A Push From My Friends

After reading all the posts and watching the videos from my friends who competed at the World Kettlebell Lifting Championships this past weekend, I received a push from them that inspired me to hit the bells hard today. This workout is dedicated to each of you!

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 7 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 14 rpm

My jerk mentality is now "get to the 5 minute mark, and then hang on for another minute, a few more times". Seems to be working!

My hands held up incredibly well today too, no problems! I guess my technique tweak helped.

Rank II is now in my sights....

The Sweet Spot

Feeling ok today. Have been up since about 4am so was running a little low on gas this afternoon.I wanted to put my snatch refinements to the test today, so stuck with a basic jerk set before my snatches.

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 12 rpm

Jerks felt ok even though I was tired. I was very pleased with my snatches! Both hands still had relatively fresh tears on them so this was meant to be a real test of technique. Only toward the end of each arm's time did I start to feel my palms starting to grab a bit, and this I attribute to the fatigue. My left hand fared better than my right. I took off just a bit more skin on the right hand, at the same spot that I tore earlier in the week, and none on the left hand. And on more than one occasion, I felt like I hit the sweet spot on the drop! It was a nice feeling. So this will now be something that I will continue to improve and strive toward.
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PR Territory & Snatch Diagnostics

My wife did me a solid last night and let me catch up on some sleep. (Tonight I have to reciprocate.) So I was feeling pretty good for today's outing.I was intent on working my jerks with the 20kg's but wanted to take a step back on my snatches to try to determine what in my technique needed to be adjusted to help from having the bell catch my palms instead of my fingers.

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 6 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 8kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm

Snatch: 12kg - 4 minutes @ 16 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 2 minutes @ 14 rpm

My jerks are feeling pretty good. This was a PR. As I start making progress with these 20kg bells, each step forward is going to be a PR. This is all new territory for me. Exciting, huh?!!

I could have stretched this set out another minute, but then I thought, "what's the rush?". So rather than be too sore tomorrow, I ended at 6 minutes and will save the first 7 minute outing for another day.

I think my snatch diagnostics went well also. It appeared that I was dropping the bell away from my body somewhat which was causing me to grab onto it harder than necessary hence catching my palm on the down swing. Like I said, I think this causing the tears. Now I'll just have to focus on this change in future sessions. We'll see. It's all good!

World Kettlebell Club Rank III Achieved!

I was informed today that I have officially achieved Rank III with the World Kettlebell Club.

What that means is, for me specifically with my body weight falling into the 75kg category, I needed to complete, using 16kg bells, a minimum of 58 jerks and 100 snatches (50 left & 50 right) each in under 10 minutes without putting the kettlebells down. I'll be posting the videos that were submitted to YouTube later this week.

For today's session, I decided to swap out the 16kg bells with 20kg bells. Here's today's workout...

Jerk: 2 x 20kg - 5 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 20kg - 6 minutes @ 14 rpm

That's it and that's all!

An Easy Day

OK, I'm back at it once again! I'm back to work today. I now have to adjust for being up during the night for feeding the baby. Last night I was up at 2:45am, back to sleep at 3:30, then the alarm went off at 5:00. Not too bad. Lots of coffee certainly helps.

Being off last week I didn't want to hit it too hard today, so I stuck with a light schedule.

Jerk: 2 x 16kg - 5 minutes @ 6 rpm

Snatch: 16kg - 6 minutes @ 16 rpm

I have to say, I am amazed at how differently jerks are feeling for me as of late. I can actually say that as far as jerks go, this set felt easy. My rack feels more comfortable and the jerks themselves are feeling tight and crisp. I think when I started focusing on being violent (aggressive) off of the first dip, I tightened up the movement and am now trying to get under the bells faster rather than trying to press them upward. What's the most interesting is how quickly it occurred as if someone flipped a switch. It's a very cool feeling!

Tomorrow, assuming I am not totally sleepless tonight, I will push the jerks further.

Something Different?

Tomorrow I'm back to work and that means I'm also back to regular training. No sleep or not, I'm going to have to stick it out as best I can.

To get things moving today, I decided to change it up a bit for fun.

One-Arm Press:
16kg - 10/10
20kg - 10/10
24kg - 5/5
28kg - 1/1

Windmill: 16kg - 5/5, 5/5

Swing: 16kg - 30/30 (this was one minute per arm)

That gave me a nice sweat. It's super humid today. As it's been lately. I'm having a hard time keeping the handles on my bells rust-free. I keep getting rust spots coming up which means getting out the sandpaper, clearing them off then chalking them up good. I'm going to enjoy the Fall!

Peak Physique in Spring Valley, NY

Last week I had the pleasure of paying a visit with Steve Eckert and Eva Jundo at their facility in Spring Valley.



Eva and Steve have a very nice place with everything one needs to get into shape properly. Eva and Steve offer one-on-one personal training sessions along with various boot camp, kettlebell, boxing and self defense classes.

For the full story, you can find them here:

http://www.peakphysiquept1.com

Steven and Eva were also kind enough to open their space to me for training my own clients, which I thank them for. Training people part-time as I do, without a permanent facility, has meant that I have had to turn down clients in the past. But no more!

Therefore if you are looking for a structured workout schedule, please contact Steve and Eva, at:

Steve Eckert
Phone: 845-893-6529
Email: sjeckert@peakphysiquept1.com

Ewa Jundo
Phone: 201-925-1860
Email: ewa@peakphysiquept1.com


And if you are interested in a one-on-one or group kettlebell session with me, you know how to find me. =)

In the meantime, train hard, train safe and have fun!