6/5/15 Friday June 5, 2015 (DB 16kg SLDL/FCs, 24kg 2H SW/1 leg PUs)

6:30am - FMS and other warm up drills (belly breathing, form roll, wall drops 15/15, scales 3/3, correctives from Kinetics) - 35 minutes

7:05am - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:20am- Training session - DB 16kg SLDLs/farmer carries, 24kg 2H SW/1 leg push-ups

2x:
DB 16kg SL DLs, 8
DB 16kg FC, 4 mins (added a minute from last week)

5x (up from 4x Monday):
24kg 2H SW, 10
1 leg push-ups, 5/5 (switching legs)

(50 SW, 50 p/u)

7:50am - Complete

Notes -  Good day.  Writing this very late on Friday night, thinking about it, best my body has felt in weeks after a KB training day.  I am starting to feel more and more back to normal and be able to handle more load, which is great news.  I had my 3rd rehab session this week with Kinetics after this morning training session, which is going very well.  All in all, this was a good week, lots of progress being made I feel.  Looking forward to beautiful weather this weekend, doing some body weight work at the lake, mowing and cleaning up my yard, and hosting a big BBQ for friends on Sunday.

6/4/15 Thursday June 4, 2015 (KB warmup, Kinetics sports rehab, IC practice)

6:30am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling), rehab correctives (wall drops, scales, Kinetics correctives) - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:30am - Indian Club practice

7:40am - Complete

4:30pm - Deep Tissue Massage

Notes -   Good day here.  Feeling good although I was tight on my R shoulder, lat, neck.  Could be anything, but possibly floor presses have a bit to do with it.  Got a deep tissue massage in the late afternoon, that was great.

6/3/15 Wednesday June 3, 2015 (48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW)

7:45am - FMS and other warm up drills, Kinetics rehab (belly breathing, form roll, wall drops 15/15, scales 3/3, side blanks, breathing, wall v slides) - 60 minutes

8:45am - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

9:00am- Training session - 48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW

5x (up from 4x on Friday):
48kg DL, 8
20kg Floor PR, 8/8
(40 DLs, 40/40 presses)

24kg 2H SW, 10, x 5
(50 SW)

Indian Clubs, 5 minutes

9:30am - Complete

Notes -  Lots of rehab work, took a hell of a lot of time to get through and I was pretty tired this morning.  Probably a shade run down, I did sleep well though.  Actual training was pretty good, I did feel things a bit in the low back during warmups actually, I think a few of the new movements for rehab probably just need time to settle in, particularly the side planks are quite challenging and do really engage the spots that have been the trouble of discomfort.  Felt good during the training with KBs.  Floor presses are interesting, definitely hitting way different muscles than what I am used to, so feeling it big time in the traps. DLs and SWs were good, so that's encouraging.  Have my 2nd visit at Kinetics this afternoon, we'll see how that goes.  Also I got a pretty long walk in at Greenlake last night, which was good.  Trying to get in as much walking as I can.

6/2/15 Tuesday June 2, 2015 (KB warmup, Kinetics sports rehab, IC practice)

6:30am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling), rehab correctives (wall drops, scales) - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:30am - Indian Club practice

7:40am - Complete

10:00am - 11:45am - Kinetics Sports Rehab

Notes -   Feeling very good today.  Good movement practice this morning, things are absolutely improving.  I went to Kinetics Sports Rehab for a consultation and movement practice session which I found very helpful.  Met Dr. Michael Smith, good guy, he did an SFMA screen and some other movement tests and basically highlighted something that I should have known.  Overhead position is a challenge, very little thoracic extension, and that double overhead jerks put my body in the most challenging position for my current mobility limitations, causing me to let me ribs spill, pelvis to tilt, glutes to shut down, pressure put on the low back.  I learned several new movements today, Glute Med Side Planks to fire the glutes properly, Transverse Abdominus Brace (belly breathing practice), and V-Slides on the wall.  All of these are going to help reprogram some things.  Also Dr. Smith is going to work with Kevin, my coach to communicate all of this and we'll get the KB practice lined up with what I am doing with this rehab.  Going to take a focused run at this for 3x a week for 3 weeks. I see some real positives and will be taking advantage of this time to set a better foundation for the future.

6/1/15 Monday June 1, 2015 (DB 16kg SLDL/FCs, 24kg 2H SW/1 leg PUs)

7:40am - FMS and other warm up drills (belly breathing, form roll, wall drops 15/15, scales 3/3) - 35 minutes

8:15am - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

8:30am- Training session - DB 16kg SLDLs/farmer carries, 24kg 2H SW/1 leg push-ups

2x:
DB 16kg SL DLs, 8
DB 16kg FC, 3 mins

4x:
24kg 2H SW, 10
1 leg push-ups, 5/5 (switching legs)

8;55am - Complete

Notes -  OK, this was good.  Good night's sleep, well, I slept right through my alarm.  I need it.  Have slept a bit more the last several days, definitely body is needing it and then some.  Still have a lack of discipline around when I go to bed (too late).  It's pathetic as I keep writing that yet cannot (have not) consistently improved it.  No excuses.  In any event, was watching to see if the oblique issue from yesterday would pop up, it seemed ok.  Main thing actually was that my left knee was very sore and tender, probably the running etc.  I actually foam rolled my quad a bunch which was a huge relief.  Seemed like the issue was in the quad.  By the time I got to training, this was pretty much alleviated.  I liked all of this training.  Doing the SLDLs is very good for me, I need this movement to fire up my glutes.  I feel like part of my issues is due to "sleepy glutes" or basically just not getting the right muscles to fire up.  These help.  The farmer carries were good, really focused on Kevin's tips of firing the triceps hard and pushing the shoulders down.  The longer carry time was good too. I was feeling pretty good so decided to go ahead with the swings and see how they felt.  Actually, they felt good.  Kevin's suggestion to drop to a lower rep range I think was spot on.  That, and I think doing the SLDLs in particular fired up my glutes and therefore when doing the swings, I was able to really focus and feel the glutes on extension, and not the low back or obliques (at least not nearly as much), which is what I wanted.  I think with a higher rep range there can be a tendency to lose power and/or technique.  Single leg push-ups, also a good movement, I feel this gets my anterior change going a bit, felt the abs kick in, but also anterior chain as well.  As I write this in the afternoon, no major discomfort, at least things certainly don't seem worse.  I feel it in the glutes and also surprisingly way more in the traps and upper back than I anticipated, which is probably from doing the farmers in the manner I did them.  Going to work on correctives this evening and also get some Indian Club practice in.

5/30/15 Saturday May 30, 2015 (pull-ups, push-ups, involuntary jogging)

An interesting day.  Certainly trying to pay attention to how my body is feeling.  Woke up, felt pretty good really, but after a bit noticed the same discomfort in the L low back, actually mainly the erector and a bit into the lat up the L side.  No pain, as usual.  Did some lacrosse ball release, that felt good.  At some point mid morning that all went away and I noticed general fatigue in my L shoulder, no pain at all, but is making me wonder a bit if there is something "from the top down" with this L shoulder that may be an issue in all of this stuff.  That L shoulder is the same one that grabbed a bit during my FMS test with Kevin on Wed, which I found odd at the time as it has not bothered me noticeably at all. It is the shoulder however the "pops" once in a while in the sense of stretching it on the foam roller, doing Indian Clubs, etc.  It is less stable than my R due to the falls on it from several years ago.  I know for sure it has created some asymmetries.  KB work has brought tremendously more stability and strength, but this is interesting indeed.  By mid afternoon, this feeling had also dissipated.  Very interesting.

Have had my kids all weekend and we did a bunch of activities all morning and then went to the lake in the afternoon.  We did some bike riding practice and they wanted me to jog along as they rode their bikes.  In the back of my mind I didn't want to do it, due to this low back shit, but I had been moving around playing with them, and hell most of the time lately the issues seem mostly to do with putting external load on my body (KBs).  I wanted them to have fun so I played along.  Probably ended up running a mile or so, which of course I have done plenty of running in my time but its' not something that is in my training any more at all.  I don't really miss it though it does feel good to run.  I was trying to pay attention to anything coming up and didn't notice anything at all with my back.  I did notice my R knee and calve feeling very tight, which is something very familiar to me from the running days, that's an old pattern.  Fortunately I don't think I did this long enough to really make a big impact on the body one way or another, so that's good.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  Did some mobility work this evening on my feet and including a lacrosse ball to stretch my plantar and that felt good.

Ended the time with the kids at the lake by getting in some pull-ups and push-ups.  Honestly - felt great.  Hanging from the rings to stretch the lats and shoulders has been key, and these movements have been feeling good to me lately.  These pull-ups were extremely strong, best in quite some time, that's a reflection of doing less lifting lately as I am probably a bit more fresh in some ways.  I think the body-weight work is really what I need to be doing right now.

Hanging from rings

6 pull-ups (rings)
5 Push-ups

5 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

4 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

4 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

3 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

Total pull-ups - 21, up from 20 last week.  Very strong.

Hanging from rings

Mobility work and stretching this evening.  Going for a long brisk walk tomorrow evening after I drop the kids off to Jill.  Haven't been able to get one in since Tuesday this week due to the kids' schedule and I am looking forward to it.

5/29/15 Friday May 29, 2015 (48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW)

6:00am - FMS and other warm up drills (belly breathing, form roll, wall drops 15/15, scales 3/3) - 45 minutes

6:45am - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

Indian Clubs, 5 minutes

7:00am- Training session - 48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW

4x:
48kg DL, 8
20kg Floor PR, 8/8
(32 DLs, 32/32 presses)

24kg 2H SW, 20, x 5
(100 SW)

7:30am - Complete

Notes -  Writing this on Saturday evening.  The odyssey continues:)  Felt good on Friday morning.  Slept on the floor, as my mom was up visiting and I let her sleep in my bed.  That was fine, didn't bother me.  Didn't notice any issues during the KB lifting work, particularly DLs and the floor presses - these are good movements I believe and work well with my current situation.  Now on the other hand, I am not sure about swings right now.  I tightened up a few hours after this session, again mainly in the L lower back, erector, glute medius area.  I noticed it at work when sitting in the afternoon.  Sitting serious blows.  The condition isn't painful, it's more of a discomfort and just knowing things are not quite right.  For the vast majority of my KB training, I have left training sessions without soreness, really feeling like the training is giving me something, not taking something away.  Tightening up like this really sucks I have to say.  Did quite a bit of mobility and soft tissue work in the evening, along with some Pain Free drills to try and open up my hips, which helped a lot.  I wish I could pinpoint exactly what's going on.  I continue to come back to this idea of - keep going by trial and error, things that feel good, do them, things that don't - don't do them right now.  Body is still not liking load, that seems to be really clear.  More notes on today on that post.