20080930

Low volume pistols
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10 sets of 1/1

1. 16 kg.
2, 3. 20 kg.
4, 5. 24 kg.
6, 7, 8. 28 kg.
9, 10. 28 kg. (Right foot) 24 kg. (Left foot)

20080929

High Volume Presses
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24 kg.
20 sets of 5/5

These were good, and worked me more than the higher sets on the 3/3. I'm treating this as a practice vs. a work out and I can feel the difference. I'm getting waaay more efficient in my pressing mechanics. The middle sets on the left were hard, but they became easier toward the end. Total- 100 presses per arm.
Everything on the right is easy. :)

20080927

Low Volume Presses
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Today I find myself with only a 32kg. kettlebell, so most of the left side had a bit of a knee bump. Right arm was solid.
10 sets of 1/1 military press 32 kg. (left side slight knee bump)

Nutrition is the foundation

I'm finding that if my nutrition isn't locked in, nothing else matters. I've been moving my apartment this week and my diet plan went to hell. It caught up with me yesterday afternoon and I've been feeling like a truck hit me. Coupled with no sleep this week it equaled no workout this morning. It just was not happening, and I've learned not to push it. So I'm hitting my high volume pistols throughout the day while I work, shooting for 100 each leg on the 12 kg. Feel solid so far. Had a veggie juice and felt sick, which confirms I'm very toxic right now. Next week things calm down and I go into lock down.

20080924

High Volume Military Press
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24 kg.
32 sets of 3/3

This was relatively easy, and I think I'll most likley bump it up to 5/5 and decrease the sets, still shooting for about 100 presses per arm.
I finished up with some Janda Sit Ups and suitcase deadlifts with the 40 kg.

20080923

Low Volume Pistols/ Nail Bending
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Pistols
10 sets of 1/1 24 kg.
I didn't get as much depth on the left leg as it's weaker, but I'm working to build it up. I worked hard to keep my my left heel from tapping the floor at the bottom of the right leg pistols. It's not a support thing, it's a flexibility problem. All in all the pistols on the right were very clean.
PR- 1 pistol on the right leg with the 28 kg.

Nail Bending
Killed 5 whites then five greens back to back. Did another three greens back to back as well. Getting stronger in these. Did a white nail Heslep style, which amounts to holding it out at arms length during the initial bend, then bringing it in for the crush down.

20080922

High Volume Pull Ups
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Started out with 10 reps Turkish Get Up on the 32 kg. switching hands each rep. I was surprised how easy this was. It'll be time to bump up to the 40 kg. soon.

Pull Ups
10 kg. plate
30 sets of 3 reps each.

Not bad. I'm feeling much stronger in these. The goal with the high volume right now is to compress the number of sets and boost the reps before bumping the weight up. I'm carefully monitoring my elbows to make sure that pain doesn't pop back up, but I'm really focusing on form in regard to using my lats, and working to end each pull up in the hollow position (point of ascent), which is very advantageous.

20080919

High Volume Pistols... kind of.
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I was surprised at how much these smoked me. However, I do have to say that they became easier as I went, to a point.

5x3/3 12 kg.
3x3/2 8 kg. (Left leg was toasted by now)

Not anywhere near as many as I was supposed to get, but a good start. I'll probably start on the 8 kg. and stay there next time as I'm supposed to ultimately get 100 reps on each leg. Yeah, I know.

I also did some nail bending with a couple of the trainers. Hit five white nails and five green. Three of the greens went back to back. This is much easier now. I can carry on a conversation while I bend the whites. Going back to back with the greens is a good overload method. The third one went a lot harder and this will help me build up to the yellow. I made a run at the yellow but it wasn't happening. Tara tried to bend the white nail but it stopped her. I can see that better technique and getting everything tighter will allow her to do it, as she has a crazy strong grip from all the massage work.

20080918

Low Volume Pull Ups
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I ended up not finishing this due to time constraints today.
10 sets of 1 rep each- 20 kg.
4 sets of 1 rep each- 16 kg.

I had to swallow my pride and drop to the 16 kg. Lats are just toasted from the high volume pull ups and too much nail bending this week. Otherwise I feel good.

20080917- Beast Training Cycle Breakdown Pt. 1

High Volume Presses
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Military press
20 sets of 3/3 24 kg.
Total= 120 reps

This was relatively easy, so I may manipulate it a bit and go heavier every other week. I'm going to wait and see how I feel next week as all this stuff may eat into me more than I'm thinking it will.
I'm pretty confident I can press a 36 kg. bell right now. I don't have one to test it out on, but that may change soon. We'll see.

Here's the current breakdown of this training cycle. I'll put up something more permanent soon. The weights for the first three days represent what I've done so far.
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High/Low Volume Skill Work

Day 1
High Volume Pull Ups
TGU- 32 kg. 10 reps (Alternating hand to hand)
Pull Ups- 80-100 total reps- Sets of 4 with 10 kg.

Day 2
Low Volume Pistols
Pistols- 10 reps per side (20 total) 20 kg.
Nail bending

Day 3
High Volume Presses
Military Press 40-50 reps per side (80-100 total) 24 kg.

Day 4
Low Volume Pull Ups
TGU 28 kg. 20 reps alternating hand to hand
Pull Ups- 20 total reps

Day 5
High Volume Pistols
Pistols- 40-50 reps per side (80-100 total)
Nail Bending

Day 6
Low Volume Presses
Military Press- 10 reps per side (20 total)
Deadlift

20080916

Low Volume Pistols and Nail Bending
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Pistols
2x1/1 12 kg.
2x1/1 16 kg.
6x1/1 20 kg. right/ 16 kg. left

Big difference in strength from right to left. I have to fix that. The 20 kg. pistols on the right were fairly easy, so I'll most likely bump this up to 24 kg. next time. I definitely found a good groove with these. I worked a lot on keeping my forward heel from tapping the floor. I watched Brett failing people for that at the Beast Challenge, so I'm really going to stay on top of that. A big factor is increasing my flexibility.

Bending
3 white nails and two green nails went down without a fight. This wasn't too difficult, but I'm still going to give it a week or two before bumping up, and work through the rest of the stock. I used double overhand for everything as I really feel I can get my lats behind the bend. I'm going to practice the anchor/driver next time.

20080915

Beast Challenge Training Starts Now.
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High Volume Pull Ups

Not as high volume as it should have been due to time constraints.
10 sets of 4 reps with 20 lbs.

Normally I'll be doing some TGU to warm up and some heavy swings, but my right forearm is still a little tweaked. All in all these felt good, and I stayed strong throughout. Did a lot of work on my form, focused on firing the lats hard and keeping the shoulders plugged in.
I'm typing up the first five weeks of the training program and will be posting a link in the links section to the right where anyone can download it. It's based off of Kenneth Jay's training for maximal strength with the kettlebell. I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

Summing up the week

I've been remiss this week. Mostly I've just been working on technique issues in the 32 kg. snatch, and some deadlift stuff. Managed to tweak my right forearm pretty good doing a 44 kg. TGU monday, but it'll be fine for Saturday. Not any form issue on the TGU, the bell's just damn heavy.
Military presses with the 32 kg. have been getting easier, which means my pressing schedule works.
I pulled some deads today at Equinox to hone in on form and test my baselines. I worked up to a single pull of 385 lbs., just two pounds below my max at the last TSC. It went up hard, but I can tell I can pull more, so my goal is to break 400. Hip drive is much better, and I can feel that I'm a lot tighter than I used to be. Tomorrow I'm going to do a little snatching, and then take Friday off.

20080907

Pressing matters.
Ha ha. Okay, I'm tired.
Did a bunch of presses today.
10x3/3 on the 24 kg.
Fooled around with my bottoms up press with the 24 kg. as well. Right hand no problem, left hand big problem. I'm going to start working seriously on evening those out, as I thing a deficit in my left side will inhibit my ability to press the beast.
Decided today I'm going to do the elite division for the TSC. I really think I can hit 70-80 snatches on the 32 kg. which is good. I've pretty much just lost interest in snatching the 24 kg. at hyper speed, and feel I've aquitted myself of my previous defeat in said category. It doesn't make sense to take everything to a certain strength level and have one area left behind. Just my thoughts on the matter.

20080905

I'm not going to get into much detail with today as it was a blend of everything. I'm still smoked from the first three days of the new cycle, so I took yesterday off and backed it off a bit today.

Get Ups- Started with the 28kg 3/3
Then moved it up to the 32 kg. for singles. These went up easily. Then I bumped up to the 40 kg. and was surprised to find these also went up easy, at least on the left. I was stopped cold on my right, which is weird as my right is stronger. I'm doing something form wise on my left that is working better.

Snatches- Sets of 10/10 on the 28 kg. Went for about 5 total sets= 100 snatches. I haven't been filing like I should and I felt it.

Bent Press and Windmills- Fooled around with form, only went up to the 28 kg. on both.

Finished up with some presses- Singles on the 28 kg.

Then I went out to the soccer field to run my RKC candidates through their prep course. Good times.

Training for the beast challenge

So there's the big non-secret. I wanted to really hash out if I could achieve this on the necessary timeline, and I can. I spoke with Joe Sarti today about his run at the Beast Challenge, and his opinions re-enforced that this is very do-able. I'm going to do it at the San Jose RKC in February. In the future I'll lay out the overall plan, for now here are the bullet points.
1. High/low volume days focusing on the three lifts for 4-5 weeks. Pistols, pull ups, and military press.
2. Alternated with Squat and Deadlift specific cycles to increase strength and prep for Elite TSC Competition in April.
3. Weight increase to a solid 175-180. Previously set marker will take me to 170 easily.

Current Event Schedule
February 2009- Beast Challenge
April 2009- TSC Elite
June 2009- RKC II

Most of the Beast specific training right now is based on Kenneth Jay's protocols, which seem sound. The volume training is kicking my ass right now, but in a good way. I've also started using his pressing protocol of on the minute presses.

Today, 20080903
Presses
20 kg.
Minutes 1-3: 5/5
Minutes 4-15: 3/3
Minutes 16-18: Waiter's Press 16 kg. 5/5

Swings
28 kg.
5x20
24 kg.
3x20

20080902

Low volume pistols.
I forgot my notebook so I'm not sure of the exact sets and reps.

4 sets of 1/1 12 kg.
4 sets of 1/1 16 kg.
1/1 24 kg. (2x12kg.) to a low box. About 6 inches off the floor.
4 sets of 1/1 12 kg.

These went well. I know I can pistol a 24 kg. right now, it's just a matter of technique. I've been following Kenneth Jay's admonitions to treat this as a 'practice' and really drive in the movements.
A big problem is unloading too much tension at the bottom. When I've seen people fail a pistol at the bottom I can see that they're unloading in the bottom position, and then they're screwed. I understand the temptation, because you can rest in that position, but you most likely won't be able to crank enough power back up to get out of it.

Finished up with some swings to keep my cardio in check.
7 sets of 20 with the 28 kg.
3 sets of 10 with the 40 kg.

These workouts are a much different animal than my crazy snatching schedule. I don't feel as smoked during them, but I can definitely feel them eating away at me. My whole back is sore from yesterday and my legs are already sore (3 hours later) from today. :)

20080901- Starting the new cycle

Two weeks out from the TSC I know nothing is going to change, and the numbers I have now are most likely the ones I will have then. Knowing this, I am now shifting into a new training cycle and using the lower intensity to gear down for the competition.
Forgot to post it, but I ran a 5 minute test on the 32 kg. this Sunday. I hit 68 reps in 5 minutes. I know I can get 80 if I just gut it out, but I didn't feel like killing myself. After this I considered entering the elite division this year, but I want to accomplish two things first.
1. Pack some weight on my deadlift. I believe I can pull 405 right now, but I want to get it higher. This will require an actual deadlift training cycle.
2. I want to get 100 reps with the 32 kg. in 5 minutes. It can be done.
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Today I hit the pull ups hard. Low weight, high volume.
4 sets of 4 10 kg.
4 sets of 3 10 kg.
4 sets of 3 12 kg.
3 sets of 6 bodyweight

I stopped early as my forearms were really getting tight. I'll get more volume on these, but it's wise to ease into the high volume stuff. Ultimately I'll hit about 100 pull ups per workout.
Tomorrow is low volume pistols and some snatching.
I'll give you three guesses what this new training cycle is for, and the first two don't count. I'm keeping it under wraps until I get a good idea of whether or not I can actually pull this off.
The warrior diet is also getting suspended for the moment to bring my weight up to the 175-180 range. I need more mass to move heavier bells. The key here is to keep it healthy. Last time I suspended it and crashed it was partially because I was not keeping it healthy. Lesson learned.