Weekend Fundraiser

This past Saturday. Gold's Gym in Paramus, NJ allowed me to offer three 1-hour kettlebell lifting workshops. Everything we collected is being donated to the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance.

My son Anthony, who will turn 3 at the end of March, was born with Tuberous Sclerosis. Each holiday season since he was born we try to raise money for the Alliance whose goal it is to help fund research for cure as well as help improve the lives of affected families. This year I was able to offer these classes as a way of saying thank you to those generous enough to make donations.

The classes were scheduled one right after another. As I cooled down one session, the next session was on there way in ready to be warmed up. We went over the basics, swing, clean, press, push press, long cycle press/push press, half snatch and snatch.

Between the three sessions we had a total of 23 people attend and in all raised over $600!

For the most part, everyone seemed to enjoy the bells (even when they looked like they were in pain!). If there is a demand for more at that location, I promised to return to continue sharing the fun.

I myself am still recovering from it all. My personal workouts typically only last 30-40 minutes. In this sort of setting, not only was I demonstrating each movement, but also working along with the group as we practiced timed sets with each. Also, being limited in the number of 12kg bells I have, I used the 16kg for the first two sessions and was able to drop down to the 12kg for the last. On a good note, everything has been hurting it seems except for where my back injury was.

Even today my delts are still fried, traps, forearms, abs, obliques, quads, hamstrings, you name it. But it's a good sore. This was definitely a good way to transition back to the 16kg for my own training! That's all that's been happening. Tomorrow, perhaps we test the waters with 16kg Jerks.

I would like to especially thank Art, Mike and Eileen for the great opportunity this weekend. They did a lot to help make this the success that it was. Thank you all!

Baby Steps

Warmed up this morning with some 6lb medicine ball circles and twists.  

Swing:  12kg - 15/15, 16kg - 15/15,  20kg - 10/10

Snatch:  16kg - 4 minutes @ 12 rpm - total 48 snatches

Cooled down with selected KF Compensatory movements.  I was amazing pleased to find my range of motion in the Spinal Twist has increased somewhat without pain(!).  Things might actually be starting to work for me.  This could be exciting...  =)

I could definitely feel the difference Snatching the bigger bell this morning.  I considered switching hands after the 4 minute mark to squeeze out an additional minute per hand, but I decided not to be greedy and go slow.  Slow and steady have been working for me so far, I'm hoping it won't let me down.

On a side note, the AKC Coach's Certification is coming to NYC in June.  I plan to attend.  Although it seems like so far off, it will allow me to keep progressing and hopefully I'll be moving bigger bells and numbers around by then (24kg's maybe??).

Gotta run, early meeting at the office today!  Snatch 'em up y'all!

Recovery Day

Not much doing here this morning except a little Intu-Flow Beginner Routine and a little "tennis ball therapy".

Yesterday's 10 minute Jerk set exhausted me.  My own fault, I didn't eat nearly enough yesterday to compensate.  This morning I awoke to a pretty tight lower back and some sore forearms.  There are still traces of fatigue in my shoulder girdle and I'm sure as the day goes on I'll notice other places as well.

But the best part is that my back does not have me screaming in pain this morning.  It tightened up pretty good across my lower back and particularly at the injured site, which is where the tennis ball therapy came in.  I have only flipped through a few pages of my newest purchase, Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davies.  On order is the Thera Cane, but in the meantime tennis balls work pretty well at hitting the "knots" in the muscle.  And like I said, I still have to read the book so I might not even be performing this correctly, but however it seems to be helping.

I'm just about finished reading the first half of Muscular Retraining for Pain-Free Living.  It's only in the second half that the exercises are introduced, so that will be starting shortly as well.  But from everything else, so far so good.

Tomorrow I would like to introduce the 16kg back into my regular training.  Stay posted.

Another Milestone Met

I took yesterday off to rest after my 10 minute Snatch set on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised at how well my back withstood the session. I was a bit tight around the site of the injury as well as my core in general. The most soreness I experienced was in my traps.

I had followed up that session with a few selected Kettlebell Foundation Compensatory movements as well as some initial Trigger Point therapy using a tennis ball. Either one or the combination worked really well at keeping things at bay.

This morning I was intent on hitting the 10 minute mark with the Jerk. I had done 8 minutes at 6 rpms the other day and was confident I could give it a run today. Here's how it looked...

Swing: 12kg - 15/15; 16kg - 12/12; 20kg - 10/10

Jerk: 2 x 12kg - 10 minutes @ 6 rpm - total of 60 jerks(!)

This was a tough set! I think part of the difficulty is performing these first thing in the morning when my body is still not fully warm and flexible. Two minutes in, I was thinking "there's no way I'm getting to 10 today".

But again, I turned my concentration toward my breathing and my alignment. Trying to reach my hips with my elbows between each and every rep.

Into the fourth minute, I was thinking "just two more, get through 6 minutes". At some point the minutes became a blur, I found my hips a bit better which makes it a lot easier. And my breathing settled in. Next thing I know, 9 minutes are passed. One minute to go! Only 6 more reps. And then... I completed the 10th minute!

This is a great feeling to have. What a hurdle it's been. Now it's time to change things up a bit. Similar to my Snatch work, I will now broaden my practice two ways, bump up to the 16kg bell and start with shorter sets, working my way up, and continuing to work with the 12kg, also shorter sets but at an increased pace, again building up.

I didn't have a chance to cooldown as I did on Saturday. I'll get some in later on today. Hopefully, I'll feel alright tomorrow. That's it for now. Jerk 'em up!!

Long Road to 10 Minute Snatch Set

It's been a while coming but today I hit my first milestone - 10 minute set of Snatches with the 12kg!

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't start Snatching with the 16kg until I was able to last for 10 minutes with the 12kg. And today I did it and feel pretty good afterward as well!

I missed my training sessions the last two days. Thursday I took off to rest and yesterday I slept through the alarm. (If you know me, that happens every now and again.) I saw the chiro yesterday and woke up today with my back a bit sore from it. Nonetheless, I decided it was time to go for 10. Here's what it looked like...

Swing: 12kg - 15/15; 16kg - 10/10; 20kg - 10/10

Snatch: 12kg - 10 minutes @ 14 rpm - total of 140 Snatches

In case you're interested here's the play-by-play on how I performed the set...
I have a large clock in front of me with a sweeping second hand.
On the floor out in front of me I have a digital timer that's on zero.
I chalk up and wait until the second hand of the clock hits the "9" - 15 seconds till we begin the set - at this point I start the digital timer.
I then prepare my stance, position the bell and get ready to begin.
When the second hand hits the "12", I start.
My focus my becomes gets the pace set and synchronized with my breathing. I've got to hit 3 reps before the second hand approaches the "3" on the clock.
As it hits the "3", I hit my 4th rep.
Three more to go before the second hand hits the "6".
And now we repeat for the next half minute.
And so on.
If I zone out and lose track of how far into the set I am, I glance down at the digital timer.
Once my breathing is comfortable, I then focus on my form.
At the top, the bell rested diagonally down across my hand.
To start the downswing, I focus on rotating the bell gently out of my hand to descend.
As it passes through my legs I focus on tightening my 'ok' grip.

Once I hit the 5 minute mark with my left hand I knew I was home free. My breathing was steady and controlled. It's all about pacing yourself.

With the Snatch, there are two avenues that I am now going to pursue. (1) Improve this 10 minute set by increasing my rpms. (2) Start with the 16kg once again and work my way up to longer sets as I did with the 12kg.

I still have a lot of work to do with my back. But at least I am able to move and train again. That makes it a lot more tolerable. Snatch 'em up baby!!

Not Too Bad

Slept a little better last night.  I was able to cut back on the dose a Nyquil a bit which made it easier to get up today than yesterday.  I wanted to keep things moving without overdoing it today.  Therefore I opted to forego the Snatches today and work on my Jerks.

Swing:  12kg - 10/10;  16kg - 10/10

Jerk:  2 x 12kg - 8 minutes at 6 rpm - total of 48 reps

Cooldown consisted of some foam roller work, Kettlebell Foundation Compensatory movements and some impromptu trigger point massage on my quadratus lumborum using a plastic polar bear(!)  in place of a tennis ball.  (Hey, sometimes you gotta make do with what you have on hand.)

I was mentally set to eek out this 8 minute set of Jerks.  Around minute five I was started to have my doubts, but I stayed focused on getting through each individual minute and tried my best to find my hip bones to get in some rest.  Funny thing is, sometime in minute six I thought about going for ten minutes.  I probably could have but didn't want to push it too much today.  My back is hurting a bit today (and yesterday).  

I'm off to Barnes & Noble again today to pick up a book on Trigger Point Therapy.  I'm going to figure this back thing out (eventually).  I've decided to remove the heal insert I have been wearing.  Since I have been wearing it for weeks now and still have not gotten lasting relief and since I don't totally believe that my condition is structural but muscular, I don't want it overcompensating things.  Worse case, I can always put it back in.

So that's it for today.  Hopefully, tomorrow I feel even better than today!  Jerk 'em up y'all!!

I Hate These Workouts

The ones when you're sick and would rather sleep in, but you know you'll feel better if you just muster up the strength and will to push through it.

Yeap, I've come down with the usual, cold and cough.  My two-year-old and I overlapped our colds this time.  He started to improve yesterday while I seemed to worsen.  I am taking the day off from work though.  I'm continuing to use the Neti pot as I had been trying to keep this thing at bay but will also be sampling some Claritin-D today as well.  Hopefully I can keep this thing under control.

Anyway, I still had the fortitude to get up and train a bit.  Here's what it looked like...

Swing:  12kg - 10/10;  16kg - 10/10

Snatch:  12kg - 6 minutes - 18/16/16/18/16/16 - 100 reps total

One-Arm Jerk:  16kg - 4 minutes - 12/6/12/6 - 36 reps total

Annex workout included Seated Russian Twist 12kg, Windmill 12kg, Standing Big Circles 6lb ball, and Standing Russian Twist 6lb ball.

I have been wondering a lot lately about how it feels to Snatch at a 20 rpm pace.  Up until now I have never ventured past 16rpm.  So I started to introduce within the 6 minute set, the first initial minute for each hand at 18 rpm.  It is fast!  At 16 rpm, you still have a moment at top to catch your breath.  At 18rpm, that starts to become non-existent.  I can only imagine what 20 rpm feels like.  At this point in my training 20 rpm for 10 minutes seems like an impossibility. But then again, that's why we train, right?  =)

I then added on the heavier One Arm Jerks.  I wasn't sure going into these how long I wanted to last.  I thought maybe 6 minutes, but after the first rather rapid set, decided to ease back and not push it too hard.    Particularly since my back wasn't too happy that I started to include these again in a prior session.  Which leads me to something interesting about my back...

I have started reading a book title Muscular Retraining for a Pain Free Life.  This book was recommended by Scott Helsley on his blog.  (I'll let you check out the synopsis on Amazon.)  As I was reading it last night, I decided to skim through some of the later chapters to see what was in store for me.  In the chapter on posture and alignment, the author described by current condition to a tee.  Laterally tiled pelvis with accompanying scoliosis.  Only he goes on to say that this sort of condition is typically caused by muscular dysfunction and that this type of scoliosis is in fact reversible as it is the result of the muscle imbalance and not the cause.  If this is true in my condition, I have much more work to do.  My chiropractor has told me the opposite.  I'm not sure which is correct, but I am tending to lean toward the book's view.  Although the initial visits to the chiro produced some immediate improvement, I am again stuck in a place where I have something of a constant ache in my lower right back.  I am gaining some increased mobility when twisting to the right, but this condition has been going on now for over 4 months and I have not ever been totally pain free in the whole time.  

Luckily the second half of this book includes muscular retraining exercises that are supposed to help.  I am going to try to start experimenting with them today.   The author, an occupational therapist out on the west coast, now also provides online consultations.  I am going to attempt to start working the exercises in the book first, but might also have to explore that option especially if I start to see some improvement on my own.  There might be hope for me yet!!  

Enough babbling from me.  That's it and that's all for today!