Category: Kettlebell Workouts (RKC)

R5D8 – Plan So I Don’t Forget

I am coaching tonight but before I do, this is my plan:

For Time:

  • 50 tuck jumps
  • 1 sumo deadlift high pull
  • 10 plyo box jumps
  • 2 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 9 plyo box jumps
  • 3 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 8 plyo box jumps
  • 4 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 7 plyo box jumps
  • 5 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 6 plyo box jumps
  • 6 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 5 plyo box jumps
  • 7 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 4 plyo box jumps
  • 8 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 3 plyo box jumps
  • 9 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 2 plyo box jumps
  • 10 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 1 plyo box jump
  • 50 tuck jumps

Then, once coaching is done, I want to do my TGU workout to get me back on track. That will leave me with bench for tomorrow and a day off on Saturday when my wife is out of town and I have the baby to look after.

R5D7 – Progress

It was time for RKC swings again. I am less concerned with my back now and more concerned with the hip snap you are supposed to have with doing KB swings. Not only that, I have started to become aware that in 12 minutes, doing 6 sets of swings is not really great. Although I started with 4 and am now up to 6 sets, I think I can do better especially since it is only sets of 20 swings. I am, however, moving in the right direction. I think there is a jump in frequency or reps come week 3 so soon enough the work volume will increase.

I am still having a hard time with the lack of total time spent working out. I know that just like my diet, it is hard to get my head around the new science especially when you have not only been told certain things, but taught others certain things for so long. The one glaring indicator that I am doing the right thing is my max heart rate on my HR monitor that casually sat around 130 or so during most P90X workouts, and maybe got to 145 during Insanity but now without exception shows 160+ every day I am doing these new workouts. I just can’t shake the feeling that I need to work out longer… I am sure it will pass especially since I see my wife going to the gym doing the requisite hour to 90 minute standard workout and just thinking about being there that long nowadays bores the pants off me. By the way, if you are working out without a HR monitor, really think about investing in one. It is a great objective indicator of effort.

I am at a mini plateau with my weight. I hit sub 250 and have been loitering. I need to push a little to get over the hump if I am to hit 240 by the time my birthday rolls around at the end of February.

R5D4 – 6 Harder Than Anticipated

As I suspected when I started, I completely forgot I was supposed to be doing a 4th day and went straight from day 3 to rest to starting over. So for day 4 it was back to RKC swings, then the TGU for day 5 and yesterday I disappointed myself with a mix of deadlifts and chinups. There are a couple of things I would like to say at this point. The Turkish Get Up workout which is supposed to be mixed with the WOD is actually a 20 minute workout by itself once you are done the warmup so adding a WOD at this point is a bit much to ask. Once I get the hang of the TGU, probably after the RKC minimum phase I can add more. Maybe I should have added my day 5 workout on since it was short and left me a little miffed and short on calories burned. I had planned the following: Deadlifts with 135# plus chinups as follows: 1 per minute, adding one per minute. Minute 1 – 1 deadlift, 1 chinup Minute 2 – 2 deadlift, 2 chinup Minute 3 – 3 deadlift, 3 chinup and so on.. I had hoped to get to 20 but my brain intervened and said I should aim for 15. My body intervened quickly after that and due to my lack of experience in deadlifting I was done after 8 rounds. For some reason, I was just too careful to do more. I am not yet familiar enough with the deadlift post-surgery to know how far I can push it. I was scared that I was going to put out my back and that the rest of the week would be spent in pain. So I quit. I did however do an extra 35 chin ups so that I wouldn’t feel cheated and that at least my workout wouldn’t be under 10 minutes. Sometimes I think sticking to P90X would be easier, I wouldn’t run into issues like this however, being your own workout boss is worth it’s weight in gold. At one point during the weekend I had to carry an 80lb bag of salt into the basement and I was surprised to feel the difference the RKC is already making to my core stability.

Yesterday which was planned to be day 7 was usurped by having to coach for 3 hours. I had enough of a workout lifting none too light teenage gymnasts to warrant me doing any more once I got home.

R5D2 – Tentative / Lazy / Bad Timing

I was all ready to go today with day 2 of the RKC but after I got home, looked after the baby while my wife went to the gym and ate some of the delicious chili I made I was not really feeling up to it. So I decided to wait until after I coached meaning when 8pm rolled around I had to drive home and face a workout. This was not ideal, however, I stuck to my guns and at least did my 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups and also did several cleans to try and understand how you are supposed to do that without extensive bruising to the forearm. I figured I had better work it out now before I have to do lots of them during the next stage. I was supposed to do a WOD also but I couldn’t face it even though I had toyed with the idea of doing this:

10 Burpees
1 Chin Up
9 Burpees
2 Chin Ups
…
1 Burpee
10 Chin Ups

Oh well. It’s chest, bench and dips today so I should be able to handle that even though I have to coach, again, at 8pm.

BTW I did the TGU with the 45lb KB, something which I have not tried before and I was, at several points, fearing for my life, specifically my face which was directly under the bell. Nothing like motivation to keep hold of the bar.

Round 5 Day 1 – The Plan And The Future

lots of kettlebellsSo as you can no doubt tell, I did kind of bail on Round 4 leaving with about 2 weeks left to the 3 month mark. However, the timing was problematic, with Christmas, new weights, new methodologies creeping in I thought it was finally time to move along. I am coming to the realization that this time around, P90X, the reason for starting this blog in the first place, may not actually have a place here. It’s a little sad, and since I am going to commit to having a cardio day during my workout days then a revisit to Kenpo or Plyo may be in the cards. However, the days of following Tony along through mind numbingly boring set after set of curls or pushups are gone. That and his unbearably inane commentary. So what next you ask? Well, as you can probably guess it will involve kettlebells, Olympic Lifts, WODs and a dab of cardio. Here is the plan for the first month, more to follow later as I get into the schedule for the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge). I am also going to try and stay within a calendar time frame rather than a set 90 days, I would like to finish Round 5 around the start of April when my parents and sister come to town to see the baby. Once the weather is nicer, I will have more flexibility in what I can do using the deck outside as a workout platform, so things will change by necessity.

I need to be flexible with the days off, so what I want to do is commit to a 4 day stretch, sometimes it may get to 6 days in a row, other times I may be forced into a 2 or 3 day hiatus. Either way, the rotation is going to be 8 day. 2 4 day stretches containing everything I need. The variety will no doubt come from the WOD which I will mostly take from the Crossfit site but reserve the right to do a named workout should I feel the desire. I won’t be counting days off this time around either which will probably fit me in around the 75-80 day mark. I’m kind of making this up as I go along right now so bear with me. I need to satisfy certain things, I need bench, I need pullups, I need the RKC and I need some form of cardio day to keep my endurance up. I also need deadlifts, clean and press and for the time being some form of squat without getting under a bar. So here goes.

Day 1 – RKC Minimum Swings (The RKC Minimum is 4 weeks, then transition into Rite Of Passage)
Day 2 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 3 – Bench and dips (Chest, shoulder, tri)
Day 4 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

Day 5 – RKC Minimum Swings
Day 6 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 7 – Deadlifts and Squat (Legs and Back)
Day 8 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

R4 D74 – Beginning of the End

Since without a plan, nothing ever happens, here is the push to the end for Round 4.

W 74 – TGU plus WOD
R 75 –  RKC Swings
F 76 – P90X and Insanity Fit Tests
S 77 – 5K run
Y 78 – off

M 01 – Round 5

That should about do it. I am at Wednesday now and the way I figure it I should be able to put round 4 to bed and get Round 5 ready to go by Monday. It’s going to be a bit weird, since my workouts have been somewhat sporadic over the last 2 weeks but I think there is still some value to doing the fit tests anyway. For what it’s worth, my weight is down, my back seems to be bothering me much less and my feet seem to enjoy doing everything barefoot so all in all I suppose I am reaching my goals of general fitness and as Tony puts it, “less vulnerable and more durable” out in the real world. The question is, what is my fitness goal for the next round? I think I am at the point where I need to start documenting weights again. Much as I wanted to get away from that particular facet of working out, I think at this point I need to see my reps and max weights increasing in order to justify my efforts. Moving away from following a DVD schedule means you are vulnerable to coasting and losing sight of the goal at hand. Since I will be moving towards more Olympic style lifting and Crossfit type work, I guess note taking will be par for the course.

R4 D73 – RKC Is Taking Over

treadmill-catsHappy New Year everyone, and I hope now we are 4 days in that your renewed commitment to health and, for some, beauty, is intact!

I am at a bit of a crossroads at this time. Being the start of the year, it is a logical time to start anew and get things rolling in the right direction. Even though I am only on day 73, the fact is that I had only planned on an 84 day program anyway and the last week (79-84) was slated as a testing week. So I think what I am going to do is to do a couple of Crossfit and RKC workouts, get the fit tests done while I build the next phase plan. The thing about the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) workout to start is that it is really only 4 days a week, 2 of which are just 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups. So I think I can use the swing/clean days as a full day workout, and add the TGUs as a start or an end to an existing Crossfit or compound lifting day and that in itself would give me a 4 day split. The problem would be working in the lifts and skills I want to do to the program.

I figure I need the following as a minimum to maintain my current skill level:

Deadlifts
Squats / Power Leg Training
Pull ups
Bench
Some form of compound shoulder press (not military press)

Mostly these would be covered off by the WOD I would hope (except the bench), plus I can work some in as the Active Rest during the RKC. I will stick with an Insanity workout I think but I feel like for the first time I will be stepping back from P90X as a staple. It’s not that I don’t like it, or don’t believe in it but I think that I am a little worn out with it and really my skills have outgrown the methodology. As far as Insanity goes, I enjoy the workout and the structure is still entertaining to me. I know I don’t need it for aerobic stress, but rather for a mental break.

As far as Day 73 went, I did the first day of the RKC again with the swings and the active rest. It is by far the toughest 22 minutes I have encountered to date! Looking at my final week, I think I will still do the P90X and Insanity Fit Tests and the timed 5K run (just to run the 5K run would be a big improvement!) but that will only be 3 workouts. Add to that 1 more RKC and 2 WODs and I have 6 active days and maybe 2 rest days until I will need to start the next phase. Better get to work!

By the way, I hit my goal, albeit a day or two late.

2494

R4 D72 – Russian Kettlebell Challenge. Even My Chin Up Bar Is Scared.

I took a peek at the first phase of the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) and decided it would be fun to give it a try since I am figuring out what to do when phase 4 ends and it’s a slow time around the house and work giving me lots of creative juices to put towards my plan. I discovered that the KB work is not just about the KB but it works in with what is called Active Rest which is another name for Keep Working Comrade! The day looks like this (taken from the RKC Kettlebell Workbook):

RKC Monday Phase 1As you can probably see, the KB swings are alternated with something else, and as noted, you can swap that out for anything you want as long as you do the 12 minutes of work. I opted to do Jumping Jacks, Pull Ups, Dips, push ups and knees up running at which point the time ran out. That is a good thing because my next three sets were vomiting, passing out and coma.

This workout, 22 minutes total, completely destroyed me but I felt utterly amazed and proud of myself once I was finished.

In case you are curious, the exercises for the warmup are as follows:

Halo.
Halo, Pump, Mountain Climber.
Wall Squat.

For the record, I managed to do 5 sets, that is 5 swings followed by 5 active rests. I felt like my heart was going to explode but I didn’t feel any tweaking in my back and even today, the next day, my back is not sore. I guess my posture must have been good. I do have some tightness in my ITB and hips however which I can only assume is normal given the flexibility and strength that is required through the hips girdle for these exercises.

So am I a convert, we will have to see. All I know is that P90X workouts are fading fast as is Shaun T and much like an ex girlfriend, I don’t hate them, in fact I am grateful to them for getting me to where I am and for helping me become who I am.