Recent training learnings, a milestone of sorts, and future product reviews

The definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over with the same results. What I have been trying for months is to work with the 16kgs in long jerk and snatch sets, which is a nice weight for me, but with slow progress.

After resisting for months, I have decided that I need to spend some time with the 12kgs in the jerk and snatch. Yesterday’s efforts yielded a 10:00 snatch set at 12 rpm and today’s efforts yielded a 10:00 jerk set at 4 rpm. I will work with the 16kg for one arm jerks and the 16kg for a 6:00 snatch set a couple of times per week.  Intuitively, some time with the 12kg will help me with technique and help me with endurance.

The testosterone side of me says to hell with the 12kg – let them collect dust – but the rational side of me reminds me that two years ago, I was an overfat desk jockey and don’t need to apologize or rationalize a stint with the 12kg.  Plus, I understand that the Eastern Europeans spend a lot of time at lighter weights before moving up in 2-4kg increments.

The milestone of sorts – beyond 10:00 sets – is that I ran today for the first time since July 26, 2007, when I definitively injured my knee shortly after a run. I did wind sprints today after a warm up – 6×30 seconds at 80% throttle with a 90 second recovery. The verdict – no pain, no swelling, and a sense of accomplishment.  I plan to incorporate wind sprints into my routine 2x – 3x a week.

I’ve sold some painted kettlebells recently, and I’ve purchased a few things with the proceeds that I will review here before year end. In coming weeks, look for reviews on:

Steve Cotter’s Encylopedia of Body-weight Conditioning

Steve Cotter’s Extreme Kettlebell Workout

Scott Sonnon’s Flowfit (hint – it’s free and kicks ass)

A side x side comparison of 16kg kettlebells by AKC, Dragon Door, Ader, and Kettlestack (my first kettlebell).

Two years of kettlebells

I have been playing with kettlebells for two years, more or less this month. I thought I would reflect on my progress with my cannonballs with handles since this is somewhat of an anniversary for me.

I now have quite a collection of steel and iron, some of which I am in the process of selling. Like almost all of us, I started with the RKC hard style of training. Nowadays, I spend the majority of my time under the bells using the techniques and methods of the American Kettlebell Club. I still do some hard style workouts, mainly for variety. For example, today I went to the Kettlebell Club for a post-Thanksgiving session that combined a classic hard style circuit workout with some timed sets as a finisher. I am pretty smoked, and I don’t recommend doing this on a regular basis.

For what its worth, I do enjoy doing two arm swings simply because it feels good.

My first year and half with kettlebells was spent learning the techniques as I was taught, hard style. Swing, snatch, windmill, Turkish getup, press, and squat were the main exercises, with side presses thrown in. I made quite a bit of progress using those methods, thanks to Jay Armstrong and David Cogswell of the Kettlebell Club of Houston. I quickly learned how to press 28kg for reps and 32kgs on a good day – not bad for an out of shape desk jockey. I went from about 210 lbs to 195 lbs. The educational highlight of this phase of my kettlebell life was attending the Unlock seminar hosted by Dragon Door. It’s too bad that they won’t be hosting something like this in the future, as the weekend was a very educational, hands-on experience with stretching, joint mobility, and qi-gong. If you haven’t trained with Steve Maxwell, you owe it to yourself to do so.

The last 7 months or so, I have been playing with timed sets, AKC style, and cleaned up my diet a bit. Since I had a knee injury that took a couple of months of training away, I really have been only doing this for five months (three and two), and not as consistently as I should. The educational highlight of this phase of my lifting was attending the American Kettlebell Club coaches’ certification in June. It really opened my eyes to another way of lifting, which for me makes more sense with my goals.

Still, I went from 195lbs to 175lbs in about three months (ending with my knee injury), although my traditional Fall binge coinciding with football season and ending with Thanksgiving has put about 7 lbs. back on me. I’ll lose a bit of that before year-end. I am finally able to get some respectable time under the bells with the 16kg, and have realized that a good press or strength in general does not have direct carryover to the strength endurance required to put a lot of weight overhead for a long time. So beyond some assistance work, I have been playing with the 16kgs for awhile and have not done much with the heavy stuff.

I have made a commitment to do an experiment with timed set lifting until my 40th birthday in October 2008 and evaluate the results of my 18 month experience. I am sold on it, and I will let you know how I fare in a maximum press test with a weight to be determined and a 10:00 snatch test with the 24kg on that day.

Two years in, what are my thoughts?

1. Until shown otherwise, there are no jerks or asses in real life in kettlebells. Everyone I have met in person has been a real lady or gentlemen, generous to a fault with their time and insights.
2. I want to be like this guy when I am 62 years old, and in 23 years we’ll find out if I am.

Eduard Trusevich

3. I have ADD when it comes to training. “My name is Charley, and I have a problem…” I know I need to spend 95% of my training time with simple, timed set lifting to get where I want to go with this. I have not spent 5-6 days a week for a long period like I should.

4. Although the hard style of lifting has a place, for me, I prefer the AKC style of lifting for duration and the techniques as taught by the AKC. Quite simply, my joints feel better, I have lost some weight doing it this way, and I seem to recover more quickly and without supplemental work (long sessions of joint mobility, etc.) than I did doing hard style. The argument and internet war between the two styles, although highly entertaining, is simply irrelevant for me. Just lift – there is a happy medium and we can all get along!

My training for the remainder of 2007 and Goals

I am going to mix things up a little for the remainder of the year until I return exclusively to timed set lifting in January. I need a break, I want to start running again in earnest, and this time of the year is conducive to some conditioning work.

I am in the middle a version of Ross Enamait’s Never Gymless routine, albeit with a kettlebell. Days 1 and 3 of each five day cycle will be the Integrated Circuit Training and Enhanced Interval Training he recommends. I will begin each of these days with a timed set of jerks with two 16kg. Days 2 and 4 will be one arm jerk sets with the 24kg and a timed snatch set with the 16kg for the strength portion of the routine.

I also have begun using Scott Sonnon’s Flowfit as a warm-up and recharge. I will post a review once I am a few weeks into the program.

My goals are simple at this point.

1. 10:00 with the 16kgs in the jerk and the snatch.

2. Be prepared to compete respectably with the 24kgs in the biathlon at the 2008 championships.

3. Lose 10 more pounds.

My trip to Miami – World Kettlebell Club Championships

A week ago today, I stood on a platform in Miami at the World Kettlebell Club Championships after being goaded by Lorraine Patten to do something. That something I did was the 20:00 24kg one arm long cycle clean and jerk. I had never gone beyond 6:00 in training with this lift, and I simply wanted to get up there and not embarrass myself. I made the 20:00 – not many reps and it wasn’t pretty – but I made the 20:00. Thanks, Lorraine, for goading me into this. I had no idea before last week that I had a 20:00 set in me.
Witnessing the competition was awe inspiring. I saw some incredible physical and mental performances on the platform. Eduard Trusevich, a 62 year old Latvian, stole the show with his 200+ snatch performance and his 60 jerk performance with the 24kgs. Ivan Denisov, with 151 jerks (that is 15 per minute for 10:00 with a pair of 32kg bells) and 163 snatches was simply incredible. Marty Farrell made Master of Sport, and Andrew Durniat is not far behind.

Scott Helsley and David Zink will almost certainly make Master of Sport in 2008, as they both knocked off a lot of reps in both the biathlon and the long cycle. Chris Duffey, who just started doing this a few months ago, got up on the platform and gave all of us incredibly courageous sets.

In the ladies’ competition, we have new Masters of Sport in Kelly Moore and Ashley Hughes – both of whom are machines. Cate Imes with her performances showed us what this is all about. Mike Stefano, a helluva coach and the Godfather of Stefano’s Mafia (the “Stefmafia” I lovingly call them) , has another Master of Sport in the wings in Melissa Brady and another accomplished lifter in Vanessa Turner. Lauri Radach, Susanna Baxter, and Lorraine all gave us some very inspired performances.

The results are here if you’re interested.

It was nice to finally meet all of you in person. You have no idea how much positive energy you transferred to me, and I can’t wait to see all of you again next year.

I have often said to my friends in the kettlebell community that there are no jerks in kettlebells. Sure, we all have interesting internet personas, but in person, you couldn’t find a nicer and more generous collection of people. We may align ourselves in different camps or parties – kettlebells is a lot like politics – and we all have a slightly different takes on the “proper” way to lift, but everyone who does this is nice in my book.

If you have any doubts about competing, put them aside and train for next year. You won’t regret it.

A few changes around here

As I have fully recovered from my knee surgery in August and had a successful stint on the platform at the World Kettlebell Club Championship Meet in Miami, it’s time to make a few changes around here.

First of all, I needed a catchy name for my blog. Everyone else seems to have one, and I want one too. Just Another Minute sums up my philosophy of kettlebell lifting – timed sets for increasing duration. Lifting for time, as many of you will find, is hard. It’s me against the clock, and I often find myself saying in the middle of a set Just Another Minute to keep myself going. I will call the blog JAM for short.

Second, I won’t be regularly posting my training logs here on a daily basis. You can find my logs at the following locations:

The Kettlebell Connection Training Log Forum

Fullkontact Training Log Forum

Third, I have a new look.  Finally, I will be posting my thoughts on training and an occasional rant. The purpose of JAM is to document my progression as a kettlebell lifter and to inform and entertain, on occasion.

Back in town and training

Got back from Florida late yesterday, fresh off of an unexpected entry into the World Kettlebell Club Championships.  More on my experience there in the next few days, but here is a hint – much learnings and passing of knowledges from learned experts plus placing of faces with names. Biggest learning – I have a lot more in me than I thought I did.

Back to training.

Modified NG Day 7 – Enhanced Interval Training
Warmup
A – Pistols (20” box) – 10/10 alternating legs each repetition
B – 16kg around the world – 1:00 /  16kg figure 8 to a hold – 1:00
C – Modified Art of Strength Essentials – 24kg without putting the bell down.
1/2 Get Up
Snatch Right – 0:30.
Press Right – 0:30.
Squat Right – 0:30.
Clean Right – 0:30.
Swing Right – 0:30.
Figure 8 to a hold
Swing Left – 0:30.
Clean Left – 0:30
Squat Left – 0:30
Press Left – 0:30
Snatch Left – 0:30
1/2 Get Up – 0:30.

Glad I chalked up the bell. Couple of observations – (1) I don’t really know how to do a high pull, so I did snatches instead of high pulls/ snatches. I think the high pull is an exercise designed to either help with or act as a substitute for the harder style snatch or (2) This looks deceptively easy, but it is a grip killer and it took the wind out of me very quickly. I am happy to have made it through without dropping the bell.

Thursday, November 1

Thursday    November 1, 2007    185.0
Modified NG Day 4, Strength Endurance
Warmup and JM
A – 2-16kg jerks – 3:30.18.
B – 2-16kg jerks – 2:00.20.