Rock around the Block
February 11th, 2012 Comments Off
So I completed my Deadlifting cycle for a bit. That was a ton of fun. (Actually, if you add all the pounds moved, it was well over a ton, but that involves doing a lot of math, so I’ll just round down)
As I have written before, I use Pavel Tsastouline’s Power to the People protocol for Deadlifting. But I was able to have even more fun with this. Over the summer I had picked up Easy Strength by Pavel and Dan John. Easy Strength is an amazing book that details out how to understand and identify your goals for lifting and training, track progress, and set your programs to hit those goals.
I had read through it twice, and found a great protocol that I thought would fit my Goals (general fitness as opposed to sport specific) and it fit both my skills and equipment. The program worked out to be:
2-week Block Training (for a minimum plan of 10 weeks (5 sets))
Block 1: Single-arm Kettlebell Clean and Presses with Goblet Squats
Block 2: Power to the People Deadlifts
If you aren’t familiar with these these things, I’ll clarify.
Block Training is an old training method (very popular in the Former Soviet Union) where different exercise types are organized into Blocks, with a period of two weeks being the most common. You alternate the blocks over a period of several weeks before changing or moving to something new. Each block would differ from the others by either area worked (say, and Upper body block followed by a Lower body block) or it could differ by exercise type (in my case, a Pressing and Squats block followed by a deadlift block) You can run at a fairly high intensity as you recover from one type of work as you change to the other. Also, it lets you combine things in a way that keeps everything interesting.
Kettelbell Clean and Presses are surprisingly less common that I usually think. While kettelbells are very popular via Crossfit right now, most folks out there are just using them for swings (and typically the American Style over-the-head swing. – I follow RKC methods myself). I favor the C&P because when you are handling a large overhead weight on one hand only, then add the inherent eccentric balance of the Kettlebell, you turn an upper-body exercise into a whole-body lift. You need tight Glutes, core, and lats to achieve a good, straight lift, or you just wobble all over the place.
The Goblet Squat is one that Dan John promotes all the time as a way to dial in clean Squat form. Holding a weight out n front of your body, you pull yourself down into a low squat, with elbows resting on the inside of your kneecaps. It is very hard to get out of alignment with this exercise, and it really dials in great squatting form. The Kettlebell handle is a perfect alignment for the grip in a goblet squat, making it a perfect bookend for pressing sets.
With varying weights, this made my sets look like the following:
Block 1:
Single Arm Presses & Goblet SquatsMonday (16kg x 5, 20kg x 5, 24kg x 5) X 4 sets
Wednesday (32kg x 2, 24kg x 5) X 4 sets
Friday (20kg x 5, 24kg x 5) X 4 setsBlock 2:
Power to the People deadliftsMonday: 185lbs/135lbs
Tuesday: 205lbs/185lbs
Wednesday: 225lbs/205lbs
Thursday: 215lbs/205lbs
Friday: 225lbs/205lbs
Saturday: 235lbs/225lbs
After a Kettelbell week I would see if I felt up to adding an extra set for each day. At the end of a lifting week I would dial back 20 pounds, then add 10 each day. If the set felt too hard, I dialed back a bit.
This progressed fantastically! By the last Kettelbell week, I could get in 5 solid sets, and I was on track to break through a deadlift of 300 pounds. A few days before my cycle completed, I racked up 285 pounds to the bar.
In proper form, I made two excellent pulls. On my third pull, elves snuck in and glued the weights to the floor.
I mean, the bar didn’t move at all.
I was at my body’s limit, so I cut it short. I was well past my Personal Record, I had finished 9 weeks of solid, intense training, made amazing gains, and had no injury. So when my body said stop, I listened.
I took the next two weeks to recover with walking and some light bodyweight. Then is is on to the next challenge…
Ringside at the BULLfight
December 22nd, 2011 Comments Off
One of the things that I really like about social media is the exposure you get to large groups of people normally you wouldn’t be able to interact with. In good times, this allows you to get information and feedback from people but you might find useful and interesting. And in other times, you get to watch them pick fights each other. This is one of those other times.
Two of the big groups I’m exposed to right now are the Kettlebell crowd and the Paleo diet crowd. In both of these groups are having big internal conflicts. Personally, I’m rather enjoying the show. I’m lucky enough to have some of the better minds in all these groups available to me on Facebook either as direct friends, or through their business pages. And for the most part, they’re a smart, professional group of people.
Currently, I’m trying not to take sides in the arguments. I’m still pretty much a novice in all these areas, and I am hoping to learn from these people. But after a while, you can start pick out the wheat from the chaff.
I can see the point of the arguments for both sides in these situations, and usually they simply have a difference of opinion, but generally are moving towards the same goals. In some cases, I can see where one side really has a difficult time explaining its point of view, and that makes me feel like they don’t know what they’re saying in the first place. Or that they are just BS’ing to gather attention.
I might be wrong, but if you don’t know where you stand in the first place, you probably shouldn’t be arguing. It might be fun to watch for the rest of us on the outside, but it ends up being a colossal waste of time and bandwidth. And worse, you look like a real dumbass after a point.
There have always been splits in the Kettlebell community, and this time looks to be not dramatically different. I think that’s fine. Most of the players are arguing more about form, and details, and they tend to be mostly polite and professional about it. I think thats fine. In the end, we are really just talking about picking up hunks of iron, and there can be many successful roads to the same destination in this area. most of these folks seem to get that.
The paleo crowd has been quite a bit different. Since this summer there has been a core argument between the argument of the “Insulin Hypothesis” (too many carbs raise insulin which triggers fat storage) and the now opposing “Palatability Hypothesis”
This palatability hypothesis supposedly says that if food is better tasting you eat more of it in this causes obesity. If you buy into the whole “well it’s all just calories” argument, then this works.
That seems to make sense on the surface, but from an idea like that, all we can really difficult conclude is, “eat really crappy food and then you’ll be healthy!” So far, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot said about what mechanism is happening (it’s complicated!) or how this is borne out by the evidence; whereas on the insulin hypothesis side, there’s a pretty large volume of writing about what this is and how it works. It might be wrong, and probably is to a certain extent, but at least we know what they’re trying to say.
As I’ve been following this across all the blogs and other media, watching the same small number of people over and over making the same arguments and I feel like they’ve never been very clear. This has frustrated the heck out of me. These are people who I’ve really respected before, and have really appreciated their writing, and now I’m left trying to effectively fill in the blanks on what they’re trying to say, because they’re so outrageously unclear.
If you can’t clearly state your hypothesis, then I suspect that you don’t really have one. It ‘s a bit like the Monty Python sketch with the guy selling arguments. It ends up as contradiction for contradiction’s sake. (I could be arguing with you in my spare time…)
But, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this will be much clearer once there is some better writing and better arguments on this topic. But I just don’t have a lot of faith in that case. So in the meantime, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing right now. The way I’m eating, and the way I’m lifting, are working pretty good so far. And there’s always room for improvement.
That much will probably never change.
Wrap and a soup!
October 24th, 2010 Comments Off
Well, that finishes up the twelve weeks of Kettlebell Muscle.
I have to say, that is an excellent, but very, very intense program. Next week is a “down” week. Light exercise and recovery.
I had to split my final day workout between Friday and Sunday because my knee started hurting halfway through the workout. Out of all the lessons from the past year of working out, “Don’t move into pain” is probably the most valuable. Working out shouldn’t hurt. Heavy exertion is one thing, but actual pain means something is wrong. In my case, I know my knees start to hurt if my feet aren’t in the proper alignment for swings and squats. Two days of rest, and making sure my feet were correct, and I completed my sets with no pain.
I think once I am recovered, I will work on one-armed pressing again. I have been doing Doubles work for over six months and a change would be good. I have Kenneth Jay’s Perfecting The Press and may do that with some bodyweight work or Mobility work. We’ll see.
Week of 10/10/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Clean + Military Press x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 5 sets of all
Tuesday:
Active Recovery
Wednesday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
75 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 6 sets of all
Thursday:
Active Recovery
Friday:
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Clean + Push Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Saturday:
32KG KB Presses 2/2
Week of 10/17/10
Sunday:
Swings & Getups practice
Monday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Clean + Military Press x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 6 sets of all
Tuesday:
Active Recovery
Wednesday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
75 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 7 sets of all
Thursday:
Active Recovery
Friday:
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Clean + Push Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 2 sets of all (completed remaining 3 sets on sunday)
Saturday:
Rest
Aside from that, how was the show Mrs. Lincoln?
September 21st, 2010 Comments Off
My workout took a backseat to Yulia getting in a accident with my car on Friday. I caught up, but Friday was a nasty mess. Fortunately she was alright, and after that it’s just about nothing else.
I’ll start catching up next week.
Sunday:
Tuesday:
Thursday:
Active Recovery
Saturday:
Muscle Midpoint
September 12th, 2010 Comments Off
OK. That finished the first half (six weeks) of the Kettlebell Muscle Program. I now move on to Complexes and Chains for another 6 weeks. This should be fun. I actually missed my workout on the 6th (my birthday) but since we spent 2 days lifting equipment, sweating, and filming, I didn’t feel the need to do a makeup.
I’ve also kept up with doing pull-ups at the office. 2 in the morning, and then singles across the day as time allows. It’s getting better. I should work up to 3-2-1 soon. I hope. I need to make 5 to do the HKC, and at 220 pounds that’s some heavy lifting.
Filming
Monday:
Tuesday:
Active Recovery
Double Clean x 5 reps
Saturday:
Rest
Catch-up fitness post
August 9th, 2010 Comments Off
I haven’t posted my workouts for a while, so here’s a big catchup post. Right now I’m doing a lot of Doubles work. Currently following the “Kettlebell Muscle” book from Geoff Neupert. Great book, also reduces me to three workouts per week which aligns with Sasha’s Dance class, so I can run home and get my workout in. It took me a few weeks to get a handle on the rhythm of these exercises, but I think I have it now.
Should be a fun 12 week program.
Week of 6/27/10
Sunday:
10 Mile Ride
Monday:
20KG KB Clean and Press – 7 Minutes
24KG Goblet Squat – 5 Minutes
20KG + 24KG KB Double Clean and Press – 5 Minutes
Tuesday:
Rest
Wednesday:
Boating
Thursday:
Rest
Friday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Saturday:
Cruise…
Week of 7/11/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 seconds rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Tuesday:
Active Recovery
Wednesday:
Double Swing x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Thursday:
Active Recovery
Friday:
Double Clean x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
Double Push Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 3 sets of all
Saturday:
Pavel Class!
Week of 7/18/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
Active Recovery
Tuesday:
32kg + 40kg KB Farmers Walks
32KG Military Press 3/3
Wednesday:
Active Recovery
Thursday:
Double Swing x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Friday:
Active Recovery
Saturday:
Boating
Week of 7/24/10
Sunday:
Boating
Monday:
Bike to work (6 mi total)
Tuesday:
Bike to work (6 mi total)
Wednesday:
Bike to work (6 mi total)
Double Swing x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Thursday:
Bike to work (6 mi total)
Friday:
Kettlebell Lesson
Saturday:
Lats work.
Week of 8/1/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
Double High Pull x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 seconds rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Tuesday:
Active Recovery
Wednesday:
Double Swing x 5 reps
Double Snatch x 5 reps
See-Saw Press x 5 reps
90 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 4 sets of all
Thursday:
Active Recovery
Friday:
Double Clean x 5 reps
Double Military Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
Double Push Press x 5 reps
Double Front Squat x 5 reps
120 sec rest
20KG + 24KG KB – 3 sets of all
Saturday:
Rest
…and the 20KG does down.
June 26th, 2010 Comments Off
I just hit one of my goals for the year. 100 snatches with the 20KG kettlebell in 5 minutes. I had a whole 2 seconds to spare. When I add this to the Livestrong ride on sunday this has need a pretty active week.
Earlier in the year, someone on the Dragondoor boards asked “fit for what?” when another poster asked “how do I become fit?”
It’s actually a great question. “Fitness” really only applies to what you personally want to do. At the time, my answer was to just be healthier. Then at the beginning of the year, I set a few goals, this being one of them. When I did the Red Hook ride earlier, I was really surprised at how my cycling ability was so much better despite not being on the bike for so long. (improvements in both leg strength from squats and VO2Max from snatches.)
So I’m adding to my goals doing the Livestrong ride again, for either the 75 or 100 mile distance. I have also mapped out a 104 mile loop to try locally. It goes around lake Washington and Lake Sammamish, Mercer Island, and Bellevue. I want to ride that.
If I can hit those I’ll see about doing STP in two years.
Fit for that.
Week of 6/20/10
Sunday:
Livestrong 45 Mile Ride
Monday:
20KG + 16KG KB High Stop Military Press – 10 Minutes
16KG + 20KG KB Double Front Squat – 6 Minutes
20KG KB Clean and Press – 5 Minutes
Tuesday:
5 Mile Bike Ride
Wednesday:
Yardwork
Thursday:
16KG + 24KG KB See-Saw Press – 9 Minutes
20KG + 16KG KB Double Front Squat – 7 minutes
16KG + 24KG KB High Stop Military Press Press – 7 Minutes
Friday:
Rest
Saturday:
20KG KB Fast Cadence Snatch – 5 minutes (100!)
Livestrong
June 17th, 2010 Comments Off
Well I’m getting all set for the Livestrong ride on the 20th. I even bought a pair of shorts with more padding because I am old and tender now. But this will be a great ride. I have almost hit my fundraising target, and the weather looks like it will be ok.
I am getting ready to start on a different program once my vacation is over in July, it will be good to shift gears. This will be based on chains and complexes for reps instead of time. Should be fun.
Week of 5/23/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
20KG + 24KG KB See-saw Press – 4 Minutes
24KG KB Goblet Squat – 8 Minutes
24KG KB Braced Military Press – 6 Minutes
Tuesday:
24KG Fast Cadence Snatch – 8 minutes
20KG + 16KG KB Double Push Press from Squat – 12 minutes
Wednesday:
32 KG Jerk Practice
Pushups
Thursday:
20KG + 16KG KB High Stop Military Press – 7 Minutes
Pistols – 3 minutes
32/24KG KB Braced Military Press – 8 Minutes
Friday:
Rest
Saturday:
24KG KB Slow Snatch – 8 minutes
32KG KB Jerk – 6 minutes
Week of 5/30/10
Sunday:
7 Mile Walk
Monday:
Rest
Tuesday:
20KG + 24KG KB Double Clean & Press – 7 Minutes
16KG + 20KG KB Double Front Squat – 11 Minutes
16KG + 20KG KB High Stop Military Press – 4 Minutes
Wednesday:
32KG KB Snatch – 8 minutes
24KG KB Viking Push Press – 7 minutes
Thursday:
20KG KB Clean and Press – 7 Minutes
24KG KB Goblet Squat – 9 minutes
12KG + 20KG KB See-saw Press – 11 Minutes
Friday:
32KG KB Overspeed Swing – 6 minutes
20KG + 12KG KB Double Viking Push Press – 8 minutes
Saturday:
44 mile bike ride
Week of 6/06/10
Sunday:
Rest
Monday:
20KG KB Military Press – 5 Minutes
16KG + 20KG KB Double Front Squat – 7 Minutes
16KG + 20KG KB High Stop Military Press – 7 Minutes
Tuesday:
Rest
Wednesday:
Rest
Thursday:
20KG + 24KG KB Double Clean and Press – 8 Minutes
20KG + 24KG KB Double Front Squat – 10 minutes
20KG KB Military Press – 6 Minutes
Friday:
Rest
Saturday:
Rest
