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 Arm Long Cycle

Felt like I needed a change of pace today. I never train long cycle (I keep saying that don't I?), so since I didn't have much time to train today, I decided to swap a few bells in and out and work up a good sweat.

All sets are with a single switch and 2 minute rest in between sets.

One Arm Long Cycle:
24kg - 4 minutes @ 8 rpm
20kg - 4 minutes @ 8 rpm
28kg - 2 minutes @ 8 rpm
16kg - 4 minutes @ 10 rpm
32kg - 2 minutes @ 8 rpm

That's it for today. I worked up a sweat all right. But it felt good!

Keeping It Interesting

It's taper week, so that means I take a step back and focus on some different things than I normally do. Today was all about Long Cycle. I have not been training Long Cycle AT ALL. So today with the 16kg's in hand, it was time to get my feet wet.

Clean: 2 x 16kg - 2 minutes @ 12 rpm

Long Cycle: 2 x 16kg - 3 minutes - 8/8/6

Long Cycle: 2 x 16kg - 3 minutes @ 6 rpm

I liked today's session. I am going to throw in one day per week of Long Cycle work. I could have pushed myself harder today, but hey, it's taper week! I have a hunch that working Long Cycle might help me develop my rack quicker. The constant mobility of the movement might help me better sync (and sink) into my rack. Today was fun!

Un@#%* Believable!

Yesterday morning I laid out my plan for my training going forward. Today was scheduled to be the first day that I started alternating between the 16kg and the 20kg, today being the 20kg day.

Well all day yesterday I thought about this morning's session. I was psyching myself up for the new challenge. But in the back of my head, I kept wondering, would the 20kg bell be incrementally large enough to force the adaptation that I was looking for. Last night before going to bed, I decided to make a leap and jump directly to the 24kg bell. Half excited and half scared, I tried to mentally adjust to this.

For anyone who's following my blog, it's been almost a year since I seriously played with anything larger than the 16kg. Back in May of last year, I was trying to improve my 24kg Snatch numbers as I was planning on attending an RKC Certification. My best outing was 39 reps, with months of 24kg practice behind me. I was also suffering an overuse injury in both forearms which made the Snatch work even more difficult.

Then on a whim, I decided to attend the AKC Fitness Certification on May 25th held here in NYC. Watching Valery toss the 32kg bell around like it was an 8kg, convinced me to give this "new" method a try. At that point, I dropped everything, and started re-learning how to Hold, Rack, Swing, Press, Jerk and Snatch the bell. For the longest time with just an 8kg and 12kg bell.

Well this morning, I simply amazed myself. Afraid that this session, essentially planned as a Level 1 of the WKC Fitness Protocol, was going to punish me, I entered my workout area with trepidation. I warmed up with a few Swings with the 16kg, chalked up my hands and relied on my technique and last 9 months of training to get me through. Here's what it looked like...

Swing: 16kg - 10/10

Push Press: 24kg - 2 minutes @ 16 rpm

Snatch: 24kg - 2 minutes @ 16 rpm

1-Arm Long Cycle: 24kg - 2 minutes @ 9 rpm

My numbers amaze me! 32 Snatches right out of the gate with almost a year of not even practicing them with this size bell. Don't get me wrong, I was breathing harder during this set and any of my recent sets, more so than yesterday's 6 min Snatch set. But I killed it and killed it good for my first session. Wow.

Tomorrow is a planned (active) rest day. I'll wait to see how my back holds up after this session. If it holds up well, then I think I can safely say I've finally turned the corner with my training. Things could definitely be getting dangerous around now.... =)

P.S. Hands are great. No rips or tears.

Can You Smell It?

It's in the air... can you smell it too? The scent of 5 minute sets is close by.

Chugging along today with the 4 minute sets. Things are feeling pretty good. My only complaint is the cold. Is it Spring yet? Here's today's session...

Push Press: 16kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm

Snatch: 16kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm

Long Cycle: 16kg - 4 minutes @ 10 rpm

Swings: 24kg - 10L/10R

I won't say 4 minutes is "easy" but it is not a killer any longer. 5 minutes is lurking near!

Need to Work on My Catch

Afternoon workout went well today. Next time out I will start to shorten my rest breaks to 90 seconds when using the WKC Fitness Protocol.

Here's today's session...

Push Press: 16kg - 3 minutes @ 16 rpm

Snatch: 16kg - 3 minutes @ 16 rpm

Long Cycle (Jerk): 16kg - 3 minutes @ 10 rpm

All felt good the 2 minute rest in between sets made it feel relatively easy until I hit the Long Cycle, then I felt like I was working.

I can sense that I am catching the bell differently in my left hand from my right. During my Snatch and Long Cycle, my right hand definitely feels like it has a better grip so I'll need to work on this. Maybe some more sets of Cleans. On the left side I feel like I am catching more of the meat in the middle of my hand versus the right. I think since my right side is my dominant side, I am better throwing the bell into my fingers on the downswing whereas I am in a sense rolling it to my fingers on the left side. It's very easy to identify the difference so hopefully with a little more focused attention I can remedy things pretty quickly. That's it and that's all!

First Sunday of the New Year

Even though I wake up with a particularly tight back in the morning, I usually feel pretty good as the day goes on. Today was no different, so I decided to make it a Jerk Day.

Early this morning I practiced the Intermediate Intu-Flow program along with a few of my Muscular Retraining exercises.

This afternoon consisted of the following...

Swing: 12kg - 20/20

Jerk:

2 x 12kg - 6 minutes @ 6 rpm

2 x 16kg - 2 minutes @ 6 rpm

1-Arm Long Cycle: 20kg - 4 minutes @ 8 rpm (switching hands each minute)

Cooled down with Kettlebell Foundation Compensatory Movements.

It's been a while since I've done any real work with bigger bells and my hands could feel the difference using the 20kg. My plan is to slowly add in the bigger bells for the sake of my back. At the same time, it should help my hands acclimate as well. So far, so good! Jerk 'em up y'all!

The Arm Grappler!!

Felt much better yesterday and last night, so I am up and at 'em again this morning. Today I chose what is called the "Arm Grappler". I now understand why it is called that - my grip is shot!

Warmed up with Z-Health R-Phase thoracic, shoulder and elbow movements.

1-Arm Long Cycle (Jerk): 12kg - 4 minutes (20L/20R)

Snatch: 12kg - 4 minutes (32L/32R)

1-Arm Bottom Up Clean: 12kg - 4 minutes (32L/32R)

Swing: 16kg - 15/15

I have to admit the Bottom Up Cleans were UGLY! I had to take a quick break one minute it to chalk my hands. The sweat was making these impossible. I was then able to eke (sp?) these out, but they were still not pretty. I was forced to use my other hand at times to help stabilize the bell. Nonetheless, my forearms are shot. At the end of the 4 minutes, I attempted to pick up my towel which proved to be quite difficult.

This also made the finisher Swings taxing due to my challenged grip and hands. But you know what? It's DONE!! And so am I (for today). =)

Long Cycle

This morning I thought I'd perform a pseudo long set. Still working within the AKC Fitness Protocol framework, I simply strung together three circuits of the Long Cycle (Jerk).

Warmed up with Z-Health R-Phase Neutral Stance & Lengthening as well as Foot, Ankle & Knee positions. Along with a few Swings.

Long Cycle: 12kg - 3 min (15L/15R)

Long Cycle: 12kg - 3 min (15L/15R)

Long Cycle: 12kg - 3 min (15L/15R)

Took 1 minute rest in between sets. And that's it for this morning.

I am planning on teaching some bell movements to a few coworkers this evening after work. Gotta load up the car with extra bells. There goes my fuel economy!

Also received in the mail yesterday Z-Health I-Phase book and DVD so that's something I'll start going through over the weekend. Fun, fun, fun!!

The "CinciNasty"

Here's a clip from this morning's workout. I couldn't post the entire workout, since YouTube has a limit on the length of videos one can post. This shows me going through the second circuit of the workout.

I stripped out the 30 seconds of rest I took between movements. And since I taped this inside today, I didn't have much room to position the camera, so it's not the best shot. Also had to rotate the clips as I had to position the camera sideways to tape, so the footage isn't as clear as it would have been if I let you watch it sideways.

Anyway, you'll at least get a sense of the session....