A couple of weeks ago, I felt that my grip had recovered sufficiently that I would be able to resume.  What was missing was my stamina!  30 sets (15 minutes) and I was toast.  Today’s attempt went much better, thankyouverrymuch.  Back to where I started in August:

Viking Warrior Conditioning

I’m shooting for at least two VWC sessions each week, and build this back up to 80 sets.  I’m also going to dig out my heart rate monitor, just because I like posting a graph or two to show you how damn hard I’m working!

I tried to pick up where I left off: 15:15 protocol, 7 cadence, 16 kg.  I felt pretty good, but the grip started to fade after 15 minutes (the goal is 40).  Not great, but a good first attempt.  The left forearm took a bit of a beating due to form.  I just wasn’t very smooth on the weak side.  Give it time, John.  The bruise should make a pretty good photo tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Thurs. 11/12 – Did a kettlebell workout of Luka’s design…

• Double Kettlebell Front Squats
• Negative Pullups

Escalating density sets of:

• Pushups
• Kettlebell swings

Blew up after the EDT set, and called it a night.  I was still a bit toasted from Tuesday with the Duke of Density.

Friday – Rest

Sat. 11/14 Viking Warrior Conditioning

15:15 protocol, 16kg, 8 cadence, 30 sets.

I’m really struggling with the faster cadence for some reason.  After working for weeks at a cadence of 7, it’s really hard to push it up.  I need to do this a couple of times a week, and work on improving 10% or so each time.

Sunday – Rest

Monday 11/16 – One arm swing workout – high volume

1,100 one handed swings:

• 440 @ 20 kg
• 330 @ 16 kg
• 330 @ 12 kg

For some stupid reason, I decided to do that high volume swinging workout the night before heading to Hocevar Performance for my weekly ass-kicking.  Dumb idea.  Never again.  I should save the self-flagellation for Saturday or Sunday.  Monday should be rest & stretching because on Tuesday…

Tuesday @ Hocevar Performance

• Dynamic warmups (front and side lunges, inchworms, front lunge variations)
• Stretches
• Activation: Wide-outs, v-squats, and high-knee running in place.

Then the workout begins!

4 sets of Heavy kettlebell complex:

• Two handed swings
• Goblet squats
• Bent-over rows
• High Pulls

Luka started me out with a 40 kg ‘bell, which I promptly abandoned when I tried to goblet squat with the thing.  My grip was pretty well toasted from Monday night, so I stepped down to the 32 kg for the remainder of the series.  Even then, I ended up bear-hugging the damn thing to get through the squats.  Lesson learned.

Next set was sandbag work:

• 5 cleans
• 5 overhead presses
• 5 squats
• 5 reverse lunges

We finished with a little metabolic set work, twice through, 30 seconds each:

• Squat jumps
• Front Squats
• Squat and Hold
  

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday 11/19

Viking Warrior Conditioning (kettlebell snatches)

15:15 protocol, 20 kg kettlebell, 6 cadence, 40 sets

In order to vary my workload a bit, and hopefully better prepare for the RKC in 14 weeks (yikes!), we’re going to work in one round of snatch work with the heavier ‘bell at a lower cadence.  At first the 6 cadence felt painfully slow, and I went for 7.  That lasted until set 12 or so.  At that point, 6 felt just fine, thanks.

Today I headed to the man-cave in the early evening, and did the following:

Warm-up:

• Forward Lunges
• Lateral Lunges
• Romanian Deadlift walk
• Inchworms
• Bunny-Hops

I fired up the metabolism with 3 sets, 20 seconds each of:

• Wide-out squats
• V-Squats holding pole overhead
• high-knee running in place

My daily quotient of 5 negative pull-ups

Viking Warrior Conditioning.  15:15 protocol, 8 cadence, 16 kg bell.

I got in 30 sets before I lost enough speed that I couldn’t maintain the cadence.  After several weeks of working at 7 snatches in 15 seconds, your body definitely adjusts to that rhythm, and it takes a lot of force-of-will to speed the damn thing up to a cadence of 8.  I’ll have to keep at this, maybe 2-3 times a week and try for a personal best every time by at least 20%.

The HRM plot below covers the workout from the Metabolic warmup, the pullups, letting the dog out, then the snatches.

No, “letting the dog out” is not an exercise.  It’s letting the dog out.  Unless of course the dog runs away and you chase it.  Mine didn’t.

Friday I was still a bit tight, but I felt like I needed to do something.  I did a quick warmup, and did a 5 minute RKC snatch test.  I need to be able to do 100 snatches of a 20 kg kettlebell in 5 minutes before the RKC training on February 19.  I hit 94, which given my personal power quotient at the moment, was pretty good.

Today I started out with some faster snatches, and did about 20 sets at 8 reps per 15 seconds, with 15 seconds of rest.  Just an extra rep per 15 seconds of work makes a huge difference in the cardio component.  Depending on how hearty the party tonight, I may try this cadence out for a complete snatch workout tomorrow (why do I think Monday is more likely?).   Finished up with some kb cleans and presses, and some negative pull-up work.  Sara Cheatham’s latest post kicked me in the butt a little bit, and I need to “want” this a little more than I have.

Oh, the party?  I picked up a toga kinda thing.  I just hope it’s not too cold tonight!

• I was sick all last week.
• I didn’t hardly work out during that time because I felt like crap.
• Luka totally crushed me with his stacking/density/kill-calnan workout on Tuesday.
• The soreness from Tuesday night really started to come-on last night, and my hips were tighter than a (insert tightness analogy here).
• The wind was against me, and it was uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow.

Any number of reasons that I’d not do well with my scheduled appointment with the Viking Warrior Conditioning workout.  Today’s goal was to do the 15:15 protocol, 7 swing cadence, for 80 sets.

Mission Accomplished.

Viking Warrior Conditioning

Once I got my music playlist cranked up and started snatching, I felt pretty good.  I started to really get fatigued about set 60, so I focused on shortening the arc of the kettlebell as well as having a sharp hip-snap, and the final 20 sets flew by.  I was screaming after each of the last five, enough of an uproar to bring the dogs in to find out what the hell was going on.

HRM Plot, but I forgot to start it at the beginning… so this begins 10 sets into the workout:

Feeling quite accomplished at the moment.  A day to reflect, then start over at a cadence of 8, most likely.

According to my plan, I was going to attempt the Viking Warrior Conditioning 15:15 protocol again on Thursday, and go for another personal record.  About the only record I was going for on Thursday was falling asleep into my keyboard.  Friday wasn’t much better, but I bucked-up enough this morning to give it my best shot.  Personal record? Check!  Here’s my VWC stats to date:

Viking Warrior Conditioning

The little dips in the HRM graph below, those are the 15 second “rest periods”:

It is a tight little 35 minutes of work, I gotta say.  Because I wasn’t necessarily 100%, I’m looking forward to my next attempt after a few more days of healing.  The snatches felt good, and as long as I concentrate on my hip-snap at the bottom & controlling the arc of the ‘bell during the snatch I feel pretty strong (just very damp).  Although taped and wearing cutoff sock-tops on my palms, my calluses were complaining by the end of 70 sets.  A soak, some pumice stone work, and moisturizing should help with that.

15:15 protocol / 8 cadence / 16 kg / 50 sets

50 sets again, which I’m going to mentally discount as early morning fatigue, no real breakfast (although I did drink a Surge Workout Fuel just before), and a couple of glasses of vino on Saturday night.  I also did a genius move on Friday, and managed to cut my left middle finger on the joint with a pair of scissors.  Not huge, but it easily breaks open again due to the location.  I taped the hell out of it this morning, and that seemed to help but it was still a bit uncomfortable.  No excuses on the workout, I just need to hit it a little later in the day, when I’m a bit more fueled up for the sustained high heart rate required.

I’m still sore from my last strength workout; my lats and pectorals are complaining with every touch, flexion, or extension.  I still taped up the hands and gave it a go, but lost form badly at about 48 sets.  I did two more sets to get an even 50, but Terri came home just about that time and let me know that even to her untrained eye, my form sucked.

I wore my HRM tonight just to see how it looked on a plot, and how many calories I chewed through.  As it turns out, I burned 333 calories in 25 minutes of swinging.  After about 15 sets, my heart rate was up around 90% of max.  Tale of the plot:

Friday or Saturday for the next attempt.

The high pulls seemed especially hard tonight, perhaps a fatigue factor from the high-pull and snatch reps on Monday and Tuesday.  The balance of the workout seemed easier, so I’ll likely increase the reps next time on the pistols, push ups, and squat jumps (or increase the weight on these).

I’m still fired up to do the VO2 Max interval workouts that I spent the day learning last Saturday. So on Friday afternoon, as soon as my east-coast clients all bailed out for the weekend, I had a nice little window of time to get in a workout.  Because of the high repetitions involved, the kettlebell snatch can really take a toll on the palms of my hands.  I took a few minutes to tape my hands prior to the workout.  My technique needs work, as my results were less than beautiful.  I’ve got a couple of callouses that are going to require a watchful eye.

The workout itself went well; 15:15 “Viking Warrior Conditioning” protocol of 7 x 16 kg kettlebell snatches in 15 seconds, then 15 seconds of “active rest” (jogging in place, trying not to hurl, etc.)  I made it to 50 sets of snatches, a nice improvement over Monday’s 40 set total.  I must say that it is an interesting mental exercise to do this workout, especially when you are by yourself.  The workout starts out relatively easy; you feel strong, the kettlebell swings in a nice smooth ark, and your hips fold-and-snap crisply at the bottom of each repetition.  That “running on rails” feeling flew out the door at about set 20.  By set 30, my lower back started to fatigue (likely a symptom of not enough hip-snap at the bottom), and I really have to concentrate on my form in order to keep the bell moving at the correct pace, and not turn my body on the downswing.  Between set 40 and 50, I had a couple of sets where I could only get in 6 reps, and the floor was an absolute swamp.  I pulled the plug after 50 so as to not hurt myself with poor form.  I took a picture of myself at that moment, and quickly deemed it unsuitable for publishing.  Here’s the aftermath, however.

a "mop and bucket" workout

I am at one of those frustrating plateaus you experience when dieting…  worked out 4 out of 5 days this week and stuck to the diet plan, including any alcohol.  I flushed a lot of salt out of my system  in the first couple of days, and dropped a couple of pounds.  Then you have three days in a row where the scale doesn’t move at all (or it moves in the wrong direction).  Intellectually, I understand that this isn’t a linear process, but emotionally it just plain pisses me off.  Just sayin’