Saturday, February 19, 2011

One arm swings and heavy clubs

Had plans to do a clubbell only workout today but the lure of the swing pulled me in,lol. I thought I would do a simple weight ladder and get some decent weigh in my hands but my groove actually felt the best it has in awhile so I kept going.

The biggest problem with doing any kind of snatch volume on Thursdays is having sore arm flexors on Saturday, not the best thing when going into heavy or high volume one arm swings.Today was no exception and it took awhile for my forearms and brachialis to relax.That is one thing the clubbells are great for; really unloading my tight arm flexors and giving them an entirely different loading pattern.

One arm swings
16 kg x 5/5 + 5 transfers x 3
20 kg x 5/5 + 5 transfers
24 kg x 5/5
28 kg x 5/5
x6/6
x7/7
x 8/8
x9/9
x 10/10 x 5 sets(!)
170 reps
10,710 lbs

not bad at all considering I haven't done straight sets in 10 rep blocks for eons.especially with the 28 kg.

still playing around with my groove. I know I have to have more knee bend than I have in the past to get the shock absorption from my legs/hips instead of my lower back and hammies but I also know I need to really let the bell go back pretty far to get the momentum I need from the pendulum action and NOT from my arms/shoulders.

This becomes very apparent when I start out with sore arms. This technique allowed me to not have any tightness in the bottom and reversal part of the swing plus significantly better bell speed on the upswing.

I can't cut it short or my speed suffers a lot and it becomes too much of a muscular action and not enough of a ballistic.

I need to remember to respect my own lumbar pelvic rhythm,lol.

Two Club swings
15 lbers x 20
20 lbs x20 x 2

these really unlock the elbows by allowing them TO lock against resistance as well as pack the shoulders deep. being able to create tension in the shoulder while IN external rotation. So glad my back can tolerate the bilateral work again. The close stance, arms outside the legs again, is the perfect compliment to all my one arm KB work.

These REALLY torched my grip, even more apparent after all the heavy high rep one arm swings I did today.

Torch Swing
(2) 15 lbs x 5 x2
(2) 20 lbs x 5 x2

These were fun too,nice to go overhead with these. SO much like swinging to a handstand on the parallel bars.

Two Hand swipes
20 lbs x 5/5
25 lbs x 5/5
35 lbs x 5/5 x2
25 lbs x 10/10

I was ready for some two hand work at this point to take the load off my poor grip,lol I hadn't really done more than a few of these with the 35 lb bell so I wanted to make sure to get that in the books.I can see that I need to get my long arm locked better in the bottom position.
Here's the video


Two hand arm cast
25 lbs x 8/8
35 lbs x5/5 x 2

These were a solid finisher and always make me feel strong. Work the crap out of my triceps, lats and even pecs!

datsit:)) Let the weekend begin!

8 comments:

Boris T said...

Great perspective on how your body is moving, shows a lot of body awareness. I wish I had half that amount.

Also super jealous of the heavy clubs! I've been playing around with a new pair of double 10lb clubs and a guy i work at and they're fun but not very challenging.

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Boris,

it comes from years and years and years of training, studying analyzing and coaching gymnastics to be honest.

I applied that ability to everything else I did but it came from my gymnastics years.

as far as the light clubs I think you would enjoy doing high rep two bell swipes for long sets. I did 300 continuous reps with the tens and it was a serious challenge.

seems like very GSish to me. try that.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mark,
great one arm swing session ;-)

The swing and his move is always a very interessting case!I had made a lot of evolutions by myself on this move too.

Nice to see you in good and strenght shape :-)

Take care!

Boris T said...

I've tried that before, quite a challenge. Will do again. I've done 100 reverse mills per hand non stop before, switching ever 10-15reps.

Mark Reifkind said...

let me know how it goes. Adam Steer has done 800 reps with the 10's!!!!

Boris T said...

I am not sure who Adam Steer is, but 800 of anything is very impressive indeed. Do you know what sort of time it took him?

Mark Reifkind said...

Boris

here is adam's mills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLMfRXM2S2Y

It took me 17 minutes to do 300 swipes so it's about 18 swipes per minute and I'm a complete novice at that game.Adam has done tons of swipes with the 25's so he's way ahead.

he's also a CST certified instructor.

Mark Reifkind said...

bruce

thanks but based on my old personal bests I feel way off my swing work capacity form. I'll get there :))

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...