Work capacity and functional fitness.

The line that dragged me into the RKC and Pavel was in his original Russian Kettlebell Challenge book where he spoke about the levels of fitness necessary for a good solider, as described by a General. They needed " a back of iron and legs that never quit."

At the time I was totally jacked up and getting out of a chair took way more effort, and caused way more pain than I ever thought possible. But I knew exactly what the General was referring to cause I had had it before and I wanted it back.

Or, at least as much of it as I could.

In his original article that introduced kettlebells to America in Milo, Pavel wrote about all the amazing qualities so many had received as a result of high rep kettlebell training in the Soviet Union. All kinds of carry over to work and sport and daily life from the practice of Girevoy Sport.

Then I was introduced to the Hardstyle method of kb training in the RKC and the modern variations Pavel had come up with that, while still emphasizing volume in training, broke things up into shorter sets and reps of higher intensity ( Hardstyle). Much more my style given my gymnastics, bodybuilding and powerlifting roots.

But I knew, instinctively, that the results should be the same, or better , than training with the much lower intensity higher rep efforts than was needed for GS work.
 Work capacities should still  increase greatly, and, to me, that is my number one goal. The higher my real time work capacity is, the easier my entire day of ADL (activities of daily living) are and more energy I have for everything. Plus to maintain or even gain back as much high end strength as possible.

Plus I wanted the carryover to daily life where I could work and walk and move as much as required and not be tired. Legs that never quit. I knew what that felt like when I was an endurance athlete and could literally run as long as I wanted to. Or bike. Or swim,

Now with my knee that is not going to happen but I can walk more and move more, and have greater energy as this work capacity continues to increase.

And finally, having gotten a little bit further past all these asymmetries and misalignments that have been causing so much problems I can really see where this is going.
More better :))

 We were on the tap for 14 sets of 6/6 in the snatch workout today but I decided to up it to 7's as it just didn't feel like that would be any harder than 6's and it wasn't. Alternating the light, medium and heavy bells for varying reps is really working. Using the light bells and reps teaches me better speed and acceleration and it is seemingly carrying over to the heavier bells as well.

I knew this would be so but i just haven't been able to really train for real until lately. It's great and I'm so happy. But I won't be greedy. I  have learned my lesson about that.

7am Rifga stretchout 30 min( this is right now for saturdays I do the big stretch work during the weekdays and a little bit here, combined with just general moving around more gets me ready.) Plus all that adrenaline :)

8 am
Snatches
16 kg x 5/5 x 3 swing warmups
16 kg x 5/5 x 2 snatches
20 kg x 5/5

24 kg x 7/7 x 12 sets
168 snatches
8904 lbs

very good but certainly not easy. it was 35 degrees again in there and it took me a long time to find my legs( 6 sets!) once I did things got easier til I got more tired )) Could definitely feel the effect of only one day rest. Next week back to Monday and Wednesday.

Gama Cast
25 x 20 x 2
35 x 10 x 3

these were tough as my shoulders and arms were cooked. Held form though, it just wasn't light.

Bar pushups
3x10  all paused!

 No clunking at all! Nice to be back to 10's again.feet on box no problem. Chains next! Awesome workout.

Bodyblade laterals SS with band side raises
2 x 10/10 each
Shoulder totally stable


datsit.
Sisu/