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