Training today was slow to start. But in my experience you can't force it, or you'll just end up hurting yourself...

Extra z and foam rolling

Power clean: 225x1x3

Sldl. 130lbsx8/8x4
Press 88lbsx4/4x4

Lots of ring work
Renegade rows
Ab wheel
Call it a day. Feeling good.

It should be noted that I did a bunch of getups and windmills during my warm up, as I usually do.

Training Update:

Wednesday I didn't do a lot of training, mostly bodyweight and rehab stuff.
Pullups: 3 x10 @ 40lbs
Front Squat: 48kg x 10 x 3

Sled Push/Drag for 10:00

Thursday: Turkey Day Mental Toughness Workout
Long Cycle Clean and Jerk: Double 24kgs x 220 reps. Brutal.

Friday: Rolled Jiu Jitsu with a 240lb brown belt for 1 hour 1-on-1.

Saturday (Today): Bodyweight sandbag clean and Push Press x 100 reps.
This was really hard, my forearms exploded about halfway through and it took me about an hour but I can't be too sure. Very tough. Finished with some sled drags.

I'm going to do a bunch of restorative training for 1-2 weeks until I feel good enough to start deadlifting heavy again--it's psychological but I'm going to work hard on unilateral exercises for the most part. That being said...

Power Clean:
225 x 1 x 5
Front Squat:
225 x 3 (I just did this on my last power clean to get a groove)

Superset
Bottom Up Press: 32kg x 3 x 5
Single Leg Deadlift: 100lbs x 8/8 x 5

One arm Military Press: 80lbs x 5/5 x 5
Bodyweight Row + 20lbs x 12, 12, 12, 10, 10

One arm Swing VO2 style
32kg bell
:15/:15 @ 10 reps per set
10:00 = 200 swings

Training update

Last week was a deload week and it felt great to lift easy weights, I bent a lot of steel and tore a couple phone books and hit the heavy bag a lot, but nothing to write home about.
This week I am supposed to have a muay thai fight on friday so I am still going to cut back on the training:
Yesterday I did a lot of Get-Ups and double snatches. Finished with some Long Cycle with a pair of 32's for 15 sets of 5, with 1:00 rest between sets.

More heavy bag today, nothing heavy this week.

Front squat
275x4
Sldl
48kgs x 8/8xe
Bodyweight row
+20lbs x 12x3

Another day, another rep PR5

Great training today, I noticed that I was very calm throughout--not psyched up at all, just calm.
Pullup:
4 chains + 15lbs x 5
4 chains +25lbs x 3
4 chains + 35lbs x 7
4 chains + 35lbs x 5

Ring Pushup
60lbs x 10
70lbs + Purple JS band x 5
85lbs + Purple JS band x 6, 5
Supersetted Pushups with
Double Snatch
32kg x 5,5,5,5,8

Pinch Grip lifting
70lbs on a 4" block x 1/1 x 3

Feeling really strong this week

Sweet PR today

Hit a nice rep PR in the deadlift today.
Warmed up with Power Snatches and Overhead squats

Deadlift:
395 x 5
415 x 3
460 x 5 *PR

Bulg Split Squat
95 x 8/8 x 3
Bodyweight row on rings
+40lbs x 8 x 3

Played around with some one arm snatches and windmills with 95, 115, and 135. Which after all that was probably not a good idea but I managed to nail a 1 arm snatch with 135 and then grab a 32kg bell 2 hands anyhow style.

Finished with a smoker and then heavy bag
1:00 battling ropes
10 burpees
5 rounds

Deadlifts felt so money, I will hit triple bodyweight this year.

Training from Friday:

Front Squat:
185 x 3
205 x 3
225 x 10

Back Squat (focused on speed):
225 x 10
185 x 5
135 x 5 x 3

Band Swing:
48kg + Green JS x 10 x 5
Renegade Row: 32kg x 8/8 x 5

I also worked on a Ton of Power Snatches and overhead squats both friday and saturday--technique is feeling very solid.
Apart from that I just recently built myself a loading pin so I'm going to be working on some more grip stuff as well.

Training from yesterday
Warmed up with barbell power snatches and overhead squats.
Also did some high box jumps and pistols.

Pullup
20lbs x 5
40lbs x 3
50lbs x 3
65lbs x 7,4

Ring Pushup
40lbs x 10
60lbs x 10
60lbs + Purple JS x 8, 8, 7

Double Snatch
32kg x 5 x 5

Squat Jump for max height x 10
Battling Ropes x 45 seconds
x 5 rounds

Felt awesome. Really happy with pullups and pushups.

Deadlift:
355 x 3
385 x 3
420 x 7

One arm row: 48kg x 10/10 x 3
SLDL: 48kg x 8/8 x 3
Short rest periods during that superset

Later on did 10 pullups followed by a 400m run, 3 times
then did 5 x 50m sprints.
Done and Done-kept one in the tank on deadlifts.

More training updates:
Continued to do my power snatches and overhead squats as a warm up and it felt good going up to 60kgs.

Front Squat:
135x5
155x5
165x5
175x5
185x10
Haven't front squatted in quite a while so I was happy with this.

Single leg Deadlifts 2x24kgs x 6/6 x 3
Ring Row: 15x3

Finished with some fun single leg bodyweight stuff.

Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai both that day so training volume went down.

Saturday:
Shadow boxing x 1 minute x 15 rounds
Mobility work

Litvinov (sort of)
10 Squat jumps for max height followed by a 75m uphill sprint x 5 rounds (which was plenty!)
done, stretch, back on monday.

Day 2 of this training block went like this:
Note: Before each training session I will be doing a combination of Power snatches and overhead squats with a bar going up to 70-80kgs depending on how I feel.

Pullup:
10lbs x 5
20lbs x 5
30lbs x 5
40lbs x 5
45lbs x 10
(I didn't think I would get nearly that many reps as I haven't trained weighted pullups for a while, but, then again, the TSC results were a nice surprise too)

Ring Pushup
20lbs x 10
40lbs x 10
40lbs + Purple JS Band x 10 x 2 (Brutal!)
After each set of push ups I knocked off 10 double swings with a pair of 40s to head height.

Finished with some 48kg one arm swings supersetted with burpees
Another good day, still a bit sore from monday deadlifts.

Training Today: Starting a pretty heavy cycle for 4 weeks.
Deadlift:
255x5
295x5
315x5
335x5
355x11
All pulls were double overhand except for last set. Glutes and hams were on fire.

Double MP: 32kg x 5 x 3
One arm Row: 48kg x 12 x 3

48kg swing x 8/arm with wool gloves
10 burpees
3 rounds
Finished with 100 sledge strikes

Tactical Strength Challenge--The Return!

So I decided to test myself, I have no appreciable injuries and I was only a little bit lazy. Here are my scores:
Deadlift: 525
I was very happy with this deadlift because I haven't pulled that heavy in a lonnnggg time. First attempt was at 495 and that felt really good so went straight to 515 and then 525. My form was ugly, no doubt, but this is a MAX MAX lift. 10 lbs shy of triple bodyweight.
Pullups @ 22lbs x 16. This was not great but I'm still ok with it. I actually rested for a good 30 seconds hanging from the bar and squeaked out 2 more reps--probably not smart as it torched my grip for snatches.

5:00 Snatch test @ 32kg
109 reps--Very happy with this, I must confess that my form was less than crisp but I was focusing on easy breathing and flow. It worked out to my favor because I can actually walk today. I also used a GS bell, smaller handle made this much easier.

Deadlift: 525
Pullups: 16
Snatches: 109

Training Update

Last weeks training looked like this:

Wednesday:
Ring work (front lever progressions, think heavy pulling)

Pullup x 10
Double KB Front Squat x 10 @ 24kgs
Burpee x 10
Repeated 7 times, resting after Burpees for 1-2 minutes depending on how I felt--I was able to finish fairly quickly

Thursday:
Clean and Press 32kg x 5
Clean and Jerk 32kg x 10
switch arms and repeat on right side
5 swings per arm as crisp as possible
Repeated this little circuit 5 times, I was happy to get the presses on the last set.


Friday:
Lots of Get-Ups to windmill and many sets of 15 pullups throughout the day.
My goal is to try to build up to around 30 pullups in a row on the straight bar.
I also did a few short sets of one arm swings with the 48kg before going to jiu jitsu.

Saturday:
A few get-ups on each side and then "VO2 Max".
Ok, so it wasn't really VO2 max, but it was challenging. Here's what I did.

:30 work/:30 rest
15 reps per set @ 24kg
For 20 rounds

This was pretty tough, but I was surprised to be able to finish my reps. Felt so happy that I jumped down and immediately busted out 25 burpees to really Finish. Heart rate was 209 after the burpees, but after 1 minute of rest it was back down to 144 so I was pleased with my recovery.

More to come next week, stay tuned...

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.