Quick Workout to get back in the swing of things...

After a long weekend up in MN at the RKC, I didn't get much of a workout in. This was my own fault, because how many places can you go with well over 100 KBs at your disposal. I was probably due for a little de-loading though, so in the end it was all good.

I have decided to take it easy this week and ease back into things, test some skills I haven't practiced in a while.

So here's what I did:

Romanian Deadlifts: 5 sets of 3 w/ 135lb - focus on pushing hips back and keeping shoulders retracted and back flat.

Pistols: 5 sets 1 R/L focused on keeping tension and pulling myself down. Left side was shaky coming out of the whole and required a small skip backward on all but one rep. This will get better with practice

Press: 5 sets of 1 R/L with 24kg, just wanted to test out the shoulders. Felt good, but not great. I'll lay off the pressing for a while longer, or move up to the 32kg. I had an "Aha" moment when I heard Jeff O'Connor say all problems with form can be fixed by adding more weight. I realized I rarely fell pain while pressing the 32kg because you have top stay tight.

Pull ups: 5 sets of 3 w/ BW - not so good, I need to get a pull up system that allows me to extend my legs in order to practice "zipping up" on my pull ups. Felt elbow pain and a little pain in my shoulder.

Practiced some "Relax Into Stretch" and "Strength Stretching". Felt good and loosened me up nicely.

That's all for now.

BJ

Back from the RKC!

Man, I love to teach.

Bottom line, that what I love to do and this weekend I had the opportunity to assist Jeff O'Connor, RKC Team Leader along with Amber Dornfeld in teaching an amazing groups of RKC Students.

Now I admit, I'm Bias, but we had an outstanding group. All made huge improvements. Night and Day difference.

If any of those from Team O'Connor read this I would like to say thanks. I can only hope you got as much from me as I got from you.

Just a short post here because I'm playing catch up after a weekend away.

BJ

Talk about neglect!

Man, this has really gotten away from me!

I have spent the last two weeks re-designing our website, writing content/copy and trying to get a workout in when ever possible.

The beautiful thing about training with a kettlebell.

All I need to do is allot myself 20 minutes or so and I'm golden.

Any combination of swings, snatches push ups and pull ups do me just fine.

This last week though I have been combining all my KB ballistics with burpees or squat thrusts. I realize now that this is my new favorite drill. Squat thrust into a double 32kg KB deadlift. I tried to count reps, but just ended up doing three sets until boarder line nausea.

Since college I enjoy circuits and sessions that lean toward more conditioning than limit strength. Don't get me wrong, lifting heavy stuff is cool, and I do enjoy it. But, I did sooooo much of it back then it just doesn't have the same appeal anymore.

To see what we have been working on check out the skeleton of the new site at www.impact-your-fitness.com

Be gentile, it's only in it's infancy.

BJ

Saturday's GPP Workout was a blast

Saturday after noon Kori and I worked in the back yard.

The tools:

One 16lb and one 10lb sledges
One 32kg and one 16kg kettlebell
One sled and a 25lb plate

Our format went like this

Sledge swings (onto a tire) 1 minute
rest 1 minute
2 Hand swings 1minute
rest 1 minute

(while I used the sledge, Kori did swings)

repeat 5 times

Then

Backward sled drags the length on the back yard using the DD handle
return by taking 2 steps then row, 2 steps then row ( this is killer)

we did this 5 times, alternating me the Kori. I added a 25lb plate, Kori used just the sled, which weighs 48lbs by itself. And on grass it feels a whole lot heavier.

Lastly, hand over hand pulls with the sled

I attached the long rope to he sled, ran to the other end of the yard and then pulled the sled to me in hand ove hand fashion. Once the sled got to me I sprinted back to the start and did it again. Once the sled was back, it was Kori's turn. We did this 2 x each.

We were pretty fried, but it was a lot of fun!

BJ

Short and Sweet

The last two days I have been pressed for time, so I had to perform short and sweet workouts.

Since training for the TSC, my conditioning took a little hit. For the next 6 weeks I plan to focus my efforts here and get back into training my Muay Thai.

Monday went like this; it was short and I was way more winded than I should be, but anyway:
1 Hand Swings 10 R/L (24kg) followed by 1 minute of jump rope w/ the Super Boa jump Rope.

I did five rounds, nothing to brag about but enough to get my heart going.

Tuesday was a little tougher.

I set the timer for 20 minutes.

The exercises were Hindu Pushups x 10

Hindu Squats x 10

2 Hand KB Swings (24kg) x 10.

I as I finish my 8th round the timer went off. I was happy with the performance and my heart was racing.

Tonight will be more strength focused, but still a short workout.

Barbell Clean + Front squat 10 sets of 3 reps x 95 lbs. 1 minute rest between sets.

5 rounds on the heavy bag focused on form not power. It been a while!

'til next time!

BJ

The TSC is in the books!

This past Saturday we hosted the Tactical Strength Challenge, and it was a blast!

For those not familiar with this event, it consists of 3 events; the deadlift, pull ups and the kettlebell snatch.

It was an awesome event, we had a great group of competitors.

Personally I outperformed the goals I had set for myself.

Although I weighed in a couple of pounds heavier than I was shooting for, my lifts made up for it.

In the deadlift I pulled a post college PR of 415 lbs.

I posted 13 pull ups, this was an all time PR and I still can't believe I performed that many!

And, lastly the kettlebell snatch w/ the 24kg bell, I performed 105 reps. I didn't train too hard for this event, I was more concerned w/ my deadlift.

Overall, it was a blast. We plan on hosting the next one also. If history play a role it should be in March.

We are going to try to market this competition to the local Police and Fire Departments, because it really does encompass many of the demands they see on the job.

If you like to learn how to perform the lifts so you can compete in the next one, I have put together a couple of resources so you can learn the list correctly.

First, the deadlift. If you don't already own a copy of Pavel's Power to the People, get one. This is a wonderful resource and breaks down the seemly easy deadlift and gives you a great strategy to train this taxing lift without wearing yourself down.
Just follow the link here: Power to the People

To learn to perform the kettlebell snatch get to our next workshop. Getting hands on instruction is THE BEST WAY to learn how to perform the kettlebell lifts properly. More info on the workshop can be had at the link below.
IMPACT Fitness' LEVEL I KB workshop

That's all for today.

Just some GPP

On Saturdays I try not to do a real structured workout. I like to do more of a GPP/conditioning type workout. I usually have million things going on on the weekends so it's hard for my to psyched for heavy lifting. So this is how it turned out. Kori had to work at the hospital so Riley decided he would train with me.

I started out with just 3 sets of 10, two hand swings to get my hips popping. Move on to 3 sets of 15 for snatches, all done with a 24kg bell.

Then I moved on to the tire.

I don't know what the tire weighs, but it's big. It's as tall as me, which I know isn't saying much, but it's really awkward and hard to get a grip on it.

I flipped for 10 reps, then for 12, then for 15. 37 reps total. Felt great. Focused on staying tight and popping the hips, getting under it and then running through it. My neighbors think I'm wierd. We live on a corner, a car sat at the stop sign and watched for 4-5 flips.

After that I moved onto the sled. I do all of the dragging on grass. There is more friction and it's flatter the the street we live on. Plus like I said the neighbors already think we're wierd, I don't need the sound of the metal sled dragging to draw even more attention to us.

I worked for 20 full minutes, the first 10 backwards using the DD handle. I would throw in some rows for variety.
WOW, it was rough.

Then I clipped the harness on and back and forth I went for another 10 minutes. After one particular drag, I got to the sidewalk, turned around, sqautted down to catch my breath a little. Riley actually stood up, walked (from shade where he was lying) to end of his chain and barked at me as if to tell me to get my ass moving again.

Gotta love a motivating training partner!
Here's a pic of the sled and my favorite 24kg bell. The sled weighs 48 pounds by itself, that 25 lb plates feels like so much more when you drag on grass.

I was drenched in sweat by end, tired and my legs were like noodles. But, I felt great.

'til later.