jerk sets until I am able to hit 50 reps in that time. It is keeping me focused on my technique and conditioning to continue to make steady progress. And I am just about there now. No snatching today, nor for the rest of this week, as I need to let me hand heal up well.

Here's today's session...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg -

5 minutes @ 8/10/8/10/10 (46 reps total)

2 minutes @ 10 rpm

One Arm Jerk: 28kg - 8 / 8

Swing: 20kg - 20 / 20

Treadmill: 20 minutes - intervals of walk/light run, 7 min/13min

That's it. Tomorrow is a rest day. Looking forward to hitting it again on Friday.

Back from the AKC Coach's Certification

What a great weekend! Coming from someone who has been training alone as of late, in a cold, dark parking garage, being among a group of others who share my passion for lifting the bells and also in the presence of some of the best lifters in the country makes for a great time!

We did a lot of work this weekend. I estimated that I personally lifted approximately 22 tons on the first day and another 16 tons on the second day of the certification. I received some good technical refinements that I will now be putting into practice.

I took yesterday off to rest my weary body, but still felt a bit of the effects today. I also lost some skin on my left palm toward the end of the second day. I wasn't sure if my hand was up to snatching today. I did a bit, but stopped early. I'll be doing some teaching tomorrow, so my hand will have another 48 hours to continue to heal before I attempt any more snatches.

Here's today's session...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 1 min left/2 min right @ 14 rpm

Swing: 20kg - 15/15, 20/20

Jump Rope: 5 min on / 2 min off / 3 min on / 1 min off / 2 min on

That's it for today. By Thursday I should be back to 100%!

Let's Taper

Tapering today and making tomorrow a rest day before my weekend at the American Kettlebell Club's Coach's Certification weekend.

No bells today.

Treadmill: 20 minutes - walk/light run, 1:1 ratio (same pacing as two days prior)

Joint Mobility & Stretching

That's it. Feeling good. Feeling strong. And looking forward to a FUN weekend!

Climbing Back

Yeeeaahhh... feeling good and climbing back up to where I want to be. I was surprised to find my quads a bit sore today from the treadmill work. Well, not really too surprised. It's been a while since I've done anything close to running. But that wasn't a factor in today's session. I decided to skip snatches today, just to give my hands a day off. But up for it in other ways. Here's the scoop...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg -
5 minutes - 8/10/8/10/8 (44 total reps)
short rest
1 minute @ 10 rpm
short rest
1 minute @ 12 rpm

One Arm Jerk: 28kg - 10/10

Swing: 28kg - 12/12

Jump Rope: 5 min on / 2 min off / 3 min on / 1 min off / 3 min on

All felt good! I'm undecided on what to do, if anything for the rest of the week. I want to rest up a bit because this weekend I will be attending the AKC Coach's Certification. Two full days of kettlebell lifting with some of the best lifters in this country. Giddy up!!

It Wasn't a Fluke

Today's session was an experiment of sorts. Thinking about yesterday's outing, I came to think that I might have been spending too much time resting in the overhead position with my jerks. That could have been a major factor for my fatigued shoulders during my snatch set. So today, I wanted to give it another go, trying to rest more in the rack. Here's the result...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 14 rpm

Swing: 28kg - 10 / 10

Treadmill: 20 minutes, walk/light run, 1:1 ratio

So the jerk set was a bit more difficult than yesterday. Mostly because yesterday's session came off the weekend of rest. But the snatch set was MUCH better fatigue-wise. My cardio was taxed more today than yesterday, but my pace was up from yesterday as well. Good call, I say! I'm liking what I'm seeing!

Nice Jerk Set

So I've returned to training jerks and snatches in the same session. My goal today was to start stretching out my jerk sets again. To do that, I decided to slow down my pace today to see how a five minute set felt. Here's the skinny...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 14/12/12 - 14/12/12

Swing: 28kg - 10 / 10

Jump Rope: 5 rounds of 2 minutes on / 30 seconds off

The jerk set felt REALLY GOOD! I could have stretched it to six minutes, but that wasn't the plan. I'm going to build this back up nice and steady.

Now the snatches were another story. I forgot how fatigued my shoulders get following my jerk set. And with only a few minutes rest in between, these can get pretty ugly. They felt ugly today. I think I'm going to have an easier time building up my jerks now and will need to pay extra attention to my snatches.

Swings felt really good today too! Last week they just felt off. Today, nice and smooth and comfortable. I'll take it when I can get it! That's it for today!

Giddy Up

Personal revelation: If I want to get good at performing long, timed sets of kettlebell lefts, then I need to practice long, timed sets of kettlebell lifts.

This might not be true for everyone, but it is for me. After a few months of experimentation, I learned a few things:
(1) My body has a hard time recovering from high volume work
(2) My back has a hard time recovering from high volume work
(3) I can perform multiple sets of a lift for a high number of total reps, but that does not translate well for me to performing one long, high rep set

I will admit maybe I have not given the "volume" approach enough time to "sink in". But I have been experimenting with it for the last few months and I can honestly say that in that time, I am not happy with the results. Like I said, others my have achieved better results with this method. But I have not. With that, I will be devoted the majority of my training once again to longer, timed sets.

So here was today's session...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 4 minutes @ 8 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 4 minutes @ 14 rpm

Swing: 28kg - 5/5/5/5

Jump Rope: 3 min on / 1 min off / 2 min on / 2 min off / 3 min on / 1 min off / 2 min on

Cooled down with some light stretching. That's it for today. My short term goal is to get back to where I was in October. Hit some rank numbers and then move up to the 24kg bells once and for all!

Finally Moving Again

The past two weeks have been terrible in terms of me trying to get in my normal workout. Hopefully the worst is over and I can get back onto something steady again. Today's session was meant to be relatively easy. Just a means to get the body moving again.

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 3 minutes @ 10 rpm, 1 min rest, 1 minute @ 10 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm - changed hands each minute

Swing: 20kg - 15 / 15

L-Sit - Tuck: 20 second hold, 40 second rest for 3 rounds

Bodyweight Dips: 3 sets of 5

I decided today not to wet my shirt for my jerks. I did notice that not doing this fatigues my delts a lot faster. I suppose its because they get recruited more as I try to keep my elbows from sliding off my hips. That's it and that's all!