Category: Kettlebell Workouts (RKC)

10.19-10.21 – Greasing The Groove

 

 

10.19 – Off
10.20 – FOY Yoga with Tony (Too sore for anything else)
10.21 – RKC 34543 with 55lb and pullups

The great news is that by the time I have finished Tuesday’s bootcamp I will be up at exactly 70% participation for this session. I am also trying to get my pullups back into shape since at the moment I am having trouble stringing 10 together during my workouts.

I am scouring mobilityWOD to try and get some more information on stretching and manipulating the joints and surfaces to get some progress in the bridge / splits and shoulder mobility of my girls. The field of stretching and mobility is not glamorous and is often overlooked but I am trying to find good resources for increasing mobility and flexibility beyond what 90% of sites will tell you. Most of them act like PNF is the latest development in stretching or that blindly stretching more will give more results. Since we are talking about high level athletes here, it’s tough to find much reference material, even going through gymnastics sites hasn’t really provided much information. So if you have any to pass along, it would be more than welcome.

I am also realizing that for the first time in a while I have a small window of “me” training rather than each day having to worry about bootcamp or resting after said event. For now once I am done Thursday I can feel free to exercise on Friday knowing that I have days to recoup until WOD Monday and Bootcamp again on Tuesday. I am hoping this will get me into a groove of satisfying my own strength and mobility needs (read Olympic lifting and Yoga) and help me to fight off what is apparently a roughly 3% fat gain over the last few months.

The exciting news is that my scale should arrive tomorrow. It is partly a Fathers Day gift for me, partly a Mothers Day gift for Nicole (since we get a food scale free and she says ours is toast) and partly a more accurate way to determine my body composition. I will tell you what I think once I get my hands (and feet) on it.

10.12-14 The Two Extremes

I think due to my preference to take the day after bootcamp as a rest day I am going to have to take Wednesday and Friday as rest days. Unfortunately that means I will be working out Saturday – Tuesday without a break. It sounds brutal but unless I can get over my hangup about the day after Bootcamp that will have to do. After bootcamp weights on Thursday I took Friday off and changed RKC Friday into RKC Saturday instead. The only problem with that is my 45lb KB is at work, so if I don’t do RKC at work then I have to do it at home with my 55lb KB. In the spirit of pushing myself, this is what I did:

3×3 Clean and Press with 55lb
9 chinups
3×3 Clean and Press with 55lb
9 chinups
4×3 Clean and Press with 55lb
12 chinups
4×3 Clean and Press with 55lb
12 chinups
3×3 Clean and Press with 70lb
9 chinups

I have to admit I was shocked at how hard it was to use the 55lb being only 10lbs heavier. Then again I almost crushed my head and tore my arm off using the 70lb which I have never actually used with any regularity, I suppose that is the next part of my RKC goal setting, making sure that I can lift that bad boy with regularity and ease after all, it’s the standard by which Russian Men are judged.

Sunday rolled around and knowing that I was going to have a 4 day stint including a WOD day and a bootcamp day I was in the mood for a little flexibility work. I have started the summer training at gymnastics by introducing a stretching and flexibility schedule and it has highlighted my own shortcomings with glaring clarity. So with that in mind I set about my first Yoga workout in several months, a quick search indicates that it was January 2012 when I last participated in a Yoga class and it sure felt that way last night. I remember being comfortable with yoga, being able to do most of the stretching, even able to balance in many of the poses but last night showed serious flaws in my training. I am glad that I will be doing more flexibility with the girls, I think it will give us all a chance to improve what we have but regardless I think I need to add Yoga back into my schedule at least every other week.

Maybe I can make Sunday my yoga day! I have P90X yoga, Fountain of Youth Yoga from Tony Horton 1 on 1 and of course X2 Yoga to choose from.

I hate to admit it, but I kind of miss yoga…

 

 

R9D87 – Limping Across The Line

Last wednesday was cardio abs and since then I have been buy with parents visiting and building a ton of Ikea furniture. During that time, the clock has expired on my current round freeing me from the PAP of the final weeks of P90X2. Friday I worked out at work, choosing to do a variation of my RKC workout that went like this:

Warmup:

Halos
Laying press
Swings
Pumps

5-5-5

Clean and Press plus 20 swings

5-5

Snatch plus 20 swings

5-5

Turkish Half Get Ups – Just don’t do the standing part…

After that since I had a very uncomfortable twinge in my lower back I decided to take off a couple of days and try to recover a little. We also were hosting a large birthday party on Sunday for my little girl which took up most of our time in preparation.  It’s now Monday and I am about to go to gym for bootcamp and I am going to try and organize my workouts for the coming weeks tomorrow while I am off work. Because I am so far off track with the daily routine of P90X2 this last few weeks have really dragged. I also realize that my workrate is a little lower than it should be but I am hoping that building a custom workout schedule for round 10 (whatever it is going to be called) my help in upping my days of activity from an average of 4 to an average of above 5.

R9D81/2 – RKC and Bootcamp. A Tinge Of Nostalgia

Re-reading some of my posts, which I do in order to bolster my motivation at times, I couldn’t help but feel a little saddened that I have drifted far from the path of P90X2. Although I pay homage to it twice a week at bootcamp, it’s not the same as happy little Tony and his sweaty minions entertaining you, nay, mocking you (see Ab Ripper X!) while you roll around on the floor like a tasered college student or struggling to keep up with “pullup boy” only to find that the inside of your elbows are capable of producing inexplicable pain.

It’s an easy enough fix, I need to commit to spending 2 days a week with Tony on PAP for the balance of the program but since there are only 8 dys left, maybe it’s too little too late. That said, then end of the PAP section will enable me to return to the start and design a program with Original and inappropriate Tony, Tony 2 (The 50 Something) and of course not forgetting Shaun T who lurks in the background of my basement just waiting to choke my confidence to death with his bare hands.

I am kind of looking forward to it, even though 2 days of bootcamp is a lot of work, I think I am getting more used to it and should be able to balance it as a workout day, rather than a day always followed by a day of rest. The summer is always better, doing pullups on the deck out in the sunshine, Insanity with the french doors open and the summer breeze blowing through or even the short P90X2 yoga with the sun setting, bathing my workout space in a soothing orange glow.

It’s time for a shake up and I think that means it’s time to think about my future both here on my blog and with my workouts. I mean, this isn’t really a P90X blog any more, it’s far more than that and I think maybe it’s time to move it to another site, something with more of an all around fitness and nutrition feel to it.

Speaking of shaking things up, here is the bootcamp for tonight so if my participants are sneaky, they can get an idea of what pain lies ahead…

D19 2.10.1 Bodyweight

Balance and coordination

10 regular pushups with shoulder touch
10 military pushups with hip touch
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

20 in and out row
10 roll to boat hold 3 count
20 bicycle with leg extension
20 side crunch per side
10 pullups

10 SB pushup boing
10 SB Burpee lift ball
10 SB Plank to sphinx
10 per SB elbow plank side raise

Feet on SB

10 regular pushups with shoulder touch
10 military pushups with hip touch
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

10 SB pushup boing
10 SB Burpee lift ball
10 SB Plank to sphinx
10 per SB elbow plank side raise

20 Crunchy Frog
20 vsnap
20 laying triple bicycles
20 full situps

Arms on SB 20 360’s
Arms on SB plank to sphinx
10x feet on SB walk out and back
2x feet on SB 360 walkaround
20x laying hamstring pull

20 laying leg lifts
10 per rainbow leg lifts
10 per scissor hold on count
25 per side to side scissor rapid

BONUS ROUND!!

10 military pushup
10 diamond pushup
10 Hindu Pushup
30s crane

R9D77/8 – RKC at Work And Rollerblading … Yup, You Read That Right!

I guess you could say that I am drifting away from P90X2 as a schedule, I mean I have not hidden my disappointment with the PAP series of workouts  and since that is almost the entirety of the final phase I guess you could say I am over it. I think I will try to get a couple more of them in before I officially call it quits on P90X2 just to say I gave it more than a couple of chances. That said, the summer is really here now and activities outside should start to take the forefront. This past weekend I did something I haven’t done in probably 10 years, I went rollerblading. I was expecting to be pathetic, a frightened old man trying to regain the vigor of his youth but no, I was happy, capable and without any road rash for my efforts. In fact, I felt like I was 25 again when I used to rollerblade around Western for hours at a time wasting the early summer days between aerobics classes and weightlifting. The best thing was that my workouts are obviously good enough and thorough enough that I wasn’t sore in any unusual places nor was I tired once I returned despite my hear rate being pretty high for the entire 30 minutes. It’s a small thing I know, but it made me happy to know that I am still capable of doing things that some would consider activities of the younger generation. The sad thing is that people were looking at me like I had 3 heads, I guess rollerblades are less in favour now than they once were, but they are still viable, no? I mean as long as these idiot kids are on their stupid skateboards, I think people on rollerblades are still one rung above them on the ladder.

In other news I was thinking about the place dairy has in the Paleo diet, I have at times in the past given up dairy and felt some benefits in doing so, but this weekend when a relative told us she was giving up dairy and sugar it got me to thinking if dairy was really so bad. To cut a long story short, the thinking is that milk is not the greatest thing, especially farmed skim milk which is sadly what I drink. Cheese and other milk products fall into the same category but are better by virtue of having the good saturated fats still in place. At the top of the list is ghee or clarified butter which everyone should use to cook with instead of processed vegetable oils. I have included a couple of short articles below to inform you on these points and to help anyone wondering if dairy is really a part of the Paleo lifestyle. For me, I guess we could try to find milk from grass fed sows but I am not sure the price would make the switch viable. It would probably be best just to quit.

The place of dairy on the paleo diet.

Stop Eating Dairy

Paleo and Dairy

One of the common threads here is that bovine dairy is inferior to goat and sheep dairy, maybe the answer then at least for me would be to switch back to eating goat feta instead of the fake plastic marble cheese I love. Yes I have a long way to go to Paleo nirvana and I am thinking that modifying my dairy is a step in the right direction.

 

R9D73/4 – RKC At Work And Chelsea 20 Double Time

For some reason, I have yet to complete a round of Chelsea, I always seem to get stuck around 20 minutes probably because I am thinking about Cindy. Since it’s not a good idea to be thinking about one woman when you are with another I need to get my head sorted out. They are both similar, with the differences outlined here:

Chelsea:
Each minute on the minute for 30 minutes

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

Cindy:
AMRAP in 20 minutes:

5 pull-ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats (Air Squats)

The thing is that apart from kettlebells, the pullup, pushup, squat workout is one of the best and simplest workouts you can do, that’s why I love it so much. So this time for a bit of a change I thought I would do this:

10 rounds of:

10 pullups
20 Pushups
30 Squats

It was much tougher than the others, getting to 10 pullups by the end was a chore but mostly doing 30 squats each time proved far more challenging than I had anticipated. However, I struggled through in about 25 minutes including a short warmup.

The previous workout had been RKC at work and it’s becoming a pretty standard workout now like this:

5 rounds of:

5 C&P each side
5 Snatch each side
20 Swings

It’s a good, quick workout and makes my heart rate go pretty wiggy so it’s definitely working!

 

R9D69-70 – Disappointed (Bootcamp Off)

So nobody turned up for bootcamp last week. My kids weren’t participating because they have competition this week and among the litany of excuses there was zero participation. That said, I have a new, and I think  fun, workout to do so bring on Monday so I can try this puppy out!

So on Friday I was forced to do an RKC workout at work during which a Yoga class broke out. It was a fairly standard workout but the numbers were a little different:

5 C&P Left
5C&P Right
5 C&P Left
5C&P Right
5 C&P Left
5C&P Right
20 Swings

Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 rounds.

Add 5 Snatch per side 3 times and there you have it.

Saturday I made an attempt at PAP Upper again and I have to say I enjoyed it a little more this time but it’s still just not a tough enough workout for me. I am trying to make it as hard as I can but it doesn’t quite manage to hit the spot for either heavy weight work or good cardio work. I am sure I will get used to it but I can’t see it becoming a favourite. Then again, I have had an on and off love affair with Kenpo so you just never know!

This week with my wife out of town I am hoping to get some extra physical work done. If I can make this a solid 5 or 6 days of working out then I figure I can get rid of this ever so slight feeling of laziness and get my sleeping schedule back on track.

R9D59 and 60 – RKC at Work and Bootcamp 3.2.1 Cardio

Week 2 of bootcamp starts with cardio. For some reason, maybe because I am slightly under the weather, my heartrate was the highest I have ever seen it during this workout. At one point I think I saw 172 on my HR monitor which for me is insane!

Beats the elliptical that’s for sure!

In order to bridge the gap from last week I snuck in an RKC workout at work again on Friday. It’s becoming my escape route from skipping workouts on the weekend – a bad habit I need to break! It was the same basic workout, Clean and Press with swings plus 5×5 snatch at the end.

D3 3.2.1 Cardio

1x section
10 SB Burpee
5ea SB runaround
10 SB pushup boing
5ea SB face around
10 SB plank to sphinx rollup
20 SB mountain climber
10 SB hamstring roll in

2x section
20 Hit The Floor
10 Suicides
20 Switch Kicks
20 in and out abs

2x section
4x 8Jump rope with 4jump half turn
10x 8 sprint 4 switch lunge
10 stance jacks (foot touch)
10 vsnaps

2x section
5x long jump run back – single double triple repeat
2 knees up side run lengths
10 2 line forward and back suicides with pancake
10 ski abs

x2 section
5 burpee
5 burpee with 4 run
5 burpee with 4 run and 4 in and out
20 plank jacks
10 plank jacks with in and out

1x section
10 SB Burpee
5ea SB runaround
10 SB pushup boing
5ea SB face around
10 SB plank to sphinx rollup
20 SB mountain climber
10 SB hamstring roll in

Bonus

Shoulder burners

R9D53/4 – Bootcamp 2.12.1 Weights and RKC

*EDIT: Now paleo is curing cancer… Go cavemen!

 

I finally stuck to my guns on Tuesday and did an RKC workout at work even after Bootcamp Monday. The RKC that I do at work is a little different because there is no pullup bar but it goes something like this:

Warmup:
3x
10 pumps
10 weighted squats
10 halo

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
5C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
20 swings

3 Snatches per side
4 Snatches per side
5 Snatches per side
4 Snatches per side
3 Snatches per side

My back was very sore after last Friday which can only mean one thing… I haven’t been doing enough KB work to keep my back in shape. Being as it is that I have whined incessantly about not doing enough there is lots of room for improvement. Luckily after this round of RKC I already feel much better.

D23 – 2.12.1 Weights

20 squats
20 lunge walk or barbell lunge
20 weighted MKs
10 weighted long jump
Farmers Waddle 4 lines

Farmers Waddle 4 lines
10 weighted long jump
20 weighted MKs
20 lunge walk or barbell lunge
20 squats

No weight

20 super skater per
20 1 leg squat knee raise
20 MK
20 air squat

With DBs or BB

15 Double curl
15 weighted box dips
10 alt curl each or BB curl
15 weighted box dips
15 double hammer curl or french BB curl
15 weighted box dips

15 strict press
15 side raise or front BB raise
15 high pull
15 front raise
15 strict press

15 Double curl
15 weighted box dips
10 alt curl each or BB curl
15 weighted box dips
15 double hammer curl or french BB curl
15 weighted box dips

15 strict press
15 side raise or front BB raise
15 high pull
15 front raise
15 strict press

COMBOS

15 DB thruster
15 double db curl and press OR BB full clean and press
10 front side high pull or BB front front high pulll

R9D49 – RKC And I Really Mean It This Time

I’m having a hard time getting these workouts in. It seems like every weekend there is something there to distract or defeat me. I am getting the work done in the big picture, but barely staying above the minimum activity level that I have set for myself. So this week I won’t promise anything other than bootcamp classes and 3 other workouts. It’ s cardio and bodyweights this week at bootcamp and I am toying with the idea of filming the workouts in order to have something of a memento of my days as a bootcamp instructor and also to see exactly who is doing what, including myself. Last week I managed both bootcamps and a pretty tough kettlebell workout and it really wasn’t enough. However I was out of town for two days which threw a wrench into the works and I am getting pretty sick of hearing myself whine about not being able to get my work done. So, no more. Today is bootcamp, and I’m committing to a 5 day week this week. Job done.

For my RKC workout it was pretty basic.

3-3 C&P +20 70lb swings
3-4 C&P +20 70lb swings
3-4-5 C&P +20 70lb swings
3-4 C&P +20 70lb swings
3-3 C&P +20 70lb swings

I added 20 55lb snatches to the end just to make sure I kept up my technique.