Friday, July 4, 2014

7/4/14 July 4, 2014 (DB 24kg CL / PPR / FSQ complex)

6:30 am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling), some OS resets - 45 minutes

7:15am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm

Arm bar 12 kg, 2+2
Arm bar 12kg with 3 presses, 1/1

7:30am - Training session - 24kg DB CL, Push PR, FSQ complex

Arm hangs from the balcony

16kg TGU, 1/1
24kg TGU, 1/1
28kg TGU, 1/1
24 kg GSq, 5
16kg BU SQ, 3/3
16kg BU PR, 1/1
24kg BU CL, 1/1, hold for 10 secs
24kg TK PR, 2/2
28kg Hike/Swing/Park, 3

15 minutes:
DB 24kgs CL 2, PPR 3, FSQ, 1

Got 9 rounds done, minus 1 rep on the PPR on the last round - had to stick with 2 reps.  18 DB CL, 26 DB PPR, 9 DB FSQ.

24kg waiter's walk carries, 1 minute, 1/1
28kg waiter's walk carries, 1 minute, 1/1

8:15am - Complete

Notes - Well..... I would not have expected these kinds of results just a few weeks ago.  The healing power of the body once you get out of the way and feed it the right stuff mentally/physically/emotionally etc. is pretty cool.  I am very excited about these results and I fully realize it is all about the time outside of training that is setting up better success during training time.  Sleep, recovery, movement, mobility etc.  In any event, this was another productive day with some mobility to start, felt very good, FMS work that Kevin outlined is helping.  Definitely like starting things out with belly breathing to really engage the diaphragm.  Noticing little things like arm bars being much easier, arm bars with presses feeling very, very solid, shoulder is feeling very solid in the socket, I could even go up to 16kg from 12kg for that movement and really continue to use it to open up the t-spine.  Excellent.  Worked in the 28kg for a TGU today, felt solid, no too heavy.  Used it for hike/swing/parks, I do believe I am ready to do some swinging again and I will work in some low-volume 2H and 1H next week with the 24kg and 28kg to see how that feels after being away from swinging for a month.  Going to keep using some hike/swing/park to start, these are good and frankly I forgot about them even though I read Mark Reifkind using these all the time.  Great exercise for power development it feels.  Messed around with the a BU CL with the 24kg, very solid both sides, I think I could have pressed that no problem.  Need to talk to Kevin about BU work and how to program.  I like BU work - a lot.  Finally into the DB 24kg bells complex, the focus was on push presses and trying to make them powerful.  In large part, pretty successful.  Frankly this was harder / more taxing than perhaps I was expecting.  Much harder than the FSQ practice with DB 24kgs on Wed, which I wasn't necessarily thinking it would be.  Putting DB 24kgs over your head explosively after cleaning them a couple of times I suppose is going to get you going:)  I felt good about the technique, but something to look at with Kevin as a few reps weren't that powerful.  I was focusing on keeping the elbows very tight to my body in the rack, and on the drop keeping them almost digging into my obliques so I could use the lats to put the bells overhead powerfully.  On many reps, this was pretty successful and I felt pretty good with these as I moved through the rounds.  Getting 9 rounds in felt productive and was pretty good density I felt, in 15 minutes.  On the last round after the 2nd PPR I felt power go quite a bit, and finished my last squat and called it.  No need to get greedy, this was definitely progress and you take what you get and move on to train the next time.  For next week, I see Kevin Thursday.  I am thinking about continuing with the DB 24kg complex work on Monday and Wed, think I will emphasize strict presses one day, and squats a different day.  If I recover well this weekend and am feeling it on Monday, will go with strict presses, 2 CL, 3 PR, 1 FSQ.  Wed, 2 CL, 1 PPR, 3 FSQ, or possibly just drop the PPR and just do CL and FSQ.   Will finish the sessions with a bit of 2H and 1H swings to get a little practice, no more than 50 2H, or 1H.

7/3/14 Thursday July 3, 2014 (24kg TGUs, long walk)

7:30am - FMS drills, OS resets - 60 minutes

8:30am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm

Arm bar 12 kg, 2+2

8:45am - Training session - TGU practice

24kg TGU to knee, 1/1, x 2
24kg Hike/Swing/Park, 5 singles

8:55am - Complete

8:15pm - 9:15pm - brisk walk around Greenlake (3 1/2 miles)

Notes - Writing this on Friday morning.  Felt great on Thursday, day after a hard training session on Wed.  Great sign - recovery time is improving, this is very encouraging indeed.  Took my kids to Bainbridge Island for the morning and had fun walking and playing soccer, tag, and "monster chase" in the park and riding the ferry.  Finished the day with a brisk walk around Greenlake.  Walking is feeling powerful.  Strides are strong, I have noticeably bigger glutes and quads these days, I can literally feel it wearing pants and shorts and when walking, it is simply just much easier to walk briskly and powerfully for me than in the past.  Working out some of these movement issues, doing good mobility work, getting more rest, and taking the time to recover from harder weight sessions is really the key for me.