Hiked the stairs with the 16 kg bell. Started with the weight from my place and did 2 sets of swings on the way down the hill. Managed to pull off 2 sets of 60 swings. I figure I should work my reps in the swing slowly to 100. If I cant swing the bell with 2 hands there is no way I will be able to snatch it 100 times one hand at a time!
Nutrition is looking good - been sticking with the program pretty much no problem. Cheating today but I'm trying to cut my cheats down a bit in volume. I think I will go hit Joes Pizza.
I teach Yoga, Hardstyle Kettlebells and barbells.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
a little wakeup call from the body
I have been consistent with my workouts even though I have not blogged them for a few days. I dont feel like blogging about those sessions. They were all good workouts but they were simply more of the same. Hiking the ridge and doing pushups, hiking the stairs with the 35 lb bell and doing 5-6 sets of Russian KB exercises on the way down. I've been doing at least 2-3 sets of 2-3 minutes of the kbsnatch at home every few days at least. I've been doing at least 2 50 rep sets of swings every few days as well.. My hands are callused as fuk atm even with good lifting gloves. I have not been sleeping that well lately. (ring, ring, hey mom, no, it's normal, I'm fine). It feels like my legs have been sore for at least a week. My hamstrings are friggin killing me right now because I've been practicing a snatch style with much more forward lean and it adds incredible pressure to the hams. It's starting to get a little more difficult to get motivated to go outside to get my training done and I really thought it was simply the heat. As it turns out I have decided that it's not the heat. I am definitely OVERTRAINED.
Thinking back, I hurt my back really badly in October of last year and it took nearly 6 months before I could seriously train. That means I have been training 4-5 days a week at moderately intense levels for about 4 months. Most experts recommend taking 3-7 day breaks from training every 2-3 months so I guess I am overdue!
I am not going to simply stop training and waste this great opportunity. I am going to treat my current condition as an advantage and train as if I am trying to peak for some sort of event. This entails sticking to my regular routine until the end of the week even though I know I will be feeling a little sluggish and unmotivated. I am going to try and push as hard as I normally train, even harder. I will officially overtrain myself and then on Monday start a much needed break. If all goes well when I come back to training 4-7 days later I expect to be at 110% strength.
Thinking back, I hurt my back really badly in October of last year and it took nearly 6 months before I could seriously train. That means I have been training 4-5 days a week at moderately intense levels for about 4 months. Most experts recommend taking 3-7 day breaks from training every 2-3 months so I guess I am overdue!
I am not going to simply stop training and waste this great opportunity. I am going to treat my current condition as an advantage and train as if I am trying to peak for some sort of event. This entails sticking to my regular routine until the end of the week even though I know I will be feeling a little sluggish and unmotivated. I am going to try and push as hard as I normally train, even harder. I will officially overtrain myself and then on Monday start a much needed break. If all goes well when I come back to training 4-7 days later I expect to be at 110% strength.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Workout Journal 8/6 and 8/7
Monday I hiked the stairs with the 35 lb kbell and did my swings and snatches in 4 different sets as I walked down the hill. I did 2 sets of 40 swings and 2 sets of 15 each arm snatches. I stopped at the pullup bar and managed to do a set of 5 pullups and then a set of 3 so no pullup improvement today.
Tuesday I hiked the ridge and stopped at each peak to do 20 clean pushups.
I have been negligent about keeping track of start and stop times! The heat is making things difficult for most people but I am doing pretty good in it. It may have been close to 95 or even 100 today but I felt strong!
Tuesday I hiked the ridge and stopped at each peak to do 20 clean pushups.
I have been negligent about keeping track of start and stop times! The heat is making things difficult for most people but I am doing pretty good in it. It may have been close to 95 or even 100 today but I felt strong!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Workout Journal
Simple workout today. Hiked the ridge and stopped after each peak for a set of 20 standard pushups. Total of 5 sets. Pretty fantastic feeling to go from the peak, where your lungs are close to blown out, to the pushups. When you start the pushups it almost feels like a relief because the legs finally get a break but the heartrate continues to elevate.
I was feeling energetic in the evening so I threw in a session with the 35lb kbell...didnt really keep track of what I was doing, just had fun with it for about 15 minutes. Probably did 70-80 snatches from different starting positions. Definitely resting all weekend so I can attack it on Monday!
I was feeling energetic in the evening so I threw in a session with the 35lb kbell...didnt really keep track of what I was doing, just had fun with it for about 15 minutes. Probably did 70-80 snatches from different starting positions. Definitely resting all weekend so I can attack it on Monday!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Workout Journal
Hiked the stairs again with the 35 lb kettlebell. Managed to get from my place all the way to the first bench at the peak of the stairs at a good pace without stopping. At the top of the stairs I started the first of 5/6 sets I planned to do on the way down. Starting from the top and stopping every 2-3 minutes I did the following:
35 2-hand swings x 2 sets
15 snatches each arm x 2 sets
Goblet squats 1 set of 25
I also stopped near the base to test my pullups. I did 5 pullups from a dead hang. 1 more than a few days ago and at the end of a pretty good workout to boot. I think I will be able to do 10 pullups soon! I am going to try and learn the pullup kip that they do in Crossfit. It looks like it will give you a bunch more reps but the technique looks tricky! Regardless, very happy to be able to do 5 good pullups when I couldnt hand from the bar for more than 5 seconds without pain for the past 20 years!
35 2-hand swings x 2 sets
15 snatches each arm x 2 sets
Goblet squats 1 set of 25
I also stopped near the base to test my pullups. I did 5 pullups from a dead hang. 1 more than a few days ago and at the end of a pretty good workout to boot. I think I will be able to do 10 pullups soon! I am going to try and learn the pullup kip that they do in Crossfit. It looks like it will give you a bunch more reps but the technique looks tricky! Regardless, very happy to be able to do 5 good pullups when I couldnt hand from the bar for more than 5 seconds without pain for the past 20 years!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Pre Workout Nutrition
A bootcamp student asked me what I would recommend for pre-workout energy and my first instinct was to say, "Nothing"!
If you are eating a well thought out nutrition plan you should have all the energy you need to get through a 1-hour workout without relying on food or drink just before training. More important than what you eat just before working out is what you ate during the 12 hours previously. If you ate moderate portions of carbs (about 1/3 your diet is what works for me) your muscles will store those carbs in the form of glycogen for later use. You will have more than enough fuel in your body to endure 1-hour of training.
There are exceptions to this line of thinking. If you have been going very carb-light during the 12 hours before training (which will happen if you train before your first meal of the day) your body will be very receptive to some sort of nutrition 30 minutes before training. That is a good time to drink something with simple sugars in it, typically juice (which I tend to water down 50%) or if you are a sucker for the taste and the marketing a small amount of Gatorade. You would have to be careful with your quantities here because you could easily get stomach pains from drinking too much juice or Gatorade too close to class start time.
Finally, if a person wants to get a JOLT! before training I do not have a problem with drinking 1/2 to 1 full cup of coffee before training. It works for me. I just make sure to drink at least 2X the amount in water too! Avoid those 5-hour energy drinks which are clearly just crap marketed to the ill-informed.
If you are eating a well thought out nutrition plan you should have all the energy you need to get through a 1-hour workout without relying on food or drink just before training. More important than what you eat just before working out is what you ate during the 12 hours previously. If you ate moderate portions of carbs (about 1/3 your diet is what works for me) your muscles will store those carbs in the form of glycogen for later use. You will have more than enough fuel in your body to endure 1-hour of training.
There are exceptions to this line of thinking. If you have been going very carb-light during the 12 hours before training (which will happen if you train before your first meal of the day) your body will be very receptive to some sort of nutrition 30 minutes before training. That is a good time to drink something with simple sugars in it, typically juice (which I tend to water down 50%) or if you are a sucker for the taste and the marketing a small amount of Gatorade. You would have to be careful with your quantities here because you could easily get stomach pains from drinking too much juice or Gatorade too close to class start time.
Finally, if a person wants to get a JOLT! before training I do not have a problem with drinking 1/2 to 1 full cup of coffee before training. It works for me. I just make sure to drink at least 2X the amount in water too! Avoid those 5-hour energy drinks which are clearly just crap marketed to the ill-informed.
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