Overweight since childhood,I spent most of my 30's tipping the scales around 250lbs. At age 41 I took charge of feeding myself by preparing all of my own meals, no more fast foods! I created a way to use my love of cooking, food, and eating to permanently lose over 100lbs. During this time I discovered kettlebells and my own style of training The Kettlebell Swing, bringing out my inner athlete and erasing all signs of former lifelong obesity. It's never too late, YOU CAN DO IT!
I know what accountability means, and I get it, it's fine, but why does it not always feel right to me? I admit that sometimes it helps, it motivates, it can even be fun! Let me just get right to the point of this subject on accountability as it relates to a group who's purpose is that of supporting others in their weight loss and fitness desires and/or goals. Okay, there it is, I said it. Weight loss. I kind of tried to soften it by adding fitness.
Weight loss. It is still a thing? A thing people can admit they want, or have we moved so far into "self love" that we are supposed to settle for whatever we have, whatever we are, in this exact moment, even if it's being of an unhealthy body weight? Is it a judgment to suggest someone is, or may be, unhealthy because of how much they weigh? Do you think I am measuring others by my standards? Man, this is getting deep.
Let's get back to the idea of accountability. When does it help and when does it hurt? I think we know right away, I know I do. When I agree to check in with someone else, or a group, and make my progress, or non progress public, if I'm honest, it only feels good when I'm doing what I said I wanted to do! When I'm not it's the number one sign accountability is not going to work!
I want to find some other way. Another way to remind myself I'm worth it. Another way to remind myself of who I truly am. And that has nothing to do with anyone else but me.
I'll think about it. What are your thoughts?
Accountability is when an individual or department experiences consequences for their performance or actions. Accountability is essential for an organization and for a society. Without it, it is difficult to get people to assume ownership of their own actions because they believe they will not face any consequences.
Gosh, it seems as if this was forever ago! Probably because I took a little trip last week to see my bestie Fawn in St Paul and then off to Milwaukee to snowshoe with Diana (and The Fonz!). It's become an annual January snow trip, losing a little momentum, but now I'm back to the routine that I love! First things first, I need to finish up journaling my New Years Eve 20:16 results.
Strategy. First of all my normal workouts are at least 1 hour long, so this is the reason I chose to do 3 twenty minute rounds instead of two. Maribel, who trains with me on Thursday mornings also chose three rounds, whereas Matt, who trains with me on Saturdays chose two rounds because his workout is normally 45 minutes long, so each of us chose an appropriate length of time. None of us trained specifically for this test, which was part of the point, instead we were able to see where our strength and endurance would fall given our current conditioning.
Last blog post I journaled about my first round, snatches. I chose that one first as it was the most important to me, swings next because I wanted the first two rounds to focus on the ballistics, finally slowing down and measuring what kind of strength and endurance I would have at the end with squats, a relatively new skill I've added in the last 1 1/2 years, training more regularly, but again, a ton of room for improvement.
I deleted my swing round from my iPad before posting it, but you can see the first part of it at the end
of my snatch video. I decided just that morning that I would do only two hand swings, and NO one hand swings, for 2 reasons; I had previously accomplished 1000 continuous one hand swings w/16kg swings, and because the point of this challenge is not continuous "unbroken" sets, it would be impossible to do with two hand swings anyway! There is no way, until someone proves me wrong, that anybody could do 20 minutes of continuous two hand swings, with the appropriate weight, without it going extremely ugly after the first 200-300 reps (5-7 1/2 minutes), and that's extremely subjective :) Personally I'm good for about 200, then it's all over!
So you can imagine my surprise when I only got to 20 reps in my first set before I had to put the bell down! 20 reps! 20 reps! Shocking! Shocking at first, because I think so darn highly of myself apparently! But not so much after taking into account I had just completed 370 16kg snatches in 20 minutes...duh! In fact, after that first set of 20 swing reps bitch slapped me it became clear that sets of 20 would be the order of the day! I abandoned any other strategy I thought I had, even if I could increase the length of the reps/sets it would be much easier to keep track and measure improvement by sticking to sets of 20, not tracking rest periods, just starting each set as I felt appropriately recovered from the last.
It took the better part of that 20 minute round, maybe about 12 minutes, before I felt I could do longer sets, say up to 1 minute/40 reps sets. BUT that was not the point, BUT it was a relief! It was a relief to finally feel like I hadn't been beaten down with a stick and my recovery between sets was faster. I recorded 22 sets of 20 reps, and one last set of 16, for a total of 456 two hand swing reps. 20 minutes of "equal work to rest" swings is approximately 400 reps, so to complete almost 60 more reps means that I averaged just under 23 reps per minute....again, tons of room for improvement!
I'm actually surprised by this because it seemed as if I was working at a 2 to 1 ratio, 2 parts work to one part rest (30 sec work, 15 sec rest), but since I don't have the video showing the exact number of reps and sets I have to rely on what I scribbled down on the chalk board :) It's not my goal to improve this number too much as my main goal is to improve my snatch round while maintaining my swings and squats for the next challenge! (I just did the math, and if I'm correct I actually wasn't too far off! 20 minute of 30/15 = 466 reps, so 10 reps short, whew!)
Speaking of swings....
Last week I missed a Saturday workout and a Tuesday workout. Although I got a few swings/snatches in on Monday, it's rarely ever close to the regular workouts I get at home and on a schedule. I got back home late Tuesday night and Thursday mornings are my regular workouts so although tempted as I may have been to pick up a bell the next day I needed to get back to my yoga practice as well. Wednesday was a yoga day and I picked up almost where I left off on Thursday. It's really my sport training that suffers the most. But no official competitions, no pressure.
Yesterday was my first Tuesday practice, after a warm up I completed a simple 80/80 12kg snatch set, then moved on to some swings. I did a "30" rep themed workout in class last Saturday that I loved so much that I thought I'd practice the progressions again so I can remember it for a future workout video routine. I'm calling it 1-2-3.
1-2-3- uses 5 swing combinations that are practiced in sets of 10, 20, and 30.
2 hand swing
transfer swings
swing ladders
5/5
10/10 (15/15)
Here is the warm up, 200 swings, 10 minutes, where each combination is done in 2 sets of 10 and one set of 20.
The main workout repeats each combination 10, 20, 30 rep sets for 300 swings, 15 minutes. And since it's my day to build up to and do sets of 60-100 I ended the workout stringing all the combinations together for two sets of 60 and one final set of 90 :)
Round #2 16kg Two Hand Swings
20 sw
14 sec rest
20 sw
etc x 22 sets + 16 = 456 swings
Round #3 16kg Front Squats
5 R/ 5 L x 13 sets
5 R x 5 sets
5 L x 5 sets + 1 rep
181 reps
In this first post of three I'll only be writing about Round #1, my 16kg snatch total. My training goals over this next year will be to specifically work on only one of the three skills I tested while maintaining the other two skills at their current levels. I'm going to assume that those totals will also improve, and we'll see, but not losing any strength/endurance in either of the other two rounds is the secondary goal.
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Interesting..... I knew I wanted to snatch for a continuous 10 minute set to start out with, so I did. The idea was NOT to go all out, but to find a consistent pace and leave some gas in the tank :) Knowing I was going to put the bell down at the 10 minute mark I sped up my pace slightly to get in a few more reps because, to be honest, I didn't know when I'd be picking up the bell again! This was the only part of the workout that I video taped in it's entirety because this is the part of the challenge I'll work on to make my first goals for improvement. In the first 20 min., 16 second round I took a total of 2 minutes, 19 seconds of rest. So roughly 18 minutes of snatching at approx 20.5 rpm (369), OR 18.4 reps per minute over the entire 20:16.
I could choose two ways to set a new goal, each would give me a higher total. Faster rpm, of course, or longer (less rest). Hmm.... Well, there's a part of me that would like to make a goal of snatching the 16kg for 20 continuous minutes (and longer!), so I think I'll make that my first goal. THEN I'll work on speed.
I've got three months to train before I test this again. Reviewing the video, and going by memory, there was a definite point in the first 10 minutes that it started to feel "hard", and the fatigue came fairly quickly as the weight appeared to feel "heavy" at that point and move slower. Even though I was keeping pace, the effort that was required could be improved on. Near the end even doing 10 reps at a time was a drag and I dropped down to switching every 5 before going back to 10's.
Goal #1
12 min continuous set, but stronger! lol Plus multiple sets = higher total So, I'm only going to take away, maybe, 45 seconds of the 2 min 19 seconds of rest I took. That equals out to about 15 snatch reps. 387 reps
Goal #3
15 min continuous set, plus multiple sets = higher rep total Again, taking slightly more rest away, maybe 30 seconds, leaving about 1 minute total of rest. + 10 reps = 397
Goal #4
Only two sets total. The first set I'll back off a bit and only complete a 12 min set., then up to 1 min rest. (no more), finish off another continuous set until the end or the 20:16. I'm unable to predict this one actually! BUT, that being said, the two previous results will be of great importance and study for the last and ultimate test.
Goal 2017
20 minutes continuous 16kg snatch, 415 reps, 20.5 rpm.
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Since there is 3 months in between each re-test then my main focus right now is to simply use my regular weekly workouts to tighten up my technique and form. Allow enough recovery, and then 6-7 weeks out I'll get much more specific in preparation. Again, the first goal is a 12 min continuous set, which I know I can do now, but I want it to feel a lot easier than that first 10 minute set felt!
I used a black Hardstyle cast iron bell with a large handle diameter. I tried my best not to use any Sport technique, but double and triple breathing will alway come into play with endurance.
In my next 20:16 post I'll write about Round #2, swings, perhaps the most surprising result of all!
I know a few people commented or dropped me a message/email about their own results, an I thank all that participated. If you would like some input about how to train for your next test or some thoughts about your results I'd be happy to give them to you, and I'd be thrilled if you share them here, in hopes of maybe inspiring others to do the same :)
I WILL be better next year than I am today, period
I once had someone say to me, "It must be nice to not have 'lose weight and get in shape' as one of your New Year resolutions!" I had never thought about it because it wasn't something I needed to think about! And yes, it's awesome to have that checked off my list, permanently! But that doesn't mean that there is no room for improvement! Which is why I presented the idea of a year long "One Bell Challenge".
Before I get too wordy I thought I would share some fun stuff! The first time I ever tested my ability to snatch the 16kg for 10 minutes was in 2007, and I was able to complete 178 reps. Back then it was known in the kettle bell community as the "USSST", or USST, I forget, (ultimate secret service snatch test), and for females it was with the 16kg and for men it was the 24kg. Boy has kettle bell training come a long way in the past 8 years, and so has my video capabilities because back then I could only video 3 minutes at a time on my Canon camera!!!! (goodness, that means I was 44 in this video!) So here is the 3rd of 3 videos, the last 3 minutes of my first USSST:
The second time I tested it was in 2009 at Girya. I believe I completed 213 reps....notice how serious I was! But also remember, very few women, maybe a handful, if even that, were doing this kind of training at all! This was epic for the time, and hella scary!
In between 2009 and the next video, 4 years later, 2013, I'm sure I had trained hundreds of thousands of snatch reps (no kidding, I think I've calculated well over 50,000 per year, just think about how many swing reps I've done, double even triple that!), AND I had been introduced to, and practiced the training and techniques of Kettlebell Sport, also know as Girya Sport (GS). Before training GS a 10 minute set still produced fear! Seriously, no one in the Hardstyle KB was training or testing anything past 5 minutes, a standard originally set with one of the qualifications of earning a KB Instructor Certification. This is because "Hardstyle" is about "power and acceleration", similar to sprinting, while anything past the point of losing the ability to contract and hold maximum muscular tension is not considered HS, so technically most ballistic sets past 30 seconds (imo) are not HS. Okay, okay, enough....here's my best 10 minute 16kg set, but done with a competition bell (continue reading next about a comp bell):
Okay, what about a comp bell? MY opinion, based on my hundreds of thousands of swing and snatch reps, FOR ME, are easier to do with a comp bell. FOR ME, the handle is much smaller making it easier to hang onto, without challenging the grip in the same way those thick handled HS bells do, and the slight difference in how the weight is distributed (the center of gravity further away from the handle) lengthens the arc, and again, for me, makes doing long sets and heavy sets, whether it's swings or snatches, easier. This may be part of the reason I blew my former rep record out of the water with an increase of another 10 reps, and with less effort (and ugly face, lol!).
The last thing I'm going to bore you with, because it's a question I get asked about a lot, is that I DO NOT recommend comp bells for "exercise" kettle bell training. Of course if that's all you have, then that's all you have, but I recommend the black cast iron bells for what I do, what I teach and how I train when I'm not specifically training Sport.
Today? Well, more like yesterday? Yesterday I completed my first 2016 One Bell Challenge. I chose to test 3 skills, the first was the snatch. I used a 16kg bell and knowing the round was for 20 minutes, not 10 minutes, it was not my intention to take it full force! The snatch round was only the beginning, I still had two other 20 minute rounds to test! My strategy was to cruise the first 10 minutes with a continuous set to gauge what it might feel like to do a longer continuous set in the future. The result, with some effort, not going to lie, was 208 reps:
How much fun is this? I learned a lot, as I always do with video taping and reviewing my sets/workouts! I went on to finish out my 20 min 16 second round with multiple sets totaling 370 reps, which I'll go into when I write my post about the entire event. Gosh, this just solidified the fact that I must do this more often....and lucky me I'll get to do it again three more times this year!
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"I will be better, stronger and more fit at the end of next year than I am today!"
How do you know you'll be better, stronger and/or more fit if you don't test yourself with something measurable? For the first time in a long time I jumped out of bed yesterday morning (at 4:00am) excited and nervous about testing myself! And now that I've done it I'm even more excited about my workouts this next year! My "One Bell Challenge" I presented gives one many opportunities to measure progress because it's a year long challenge. One that insists on, and rewards consistency, which is truly the biggest challenge for most people. "In shape" is not a stationary goal, it's a moving target, and you've got to move to catch it!
Having a starting point lets you map out the route to your next fitness/health destination, so the point of this first one is not to be a hero and try and do each round as one consecutive set. The idea is to put in effort for sure, but it's more about letting your weaknesses show themselves, with the appropriate weight, so you can improve, and reap the rewards of your commitment in the second challenge (first week of April).
The improvement I want to see in my snatch round is that I want to increase my first continuous set to 12 min. Total rep count is not the improvement I want to work on, although if it does indeed increase, then all the better. If I succeed, I mean when I succeed, I'll reevaluate and set another goal for the 3rd challenge (first week of July), and so on and so on!
Choose one, two or three kettle bell skills to test. How many reps can you complete in 20 minutes, 16 seconds, using that time to work AND rest as needed to collect the data necessary for a baseline starting point. Read my last blog post for all of the details and join me, us, for a great, productive, invigorating, satisfying, rewarding, amazing, most fun 2016!
Gosh darn it! I hate it when I snatch a minute longer than I'm supposed to! It's probably because for some reason my entire body rotated to the left, away from the clock so I couldn't see it! The set was supposed to be a 12 minute, 20rpm set, but it turned out to be a 13 min 20 rpm set! 7 min R, 6 min L = 140/122
Okay, so anybody that know me knows how much I try and stay away from this word, "challenge"! I think one of the reasons is because many times "challenge" is mistaken for "competition"! And I'm not wanting for anybody, especially me, to be pulled into competing or comparing strengths, or level of conditioning to anybody else, instead, only to be able to measure and improve one's own progress. So this year I'm presenting a challenge, meant for each individual to track over the next 9 months, that at it's heart is about training/exercising consistently and progressively, not rep count or weight of the bell.
Here are the guidelines:
One bell Challenge guidelines, as many reps as possible
Choose 1, 2, or 3, 20:16 min rounds to complete. No extra time for rest between rounds.
One skill per round; swing (any type of swing, one two hand, OR overhead swing (not to be combined with hard style swing), snatch OR half snatch (NO switching from one to another),squat goblet and/or front squats can be combined (but keep track), clean/press / push press/ jerk (can be combined, but counting exact reps of each must be done), press only. I don't have room for a Get Ups, but that's an option for people that have the room and the desire.
One weight for all skills; no matter which 1-3 skills are chosen, the same weight bell is required, no switching of weights.
The same skill/weight will be tested 3 more times, quarterly, in 2016 (first weeks in April, July, and Oct.). No change of weight, no change of skill (s). The goal is individual, either to increase rep counts by increasing total amount of sets/reps, or increasing reps per longer set. Example; 10 sets of 10 reps is different than 1 set of 100. BUT the goal is to increase total rep counts over the next year.
The same order of skill will be kept throughout the year; strategy will be of utmost importance, so think carefully about it.
This is a "Hardstyle" challenge. No "GS" or Kettlebell Sport style swings, snatches or jerks.
IF one could do all of their chosen skills continuous, then the weight was not appropriate. This is a personal challenge with the intention of inspiring consistent practice and commitment over the next 9 months to mark improvement. This is not a competition to see who can do this challenge continuously! Everybody will be choosing their own individual weights and skills (which is why I'm not posting what I'm choosing until after the deadline).
The difference between a Snatch and a Half Snatch is that in the former skill the bell is "casted" over the top of the movement, and the latter the bell is brought down to the shoulder, in the rack position before starting the next rep. Half snatch allows the athlete to rest at the shoulder position therefore not challenging the conditioning as much. It may be a better option for those not used to snatching for 20 + minutes.
I would have liked to post this sooner, but perhaps it's a good thing! The idea is not to "train" for this event, but see where your skill and conditioning is right now, today! If you have never swung for 20 minutes you may only choose that one skill and improve on it, resting as long as you need to between sets, but going for the entire 20 minute 16 sec. If you only know how to swing, then maybe it's time to test that one skill with a heavier weight? If you are competent in more than one, or all of the skills, then choose according to which combination using only one bell will be challenging.
I will be testing this tomorrow morning starting at 5:30am PST. Since I am only presenting it today, then I suggest it be done within 1 week, Jan. 7 (maybe this weekend?). Post your results if you like, I'll be posting mine with a plan on how to improve each quarter. This most definitely will bring out my strengths as well as my weaknesses, so I'm excited....I hope you will be too!
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Next Sport Training Cycle; 16kg snatch, 100 reps, 10 min
Okay, so I'm over the moon with how my last training cycle went, hitting all of my progressions on time. At the end it became clear to me what I needed to focus on in the next few weeks:
Left bicep needs more progressive training, and technique needs more improvement to avoid strain on that muscle.
Plan: To spend more time with the 12kg and 14kg, building up strength endurance. To pay attention to keeping my arm and back connected so as not to "pull" with my bicep.
Here is the first week's dropped weight set and the following weeks program:
16kg 2 min/14kg 1 min. 3 min each side (above video)
16kg 2 min/14kg 2 min. 4 min each side
16kg 2 min/14kg 3 min. 5 min each side
16kg 3 min/14kg 1 min. 4 min each side
16kg 3 min/14kg 2 min. 5 min each side
16kg 4 min/14kg 1 min. 5 min each side
16kg 5 min each side = 10 min set.
Speed day
10 min 12kg 20 rpm
12 min 12kg 20 rpm (video above shows my mistaken 13 min set!)
14 min 12kg 20 rpm
16 min 12kg 20rpm
10 min 12kg 22-24rpm
12 min 12kg 22 rpm
14 min 12kg 22 rpm
Reps
50/50 x 1 (100 reps)
50/50 x 2 (200 reps)
40/40 x 3 (240 reps)
30/30 x 4 (240 reps)
30/30 x 5 (300 reps)
25/25 x 6 (300 reps)
25/25 x 8 (350 reps)
As I mentioned last week, my focus for Tuesday morning swing training is longer sets, up to and sometimes over 100 reps. 100 reps takes 2.5 min and in my own personal practice once I exceed a 1 min, 40 rep set, ALL rest periods are never longer than 1 min. I decided to make it easy and simply practice my 20 rep swing progressions as a warm up, since the theme of this Saturday's class is 20. Here is the video demo:
20 2 hd swing x 2 sets 20 transfer swings x 1 set 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10x 2 sets (20 reps total, I decided to repeat this set with the focus on finishing the hips at the top of the transfer swing) 5 R/5 L x 2 x 1 set (20 reps) 10 R/ 10 L x 1 set 140 swings, 7 min.
Using these sets as a jumping off point I knew I was going to string them together to get to my 100 rep set, here's how it went down:
20 2 hd swing + 20 transfer swings 20 2 hd swing + 20 transfer swings + 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 20 2 hd swing + 20 transfer swings + 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 + 5 R/5 L x 2 20 2 hd swing + 20 transfer swings + 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 + 5 R/5 L x 2 + 10 R/ 10 L quick quiz....which is "harder"? The uphill ladder of one hand swing progressions, that start with 2 hand swings, and end with 10/10, or the downhill one hand swing progression ladder that starts with 10/10 and ends, after 80 swing reps with 20 2 hand swings? Well, let's find out! 10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/5 L x 2 + 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 + 20 transfer swings + 20 2 hd swing
both have their difficulties! Continue on to finish the downhill ladder, only dropping the first sets, always ending with 20 2 hd swings: 5 R/5 L x 2 + 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 + 20 transfer swings + 20 2 hd swing 1 swing, 1 transfer swing x 10 + 20 transfer swings + 20 2 hd swing 20 transfer swings + 20 2 hd swing (30 sec rest)
20 2 hd swing
580 swings, 22 min (to give you an idea of what equal work to rest would be, 580 reps would have taken 29 min, so shaved 7 minutes off by taking less rest, but with still an entire minute to recover!)
Total
720 swings, 29 min
And this was just my swing workout! Wait until you see the snatch sets! But right now, I gotta go....
For the last few weeks or so I've been practicing a more solid start and stop to my swing set up...and making my students do the same! It's been an interesting experiment! I don't like saying something is "hard" or "challenging", or "not as easy", because I'll let you be the judge of it! But for me, myself, and for what I'm seeing my students experience, it's an eye opener :) :) :) , so I suggest you give it an honest go and give me some feedback about it :) :) :)
A solid start and a solid stop (in the past I've referred to it as "parking" the bell) adds a few more seconds to the work set, which means it takes away from your rest between sets. Be prepared for the result! Putting more effort into setting up the swing, with a strong grip, engaging the lats by the pulling the shoulders back and into the "sockets", chest up and forward, and gazing forward, might be something that's forgotten in high volume interval swing training. The focus sometimes gets put on the clock, rushing into and out of a set, and not on form and technique....I'm not saying that that's true for you, but it was true for me, so I set about fixing it!
Even though I already swing with proper shoulder placement, no matter how seemingly carelessly I pick up and put down the bell for each set (especially when I'm pushing myself hard), it may not be true for beginners, or for some that have just become lazy about the importance of the safety of our shoulders. These demos use the two hand swing, since it's easier to apply the technique, but with one hand swing practice it might emphasize the point even more dramatically, so err on the side of a lighter bell for testing it on the one hand swing (maybe I'll post a demo of that next week).
Since I've been practicing it for a few weeks now it's not as evident in the first 10 x 10, I've gotten much better at not rushing the start and stops of my swing sets....which is the point! But in the second 10 x 10 I really take the time to focus on this part of the movement, which is why I get more out of breath....which is great! The more effort you put into the swing the more you are asking your body to work, no heavier bell required! A little more precision and mindfulness kicks up the intensity a notch....good stuff!
The theme of this week's workouts is "10", so in keeping with that after I did my 10 x 10 rounds I added in something that Mark helped me realize had been missing from my own, advanced, training. Longer sets, longer than 40 reps. In The Swing I write about my experience with training with those sets of 2 minutes or longer, and the benefits of how they are at the crossroads of both anaerobic (oxygen independent) and the aerobic (oxygen dependent) systems. (pages 144-145)
In this next video I only demo the first 4 sets my own swing workout, but these will be the four sets I'll use, in addition to some 10 x 10 rounds of swings, for my weekend swing class.
Do as many rounds as you have time for, OR if you swing at an advanced level (more work to less rest) then here's the entire workout:
10 2 hd sw (15/15) 10 R, 10 L x 1 set (30/30) 30 2 hd sw (45/45) 10 R, 10 L x 2 x 1 set (1 min/1 min) (video demo)
50 2 hd sw (1.25 min/1 min)
10 R, 10 L x 3 x 1 set (1.5 min/1 min)
70 2 hd sw (1.75 min/1 min)
10 R, 10 L x 4 x 1 set (2.0 min/1 min)
90 2 hd sw (2.25 min/1 min)
10 R, 10 L x 5 x 1 set (2.5 min/done...or one more set of 100, taking 1 min rest)
10 2 hand swings + 10 R, 10 L, + 10 2 hd sw + 10 R, 10 L, + 10 2 hd sw 10 R, 10 L, + 10 2 hd sw = 100 swing reps (2.5 min/ now you're done!)
total swings, 650 reps
total time, 25 minutes, 45 seconds
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Unlike the last few weeks of starting my Kettlebell Sport snatch practice before my swing workout at 5:30am (and actually Thursday workout includes squats :) ), I was busy making pumpkin caramel for some macaron cookies I'm making (at 4:45am!), so I didn't get my butt out to the gym at 5:00am :( I had to do my set after my swings, which is okay.....as long as I don't wimp out and actually do them!
Big, big, big lesson learned with this set! I had mapped out a slow and decent progression to the end goal, of snatching the 16kg 100R/100 L in 10 minutes, over the next few weeks/months, but getting caught up in a rush I decided to do more than what I put on my program forgetting one very important thing.....safety! Just because I can do something, doesn't mean that I should do something, and this set warned me......you can't see it, but I sure felt it! (looking at the video you can really see the decline in the very last two reps, both the swing and the snatch)
Having so much success, and fun, with my 14kg sets I pushed this 16kg swing snatch set from this week's programmed 40/40 to 50/50. Kind of forgetting that Tuesday's 14kg (and 12kg) sets were a peak, not exactly the time to also peak a 16kg set....duh! Argh. What you can't see in the video is that on the last 10 reps L, the force of the descending bell, with still technique corrections to be made and strength to build, put some strong stresses on my bicep muscle....but I stupidly let my ego push me through to the end, more focused on completing the set than anything else.
I write "stupidly" because, not to make excuses or anything, I am a 52 year old woman, who has a lot to lose by tearing a bicep, compared with very little to nothing to gain by snatching a 16kg a little bit longer than prescribed. On a positive note....if I had done a little research beforehand I would have found the video of my last 50/50 swing snatch from February and seen how much of an improvement already! 8 months ago my grip started to give out, on both my R and L, way before 50 reps (double reps), and this week's set my grip wasn't the issue at all. In fact it was so fine, and was part of the reason I decided to go past the prescribed 40/40. My R bicep was fine, but I think with the fatigue of over 8 minutes, combined with the extra 20 reps (dumb), my form went to shit and put too much strain on my L bicep. I knew it at about 45 and should have put the bell down. The good news is that I learned a huge lesson, so far without injury, but even so I'm going to really pay attention to the increases I make towards my end goal from now on :) :) :)
Here is yesterday's set, 16kg swing / snatch 50/50, and the same set from last February:
Today's workout is something that I've played around with before, but I've never posted a demonstration of it. It's what I'm calling "Reverse Rest"! My usual way of designing progressive work sets is that after you do a set amount of work, say 10 reps = 15 sec, you get to rest for the equal time of the work, which is 15 seconds. 20 rep = 30 sec work/rest, 30 reps = 45 seconds work/rest, 40 reps = 1 min work/rest, etc. It's always worked fine, but it makes going from a set of 10 to a set of 40 challenging in it's own way. Resting only 15 seconds before having to work or an entire minute is doable, of course, but more fun for some than it is for others :)
In the warm up sets I give you the extra rest before and after the first sets of 20 reps, mostly to give me time to explain this method to you. Then in between the 3rd and 4th round I lead you through the reverse rest progression, or maybe "regression" would be more appropriate. The warm up does have slightly more rest than work, but I do believe it's still 160 swing reps, all with two hands, and it should take under 9-10 minutes. Rest up, because when we get to the workout there's no "extra" rest, and by the time we get to part 2, last round, I actually lead you through less rest, by reversing back to my original way of timing work to rest intervals....enough explaining, now doing! Enjoy :)
I also thought I'd take this chance to share with you a recent email question I received from Lori Storfer, who learned about my training via Heather Robertson's Half Size Me podcasts (look Heather up if you are interested in weight loss success stories!). Lori's question was about workout progressions;
"Hi Tracy, I bought and read your book and have been loving my swing workouts. Presently I am watching your YouTube videos and I'm up to workout 6. I want to buy your workout DVDs but I'm not sure which one to buy. Is there an order that the DVDs should be purchased/utilized? Also, how do the DVDs coincide with the YouTube videos? By the way, I learned of you via the 2 Half Size Me interviews you did. Thank you so much, Lori"
this was my answer;
"Hi Lori :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to email me :) You ask a great question, and yes, there is a sort of progression to my workout dvd's, and I'm loving how you are thinking "progression"! That's is absolutely the critical key to learning how to train yourself, never get bored by challenging yourself on a regular basis!
The first dvd I would suggest is Give and Take, then Top 40, or Give and Take 2 would come next. Dirty 30 can be quite difficult as it includes some sets that are "more work, less rest", and the same with Side by Side. Of course all of them would be more difficult if you did two, of the three, workouts back to back (they all include 3 workouts), but that could be said of The Swing workouts too! I do have to add that Top 40, D30, include a joint mobility warm up (10 min) that I love, and a 15 min OTM beginners workout, similar to workout #1-4 of The Swing.
My Youtube videos are random :) If I recorded every original workout I did it would equal over a thousand (and counting)! When I record a video, mostly, it's my own training, and my own training is of course mapped out in advance progressively, but it would be almost impossible to put a thousand workouts in order. The more you train with me the more the "groups" of progressions become obvious. My group swing/kettlebell classes reflect where I am in my own training, which is how I'm able to "program" larger groups.
For instance, lately I've been talking about a "rep theme". 10, 20 , 30 or 40. This is all part of a new business I'm launching soon to help people program their own workouts, either using routines designed by me, or making up your own, but educating you about the process.
All the best, and keep swinging!
Tracy"
What a great question, huh? You can find links to all of my DVD's right here on my blog in the left side bar. And if some of you have trained to my dvd's and have an opinion based on your experience please share :) Thank you all for your interest and support through all of these years :) I'm so lucky that I found this training and it never stops being fun for me. It may not be fore everybody, but everybody can do it,or find something, some way of moving that inspires them to keep showing up!
"Consistency trumps intensity, all of the time"
-Mark Reifkind
Wanna swing? Here is the workout that I'll be leading in class this weekend, it starts with a 10 minute "warm up", starting with 3 sets of 10 reps, progressively working up to the workout's theme of 30 rep sets. I never to a "second take" when I practice, so bear with me as I stay in order best I can :)
The workout consists of 10 sets of 30 reps. It is a classic TracyStyle "one hand swing sandwich"! Each set starts with two hand swings, completes a one hand swing ladder, and ends with more two hand swings! Enjoy :)
6/9/9/6
7/8/8/7
8/7/7/8
9/6/6/9
10/5/5/10
11/4/4/11
12/3/3/12
14/2/2/14
30 two hand swings :)
My own kettlebell workouts, on average, take about 90 minutes. This old body needs at least 15 minutes of light swings to warm up, and then, depending on what's on the agenda, swings, snatches, presses, squats, the next 30 minutes will focus on one or more of those skills. There is always at least a 30 minute swing routine, which, if I'm training the other skills will come at the end of the workout. Since my 16kg snatch Sport set is a priority these days, after my warm up I spend 20-30 minutes on sport, then I'll continue on with that days skill practice.
1st workout
GS snatch volume
snatch
swings (14kg, this is when I practice and design the week's class routine)
walk
2nd workout
GS heavy snatch
squats
swings (double bells and super heavy two hand 24kg-32kg)
ruck
3rd workout
GS speed snatch
"Snatch Vo2"
presses + complexes
swings (16kg +, then 14kg for 30 minutes in class)
Get Ups
yoga (this is the only time I do KB's and yoga on the same day)
If I wasn't training sport I'd simply increase the time I spend on the other stuff by about 20 minutes, which is easy to do when you''re having so much fun! I haven't made it 100% consistent, but I also do some pull up practice, both strict and kip, push ups, barbell presses, sandbag, and I just added one legged step up in preparation to train my pistol again.
I'm going to be posting videos of my sport sets, but I will not be including much commentary. They are really for my own study and archive. My main gig is using kettlebells for exercise, health and fitness, this sport stuff is completely different, but requires thoughtful programming and a critical eye on technique.
I really, really, really want to start posting about more than training again. So much cooking, and now baking, so little time! The nutritional side of health and fitness is about more than the food we eat, it's how we eat it and how we think about the food we eat :) Health and nutrition for our bodies as well as our brains, combining the physical with the non physical for general well being and longevity.
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I did not get a chance to write or upload video from Saturday's speed practice. It's a combination of Hardstyle and GS (sport). After my warm up I practiced and ladder up short 15 second sets of 8 HS snatches, with fast and light GS snatch. This is my last round, top of the ladder, 8 sets of 8 12kg HS snatch (15/15 work/rest), with a two minute set, 29 R/31 L
8 R/ 8 L x 1 (2 sets total) + 30 sec set, 14 reps
8 R/ 8 L x 2 (4 sets total) + 1 min set, 28 reps
8 R/ 8 L x 3 (6 sets total) + 1.5 min set, 42 reps
8 R/ 8 L x x 4 (8 sets total) + 2 min set, 60 reps (video)
This was my first week of speed training, and again, it was to take some baseline data. Not counting my warm up reps the workload equalled 304 snatch reps. Looking over the results I will plan the next 7 weeks progressions and post them this weekend.
Tuesday volume
Whew, I'm soooo glad this workout was already programmed! It made going in the gym at 5:00am so much easier knowing I didn't have to think, I only had to do!
25/25 x 4 sets w/14kg
60/60 x 1 set w/12kg
This was a very humbling workout! 200 snatch reps before I got to the last 120 was a bit much, but it was an important experience in the fact that looking at next week's progression I think it's going to be "just right"! It was more challenging that I anticipated, and I'm fine with that :) Reviewing the video I caught a HUGE error in technique on that last set of 25/25. I tried to correct it best I could on my set of 60/60 with the lighter weight. Now I'm so grateful I saw it because since I'm practically starting from scratch again I'll get try my best make the correction while I'm using the lighter weights.
set 1
"Make What's Important the Priority, and Do It First!" - Mark Reifkind
Words of wisdom. Hearing exactly what you need to hear at exactly the right time. There are a few things I need...I mean, want to get done, and my excuse is either no time, or no energy when I have the time...yep, same as everybody else :) But Mark called me on the carpet and in doing so lit a fire under my ass to get my priorities in order!
Snatching the 20kg 100/5 min is not a priority. I'm close enough any day of the week, so it's back to my sport set, for my own personal satisfaction. In order to get it done I have to put myself first, my own training, which I haven't been doing. The other priority is getting my regular yoga practice back. Enter the "luxury of no choice"!
Training on my own first of the week I'm changing my KB practice to Monday, instead of Tuesday. The workout starts with GS snatch and I have the next 10 weeks planned out already. Thursday workout starts at 5:00am, instead of 5:30, when the girls get there, so I can get my sets in before they come...brrrr, it's a hell of a time to start earlier too! Darker and colder, in fact out in the garage it'll be freezing in a few weeks. Saturday I already start before my first client/workout, but new target, new focus, Max snatch will be on the agenda from now on....no one else likes to do it but me it seems :) So, I'll do it on my own, it's easier that way anyway.
Thursday heavy 16kg GS snatch
typical warm up w/12kg and 14kg, but I only have about 15 min
16kg swing snatch x 25/25
16kg 1 min R/ 1 min L x 2 sets (1 min rest between)
I decided to do a "swing snatch" set to see where my grip was w/16kg. I'm not sure the last time I did a long set, maybe 40/40 was around or before my birthday, and the last time I did a longer set was months before that one, so baby steps.... 20/20 was the plan, which is 40 reps per side, but when I got to 20 it was easy, so I made the executive decision to go to 25. I could have done more, but that's not the point....t's not time to kill myself just yet! In fact it was enough on the easy side that with the few minutes I had left I wanted to see how a simple 1 min R/ 1 min L felt like, so I finished with 2 sets, one minute rest between.
Wow, it exposed the challenge. I'm plenty strong enough, until my cardio starts to come into play. Nothing makes you weaker than no oxygen! Okay, so now I know better what to expect and where I need to put some attention on.
Here is my swing snatch set, the other two practice sets you can find on my Youtube channel:
The girls arrived and I continued on with squats being the focus practice for their/our TH morning practice, sandbag clean and squats and some barbell presses, finishing off with double bell swings. I have some baseline skill/strength targets for this coming year, and I want the girls to have the same, so no avoiding squats, so in the next two weeks we'll be building some flexibility and depth in that movement.
I'm seriously proud to say that I made it to yoga 4 days this week, changing half of my practice to that 5:30am class time! Ouch! I'm my least warm and flexible that early in the morning, but I have to get it done first! Id rather be making cookies! But too bad for me :) (more about the cookies coming soon :) )
What have you been putting off? What have you been wanting to make a priority but haven't committed to taking the action needed? Mark gave me the words that inspired me to take the responsibility and make the changes I needed to make.....so far, so good :)
I love the morning. I have my clearest thoughts in the mornings. I get the most done and feel the most energized. I've got a solid 10 weeks to train without interruption of travel so what to do...what to do? As of this writing I only have Tuesday workouts figured out. I can only have so many strength goals at one time and since I have the luxury of training by myself for a while I thought I better hit some GS sport numbers that still have my name on them ,16kg 100/100 10 minutes.
So, I know where I want to go, now I just gotta figure out how to get there, and the first thing is to find out where I am, right now, today.
In order to get to the 16kg I've got to go through the 14kg, so that's where I'll start. Something relatively easy so I can ramp up and through it quickly. 20/20 is easy, but 5 sets of them add to the difficulty, so 5 sets it is (although I felt strong enough to double this workload this morning, more is not necessarily better). My last set was a lighter and longer set for my grip, again, nothing too challenging, I don't want to rip up my hands. My hands are a big priority to me lately, more about that another time.
So the plan? The plan is to increase the rep count and length of set w/14kg over the next few weeks, with a longer lighter set at the end for grip. Thursdays will be heavier, slower, 16kg snatches and holds, Saturdays will be speed, light and fast.
(set 1)
week #1
20/20 x 5 w/14kg, 2 min work, 1 min rest = 15 min
40/40 w/12kg, 4 minutes.
week #2
25/25 x 4 sets w/14kg, 2.5 min work, 1 min rest = 14 min.
60/60 w/12kg, 6 min.
week #3
35/35 x 3 sets w/14kg, 3.5 min, 1 min rest = 13.5 min
80/80 w/12kg, 8 min
week #4
50/50 x 2 sets w/14kg, 5 min, 1 min rest = 11 min
100/100 w/12kg, 5 min
week #5 (no 12kg)
60/60 w/14kg, x 1 set = 6 min.
40/40 + 20/20 + 10/10 + 5/5 x 1 set w/14kg = 10 min
week #6
test, 10 min 14kg snatch
week #7 take off
week #8, repeat week #1 w/16kg and 14kg, set numbers for the next 3 weeks.
This may seem like too long of a ramp up to the 16kg, but I'll be training with the 16kg and heavier on Thursdays, so the heavy stuff will be on that day. I really don't believe in not paying my respect to the lighter weight, but maybe that's just me. It's not like once I reach my target I quit :) , the joy is the ride, and I love, love, love seeing progress over the weeks and earning strength and conditioning with consistency :)
Complete workout
12kg warm up, hard style
40 2 hd sw x 5 sets
swing/snatch progressions, 1 min work, 3 sec rest x 4 sets
16 min.
(set 5, for sets 2, 3, 4, go to my Youtube channel)
GS practice (above)
19 min.
14kg swings
warm up 100 swings, 5 min
20 rep theme, practice for classes ( see my Youtube channel for part 2 of this workout :) )
total of 50 minutes of swings
(part 1, 10 min, 180 swing reps, fyi :) )
Oh, so what does the title of this post have to do with my workout? At some point during my workout I started thinking about a client of mine that recently decided to give up. Give up on some of the things she truly wanted only because she believes that she can't have them...at least that's my interpretation of it. And my interpretation only matters to me, it may or may not actually be the case to her, and so as I was thinking about that I realized it paralleled the reason I chose to go back to my sport training this morning. I'm not going to settle for giving up on something I absolutely can achieve, and that I actually want, but I will let go of doing it in order to "prove" something. (as if anybody else really cares! lol)
It will be fun when I do what I set out to do, it will be fun all along the way, and it will be fun to move on to something else after I get there...or maybe it will be such a nice place to be that I'll stay there for a little while!
My purpose is to feel the joy, the hope, the inspiration, and the belief of, and in, the process :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Just getting home from 8 days in Veitnam, now here in Pensacola I'll wait to set some training goals for next week. In the mean time I want to get my reps in, break a sweat and challenge myself appropriately (not too much because there's no hurry, and not too little, I don't want to get too far behind where I was, or where I've been)
5:30am
12kg warm up
40 2 hd sw x 5 sets = 10 min, 200 sw
warm up sets
10 2 hd sw
20 2 hd sw
5/5
10/10
10/10 + 5/5 + 10 2 hd sw
5 min., 100 sw
work sets
10 x 10 2 hd sw
5/5 sn (30/30)
5 swing snatch R, 5 sw sn L (45/45)
10/10sn (1 min/1 min)
10 swing sn R, 10 sw sn L (1.5/1 min)
12 min per round, 130 sw, 60 sn
repeat round, only using transfer swings instead of 2 h =d sw for 10 x 10
end with one last 10 x 10 2 hd sw
total work w/14kg
360 sw, 120 sn
pull up / kip practice
24kg swing
100 continuous reps (video)
I haven't done this in a while so I wanted to test it as a baseline to train for the 28kg, which is going to seriously be a big goal considering this set was much harder than I anticipated as far as cardio challenge. I couldn't even count my heart rate pulses correctly after the set because they seemed as if one was running into the next. The grip or the weight was not a problem but my heart rate was through the roof. Not sure how I'm going to adapt to the workload of the 28kg, but I'll start that program this next week, hoping to hit that training goal before the end of the year.
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The first video demonstration above is of the snatch portion of work set rounds, adding on a continuous set at the end
5/5 sn
5/5 sw sn
10/10 sn
10/10 sw sn
repeat with no rest between progressions.
The theme of the workout this morning was "10". As I designed the snatch sets I knew I did not want to focus on speed, but instead do a little grip endurance work in anticipation of getting back to some sport sets when my travel schedule calms down. Although 10-20 reps is hardly any kind of test for eral grip endurance for me now, I remember quite clearly that at one time it was! Everybody has to start somewhere!
I love November. November is the month of my favorite holiday (meal!), Thanksgiving, my wedding anniversary, and 10 years ago this month I celebrated a weight loss of 100lbs in 11 months time! Since then, 2005, November solidifies many more favorite things about my new life that I love, including my yoga practice, and November seems to be perfect timing to rev things up and get some great momentum to swing through the holidays, much less affected by all of the former feelings of obligatory eating of foods given, presented and shared by well meaning friends and family in the "spirit" of the holidays :) I love November! I'm thrilled to not have anything take me away from teaching my regular Saturday class, or my own weekly training schedule until after the first week of January....how about you? If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to come and train with me, or take my Saturday morning Swing Class in Palo Alto just email me! tracyrif@yahoo.com January 1st, 2016 might not ever look so good for you! Start your best ever next 10 years! picture at top was Nov 2005, 100lbs down. picture on the right was Nov 2006, 1 year after, total weight loss of 120lbs.
Yesterday was my 52nd birthday! Can you believe it? Gosh, it really didn't hit me until this morning, a second before I started my first rep of my special B-day workout. I had a fabulous day that started out with macaron experiments for 3 hours, starting at 5:00am! After I journaled my results I went out and ran some errands that I wanted to do, like going to my favorite store, Grocery Outlet, Bargain Market! I love that store! I found some really killer snack bars that are actually made for kids! (Clif Kid Z Bar, honey graham flavor, $1.99 box of 6) Next I went for a nice long walk and listened to a book on tape, "Soul of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman. Came home, took a nice long nap with Mark, got up and went back in the kitchen to cook! (with a glass of wine of course!) Kissed and hugged on Mark and had a great night's sleep. What a great day!
The only thing that could have made it better, other than spending time with my kids and granddaughter would have been to have done a killer workout! But I don't kettlebell on Wednesdays, it's a recovery day, so the killer workout had to wait until this morning! Maribel walked into the Lioness's den at 5:30 and joined me in the first part of my "52" themed workout.
Lucky me the 24kg weighs about 52 lbs, so it stands to reason that double 12kg's is the same weight. Thursday is usually double kb day, so double 12 kg's it was. This year was like no other, in the fact that it wasn't just swings (today, but that's coming, don't worry!). I wanted to do all of the kb skills (minus Get ups, but that's coming too!). 52 double 12kg reps each, swings, presses, squats, snatches, clean, and....pull ups! (assisted) I had absolutely no idea how long this would take or how I was going to break it up, but I decided on the order I just listed, done in 4 rounds of 13 reps per. This video demonstrates my first two rounds, minus the pull ups because the rack is on the other side of the gym and I wanted to video at least two rounds. After I stopped this video I did my first set of 13 assisted pull ups, and then I dispersed sets of 5 and 6 throughout the rest of the workout.
I was able to do the first round in continuous sets of 13...but that was it! Swings, snatches and cleans, no problem, all 4 sets of 13 were done continuous, but I had to break down the presses, squats and pull ups. I'm not sure what Maribel's strategy was, but she finished in about the same time. Gosh, it was fun! Now I'll have something to measure next year when I have 1 more rep of each skill to complete, fingers crossed within the same amount of time :)
So, we started the workout at 5:30am. did a 15-20 min warm up, finished in 30 min, had 10 minutes left in the hour. I started the next part of my workout, which was 52 sets of 10 double 12kg swings (520 reps, 26 min), and Maribel finished with a 10 x 10 w/24kg. I think it's been a while since she swung the 24kg, but it's my birthday and that's what was required :)
After my 52 sets of 10 double 12kg swings I did three last snatch sets. The first w/12kg, the second w/14kg and the last w/16kg, all 52 R/ 52 L with a comp bell, done GS style. Here was my entire workout: 52 dbl swings 52 dbl presses 52 dbl squats 52 dbl snatches 52 dbl cleans 52 assisted pull ups 30 min
52 sets of 10 dbl swings 520 reps, 26 min 12kg snatch 52/52 on hand switch, 5 min 14kg snatch 52/52, 26 x 4, 5 min 16kg snatch 52/52, 13 x 8, 5 min 312 snatches, 25 min, I took 5 minutes between sets.
BUT...my workout isn't over! My good friend Emily has the same exact birthday as me! And she was 36 yesterday! (gosh, I hope I don't get in trouble!) Soooo, I've got 36 sets of 10 w/36lb bell in order around 10:00am this morning.... And then last, but not least an hour long ruck walk with Mark at 1:00pm, my favorite part of Thursdays now.
Training is the Source. What does this mean? Mark has so many great phrases that Pavel and many others have, for years, encouraged him to write a book titling each chapter with these phrases, his inspired words of wisdom....and this is one of my favorites.
Mark and I talk about training every single day. Every single day we share a discovery or something learned from our own training or that of a client / student. It was during one of these conversations that I was telling him about an experience I had during my own training, something I hadn't known about myself before and was exciting to recognize, that he first said to me, "Well, training is the source!" And I knew right then and there exactly what he meant.
For me, my personality, my knowingness, my beliefs about myself come to the forefront through how I feel before, during and/or after my training. My training brings out the best parts of me, and it rewards me with self confidence, self knowingness. Things don't always have to go my way in my workouts, but often they do, more so than in other parts of my life because I'm able to experience a balance between body, mind AND heart! And heart?
I have this physical body and training puts me, smack dab, right in the middle of it. I love being in my body, especially since there was a large portion of my life that I cut myself off from it. The power of being able to manipulate this physical apparatus is exciting to me! Manipulate how it moves and even how it looks. I love my body.
My mind is the one that tends to overthink, the one that sometimes judges, the one that gets competitive (good and not so good), but also the one that can calculate reps, loads, and time. It can think ahead and visualize possibilities. It remembers success and lessons learned. My mind is what tells my body what to do, to push it just far enough to gain / maintain strength and the feeling of being fit.
My heart however is what keeps my mind in check! It's the one that brings my thoughts back around to reason, to compassion, to ease. Reason to not compete with anybody else, and to focus on keeping and maintaining my own physical goals and desires based on my life. Compassion to back away from my own judgements that I can sometimes get caught up in to do more, to be more, in order to get approval from others. Ease. To be easy with myself doesn't mean to sleep in and skip workouts! It means to not be in a hurry. There is no finish line, there is no one keeping score.
What does this have to do with my last Sunday workout? lol This past year I've incorporated a different style of ending my Sunday workouts, and it was my friend Fawn that reminded me of what's called a "finisher" when I was in St Paul this past January. A finisher is usually a short burst of all out effort at the very end of a workout that pretty much puts the nail in the coffin! I always learn something about myself when I push myself in this way. And what I learned this week (again) was how I never get tired of training kettlebells! I so believe in it, as it gives me evidence of my own power to decide how I choose to live a large part of my life. It reminds me to appreciate the fact that I'm a really good teacher and coach and how much I love what I do. I used to call it luck, and sometimes I still call it a miracle, but the truth is that it's just me, it's who I am.
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Finishers are never exactly pre planned, but instead, most times, I decide how to end a workout based on a number of things;
Who's training with me that day and what are their skills and level of conditioning? It must be scalable. What I like best about this way of finishing a workout is that it lets each person decide on what's exactly right for them on any particular day.
How does it fit in with what was done in the first part of the workout? For instance it would not include presses or squats if presses/squats were already done earlier.
It always varies in time, in load, and in skill. Because the intent is intensity it usually lasts between 10 and 20 minutes, but this Sunday is a rare example of up to 30 minutes. It's never the same length of time every week, and although 3 out of 4 times it's just swings, I'll add in snatches or squats every once in a while (mostly because everybody can do swings :) ) Intensity is achieved three ways; increasing weight, increasing reps/time, and/or increasing speed/decreasing rest.
This Sunday's Finisher was a long one! The longer the "set", the lighter the loading, often times I'll ladder down the weights, starting with the most difficult, in this case the 32kg. Laddering up in weight has it's place as it makes the set (s) more difficult, appropriate for sets lasting less than 15 min (in my opinion). Looking at the clock (remainder of the workout), 36 min., and having Meg as my Sunday partner I knew we could handle a long one and heavy one.
Originally each round was going to be a 10 x 10 with a full minute of rest after each (x 6), allowing recovery of the choice of a really heavy bell. A 10 x 10 takes 5 minutes to complete, one set every 30 seconds, allowing 15 seconds to work (swing) and 15 seconds of rest (15/15). I changed my mind about intervals, instead favoring no prescribed work / rest. The guideline was to finish 100 reps (same as a 10 x 10) within each 5 minute round. The rest you would get would be determined by how fast you completed your 100 reps!
Strategy:
I decided to use the 32kg for the first two rounds, the 24kg for the next two, and the 16kg for the last two. Going "old school" and skipping the intermediate weights (28kg and 20kg).
(round 2)
The first set would be 10 reps at a time, taking only enough rest to start my next set of 10 again (first video). This took me approx 4.5 min, with an average rest period between 11-13 seconds I hadn't swung the 32kg in a workout in a long long time, and it became obvious to me in order to maintain appropriate power I would have to keep the rep count under 15. For the second set I decided to do sets of 12, (x 7) the last set = 16. This took 4 min approx. (second video)
The next two sets w/24 (rounds 3 and 4) I did 5 sets of 20, 30 seconds work, with only 15 seconds rest, taking me just over 3.5 minutes to complete. The second set, I did 12 x 4 and 13 x 4. Surprisingly this took me longer! It took almost 4 min to complete, but it was broken down into 8 sets versus 5, three more starts and stops....interesting! See you can always learn something new :)
(round 3)
(round 4)
The last two sets (whew!) were going to be easy! I did the first one 50 x 2 (1.25 min work/45 sec rest), completing in 3.25 min (no video), and because it had felt like forever since I had done a 2 hand, 100 continuous rep set w/16kg ( 2.5 min) I had to "finish" off with that! (last video)
(round 6)
I've been working on double front squats during the first part of our Sunday workout (7:15-8:00am), and double jerk and 16kg snatch for GS practice (8:00-8:45am), so there was time and energy for a long end to the workout. We were done at 9:15, 15 minutes earlier than usual. Meg is going to compete in a couple of weeks at the California Open Kettlebell Sport Championships with 20kg LC and after that we will not be practicing GS on Sunday's anymore. I will continue on with my own personal KB sport goals on my own time however, but no plans to compete in the future.
I'm in Southern California (I live in No. Cal), for a huge family reunion in Moorpark CA (near Ventura). We, my oldest son Rick, my daughter in law Cristina, and my granddaughter Sophia, drove down here (6 hours) yesterday and plan on staying three days in total. I packed some good foods for the trip, and of course I threw a bell in the back of the car knowing I'd like to train at least one time while I'm here....one bell, but which one?
I thought I'd bring a 16kg, since Sunday's are usually a heavy day, but at the last minute I decided to grab a 14kg thinking I may do two workouts while I'm here and it's just a little more versatile. I completely forgot that most hotels do have a small workout room, but I was 100% prepared to swing away in my room, no problem! But without having to disturb my family I snuck away to the gym, with my bell and did a fun, and what seemed fast but wasn't, workout! My favorite way to design a workout is around the theme of "10". Easy and hard (boring!) at the same time!
10 x 10 2 hd sw (5 min; 100 sw)
1 swing/1 goblet squat x 10 (1 min long set/30 sec rest = 15 min; 100 sw/100 sq)
swing sandwich ladder w/ "work into rest method" 5 two hd sw + 5 R/5L + 5 2 hd sw 5 + 6/6 + 5 5 + 7/7 + 5 5 + 8/8 + 5 5 + 9/9 + 5 (5 sets total = 5 min; 85 swings) 10 R/ 10 L x 5 sets (30/30 = 5 min; 100 swing)
("10" sets of swings in total)
5 clean/press R alternate L (45/45 = 15 min; 50 R/50 L, 100 total) (video 1)
1 sw, 1 snatch x 5 R + 1 sw, 1 sn 5 L x 10 sets (45/45 sec = 15 min; 100 sw/100 snatch) (video 2) 5 R + 5 L x 2 "squat snatch" x 10 sets (30/30 sec = 10 min; 100 snatches)
The "squat snatch" is similar to a "dead snatch" only it doesn't touch the floor at the beginning and end of each rep. It's right in between a dead snatch and a regular swing snatch, using more legs than glutes. In this video I demonstrate the difference between the two, first with 5/5 squat snatches, then 5/5 swing snatches. If you want to try these the part you need to use caution with is the down stroke. You can't cast the weight too far out in front of you, and you have to get timing right or you risk the bell pulling you over and out of position putting your lower back as risk. This is not a skill I would teach to beginners, use your own discretion.
Done! Just in time to catch breakfast with my granddaughter :)
My mother was is one of 7 children, and one of four born on a 87 acre ranch here in Southern California. The eldest son, my uncle Leonard has maintained 40 of those acres and many of my cousins grew up here, and now our family is at least 5 generations strong. But this was our official 1st Cruz Ranch Family Reunion and it pretty much got rained out yesterday! It was a crazy thunder and lightening storm here in Southern California in the middle of JULY! This is practically unheard of, and even though the forecast predicted it I just refused to believe it and didn't really pack appropriately! Nobody did actually, and my son had to leave early with my granddaughter and take her to Target for some warm and dry clothes! Shoes were wrecked, full of mud, but the spirit wasn't dampened :)
Most everybody held tight, even putting up the pinata in the rain, but as it got worse it was clear the pony rides were going to have to be postponed. Were going back this afternoon and I hope to Sophia gets a chance to ride, maybe for her first time :)
Tonight I'll take a short train ride to Santa Barbara where I'll finish my short weekend vacation with my good friends, the Mishkins, Jen and Greg, and then we'll all drive home on Monday :)
Youtube would not let me post workout "m" in it's entirety so I divided it into two parts. If you repeat part 1 it will give you a 30 min swing workout. I did this workout for my friend "m" and the intention for her to use a 10kg for part 1, then repeat it with a 12kg and finish the entire workout, part 1 and 2 with the heavier bell. This may be a good opportunity for you to use this workout to increase your strength for one hand swings (10/10) too :)
(part 1) 10 2 hd sw x 2 sets (15/15) 20 2 hd sw x 1 set 10 tr x 2 sets 20 transfer swings x 1 set 5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets 5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set 10 R x 1 set 10 L x 1 set 10 R/ 10 L x 1 set(part 1 video ends here, repeat these first 12 sets one more time through before moving on for a 30 minute workout)
(part 2) 10 R/ 10 L + 10 R/ 10 L = 40 reps ( 1 min work/1 min rest) 10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/5 L 10 R/ 10 L + 20 tr 10 R/ 10 L 10 R 10 L 5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/ 5 L x 1 set 5 R/5 L x 2 sets 20 transfer swings 10 tr x 2 sets 20 2 hd swings 10 2 hd swings x 2 sets whew! 440 swings, 22 min (or 600, 30 min if you repeat the part 1)
first 600
same as the start of workout "m" 10 2 hd sw x 2 sets (15/15) 20 2 hd sw x 1 set 10 tr x 2 sets 20 transfer swings x 1 set 5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets 5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set 10 R x 1 set 10 L x 1 set 10 R/ 10 L x 1 set (160 reps)
now sets of 30 reps
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L
10 R/ 10 L + 10 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 10 2 hd sw (30 x 3 sets = 90 reps)
now sets of 40
10 R/ 10 L + 10 R/ 10 L = 40 reps ( 1 min work/1 min rest)
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/5 L
10 R/ 10 L + 20 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 20 2 hd swings (40 x 4 sets = 160 reps)
back to sets of 30
10 R/ 10 L + 10 2 hd sw
10 R/ 10 L + 10 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L (30 x 3 sets = 90 reps
back to 1 set of 20, two sets of 10 (downhill progressive swing ladder)
10 R/ 10 L x 1 set
10 R x 1 set
10 L x 1 set
5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set
5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets
20 transfer swings x 1 set
10 tr x 1 sets
20 2 hd sw
10 2 hd sw x 1 sets (160 reps)
total 640 swing reps, 32 min
honest mistake....I forgot when we went slightly over 30 min. I made some cuts and only completed one set each of 10 tr and 10 2 hd sw.
Most mornings, as I drive to teach class I start thinking only about the "theme" of our training that day. This last Tuesday in June the theme was 40 rep sets, so the goal was to work up to one minute long swing sets. How I get my class there depends on who I know will be in attendance and base the workloads so everybody can scale and successfully complete most, if not all of the work sets.
Tuesday is becoming what I call "1000 swing Tuesday". So we started out the morning with a 600 + swing rep version of "m"'s workout knowing I would repeat it, or some of it to video tape and post for my friend. In this workout we worked our way up to sets of 40 but had many sets of 10 (short work to short rest), as well as many sets of of 20 rep (the first workout even had sets of 30 reps), which increase in difficultly on a more progressive level.
I've never done this exact workout, and that's what I so LOVE about my job! After almost 10 years of teaching and leading classes, with the average of 5-6 groups a week, I can still, and will forever be able to, create brand new and fun workouts using only the kettlebell swing, it's variations and intervals. Gosh, I'm set for life!
Sunday's workout was a whole different ball game! 7:15 starts out with heavy presses, and some complexes, moves on at 8:00 for GS practice....and these days it's minimal :( ...then ends with my "ballistic wildcard"! It's a simple and hard way of doing 40-45 minutes of ballistics in half the time! This past weekend the BW was as follows:
10 - 1 snatch ladder (110 snatches) 10-1 two hand swing/squat ladder (55 swings, 10 squats) 10-1 one hand swing ladder (110 1 hd swings)
x 2 = 220 snatches, 330 swings, 20 squats
I knew I did not want to do two rounds with the 16kg. I had already pressed earlier in the morning and did a set of 100 snatches with the 16kg comp bell, but the 14kg would have been a little too easy, especially for swings and squats....but not after completing one full round with the 16kg! So that's what I did. I did the first round with the 16kg, the second with the 14kg and only screwed up the counting a couple of times! I actually did about 10 more swings in the first round w/16kg....but who's counting?
It took me approx under 5 min to complete the snatch ladders, a little over 2 min for the sw/sqt ladders and the same for the one swing ladders. Meg used a variety of weights for each set, which is also an option. You may choose to snatch light, swing and squat heavy, or visa versa...will you try it? And what's your planned strategy?
Enjoy.
This should take about 10 minutes per round if done continuous, but there are no rules about putting the bell down at any point and as many times as you might need to complete the round.
I'm currently having the time of my life living and writing about food, diet, training and exercise. I'm happy, confident and strong. I'm proud of my 25 year marriage, my husband, my two boys, and myself!
I don't know quite what the future holds for me, but I'm all about making my life easier, not harder....I'm done with doing things the hard way!
