Monday, June 02, 2008

A page from the Swing Queen

Got an hour plus late start today and yesterdays Bikram class left me suprisingly sore and also a bit dehydrated. Big surprise there. SO I knew I need some swing volume with the 24 kg but wasn't 'feeling' a multitude of straights sets at the lower reps I want to be using now.So I decided to do some kind of Tracy Style combination sets to let me do a higher volume of work with less perceived exertion.
A change is as good as a rest, as Pavel says the Russians say and so it is with kb swings. Doing 20 reps of one arm swings is WAY harder than 10 reps of one arm swing, five transfers and five two hand swings. the workload ends up the same( or even higher!) but the perceived effort is way down. Just the thing one needs when you are not in the mood to suffer any more than necessary.Of course Tracy uses the technique to do many millions of swings and snatches per workout but that's just what most humans can do. So I did my own little combination sets and it worked out just fine, plus I threw in just a few two hand swings to see whether I could now tolerate those. Hey, if I can survive Bikram Yoga I should be able to handle two handers now.

one arm swing/transfers/two hand swing
24 kg x 5/5/10/5= 25 reps
11 sets 275 reps
14,575

these just got better as I went along and warmed up. the workload was significantly easier to tolerate than just those deadly one arms.Doing just a few two hands was a smart thing to do

Transfer swings
24 kg x 5 x 20
100 reps
5300 lbs

The bell speed was slowing down on the above workload and , just as Tracy does, I switched over to another volume movement and was able to keep going, as well as keep bell speed( and power) up. A key component. When I can't keep the bell moving at a certain speed I don't like to continue the exericse. KB work great for power but trying to do ballistics movements slowly doesn't make sense to me.Grinds be grinds and swings should snap!

Snatch Holds
16 kg x30 /30 sec
24 kg x30/30 sec x 4 sets
these went much better than I had expected and my shoulder position, range of motion and overall stability continues to improve. I suspect Bikrams, which has one with their arms overhead and very close to the ears almost the entire freaking hour and a half with help here as well.

Two Hnd CB Flag Press
25 lb x 6 sets of 10

held each rep for a solid 2 count and flexed hard as hell. Love these.

datsit, gotta eat!

2 comments:

Boris said...

Do two-hand swings bother your shoulders Rif? I've kind of wondered why you don't do more of them.

Mark Reifkind said...

yeah they do, in fact as I sit here I have realized that they just dont work for me.I cant fully lock out my elbows when I do them and they invariably cause AC/levator scap problems. oh well. lots of one arm swings,transfers and snatches left to do.

190 x 1 x 12, 210/225 static holds, 24 kg goblet squats, floor pushups 30, 20

 This went VERY well almost all reps identical. Realized I get better drive AND minimize shoulder stress if I unrack it with more weight on ...