skinny and pretty...is that all that matters?

As a woman, is that all that matters? skinny and pretty?

no matter how old we are.

no matter what kind of person, mother, or wife we are.

no matter how much we "lift", or how heavy, or long, we swing a kettlebell.

no matter how many miles walk ,or run......

make-up, no make-up.

designer purses.......high heels.

is the "goal" to be the "hottest"?

what the "F" is "hot"? is the measure of "hot" gauged on who, or how many men want to have sex with us? I'm guessing...if we want to "give it up" there will be some man willing to take us up on it....so what! good lord.

who do you, we, want to impress?

is the goal to be the "hottest" 20-30-40-50-60-70-80-90-100 year old? How ridiculous does this start to become?

these days young girls want to become strippers! really? yep, really..... not just young girls, but old girls too! just go into the shoe dept of any major department store.....stripper shoes! is ther no other choice but stripper shoes?

all I need is my husbands love. all I need is to know that I am with someone who loved me when I weighed 250lbs, and wanted me as much then as he wants me now...how lucky am I?

PS if you are interested on purchasing the shoes pictured above, just fo to zappos.com!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig....

I'm home from my Level 2 RKC and to put everyone out of suspense, I nailed all of my Level 2 skills, except for the pull-up....almost got cha, huh? I'm way too tired to blog about it all now, but here are a few pictures from my awesome weekend and I'll be posting much much more about this amazing experience over the next week or two.

What made this experience even more memorable was that my BFF Fawn Friday (the strongest woman ever) earned her Level 2 this same weekend. Fawn threw the dbl 16kg's around like they were 8kg's...I mean what's 72lbs to a woman that deadlifts, squats and benches hundreds of pounds?

Fawn inspires me everytime I spend time with her, in many ways. I'm lucky to have her in my life, and although Mark and I stayed with Fawn and Aaron we didn't get near enough time together over the past 4 days.

RKC Level 2 Pistol, no problem. Pullup...pending!

Here's what Mark has to say about my descision to train and participate in getting my RKC Level 2 Certification;

"What I think is the most impressive thing that you've done is that you've taken on a challenge based soley on your weak ponts, when you could have easily coasted on your 'swing volume training' which is your strong suite. But you chose to embrace that which your are not naturally strong at....and you followed through these past 3-4 months. That's what athletes do. Challenge your weak points to become a better athlete."

When you keep doing the stuff you know your good at, then what, or where's the challenge?

I leave in the morning for my Level 2 RKC in St Paul.....ready or not. Here's what I'm ready for. I'm ready to have a whole lotta fun, learn a whole lotta stuff, get stronger, learn to teach others how to get stronger, have my brilliant husband and personal coach by my side, and my best friend Fawn getting Certed alongside of me. What more could I ask for? Well....

Level 2 skills to be tested

1/4 bodyweight Strict Military Press...check
Pistol....check

Windmill.....check

Bent Press....check

Double KB Jerk....check

Viking Push Press....check

Tactical Pullup (1 )....pending....

Oh I have alot of theories that may explain what may or may not happen in two days time....but today, right now, none of anything matters.

Did I train as hard I could have? I'm not going to make any kind of excuses. I did the best I could, and on Sunday at the end of the day I will know, without a doubt, that my Level 2 experience will be one I won't soon forget. I will pass all of my skills. I will earn a Level 2 RKC. I will have the time of my kettlebell life with my closest of friends.....shit, I still have to pack!

My horoscope today...."I am a crafty and compassionate Warrior who finds amusement in every challenge"....yep, that's me!"

36:36:36! 994 Snatches

If you do any kind of Max Vo2 training at some point you finish 15:15, and then you have no choice but to switch it up to 36:36 (even though the original protocol starts with 36:36, most start with 15:15...why? see note*). Although my own personal Max training veers off from the original protocols because I've been training Max for so many years, I've been able to build my conditioning to exceed equal work to rest w/12kg. So, for at least the past year, I've been adding much more work to change the w/r ratio to better suite my abilities.

The obvious progression, once someone has completed 80 x 8 (15:15), and 16-20 x 35 (36:36) is to increase the weight of the bell and start all over. But, in my opinion, the increase from 12kg-16kg for women is a big jump......80 sets of 8 is no joke! Here's my Max PR w/16kg (15:15).

5/5 x 4
6/6 x 6
7/7 x 10
8/8 x 42
7/7 x 8
total 518 snatches w/16kg
35 minutes

Now that we have a 14kg available, sure we'll go back to some of the original protocol, we'll even go back to the challenge of the 16kg, but we have the rest of our lives to train, so let's mix it up a bit, lol! But don't think for one second I think I can come close to using the 16kg for any of these longer "Max-based" workouts!

36:36 equal work to equal rest

16/16 x1
17/17 x2
18/18 x 17
20 sets total

1 minute rest

36:36:36 2 work intervals to 1 rest interval

#1
18 R, 18 L x 5

1 minute rest

#2
8 R, 8 L, 8 R, 8 L x 5

1 minute rest

#3
4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L x 5

In other words, all snatches were done taking 72 seconds, and then we rested for 36 seconds before repeating the above snatch rep combinations 5 times each. (#1 36 snatches 1 tr, #2 32 snatches 3 tr, #3 32 snatches 7 tr)

Since I almost always design our training routines moments before, and sometimes during each workout I had no idea how much work we were doing, and afterwards I mentioned to Meg, "I wonder how many snatches we did?" knowing she would count them because she's doing the 50,000 rep snatch challenge. She emailed me later in the morning....994 snatches! What? Only 6 away from 1000!

I personally did no warm up snatches as I had been swinging in my previous class, but we did plenty more snatches in my next Intermediate Class (along with at least 800-1000 swings)..... Meg shared her 4th of July weekend snatch goal with me....1776 snatches by the end of the weekend! Hopefully she'll take today off and finish up tomorrow....who wants to bet she'll do more than 1776....maybe 2010!



Here is video of me training 36:36 back Sept 2007. I was snatching 20 reps per set....looks like Meg and I have some stepping up to do!

note* Mark was the first to take this type of training past the 6-8 week protocol Kenneth designed it for, and as we all know many, many, many have followed. Here, in his own words is the reason he started with the 15:15 version

When Kenneth Jay first gave his presentation on his Advanced Strength Strategies at the July 2007 Level 2 cert, the research he presented centered around the 36:36 protocol. This is where he unveiled the research about Max Vo2 training using the KB snatch as the tool. While it was interesting to me, because of my wonky shoulders and forearms that pumped up at the sight of high rep anything I wasn't all that interested in trying it.

When I found out there was a second protocol one could do;one which involved only 15 seconds of work I knew it was for me. I can either go long distance with low intensity or use high intensity for short work periods. Trying to go high intensity for long periods isn't for me. After all, I'm not Tracy.

My 15 Minutes of Fame...well, more like 15 seconds....

Here's the latest episode of Dragon Door TV, with none other than yours truly...ME!

I remember , quite clearly, the first day of my RKC in April 2006 during the introductions....

"Hi, my name is Tracy Reifkind, and I lost 120lbs using kettlebells!" Do you know what it's like looking out into a sea of hardcore athletes, trainers, and professionals that make their living in physically demanding jobs like the police force and military? Good for me I was married to, at the time, a well respected Senior, now Master Instructor! But back then I was one of, maybe, 5-8 women at that particular Cert, not to mention the only person to have been more than 100lbs + overweight at one time in their lives! I was the first person to make such an incredible claim at any RKC Certification!

Mixed emotions.....Yay for me! I lost over 120 lbs...."Good God, you mean she let herself get so fat!"

I've not only maintained this significant weightloss for almost 5 years now, but I'm more fit than most women my age, and half of my age...and I continue to train kettlebells hard, and teaching others to reap the benefits from my high volume methods....DVD available soon! I'm so proud to have this honor and public recognition.

As I get ready for my Level 2 RKC next week, and our trip next month to the largest International RKC ever, in Budapest Hungary, which I'll be assisting at....can you believe this "former fat girl" will be an assistant....actually helping other potential RKC's improve their kettlebell knowledge and skills (crazy huh?)....this comes at a great time in my Kettlebell career. More to come....much more!

Picture above is me at my first RKC snatching the 8kg! Funny huh?

16kg Snatch Ladder 10-1, 4 minutes 40 seconds

I've got about 8 days until I'm in St Paul for the Level 2 RKC where I'll be tested on some new skills of strength as well as all of the Level 1 skills including the 5 minute 16kg Snatch test. I could do this test anyday of the week, but this time I want to do it better!

Today was the last day I'm allowing myself to touch the 16kg snatch, so I had to kill it. I completed my 10-1 snatch ladder (110 snatches, 19 transfers), in 4 minutes 40 seconds...whew! I should be able to test next week at about 4 minutes....and that's all this old bird's got in her, lol!

After about 1 hr of group training at Girya, I headed over to Equinox to test this ladder first thing before the rest of the workout. We started after about a 10 minute warm up (longer than usual, as I was trying to find the right hand protection to keep my calluses from pinching). Here's the workout that completed my training this morning:


5 minute snatch holds w/12kg

7 sn R, 15 sec, hold overhead on the last sn rep for 15 sec, transfer
7 sn L, 15 sec, hold overhead on the last sn rep for 15 seconds, transfer back
repeat 5 x = 5 minutes

1 minute rest

3 minutes hold snatches w/12kg

1 sn R, hold overhead for 15 sec, 7 sn R, transfer
1 sn L, hold overhead for 15 sec, 7 sn L, transfer back
repeat 6 x = 3 minutes

1 minute rest

1 sw R, 1 sn R, 1 tr
1 sw L, 1 sn L, 1 tr
repeat for 1 minute and then add on a snatch / neg press

1 sw R, 1 sn R, 1 sn R, neg press to rack position, 1 tr
1 sw L, 1 sn L, 1 sn L, neg press to rack postion, 1 tr
repeat for 1 minute and then add on a clean

1 sw R, 1 sn R, 1 sn R, neg press to rack position, clean, 1 tr
1 sw L, 1 sn L, 1 sn L, neg press to rack postion, clean, 1 tr
repeat for 1 minute, rest for 1 minute

And then repeat the last combination set for 10 minutes straight, in two paces. The first minute is a slower pace, before speeding up for the second minute....keep changing the pace back and forth, 5 of each, to complete the 10 minutes.

That's it.

I wish I had video of these progressive combinations, because there is a reason for my madness.... the video would help demonstrate not only the combination, but the pacing also. I did these same combinations with my group class earlier in the morning because we learned (some re-learned) and practiced the clean. I'll write a blogpost soon about how I teach the clean "backwards", although Mark taught it to my group today....when you've got a Master Instructor in the house how could you not want to learn from the best!

16kg Snatch Pacing

One of the things I love about coaching other people for RKC prep, is that I come up with some brilliant training advice! Here's one of the subjects I did NOT blog about that was bugging the crap out of me.....

It's no secret that I participated, instead of assisting, this past February, at the San Jose RKC to earn my Re-Certification, but what I wasn't ready to share was the fact that I barely passed my 16kg snatch test! Why not? Because I had conditioned myself to snatch for endurance.....10 reps per 30 seconds....this pace was my "auto-pilot" pace. So, in my last test minute I had exactly 1 minute to complete 20 more reps.....good God, are you kidding? I should have flown through this test in, at least 25% less time.

Once I realized that I had "paced" my snatches at a 10 rep per 30 sec pace for months, if not years of "high volume" training, then it became obvious to me that I needed to train the 16kg snatch at a faster pace, so it wasn't "automatically set" at my "endurance pace"

Speed and endurance are two separate things.....

I came up with this "Snatch Pacing Ladder" to knock me out of the routine I had set myself up for over the last couple of years....I had to snatch the 16kg faster, and get used to it!

Here's the first progression....1 minute work with a full minute rest....take the rest, you'll need it!

10/10, 1 min work/1 minute rest
11/11, 1 min work/ 1 minute rest
12/12, 1 min work/1 minute rest
13/13, 1 min work/1 minute rest
14/14, 1 min work/1 minute rest
15/15, 1 min work/1 minute rest

This is is the first uphill ladder....and it's hard! Don't worry, next week it'll change.....it'll be harder! But you can handle it...next? Only 30 seconds rest inbetween sets!

10/10, 1 min work/ 30 sec rest
11/11, 1 min work/ 30 sec rest
12/12, 1 min work/ 30 sec rest
13/13, 1 min work/30 sec rest
14/14, 1 min work/30 sec rest
15/15, 1 min work/30 sec rest

OK, now you get a break! The following week, or even two weeks later....let's mix it up a bit.....one slow, to warm up........one fast.....back it off a bit, speed it up again....back off a bit....speed it up again....etc...

10/10
15/15
11/11
14/14
12/12
13/13

Six sets.....mixed up, and staggered....but all done at a one minute of work / 1 minute of rest ratio.


Above is the video from this past Saturday's workout, done BEFORE I trained my Max Vo2 Based class at Girya. It demonstrates the last "Snatch Pacing Workout" posted. It's divided in two videos because it lasted for 12+ minutes, and I only have 10 minutes total on Youtube!

Let me know how it goes for you.