One reason I train

I don’t harbor any illusions of athletic greatness with kettlebells or anything else for that matter. I’ve been a decent local class middle distance runner in my past, and now my goal is to get proficient with the kettlebells in the Masters category – 24kg – since I turn 40 this year.

We’re expecting our first child this fall, and my focus and life is going to radically change. It’s all about being healthy, staying limber and mobile, and enhancing longetivity.  Being able to function at a high level is the name of game.

Houston has only two seasons – just fall/winter/spring and summer. Fall/winter/spring are beautiful, mild, and pleasant for the most part but for an occasional storm. Summer is hot and humid. There is little transition – one week it is fall/winter/spring and then two days later it is summer. This year, summer began last week.

I spent Friday, Saturday, and today engaged in taking down my existing garage shelving, rebuilding it, and building a workbench. . Normally, manual labor in summer would beat me to a pulp. It was 95 degrees all three days and rather humid. Like prior summer projects, I did sweat profusely. However, this time, I don’t feel like I got hit by a truck. In fact, I feel rather refreshed, and I felt 15 year younger doing this project. I was sore Saturday and Sunday morning and did feel my age, but 10 minutes of joint mobility took care of that.

I am feeling a great sense of satisfaction and confirmation that the way I am training – mainly timed set lifting with kettlebells - is paying dividends. If I am able to bust my ass doing manual labor and heavy carpentry in Houston’s summer without a lot of ill effects, then this is all worth it.

 

Some observations from training consistently and eating clean

According to the manual training log I keep in a fancy, leather bound journal, I’ve trained  5, 6 and 5 days the past three weeks.  None of these sessions last longer than 30 minutes, and I haven’t done more than 2 or 3 work sets per session, except for a circuit style class I attended at the Kettlebell Club in League City that I took a day to recover from.

I am in week 4 of this routine, and it agrees with me.  I sleep better at night, I wake up naturally at the same time every morning (before 5 AM), and I feel refreshed after a good night’s sleep.

I’ve also been eating particularly cleanly the last three weeks as well.  No bread except for Ezekiel bread every now and then, no milk, no refined carbohydrates, no starches, a daily dose or two of berries, bacon and eggs for breakfast, and non-starchy vegetables and meat or fish the rest of the time. I snack on nuts or almond butter.

No wonder I’ve lost 4 lbs on an absolute basis and 3.5 lbs on a normalized, trend basis (I’ll explain this trend concept another time).

Some observations:

1. I’ve lost some belly fat, and my 34″ waistline pants are getting loose.

2. I recover much quicker from exercise – between sets and between days.

3. I am much more alert, productive, focused, and clear headed.

4. My knee doesn’t hurt.

5. There have been some more intangible mental benefits and I have a sense of well being I haven’t had in a long time.

Your mileage might vary from training 5-6 days a week and eating clean, and 3 weeks is too short of a time to make definitive conclusions. However, I am not at all displeased with my results.  Stay tuned.

Second week of 5-6 days per week and a nice surprise

Due to user error, I don’t have a fancy heart rate chart to publish this time. However, with a reasonable amount of volume, I believe I have found a training method that is producing results. Here is what I did Monday – Wednesday:

Joint Mobility
2APress16kg – 5m (5rpm). Rest 5m.
1ASn16kg – 6m (6rpm). Rest 6m.
1ASw20kg – 2m30s (2m on 4/30).

On Thursday, I couldn’t resist trying something more challenging, considering I had my knee scoped 5 weeks ago. I tried two arm jerks with the 16kg. You know what? There was absolutely no pain in the repaired knee. None, nada, zip, nothing – surprise, surprise, surprise. The knee feels as good as new. I don’t know if it was the bandwork, strengthening exercises, or joint mobility work, but the knee is stable and pain free.

Thursday was a short 17 rep jerk set with the 16kgs, followed by a 6m set of 20kg one arm long cycle – 8 rpm, switch every 5 reps.

Friday was off day to refect on my good fortune. What the lack of pain in the knee means is that I can focus on the long cycle clean & jerk. Why this particular exercise? Several reasons.

1. It is a combination exercise – a push and a pull all in one.
2. The long cycle is very time efficient.
3. It’s versatile and can be practiced with two bells, one bell with one hand switch, or one bell with multiple hand switches over a longer period of time.

Here is what Saturday and Sunday looked like, and this is the beginning of a training template I am tweaking and implementing:

Exercise	Saturday, 5/3/2008	Sunday, 5/4/2008
Joint mobility, band work and pull-ups	√	√
2ALC16kg	4 4 4 4 = 16. 4m	4 4 4 4 4 = 20. 5m
2ALC16kg	No	6 6 = 12. 2m.
2AJ20kg	5 5 = 10. 2m	5 5 = 10. 2m
1ALC24kg	3m, 8 rpm, switch every 5 reps,	No
1ALC28kg	No	5/5

All in all, I am pleased with how things are going. No tweaks, eating is very clean (and the pounds are coming off), and I am recovering very well. I’m also gaining the flexibility to sit longer in the rack. The longer I eat clean, the more I am convinced that a great portion of results from training is tied to diet.

Till next time, use common sense when you train and live.

The Secret of a Comfortable Rack in the Jerk

Is a body weight of less than 178 lbs for me. That is all.