Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Swings and carrys.

SO Saturday's workout is set and Tuesdays am workout(s) are set which led to the last day's training and what to do then. As well as what day to do it on? If I do it Wednesday I have one less day of recovery from Tuesdays workout and if I train on Thursday I'll have one less before Saturday's heavy snatch day.

I decided to come back to Stones gym( kind of) and do the third workout at home, as well as do it on Wednesday. The reasoning is this: I'm training more clients than ever there, as well as doing my own training there for the first time and on Wednesday where the focus is high volume ballistics and I'm training solo it's gotten really hard to get pumped for the workout in the same space I just coached kbs for the last seven hours.

Plus, I feel that outdoor training would be good for me, even in the coming weather, at least for my carrys.

With all this traveling I've done of late I've really come to realize the importance and primal-ness of carrying things around for protracted periods. Few movements are more primal than bending down to pick things up off the ground ,or, carrying things around to get them from one place or the other.

It's a skill like any other and I need to practice it more so that I adapt and it's much easier when I have to do it for real life situations. So I've solved the wednesday training problem by combining swings and kb carrys.

It's also going to let me do more freestyle workouts, making them up as I go along and not worrying about exact number and rep counts. Just go by feel and keep track of time involved and perceived effort. As well as the weight of the bells used.

Which brings me to today's workout. I came up with these swings:

1) two hand swing
2) hand to hand swing
3) one arm swing
4) walking swing
5) cleans

and the carrys

1) one bell farmers walk
2) one bell rack walk
3) one bell overhead walk
4) two bells farmers walk( even or uneven weights)
5) two bell rack walks

I walked the distance of my front yard, about 50 feet with one rack position, rested a bit, then did one variation of swing for between 1o and 20 reps, the walked back the 50 feet with another carry variation.

I had grandiose plans of using not only the 16 kg but the 24 kb bell but I quickly came to my senses. This was TOUGH!~ and I haven't done this type of training in forever. Plus being outside threw me off a bit too but in a good way. It was sunny and hot and I got a great sweat going right away.

Plus letting go of the need to record every set and rep let me free to improvise and really go with what felt right at that moment; as well as be creative. But the 24 kg, not to mention the very lonely 28kg that's been in the abandoned Stones Gym garage for so long was not even thought of again once I started.

But I see TONS of room for improvement, not only in my ability to walk longer distances with more weight more easily but also in my work capacity and my more aerobic, lower intensity abilities. Moving weight and my body consistently for 40 minutes was not easy today.


Also did a quick 15 minute Clubbell workout while waiting for a client. was solid

Arm Casts followed by shield casts

10 lb clubs x 10/10- 10/10
15 lb x10'/10-10/10
20 lbs x10/10-10/10
25 lb x8/8-8/8


Datsit :))

4 comments:

Juci SFG said...

The carrys and swings combination is excellent! What a wonderful primitive pattern. Exactly what a tough caveman needs :)
I'll certainly give it a go.
Thank you, sir!

Mark Reifkind said...

"what a wonderful, primitive pattern"
Yes, exactly what I was thinking too when I decided to do it.

as I wrote it was much tougher than I expected even with the small weight. let me know how it goes Judit.

Boris said...

This seems like a really interesting way to add variety to just about any kettlebell workout - carry, snatch, switch, carry, snatch, switch... More same but different ideas - love it!

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks man, I think so too.and the more I think about it the more I like it. I do such structured ,ocd like training all the time it's nice to give myself permission to do something more intuitive and instinctive,although still with some structure.

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...