Tag: ladders

R7D89/91 – The Final Weekend

My encounter with Cindy last week left me extremely sore in the quads. I am not sure why it was so bad, but Friday and Saturday I was in agony most likely because I chose to do full squats for Cindy instead of only going to 90 degrees. I was severely compromised during my Olympic Lifting practice and due to the pain rather than doing any max weight, I chose to concentrate on form and get my mechanics back on track.

Olympic Lifts:

3 sets of 10 each, unloaded bar.

Deadlift
Clean
Power Clean
Clean and Press
Jerk
Clean and Jerk
Squat
Push Press

Saturday we attended a wedding, but that timing was good since by that time I was unable to walk without looking like I had a metal coat hanger for a spine and hips made from glass. For Sunday, the official last day of Round 7 I caved and did Yoga with the P90X gang. I admit I did skip some of the savasanas at the start but it was an hour of yoga that I was grateful for.

Monday rolled around and knowing that I am at the very least starting with the same round again I knew it was RKC time. I may change the format a little, but for the first week I knew it would be the same as last time.

R9D1 – My RKC mini workout:

Ladders of 3,4,5,4,3 with pullups

For those who are unfamiliar, a description of the ladder system is here.

I did 20 swings between each set (some head height, some overhead) and at the end decided to add something extra.

1 clean and press left
1 clean and press right
1 snatch right
1 snatch left
1 pullup
2 clean and press left
2 clean and press right
2 snatch right
2 snatch left
2 pullup
3 clean and press left
3 clean and press right
3 snatch right
3 snatch left
3 pullup

 

R5D28 – RKC Minimum Done! Here’s What’s Next In RKC

riteofpassageThis is officially my last day of RKC swings, I am about to step into the “Man Maker” also called the Rite Of Passage. This is a bit of a relief, since I am anxious to start doing more complex and challenging moves. Although I am still, even now, aware of my form when I do the swings and not at the point where they are 100% natural feeling. The next phase seems complicated and it meshes 2 things together. First is the ladder concept of doing increasing reps and the second is the notion of light days, heavy days and medium days. If you read ETK it goes over the process in detail and I would recommend both the ETK itself and also the excellent Art Of Strength workbook. I am at a true crossroads at the moment, I am in a kind of rest week, but the RKC demands I move on. Not only that, I will be working out on the road in the very near future which will be an added challenge. In any case, it’s time, so it’s time.

So I move on, Comrade, still sticking with 4 days a week and adding pull ups as part of the RKC instead of having to work it into the Crossfit days. When the schedule mentions “pulls” I am going to use pull ups as the exercise of choice.  The Heavy Light Medium thing goes like this:

Monday — Heavy presses, pulls
Tuesday — Off
Wednesday — Light presses, pulls
Thursday — Variety
Friday — Medium presses, pulls
Saturday — Variety
Sunday — Off

With 2 days off out of 7 it is a demanding schedule if you are going to add either P90X, Insanity or Crossfit workouts into the “Variety” section where you are able to do whatever you choose. So, what about the ladder? Well, it is pretty simple actually, and it looks like this:

3 Rung Ladder:

1 rep each arm
1 pullup
2 reps each arm
2 pullups
3 reps each arm
3 pullups

Depending on how many ladders you are doing it comes out to a total of 6 reps per arm x number of ladders. 3 ladders = 18 reps per arm.

5 Rung Ladder (the highest ladder)

1 rep each arm
1 pullup
2 reps each arm
2 pullups
3 reps each arm
3 pullups
4 reps each arm
4 pullups
5 reps each arm
5 pullups

Again, it’s a total of 15 reps x number of ladders.

So, quickly, back to the Heavy Medium and Light. Pavel says that the Heavy day you do all 5 rungs, medium days you do 4 and light days 3. So once you are through the first 2 weeks and up to 5 rungs, you should then adhere to the schedule.

But wait, there is more… you didn’t think you were going to get away from swings did you? The final component of the ROP is to complete swings every day. The number is up to a roll of the dice.Literally. You roll a dice to tell you how many minutes of swings to do, anywhere from 2 to 12! Also, the program calls for both two handed and one handed swings, so you may want to start practicing your one arm swing now…