Tuesday Training

Before I get to my KB Sport practice I have to say that I love being back on my regular swing schedule!  Tuesday mornings I lead a one hour class that starts with 30 solid minutes of interval swing training!  We finish the next half of the hour with other kettlebell skill practice for about 15 min., and then a kind of "open workout" for the remaining 10-15 min.  Half of my class only stays for the first part, mostly because of work schedules, but then I'm sorry to say that the attendance in my Tuesday morning class has dwindled down to only 3 after that, including me for the second half!  I'm guessing a few issues.  #1 I never have promoted any of my classes.  #2 for some reason a lot of people think 6:00am is early?  #3 My class is hard.  Oh well, their loss.

Since my attendance is down to basically me, Meg and Brenda I decided to increase the swing workout to 40-45 min.  We girls can handle a few hundred more reps, so it's fine by us.  Keeping with a ballistic theme we ended the last 15 minutes with light and long snatch pacing sets.

5/5 (30/30)
6/6 (30/30)
5/5 + 6/6 (1 min/30)
7/7 (30/30)
6/6 + 5/5 (1 min/30 sec)
7/7 + 6/6 + 5/5 (1.5 min/1 min)
5/5 + 6/6 + 7/7 (1.5 min/1 min)
14/14 + 12/12 + 10/10 (3 min set)

14 min., 224 12kg snatches

We did Give and Take #2 with some super advanced options for extra reps.  900 reps w/14kg total. (for me, probably another 120 for Meg and Bren, and with different size bells)

On to some GS practice for me.

After all my travels and time away from serious progressive training for my next meet (Feb 2014) it's been forever since I jerked the 16kg for reps so I thought I should, maybe, find out how much I suck.  I'm writing out of frustration really, so please excuse me.

Based on some recent sets I have done with the 12kg and the 14kg I decided 25/25 jerk reps should be doable.  Wrong.  Without putting myself down I'm simply going to say that the set did not go as planned.  One of the PT's at the studio I work at decided to walk and stand right in front of me, blocking my view from the mirror (which I was using), and that just accelerated my frustration and I gave up, throwing the bell down after only 18 reps.  I really can't comment anymore about what a sad sad state of strength and technique my 16kg jerk has deteriorated to so I'll end it here and post the video (above).

My swing/snatch set was barely better.  Whatever.  40/40 16kg  Here is the video.



Would I like to post some amazing sets?  Sure.  But this is my real life, today, taking everything else I do into consideration.  Either way I'm not ever going to quit.  Quitting is not an option.

On The Third Day....Interval Timer

Interval timer or interval app.  I'm old school...did you figure that one out yet?   A Gymboss is as new school as I get, BUT, I am becoming more and more motivated to join the 21st century!  Phone apps are much more convenient for most people and in fact this past weekend my training partner Meg used hers during our training and it had a very nice sound so I need to find out more about it!  It's no secret I love my Gymboss! (click the link on the right side of this blog to buy) I dislike fumbling around with my iPhone mostly because I don't have a plastic cover for it, which I like, but the damn thing is slippery!  My Gymboss is easy to clip on my shirt and not think about.

Interval training is what my kettlebell programs are based on. You can find much information online if you google "interval training" but here is one posted by the Mayo Clinic:

 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/interval-training/SM00110

I never planned on designing a program based on intervals, in fact when I started creating my own workouts I didn't know anyone else was doing this kind of programming at all!  I was simply doing my own thing, in my garage, to push myself based on the second hand of my old alarm clock! (photo right; seriously I think this alarm clock is 20 years old and the very first time I cleaned it was for this photo used in "The Swing"!)  I use a timer to motivate my kettlebell training, and I use it on my walks when I don't have a specific distance or trail to measure.

Training intervals is simply a way to measure.  Weren't we just talking about measurements?  Knowing what and how to compare progress (or lack of progress) is an important tool in increasing good health and fitness.  It's just another way to collect data and track improvement.

This morning I used my Gymboss on my walk.  When I go for walks I usually set my interval timer for 5 minute increments.  I do this because 5 minute increments are easy to count, add, and keep track without leaving me too long wondering when the heck that beeper is going to go off!  In fact many times that 5 minute beeper reminds me to keep up a fast pace, which I can sometimes forget as I start to daydream and meditate!  And speaking about walking....

Did you know that I just learned from my brilliant husband Mark that no animal on the planet can outwalk humans?  We can be outrun, but we cannot be outwalked!  He also recommends that if you cannot walk 4 miles an hour (15 minute miles) then you should seriously rethink running for distance (ie jogging).  Running for short distances is skill that you can practice at any level of fitness, but running for long distance is a different skill you can train AFTER you have basic running mechanics and a solid foundation of conditioning.

Whether you use a timer for training kettlebells or you use it to time other exercise, I believe it's a tool that can motivate you to push yourself a little bit further than you might without it!

Are you with me so far?

Food journal
Food scale
Interval timer

This is going to be soooo easy this time!  And we still have a week to get ready!  Let's do this!

Food journal for Sunday 12/15.

My pumpkin, turkey and rice soup was so good I had it for lunch and for dinner!  What I really needed was some fresh greens, but oh well.  I took care of that today.  My calories were a bit high (I remembered the dates at the end of the night), and I may have to confess about guesstimating the soup portions low.....the morning scale rarely lies.

Day Two Towards Transformation. Food Scale

Most people already have a food scale, but if you don't, you need one.  It's time to know what you don't know!  Food scales range in price from under $20, to over $80.  I highly suggest buying one that allows you to convert ounce to gram measurements as I find a lot of nutritional labels listing portion sizes in grams.

This is the one that I own:

http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Service-10-Pound-Stainless-Digital/dp/B002G9UKTY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1387117103&sr=8-4&keywords=food+scale+taylor

I was able to find this model at my local Smart and Final store for $45, well worth it, but over $80 on Amazon?  That's pretty expensive even for me, BUT, if I take into consideration how much money I waste on things I don't need, if I had to pay more I would consider it.  This particular scale is super easy to use and the stainless steel top comes off so it's easy to wash.  The last scale I had cost around $25 but it sucked!  For some reason it would drain the battery right away, and it ended up not lasting long at all.  Anyway....

When I first started to change the way I eat, I knew I had to educate myself with portion size.  Almost every food we buy in this country comes listed with nutritional information except for most fresh foods. In that case we have to weigh and measure.  I'm not ashamed or embarrassed that I often weigh foods for portion size, how else can I make the best decisions and choices if I had to rely on guessing?  Finding myself 100lbs overweight pretty much proved I was not a good guesser!  It was time to know what I didn't know, or didn't want to know. 

Just this last week I found myself eating a few lg size dates (okay, 5!), I could have guessed what the calories were, but I knew I didn't know.  Out came the food scale.  I found the nutritional information by googling "calories in dates".  Numerous sites that list calorie counts came up and it was easy to figure out the data I needed because I was able to weigh the fruit.  No guessing.

Similar thing happened this morning.  I ate two large persimmons.  I knew they were large, but I didn't know how large, until I weighed them.  Again, so much easier to learn the language of nutrition when you have the tools to translate the information.  It's not a big deal, but it is a big deal if you are guessing based on what you wish the facts were.  Until you absolutely know, then you don't really know.

We all tend to eat the same basic foods so don't think you have to learn the calorie counts of every single kind of food that exists to man!  Besides, once you get in the habit of some quick research you will find the similarities of food groups and their calorie counts.  For instance, 99% of all fats, oils and butters, have the same amount of calories, 100 per tbl.  90% of all animal proteins are 50 calories per ounce, which, if you own a food scale you will be able to measure easily.  4 oz of chicken is a lot of chicken, and for only 200 calories!  Grains, rices, beans are usually 150-175 per 1/2-3/4 c cooked (1/4 c uncooked).  It becomes very easy and effortless after a short amount of time. 


I'm feeling great!  I'm moving in the right direction and getting back in the habits I know I need to practice to ensure that I'm the one in charge!  It's possible, and gosh darn it I'm doing it!

Here is my food journal entry from yesterday.  As much as I did not want to post that I chose to drink wine for dinner instead of eating a meal; hey, it was Saturday night!  The important thing is that I still made the choice to stay within range of my daily calories (1650).  But no wine for me tonight!

"10" days 'til Christmas, Ten Days Towards Transformation, Now's the Time

It's December 15 and that leaves 10 days until Christmas.  Inspired by my own 10 x 10 workout I decided it might be a good idea to expand on the theme of "10" and the title of my first 10 x 10 workout which is "Now's the Time".  I've always believed that if we are not moving towards health we are moving away from it, so I'd like to invite you to use these next 10 days until Christmas to move towards it.  10 gifts we'll give ourselves, one a day, to set up the habits of becoming our best self, the kind of persons we know we truly are.  The best gift will come Christmas morning with the motivation that may have lacking because we'll be ready!  Ready and together we will see an entire new way to look at life and we will have in place the tools to help make the changes, step by step, swing by swing.


Today, the first day starts with the gift of a Food Journal.  It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't even have to cost any money, it could be a writing tablet you have laying around the house, but it has to be one that you physically hand write.  You don't have to start keeping it now, if you don't want to, or if you're not quite ready, but you will put in place in order to start moving towards your transformation.

I plan on posting my actual food journal for the next ten days as an example of how I keep mine.  Yes, my actual daily accounting, so I better improve on my hand writing!  The day after Christmas I'm going to invite you to post yours here on my blog, via comments, and I hope to give you some incentive to participate with a Giveaway!  (although your best self is actually the prize!)

Tomorrow and everyday after for 10 days I will post another gift suggestion to help us both move in the direction of healthier life.  Now is the perfect time.  So many years we give up during the Holidays, letting ourselves fall victim to what we feel are obligations to overeat, but this year can be, and will be different.

I've got a big workout scheduled this morning and I have to get going.  When I get home this afternoon I'll elaborate on Food Journalling, the how's and the why's.  Are you with me?  Oh, and I'll also share with you why this is my time too!  My time for a transformation of my own, again.  I'm so excited, now's the time.

photo above right is the one I bought for $4.99.  I like it's elastic band that lets me open it up to my daily page that I'm journalling.

photo above center is yesterday's entry.  I didn't plan on posting it so it's a bit messy, my next posts will be more clear :)

It's Just the Beginning. 10 x 10 the next series.

I have been overwhelmed with the response to my latest 10 x 10 workouts!  The amount of support and excitement I've received via emails, messages and comments privately and publicly has been such a nice surprise.  Really, I had no idea how the first video would be received because truly I was a little irritated when I shot it, and I had to run it by Mark first to ask if it was okay to post!

So here we are now.  Many people did indeed start up a program, by finding some relief in my message of consistency, not long workouts, high reps, and big numbers.  Some for the very first time, while others found motivation to start again. Consistency and inclusion is what I want to promote.  Anybody and everybody can start to change their condition of health, fitness, strength and shape of their body right now, and it doesn't take much, it just takes something!  I do have some long term 10 x 10 plans, but let's worry about now, not 6 months from now! 6 months will come, whether you do something or not, so please, join us in moving in the direction of improvement.

This next 10 x 10 and the 9 to follow will focus less on strict interval training, and more on the importance of successfully completing your sets and reps with crisp and concise movements.  I've got to get to work so I'll simply leave you with the next video to follow along to, where I explain a bit more about taking longer rest periods between sets.  There are a number of reasons why someone might need more rest, and reasons to purposely take more rest whether you think you "need" to or not.  This video demonstrates and takes you through your 10 sets of 10 with twice as much rest, working with 15 seconds of swings to 30 seconds of recovery.  For some even a longer recovery may be in order and I will be posting more about that to come.  If you are used to training with equal work to rest then use this interval ratio with a heavier bell OR concentrate specifically on making each and every swing rep perfectly powerful with a moderately heavy bell.  Gotta go.....I'm late for work!  Enjoy!




PS  I just wanted to explain my low energy at the start of this video....I had already done my own workout that consisted of a 10 x 10 w/36kg thinking I was going to post that video but I forgot to press the video start button.  I didn't plan on re-taping another 10 x 10 so I was beat, add in a freezing cold garage gym and jet lag.....but I did it! 

"Tracy Reifkind's 10 x 10 Project" with bonus workout

I started posting these 10 x 10 workouts kind of by accident.  For some crazy reason within a week's time I had received a couple of facebook messages and a couple of private emails from friends, of sorts, reaching out to me for help, support and/or inspiration to get started again after falling off the wagon of exercising regularly and eating sensibly.  I also had a rash of last minute cancellations from regular one on one clients and that pushed me over the top!  Anybody that has ever had a personal conversation with me knows, for a fact, how deeply I believe in what I do, and how deeply I believe that anybody can do the same.  Many times I think I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.  I write in The Swing that I will always be your biggest cheerleader, and that is and has been true.

But sometimes I get tired too.  I get tired of listening to the excuses, to the resistance, to the victimization, to the whining.  Who's cheering my training on?  Who's motivating me to get up in the morning, go outside to a cold, dark, frozen garage to workout?  Or to drive thru traffic for 30-45 minutes to teach a class, or a private session that no one might show up for?  Something I hear a lot from people is that they think I'm disciplined, that I'm self motivated, and yes, I might be some of the time, maybe even most of the time, but not all of the time.  It's those times that I have to dig a little deeper, sometimes I have to not "dig" at all, not "think" and just do.  I have to just do.  

So out of my frustration I video taped the very first, and at the time only one, simple 10 x 10 workout almost three weeks ago.  I had no idea that I would get this brainstorm to offer a free series of ten total, 10 x 10 workouts, every other day in hopes that one of those people that asked me for help and support would either find inspiration or simply do the workouts out of guilt!  I was asked for some of my time and in return I was simply asking for five minutes theirs (yours).  I have more to share with you about the beginning, the why's and how's, of my "10 x 10" Project but for now lets see how we do with these, shall we?

November 29th I posted the first 5 workouts, all in a row for you to find easily and follow along with  every other day (after posting them individually on facebook), in order, if you chose to, or to group together and follow along with all five of them consecutively for a really great workout in itself.  Maybe two, three four or five consecutive10 x 10's is a goal for you to set in a few weeks, or maybe a challenge for your next workout.  These 10 x 10's will always be here for you.  Here are the last five, starting with #6.  I had to post them a little out of the order I taped them because of my travel schedule and not knowing exactly where I might have the opportunity to video tape and/or have internet access to download them on Youtube.

The last one, the tenth, is a longer workout and if you watch it I describe the first part of the workout, which I did not video tape.  The 24kg 10 x 10 was at the end of the last workout I did in the last minutes the morning before I left on our trip to Israel, still in the clothes I slept in (yes, I did just admit I trained in my pajama sweats!).  By the time I finished packing I had only 1 hour to swing, shower and get dressed to leave.  I describe the entire workout, and at the bottom of this post I will give you the written version in case it's something you would like to do in it's entirety.

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10


I had only a very short time and I had no idea what I was going to do, so I started with 40, 12kg two hand swings, which I know takes one minute to complete.  I also know that the 12kg is more of a warm up weight for me and since I had very little time to work up to a "training" weight I needed to move on quickly.  I had to get to the 14kg next....this inspired a pattern. I could simply repeat the same set with all of the bells I had available to me, and in my gym that includes the incremental sizes, 14kg, 18kg, 22kg that are in between the standard weight increases of the 12kg, 16kg, 20kg, and 24kg.  Lucky me, huh?  But you can do this workout with one weight or any number of weights, and for that fact any number of sets.  The entire workout is simply sets of 40 reps, followed by 10 sets of 10 reps (or a few more!)

12kg 40 2 hd sw (1 min work/1 min rest)
14kg 40 2 hd sw
16kg 40 2 hd sw
18kg 40 2 hd sw
20kg 40 2 hd sw
22kg 40 2 hd sw
24kg 40 2 hd sw

24kg 10 x 10 2 hd sw (video starts here)
22kg 10 2 hd sw
20 kg 10 2 hd sw
18kg 10 2 hd sw
16kg 10 2 hd sw
14kg 10 2 hd sw
12kg 10 2 hd sw

Done!  22 minutes, 440 swings, AND the weights put away, now off to Israel I went!  Where will you be off to after your next workout?

Israel

It's Sunday morning here in Israel, and probably around 10:00pm, Sat. night, back in California.  Mark and I arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon, and time seems to be flying by much too quickly.  Our time here started with work obligations on Thursday so not much sight seeing, and sad to say that a mistake in our departing flight will not leave much time for sight seeing before we have to leave on Tuesday morning.

Long story short, before I go on, is that our departing flight leaves at 1:00am Tuesday, which looked on our itinerary to be "Tuesday night" at 1:00, BUT 1:00 is AM, not PM so we leave "Monday night", but actually Tuesday morning.  We tried to change it in order to stay at least one more night but taking all possibilities into consideration it was not going to work out both in flights, money and time away from work.  This means that we will only have Monday to travel to Jerusalem, leaving behind any other parts of this beautiful country.

I have very little pictures to share because most of our time has been spent indoors, and surprisingly apart, and when we are together Mark is busy teaching TH - Sunday (today).  Personally I have spent my time doing a little shopping, teaching swing programming, hanging out at the Cert, and oversleeping while my poor husband is working his butt off!  I was also able to go to a yoga class Friday morning and thought I might spend more time catching up on my business, my blog and facebook.  Where has the time gone?

The first morning I was here Mark had speaking engagement and I didn't have anything scheduled until 6:00 that evening (swing workshop).  That left me some time to do one of my favorite things, go to the local market!  I was on a mission for fresh spice blends and dried fruits, which I was made aware that are some of the special foods of this country.  With the help of my hostess, Liat, she knew exactly where to take me, Eden market.  

Eden market is like Whole Foods on steroids!  (probably not a good analogy)  Even in a country where the quality and freshness of foods is likely to be better than ours there is still consciousness about organic and unprocessed foods, and also like practically every other place on the face of the earth there are plenty of junky processed foods.  

As soon as you walk into Eden market it's overwhelming.  The bulk section is at the front of the store and includes spices, teas, dried fruits, beans, rices, grains and so much more.  Then comes the produce.  Not a huge selection like we are used to because most of it is local and seasonal.  A small lunch counter serving fresh soups, salads, kabob, hummus is in the center of the store.  Behind is the olive bar, cheese and meat counters, and of course, the bakery. The selection of breads is nothing short amazing.  



I want to write more, but other than the market, the Cert, a couple of swing workshops, a few fabulous dinners out there is not much more I have time to share right now.   I do want to add that it is an entirely different experience than our last trip to Italy and Croatia, and I hope to have time to elaborate, if not before I leave as soon as I get home.  I hope we can come back soon, it's been an amazing experience.

Photo top: bulk spices at Eden.  Middle photo: SFG female candidates, Maren Kravitz, Tzvia Ben-Shamon, and I.  Bottom photo: the best med "rare" burger I've ever had at Moses Burger in Tel Aviv (beef, lamb and veal).