24kg BUP single, weighted pull-ups and a little Vinyasa

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Weight: 175 3/4, BF%: 15.1

Morning:
Z-Health: R-Phase & NWU2

Extensor work super set:
A1: 10lb Shotput x 1 x 3 wrist extensions
A2: 10lb Shotput x 1 x 9 reverse wrist extensions
4 sets

Late morning and afternoon:

Neutral Grip Pull ups:
(BW + 56lbs) x 4 x 1 (PR)
BW x 1 x 7

24kg x 1 x 1 BUP (PR)

BW x 1 x 11 Clapping push-ups
BW x 2 x 2r One arm push up
BW x 15 x 1 PowerWheel on Knees roll-out, 5 sec hold, rollback

The 56lbs is a 24kg bell plus a 3 lb belt and thus a PR. This is good news as according to Taikei, Pavel is thinking of making a BW plus 24kg bell pull-up a condition for passing the RKC II Cert. The Bottom's Up Press with the 24kg was a real surprise. I still can't Bottoms Up Clean the sucker but its getting easier. Its pretty clear that there is some corollary to the Kettlebell WTH effect .. namely any trained Kettlebell lift has a WTH effect on any other Kettlebell lift .. I never practice BUPs.

Evening:

Beginner Power Vinyasa Yoga

I found this evening class from an on-line search and it was only a few miles from my home. A variant of Ashtanga ("the eight limbs") yoga, this class was a nicely paced one and half hour; I had no problem with all but a few of the more challenging forms. With only three other students, the instructor was able to make a number of suggestion to me ( the only newcomer) without altering the flow. As was a relatively "active rest" day, the yoga was a nice way to supplement my joint mobility and end the day nice and relaxed.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Weight: 174 1/2 lbs, BF%: 14.8
The evening Yoga had an positive effect as I slept very well.

Morning:

Intermediate Power Vinyasa Yoga

I jumped into the regular hour and half class this morning and did respectable hitting about 70% of the poses .. a quite a few were very natural. Although a great start, I will work on increasing my lengthening in all of them. Some of the them are very advanced and will take awhile to move into. I'm sure all the Z-Heath and Kettlebell training has increased my flexibility.

Late morning and afternoon:

GTG Pull ups:
(BW + 56lb) x 7 x 1 Neutral Grip singles
BW x 1 x 10 Chins
BW x 1 x 25 Front squats ATG, feet parallel

My right elbow is a little sore due to all the heavy volume pull-up work this week. I will stop training them for at least three days and I should be fine.

Z-Health: R-Phase

I performed lots of open handed elbow,shoulder, wrist and hand circles per Mike T Nelson, RKC, Z-Trainer and this really help the soreness.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Weight: 174 lbs, BF%: 14.8

Morning:

Advanced Power Vinyasa Yoga:

This was a real killer. The teacher/owner is a very strong flexible women who performed effortless floor gymnastic-like poses. I was lucky in that one of the "easier" poses was one of Coach Summer's first planche progressions where the weight of the body is supported on the arms with the knees sitting on top of the elbows. I was even also able to jump from it to the plank position before things got really funky. I was fine with the basic contortions associated with Warrior I & II, chair and various triangle poses but when the arms reach around and pick up a leg and stand up on the opposite leg in the beautiful Bird of Paradise pose, I can see that some things will never be meant to be for my body type .. and thats a good thing!

The class was in the morning and I set up my mat next to one of the two heaters on used to warm up the room to a cozy 88 deg F. An hour and half later I was soaked. I did enjoy some of the shoulder stand sequences and got a private tutorial on how to work my core by folding my straight legs in a set of upside down leg raises .. very cool stuff!

Unfortunately a lot of the standing up and folding over rag-doll type sequences were very tough on my lower back .. during one of my timeouts, I needed the full back-sequence from Z-Health R-Phase to stabilize it. If I attend another class at this level I'm going to just go in to child's pose and avoid the majority those sequences until I can slowly build up some more strength down back there.

Double 32kg x 2 10 swings
Double 32kg x 3 x 2 cleans
Double 32kg x (0.5) x 1r Alternating jerk

One of my long term goals is to be able to handle double 32kgs. I cannot jerk them but I did figure out a progression by jerking the right bell while still racking the left one. I then tried to jerk the left side but was too tired as the double 32kg cleans really beat the patooties out of me.