Monday, March 14, 2011

2 minute long cycle sets

Did I mention I absolutely HATE daylight saving time? Well I do. I get up at 4 am regularly to be at work on time and my OCD brain usually wakes me up 30 minutes or more earlier so I won't miss the alarm( which I haven't set for years,lol).

This isn't too bad in the winter as it sits with my biological clock pretty well but when we "spring forward" it can get really ugly as my body still thinks it 3 am and I have to get going.

It was especially rough this morning as I had a two hour break due to cancellations and Tracy graciously told me she would train with me today so we can not be rushed as opposed to just the 50 minutes we have on Tuesdays.

Ok, so I get one less day of rest after Saturday's workout AND even less rest in the morning.Our 7 am start would actually be 6 am and although I am always talking about liking to train first thing that's a bit TOO early for me. Oh well.

Too early to train with the 32 kg or do long cycle with the 28kg but it should have been just right for the 24 kg and it was! Tracy wanted to test her 16 kg snatch work with two minute long sets so I thought I might give it a go as well with my long cycle clean and press.

I was thinking ONE set and I knew from before that 10 reps per side equaled two minutes but I didn't want that much fatigue so I decided to try switching hands every rep and see what happened.

What happened was that I ended up doing 4 sets of 2 minutes with the 24 kg and one set ( the initial one) with the 20 kg! All except for the third were done in the above fashion, switching every rep. With the third set I did sets of 5 each hand before switching and it was MUCH harder.

Have to say this is by far my favorite move,it's actually fun for me and I'm decently strong at it.

here's the break down

7- 7:30 stretchout
7:30 warmup
one arm swings
16 kg x5/5/5/ x 3
cleans
16 kg x5/5 x2

Long cycle clean and press
20 kg x 20 reps
24 kg x 18 reps
x 20
x20 ( done alternating in groups of 5)
x 20

Wow, I'm actually impressed with my self :)) SO, each set had 20 cleans, 20 presses and 20 transfers~! 60 reps, not Tracy-esque but decent. Now I just need to be able to do jerks and I can do some longer sets,lol.

Tracy rocked her 2 min long snatch sets averaging 57 reps per 2 minute block! Crazy hardstyle reps too.All legit of course. I have to try this sometime too. 2 minutes is NOT Ten,lol.

Two minutes is the threshold of activity that separates predominantly anaerobic work and aerobic work Anything over two minutes long and the energy mainly comes from aerobic sources. I wrote this article for Tracy's blog back in 2007 to explain why the two minute long sets that were her bread and butter back then were so effective at burning fat AND building muscle.

Two hand arm casts
15 lbs x 10/10
25 lbs x10/10
35 lbs x 10/10 !

the last set kicked my triceps ass and I thought, for just a second about another set but thought differently quickly

Two hand Shield Cast
15 lbs x10/10
20 lbs x 10/10
25 lbs x10/10

this was great fun as Tracy and I did them together. She's really having fun with her clubbell training and getting stronger by the workout. that's a 15 lb club she's using which is not joke. She is also noticing even more shoulder arm and upper back development from it

Bodyblade laterals

did 3 sets of 10/10, 8/8 and 7/7. Had no more, my shoulders were cooked!

datsit. Great fun

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Man I hate spring forward to. I wish they would just leave the clocks alone.

Mark Reifkind said...

hey dude,

do we have to move to hawaii to get away from it? Forget arizona, though, way too hot and not enough water.

it might take me weeks to adjust.Or next fall:))

guy said...

Yeah Boss, I hate it too. China used to run on one time zone, "Bijing time" and theu did'nt have daylight savings either. Different, huh?

Mark Reifkind said...

guy

second day not too bad but I still hate it :))

Maribel said...

you and Tracy in unison looks so cool!

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Maribel! it was fun

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