4/11/14 Friday April 11, 2014 (24/28/32 kg PPR ladders, 24 kg SN ladders)

6:00am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 40 minutes

6:40am - 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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar 12kg, 3+3 with press

6:55am - Training session - Focus on 24/28/32 kg Push Press (PPR) ladders, 24kg SN 3/6/9 ladders

24kg TGU , 2/2
24kg SL DL, 5/5
DB 32kg DL, 5

5x of the following ladders:

PPR 24kg, 3/3
PPR 28kg, 2/2
PPR 32kg, 1/1

30 reps per arm on the PPR

24kg SN ladders, 3/3, 6/6, 9/9 x 4 sets = 144 reps.  Took about 16 minutes.

7:45am - Complete

Notes -  Didn't sleep much.  Kids woke me up at 3:45am, got them back to bed right away, but I could not get back to sleep really and just "rested" until I forced myself up around 6am.  Actually felt ok though and warm up was good, I had a feeling it would be a pretty good day.  Probably because I love this training session, a combination of push presses and snatches and you know you are going to be working hard, in a good way.  Push presses were going up well.  Took time to practice the cleans, and as with last week I transferred the bell between arms and didn't set it down, increasing the time under tension.  Noticed the cleans were flying up with the 24kg and the 28kg, interesting to see that. Of course the 32kg is heavier.  On the snatches also noticed the bell was flying up on the hip snap, very interesting, I think that is the most power I have had coming out of the backswing ever with snatches.  Knew 4th set was going to be a challenge but I wanted that additional volume this week, this is the last training day before a deload week, and it was time to push it a little bit.  Good stuff.  Hands holding up pretty well too, pumice stone has really worked well for me.  Looking forward to a delaod, it has been a very productive 3 week cycle and I definitely have learned and improved on some things.

4/10/14 Thursday April 10, 2014 (OS, PM, TGUs / SL DLs 24kg)

7:15am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 15 minutes

7:30am - 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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar with press, 12kg, 3+3

Break

8:45am - Training session - Focus on 24kg TGUs, SL DLs

24kg TGU, 2/2 x 2 (to the knee and back down)
24kg SL DLs, 5/5 x 2

9:00am - Complete

Notes -  Body feeling pretty good.  Just a little bit of work, this is a rest day.

4/9/14 Wednesday April 9, 2014 (TGUs/RRs/ DB 20kg complex)

7:30am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 50 minutes

8:20am - 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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar 12kg, 3+3 with press

8:35am - Training session - Focus on TGUs / Rows, DB 20kg complex

Superset the following - set of TGUs, then Renegade Rows off hand on a box

TGUs roll to elbow

28kg x 3/3

32kg x  - L side - 1, fail, 1, 1 - R side - 3

36kg x  L side - fail, fail R side - 1

Renegade rows after each TGU set, 24kg, 5/5 (x 3)

Double 20kg complex.  Went like this

1st set:
2 DB CL, 1 DB SQ
4 DB CL, 2 DB SQ
6 DB CL, 3 DB SQ
8 DB CL, 4 DB SQ (set bell down)
10 DB CL, 5 DB SQ

Rest 2 minutes

2nd set:
2 DB CL, 1 DB SQ
4 DB CL, 2 DB SQ
6 DB CL, 3 DB SQ (set bell down)
8 DB CL, 4 DB SQ (set bell down)
10 DB CL, 5 DB SQ

9:20am - Complete

Notes -  I will start backwards.  With the 20kg complex, pretty much the same exact performance as last week. Se the bells down at the same intervals, took about the same amount of time total (12 minutes).  Pretty good performance but didn't improve density, technique probably was a little bit better.  The TGUs - wow not great, very interesting.  The L side roll to elbow is just_not_good_enough and it is frustrating.  That is where the fail is occurring.  Bell is not too heavy, including with the 36kg - the weight is not a problem other than my roll to elbow is not good enough with heavier weights.  I have to figure this out.  On the R side, got 3 straight reps with the 32kg, that is probably the first time I have done that, so small victory.  I also got a rep with the 36kg on the R side without undue effort.  But I bailed out on multiple tries with the 32kg and the 36kg on the L side due to poor roll to elbows.  I am just not getting the grip with the bell side leg on the ground, my elbow is not pulling hard enough on the ground (non bell) side, and I am not getting that strong roll with the hip to sync with the elbow pull.  I have serious work to do.  I do suspect part of my issues is fatigue from sprinting on Sunday combined with Monday's training.  My R hamstring has been incredibly tight since since Sunday, all the way from the glute to the ankle.  R ankle tight too.  I think somehow this is impacting my TGUs in an odd way, the imbalances.  Something is up with it and I just need to get that technique improved on the L side.

4/8/14 Tuesday April 8, 2014 (28kg SW variations)

7:00am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 30 minutes

7:30am - 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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar with press, 12kg, 3+3

Break

9:15am - Training session - Focus on 28kg SW variations

2H SW 28kg, 10, 2x
1H SW 28kg, 10/10
2H SW 28kg, 10, 2x
1H SW 28kg, 10/10
2H SW 28kg, 10, 2x

100 total SW reps

9:25am - Complete

Notes -  Felt pretty good today.  Need to dial in the sleep to get to bed sooner, get up sooner, this is really bothering me that I have not been able to make an adjustment.  Too much going on.  Did like the fact that on the 28kg 1H SW, felt stronger, grip good, no R wrist issue whatsoever, this is clearly improving with the change in SW technique not to loosen the grip on the float.  Good stuff.

4/7/14 Monday April 7, 2014 (TGUs, TK PR 24kg, DB SW 24 kgs / PU Planks)

7:00am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 45 minutes (extra work on lacrosse ball for traps, glutes, quads, hams)

7:45am - 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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar 12kg, 3+3 with press

8:00am - Training session - Focus on TGUs, TK PR 24kg, super DB SW 24 kgs / planks

TGUs (start from the top finish at the top)

16kg x 1/1

20kg x 1/1

24kg x 1/1

12kg Tall Kneeling Halos x 5/5

24kg TK PR x 5/5 x 5 sets (up from 4/4 x 5 last week)

Superset 5x:

DB SW 24kgs x 10 x 2

Around the World (PU Plank) x 1/1

(up from 9x last week)

Total of 100 DB SW (90 last week)

8:45am - Complete

Notes -  Good day.  Body felt pretty good given the tough training yesterday evening with running / pull ups and push ups.  Legs are pretty tight for sure, right ankle continues to be a little stiff after running, mobility is not as good as the left.  Need to work on it, undoubtedly that gets connected to the R hip getting tight, obliques etc.  Was able to up the presses to 5 sets of 5/5, felt very strong.  The TK practice has been excellent for the press, really feeling good about the groove.  I was pressed for time so I did 2 sets of 10 DB SW with the 24kgs before moving to the planks, so did just 5 sets of planks with a total of 20 sets of 10 DB SW, for 100 reps total.  DB SW felt very powerful, has gotten better every single week with practice.  R wrist absolutely zero issue, noticed nothing, keeping a grip on the bell and not letting go on the float has been totally on point advice from Kevin, this is now my go-to swing technique and will just keep refining it.

4/6/14 Sunday April 6, 2014 (interval running / pull ups / push ups)

Got going Sunday afternoon.  Weather was decent, pretty good running weather.  Air was warmed, had to ditch my stocking cap for the first time all year.  That was nice.  Went with a different scheme this week - 2 minute running intervals, a total of 16 segments of these for 32 minutes running. Looked like this:

2 min run, SL DLs 4/4, 2 min run, 4 pull-ups, 4 push-ups
x 8

Total of 32 minutes running, 32/32 SL DLs, 32 pull-ups, 32 push-ups

I liked this but I am thinking I can run less and get the same benefits.  I am going to go with 12 segments next week, which will equate to 24 minutes running.  I am going to bump the reps on everything back up to 5s, which will equal out to 30 pull ups and 30 push ups.  I am going to try and push the pace harder on the running, knowing that I have less segments should help with this.  I really pushed it on one of the last ones today and I know I have the ability to push harder but I am going to have to decrease the overall running time to maintain a good level of power.  That is really the point of this work so I need to get the overall running time down to accommodate.  It will be interesting to see the impact on the strength movements.  Today was the shortest intervals I have ran using the 2 minute markers, and it was not a problem, pull ups and push ups were quite strong.  It's good to keep mixing it up.  Eventually would be great to get pistols and one-arm push ups going here, but I need to work on variations with Kevin and on my own to get started down that road.

Also I would be remiss to not mention that I woke up TIGHT AS HELL today, I could not believe it, didn't even see that coming.  It's really my R armpit/lat/psoas/oblique/hip, very very tight stuff.  Bar hangs today helped a lot as did lacrosse ball work.  It's from push pressing and snatching, that really hits those muscles hard and although I noticed nothing at all Friday or Saturday, the 2-day DOMS hit me hard.  That does happen to me sometimes.  It's a delay and then hits 2 days after.  Have to be vigilant to keep those spots loosened up, fortunately I have some different techniques that help.  Some soft tissue massage or bodywork may be in order very soon.

4/4/14 Friday April 4, 2014 (24/28/32 kg PPR ladders, 24 kg SN 5 min test)

7:30am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 60 minutes (moving very slow, lots of extra trigger point release)

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, 1+1
Crooked arm bar 12kg, 3+3 with press

8:45am - Training session - Focus on 24/28/32 kg Push Press (PPR) ladders, 24kg SN 5 min test

24kg TGU , 2/2
24kg SL DL, 5/5

5x of the following ladders:

PPR 24kg, 3/3
PPR 28kg, 2/2
PPR 32kg, 1/1

30 reps per arm on the PPR

5 minute snatch test with the 24kg - goal was 100 reps.

Got 97.  Took a few extra seconds to get the final 3 reps.

9:20am - Complete

Notes -  DAMN IT.  I thought today was going to be the day to officially show myself that I could pass the 5 minute snatch test.  So close.  97 reps.  Went like this:  10/10, 10/10, put bell down, 10/10, 5/5, put bell down (2 minutes left), 5/5, rechalk, 10/7 (timer off) 3 final reps.  Frustrating.  I had 70 reps in about 3 minutes, which should have been enough (about 23 reps per minute, need a pace of 20).  However I was tired after doing the push presses and frankly came into the morning feeling very sluggish.  Long week, I was out a little bit late with some co workers and it was not the best prep for this training session today.  I was sucking wind at the 2 minute left mark, needed to take some breaths, and where I screwed up is that I should have rechalked at that point and then blasted out the final 30 reps.  Instead I wasted a few seconds rechalking after 10 reps and could not quite get the final 20 done in time.  I will say, I was pleased with the technique in general today, and the power, I felt like I had powerful reps.  Issue seems to be conditioning a little bit or possibly just lack of recovery (actually thinking it might be the latter).  In any event you know what it's all good.  PPRs felt great, technique improved, felt like I was getting some good power, even leaving the ground onto my toes on many reps (which I think is ok).  Lockout feels really good on both arms.  Continuing to notice some body comp changes as well, more defined musculature on the traps, biceps, chest.  This is just the result of a long time training but I do think the progression to heavier and heavier bells is really helping me a lot.  Also I think snatching consistently as I have for months has been huge for body comp.  The 24kg is a challenging weight so you get a lot of benefits including strength.  I have not gone back and snatched the 16 or the 20kg in some time but man I bet those would feel like toys.  At some point I need to talk to Kevin about messing around with very low rep sets of the 28kg to see what he thinks.  However I need to show I can pass the snatch test first with the 24kg:)