Condition Kettlebell Gym

Wednesday 7/29

OFF Training Day

Undereating:
coffee w/milk

Ginger Jive unpasteurized juice

coffee w/cream

Feast 3:40PM:

carrot/apple/celery juice

brussel sprouts

antipasto salad (grape tomato, farro grain, feta cheese, olives, olive oil, parsley, garlic, thyme, lemon juice, salt, pepper)

cannelini bean dip (cannelini beans, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, sage)

lentil salad (lentils, oranges, currants, shollots, parsley, grapeseed oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, pepper, salt)

hummus

Where I went wrong: Again, put cream in coffee bc the coffee shop (a different one!) only had cream.  I go to a good number of coffee meetings to network so maybe I should consider bringing my own milk! Also, the first week of Warrior for Fat Loss is supposed to be wheat free.  I got “Farro Grain Salad” at the Farmer’s Market and was eating it while Googling it and found out it is a wheat grain.

Notes: I ate very early today bc I was starving. I also ate WAY too much, in my opinion. I think it’s because I drank fruit juice in the morning.  The last time I was on Warrior I noticed that on the days I ate fruit or fruit juice before noon, I was hungry all day.   I ate 3 times in the 4 hour window that WD allows but I ate ALOT.  It also may be because I got all these cool salads and mixes from the farmer’s market and wanted to taste it all.

Thursday 7/30

MEDIUM DAY

3 x (1,2,3) 12+16kg presses

5 squats between each ladder

2×20 deadlifts 12+16kg

I am still not sure whether I want to DL beasts and bulldogs for low reps or follow the RTK rules and use the same bells for the presses for 2×20.  I had a hard time concentrating for 20 reps of a grind so I am leaning towards 2 sets of 5 with the heavy bells.  Suggestions?

Undereating:

logan fruit

2  cheese curds

32 oz Arden’s Garden Detox Juice (grapefruit, lemon, orange juice) banana

miso soup

coffee w/milk

Feast:

Salad in a Glass (beet, carrot, parsley juice)

roasted brussel sprouts

rice pilaf/jasmine rice/cannelini bean dip/hummus/red lentils w/onions

lentil salad for “dessert” - the fruit in it makes it sweet.

some vino - the wine rep was at the restaurant where I work on Saturday nights and I had stopped in.  He had us tasting some of the new wines he had in.

It is 8 weeks out from Fitness-Dixie show and so now I have to really get serious.  I am going to see what can happen with the Return of the Kettlebell protocol and try to gain a little lean mass.

DAY ONE 7/27

LIGHT DAY:

3 x (1,2,3) ladders 16kg+8kg - switching sides each time.  Except I got distracted and did (1,3,3) for the second ladder

5 squats in between each ladder

2×4 40kg sumo deadlifts

Warrior Diet:

Coffee w/ a little cream

J. Robb shake with a banana

Greek yogurt

DINNER:

roasted brussel sprouts (olive oil, salt, and pepper)

Rice pilaf/lentils with vegetable stock/hummus

2 glasses of wine

Where I went wrong: Cream instead of milk in my coffee but the coffee house I was meeting someone in didn’t have any milk option, I should have had a salad before the brussel sprouts and had planned on legally cheating with Arden’s Garden “Salad in a Glass” (unpasteurized beet, carrot, and parsley juice) but both stores by my place were out.  It also said that wine was best had with the high fat or high protein days and this is detox week, but I took the “best” to mean that it was “ok” this week.

Day Two 7/28

VARIETY DAY:

Z Joint mobility drills - RTK says to take it really easy on variety days.

Warrior Diet:

Coffee w/milk

banana

fruit cup

cold leftover brussel sprouts

DINNER 4:45PM:

roasted brussel sprouts

rice pilaf/jasmine rice/red lentils/hummus

Kombucha

Where I went wrong: again not eating (or drinking) a salad first, eating cooked brussel sprouts during undereating phase.  Even though they were cold.  Still have 45 minutes in my overeating 4 hour window… May have a glass of wine.  Still debating.

     I decided yesterday (for sure) that I am going to compete in the Fitness America - Dixie competition on September 19th and use only kettlebells and the Warrior Diet to prepare.  I have been happy with results training with kettlebells only for fitness shows, but have never tried using the Warrior Diet.  In my opinion, nutrition is 80% of what your physique looks like so we will see what happens.  I started the “Warrior Diet for Fat Loss” protocol yesterday and am curious to see what happens by the end of the 3 week cycle.  It has 3 phases: Week 1: Detox, Week 2: High Fat, Week 3: cycle between high carb days and high protein days.  There are no sweeteners, alcohol, or animal products (aside from some dairy and eggs) the first week so I am a little moody right now :-)  Next week, I can add in some meat and a glass (or two) of wine with the feast so I am looking forward to that! Until then, it’s detox time…  I will let you know how it’s going…

Today I started over on some Viking Warrior stuff.  Back in October I could do 80 sets of 8 reps with the 12kg but havent really done a serious VO2 Max session in about 3-4 months.  I hope what Kenneth said at the RKC II is true.  Once  you take some time off it gets much harder but doesn’t take much time to bounce back.  Tonight, I did the cadence test and had 30 reps in the 5th minute so I rounded up to 8.  I made it through the cadence test and 30 sets before I couldn’t get my 8 reps per set in.  Wow,  I need some work!  It will come soon enough.

Last weekend at the RKC II, I was having a discussion with some of the other participants.  We noticed that a good many attendees were extremely tense throughout their entire body in their swings.  We also recognized how great we felt after Senior RKC Jeff O’Connor’s movement-based section that included a piece on “taking the brakes off” which we did while swinging.  So the question seemed to be “How ‘hard’ is Hardstyle” in relation to the kettlebell swing?

There were people with solid, tense arms, hands crushing the handle, scrunched up faces, and necks jutting out.  These RKC’s looked like they were in massive amounts of pain – and if they weren’t at the moment they would be later if they continued to swing that way.  Swinging “hardstyle” doesn’t mean tense up every muscle in your entire body as hard as you can.  There should be a balance of tension and relaxation.  If you find yourself swinging with every muscle in your arms, neck, shoulder, and face tightened, you may have an overactive startle reflex.  Do you find yourself making awful faces when drills get tough in your training?  Or outside of the iron game, do you get overly tense in your neck and shoulders when stuck in traffic or working on an important assignment for the day job?  If so, be conscious of that and purposefully relax bin your face, neck and shoulders.  Whether it’s sitting still on the highway or military pressing your 1 rep max, relax your face – I promise you’ll still get the weight up and you’ll feel better driving in your car.

Use the plank to swing analogy.  Get into a plank.  Your glutes are tight.  Your abs are tight.  You are flexing your quads and hamstrings.  But what about your face and neck?  Your face should be relaxed and your neck should be loose enough to be able to shake your head.  Apply that to your swing.  At the top of your swing you’re driving force into the ground with quads and hamstrings tight, glutes tight to lock your hips, abs tight to not leak power and to protect your back.  But then what?  Your shoulders are connected in the socket acting as a pivot point – connected but not squeezing so tight to be as tense as possible to the point of inhibiting the movement.  Your arms are like ropes and your hands like hooks – not crush gripping the handle.  Now check your neck and face.  Your spine should be neutral not allowing your neck to jut out like a chicken or pull back to give you a triple chin and your face should be relaxed, not squished up in what looks like agonizing pain.
Losing that balance of tension and relaxation is the first step on the pathway to inefficiency.  Once that balance is gone you’ll begin to lose your synchronized breathing, then your posture goes.  What are you left with then?  Really bad form.  And since you get good at what you practice doing you are getting good at doing really bad swings.
Catch the problem on the first step and correct it.  By being conscious of tensing when and where necessary and relaxing at the right place and time, your swings will be still tough and effective and you should feel “ready to battle a kingdom” (not ready to fall over dead) at the end of your training session.