Down time and Re-evalution

A mediocre nights sleep. I woke up several times with my right elbow very sore. Weight: 180 1/4 lbs. Good time to reassess negative patterns of behavior and movement. Interesting that even ice therapy made the elbow hurt more. My thumper message and various joint mobility drills provided only fleeting minimal relief on my elbow.

1) All strength training is on hold until I can strengthen my left knee and quad, left shoulder and right elbow.
2) So far all of the Joint Mobility stuff I've experimented with, only my naive application of Z-Health R-Phase has consistently produced some relief.
3) I have been training on the edge and the ledge just caved in again. I had a good program my 2nd cycle but I messed with it and started too much "active rest" when I should have been just resting.
4) I just made an appointment with an R,I,C and S certified Z-Health practitioner. Previously I just tried to learn from the DVDs .. now I need the experts.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 banana

Lunch:
1 Kitchari, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry, Gujarati beans and sweet potato
1 tangerine

Afternoon snack:
10 handfuls of roasted almonds
(out of control here)

Dinner (out):
4 dates
1 large helping white rice with Shrimp and veggies
1 piece of apple pie
2 scoops of ice cream
4 mint chocolate chip cookies

I ran all my old numbers today feeling sorry for myself. Throughout the day I tried to "medicate" myself with pleasure foods. I WILL turn this BS around.

nice and easy

A decent nights sleep and my quad is MUCH better. Weight: 180 1/4 lbs. Not surprising as I have been increasing the calories lately. I did a lot of hand and thumper massage on quad yesterday and I believe this combined with staying off it really helped. It looks like my tear theory can be chucked .. yeah! I didn't push it but I could go up and down stairs more normally instead of one step at a time.

Although the quad needs more down time and is not completely better, it now no longer masks my stiff left knee. Maybe they are related. Anyway I will be doing lots hand and thumper massage on it as well. My right outer elbow is sore so again ice and massage are in order.

Fighter Pull-up Program Rep Scheme:

BW 8,7,6,6,5 Fighter Push-ups @ 75 seconds rest between rungs

BW 5,4,3,3,2 5RM Fighter Pull-up Program (Day 2) @ varying rest between rungs

I didn't rest enough between the push-ups and pull-ups. As a result, the 1st set of 5 was extremely difficult and I was drained getting the fifth rep out. Not surprisingly, when I tried two minutes later to do my set of 4 I could not complete the last rep. As a result I decided not to complete the sets until much later in the evening when two minutes rest between the rest of the rungs was sufficient.

I started examining some new purchases today:

Z-Health: Neural Warmup 2 (NW2)
Power To The People Book and DVD (PTTP)

The exercises in NW2 are much more dynamic than R-Phase and will require a lot of practice. I spent a lot of time working on the new elbow circles and these are really good. Shoulder circles are completely different and I will really have to study this very carefully.

I watched the PTTP DVD and was impressed. I had already been introduced to irradiation and power breathing from Naked Warrior but there is more detail on this DVD that really will help me. Although after spending a long time on irradiation and power breathing and how it helps increase bicep curls, it finally got into the dead-lift portion which was the main reason for the purchase. It actually seemed a bit rushed so I will have to consult the book to get this down. I have been watching craigslist for a used, inexpensive Olympic barbell set but no luck yet.


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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 banana

Lunch:
1 bowl of chicken fried rice
1 small bowl of split pea soup
1 small bowl of Green Gram Curry
1 large naval orange

Afternoon snack:
2 handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner (out):
1 helping of coos coos with cranberrys
1 helping of Asian chicken cole slaw
1 piece of pizza
1 cranberry roll
1 piece of apple pie
1 scoop of ice cream

Unfortunately this dinner did not agree with me and I still have bloating and gas. Again too much too soon.

Scaling back

The sore quad has definitely affected my sleep. Weight: 178.5 lbs. Its possible I have a tear and will schedule a visit to the doctor to confirm what I already know. Given how slow my recovery is so far I will be told to stay off the leg and in particular no KB work for several weeks or more. This being the case I will be focusing on some BW work. In particular, Fighter Push-ups, Fighter Pull-ups and Power Wheel work. My endurance work will resume when the leg heals.

All exercises follow the Fighter Pull-up Program Rep Scheme:

BW 8,7,6,5,5 Fighter Push-ups @ 75 seconds rest between rungs

BW 5,4,3,2,2 5RM Fighter Pull-up Program (Day 2) @ 2 min rest between rungs

BW 6,5,4,3,3 Power Wheel Roll-out, 3 sec Hold, & Back on knees @ 3 min rest between rungs

The 1st set of five pull-ups was rough and subsequent sets were much easier. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit I don't know where 6 pull-ups is going to come from in 4 days but that is exactly how I felt when I hit my 4RM. I already have a back up plan just in case I get stuck on 5RM. Not surprising, its a recommendation by Pavel to work a large number of one and two rep sets: 1,2,1,2,1,2 ... Do this a couple days and then get back to the program.

The Power Wheel work is quite challenging. My upper abs really get an intense workout after the roll-outs. I haven't done two days back to back with the wheel yet so tomorrow will be interesting.


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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 large bowl of chicken fried rice
1 bowl of Sichuan shrimp with vegies
1 large naval orange
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds

Afternoon snack:
3 handfuls of roasted almonds
1 handful of dried cranberries
1 large sesame cracker

Dinner:
1 large bowl of chicken fried rice with Gugarati beans and sweet potato
1 piece of apple pie
1 scoop of ice cream
2 handful of roasted almonds
2 elephant ear pastries

My appetite always increases when I can't do my KB training. Most of it is psychological as I try and substitute food for the void associated with no KBs.

sore quad .. off my feet today

Mediocre sleep last. Weight: 178 lbs. Left quad still very sore. Today I will stay off my feet to give it a rest. Fortunately I can remote desktop into work from home. Yesterday was a great day but probably did a little too much. My right elbow is sore which I treated with ice and my thumper massager. My left shoulder is much better today which is great considering all the snatches yesterday.

Took a nice late morning 2 hour nap. I'm going to pass on Z-Health today as it requires a "neutral stance" standing posture for about 20 minutes. Instead, I performed a subset of SuperJoints that can be done sitting in a chair.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz Kefir
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds


Lunch:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
1 large naval orange
4 dates

Afternoon snack:
3 handfuls of roasted almonds
2 handfuls of dried cranberries

Dinner:
1 large helping of Sichuan shrimp with broccoli and cauliflower
1 bowl of chicken fried rice
1 piece of apple pie
1 scoop of ice cream
1 handful of roasted almonds

When my S.O. cooks a spectacular meal like tonight its very hard to not to gorge myself. Although I probably ate double my normal dinner size, it could have been a lot worse!

some pull-up progress

A great 8 hours of sound sleep. Weight: 177 1/4 lbs. Left quad still sore. I spoke to my chiropractor and he recommends moist hot (nuke a moist cloth in the u-wave) along rotated with ice. I have begun to walk up and down stairs sideways to keep the leg leg straight. But life is still real good .. in can focus on my pull-ups.

From a reference on the DD forum, I found another high volume pull-up plan called the "Armstrong Pullup Program". This is a very tough program to get one to 20RM in a month. There was one useful thing I will try. He recommends three sets of push-ups two hours in advance of any pull-ups. Instead of waiting two hours, I did three sub-maximal push-up sets with long rests before my pull-ups:

BW 3 x 8 Fighter Push-ups

Russian 3RM Fighter Pull-up Plan
Day 5: (Day 11 of plan) 5,4,3,2,1 with 2 mins rest between rungs

That 5th pull-up on the 1st set was slow but good form .. Graduation time! I just earned a day off and I can move onto the 5RM program. In all I went from a 2RM to 5RM in just under six weeks. Considering I started with the lowest volume program (Greg Donahue's) of one set of two pull-ups a day to today's 15 pull-ups over 12 minutes, I'm quite humbled by the power of these programs. There is also a real sense of ownership here as I had to tweak these programs to my particular needs.

I recently read on DD that Mike Johnson, RKC has had great success applying the Fighter Pull-up Rep Scheme to other lifts/exercises. As a result I applied it to two more exercise:

BW 5,5,4,3,2 Power Wheel Roll-out, Hold 3 secs and Back on knees
BW 8,7,6,5,4 Fighter Push-ups

I rested 2 minutes between all rungs. I love training like this as it takes all the guess work out and makes every rep count towards a goal.

Sir Rif has done it again. I was so inspired by his blog entry and his demonstration of will-training and tenacity, that I took all the adrenaline downstairs:

1. Double 32kgs 2 x 2 double cleans
2. 32kg 1 x 3 Right arm snatches.
3. 24kg 2 x 10/10 snatches

All three PRs. For 1. and 2. , I was never been able to do singles of either. For 3., a set of 1,2,3,4 ladders snatch ladders was my previous best with the 24kg. This is very encouraging as it provides more progress towards a yet to be planned future RKC Cert snatch test. Fortunately, my quad was oblivious to this (I hope). I almost did a 32kg snatch with my left but new well enough to quit while I was ahead.

I took a rest of several hours and decided to do some more snatches and enter Ssgt Adam Glass's 50,000 snatch challenge. My snatch form has really improved as these did not effect my quads ..in particular, I have been bending at the hips during the eccentric motion, not the the knees.

24kg 2 x 5/5/5/5 snatch
24kg 2 x 5/5 snatch
Double 16kg 1 x 10 snatch

Total snatch points = 116

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz Kefir
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of freshly made vegetarian split pea soup
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Toor Dal and sweet potato
1 large naval orange


Dinner (out):
3 large handfuls of roasted salted peanuts
1 large shrimp fajita rice
1/3 salmon burger
1/2 glass of red wine

Fighter pull-ups ... Fighter push-ups

Another passable 6.5 hrs nights sleep. Weighed 177 3/4 lbs, nice to be going south again. However, my left quad is still very sore so I iced it. Tomorrow if its the same I will treat with Ibubrofen.

Joint Mobility:
Z-Health R-Phase

I did some light KB warm-up before launching into my pull-ups

Warmup:
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshot

Russian 3RM Fighter Pull-up Plan
Day 4: (Day 10 of plan) 4,4,3,2,1 with 2 mins rest between rungs

Once again even with the warm-up, my 1st set of 4 was tough. The second set of 4 was so much easier and explosive that I actually reset and used this 2nd set as my 1st set and completed the remaining 4 sets with ease. So now I learned I need a warm-up set to get the pull-up musculature primed. After completing these I did 3 isometric singles where I held for 5 seconds half way up and then another 5 seconds half way down. Again these were very strong.

The sore quad is worse so I didn't wait until tomorrow and finally took 4 Ibuprofen. I searched the DD for words of wisdom concerning quad issues and got what I expected R.I.C.E. So R.I.C.E. it is.

So until the foreseeable future I will be doing upper-body BW work:

BW 4 x 8 Fireman "Push-ups" .. yes thats correct and not a typo

Under the direction of Steve Freides, RKC II, Howie of "Howz Training" started doing these to improve shoulder placement. I was unable to find any google reference to Fighter Push-ups so these may be Steve's own creation.

Howie was kind enough to share the mechanics of these with me. For the benefit of others, they are performed by assuming a plank position with hands closer together so that the elbows are right under the armpits. The hands should be a little back towards the legs so that the shoulders are a little in front and not over the hands. Perform a push-up in this position but at the top position, round the shoulders and back to form a hollow position. This is similar to the hollowing of the back and shoulders at the top of a Russian Fighter pull-up.

I did get my busted lower molar repaired today. Fortunately, it was patch-able and I can hold off on a root canal and crown for while.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
1 Whey protein shake with 6 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Gujarati beans, and Green Gram Curry
4 oz Kefir
1 large naval orange

Afternoon snack:
1 chocolate biscotti
1 walnut cookie
2 sesame crackers
1 small handful of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1 large bowl of Gujarati beans with brown rice.
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
2 scoops of ice cream

more rest required

Went to bed 10:15 and got up 6:30 and slept like a log last night. For some bizarre reason I woke with a left sore quad after taking the entire day off yesterday. I decided to just do my Fighter Pull-ups and go from there. Even after icing and thumper massaging it got worse so I laid off anything else. Its probably residual from both my 32kg TGUs and my KB demo on Sunday .. one or the other would have probably been okay .. "too much too soon". On the positive side, after almost 4 weeks of this new cycle, it has taken me quite far in terms of relative strength and endurance gains. As a result, I am more than happy to use this week as my taper week.

Russian 3RM Fighter Pull-up Plan
Day 3: (Day 9 of plan) 4,3,3,2,1 with 2 mins rest between rungs

The 1st set of 4 was very tough and subsequent ones were quite a bit easier. As this is the 1st thing I did in the morning, this is warmup issue so I am going to add some joint mobility before jumping right in next time.

More strangeness to the day occurred when eating my morning snack of roasted almonds I broke a lower molar. It was on its last legs anyway as it was almost all filing. Fortunately, there is no pain and I will see my dentist tomorrow morning.


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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz Kefir
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
6 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Gujarati beans, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
1 large naval orange
4 dates

Afternoon snack:
6 oz Kefir

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Green Gram Curry
1 bowl of steamed Kale with sweet potato
2 large sesame crackers
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of ice cream

"non-active" rest

Got up at 4:30am and tried to complete some work before going into work. I weighed 178 1/4 lbs which was a real welcomed surprise considering my yesterday's Easter potluck gluttony. Not having any thing to eat after 4pm probably helped. Today I am fairly sore in my left knee, left shoulder and right elbow. The KB demonstration to the HS kids yesterday was much more intense than I thought and coming the day after a very heavy workout took its toll. Also the temperature here in New England is back in the teens this morning which has a tendency to exacerbates joint soreness. As a result, this is a "non-active" rest day, i.e., I don't do anything but ice, massage and joint mobility.

Joint Mobility:
SuperJoints

That's it .. not even a single Pull-up! Wow! that was a stretch .. I just glued a gold star to my forehead.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz Kefir
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Gujarati beans, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
4 oz Kefir
1 large naval orange

Afternoon snack:
4 small handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1 large bowl of Gujarati beans, chicken fried rice and Jin-gu fish fillets
1 large bowl of steamed Kale with sweet potato
1 large sesame crackers
3 handfuls of roasted almonds
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of ice cream

I was really starved this evening and eat to prove it.

32kg TGUs

To bed at 11:30pm and up at 6:30am. Sleep was marginal .. up several times but at least able to eventually go back to sleep each time. Weight: 178.5 lbs. I put on a 1.5 lbs since my low but I'm not going to sweat it .. I've have been really hungry of late and have had to increase my intake a bit.

This was an easy day with joint mobility drills, pull-ups and TGUs the main focus:

Joint Mobility:
Z-Health R-Phase with extra left arm circles through the different planes
QiGong: "Opening the World" elbow and shoulder flows

Russian 3RM Fighter Pull-up Plan
Day 2: (Day 8 of plan) 4,3,2,2,1 neutral grip pull-ups with 2 mins rest between rungs

Wow, I can really feel my lats pumped after doing these. The Russian Fighter Plan as written calls for using a thumb-less pro-nated grip (palms facing away) but these cause to much elbow discomfort for me whereas neutral grip seems to be fine. I will continue to only train with neutral grip .. when I eventually enter my first TSC I will just go for it with the required tactical grip.

24kg 3 x 4/4, 2 x 3/3, 1 x 2/2 TGU with one min rest between arms
20 reps per arm .. new PR

The TGUs are the closest thing to a grind I perform. Given where my left shoulder and elbows are, I am pleased to be able to do these pain free. Today was the 1st day that my left shoulder was very stable .. no wobbling at all. While starting my last left arm set in the bottom position of the TGU I did do one floor press and there was some discomfort .. confirming my decision to continue to hold off on grinds for now. I rested for another 10 minutes and decided to see if I could still do 32kg TGU singles:

32kg 1 x 3r/2l TGU

Surprisingly I could do reps with both arms, PRs for both. The two TGU's with my left arm were very strong and stable, previously only on a very good day would I have been able to perform a single with the left. This is another example of the "pyramid lifting principle" that Gabi of "A Hungarian Courage Corner" (this blog is a must for anyone, man or women, wanting to see and learn how a very strong, fit and hard working woman trains with KBs) shared with me:

I was able to raise the height of my TGU lift pyramid by increasing the width of its base, i.e., the increased volume (width) with the 24kg has allowed me to increase my performance with the 32kg (height).

Later in the day, I had an opportunity to demonstrate some KB exercises to 5 high school kids at an Easter pot luck at a friends house. One of the boys, a football half-back and safety at 155 lbs was very strong as was able to a TGU with his right arm with the 24kg. The other boys were all able to perform a single with the 16kg. They all had turns to swing the 16kg for reps and all got gassed quickly from one set .. I remember I too was so humbled when I first started sets of high rep swings.

Three of the boys were so psyched that they plan on pooling their funds and purchase a 16kg and 24kg .. I really hope they follow up. I think I actually got more out of the demo than they did as it was a sheer joy to be around the high level of intense energy these boys generated. The boys helped load my car with the bells .. I took care of the 2 pood:

32kg 100 yard walk in the racked position with one hand to hand transfer midway

Yow! I forgot how incredibly demanding racked walks are!

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
1 small bowl of Gujarati green beans with Basmati white rice

Easter Lunch Potluck: (We brought the Gujarati beans)
2 helpings of breakfast casserole
1 helping of Gujarati beans with Chili
1 large helping of juicy oven roasted turkey
1 large helping of two kinds of ham
1 small helping of wild boar pulled pork
1 large helping of beets, carrots, butternut squash
1 mixed greens salad
1 large sampling of four different chocolate deserts
4 oz Jamison Irish whiskey on the rocks
6 oz of OJ with Champaign
4 oz of OJ with vodka

I consumed all of this over the course of five and half hours. Its the most food and drink I've consumed in one day in a year. Back to a normal regime tomorrow.

Some Progress with Dbl 24 Front Squats

To bed at 11pm and up at 6:30am for a great night's sleep. I decided to extra hydrate myself before dinner instead of my usual two large evening cups of tinderbell tea. As a result, no waking up to pee and full nights rest. Weight: 178.5 lbs.

Even though yesterday was very light, I still woke up sore in my forearms, elbows, left shoulder and lower back. First I used my thumper massager for about 10 mins, did some good-morning stretches. Last some Z:

Z-Health R-Phase

After the Z, I felt much better, and proceeded with my plans for the day. I switched pull-up routines as discussed a few days ago .. yesterday was the 1st day which corresponds to Day 6 of the 3RM Russian Fighter Pull-up Plan, namely a DAY OFF! .. Hey, hey, I wanted to break in easy to the new plan. But that was yesterday:

3RM Russian Fighter Pull-up Plan
Day 7: 1 x 4,3,2,1,1 with 2 mins rest between rungs

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, piriformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 20/20 Slingshots .. no drops!
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Superset x 8 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 5 Front Squat
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

The squats are getting easier as the new max sets of 8 was not a problem. My double 32 swings are also getting a little stronger, however I have quite a lot of work ahead before I perform a LCCJ with them .. but that's exactly why its a long term goal (1 year plus).

3 minute rest

Double 24kg 3 x 15, 2 x 12 swings on the minute
(69 dbl swings/5 mins)

The last time I did double 24kg swings was 10 sets of 10 on the minute. This time I increased the density to 15 on the minute .. I knew it would be very tough. My goal was to do 5 x 15 but I still got close enough. What's very pleasing is that back in early Dec, I could only do a few sets of 5. Also, the nice overload from the double 32 swings is what got the 24s to feel much lighter.

24kg 3 x mixed one-hand and two-hand swings sets of 30 reps on the minute:
1 x 30 two-hand swing
1 x 10/10/5/5 one-hand swing
1 x 5/5/5/5/5/5 one-hand swing
(90 swings/5 mins)

After the 1st set of 30 two-hand swings, I my grip was almost toast so went with more hand transfers on the last two sets.

Total Volume: 24824 lbs


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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir
1 Whey protein shake

Lunch:
1 Whey protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir
1 bowl of Gujarati beans, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
4 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 large sesame cracker

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Toor Dal, sweet potato and green gram curry
1 helping of Sichuan Chicken with veggies
1 piece of strawberry rhubarb pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream
2 handfuls of roasted nuts

Less is more ..

A great nights sleep. Went to bed 10:30 and got up at 6:10am. Weighed 177.25 lbs. Yesterday I did much more than a simple active rest day as originally planned. I could feel the extra soreness so today I went really light and rested.

Joint Mobility:
Z-Health R-Phase
QiGong "The Flow Continues"

Power Wheel:
1 x 6 Kneeling Roll-out, 2 sec Hold and back
1 x 1.5 Office long hall and back crawl

I would've done my TGUs as planned, but again my body needed the extra rest and I listened to it this time.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
2 handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari, Gujarati green beans, with Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
1 Naval orange
6 Dates

Afternoon snack:
3 handfuls of roasted almonds
2 sesame crackers
4 Dates

Dinner:
1 large plateful of the absolute spiciest Sichuan Chinese cuisine I have ever had
1 piece of wild berry pie
1 scoop of coffee ice cream

Please, there will be no standing on the bar , sir!

Went to bed 11pm and got up 6am with a decent night's sleep. I weighed 177 lbs another 10 year PR. One more pound and I hit my 80kg goal.

Using the Mark Rippetoe's videos from the CrossFit site, I applied the following of his recommendations to:

• align my scapula over the bar
• put my chest out
• stick my butt back and out but not down too low,
• keep my back straight
• make my line of vision straight out and slightly down
• use the correct over and under hand grip (I used RH under and LH over)
• don't stand on the bar!
  

Dead-lifts:
3 x 135, 3 x 155, 3 x 175, 3 x 195, 3 x 135

An improvement of 60 lbs strictly due to using better form. The last three reps of 135 versus the 1st three reps with it felt much lighter. Its a little scary for me to get bar going from the initial crouched position. The initial lifting force seems to first concentrate right in my lower back and freaks me out until I get the bar moving and the lower back discomfort immediately goes away. It turns out that I've had lower back pain and discomfort for the last 15 years so this is a real stretch for me to even attempt these.


BW Neutral grip pull-ups:
2 x 5, 2 x 4, 2 x 3

I hit a new 5RM PR, twice today and continued with 5 more sets of decreasing reps spread out over an hour for a total of 24 reps.

24kg 1 x 20 Two-hand swings
24kg 1 x 26/26 One hand swings

The last set of swings was a nice little PR as I did 26 left, then 26 right without putting the bell down. These also are the number of snatches required to pass the RKC Cert at my current weight and age. If I loose another pound, then it drops a bit to 24/24. Although I didn't do snatches here, which are significantly more taxing than swings, it was still psychologically satisfying just to envision these as becoming snatches in the future.

Since by this time I had completed pull-up and dead-lift training, now it was time for a snatch workout to cover the three TSC events:

24kg 2 x 1,2,3,4 snatch ladder, 1l/1r, 2l/2r, 3l/3r, 4l/4r
24kg 3 x 1,2,3 snatch ladder

A total of 26 snatches per arm. There were at least 2 minutes of rest between the 5 sets and many hand switches but it still represents solid progress towards the RKC Cert requirements.

BW 1 x 10 Dive Bomber pull-ups.

I brought my 12kg, 16kg and 24kg to the gym today and demonstrated the swing and TGU to my supervisor. He did very well but unfortunately the gym manager told us we couldn't bring in our own equipment anymore due to insurance reasons. The new manager was very apologetic about it and encouraged us to send email requesting the gym purchase some. Its worth a shot but its not that important. I only started going their again to train dead-lifts.

Z-Health R-Phase
SuperJoints
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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
1 large sesame cracker

Morning Snack:
4 oz of Kefir
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds

Lunch:

1 bowl of Gujarati green beans, with brown rice, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry.
1 honey tangerine

Afternoon snack:
4 handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 bowl of Sichuan Chicken with veggies
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans, with brown rice
1 piece of wild berry pie
1 scoop of ice cream
1 large sesame cracker

More forward progress with a scheduled heavy day

Went to bed around 11pm and got up 6:00am. Once again I was up multiple times to pee, but each time was able to get back to sleep until about 4:30am when I dozed in and out until finally getting up. I weighed 177 1/2 lb .. this is yet another new low 10 year low. Its possible that the relatively fast weight loss and new eating patterns is impacting my sleep. However, I'll take it as a short nap of 15 minutes in the mid afternoon seems to do the trick.

This new cycle is going very well as my work capacity continues to grow .. the two days active rest between heavy days is the key. Also no soreness yet with my elbows this evening. I haven't used ice or ibuprofen in over a week, .. my Homedics thumper massager is now my primary sore limb rehab tool.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 19: 1 set of 3 neutral grip pull-ups (19,1,3)

I went quite a bit beyond this with additional GTG-ing throughout the day for an additional two sets of four reps. These are starting to feel so much easier and the extra volume doesn't seem to bother my elbows so far. As a result starting tomorrow I will experiment and switch programs to start with Day 5 of Pavel's highly recommended 3RM Fighter Pull-up. This will mean sets of 4,3,2,1 with two or more minutes rest between sets. If this is too much I will switch back to the GD program.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Piriformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshots
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Superset x 4 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 5 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

Superset x 2 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 4 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

Superset x 1 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 3 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

Would have like to have done 6x5 with the LCCJ portion of the set, but its not there yet. By reducing the LCCJ reps from 5 to 4 to 3 across the 7 sets, I was able to at least increase the volume. The ultimate goal is 10x5 which will require three to four months of this program. These are extremely tough for me but I'm sure extremely good for me as well.

As with the previous heavy training days, I like to end it with higher rep lower weight swings:

24kg 200 Two-hand swings in 13 mins:
1 x 40, 2 x 25, 2 x 20, 1 x 10, 2 x 25, 1 x 10

After the 1st set of 40 I knew I would have to drop off but I keep up a very tough pace and PR-ed. Previously I needed 20 mins to complete 200 swings using the Howie Brewer's "Howie's Challenge". I rested 4 minutes before continuing with some more swinging, this time one-handed:

24kg 10 x 5/5 One hand-swings every 30 seconds

After the 10 swings of each set there was usually only 7 to 8 seconds of rest. This resulted in another PR with 100 24kg one-hand swings in 5 minutes .. I really gutted out the last 3 sets. This gives me a better idea of the type of stamina required for the TSC snatch test (max snatches in 5 mins with either hand and the bell can be put down).

BW Knuckles to the floor static plank: 1 x :08b/:37r/:25l/:40b = 2 min .. a new PR

The last minute of this required very concentrated slow breathing. I'm always dripping plenty of sweat on my floor mats afterwards .. its very intense.

Total volume: 25916 lbs

I just read tonight on RKC Taikei's blog about him doing several sets of 15 snatches with double 24's .. that's some real strong stuff! Just thinking about doing that someday really motivates and inspires me.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato, Green Gram Curry and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 Dates

Morning Snack:
4 oz Kefir
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds


Lunch:
1 Whey protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
1 honey tangerine

Afternoon snack:
3 handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
2 bowls of Gujarati green beans with brown rice and sweet potato
1 large sesame cracker
1 piece of egg custard pie
1 scoop of coffee ice cream
1 small handful of dried cranberries

A progression towards a double 2 pood clean

An average 6 out 10 for sleep last night. I got up at 6:20am but didn't feel too rested. I did however weigh in at 177 5/8 lbs a new PR .. my 80kg goal is getting real close!

The DD S&C forum led me to a Mike Mahler article on some progressions for double cleaning a pair bulldogs. Scaling this to my level, I cannot double clean a pair of 32's yet. However this morning I was able to perform, as recommended in the article, a few two-count alternating cleans (this is what Steve Cotter calls them on his Enc of KB Lifting). Here's a description:

After picking up both bells in a swing start position, one of the bells is cleaned while hanging onto to the other for the 1st count. The cleaned bell is then lowered for the 2nd count. This is then repeated on the other side.

Another point for me to work on is to elevate the height of my double 32's swings .. right now they are half way between my knees and chest so there's considerable room for improvement.

Double 32kgs 2/2 two-count alternating cleans

BW 2 x 4 Dead-hang neutral grip pull-ups

These were no problem .. the improvement over the last three weeks is clear proof to me again that Pavel's methods are superb.

SuperJoints

24kg TGU 2 x 4/4 one minute rest between arms
24kg TGU 3 x 3/3 one minute rest between arms

This is a new volume PR for TGUs at 17 each side with the 1.5 pood.

Z-Health R-Phase

My left shoulder was a little sore most of the day. Since doing the TGUs and the Z, it feels much better.

Today was pretty light as tomorrow is a heavy day.
===================================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
1 bowl of Green Gram Curry
1 Whey protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir

Lunch at the Indian Palace:
1 plate from the buffet of vegetables and currys
1 small helping of Keir
1 honey tangerine

Afternoon snack:
4 small handfuls of roasted almonds
3 small handfuls of roasted cashews

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
1 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 piece of strawberry rhubarb pie
1 scoop of coffee ice cream
2 large sesame crackers

Some DLs and Snatches .. testing the waters

Two good nights sleep in a row .. when was the last time that happened! Got up at 6:30am and weighed 178 7/8 lb. Decided to visit the company paid for gym membership to take a crack at some dead-lifts, since I don't having any barbells. I lucked out as I ran into buddy I hadn't seen since the summer who has also been training hard with KBs. Turns out he rents a locker and keeps one each of a 12,16 and 20 kg bell in it. He was working with them at the time and he let me share them.

16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
BW 1 x 10 Wall Squats

135 lbs x 3 overhand grip DLs (45 lb Olympic bar plus two 45 lb plates)

BW 3 x 4 Neutral grip pull-ups
BW 1 x 3 Neutral grip pull-ups
BW 3 x 8 Dive Bomber push-ups
20kg 2 x 20/20 one-hand swings
20kg 1 x 20 snatches alternating arms every rep
20kg 1 x 1,2,3,4,5 snatch ladders left then right arm
16kg 1 x 30/30 one hand swings


This workout took about 40 minutes and I actually worked several different circuits of at most one set each of exercise .. the tabulation above are just set summaries as I best as I could remember.

The snatches felt very good and I didn't overdo them. Also I had no problem with the extra pull-ups. The only neutral grip pull-up bar available had non-adjustable extension handles that were much closer together than my bar at home. For some reason, the pull-ups were much easier this way. Fifteen pull-ups in one day is massive volume for me and I haven't experiences any elbow issues yet other than the usual mild soreness I get after any workout .. ice and massage therapy takes quick care of that.

As for the dead-lifts .. I really suck at them. I couldn't do a single mixed grip one but could do a set of 3 with an over-handed grip. Also lifting two 32 kg bells for double swings seems much easier than the 135lb DLs. I should have done my research on these BEFORE getting to the gym and have since found out several on-line pointers subsequent to my 1st attempts.

Anyway, as of now I have officially trained all three TSC events (snatches, dead-lifts and pull-ups) and I'm on a path to realizing one of my goals. Again my thanks to Aaron Friday for planting the seed towards this.

===================================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning Snack:
2 small handful of roasted almonds
1 small handful of roasted cashews
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
4 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 large sesame cracker

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Toor Dal and sweet potato
1 small helping of Sichuan Chicken with veggies
1 piece of strawberry rhubarb pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream

I tried my new Presto 6 quart pressure cooker and was amazed at how fast the Toor Dal cooked. Total time including the de-pressurizing cool down was 17 minutes compared to at least an hour if done stove top in a pot.

Inching towards a TSC

A decent night's sleep (7.5 out of 10). Got up at 5:40am and weighed 178 1/2 lbs .. another last-10-year PR.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Periformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshots (
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Last time when doing slingshots, going clockwise caused problems with the RH to LH pass. (I dropped the bell again.) This time I did clockwise 1st and didn't drop it with decent velocity. Counter-clockwise is much stronger and I had to really root myself as the velocity hence torque was quite high.

Superset x 7 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 5 Front Squat
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

3 minute rest

After reading about Aaron Friday's TSC training where he recently did 100 snatches in under 5 min, I decided it was time for TSC prep work by trying to push the swing density with one-hand swings. I then tried with wo-hand 24kg swings and needed an additional minute for sets 3 and 4.

24kg 5 x 10/10 one-hand swings on the minute
2 minutes rest
24kg 3 x 20 two-hand swings on the minute
one additional minute rest
24kg 2 x 20 two-hand every two minutes

Total volume: 21040 lbs

That was a real gut check to finish the last two set of two-hand swings even with the extra minute rest. On swings 18-20 of both of these sets, my forearms started to get really tight and it took extreme focus not to drop the bell. I'm very pleased that the 24kg bell is starting to feel light. If I'm going to participate in a Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) someday, I going to have to start doing some DLs. At least I have a stragegy for improving pull-ups and snatches, as for DLs, perhaps its time to pick up PTTP.

BW Static Knuckles to the ground static plank: :10b/:30r/:30l/:30b = 1:40

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 16: 1 set of 3 neutral grip pull-ups (16,1,3)

I blasted up per Aaron's suggestion and my third pull-up was so strong and easily did another .. a new neutral grip pull-up PR of 4RM. I think I could have done a 5th but decided to be patient.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
1 bowl of Green Gram Curry
1 Whey protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 bowl of Kitchari, with Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry a
1 bowl of Sichuan Chicken with veggies
1 honey tangerine

Afternoon snack:
3 handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 Large helping of roasted veggies
1 small handfulsof roasted almonds
1 piece of strawberry rhubarb pie
1 scoop of coffee ice cream

The two photos of dinner are the prepared veggies before roasting in the oven and the final results with a glass of red wine. Veggies where brushed with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. Tonight we had sweet potato, cauliflower, squash, mushrooms, onions and fresh garlic. Incredibly simple to prepare and incredibly tasty and healthy.

A very easy day

Last night's sleep was mediocre as I kept waking up several times to pee. I guess this is a consequence of staying hydrated which in turn seems to help control my appetite. I got up at 5:30am and I weighed 179 1/4 lbs .. a new 'over the last 10 years' PR. I love seeing the south-side of 180 lbs.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 15: 1 set of 3 neutral grip pull-ups (15,1,3)

I started the second two weeks of the program moving up to 3 reps. All three were very solid with a full 1-second dead hang between each. I'm starting to believe!

BW 1 x 5 sec Hanging L-sit
BW 3 x 1 Power Wheel: Roll out, hold 3 secs and return on knees.

Z-Health R-Phase
SuperJoints

Iced my left knee and elbows followed by a treatment with my Homedic Thumper massager.

That's it for today .. a real easy one .. gotta get used to more days like this.

===================================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
4 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 Whey protein shake with 4 0z of Kefir
1 large sesame cracker

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with Toor Dal and sweet potato
1 piece of strawberry rhubarb pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream
1 large sesame crackers

Back to a regular dinner. The sesame cracker finisher really did the trick as I feel very satisfied but not stuffed.

TGU's and BW work today

I woke up feeling well rested on 6 hours of sound sleep (8 out of 10 on the sleep scale). My weight increased a little over a 1/2 lb to 180 5/8 lbs. The two large dinners the last two days are probably responsible for it. No problem .. will cut back today. Today is the 1st of 2 consecutive active rest days .. nothing real heavy, mostly BW GTG stuff.

BW 1 x 6 sec Hanging L-sit

My upper abs are no longer super-sore so the hanging L-sit wasn't bad.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 14: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (14,1,2)

Yes! I made it through the 1st two weeks of the program. This lesson has been really drilled into me: Finish a program to completion and only then evaluate its results. Tomorrow I move to one set of 3 reps for another 2 weeks .. really looking forward to it.

I rested and then tested my dead hang chin-up (palm's facing lifter grip). I made sure there was absolutely no kipping motion of any kind.

BW 5 Dead hang chin-ups

The Power Wheel has become one of my favorite new toys:

BW 1 x 40ft out /40ft back Power Wheel crawl
BW 3 x 1 Power Wheel Roll out, hold and return on knees.

The Power Wheel crawl is the reason I bought this device. It really works the abs, shoulders, obliques and stabilizers .. and its real fun too!

24kg 5 x 3r/3l TGUs with one minute rest between arms .. new PR

Again on the TGU's I never put the bell down during the 3 reps per arm. My right arm averaged between 48 and 52 seconds, my left around 55 secs. Given my history of left shoulder separation and elbow tendinitis in both arms, this is such a tremendous re-hab, pre-hab exercise to help prepare me for when I can return to grinds.


===================================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 small handful of roasted cashews
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Gujarati beans, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and sweet potato
4 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
2 small handfuls of roasted cashews

Dinner:
1 large Lion's head pork meatball with steamed veggies
1 bowl of Gujarati beans with sweet potato
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream
1 small sesame crackers

This is smaller than the last two day's dinners but still good amount. Its now been over two months since switching eating life styles and I love the food and weight results. I know nobody reads this diet and nutrition section , but that's fine because it still makes me feel so much more accountable when I make it public.

A day worth waiting for.

Before I get into my own thing, check out Tracy Reifkind's Blog latest post, very powerful stuff! Yes, words DO matter. Then there's Aaron's Blog tonight with a very cogent post regarding what's happening to the U.S. dollar. This is an amazing community of people .. I am so happy to have privilege of interacting with them.

My overeating last night had the effect I had anticipated .. my sleep could have been better. I weighted in a just a hair under 180 lbs, which frankly surprised me. Though sluggish and a little sleepy I really looked forward to another KB training day as continue with my "Work! Rest Rest" waltz.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Periformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshots .. clockwise definitely more harder RH to LH pass
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Superset x 3 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 5 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

Superset x 3 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 4 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

The original goal was to do 6 sets of 5 LCCJs but it just wasn't there so I dropped back down to 4 after the 3rd set. On my last rep of the last set I couldn't lock out with my left arm. Man that was rough .. no wonder that the LCCJ is considered on of the best overall body strength and endurance exercises.

Continuing in the spirit of March Swing Madness I pushed myself in swinging fashion to complete this workout as follows:

Dbl 24kg 10 x 10 Swings on the minute .. new PR

32kg 5 x 20 Two-hand swings on the minute every 2 minutes .. new PR

Really had to will myself the last two sets of the Dbl 24kg swings; similarly, the last two sets of the 32kg two-hand swings were nasty. Doing sets of 20 reps two-handed swings with the 32kg was brand new .. I just needed extra rest between sets. Note that the volume and average density is the same if I had done 10 sets of 10 reps on the minute. The 20 rep sets felt tougher. I love the Gymboss; I hate the Gymboss .. GET ONE TODAY!

Total volume: 26500 lbs .. new PR

I had planned also doing TGUs but the tank was empty .. I'll get them in tomorrow.

This heavy training session did come at the cost of a slightly pulled groin muscle on my right side. I iced it and took some Ibuprofen and its feeling much better this evening.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 13: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (13,1,2)

For grins, later I tried a single weighted neutral grip pull-up with BW + 9 lbs (I tied a 4kg KB to my waist). It wasn't too bad but not as strong as without the additional weight. When I can get to 5RM neutral grip BW pull-ups with this program, I think I will continue with weighted pull-ups to keep the volume low.

================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning snack
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
3 small handful of roasted almonds
2 small handful of roasted cashews
1 large sesame cracker
4 oz Kefir

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 bowl of Zha-Jiang noodles
1 small bowl of Gujarati bean
1 bowl of sweet potato, Sichuan Yu-xiang chicken
1 piece pie
1 scoop ice cream

Not wanting to waste leftovers I again had another large meal and another upset stomach shortly thereafter .. duh!

New BW work: Dive Bomber Push-ups

Went to bed 10pm and slept until 6:15am. My weight was 179 5/8 lbs, slightly less than yesterday. The good night's sleep (9 out of 10) was greatly appreciated .. I don't get enough of these. My left knee was a little stiff and both elbows are little sore. I used my Homedics hand-held "thumper" massager and they all felt better.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 12: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (12,1,2)

I felt so good I actually did a 3rd one and quit there. Waited a half hour and then tested chin-ups for a new PR.

BW 1 x 5 Chin-ups (palms facing lifter grip)

I read on DD today about Dave Whitley, Senior RKC, (275 lbs), an extremely strong man, who not being able to do a single pull-up four months ago and then by applying GTG principles, now has recently completed 4RM dead hang pull-ups. The great ones always work on their weaknesses.

Evening BW work:

Super Set x 3 with 10 minutes between sets:

• 8 Dive Bomber Push-ups
• 30 sec rest
• 8 Push-up-stand push-ups

I just learned the Dive Bomber Push-ups from SGT Ken:

Dive-Bomber-Push-up-Instruction

These are considerably tougher than regular push-ups when done just as slowly as demonstrated. Even after a 30 second rest, I could only do 8 push-up-stand push-ups.

I also just read a post DD that Bill Fox does push-up sets wearing a 40lb xvest. Lotsa variations out there to decrease reps per set but increase intensity.

================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates

Morning snack
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 dates
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 small handful of roasted cashews

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 bowl of Gujarati bean
1 bowl of Green Gram Curry with sweet potato, Sichuan Yu-xiang chicken
1/2 turkey sandwich
1 bowl of corn and sweet potato congee
1 piece pie
1 scoop ice cream

I really pigged out at supper and am paying the consequences with an upset stomach.

Recovery day

Tuesday 03/11/2008

I went to bed so early last night I didn't get to publish yesterdays log until today.

Went to bed 12am and dragged myself out of bed at 6:20am. My weight held at 179 3/4 lbs, the diet and nutrition logging is really helping me continue to monitor my portions and eat well.

Yesterday was a volume PR at just under 10 tons and I really feel the tiredness. Following my new program today and tomorrow are rest days.

Superjoints

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 11: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (11,1,2)

My tiredness was evident in these. I had to really focus on these unlike yesterday where I just blasted easily up. Also I could really feel the soreness in my upper abdomen from all the Power Wheel and L-sit progression work.

BW 2 x 20 feet out and back Power Wheel crawl

Z-Health R-Phase

I have got to maintain the joint mobility work to be able to stay with this type of intense training without injury. Both the Z and SJ make this a lot easier to stay the course. I did notice today that the left side toe circles were a struggle to really isolate. This might be related to my still stiff left knee.
================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2


Lunch:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefor
1 bowl of Kitchari with a sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 dates

Afternoon snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 small handful of roasted cashews

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 large Sichuan Lion-head pork-meat ball with veggies
1 bowl of Green Gram Curry with sweet potato and Toor Dal
1 small helping of S.O. prepared Beijing Zha-Zha-Mian
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream
1 large sesame crackers

oops

Yeah! March Swing Madness is here! As well documented in the Dragondoor KB community of late, quite a few some of the really fittest KB lifters have put out some extraordinary examples of work capacity .. e.g., Dave Whitney's 1000 swings with a 32kg, Tracy Reifkind's 1500 with a 12kg and Mark Reifkind's birthday 500 with the 24kg to name a few.

Having thus been inspired to up my swing volume and intensity so that one day I might survive an attempt to match one of these amazing feats of strength and conditioning, I have been placing a good amount of focus on improving my swing form.

Sooooo .. during my double 24kb swings today, after previously having studied Rif's one-hand 32kg swing videos on his blog (I actually requested these .. Rif's the man!), I was really tuning into using a loosely held hook grip together with a nice chest to eye level swing and strong hip snap.

Well lets just say that I overachieved with the loose grip part and that one just "got away" and subsequently smashed forward into the mirror I was using to check my form. (As a small consolation, I now know my upper bound for grip looseness.) Like a true warrior (in this case a euphemism for idiot), I just picked up the bell and completed the set. Fortunately this was an inexpensive K-mart cardboard backing door mirror .. after my workout I swept up the glass and re-leaned it against the wall ... I'll continue to use it until I pick a new one up in a few days.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Piriformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshots .. oops, it slipped again .. yeah! interlocking floor mats!
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Superset x 6 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between 1 and 2:

1. Dbl 24kg 5 Front Squat
2. Dbl 32kg 5 Swing

Dbl 24kg 6 x 10 Swings with 1 minute rest between sets

32kg 5 x 5/5 one-hand swings on the minute
32kg 5 x 10 two-hand swings on the minute

BW Static super plank: 1 x 10b/28r/27l/45b = 1:50
(Key: b for both arms, r for right arm only , l for left arm only and times in seconds)

A new PR .. just 10 more seconds and I will be at 2 minutes. More than doubled my time since starting in early Feb.

24kg 4 x 3r/3l TGU with one minute rest between arms

Total volume: 19600 lbs

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 10: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (10,1,2)

After reading an artcile by Jim Maryland of "Beast Skills" fame about contrast baths for sore hands and over types of "active rest" therapy, I decided to use my Homedic thumper message for my sore left knee. I switched to the "lips" concave attachment as this smoothly messaged around my patella. I then used it on my elbows after realizing I could sit on my lap and push into it with the fleshy part above and below my elbows. It felt so good last night, I brought it into work today and used it throughout the day. It seems to really work as I never needed to ice my elbows after my heavy KB training session, which up until today was a necessity.

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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with little sweet potato, Toor Dal and Green Gram Curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 Whey protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir
1 large bowl of Kitchari with little sweet potato, Toor Dal, Green Gram Curry and Gujarati beans
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 large toasted sesame wheat cracker

Dinner:
1 glass of red wine
1 Large helping of roasted vegs.
1 small bowl of mixed brown and white rice
4 oz of Sichuan style Spicey Yu Xiang chicken
1 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream

Work! rest rest; Work! rest rest; ..

This appears to be my new training protocol as this old body has demanded this combo of work and rest/recover waltz. Specifically I will KB train heavy and hard for one day and then active rest for two. My active rest days are typically spent doing some very low volume low intensity GTG type BW work, e.g. one or more of:

• weighted pull-up progressions
• hanging leg raise progressions
• seated L-sit progressions
• handstand press progressions.

Note I can't yet do any X of the above "X progressions" and am currently training X's associated simpler progressions. That's the beauty of them .. I can see myself in the future doing them (6 months, 1 year, 2 or more years?) and it gives me a clear set of goals.

I got a decent nights sleep after going to bed around 10:30pm and getting up at 5:30am. My weight was 179 3/4 lbs. My left knee was still a bit tight so I wore a neoprene supporter for most of the day .. no discomfort and no NSAIDS today.


GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 9: 1 set of 2 neutral grip pull-ups (9,1,2)

BW 1 x 10 sec hold of wall-walkup handstand from push-up position start
BW 1 x 10 sec hold of kick up to wall handstand (face points away from wall)

BW 5 x 6 sec hold of hanging L-sit
BW 3 x 3 sec hold of seated tuck-sit on finger tips

BW 2 x 1 Roll Out, Hold and Return on my knees with PW in hands

BW 3 x 15 push-ups with push-up stands, chest to the floor each rep, 10 minutes between sets

Hmm .. as I log this I realize I'm not happy with the push-up set/rep structure. My 15th push-up of each set is always very tough .. too close to failure and the volume is too high. Instead I am going to switch to either dive bomber or Hindu push-ups or some type of additional resistance type push-ups using a jump-stretch band.

All the BW work was spread out over a 10 hour period.

===================================================================
Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
1 bowl of freshly made Green Gram Curry (steamed whole green moong beans with spices)
1 Whey Protein shake with 4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 large helping of S.O. prepared Beijing Zha-Zha-Mian (steamed wheat noodles with steamed spinach, carrots, cucumber and few oz of Hoysen braised pork)
1 small bowl of Green Gram Curry
1/2 glass of red wine

Afternoon snack:
1/2 Large Indian roasted green pepper
1 small Indian spiced fruit and nut ball

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 Large helping of roasted vegs. (sweet potato, cauliflower, bottle squash, garlic and onion with olive oil, some salt and pepper)
1 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream
2 small sesame crackers

Another easy BW day

Last nights sleep would rate a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Probably 7.5 is my usual. Usually a very heavy intense workout (like yesterdays) does negatively effect my sleep that night so this wasn't too bad. I'll adjust with an afternoon nap if possible. I weighed in at 179 5/8 lb a new local PR. I have noticed my left knee is very stiff going down stairs lately and this morning more so. I will monitor this carefully.

Today is a KB rest day with a little BW work.

Z-Health R-Phase

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 8: 1 set of 2 neutral pull-ups (8,1,2)

Those were very strong .. the program is starting to kick in.

Today I'm going add some static holds towards the goal of being able to perform

• a 60 second seated L-sit on the floor on raised fingertips
  
• a set of 10 hanging leg raises.
  

Also, my S.O. wants to train these as well so now we can have fun torturing ourselves together. Back in high school I could hold a seated L-set for 15 seconds but that was 40 years ago and this is now.

BW 4 x 10 second hanging tucks
BW 4 x 5 second hanging L-sit holds

I remembered fromm Coach Sommer's posts on DD that he recommends doing a total of 60 seconds of work on a specific progression a day until it only takes one set. I actually mixed two progression when I surprised myself and could do a passable hanging L-sit for 5 seconds at a crack. From now on I'll just stick with these.

On a whim, I decided to try some palms-facing chin-ups:

BW 1 x 4 chin-ups

Wow, I probably could have squeezed out a 5th. I think this is nice side effect of the neutral grip pull-ups I have been GD GTG-ing for over a week.

Later I demonstrated the Power Wheel for my S.O.:

BW 2 x 1 Roll Out, Hold for 2 seconds, and Return while on my knees with PW in hands
BW 2 x 15ft Crawl with PW strapped to feet

Okay now I'm cooked .. that's it for the rest of day!

================================================

Due to some excellent feedback on this blog (thanks again Aaron!), I'm moving the Diet and Nutrition log to the bottom here to make it easier for those only interested in the physical aspect of my training.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

Morning Snack:
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz of Kefir

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal

Early Dinner at our favorite Sichuan Restaurant:
1.5 large "Lion-head" pork meatballs
1 helping of steamed Chinese cabbage
1 helping Dan-dan noodles
1 large helping of Four Season green beans
1 small helping of white rice

Evening Snack:
1 large Trader Joe sesame cracker
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 honey tangerine

Back to a work day for my 2nd KB cycle

The furnace shorted out last night around 6pm. It was only 20 F by 11:30pm so I waited until the morning to call the gas company. Bundled up and the house only dropped to 45 F .. not too bad. I went to bed around 12:30am and got at 4am to run the hot and cold water just to make sure my pipes didn't freeze. Got up at 6am with a body weight of 179 3/4 lbs a new local PR .. my 80kg goal doesn't seem too unrealistic if I keep this up.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull-up Program:
Day 7: 1 set of 2 neutral pull-ups (7,1,2)

Furnace man came and replaced a fried thermastat .. could have a LOT worse. It was already 10:30 so I stayed home and did my KB training:

Morning snack:
1 small bowl of freshly cook Toor Dal

The Toor Dal (a dish based on a bean in the lentil family) is an excellent source of protein and once of my favorite Indian cuisines. Mike Mahler, a vegan and elite KB lifter published a great article on how he packs on muscle with his vegan diet:

making-the-vegan-diet-work.html



I'm glad I took the extra day's off as I needed it to nail down my plan for my 2nd KB workout.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Periformus, upper back, shoulders
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 Slingshots .. oops, it slipped again .. yeah! interlocking floor mats!
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

Superset x 6 with one minute rest between sets, no rest between A1 and A2:
A1. Dbl 24kg 1 x 4 LCCJ
A2. Dbl 32kg 1 x 5 Swing

Originally, I intended to do 5 LCCJ per superset but I realized in the 1st set that 4 was enough, hence the extra set (6 instead of 5).

2 minute rest

Dbl 24kg 10 x 10 Swings with 1 minute rest between sets

24kg 3 x 3r/3l TGU with one minute rest between arms.

Total volume: 13000 lbs

Instead of putting the bell down after each TGU rep, this time I keep each working arm locked out for the entire three reps. This required even more concentration .. afterwards both shoulders felt great.

Afternoon snack:
2 small handfuls of roasted almonds
1 small handful of roasted cachews
4 oz of Kefir


Dinner:
1 moderate helping of S.O. prepared Sichuan shrimp with cauliflower, broccoli, peas and carrots.
1 small bowl of streamed Kale and sweet potato
2 Sesame crackers
1 piece of wild blueberry pie
1 scoop of ice cream

Another easy day

Last night I had digestion issues and as a result not a great sleep. I got up at 5:45am and weighed in at 182 3/4 lb an increase of 2 1/4 lbs. This is no surprise as the very large portion of Chinese Braised Pork I had with dinner last night was both very salty and sweet. This was the 1st heavy meat dish I have had in almost a month and I'm not used to it since switching to an Indian Ayurvedic vegetarian cuisine. As a result, next time a heavy meat dish is prepared for me, I will only take a much smaller portion.

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull up Program:
Day 6: 1 set of 2 neutral pull ups (6,1,2)

A little better tension today .. both pull-ups were solid.

Oh, and both elbows are feeling good again. I am going to really challenge myself today with another rest day! With the 2 pull-ups out of the way, I will only do easy joint mobility, Z and Qi. And please believe me when I say this is a real challenge for my "Type A" personality who tends to over due everything!

With the sounds of birds chirping and a bright sunshine out this morning, spring is finally starting to arrive in what has been a long cold snowy winter here in New England.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates


One of my fellow co-workers saw me do a wall-walk handstand from the push-up position the other day and asked me to spot him. Background: He just turned 50, is 6'3" and a slightly chunky 240 lb and an avid skier. He was the only in the office here that could close the COC#1 with both hands when it first arrived .. it took me several months of serious training to achieve this .. an accomplishment I very satisfied with considering how bad my grip strength initially was.

Granted that wall assisted handstands are very modest BW exercises, this type of training is very new and challenging to me. With only the mildest assistance he went right up and walked his hands about 8 inches from the wall. I then did one and can get my hands within inches. Staying up for more than 15 seconds is still quite difficult for me. We then did the standard kick up wall handstand so that now we faced away from the wall. This was actually easier for me. My co-worker then took his turn, had some difficulty but eventually got up there.

Morning snack:
4 oz of Kefir
1 small handful of roasted almonds


A few days ago on whim I ordered a power wheel and it just arrived today from performbetter.com ... this place ships faster than any other internet store I have ever done business with. It assembled quite easily and I tried it out. The roll out, hold and return on my knees while holding the wheel with my hands wasn't too bad .. all the tension I had learned to produce with KB grinds really helped. I then attached it to my feet and did some hand crawling while in the push-up position .. this was very tough to go just 15 feet. I can see I'm going to really enjoy my new toy.

Lunch:
1.5 bowls of Kitchari with sweet potato, Toor Dal and Gujarati green beans
1 large Naval orange
1 small handful of corn chips

Afternoon snack:
2 small handful of roasted cashews

A co-worker today has unknowingly assisted me with a will training exercise by putting out for public consumption some of the best chocolate chip cookies in this area. Each one is about 200 calories .. I did not have one .. six weeks ago I would have had at least three.

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with sweet potato and steamed Kale
2 dates
1 piece of strawberry/rhubarb pie
1 scoop of ice cream

Tomorrow its back to a KB training day and I'm really looking forward to it.

A Basement Gym

Here are pictures of my probably fairly typical unfinished basement home gym: Kettlebells, interlocking floor mats, hard foam roller, think nylon rope, stop watch, GymBoss, pen, work gloves with fingers cut off. Also note the elliptical trainer, my main stay for many years, which I never re-assembled after moving to my new house ... I had ditched this type of exercise in favor of KB strength and endurance training shortly after being introduced to it. My company supplies free passes to a local gym equipped with all the latest hardware .. except KBs .. haven't been there since the beginning of the summer.

Went to bed at 11pm and got up at 6am .. a very good nights sleep. I weighed in at 180.5 lb again .. very pleased to able to stay here. Woohoo! .. no pain in the elbows this morning! I really think the gentle Z-Health and QiGong last night really help lubricate them. Today I am still going to give the KBs another day off and do a little BW work with more joint mobility, Z and Qi.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull up Program:
Day 5: 1 set of 2 neutral pull ups (5,1,2)

These felt real good and I'm back to being a good boy .. NO extra sets today!

Morning snack:
4 oz of Kefir

Now that I'm back with pull ups, I wanted to start thinking about some pushing exercises for balance. I haven't done any KB C&P work (or any weight pressing of any kind) since October (they really aggravated my elbows when I was starting to make good gains with ETK ROP) so I thought I would ease back into some milder pressing with the old gym standard, the push-up. I use push-up stands .. they give a much greater range of motion by allowing my chest to sink below my hands and gently touch the floor each rep.

BW 4 x 15 push-ups one set every 15 minutes

Did these at work (where I keep my push-up stands) in the aisle way. I have recently learned that standard push-ups can be slowly morphed over a number of years via a set of progressions into the very challenging HSPU's (BW handstand push-ups). For information on HSPU progressions and other gymnastic type training check out the many articles at:

http://www.drillsandskills.com/articles/

You can also search the DD forum for anything Coach Sommer posts ... the man is gymnastic training genius.

I went home for lunch and did:

BW 5 x 100 jump rope with short rests between sets. Time: 7:30

BW Superset x 2 with one minute rest between the sets:

1. 20 Front squats
2. 20 Cossacks
3. 10 Deck squats
   

That's a very slow jump roping time compared to a moderately accomplished speed rope jumper which would take he/she less than half my time. I fell into jump roping by accident when I bought the thick nylon rope in the photo above back in October. After reading Joe Pavel's article on DD

Look-ma, no hands!

I used it only to practice swing hip flexing, by looping it through the handle of my 24kg bell and behind my neck (protected by a rolled up towel). After adjusting the length to let the bell hang freely between my legs, I would then perform the swinging motion without my arms just using my core and hip flexing. This was also at the time when my elbows were too sore to do any kind of lifting, so I was on the look out for creative ways to do something!

Then a month ago after getting tired of running in place for active rest between sets of C&Js, I looked down saw the rope and began clumsily jumping rope. Apparently this is considered a great full body endurance exercise. After seeing this youtube video clip:

nasty-rope-jumping

by Olympic wrestler Buddy Lee you can easily see why. I bought an inexpensive speed rope recently but didn't like .. someday I'll give it another whirl.

Lunch:
1 protein shake with 6 oz of Kefir
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with brown rice and sweet potato
1 large Naval orange

Afternoon snack:
1 handful of roasted almonds
1 handful of cashews

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with brown rice and sweet potato
1 large helping of S.O. prepared Beijing style Hong Shao Rou (soy-sauce braised pork)
1 helping of steamed Kale with a little olive oil and salt
2 pieces of pie
2 scoops of ice cream

Oh yes, the double desert .. ahem .. when my S.O. suggested why don't we finish the strawberry rhubarb pie, I only put up the mildest resistance.

Following the elbow rehab success of last night, I this evening I did Z and Qi.

Ouch ...

Went to bed around 9:45pm and woke up repeatedly with to two sore elbows. I got up at 5am, weighed in at 180.5 lb, and logged into the office to catch up on some work.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz of Kefir
4 dates

After breakfast the elbows felt okay so I decided to do the next day of the GD GTG pull up program:

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull up Program:
Day 4: 1 set of 2 neutral pull ups (4,1,2)

I then waited 5 minutes and did another set. I'm still having some trouble trusting in the program and when I do, I do stupid stuff like more volume instead of sticking with the program. In any event, I did the 1st set so quickly I didn't have a sense of engaging my lats. The second set I made sure they were engaged both up and down ... hey, hey this is my rationalization.

When I got to work around 7:30am I started using with ice packs on both elbows on the hour for 6 minutes at time. By 11am my left was still quite painful. I did some slow ROM testing with both arms and noticed that the Resilient French Press motion was very painful. I then recalled how many I had done in the last few days and in particular yesterday how I did far 3 sets of 10 reps with the 12kg bell as I wasn't "feeling" the stretch. Damn, this is the nasty part about elbow tendinitis .. many times the pain does not occur until a day or so later. So at 2pm I broke down and popped four 200mg Ibuprofen and within an hour was feeling much better. Needless to say this is going to be another rest day .. probably a rest week given the relative discomfort.

Lunch:
1.2 bowl of Kitchari
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with brown rice and sweet potato
1 Naval orange
2 Dates

Snack:
3 small handfuls of cashews
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds
4 oz Kefir

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans and sweet potato
1 moderate helping of steamed Kale with olive oil and a little salt
1 large sesame cracker
2 dates
1 piece of strawberry/rhubarb pie
1 scoop of ice cream

At around 9pm I first did Z-Health R-Phase and then followed that up with Lee Holden's QiGong, "The Flow Continues". During both, I focused on flowing large ROM pain-free movements. Afterwards I felt completely relaxed.

Rest, rest and more rest

I had passable night's sleep with me weighing in this morning at 180.75 lbs. The loss of the 1 lb was no surprise as I went back to my regular eating and hydration plan. I am a little sore from yesterday's workout but I expected that from the new "going heavy" routine, yet its nothing that rest and multiple ice treatments can't fix.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz of Kefir

Howie Brewer, RKC-in-training, turned me on to the Kefir .. both my S.O. and I think it rocks!

I'm really being to appreciate my training rest days. Its mind-boggling that it has taken me so long to "get it" but then again I'm one of those type A's. So now I know that "resting" means no Kettlebells but instead an easy to moderate dose of low impact stretching, QiGong and joint-mobility exercises.

After breakfast I did Z-Health R-Phase. I'm consistently getting this in about twice a week and seems to really ground me. One of the pleasant side effects of Z is I have noticed that my posture has improved (I'm especially cognizant of it when taking walks) due to its foundational emphasis on the "Z-Neutral Stance".

Lunch:
1 bowl of Kitchari with Gujarati green beans and sweet potato
1 large Naval orange

Following lunch I did half hour of QiGong from the Lee Holden "The Flow Continues" DVD.

Later, I re-read the Greg Donahue article on his GTG pull up program and realized I had to scale back from 3 to 2 neutral pull ups for the 1st 2 weeks (not to mention the fact that yesterday my 3rd pull up came up a bit short).

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull up Program:
Day 3: 1 set of 2 neutral pull ups (3,1,2)

I had solid form with good tension and lat engagement up and down.

Afternoon snack(s):
1/4 u-waved sweet potato
2 small handfuls roasted almonds
2 small handfuls roasted cashews
2 Dates
2 oz Kefir
1 small handful sesame walnuts

Thats a lot of calories for a couple snacks but my body was crazy hungry.

Dinner:
1.5 bowls of Gujarati green beans and brown rice
1 piece of pie
1 scoop ice cream

This evening I tried a wall walking handstand from a video clip at Josh Henkin's site http://sandbagexercises.com/services.php. No problem going up but coming down was nasty .. CRASH!! BOOM!! .. luckily no injury.

Day One of Cycle Two

The 3 glasses of wine last night induced a nap between 8 and 9pm. Went to bed around 2am after starting this training blog. I got up at 5:45am and weighed in at 182 lbs. My weight is slowly creeping back up in proportion to the extra calories I recently consumed. The last two days I was lax in my fluid intake and will get back on track today.

Eating clean and healthy has been very easy for the meals I cook since being introduced to Ayurvedic healing veterinarian cuisine. On the other hand, going to friends homes, entertaining or eating out is much more challenging to stay the course.

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with a little sweet potato and Toor Dal
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
4 oz of Kefir

A week and a half ago, I started a simple GTG (Grease-The-Groove) pull up program to address a glaring weakness in my fitness. I started with Greg Donahue's program scaled down to my level (ahem ... lack of level) of 1 set of 1 perfect tactical grip pull up per day for two weeks .. adding an additional pull up every two weeks until I reach 5RM. I chose tactical grip as it is the most functional of the various grips but it just tweaks my elbows too much. So 9 days into the program I did a reset and switched to a neutral grip where I already had a 3RM. (For Greg's complete article see: http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/220/)

GD (Greg Donahue) GTG Pull up Program:
Day 2: 1 set of 3 neutral pull ups (2,1,3)

My 3rd pull up was just a tad short. Here is an excerpt from a great article by John Allstadt from Girevik Magazine about how to engage the lats in a very graphic way:

"Grip the bar with hands just slightly wider than shoulder width. Now, imagine that you have had both arms amputated from the elbows up, and that your hands and forearms are hooks attaching your elbows to the pull up bar. In this manner, you will be forced to initiate the pull with your elbows, the goal being to activate your lats before your biceps kick in."

He goes on to say its also very important to engage the biceps in conjunction with the lats as well as the need to create huge tension on the way up and down. (For the complete article: http://www.powerathletesmag.com/archives/seven/pullups.htm)

So, today begins a new cycle and one that is very different from my previous one. Its primarily based on allocating two days a week to one of Mike Mahler's program which was optimized for strength. Then one day of high rep lower weight endurance training. Off days will consist of joint mobility, Z-Health and QiGong.

Warmup:
Hard Foam Roller: ITB, Periformus, (oops! forgot upper back, shoulders)
16kg 1 x 10/10 Halos
24kg 1 x 10/10 High Velocity Slingshots
BW 1 x 10 Wall squats

5 sets with one minute rest between sets with no rest between items 1 and 2 of the following superset:

1. Double 24kg 5 Front Squats
2. Double 32kg 5 Swings
   

One minute rest followed by:
24kg 3 x 3r/3l TGU with one minute rest between arms

Two minute rest followed by:
5 x 100 Jump Rope with one minute rest between sets

BW Static Plank 1 x 10b/30r/33l/33b = 1:46 new PR
(Key: b for both arms, r for right arm only , l for left arm only and times in seconds)

Cool down:
A hodge-podge of 5 minutes of various standard and yoga stretches.

Total KB volume 8800 lbs.

The jump rope was not part of my original plan but I added it as I had so much left in the tank and jumping rope is a nice safe way to burn some extra cals. Even after the this, I was surprised that I was able to PR in my BW static plank. Also on the TGUs I had to reduce the reps from the originally intended 5 down to 3 but I increased the sets from 2 to 3 so that the volume was about the same. The total KB volume from workout is very conservative as I need to proceed cautiously since I am going pretty heavy. The volume will increase gradually, as my goal is to add a new set every week until I hit 10 sets.

Lunch:
1 Protein shake with 6 oz of Kefir
1.5 bowls of Gujarati green beans with Toor Dal and sweet potato
1 Naval orange
2 Dates

My S.O. and I took a 3 mile walk with our little Cairn terrier, Shaka Maui around 2pm.

Snack:
1 small handful of roasted almonds
1 small handful of sesame roasted walnuts
1/2 Naval orange
1 sesame cracker

Around 5pm I went through my newly purchased Pavel's Tsatouline's Resilient DVD very carefully performing each drill. Of the 19 drills on the DVD, only the Hack Squat Hip Opener present problems and is rough on my knees. I added resistance to the elbow greaser by crush gripping a 4kg bell. I have minor issues with knees, shoulders, and lower back that by practicing these drills should keep them minor or eliminate them completely. My elbows require special care due the tendinitis I am just recovering from. Not surprisingly, the elbow drills are very beneficial.

Dinner:
1 bowl of Gujarati green beans with sweet potato
1 piece of strawberry/rhubarb pie
1 scoop of ice cream

Today I drank 6 12 oz glasses of herbal teas today and am back to my previous hydration levels. It was a wonderful sunny day here in New England ... a nice respite from the record setting sleet and snow this winter.

The end of a cycle

First of all, I want to thank Howie Brewer of "Howz Training" at http://howztraining.blogspot.com/ for encouraging me to start this blog ... his training blog has been an inspiration to my own training and I can't thank him enough.

Today marked the end of four week training cycle that began on Feb 2. Today's training was my first experiment with snatches since August. To provide context for this, back last June, when I was introduced to this incredible training tool by Andrew Bender, RKC, it completely blew me away.. I just couldn't get enough. Due to shoulder and lower back problems and a strong belief that I shouldn't do too much, my previous training consisted of 4 -5 times weekly of 45 minutes on an elliptical trainer with a 10 minute sprinkling of ad hoc dumb bell weight training at a local gym. I thought I had a great base of strength and endurance until I was introduced to the Kettlebell swing .. things haven't been the same since!

Within 6 weeks, using a program Andy had designed for me, I had essentially rehabbed my shoulder and my lower back. Against the warnings of Andy and other knowledgeable trainers, I tried to add more volume and intensity to my workouts that my joints and tendons could handle. As a result, I gave myself a nasty case of left elbow tendinitis. Snatches were impossible as I couldn't even perform a single high pull without extreme discomfort. Eventually, I couldn't even perform swings without discomfort. Naively trying to "work through the pain" by massively dosing myself with Ibuprofen, I also injured my right elbow.

When I finally came to my senses, I had to take 4 months off of all training. In December I resumed my training for about a week until a 5 hour wet-snow shoveling session sent both elbows through the roof. After another 7 weeks of rest, I began resuming training VERY carefully focusing on swings and jerks both of which very easy on my elbows. That 1st training session on Feb 2, consisted of 10 sets of 10 two hand swings with the 16kg bell. Progress has been steady and just a few days ago, I completed the modest "Howie Challenge", consisting of 20 sets of 5 left, 5 right one hand swings on the minute with the 24kb bell.

Having made it through a month of great training without a serious tweak, I am ecstatic! Here is the last session of the cycle:

Warmup:
Pavel's "Resilient" DVD: A circuit of joint mobility and strengthening drills

16kg 2 x 5/5 snatch
16kg 1 x 15/15 snatch
16kg 1 x 20/20 snatch
16kg 2 x 10/10 snatch
Dbl 16kg 2 x 5 snatch
Sub Total 150x35 = 5250 lbs

16kg 10l/10r/10l/10r/6l/6r 1H swing
16gkg 1 x 40 2H swing
Sub Total = 3360 lbs

24kg 1 x 2/2 snatch
24kg 1 x 20 2H swing
Sub Total = 1272 lbs

Total = 9882 lbs

BW Static Plank: 1 x 10b/25r/25l/30b = 1:30

I didn't go overdo it and used conservative un-timed rests between sets. I really focused on a strong hip flex on each rep and the bell felt very comfortable. I had no problems at all with my elbows .. as a pre-caution, I iced both them afterwards just for safety. As a result, I will slowly integrate low rep 24kb snatches into my next cycle.