Monday, October 13, 2008

Swings be swings.

I have had a tough time lately letting go of my swing personal records. When I set them I was not snatching much, much less doing 65 sets of 8 in the max vo2 and I was training swings as my main movement on saturdays, first thing in the morning, with a great group of supportive training partners to spur me on.
Now saturdays are snatch days and swing workouts are relegated to Mondays, after a 7 client workday and by myself.The swing is now an assistance exercise and not the main focus but I have a lot of trouble when I look at the blackboard and see 630 24 one arm swings or 400 32 kg swings and knowing I will be no where close again today. Perhaps not any day soon.
I understand why intellectually but the warrior and competitor in my does not like excuses but the body has it's limitations(especially mine) and the mind does too as well. Monday's swing workouts are an exercise in survival not performance,especially after 3 hours of yoga the previous day, although truth be told it has been this way for awhile,even with single yoga classes on Sundays.
So today I surrendered to reality and decided there was more than one way to skin a swing and took a page from my wife's training log and used combination swing training to get the volume in, regardless of the swing variation.
After all a swing is a swing is a swing.And the key for my training is volume, NOT just doing a zillion one arm swings. Still my ass was kicked today. Was going to use the 32 kg but was not feeling it. My wife says I am not to be below 158 pounds so I have to get my weight up 3 pounds- so, lower reps and heavier weights should help. Plus more ice cream :))

One arm swings
16 kg x 5/5/5/5
20 kg x5/5/5/5
24 kg x5/5

28 kg x5/5/5/5 x 10 sets
200 reps
12,600 lbs

H2H transfers
5 sets of 20
100 reps
6300 lbs

two hand swings
10 sets 10 reps
100 reps
6300 lbs

400 total swings
25,200 lbs


this turned out better than I thought it would. I was going to do more one arms but my tear on my left palm started talking to me so I went to the transfers. these always work my legs more so it was a great transition. Then I went to the two hands, which I seem to be able to tolerate in small dosages these days ( yes!) and went for just sets of ten with a short rest period. I started in on 15 sec rest but it was too short so I went to 30 seconds. Just right. 400 swing is 400 swings.

2 CB Torch swings
15 lb cb x 10 reps x 5 sets

could not face snatch holds today so I did these to focus on the external rotation and the rotator cuff. worked great. Killed the grip too, havent done them in ages. A good substitute when I can't handle the boredom of snatch holds.

two handed shield cast
15 lbs x 60 reps switching every 10
15 lbs x 40 reps switching every 10
100 reps

had delusion of grandeur and thought I would just do 100 straight reps but what little functioning brain cells I have left kicked in and told my NOT to push today. I listened.

have to eat.datsit.

3 comments:

Jason Alvarez said...

Looking solid man, keep up the solid work building muscle!

- Brad

Aaron Friday said...

With a hurting knee, wouldn't you be better off weighing 145?

Mark Reifkind said...

aaron

probably but keeping the wife happy takes precedent.it's only a few pound either way,lol.

More press mistakes from today

 1) Gotta engage the rhomboids when setting the low rack position.Lock in 2) Elbows up is crucial 3) 'Straight  up' on the unracking...