ThurZday, 11/8

Easy day today, working on my Standing Ab Wheel Rollouts followed by some Z-Health movements. Right now only performing movements for 5 areas and each week plan to review and incorporate at least one new area into the mix.

Right bicep is very sore today. Not sure if it was initially caused by pullups or cleaning the 24kg or both. So I'll be resting it until next week. Tomorrow's routine will be a little different than usual. Back to today's routine, like I said, pretty easy...

Standing Ab Wheel Rollouts - 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (continue to inch further back each set)

Z-Health - Lengthening -> Lumber -> Thoracic -> Shoulders -> Neck

Starting to see a little more movement in some of the exercises, others not so much. But will continue to plug away.

Until tomorrow, swing 'em high!

Wed Lotsa Presses

Feeling pretty strong this morning, I decided to take Aaron's advice and lose the 8kg kb that starts out my warmup. I jumped right in with the 16kg...

16kg: 2-Hand Swings 30x, Halos 5/5, 8s to Hold: 5/5
24kg: 2-Hand Swings 20x, Halos 5/5, 8s to Hold (with 16kg): 5/5

During my warmup I noticed that I have a dull ache in my right bicep, near the elbow. I have had this re-occurring for some time. My physical therapist classified it at an over-use injury. I am starting to connect it to pullups, particularly when I perform them on my Power Tower here at home. At the gym, there are several pullup bars at different angles and I used to do my pullups there as opposed to the straight bar here at home. Now that I've started my "at home only" routine, the ache is returning. So needless to say, I decided to skip pullups today.

Instead I became more focused on my Clean & Presses...

Clean & Press 16kg: 5/5
Clean & Press 24kg: 1/1, 5/5, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 3/3

Wanting to hit 5/5 with the 24kg, I decided not to tire myself out too much with laddering and went for it pretty early on. And I hit it! I then decided to keep it up and started a ladder. Going was pretty strong until I got back to my set of 5's. Couldn't do it on the left side so opted for 3 good ones and then matched it on the right. Not too bad. Then on to the Swings...

1-Hand Swings 24kg: 10/10, 10/10, 10/10, 15/15, 15/15

Today I learned the beauty of the "hook grip" with swings. After Monday's Snatch workout my hands were fried. And as soon as I performed my first set of swings today, they were screaming. With a small adjustment I found the sweet spot and was able to finish without a problem. The hook grip will definitely strengthen my fingers I can see.

Today's totals:
2-Hand Swings 2112 lbs
1-Hand Swings 6336 lbs
Total Swung = 8448 lbs

That's it for today. Tomorrow is an easy day.

Sushi Tuesday

It's Tuesday and that means in the cafeteria at work it's Sushi Day!! Or Sushi Tuesday as I like to call it. Mmmm... looking forward to some spicy tuna rolls this afternoon.

Keeping to my schedule, I set the alarm for 5am this morning (hit the snooze just a little) and was moving earlier than same time last week. Being an "off" day just focused on the following...

Standing Ab Wheel Rollouts - four sets of 5, 5, 5, 3
First set I was relatively close to the plate, did 5 reps rolling out from standing position and back, next set, inched back a bit, out and back for 5 reps, inched back a again, same, last set I was pretty far out and was only able to complete 3 reps. This seems to be working.

Z-Health - Shoulders, Neck, Lumbar & Thoracic
Worked these portions of the program today. I am definitely starting to feel my neck possibly opening up. It's hard to tell right now. Every now and again, I'll move it and feel something snap or pop, in a good way, where it might have felt tight, strange. Still very far off on the Lateral Tilt & Glides, still almost no movement there. Egyptian is coming along. As for the Thoracic, I find the seated A/P Glides easier to get feel/movement in rather than the standing version. And the Thoracic Lateral Glides, again, almost no movement there for me. But I'll keep working it.

Over the past few days I have also been trying to Grease the Groove a bit on my One Arm Pushups. I am just about there on the right side and have a little further to go on the left. Practicing singles right now. Pretty cool.

That's all for today. Tomorrow we swing!

Happy Anniversary

Today is my wedding anniversary. Seven years of wonderful wedded bliss. Boy how time flies. My wife and I actually started dating right after college, so we've actually been together for 16 years now. Now that sounds like a long time!

Anyway, with us going back to Standard Time over the weekend, I thought I'd take advantage and not give my body too much slack so rather than give it that whole extra hour, I gave it an extra 30 minutes. This morning, rather than set the alarm for 5:30am like I usually do, I set it for 5:00am. (Still feels like 6:00 to me.) Now I should get a few more valuable minutes to devote to my morning madness (aka kettlebells).

This morning's workout looked something like this...

Warmup
8kg - 30 2-Hand Swings, 5/5 Halos, uncounted number of Figure 8's to a Hold
16kg - 20 2-Hand Swings, 5/5 Halos, uncounted number of Figure 8's to a Hold
24kg - 20 2-Hand Swings, 5/5 Halos

I threw in some of the Figure 8's to a Hold because I thought it would be good to add a bit of rotation to my mostly rigid routine, even if it is just part of my warmup. These felt pretty good too. My first time trying them. Def felt them in my obliques.

On to the Main Workout...

Clean & Presses:
16kg - 5/5
24kg - 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3

Bodyweight Pullups:
5, 5, 5, 5

I sprinkled the BW Pullups into my C&Ps, today kept my hands out a little wider just outside the bend in the pullup bar. I have one of those Power Towers. Only problem is that the back rest (to be used for leg raises) gets in my way. Particularly if I try to hang weight from my belt.

I considered going for a 4/4 set but didn't think I could pull it off cleanly, so instead I opted to run another ladder. We'll see how I feel on Wed. (If I do these again on Wed, have been considering replacing these on Wed with deadlifts... not sure yet.)

Snatches:
16kg - 10/10
24kg - 5/5
5/5
16kg - 10/10
10/10

After performing the C&Ps with the 24kg, my first snatch with the 16kg felt very light. Very cool. That's when I decided to pepper my snatches with some 24kg. Gotta start sometime/somewhere right? My hands definitely feel wrecked this morning, but otherwise I was feeling pretty strong today. Tomorrow I will try to get back into some Z-Health. Will introduce Thoracic exercises tomorrow.

Total swings = 2288 lbs
Total snatches = 3168 lbs
Total poundage = 5456 lbs

In Honor of Captain Feathersword

Long live The Wiggles!!

Fast Friday

It's Friday! And it's my first workout in November! I kinda screwed up the alarm this morning, so I was late getting to my workout so I had to cut out some non-essentials for today.

Continued with my normal warmup of 2-Hand Swings supersetted with Halos:
8kg - 30 swings; 5/5 Halos (to the left, to the right)
16kg - 20 swings; 5/5 Halos
24kg - 20 swings; 5/5 Halos

Clean & Presses: (still cleaning before each press)
16kg - 5/5
24kg - 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 (this looks like a ladder!)

1-Hand Swings:
24kg - 10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10

Totals: 1-Hand Swings: 2288lbs + 2-Hand Swings: 5280 = 7568 lbs

That's all for today. Over the weekend I plan to squeeze in a few odds and ends such as Ab Wheel Rollouts, One Arm Pushups and Z-Health. Have a great weekend!

Hans & Franz

Took today off from training. Tomorrow is Heavy Swing Day and yesterday/last night was busy so thought I'd sleep in this morning. Sleeping in for me means I got up at 6:15am rather than 5:30am. 45 minutes never felt so good!

Yesterday at work we dressed up for Halloween. A colleague and I dressed up as Hans and Franz from the old Saturday Night Live skit. Here are a couple of the pics that were taken.