Some K-Bell Progress

The above photos are taken from the June 2010 RKC Kettlebell instructor certification. It would be impossible to believe that an organization could run a better three day week of hand's on kettlebell instruction than the RKC provides.

It was four months ago when I began to train to re-certify as an RKC instructor. In particular, I had a plan to hit the required one hundred 24kg kettlebell snatches in five minutes. It took two and a half months to achieve after not training kettlelbell in over a year .. I had to ditch them as the Olympic Weightlifting sessions were too demanding (yes, both my body and mind were very slow to acclimate to this new way of training). Originally I was going to shoot for five sets of ten left, ten right on the top of the minute but I just couldn't handle it .. with a few weeks remaining before the cert, when self-tesing, after the third set my arms were completely fatigued.

Changing plans, I found that I could make a hundred snatches in five minutes by doing five sets of nine left, nine right, getting ahead of the clock a few seconds each minute and then blasting out another five left, five right to make a hundred. Earlier this week on a whim, I tested ten left/ten right and nailed it with seven seconds to spare.

Although I'm pleased with achieving this mini-goal, to put it in perspective Faisal Eno, RKC II, can fairly easily do ten sets of ten left, ten right on the minute to routinely pass the SSST. Its probably to late for me to make that kind of gain but I can still approach it incrementally and get as close as possible as this ole body will allow.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session on lawn outside my office building.

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

32kg Kettlebell:

5 x 20 Two-hand swing
2 x 10/10 One-hand swing
1 x 5/5/5/5 One-hand swing
2 x 5/5/5/5 Round-about swing

1 x 2-rung 24kg TGU

It was extremely humid so I ditched snatching to keep my hands from getting abused. This heavy swing session felt challenging

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Morning Olympic Weightlifting Session in my basement dungeon

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

Back Squat (kg):
70 x 10
85 x 6
95 x 5
105 x 2

I had nothing this morning. This was supposed to be the 2nd session of the 1st week of my 3rd three week cycle of the 1974 Russian Squat Routine. It called for five sets of five with 85% of 1RM which works out to 112kg. I had trained ten consecutive days, rested for one and restarted on Monday but the single day of rest was not sufficient. I knew something was up as my left hip and lower right back were sore. One of these is usually not enough to slow me down but with both acting up I knew I would be in trouble. Am I overtrained? Yes, but still considerably better than how I felt the last time I did the harder 1976 version of the RSR. I couldn't even complete it and had drop my competition lifts 25% to get through standard sessions.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session on lawn outside my office building.

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

24kg Kettlebell

5 x 10/10 snatch at the top of the minute.
Time: 100 reps in 4:47 PR

5 x 2-rung MP ladder

A quick session low volume session was what I had planned and I achieved it. I also PR-ed in being able to perform five sets of ten each side of snatches with the 24kg bell at the top of the minute with 13 seconds to spare. Right now it seems impossible to keep that pace up for another five sets but thats my long term goal in conquering the SSST (Secret Service Snatch Test) .. 200 hundred snatches in 10 minutes.

During my military presses, I really engaged my lat on the negative and this really helped my weaker left side.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session on lawn outside my office building.

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

24kg Kettlebell

10 x 8/8 Snatch at the top of every 1:30

4 x 2-rung MP
1 x (1,2,2) C&P
1 x 6 C&P left
1 x 10 C&P right

Evening Olympic Weightlifting session at Donny's Industrial Bay:

Snatch (kg):
40 x 2 x 3
40 x 1 x 4
50 x 3 x 3
55 x 2 x 2 1110
60 x 3 x 2 001101
40 x 3 x 3 HighHang Snatch

The afternoon kettlebell session started pretting easy with me putting on the breaks with sets of eight left/eight right 24kg snatches but got out of hand in the press ladders as I ended by maxing out on clean-and-press ladders with both arms. The clean really helps me load my lats and core more than the negative from a the pressing.

The kettlebell session left me very flat for the evening Olympic weightlifting snatch session. On the plus side, Yasha Kahn, snatch silver medalist at the 2010 Nationals in the 105 kg men's weight class, helped at the end of the evening with low weight almost standing snatches to teach me how to get in the rock bottom position of snatch as comfortably and quickly as possible.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session on lawn outside my office building.

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

24kg Kettlebell Complex
1. 5 Swings Left
2. 5 Cleans Left
3. 5 Push Presses Left
4. 5 Snatches Left
5. 5 Swings Right
6. 5 Cleans Right
7. 5 Push Presses Right
8. 5 Snatches Right
9. Rest 90 secs
10 Repeat 1 through 9 four more times

This session is a modified version of one of the sessions described here:

Kettlebells and Time Travel - Regaining Time and Escalating Energy by Geoff Neupert, Master RKC.

Geoff, a competitive Olympic lifter, is one of the best out there in knowing how get the most out of a short intense Kettlebell session. My modification consisted of replacing the Military Presses with Push-Presses. This template may look easy but it isn't .. the last time through the complex I had to add a 15 second rest between my weaker left side push presses and snatches as I could no longer hold onto the bell. The whole session was over in 15 minutes and I was smoked.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session on Donny's Industrial Bay.

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

Clean & Jerk (kg):
40 x 2 x 4 Almost standing squat clean
50 x 1 x 5 Almost standing squat clean
60 x 1 x (3+1)
70 x 1 x (2+1)
80 x 1 x (2+1)
85 x 1 x (1+1)
90 x 1 x (1+1) Pressout
90 x 1 x (1+1)
95 x 1 x (1+1) Pressout
100 x 2 x 1 00
90 x 3 x (1+1) 001111

Power Jerks (kg):
60 x 3 x 3

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 8
70 x 5
80 x 3
85 x 3
90 x 3

32kg x 1 x 4/4 kettlebell snatch

A solid session. I had a horrible press-out but I did get 95kg over head somehow for the first time in four months. Coach Ben Fuller suggested I needed to work on quickness and suggested Power Jerks. He noticed I was coming up far too slow from the dip and creating separation of the bar. He stressed I should be pushing from the shoulders for I push under the bar and dip.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Afternoon Kettlebell Session in my basement dungeon

Z-Health R-phase Level 2 Dynamic Joint Mobility:

32kg Kettlebell
10 x 5/5 Snatch
Time: 100 reps in 15 mins 30 secs

My goodness, I really hit the groove with these 32kg bell snatches. Two weeks I did seventy over a longer time period and struggled .. today these were really solid and fluid. This is exciting as I know as continue to get more volume with this heavier bell, the 90 lb-er at the club is eventually getting snatched.