Sunday, March 18, 2007

"Legs that never quit"

Stopped being a lazy slug today and went out for my long(er) walk after skipping the last two weeks. With the cert fast approaching and my walk to the cert site coming up quickly I have to get some more miles in the legs.

Very happy with my 30 minutes of walking today and my mantra during the walk was the post title. One of the things that struck me most when I first read Pavels RKC book was the sentence about how a soldier needed a "back of iron and legs that never quit". That's exactly what I needed then and what I still need.

Was very happy how quickly my legs found their stride and stayed loose the entire time. This is such a victory as I remember just how bad my walking was just a short time ago when literally two blocks would lock up my knee and cause considerable pain. My rack walks , as have all the kb ballistic work, have been paying off.

Tomorrow is one arm swings with the 16 kg bell and LOTS of reps.I like this concept of Heavy day, endurance day and speed day with my swings.Same with the walks; rack walks with the 16 or 20 kg for speed work, vest walks for strength and long walks for endurance. THe pieces are finally fitting in the puzzle.

Going to see "300" today and can't wait.

datsit, gotta stretch.

5 comments:

David said...

Mark, how have those rack walked helped you ? Is it the correct body positioning that is positively reinforced through the weight your supporting or something else ? What reasons other than rehab would you have someone perform rack walks and how would you start out (timed holds or distance ?)

Thanks in advance, keep up the great blog !

Royce said...

My friend Brian plays or rather played basketball 4-5 times a week it's his passion. he got clipped ( shitty how it happened too ) and tore his ACL. He's going through rehab right now after surgery. The sports medicine doc he went to told him there are basically 2 types of BB players power guys who jump off both feet. They develop strength equally across both legs and are far less prone to ACL injuries. Then there are the quick first step guys who almost always push off with the dominate leg the other leg doesn't ever develop the same strength and it is very prone to injury. Wich is exactly where he got injured.

The doc told him that the muscles job was to protect the joint and the more balanced a persons strength is from left to right and quad/hamstring the more the muscles would protect the joint.

So I'm guessing ballistics do a pretty good job of balancing the strength as well as give a person the ability to withstand lactic acid. One more reason KB's are so damn cool.

Mark Reifkind said...

david,

the rack walks have helped two ways. First by overloading my gait they 'require' that I be reasonably balanced posutrally or I can't walk very well. Two, by using an assymtrical load( always just one kb) it really helps the strength endurance of the lower back by the off center load.

the overload is very productive as when I just walk now without the bell it is so much easier. By constantly shifting the weight of the bell held and the distance I can go with each bell my gait mechanics and work capacity keep increasing.

I have clients use rack walks for the same reasons; to improve and overload gait mechanics, lower back strength endurance( read Dr McGill!)and ARM and torso strength. they are just very hard,espeically after awhile!

If you are going to a cert they are great because you are constantly carrying kettlebells everywhere and you must get used to it.Just great in general for GPP work.

Now that I have started wearing the weighted vest they are even harder. Next step is a vest AND a backpack!
as far as beginnners I start them out with a relativelylight kb (12 kb for women and 16 for men) and have them walk 100 feet per arm at at time.rest as long as necessary to get the HR down to 85% of norm then do the next lap.great stuff!

thanks for the kind words and also for reading!

Mark Reifkind said...

royce, to tell you the truth I followed that advice( make themuscles stronger to protect the joints) and I think it didnt help as much as I had hoped.Perhaps because I used too much bodybuilding and tension exerices and not enough full body movements and stretching.

the ballistics are a different animal though and have helped immensely.there is a lot more balance involved in every damn thing you do with them than one would guess.

Mark Reifkind said...

oh yes and royce,sorry to hear about your friend. ACL injuries are a freaking epidemic now.

135-175-165 Press, two hand swings 16-32 kg , laterals rear delts

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