back into it

So im back to blogging again. Ive been training with the ROP from Enter the Kettlbell. Everything ig going well but I feel like i need a chnage of pace. I Made good progress. I was able to press the 32kg I didn't press heavier because i couldnt find a heavier bell. I was able to bench press 245lbs realitivly easily without touching a barbell for over a year. I was able to meet the snatch test with the 24 kg. I was able to snatch 102 reps in 5 min. Also Im able to do 5 strick pull ups. So I think Ive made good progress on the ROP.

So more than anything else I fell Im needing a mental change. I also feel I want to improve my cardio and body composition. I joined the YMCA with my new wife to help keep her motivated. And I saw they had a small selection of preform better kettlebells. The largest they had was 16kg. Well My go to workout when I have access to only a 16kg bell is to do the VWC. So thats what I did. And Afterward I felt great! I felt more mentally refreshed and I felt that if I follow the VWC to conclusion I will get the cardio and body composition I am after.
As far as strength gains I really just want to maintain. I think if I do 2 strength practices a week will be enough to maintain what Ive gained.
So my new program will be the following

monday
   Strength day
tuesday
   VWC
wednesday
   off
thursday
   strength day + VWC or Swings (swings using a Tracy Reifkind workout or VWC type, but with swings)
Friday
    off
Saturday
   VWC
Sunday
   variety


My base where im at now with the VWC is 40 sets as of last night.

And so it begins.

Update

So quick update still doing ROP. I'm still  making gains. When things change ill write more.

update 21 sept

Sorry ive not updated in a few days.

Not much has changed, I'm still doing the ROP from ETK. Its a focus on the Clean and Press, Pull ups, And "heavy" Kettlebell swings. I'm not doing any Snatches right now, as I'm trying to build up my base with swings.

I will update later with this evenings workout.

sept 9th heavy day

heavy day

C&P 1,2 + 2 pull ups
         rest 5 min
C&P 3 + 3 pull ups
         Rest 5 mn
That was one set. I did 4 sets.

Swings 24 kg with 80% for 20 min.
16 reps otm x 20 min 320 reps.

Lots of back stretching.

longer sets

so today i wanted to test low long i could push it. I did swings with the 16kg.

total time 14.25 min
200 reps straight 5 min set
rest 1 min
50 reps 1.25 min
rest 45 sec
50 reps 1.25 min
rest 45 sec
60 reps 1.5min
rest 30 sec
60 reps 1.5min
rest 30 sec
10 reps 15 sec
stop

420 reps.

Sept 6th Medium day

today was the medium day

C&P 1,2 + Pull ups 2 x3

Swings 14 reps otm x19min
the last min I did 40 swings.
20 min 306 reps.

Sept 4th light day

Today was the light day this week. So as per the ETK ROP today was the light day so I did C&P two rungs less than on the heavy day. So today ended up being singles.

C&P 1L/1R + 1 pull-up x3

And as for my volume build up, I tested my max reps in 20 min which ended up being 400 reps total, or 20 reps per min on Sunday.  So today I needed to do 70%, which equalled to 14 reps per min.

Swings 14 rpm x20min or 280 reps.

strength cycle and a new direction

Lately Ive been feeling like I needed a new direction and something to shock my body. Ive Stalled out on my weight loss/Fat loss progress. I was becoming too efficient at the kettlebell swing. at lest with the weight i was using. So I decided to get stronger. Im getting stronger to use a heavier weight for my swings. So because i was using the program minimum, I decided to go on to the ROP as detailed in Enter the Kettlebell. However I needed to build up my volume with the heavier bell with my swings as well. I recently also bought "I will be Iron" by Bud Jefferies. In it Dave Whitley Master RCK, details a way he built up volume with the swing after an injury. So instead of using the 2-12 randomly method, I'm building up gradually. I also want to minimize mass gains so I'm taking longer breaks between the C&P. so here was today

ROP Heavy Day

C&P 24kg 1,2,3 + pull-ups 1,2 X3
So it went like this.
C&P 1,2 + 1 Pull up, rest 5min, C&P 3 + 2 Pull ups, rest 5min, and repeat two more times.

Swings
24 kg 20 min 400 reps.
20 reps at the top of the min. (30 on/30 off)

some grinds

So i have been following a what I will dub the Program minimum plus. Yesterday was a ton of swings with a heavy kettlebell for me.
And following ballistics is always grinds.
Today I did some TGU and presses and a few pull ups and a few goblet squats.

Warm up:
TGU 1L/1R 16kg
         1L/1R 20kg

rest.

Work:
TGU 20kg 5min
          I wound up doing 6L/6R alternating each side

rest 10min

MP 20kg 6 each side
pull ups x2
Goblet Squat 20kg x5

rest 5min

MP 24kg 7 each side
Pull ups x2
Goblet Squat 24kg x5

breathing ladder 30 aug

  So im still really random with my workout and im still not sure how to proceed from here. I feel lost. so today i did a really tough and grueling workout.
I did a breathing ladder

1-30-1 so 1,2,3 ect... 30, 29,28,27 ect...3,2,1.
I did one breath per rep until i got to 10 and then i decided i would change the work to breath ratio. from 10-20 i did 10 breaths in between. from 21-26 i did 15 breaths. from 27-30 i did 20 breaths. and I just revered the process, 30-37 = 20 breaths, so on and so forth. oh yeah and it was 900 reps with the 24kg.

All told it was an hour and nine min.

so here is the shorthand

BL 1-30-1 x 24kg 69min 900 reps.

Aug 28th back to some grinds

Back to the grinds
So today I was back to the grinds. I took some time off from the grinds last week and also with the recent news of Pavel leaving dragon door I am realigning my goals. I don't know to what yet. But I'm still playing around with the Program minimum. So today i did some TGU and pull ups and C&P singles. plenty of rest in between.

Warm up:
16KG Partial TGU 1R/1L
16KG full TGU 1R/1L
20KG Partial TGU 1R/1L
20KG full TGU 1R/1L
16 kg Goblet squats x5

Work:
24KG TGU 1R/1L + 1 Pull up X3

24KG C&P 1R/1L + 1 pull up X3
28KG C&P 1R/1L + 3 chin ups X1

Addendum:
So i felt like i had extra energy today after a half hour from my grinds. So I decided I'm going to do a quick hard swing workout.

12 min 30sec on/ 30 sec off x 24KG which equated to 10 swings per set. 240 swings total.

Aug 27th

today Im back at it. we took a vacation and so i didnt do much friday-sunday this weekend. It was great. but today im back at it. weird thing was my lower back started tightening up about 24min into the workout so i decided that was good enough. was planning on 48 min. oh well. listen to your body.

warm up:
40 swing 16kg X5 1min on/1min off
10 min 200 swings
Work:
50 swings 16kg 1.25 min on/ 45 sec off
40 swings 16kg 1min on/1min off
50 swings 16kg 1.25 min on/ 45 sec off
20 swings 20kg 30 sec on/30 sec off
20 swings 20kg 30 sec on/30 sec off
50 swings 16kg 1.25 min on/ 45 sec off
40 swings 16kg 1 min on/1min off
50 swings 16kg 1.25 min on/45 sec off
14 min 320swing

24min total 520 swings.

Aug 23rd

After reading "I Will Be Iron" by Bud Jeffries I was inspired to start doing some longer sets. As in longer sets without setting the bell down. Where I am with my strength level and were I am with what I want to do as my goals. Im going to restructure my workout routine but still staying with the Program minimum. The modification is that every other ballistics workout will be with the lighter 16kg bell and the alternate ballistics day will be heavier bells 20kg and greater. Also I might try some one arm long cycle clean and press. Im not sure how i will be doing my grind days. I might just keep on with the TGU, which im having amazing success with. Also since the information that Pavel will be leaving dragon door and RKC as we know it Im not going to be preping for HKC until im sure getting any RKC certifications will be worth the investment. So its going to more of the same but different.

So here it is..
 Warm Up:
40 swings X5, 1 min on 1 min off.
10 min 200 reps.

Work:
100 swings 2.5min work, 30 sec rest(2min)
50 swings   1.25min wrok, 45sec rest (2min)
50 swings   1.25min work, 45sec rest (2min)
50 swings   1.25min work, 45sec rest (2min)
50 swings   1.25min work, 45sec rest (2min)
60 swings   1.5min work, 30 sec rest (2min)
40 swings    1min work, 1min rest (2min)
14min 400 reps.

24min total 600 reps.
yeah!

Aug 21st

swings today
worked on my 20kg swing today.

Warm up:
40 swings x 16kg X5 1 min on/1min off. 10 min

Work out:
all work done with 20kg
10 2-hd swings x5 sets (2.5min)
20 2 hd swings x5 sets (5min)
5L/5R x5 sets (2.5min)
20 2-hd swings x5 sets (5min)
10 2 hd swings x5 sets (2.5min)
5L/5R x2 x 5 sets (5min)
10 2 hd swings x5 sets (2.5min)
 25 min

35min total.

Aug 18th and 19th

so yesterday the 18th I did #13 workout in The Swing. It is a good hard set of swings. toward the end there you end up doing a ton of work with little rest. I modified it slightly but it was just switching transitions to something else, mostly because i end up slowing down a lot doing transitions.
so here it is.

10 2 hand swings x2, 1min (15sec on/ 15 off)
5L/5R x2 x2 sets, 2min (30sec on/30 off)
10 2 hand swings x2, 1min (15sec on/15 off)
20 2 hand swings x2, 2min (30sec on/30 off)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R x4 set, 4 min (30 sec on/30 off)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R + 10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R x4, 8min (1min on/ 1 off)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R x6 sets, 4min. (so 1.5 min on/ 30 sec off)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R + 5L/5R  x2 sets, 3 min. (45sec work/45 rest)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R + 10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R x 2 sets. 4min (1min on/1 min off)
10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R + 10 2 hand swing + 5L/5R x2. 2min solid work!


the 19th
Grinds
Warm up:
TGU 16kg 1R/1L 1 chin up
TGU 20kg 1R/1L 1 chin up
not timed

Work:
TGU 24kg 1R/1L 1 chin up X5 all done on the top of the min.
5 mins.

Felt great!

Aug 16th

Grind day.
Tgu 5mins 5singles each side 24kg.
         Rest 5 min.
C&P 24kg x5
Chin ups x2
Goblet squat x5 16 kg.
         No rest between exercises.
         Rest 5 min after mini circuit.
          Repeat once.
Still keeping the volume low.
        

24kg swings

Today I wanted to come back strong after Monday's not so stellar workout. So I did workout #3 from Tracy Reifkind's "The Swing" book but I added the warm up.

Warm up:
40 swings 16kg X3 sets 1min on, 1 min off.  6min
40 swings 20kg X2 sets 1 min on,1 min off. 4 min

Work:
All done with 24kg and on the top on the min. rest the remainder of the min. so you have some comparison of how long it takes to do some swings, 10 swings takes 15sec to complete, 20 swings takes 30 sec to complete.

10 2 hand swings X5 sets
11 2 hand swingsX1
12 2 hand swingsX1
13 2 hand swingsX1
14 2 hand swingsX1
15 2 hand swingsX1
16 2 hand swingsX1
17 2 hand swingsX1
18 2 hand swingsX1
19 2 hand swingsX1
20 2 hand swingsX5

felt good.

best laid plans

so i thought that doing grinds the day before ballistics was not going to hurt my ballistics performance. well i was wrong. my back tightened up far faster than i thought it would. so i did a brief workout today. ill take a day off tomorrow and ill come back with ballistics again as day one.

Warm up:
40 2 hand swings X5 1 min on/1 min off. 10min

Work
#1 20 2 hand swings 16kg 30sec on/30sec off
#2 20 2 hand swings 20kg 30sec on/30sec off
#3 20 2 hand swings 24kg 30sec on/30sec off

repeated 1,2,&3 in order 4 times. 12min

24min total.

medium term goals.

So yesterday was supposed to be my grind day. Had some family stuff going on so I hit it today. And ill just continue on with the first day being grinds and the second being ballistics.

My medium term goal is the HKC certification. So ill be tested and able to teach the tgu, goblet squat, pull/chin ups, and the swing. So I'm going to be dividing grinds and ballistics still. So grind day is tgu, goblet squat, and chin up. And ballistics being swings.

So today's workout...

Warm up.
Tgu 1L/1R 16kg
Partial tgu 1L/1R 20kg.
Stretching the hip flexors in between.

Work:
Tgu 5min. singles 5x1 5L/5R 24kg.
Rest 5min.
Mini circuit
3 C&P 20kg
2 chin ups
3 goblet squats 16 kg.
     Resting 5min in between repeating once.
I'm still trying to minimize hypertrophy by having long rest periods.

Felt great!

So I asked for some advise on how to get ready for the HKC Cert. I know Im not ready yet. I just wanted some tips to help with my long term goals. I was encouraged to start doing longer swing workouts. ie, 1 hour and 2 hour workouts just to get ready for the day. I think the 2 hours is more like peeking when getting ready for competition and Im going to progressively work to get there. and when I do I know ill be ready for the HKC. At last the swings portion. So im using some more of Tracy reifkinds workouts. Here is one I came across, I modified it slightly the last "round" was supposed to be with the 20kg as well and I knew my grip would not hold up so i dropped it down to the 16kg. still I felt like it was a great step in the right direction. And Im building my time. 45min. And It was a 1000 rep workout!

Warm up

40 2 hand swings x16kg, 1 min on 1 min rest x 5 sets = 10 min. total

Work sets

#1
10 L, 1o R, 10 L, 10 R, 10 L, 10 R, 1 hand swings w/16kg. = 1.5 min. on, 1 min. rest

#2
40 2 hand swings w/20kg. 1 min on, 1 min. rest

#3
10 L, 10 R, 10 L, 10 R, 10 L, 10 R, 1 hand swings w/16kg. 1.5 min, on 1 min. rest

I alternated sets #1, #2, #3 in order x 5 rotations. All three sets took 7 min. x 5 = 35 min.

total time 45min.

Aug 8th

Grinds today.

Warm up:
Partial get up 1 each side with 20kg
1 C&P each side 20kg

Work:
5X1 TGU 24KG
     rest 5 min
5R/5L MP 20KG
     rest 5 min
5R/5L C&P 20KG

Im feeling stronger!

Aug 7th

Today I did Ballistics I am trying to incorporate the 20kg as my primary KB. So for my work sets I did
20 reps with the 16kg and 20 reps with the 20kg. The next set was in reverse. 20 repswith the 20kg and then 20 reps with the 16kg. It worked out to being just a hair over 1 min for the work sets and I rested the remainder of the second min. So it was roughly a 1:1 work/rest ratio.
so it looked like this.
20x16kg + 20x20kg
rest 1 min
20x20kg + 20x16kg
rest 1 min
I repeated 6 and a half times for a total of 13 sets.

Warm up:
40x5x16kg 1 min on:1 min off
time: 10min

Work:
20x16kg+20x20kg : 20x20kg+20x16kg. 1 min on:1 min off
time 26min

Total time:36min
720 reps

Aug 5th

Grinds today.
Warm up:
C&P 1/1 16kg
Partial tgu 1/1 16kg

Work:
5x1 tgu singles 5R/5L 24kg.
C&P singles 5x1 5R/5L 24kg.

some quick VWC

Today I wanted to knock out my workout quickly and i wanted to do snatches. So today I did whats called Viking Warrior Conditioning (VWC). It's a vo2max workout. Its 15:15 with a "light" kb where your doing snatches with one are for 15 sec, rest 15 sec, snatch with the other arm for 15sec ,and then rest 15 sec. Its all Laid out and detailed in the book "Viking Warrior Conditioning" by Kenneth Jay. It even has a protocol laid out to get your snatch cadence and that in itself is a work out.
My snatch cadence is 7snatches per 15 sec interval.

Warm up:
Active moving and a few light swings

Work:
20 min of VWC 15sec on/15 sec off (so two sets per min). No other rest.
280 snatches.

2Aug2012

Today was short and sweet.
5 min of continuous TGU singles alternating each side. And then military presses.

TGU 4X1 (each side) 24kg
       rest 5 min
MP 5X2 with the 20kg resting 5 min in-between.

Felt great!

movin on up!

So today i felt as though it was time to move up in bell size from the 16kg to the 20kg for my primary swinging bell. I was able to swing the 24kg no problem with the breathing ladders but to have sustained work output i do not think I'm ready for the 24kg yet.  And as for the 16kg, I'm still going to use it for snatches and other things. I decided to test hypothesis to see if i was ready for the 20kg. I was I did all 2 hand swings and i followed Tracy Reifkinds workout #5.
Warm up:
40 2 hand swings with the 16kg 1min on/1 min off

Work:
All work was done with the 20kg and done 2 hand swings. All sets were done one the top of the min. when I got to 20 reps the work was 1:1 ratio so 30sec on 30 sec off.
12
14
16
18
20
20X20 (yes that's right 20 reps for 20 sets! I know technically its 21 sets but so what.)
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
12
12
12.

God my grip was killing me. I feel as though as i write this i have claws rather than hands.
Still I feel great.

PM grinds

After some posts on the dragon door forum and redefining my priorities I've decided to halt my progress on the ROP grinds. I was finding it was too much volume and interfering with my recovery. I wasn't doing well in either grinds or ballistics. So I am going to focus on VERY low rep grinds while I'm concentrating on the high rep ballistics. But to get benefit out of the grinds they are going to have to be heavy. When i attempted the full TGU with the 24kg and I got it with confidence, I selected that as my primary get up bell. And I'm feeling strong

Warm up:
TGU 16 kg 1L/1R X1
TGU 24 kg 1L/1R X1 (felt strong!)
       rest 5 min

Work:
5 min of Continuous TGU singles 24kg 4L/4R.
       rest 5 min
2X5 (2 sets/5 reps) MP 20kg
       resting 5 min in between sets.

I feel great and not drained at all.  :)

feeling better

I'm feeling better today that i did yesterday and the day before. So I decided to get back into the swing of things so to speak. Yesterday I skipped the grind day and took some much needed rest. And so, since yesterday turned into a rest day I started back up with ballistics. I picked something were I know I could get a great workout and not feel like a total lazy ass.
I did a breathing ladder today
1-20-1 with the 24kg bell. took 40min. simple sinister and effective.

Also Ive been on the Dragondoor.com forum and Ive been wondering if I should change the grinds I've been doing to something less volume intensive. I think just going back to TGU and maybe a 2X5 set of C&P or strick MP. We shall see.

I was not feeling it today. everything just felt so heavy. And today my cardio was pushed like it hasnt been in a long time.
all work done with 16kg.

Warm up 40 2 hand swings x 5 sets = 1 min. on 1 min. off
total 10 min.

1 swing, 1 high pull 10 L, 10 R x 2 sets = 1 min. on 1 min. off
total 4 min.
Btw I hate combos because i keep forgetting what number im on.

1 swing, 1 snatch L, 1 trans, 1 snatch R
1 trans, 2 snatch L, 1 trans, 2 snatch R
1 trans, 3 snatch L, 1 trans, 3 snatch R
1 trans, 4 snatch L, 1 trans, 4 snatch R
1 trans, 5 snatch L, 1 trans, 5 snatch R
1 trans, 6 snatch L, 1 trans, 6 snatch R
Rest 1 Min
1 swing, 6 snatch L, 1 trans, 6 snatch R
1 trans, 5 snatch L, 1 trans, 5 snatch R
1 trans, 4 snatch L, 1 trans, 4 snatch R
1 trans, 3 snatch L, 1 trans, 3 snatch R
1 trans, 2 snatch L, 1 trans, 2 snatch R
1 trans, 1 snatch L, 1 trans, 1 snatch R

Both of these sets took me 2 min. to complete, I took 1 min. rest in between and repeated twice.

I am trying to copy o at least emulate Tracy Reifkind. wow she is a machine.
http://tracyrif.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-snatch-combo.html

July 25th grinds

So today I was not feeling strong. But I stopped complaining and I got to work. Today was supposed to be my "heavy" day. I was supposed to do 4 rungs on the C&P ladder. I wasn't able to grind it out all the way. Here is what I did.

Warm up:
Tgu singles 1L/1R 16kg + 1L/1R 20kg

Work sets:
C&P with the 20kg 3X1,2,3,4 and then I did  2X4 Military press reps.


So this session I wasn't able to complete the 5x1,2,3,4. But I'm Still going to keep trying. This cycle's "light" grinds will look like 5x 1,2. and the "medium" will look like 5x1,2,3. If I hit those numbers I'm sure I will hit the 5x1,2,3,4 next cycle.

ballistics day

So today was ballistics day and I wanted to work on some intervals so I did workout #12 from Tracy Reifkind's book "The Swing". and when my fiance got home from her work we did workout #3.

Swing will be abbreviated as sw.

Workout #12, work and rest are equal
10 2 hand sw X 2 sets. 1 min
5R/5L 1 hand sw X 2 sets. 1 min
10 2 hand sw + 5R/5L X 2 sets. 2 min
(10 2 hand sw + 5R/5L) X2 X 2sets. 4min
20 2 hand sw x 2 sets. 2 min
5R/5L x2 x2 sets. 2min
20 2 hand sw X2 sets. 2 min
20 2 hand sw + 5R/5L x2 x2 sets. 4 min
20 2 hand sw + 5R/5L x2 + 20 2 hand swings x2 sets. 6 min
10 2 hand sw + 5R/5L + 10  2 hand sw x2 sets. 3 min
20 2 hand sw X2 sets. 2 min
10 2 hand sw X2 sets, 1 min

30 total min

before we started the workout #3 i instructed my fiance on the partial TGU. she did great. and just to save time we shaved off the first 4 sets of 10.
workout #3
all swings were done 2 handed and it was all done on the top of the min.
10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,20,20,20,20.
15 min.

Quick grinds

So my fiance and I were doing a good bit of traveling today. But I was still able to get in some quick clean and presses today.
5x 1,2 C&P 20kg.
That was it. No prep no warm up. That's it. I felt strong. Today was a 'medium' day for my presses. Now since I'm moving up a rung for my ladders next 'cycle', I will be using what I did today for my 'light' presses.
Because I'm feeling rather good. I might skip tomorrows rest day and do some swings. We will see after I get off work.

Day 5. Min long sets.

So today was swing day. I really wanted to work on my longer sets and also get some work in with my 20kg.
Work:
1 min on /1 min off @ 40 rpm. With 16kg I did that for 20 min.
30 sec on/30 sec off @ 20 reps per work interval. With the 20kg for 10 min.

My grip was the first thing to go. Not my cardio or my back. But my grip. My forearms were as hard as rocks and my hands were losing grip strength. Thats when I knew it was time to call it a day. I was concentrating on lat contraction and using my glutes.
Great work out.

Day 4

So as per the combo PM, ROP hybrid I'm doing i did the "Light" day for my grinds.
So here it is.
TGU
1 each side 16kg
1 each side 20kg

C&P 5X1X20kg. One rep each side and rest one min between my one rung ladder. This is my last day for singles at this weight.

Windmills 5X2 with the 20kg.

My fiance wanted to work out together today. I bought her a 15lb Kb on our second date and I've been trying to get her interested in using it for almost 2 years now. It took Tracy's book to finally get her into it. I really do owe Tracy Reifkind so much. Any way we did work out number two from her book. It was on the min training  10 reps for the first five min and then adding one rep every min until the last five min. there you stay with the top rep for the remainder. But I really pushed her to finish strong the last few min. So we did 10,10,10,10,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,16,16,20,20.

Not a bad day all in all.

Day 3: swing snatch combo

Day 3:
So today I decided I was going to work on my snatches in combination with swings from my ballistics day. I'll tell you there is no one more knowledgeable than the Queen of swing herself Tracy Reifkind on high rep ballistics. Her book "The Swing" and her blogs http://tracyrif.blogspot.com/ and http://tracysfoodandthought.blogspot.com/ have more information and advise than you can possibly believe. Her workouts are amazing! So I decided to go all the way to one of her earliest blog post and attempt them. OMG so humbling. It was amazing. I did half her workout and I'm dripping with sweat and im at my limit.
So this is what i did:
Warm up:
1 TGU each side kalos sthenos style. High hips.
 40 2 hand swings x 3 sets = 1 min. on 1 min. off
10 L, 10 R, 10 L, 10 R, 1 hand swings (40 reps total) x 2 sets = 1 min. on 1 min. off
Total warm up 10 min.
And ill tell you her warm up is a workout in itself!

Work:
12 swing, snatch, transfer x 3 sets = 2 min. on 1 min. off
(Left swing, snatch, transfer to right, right swing, snatch, transfer to left = 1)
Total 9 min.

8 swing, snatch L trans, 8 swing, snatch R x 4 sets = 1 min. on 1 min. off
Total 8 min.
At this point I'm at my limit. I'm not used to doing such long sets so at the end I was feeling some tightness in my lower back and my technique was starting to fail. so i stopped. After some stretching I felt great. I'm just going to have to build up my endurance and work a little on my technique so i use more hip hinge.

Day 2. Grinds

So today I focused on what are known as "Grinds". Thats the "slow strength" that you use to grind out a rep. I focused on maximal tension and a little bit longer rest periods up to 2 min in between ladders. I am doing Clean and Press (C&P) ladders as per Pavel's 'Enter the Kettlebell'. You need to get this book. It will change your life.
So i did a little TGUs for worm ups and then C&P ladders. You know even with longer rest periods my shoulders feel jacked after some strength work.
so here is goes.

Warm up:
1 each side TGU 16KG
1 each side TGU 20KG
1 each side partial TGU 24Kg (to sitting)

Work:
C&P 5X 1,2,3
That is 1 rep left, set the bell down, 1 rep right, set the bell down, 2 rep left, set bell down, 2 rep right, set bell down, ect.. all the way to finishing 5 ladders. And in between ladders i rested about 1.5min-2min. I might need to rest more, because I feel I'm getting to much of a pump in my shoulders. I don't want anymore size. I'm looking to lose weight here.

All in all I fell good. Tomorrow is a rest day.

The Program

Today I am going back to whats called the Program Minimum. Or rather a modified version there of. It's a simple protocol. Its alternating days of Kettlbell swings for 12 min and Turkish Get Up (TGU)for 5min.
So its supposed to look like this
Mon: Swing
Tues: TGU
Wed: off
Thurs: Swing
Fri: TGU
I know it doesnt look hard but believe me it is. I did This for 4 months and then I moved on to the next workout series the ROP.
Well I was doing What was called the Rite of Passage (ROP). And I started to Stagnate in my weight loss. So I'm trying to find an in between. Because the longer high-rep KB swings were really melting the fat off of me and I want that to continue.
So I'm doing a 3 day "split" Its
Day 1: Ballistics. Swings or Snatches. High reps.
Day 2: "grinds". Clean and Press (C&P), TGU, Goblet Squats, Windmills, ect. low reps heavy weight
Day 3: rest. go for a walk.
Repeat.
So in any given 7 day period I'm going to be working out 6 days a week.

So today I started with ballistics
Day 1:
24kg swing breathing ladders 1-20-1 35min
So a breathing ladder is where I'm doing 1 breath for every rep i preform. 1 swing, set the bell down, 1 breath. 2 reps, set the bell down, 2 breaths. Ect. all the way up to 20, and then back down to 1.
It has some great effects and its a great way to get some good volume in without having to lose any due to fatigue.
http://10000swings.blogspot.com/2012/04/day-9-breathing-ladders.html
http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge/article/27/
These are a better explanation of what i just said. anyway it works!

First Post

So this is my journey to take Kettlebells as far as I possibly can. Along the way it's also a goal to drop body fat %, get some kettlebell certifications, and have fun.
If you don't know what a Kettlbell is, you probably stumbled upon my site by accident. But any way a kettlbell is a weighted tool it has been used in Russia for almost 300yrs. It started as a way to measure grain and other things. It eventually became a competition among the farmers to see who could lift the most and thus was born the Kettlebell.

This is my collection of bells. You will notice the different colors and sizes. I use primarily in my training the ones that are yellow, the purple, the bigger green ones and the orange one. Those are my steel Pro-grade bells. The dimensions are the same size but the weight is different. The Pro-grade bells are used in Kettlbell sport and so are pretty standardized.

There are plenty of Kettlebell organizations out there, but the one I started with and I have the best success with is the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) It was the first Kettlbell certification organization here in the US. It was started by a Soviet born ex special forces physical fitness trainer named Pavel. His training methods and books have started me on my journey. They are a wealth of knowledge in physical culture. I also have been really inspired by Tracy Reifkind and her kettlebell swing odyssey.

Anyway I'm starting today chronicling my training and maybe it will help you.