" A back of iron and legs that never quit"

This quote from a Russian Army officer that appeared in Pavel's first book "Russian Kettlebell challenge" is what I think most of when I consider what my goal is from my training practice. For years my goal was competition and increasing my performance over my last workout.

It didn't matter if I was too sore to do anything meaningfull between workouts as I long as I bettered my last workout and performed to a new level at the next competition.And then I got old enough that my injuries caught up with me and doing daily tasks,  VERY easy simple daily tasks such as walking and picking light things off the floor, turning over in bed and sitting in cars got very hard. And painful.

And the true value of training rang home to me. I need to be able work. To be able to be fit enough to do all that my day requires of me , strongly, and have more in the tank. To move well and NOT be in pain. To be able to have a surplus so that when things get hectic it's not a problem

To have a back of iron and legs that never quit.

Because I have experienced the opposite of both those conditions and they are miserable. Everything sucks and is hard when you are in pain and can't move well. Daily tasks are now herculean and just getting through the day, much less thriving seems an impossibility.

High levels of work capacity are my goal for the rest of my life. To be functionally strong. To be able to move easily and for as long as I want. To pick things up, carry them strongly  and place them overhead when needed. To be able to do my job, my practice and my life and not be fatigued or drained from physical pain; whether caused my injury OR bad training.

This is where I am headed and I am very excited. To be able to do a kickass workout and not even feel I did anything an hour later. Much less the next day.

And that's what today was like. recovered easily from Thursday's workout with Glenn and went into snatch work today. Cold though.
8 am
One arm swing warmup:
16 kg x 5/5/5/5 x  FOUR sets( 40 degrees in the Cave today:))


Snatch 
16 kg x 5/5 x 2 
20 kg x 5/5


24 kg x5/5
          x6/6
          x7/7
          x8/8 x 2 rounds
104 reps 
5512 lbs

these went great. My technique held up well. Slightly wider stance, slight layback at the top before the descent,internal rotation of the arm/shoulder in the backswing,  upper back pull after the hip snap and external rotation into the lockout then a pause. Going slower is really helping me find my groove.
I love/ hate Max Vo2 training but trying to go fast was killing my snatch groove.

One arm swings
28 kg x5/5
32 kg x5/5
          x6/6
          x 7/7
          x 8/8
          x9/9
          x10/10
90 reps
6570 lbs

this was good but tough too! I so wanted to skip 9's and go right to 10's but I didn't, lol.can't believe that I once did 400 of these in a workout but at least I did it once, lol. Now, 100 reps or so is just fine, especially after snatches. One arms with the 36 kg is coming

Triceps band extensions
40, 30, 20 16+ 1/2 lol.


Doesn't seem like much work when I write it down but it sure was this morning, lol.The good thing was that it was strong and I didn't hurt anything. SO good to be back in the cave with a real crew again. Good old days for sure.

datsit. Sisu