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.
4 comments:
Nice job on the pullup PR. I expect huge improvement if you keep at it. As long as feels OK on your elbows (and I don't see why it wouldn't), focusing on tension and SPEED will make this movement dramatically stronger for you. Try to slam your chest on the bar.
I add weight to get my sets DOWN within 5 reps, but recently I've just been pulling my chest against the bar as fast and explosively as possible for sets of 3-5. It seems to work just as well for power, which carries over into long-set reps. It's probably easier on joints, too.
Regarding grinds, etc., and hurting your elbows, lots of people know more than me, but I don't think you need strict presses if you're doing TGUs and LCCJ ~ if snatching is your goal, that is. Overhead holds for time with the 24kg will help lay the foundation for future snatches, however (one bell at a time is enough).
I got fooled by two hand swings twice in the last couple of days... I was doing heavy one hand swings and found them very hard for grip and forearms, so I thought I should better switch to two hand swings... bad idea. What I didn't consider was that neither hand gets a rest then.
Your pullup improvement is impressive! I'm planning to start a strength cycle after the cert and include pullups. I haven't worked on them seriously for quite a long time because of wrist problems, but I hope I can start a similar program soon.
Aaron,
Thanks! I'm quite surprised at my modest progress considering how utterly lame I was with pull-ups just a few weeks ago.
Gabi,
Yes, one-handed or two-handed .. there is no escaping grip fatigue with high rep swinging!
Also, I'm glad you are going to consider pull-ups after your cert. These will nicely complement your grinds as discussed in ETK.
One of the links on your blog led me to "gubermatrix" (now link-ed on my blog), which is a site run by a woman who recently hit an 11RM on chin-ups. She has a nice video of it .. great for inspiration!
Yes, I'm really looking forward to it. Right now I can only use neutral grip, both over- and underhand grips are too much strain on the wrists, but the cert is still 7 weeks to go so there's still time for them to get okay.
Also, first time now in April, there's going to be a TSC event here in Hungary too, so there's hope I can participate some time in the future.
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