One week until Russia

So, it's been a very long time since I've updated this blog.  I have attempted to other other platforms but was not very consistent, maybe this time's the charm.

On Friday (May 2, 2014) I take my second trip to St Petersburg, Russia to train with many of the members of the Russian national Girevoy Sport Team.

Since the last update, Kori and I have took a trip to Russia and it was amazing.  I have been waiting for a time when all things would align again and I could go back...it seems they have.

I'll be there of about 11 days training, training some more, watching a competition and even competing myself.  I'm most excited about training face to face with my Coach, 5 time world champion Denis Vasiliev.

I plan to train with him at least once per day and hopefully make up for a terrible performance this last February in California.

In preparation, I'm not leaving anything to guesswork anything.  I knew going into California my cardio was not where it had been in the past and needed to be improved.  So I have increase the amount of base building cardio in my training.

This is already paying dividends in many ways.

Here's my training from Sunday, April 27th just to give you an idea.  I have slowly worked the volume back up, so don't think I started with this insane volume and intervals.

15' warm up @150bpm or below
10' work interval @ 165bpm
10' rest interval @ 150bpm or below
10' work interval @ 170-175bpm
10' rest interval @ 150bpm or below
10' work interval @ 175+ (topped out at 195, about this time a big blue F-250 drove by me..)
15' cool down, just tried to get HR back down
5' walk

Felt good other than the sweat burning my eyes.

Monday is my rest day and I'll need it.

I use the Polar RS300x for all my training, it's simple and gives me all the data I need.

From Here on I'll work back a months and fill in some gaps and keep the content coming, hopefully it'll help some people move forward in the sport of kettlebell lifting.  I got my Heart Rate monitor from Amazon, it's the easiest place I have found to order them.

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Moved for good.

Follow these to links to see what we are up to:

Our Facility and services
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Kori's Women's Fitness BLog
Train Like A Girl


BJ's Personal fitness and training log
IMPACT your Fitness

Slow and Steady

Training has gone well the last couple of days.

Monday I hit 10 minutes with 20kg One Arm Kettlebell Jerks at 5 RPM. It wasn't too hard, I just noticed I started to get "antsy" toward the end. I knew I could do and i just wanted the set to be over

Followed that up with some more OAJs with a 32kg 10 reps per side, the focus was quickness. I treated them like barbell jerks, the faster the better.

On to Kettlebell Snatches, nothing earth shattering, just slowly building volume. I chose a 16kg bell and an RPM of 12. So, one snatch every 5 seconds. I always train with a GymBoss, analog clocks, while they work fine, are not for me.

A 6 minute set for a total of 72 reps.

Followed by some swing w/ a 24kg. I just can't get into swings lately. I'd rather do more heavy jerks as an assistance exercise. But, that's just me.

Lastly a run in which I pushed the pace over our normal 2.5 mile coarse. Everything just clicked, and while still minutes slower than my best 5k, I was happy with it.

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Today's training I dialed it back in order to fit more volume in and run myself into the ground. I have had a slightly naggin shoulder for the last couple of days. It has more to do with my posture while working than it does with my training.

After a good warm up I did 2 sets of 6 minutes, again One Arm Jerk, at 6 RPM.

So although my set was shorter the density of work was slightly higher as was the pace. These felt good, fairly easy as 16kg is nothing to write home about.

I wanted to work long on the snatches and maintain good technique so I backed it down to the 12kg today and did a full 10 minutes set. My focus was to cast the bell and not catch my callouses. Mission accomplished.

No other assistance, I'll run later or possibly set up my bike on the trainer since it's only 32 degrees. Normally I'd still run in shorts and a hoodie, but since moving to TX I've become somewhat of a wuss in the "cold".

Jerk PR Today

Today I hit a nice Jerk PR. I traded down to only one bell for this weeks trainnig.

So w/ 1 24kg bell and an RPM of 4 reps I went a 8 minutes, switched at for. Towards the end it gets harder to hold the bell them it does to jerk it. After all, it's only 53lbs, my legs can surely handle that for quite some time. But the rack, oh the rack.

Snatches went fine, 16kg bell at 12 RPM for 6 minutes. Still not in a hurry to push this up. I figure as my Jerk numbers increase my snatches will as well.

That's it for today, no assistance, no running. But new this week will be some yoga. Tomorrow will be the first session.

Kettlebell Training 11-25-08

Today's training was a little disappointing.

I have switched back to training for the biathlon event on GS. This will consist of a set of double kettlebell jerks and a of snatches.

My snatches, due to lack of training them, have really fallen.

Where I was consistently to the ten minutes mark with a 16 kilo bell, I am struggleing to go 10 minutes with a 12kg. It'll come back, Cate Imes has giving me some good advce, I am trying to put her pointers to use.

Jerks are another story.

Because of my Long Cycle training, my jerk strngth is good, but I struggle to find the rack with the lighter bells.

I have a pair of 20kg in route so they may be the great equalizer. Light enough to go long, heavy enough to force my elbows down.

Today I practiced only the Comp lift, no assist lifts, and kept the reps low. I just wanted to practice to skills.

Jerks:
2-24kg @ 4 Rpm, 12 reps = 3 minutes

Snatches:
1-16kg @ 12 RPM, 36R/36L = 6 minutes.

Went for a 30- minutes run with Kori after. An easy 2.5 mile fartlek.

We'll see what happpens tomorrow.

The Best Show

It kind of has to do with fitness....

Oh well, another great season over.



One more just for fun.



Charlie and Dennis write a song, of course Charlie's been huffing paint all day. I love this show!

More Kettlebell Updates

Well, this last week has been fun.

I set a couple good PRs and even cut those sets short.

I decided that since I'm just can't get over the Girevoy Sport bug I should get some more coaching and take the step to become a coach in case the opportunity to coach a young athlete presents itself I'll be prepared to do so.

So I flew to Cincinnati, northern Kentucky actually, but it doesn't really matter.

Over the course of the weekend got put through the paces learned some good tips and coaching cues and emerged a coach.

OK, well not really, at least in my eyes. It'll take lots of experience and a good number of mistakes before anyone will and should, call me coach.

Over the course of the weekend I hit a couple of Kettlebell Jerk PRs.

With 2-24kg bells I hit 22 reps and had about three left in the tank.

With 2-32kg bells I hit 12 reps with about 2 left.

I realize the numbers aren't spectacular, but at a body weight of only 165 they served to motivate me to push toward getting ranked.

The biggest thing I learned was to keep my cool and not panic under load and take one rep at a time. It isn't nearly as bad and it keeps the quality of the reps higher.

I'll try to get some video later this week. I have taken it easy for the last couple of days, I really felt worn out upon waking Monday. Flying when you're sore is no fun.

Quick Kettlebell Training Update

I haven't logged my training in a long time.

We've had a ton to things going on, and although I have got all (or most) of my training in.

I have been working on getting to the ten minute mark in my Long Cycle Clean and Jerk. I had stalled and realized, like always I tried to push too hard, too long and was spinning my wheels.

So.

I backed off to one bell and back down to the 16kg bells.

This helped a lot.

I have been able to train more often and longer.

I also stopped thinking about how long I had to go for and started to think about each each as it's own entity.

That last tactic helped the most. Stop thinking about how much time is left or how many reps you have done. Just concentrated on the next rep and complete it as perfect as possible.

The result?

Multiple sets that have been ten minutes, with one hand switch at 5 rpm.

Now I know what you're saying...that's only 50 reps.

In all honesty the rep is the easy part. Holding the bell and waiting for the next one is the hard part.

So, I'll keep pushing the pace up and slowly add in some double work.

Snatches have gone well.

Call me a pus if you want, but I trade off between the 12kg and the 16kg bells.

8 minutes with the 16 is no problem.

10-12 minutes with the 12kg is pretty solid.

Just pushing the pace until I can get to 100 each hand with the 16kg bell.

There you have it.

More to come.

Just Singles.

That's it.

That's all I did today.

Singles.

My main focus was creating and maintaining tension throughout the lift.

Recently I have been focusing on relaxing, conserving energy and trying to push longer. This was a nice change and I plan on adding in some pure strength days like this one. Maybe a better name from them would be "Strength Practice" days.

We're really getting in gear for the RKC Level II at the end of this month training is going well, I can easily perform what I need to so now it's about maintaining and not doing something stupid to get injured.

The menu today was simple:

3 exercises

5 singles

High tension.

Press and Pull ups:

I did these "super setted", the presses w/ a 32kg and the pullups with a 16kg

Lots of rest, lots of tension. Both endeed up being easier than I thought, I could have done more but decided to quit while ahead.

Next, Pistol w/ a 24kg. These started off a little shaky but tightened right up once I got back in my groove.

So, there you have nothing too exciting today.

Tomorrow will bring a good hard Met-Con day. Too humid to snatch so lots of high pulls!!

The MagicJack

I just hooked this little guy up instead of using the "traditional" phone company.

It's pretty simple, just plug your phone into it, plug it into a USB port on your computer and follow the directions. In about ten minutes you're up and running. If you go on a trip, take it with you. It works with faxes, too.

The MagicJack

Back on the grid.

So our first cross country move is in the books.

What an endeavor! And, what a change.

It took three trips, two with trucks and car carriers. The last one my truck pulling a small 5x8 trailer.

I got down here last Thursday, it took me and Riley 17 hours to make the drive. With Riley I had to stop more often than I would have if I were driving alone.

The following week was just unpacking and find a place for everything.

When you move from a house with a basement to a home without one you have to get real creative with where you put things.

We're managing.

We finally have a high speed internet connection up and running so we should be able to get back to posting.

At this point the house is coming together, but there is still a lot to do.

We have the "gym" set up in the garage, which is a change. That's where the training will take place no matter what the weather. So far it's been a good change, it feels good to sweat. But, we'll have had to make some adjustments to what we would normally be doing.

Snatches get tough in the humidity. We have changed to jerks and long cycle and more swings than usual. At Doug's direction I will be changing to LCCJ once a week once it starts to get real humid, and also snatches once a week maybe lowering to the shoulder to save the hands.

Next week I should be meeting with an attorney to file the Articles of Organization for our LLC. I'd do it myself, but since I'm new here and and not familiar with TX business law...yet...I'll a pro to do it for me.

We will be doing business under a new name here, so there will be some changes on our old sites. Some pages will disappear, some will refer to a sister company/site, others will transform into more info based pages and product reviews.

The new sites will be "blog" based, similar to Hyperfitusa.com, Doug Chapman's facility in MI, or Mike Stehle's Newjerseycrossfit.com.

There is a park right down the street, actually in our development, next to two schools, that if permitted we will explore the possibility of setting up a boot camp to generate some income and then start looking for a space to lease.

So, lots of work to do, living 1/3 the income...this could get interesting.

Maybe I'll start another blog about the start up and (re)building multiple streams of income from scratch.

Stay tuned.

Todays training session was pretty decent:

I did a "skill based warm up"

pull ups BW+16kg 4, 3, 3
bent press 1r/l, 1r/l x 2, 1r/l x3
pistol w/ 24kg 1r/l, 1r/l, 1r/l

Jerks w/ 2 16kg @ 6 RPM 17, 15, 18
Jerks w/ 2 16kg(fast) 24

OALCCJ w/ 24kg 10 minutes, changing hands every minute.

All-and-all not bad. I seem to be having a hard time resting in the rack, something has changed and I have to figure out what.=, because it's starting to bug me.

I'll be getting 2 24kg Competition bells on Tuesday, it'll be a good test to see if what I learned at Doug's has stuck, the heavier bells my just fix my rack too. The heavier bells should force my elbows to my hips.

The OALCCJs were tough but do-able. I just didn't feel like swings today so I thought this would be a good alternative.

6 Min. LCCJ

6 minutes completed w/ 2 16kg bells, in about 90 degree weather.

Heavier bells should be coming soon, this should help me push my numbers higher. One thing I realized is snatching is going to be limited to skill priactice only. With the high humidity, even with lots of chalk and extra attention to proper technique, the handle will still pull.

Built a pull up bar i'll get some pics up soon.

We still don't have internet service, so I'm limited to when we make the drive to Plano to my mother-in-laws house to make short choppy blog posts. Hopefully this week we'll get hooked up and back on track.

later
BJ

Almost There!

Whew!

It's a been a hectic couple of weeks, but we are almost there!

For the most part, we are all moved in...but not even close to unpacked.

Kori has started work at the hospital, today actually. I'm still up in WI, but getting ready to make th final drive with the dog and what little we have left up here.

Training has been here and there, between moving, graduations and whatever other loose ends I have to tie up.

I did, however, have a great session with Doug Sides last week. I made the drive to Rockford, IL and man was it worth it. He tweaked a few things with my technique, and before I knew it I set a PR, jerking 2 32kg bells for 6 reps. I was really suprised how easy they went up. So, I am going rethink what I'd like to accomplish by the end of the year. Doug seemed to have more confidence in my abilities than I did, and really showed my I should probably using heaier bells for most of my training...which I will do now.

Once we get a high speed connection set I'll share a story (funny now, but not when it was happening).

Until then.

Bang for your buck

I haven't had a lot of time in the past week to train.

The move is coming so fast and is the priority right now.

So when I do get some free time, it's Long Cycle Clean & Jerks.

Is this the perfect movement?

Could be, if your pressed for time.

Friday and today I simply set my timer for 20 minutes and, while focusing on technique first and foremost, I would bang out between 5-10 reps. I made sure to "rest" in the rack at 3-5 seconds to get used to being there.

I am having a much easier time finding my hip due to more hip flexor flexibility, and really just forcing myself into the correct position.

Friday session got a little rocky. I was getting more concerned with doing more reps rather than doing the reps right. My breathing was all out of whack, actually I had only a vague idea of what the proper breathing pattern was for this movement.

Luckily, I met Doug Sides last weekend at the RKC.

Doug is a certified AKC Coach form Rockford, IL. I shot him and e-mail, and I got a very complete, detailed explanation of what to do.

Today I did what Doug said, and it was unbelievable how much easier the bells went up.

I only did sets of 5 because I wanted them to be as near to perfect as I am able to them.

So, if you read this, Thanks Doug.

What did you do this weekend?

While you were sitting on your ass, bitching about the bad weather here in the Midwest, a group of about 60 individuals made the leap from ordinary to extraordinary.

My "new" friend Doug Chapman, also assisting this weekend, was nice enough to capture it so you can see what you could have done.

BTW, Doug is a stand up guy and runs an awesome facility in Ann Arbor, MI. Check it out.

And....if you get past the screening process, He may let you join.

No promises though.