Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pressed for time.




Still a bit beat today from the weekend and all the excitement and andrenaline. Plus there are still clients to take care of and fit in extra as it will be a short week this week as well. So I got a late start on my workout today and decided to pay a visit to Stones Gym( my garage) and get things done there.Haven't trained there in ages it seems.

Tracy had already gotten all her classes and training in earlier( after what she did this weekend I would have taken a week off!) so I was solo. As usual when I miss some training( no Saturday Max swing Vo2 workout this weekend) getting started again is SO hard. Even one missed workout makes it seem like I haven't trained in ages, and since I am only getting two sessions a week with KBs missing one of them kills.

So I really really really didn't want to get going today but I knew there was no choice. Being tired doesn't count as a legitimate excuse. Plus, I knew I would feel much better after the workout. I was right. A nice quick HOT bath, some mental rehearsal and it was out to the cold damp gym.Perfect.

Since I was not feeling that energetic I didn't want to start with swings. My shoulders held together quite nicely after lots of presses during my demo on Saturday so I decided to combine presses and swing together and kill a few birds with one kettlebell.

The drill was: long cycle clean and press, transfer swing, repeat.I figured if I got lazy and did nothing else this would suffice.

Long cycle clean and press:
16 kg x5/5 x 2
24 kg x 1/1x 4 reps: 7 rounds

this worked great. I got presses and swings in in the same set and switching each rep really made it a nice slow start.

After seven sets I decided to finish with one set of straight presses:
24 kg x 8 right
x 7 left
x 8 right

I did this because Tracy taped the set and I thought I had gotten eight so I had to redo it.Since I did so many more left arm presses on Saturday I did an extra set on my right. Heres the video:


It's so nice to be able to press again and the 24 kg feels and moves like the toy weight it is. 'bout time.Building my press volume up again feels great and I can't wait to move some real weight. Patience though, patience and training.

One arm swings
24 kg x10/10 x 5 sets

wasn't going to do these but felt better after the presses and got them in. each set felt better than the last. Can't wait to snatch again after this weekend.

Pushups
Hands on bosu ball , feet on floor 8 reps
hands on bosu ball, feet on stability ball 8 reps 2 sets
hand on bosu ball, feet on floor, 8 reps
Floor pushups 8 reps 2 sets

man doing these on unstable surface really got the triceps cooking ,just what I wanted.

Oh yeah, one hour of rolling and stretching out at 6 am.

datsit. feel much better now.

6 comments:

Diana said...

Being a HUGE cat person, I just love how those furry guys always have to be around when we work out! Made me giggle to see your cat walking right in front of you-he has no idea how heavy that thing is in your hand or how much pain it could cause him, he's a cat and that's just that!

Mark Reifkind said...

diana

lol,I didnt even know the cat was there til I saw the video. crazy ass cat.

fawn said...

Mental rehearsal, I have to learn to do that and do it consistently. I like to remind myself how much better I feel for training when I lack energy too.

I'm a little surprised you OWN a bosu ball, let alone train on one. Maybe I should do bosu pushups for my triceps...

Mark Reifkind said...

fawn

mental rehearsal is vital. it lets you 'train' as hard and as often as you want and you never have to worry about overtraining or injury.

as far as the bosu ball that was the cutting edge of functional training just a few years ago and I was all over it;especially for my back rehab.

things come and go out of "fashion" but when something works for me or my clients I don't throw it away just because it's not popular.
and yes, unstable pushup training will really get the tri's cooking.

thanks for stopping by and commenting :))

Aaron Friday said...

Those presses look excellent! I thought pressing was pretty straight-forward until I saw your video. It looks like an afterthought when you do it.

Mark Reifkind said...

aaron

thanks man. it's nice to be able to do something I am actually pretty good at.of all the things I have done since I was 14 I think I have pressed things more than any other motion.

155 x 3 x 5, 160 x 3 x 5, 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 40, 35

 Thought about going back to 5x5 for a hot second then my left shoulder  reminded me why I stopped doing them before. It doesn't seem to...