Monday, January 12, 2009

picking up the Kettlbell gauntlet

Today I met with a two young college students Max and John that I had given an impromptu Kettlebell demonstration in early April of last year during a Easter party that John's mother invited me too. I always keep a few bells in the car just in the case such an opportunity like this arises to demonstrate them.

After that session, both purchased bells and the ETK book and started trainingon their own. Max had a good assortment of bells so today I brought along a 32, 40 and 48 kg bell to complement his set. John unfortunatley had recently re-injured a broken ankle and was not able to participate. He had explained how he made tremondous progress with his 16kg and then 20kg bell and put on 10lbs of lean muscle .. he was really looking forward to getting going again in a few more weeks.

Max had really trained hard was now totally ripped at an almost a competitive body-builder lean 168 lbs. His pressing had gone through the roof as back in April he could only press the 24kg for singles. Today he was able to strictly press double 32's for a triple .. no leaning whatsoever .. very impressive. He then went on to demonstrate a bent press with my 40kg with each arm. He was unable to press it but it was close! However he was able to jerk it for triples with each arm. He is interested in becoming an RKC and certainly has more than enough strength for it. His snatch, swing, clean, front squat and TGU needed only minor adjustments. He can already pass his snatch test so only a steady diet of heavy volume swings is all he needs.

Its hard to put into words how much joy it brings to me to see the progress both these young men have made.

Z-Health: Neural Warm-up Level 2 (Dynamic Joint Mobility Drills)

BW x 1 x 10 Heavy blue band Goodmorning
BW x 1 x 5 Ab wheel on the knee rollouts, 5 sec hold and rollback

Kettlebell Session:
24kg x 1 x 1/1 TGU
40kg x 1 x 1/1 TGU
24kg x 1 x 10/10 One-hand swing
24kg x 1 x 20 Roundabout swings
24kg x 1 x 5/5 Front squat
40kg x 1 x 2/2 Front squat
24kgx 1 x 10/10 Snatch
32kg x 1 x 2 Snatch
48kg x 2 x 6 Two-hand swing
40kg x 1 x 3 Jerk

.. a great low volume demonstration session for my loyal Kettlebell devotees.

Weight: 183 lbs
Total Volume: 6000 lbs

4 comments:

Colin said...

Crikey Franklin!! And there I thought you hadn't been doing much KB work - those are strong lifts. Both from yourself and the trainees.

Have you gotten much work from the RKC? Is it something that you are actively pursuing?

I have decided to go down that route myself - though it may take me a year or so to gather up the money and get myself in some kinda shape. I've also sourced an organization that runs coaching courses in Power Lifting and Olympic Weightlifting in England.

Franklin said...

Thanks Colin. In all honesty I have lost a great deal of the work capacity I used to have with Kettlebells .. I won't even attempt a serious MaxVO2 snatch workout anymore.

On the plus side, my body is finally able recover quickly from the Olympic lift training .. this took over three months and I almost had considered canning the whole experiment.

As for RKC work, folks come to me as I don't actively promote it .. a demanding full time engineering job that sometimes requires long hours does not make it feasible to train more than a handfull a week. Also the struggling economy has had an impact as many folks are cutting back to the essentials .. I recently lost two very good clients due to cash flow issues.

Franklin said...

Regardless of the amount of work it might generate, I would still highly recommend going for your cert .. a the very minimum it will force you to get in extraordinary shape.

Colin said...

Don't can the Oly Lifting Franklin you are getting stronger by the session it seems. Plus, there won't be many people walking the earth who will be able to put 100kgs over their heads like you this coming year.

All very good points about economy and forcing me into great shape. I was thinking (hoping!) that in the time it takes me to get all the qualifications I need we should be through the worse of the recession (if the governments just let it run its course) and it would be good timing on my part. Regardless I have decided I want my own gym and thats that :)

Thanks for the response.