Movement. More important than weight?

I love to lift heavy things. It makes me feel cool. But more important than lifting something heavy is to move efficiently. Maybe the amount of weight is not as important as how the force is applied.
I never thought I would say that.
But it's true. Revisiting the Swing and Get-Up has been truly eye opening for me. In the last few weeks I have unlocked my hip flexors unleashing the power of the glutes and hamstrings and also truly found my lats.
I haven't gone heavier than 16kg for the Get-Ups. The swings I have stuck with one arm swings at 40kg.
Yesterday I did a fun little workout focusing on movement--not on weight.
Ladder from 16kg to 48kg.
Get-Up 16kg x 1/1
Swing 16kg x 8/8
Repeat with 20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg, 36kg, 40kg, 48kg and all the way back down 40,36,32,28,24,20,16.

The movement was the same. Strict, crisp, connected. This session consisted of 240 swings and 30 get-ups. The swings were rest from the get-ups and vice versa. I did take a short break (60 seconds or less) after the 48kg swings.
The movement was the same.
So the next time you enter the gym, garage, shed, yard, wherever you train, ask yourself; How is my movement?

The Swing is the center of the universe

Brett Jones had a great quote at the RKC in San Diego recently regarding the Swing and the Get-up;
"The swing is my favorite, Get-up more favorite"
Lately my training has been primarily that. So this leads me to look at the swing with more attention.
The snatch gets a lot of hype but the swing is the center of the universe. If you don't have a swing, you don't have a snatch. just doing swings is enough. You think the swing is too easy? How about one arm swings with a 40kg for sets of 8/side on the minute for 12 minutes. Oh right, that's what I did today--and it was brutal.

You get a higher cadence than with the snatch, you can use more weight. The swing is king.
Now that I got that out of my system here's what else I did today.
Bottom Up Press
24kg x 8/8 x 3
24kg x 5/5 x 5
Bottom Up Squat
24kg x 5/5 x 5
Bottom Up Windmill
24kg x 1/1 x 3

Did the swings later and then hit the heavy bag.

On monday I did tabata one arm swings with a 32kg getting 5 reps per set and immediately followed that with tabata burpees and got 8 reps per set.
So:
Tabata one arm swing @ 32kg (switch arms each round)
10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10
Tabata Burpee
8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8
THAT was tough but it's going to be my new benchmark because it was really, really hard.

Lots of Get-Ups and One arm swings since my last post. Nothing heavier than 24kg for the get-ups. Mostly doing arm bar + get-up + arm bar with brettzel in between. Today I did more of the same...
16kg arm bar + get-up + windmill + arm bar x 1/1 x 5
Rope Climb x 5 (+20lbs)

Bottom Up Press + Squat: 24kg x 2/2 x 4
Beat up the heavy bag for a while.
2nd session
Foam rolling, prep work, z drills, 1 get-up per side.

Tabata 1 arm swing @ 32kg
10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10
Tabata Burpee
8,8,8,8,8,8,8,7
Done Back-To-Back---That was freaking brutal. I am afraid of doing that again

Some cool stuff yesterday...

Z drills and prep stuff--if you are curious about what I do just shoot me a message or leave a comment.

TGU (KS Style)
16kg x 1/1 x 3
24kg x 1/1 x 2

Double Bottom Up C+P+FS
24kg x 1 x 8
24kg x 2 x 1

Bottom up Press + windmill
24kg x 1/1 x 2

Single Bottom Up C+FS+P
24kg x 5/5 x 2

Some cool combo work all done with double 24kgs:
Snatch x 8
Press x 8
Clean x 8
Front Squat x 8
That was probably the most challenging

Then I did:
Snatch x 8
Clean and Press x 8
Front Squat x 4
Swing x 8
Also very difficult

Then I did some armor building:
1 clean, 1 front squat
2 clean, 2 front squat...
up to 5, and I did that twice

Finished with some crisp one arm swings and burpees for a few rounds until my lungs exploded.

The bottom up work was done GTG style throughout a long period of time while doing paperwork/computer stuff.

More Bottoms Up fun

Warmed up with Z drills and joint mobility, ASLR, etc. (If you are curious about what anything is just leave a comment or shoot me a message and I'll give you the rundown.)

Get-Up (KS style)
16kg x 1/1 x 8
Pullup
7x8
1x10

Double Bottom Up Front Squat + see saw press: 5 + 3 x 3

Bottom Up Press + Front Squat:
32kg x 1/1 (right/left) x 3
Bottom Up Front Squat + Press:
32kg x 1/1 x 3

One arm Swing: 40kg x 10/10
L Sit on Parallettes: 20 seconds
Did that for 8 rounds with minimal rest only after L-Sit; focused on explosiveness and dropped to 7 reps/side on swings at round 5

Stretching and Z drills to cool down.

Advanced Bottom Up Drills

Played with lots of variations today--doubles and singles. Liked the Bottom up Press and Front Squat combo the best.
Work up to 5 of each with a 24kg and you should be set. Really helps you stay tight through the body.