Condition Kettlebell Gym

Monday 8/3 - Light day - train at 9AM

Think I can get 5x(1,2,3) on my heavy day, so I am adjusting for those numbers.

5 x (1) 16+8kg

5 squats in between each double press

2×20 deadlifts - jury still out about what I am doing here. High reps low weight or low reps high weight.  I am still leaning towards  low reps heavy weight - it’s my gut feeling.

UNDEREATING:

2 coffees with milk

Greek Yogurt with Raspberries (PWO)

Ginger Jive juice (unpasteurized)

Arden’s Detox

2 cheese curds

FEAST - 8PM from Whole Foods Hot Bar

Week 2 of WD for Fat Loss focuses on high good fats and no non vegetable carbs.

salad - spinach/romaine/carrots/artichokes w/olive oil and baslamic vinegar

steamed zuccini with olive oil

collard greens

turkey picadillo

medium avocado - I counted this as my “nuts”

Notes: I probably did better today than any other day, but was STARVING by 8PM after teaching classes.

Tuesday 8/4

Variety Day - Trained at 5:30PM

Ken Froese is heling me with a snatch program for a fellow RKC and he asked me to test my grip strength by doing as many snatches with a 16kg switching hands only once.  I only got 22R+22L = 44 total.  Boo.  He said it was a good start - haha.

UNDEREATING:

Because I ate dinner so early some is before the Feast and some after the feast

Before: coffee w/cream, 16 oz Arden’s Detox juice

After: 2 cheese curds, Beware It’s Pear unpasteurized juice, Grand Slam from Arden’s Garden (1 oz wheat grass, 1 oz cranberry juice, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 oz pressed ginger - all unpasteurized)

FEAST 1:50PM

pea and pecorino salad with salt and olive oil

pickled eggplant, shallots, and celery

meatballs

2 handfuls of Brazil nuts (which I found that my dog likes, too.)

2 hours later, I ate a couple spoonfuls of hummus and bean paste

Notes: probably NOT the best day.  Haha.  Cream in my coffee, peas and pecorino probably doesnt REALLY count as a salad, fermented veges are not exactly cooked veges, meatballs are NOT lean protein sources, you get the picture… This was about as much of a stretch as there could be!

Wednesday 8/5

Medium Day
Undereating

coffee w/cream

Veg-a-holic juice (unpasteurized)

FEAST - 9:15PM

It was SO good. I went to a pre-book launching party for an organization called Crave thinking that there were be appetizers that fit into this week’s feast.  There weren’t so I had to wait until after.  Two glasses of wine and a “crave-tini” at the party and I was ready to FEAST.  We went to the restaurant in my building called Serpas and I ordered the grilled scallops and julienne zuccini.  I double checked that there was no rice, potatoes, or grits and the server guaranteed there wasn’t.  Well, there was.  Boo.  At that point I ate the mashed potatoes hidden under the giant scallops and veges.

Thursday 8/6/2009:

Did my Medium day this day instead of Wednesday.  I spoke to Dan John about the deadlift dilemma.  We talked for about a half hour (he is very very nice and super helpful.)  He suggested that instead of doing 5 squats between press ladders that I do his clean and squat ladders 3x(1,2,3) after presses and then keep the lightweight deadlifts for 2 sets of 20.

5 x (1,2) 12kg+16kg

Clean and Squat ladders 3X(1,2,3) 16kg+16kg

2 x 20 deadlifts

Undereating:

unpasteurized watermelon juice

2 coffees with cream

unpastuerized veg-a-holic juice

nori bites (raw nuts and seaweed)

2 cheese curds

1 egg

greek yogurt

FEAST

The Z health crew came in tonight so we went out and had pizza.  It wasn’t structured the was a feast should be.

Friday - 8/7/2009

VARIETY DAY

Hosted the R-phase certification so all weekend was devoted to DJM.

Undereating:

coffee with milk

latte

unpasteurized veg-a-holic juice

2 miso soups

seaweed salad

yogurt

FEAST 7PM

salad with cucumber wasabi dressing

turkey chili

2 beers - I know, beer is not on WD

Sat-Tues

A big blur of Z Health, taking cold medicine and getting the A/C fixed.  Didn’t train or eat correctly and I am going to have to crunch it all in next week.  I know that isn’t recommended, but that is what I am going to do.  Heavy day Wed, light day Thur, med day Fri, heavy Sunday.

Tuesday 8/11

still sick so not training

Undereating:

coffee w/cream

fruit cup

coffee w/cream

FEAST 8PM - high carb day

salad (spinach, walnuts, gorgonzola, olive oil)

steamed zuccini

green beans w/olive oil

cous cous w/pulled pork (no sauce)

1.5 glasses of wine

Wednesday - 8/12

Heavy Day (that I should have done Saturday)

I was completely out of gas.  Probably from being sick and not training since last Thursday.

clean/squat ladders 3x(1,2,3)

deadlifts 2×20 16kg+16kg

I hate hate hate squats so I did them first and alternated with the deadlift sets.  Don’t think I am supposed to do that, but I tried it because I always dread the squats at the end and wanted to get them over with. By the way my press ladders went, I dont think it was a good idea.

Press ladders 16kg+16kg

1x (1,2,3) 2x (1,2) 2x(1)

Feast 8:15PM - High Protein day

cucumber/tomato salad

cabbage(steamed)

cilantro lime chicken

coconut chicken w/zuccini

2 glasses wine

Friday 7/31

VARIETY DAY: worked on joint mobility.  Ordered a bag of white and a bag of green nails to do some bending on variety days in the future.

FOOD:  I am allowing myself to take one afternoon a week off and not have a structured feast.  At 3:30PM I ate at my favorite restaurant, Shorty’s - best pizza ever. Don’t want to talk about  it today, though.

SATURDAY 8/1

HEAVY DAY

3 x (3,2,1) with 2 16kg’s

5 squats with 2 16kg’s after each ladder

2×5 deadlifts with 2 40kg’s

UNDEREATING:

2 cups coffee w/milk

unpasteurized beet, apple, carrot, parsley juice

2 cheese curds

young coconut juice

FEAST: early today 2:15PM

Went to a Mexican restaurant that I have been to a few times before.  I never noticed how gross and processed their food was until today.

Salsa - obviously out of a can

2 black bean tomales - I am counting masa for the carbs

plantains with peanut butter - definitely not natural pb

a few bites of hummus, cannelini bean paste, and lentil salad that I had in the fridge a couple of hours later.

wine at a party later that night

Where I went wrong: the feasting foods werent optimal and I drank the wine after the 4 hour window

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.

     When attempting a kettlebell swing of any variety, make sure you have your shoulder locked in the socket and that the bell isn’t pulling you forward.  A linked in shoulder is going to provide you with the most efficient swing possible.  Efficiency leads to being able to swing heavier and longer because you aren’t leaking strength and as a bonus, your swings will be much safer.  If you have your shoulder linked in, you are more likely to “tame the arc” and keep the bell in closer to your body at the bottom of the back swing.  Taming the arc leads to proper hip loading whereas if you let the bell swing down closer to the ground than to you, you will end up compensating with your back and that is neither safe nor efficient.  For more info on Linkage vs Leakage read Pavel’s The Naked Warrior, and to learn more about taming the arc, check out Enter the Kettlebell.

Every Sunday afternoon, the guys who are gearing up for the October RKC come over and we do some crazy workout together.  We wanted to take a break from snatches so their hands were spared so we decided to play a little game we like to call blog roulette.  Basically, we took a trainer from the blogroll, clicked on their link and did the last workout that they posted.  I have to admit that we cheated a little today bc the first blog we clicked was Brett’s and he had last posted his VO2 Max workout - 8 reps per 15 seconds x 60 sets.  Not today.  So we then clicked on Sara Cheathams blog and did a progression workout that she posted a little while back.  It was a different approach and we did some combos that we dont usually do.  It’s fun to switch it up every now and then - try it!

Hello everyone.  It is an exciting time here at Condition! 

First of all, congratulations to our newest RKC, Katie Bigelow, who won the Form and Technique Challenge at the June RKC.  Way to go!

Secondly, we are in the process of getting an Alpharetta location open by the end of August.  We are looking at Old Milton Parkway close to 400, so if you have any suggestions or comments on location they are appreciated!  Just shoot over an email.

 Last but definitely NOT least, Master RKC Brett Jones will be holding a workshop here at Condition this Winter.  More details to come in the next few weeks…

Have a safe Fourth of July weekend!

When people begin a training program here at Condition Kettlebell Gym, many times they ask me “When should I come?  Should I have a day of rest in between or can I train back to back days?”  My answer is “Come when you can.”  In a perfect world, you would want to plan a scientific schedule of rest and training and maybe if you are training 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday would be better than Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but the truth of the matter is your workouts are going to be arranged around your life.  You might plan on Monday, Wednesday, Friday but your kid gets sick on Monday and you get a call that your mother is coming into to town on Friday.  Don’t skip your gym time altogether just because your schedule is off.  So on what days should you train?  On the days that you can get there. This is one reason that I love kettlebells so much – because you are training the body as a unit instead of isolating muscles, you don’t require as much rest time in between trainings.

Hey guys.  I just wanted to write a quick blog to say hello to everyone.  Things have been crazy with the Fitness Universe show coming up in a little over a month and things really picking up here.  Katie Bigelow officially goes to Minneapolis to get her RKC in a couple of weeks, so she will be teaching starting in June.  :-)  Expect some good blogs from her in the future as well.

With that, I will leave you with the kettlebell workout I have designed for prep for the show:

Warm-up: 4 heavy get-ups/side

Circuit: 30 secs on, 30 secs off

2 arm swings

right single leg deadlifts

left single leg deadlifts

2kb clean, squat,  press

burpees

crush curl (”for the beach muscles” - haha) 

 Renegade Row w/pushup

Alternating snatches

Hello everyone!  Check out some recent press we have gotten on the updated press page!

 http://www.gymcondition.com/media.htm

Senior RKC David Whitley came to Condition this past weekend to give an AMAZING “Full Body Power” workshop.  There will be more on the workshop later, but for now you can check out the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24356127@N03/sets/72157604898531659/