KB Training DVD mail swap .. yeah Howie!

Friday April 18th Training:

Oy-vey, a crappy nights sleep. Weight: 174 lbs .. damn, that's too low! I made it to 80 kg (176 lbs) and just need to hold .. time to jack up the calories. I was considering doing deads again today with some 32kg work, but no way, the body is too tired so I am going to go easy. Also I am a little sore.

Z-Health R-Phase, some Neural Warm-up Level 2

My main man, Howie Brewer, Future RKC, and I agreed to do an mail swap of KB Training DVDs. Today I received the his copy of Brett Jones, Sr RKC's "KB Basics for Strength Coaches adn Personal Trainers" 2 DVD set and had a chance to review the 1st DVD which focused exclusively on ballistics: swing, jerk, snatch. Not surprisingly, in this excellent presentation, Brett provided some new (at least to me) insights into the basics that I will integrate into my lifting. Brett and his demonstration partner Michael Castrogiavanni, RKC, use the 24kg bell exclusively and both make it seems like its an 8kg one.

Howie received my copies of Mike Mahler's KB Beginner Workshop DVD and the 6 DVD set of Steve Cotter's Encyclopedia of KB Lifting Vol 1 on Wed and is finding the info valuable to his training .. which again is not surprising.

I have made great progress on the 24kg snatch front. As a result, now that I have been jacking up the volume, I set up a consult on Monday with Andy Bender,RKC who got me into KB lifting. As a man and trainer of exceptional character and poise, I have nothing but the highest regards for Andy. Our top priority will be to fine tune my snatch form as I have to be really be careful with this much volume.

I also set up another Z-consult in mid-May with Z-Trainer par-excellence Luis Hernandez. Since my consult three weeks ago I have not taken a single NSAID and have been successfully managing my finicky knees and elbows with Z drills exclusively. Given the discomfort level I was in and the intensity of my trainings these results are extraordinary. We will be focusing on Neural Warm-up Level 2. These are more advanced athletic movements than R-Phase and I really dig'm.


Anyone who follows the DD forum knows of the fantastic feats of classic strongman strength the Ssgt Adam Glass has been performing (e.g., bending huge spikes, horse shoes, nails, ripping thick phonebooks and decks of playing cards, one hand suitcase DL-ing of 275lbs).

When the question of improving strongman hand strength came up and whether the COC grippers (I bought ALL of them although I can't do anymore than the the #1 ... yes I'm a knucklehead) where the best way to go, he suggested that pinch-strength and in particular the thumb were much more practical for strongman bending and ripping use. In particular he recommended reading the e-article by James "Smitty" Smith of DieselCrew's article "I Want a Pony". As recommended I purchased two "Pony Clamps" and today my co-worker brought in the necessary hardware modifications to my second "Pony Clamp" for increasing palm flexion strength (my 1st clamp is used unmodified for pinch grip thumb strength). Well, I overdid it and my right elbow got very sore. I did Z all day long and did get some relief but if its this sore tomorrow, I will take another training day off.

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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
1 banana

Morning Snack:
3 small handfuls of roasted almonds

Lunch:
1 bowl of roasted veggies, u-waved sweet potato and Green Gram Curry
1 large orange
2 Dates

Afternoon Snack:
4 small handfuls of roasted almonds

Dinner:
1/2 glass of red wine
1 large bowl of Cilantro pan-fried salmon and Sichuan Shrimp with Veggies
1 small piece of pie
3 scoop of ice cream
2 handfuls of roasted almonds

Okay I really pigged out but 174 lb justified it.