8/21/15 Friday August 21, 2015 (training with Kevin; 24kg KB aerobics)

(writing this late Sunday 8/23 after getting back from a Vancouver BC weekend with my kids, which was very fun)

6:00am - training with Kevin

Felt extremely tired and run down.  Fighting a cold, lack of sleep, and this cycle was catching up to me.  We did some mobility work, foam roll, and eventually worked into doing hanging from the bar, into some some pull-ups to warm up for weighted pull-up practice.  I brought my new dip belt + chain so that we could tweak my form on weighted pull-ups which didn't feel quite right over the past weekend for the first time trying the movement.

Did a number of bodyweight pull-ups first, low rep sets, and Kevin showed me a pretty cool pull-up where one hand is in the overhand position while the other hand is in the chin-up position; you do a few reps, then switch hands.  I really liked that quite a bit and it felt good on m shoulders.  Something to keep in mind for the future for variety.

Eventually we worked some sets of doubles with an 8kg, 10kg, and then a 12kg, all of which went extremely well.  We totally changed my feet position, which before were in the "hollow" pull-up position just like in my bodyweight work, flexed forward.  This did not work well weighted and put a lot of strain on my abductors and obliques last weekend, and on the low back too.  Just did not work.  This time, my legs were basically dangling straight down, with the feet kicked backwards a bit.  Completely different, turning this into a really an upper body strength movement, which is exactly what weighted pull-ups are.  No straining, felt a hell of a lot better, even the 12kg was pretty easy in this position.  Major, major difference.  Glad I had Kevin look at this.

I also practiced some Indian club movements, including with two clubs, which was good.  Going to try and do those a bit more.

7:00am - finish

7:15am - breakfast at the Dish with Kevin

8:00am - finish breakfast

8:25am - 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

8:40am- Training session - 24kg kettlebell aerobics

2x
16kg SL DL, 3/3
16kg TGU, 1/1

24kg 2H SW, 10

10 minutes of KB aerobics:

24 kg CL 1, PR 1, FSQ 1, 1H SW 5, switch hands - 1 set
rest between sets

Didn't keep track of reps or sets, just went with the flow.

9:00am - Complete

Notes - Felt good, didn't want to do too much, just a 10 minute set.  Felt like picking up a KB.

As for the weekend, it was good, but my body is pretty damn tight after driving, and I slept on the floor both nights so my kids could have a bed.  Not ideal.  Need some mobility work and releasing my abductors and tight hips in a major way. 

8/20/15 Thursday August 20, 2015 (24kg 1H SW, SN ladders)

6:20am - belly breathing, OS resets, lacrosse ball work  - 40 minutes

7:00am - 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

7:15am- Training session - 24kg 1H SW / SN ladders

3x:
16kg SLDL, 3/3
16kg TGUs, 1/1

2x with the 24kg:
6 1H SW, 1 SN, hand switch
5 1H SW, 2 SN, hand switch
4 1H SW, 3 SN, hand switch
3 1H SW, 4 SN, hand switch
2 1H SW, 5 SN, hand switch
1 1H SW, 6 SN, hand switch

42 SW / 42 SN per arm (up from 30/30 last week)

Rocking

7:45am - Complete

Notes - Good session, feeling pretty good after the Kinetics rehab work yesterday evening.  Good solid technique today, getting more comfortable snatching again.  It's tiring but that's good.  Conditioning is not all that great right now but it's improving.  Mainly working on technique here anyway and not rushing at all. 

8/19/15 Wednesday August 19, 2015 (walk at Greenlake, Kinetics)

7:30 - 8:15am - walk at Greenlake

4:30- 5:30pm - Kinetics rehab appt

Notes -  I got a coffee and just took a nice 45 minute walk this morning in the sun at Greenlake, as has been the habit the last several weeks during this training cycle that is set up for lifting M/Tu, Th/Fri.  This is working well for me.   I had also signed up for a rehab appt at Kinetics and got an hour in there in the afternoon, doing some soft tissue work on the low back, quads, glutes, hip flexors which was all extremely good.  I really needed that.  Did some mobility and rehab exercises as well including doing two sets of 1-arm press with a 24kg KB, 5 reps for each arm, each set.  Felt really good.  The rehab trainers remarked at how improved my overhead movement is compared to back in June when I first started seeing these guys.  I am pleased at the progress, just have to keep this going.  Also need to make sure I am doing my mob work and really getting that low back stretched, glutes properly firing to train etc. etc. every single time.

8/18/15 Tuesday August 18, 2015 (DB 24kg FSQ, 24kg 2H SW)

7:20am - belly breathing, lacrosse ball, soft tissue work, OS resets  - 50 minutes

8:10am - 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

8:25am- Training session - DB 24kg FSQ, 24kg 2H SW

16kg TGUs, 2/2

16kg GSQ, 5
16kg BU FSQ, 3/3

5x:
DB 24kg FSQ, 4 (up from 3 last week)
24kg 2H SW, 10

20 DB FSQ
50 reps swings

Rocking

8:50am - Complete

Notes - All in all, pretty good here.  Tough to recover after having trained yesterday evening, but wanted to get in some more work. I did a lot of mobility work last night, and some stretches from Pain free to try and open up the abductors, hips etc.  That was helpful, and I was feeling better this morning including some relief on the low back / oblique on the left side as well.  Got some release of tension.  I dropped the swing weight down to 24kg and just focused on solid reps, good hinge etc. between the front squats.  Doing more mobility work tonight, a walk tomorrow morning, going to try and get sleep and recover some more before training again Thursday. 

8/17/15 Monday August 17, 2015 (DB 24kg SS PR, 36kg 2H SW)

Working in Spokane early morning flight, back to Seattle 5pm

6:00pm - belly breathing, lacrosse ball, soft tissue work, OS resets, hamstring stretches  - 60 minutes

7:00pm - 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

7:15pm- Training session - DB 24kg SS PR, 36kg 2H SW

16kg TGUs, 1/1, x 2
16kg BUPR, 3/3

5x:
DB 24kg SS PR, 4 (up from 3 last week)
36kg 2H SW, 10 (up from 32kg last week)

20 DB SS PR
50 reps swings

45 minute walk to Greenlake and back 

8:00pm - Complete

Notes - Very different training day as I did this in the evening, since I had to be in Spokane very early in the morning, and back the same day.  Not ideal training state for sure as I am still sore from doing weighted pull-ups on Saturday - abductors are very tight, and low back / oblique on the L side is fired up a bit as well which is not great.  Not certain if these are the right move at this time, I may drop them.  It's not surprising with a new movement that the body is sort of reacting, but I don't need this shit right now and am not pleased.  I also have been running super hot with a lack of sleep for about 4 days running due to my birthday on Sunday and basically going out hard Friday night and Saturday night.  So I deserve what I get.  In any event I definitely wanted to do some mobility work, try and undue the airplane stuff, and the training went well.  No hard reps, even going up a rep each set with the presses and going heavier on the swings.  Felt good.  Mainly just want to watch the low back / oblique stuff and try and get this to release a bit this evening, calm down.  I think a lot of the issues are coming from incredibly tight abductors and hamstrings, so I am working on those.  

8/15/15 Saturday August 15, 2015 (weighted pull-ups, push-ups, DB 28kg carries)

Writing this on Sunday night after celebrating my 38th birthday today:)  Did this training yesterday mid day on Saturday.  I was excited to find my new Rogue dip belt plus chain had arrived from Amazon, so I got the first chance to try some weighted pull-ups.

Hanging from rings

2 pull-ups (rings)
5 push-ups

3 pull-ups
5 push-ups

5 pull-ups
5 push-ups

Weighted pull-ups, with an 8kg KB hanging

1
2
3
4
4 (could not get rep 5)

Pistol squat, 1/1

Break for lunch - 1 hr

DB 28kg farmer carries, 4 sets, about 90 seconds or more for each set

The weighted pull-ups were shockingly difficult.  8kg is 18lbs, and I honestly was surprised how hard these were.  With as good of training of late has been particularly on pull-ups, this was tough once I climbed up to 4 reps.  On the 5th and final set I could not get the 5th rep.  Today I have noticed a lot of soreness in my traps and lats, clearly related to these weighted pull-ups.  Particularly the R side.  Not hugely surprised here.  It's going to be very important to keep the rep count low and build up very slowly.  I have zero business going any heavier than the 8kg at this point and just need to hone in on some technique nuances I suspect, as in how to position the feet, the bell, how low the bell hangs between the legs, etc. Farmers were good and it will be time to move up to the DB 32kgs next weekend I believe. 

8/14/15 Friday August 14, 2015 (24kg KB aerobics)

6:50am - belly breathing, OS resets  - 30 minutes

7:20am - 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 16kg, 1+1, x 2

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

7:35am- Training session - 24kg kettlebell aerobics

2x
16kg SL DL, 3/3
16kg TGU, 1/1

24kg 2H SW, 10

20 minutes of KB aerobics:

24 kg CL 1, PR 1, FSQ 1, 1H SW 5, switch hands - 1 set
rest between sets

Didn't keep track of reps or sets, just went with the flow.

7:55am - Complete

Notes - Good stuff.  Just going with the flow, playing with the 24kg.  Felt great.