The Cumulative Fatigue Effect

Hit up some double kb drills again - workout looked like this:

-Foam roll and stretch tight areas for about 15 minutes

-Jump rope for five minutes

-KB Circut focused on clean and presses:

1. Clean and Press

2. Get up

3. Clean and Press

4. Clean and Front Squat

5. Clean and Press

6. Snatch

7. Clean and Press

8. Swing

9. Clean and Press

Did two rounds of this; first round was eight reps of each drill with a pair of 12k kbs; second round did six reps of each drill with 16k kb's. Was a hell of a workout! Workout intensity has been great lately!

One thing that has been kind of sucking lately is how tired I'm feeling during the workouts. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I probably average six hours of sleep on most weekdays. This made me start thinking about the so - called 'cumulative effect' of fatigue on one's training: everything that you do in your life has an effect on your recovery abilities. If I'm working really hard - which I do :) - I probably work 50 or 60 hours a week when I actually add everything up - I don't have a ton of time to recover. And my energy levels for my workout suffer as a result.

I remember there was a time when I was completely dedicated to training. That was all I did - I was getting ready to enter the NFL, and all I did was train about four hours a day, eat, and recover. It was amazing how much progress I was able to make and how good of shape I was able to get myself into in a remarkably short period of time. 99.9% of us don't have that luxury - I surely don't these days. The moral of the story is that we have to take into account everything that's going on in our lives when we design a training program for ourselves - if you work 50 or 60 hours a week, have two kids, etc. - you can't expect to train two hours a day (even if you could find the time to do so) like a manic and expect to recover and make progress. So keep this in mind when you're designing your next training program.

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Grad Workout Practice

Yesterday hit the 'Grad Workout' - consisted of:

Alternating 'see-saw' presses for 20 sec, 10 sec rest, swings for 20 sec, 10 sec rest - for 100 yards.

Check out the video:




Pretty intense. Biggest thing was that I survived! I think I'll be okay for the cert. Also threw in some chest and arms for fun at the end ;)

Today I took a rest day - gearing up for a big weekend of kettlebell work prepping for the RKC!

Man, Field, Kettlebell

There's something about the experience of driving out to a nice spot, taking just a kettlebell and yourself, and getting a gut-busting workout. It's kind of amazing, really, My workout today consisted of:

3 min jog to warm-up, along with 30 bodywt squats, 20 push-ups, and 1 min of planks

15 min of easy kb circut, 'groving' swings, snatches, cleans and front squats

99 24k snatches in 5 minutes - did 20 on the minute (10 right, 10 left) for each of five minutes

This was a simply brutal workout - I have no other way of describing it. It probably took me 30 minutes to stop sweating. However, I think a couple things I need to work on are as follows:

-Overhead lockout strength - the ability to 'rest' with the kb in the overhead position is key to saving time, instead of having to rest with the kb on the ground

-Quick hand switch - need to figure out how to switch hands without taking a half swing in between.

That's about it! See you all tomorrow ... more snatching on the agenda ...

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Overtraining + Injury Risk

I had a kettlebell circuit planned for today, but to be honest, I was too damn sore from yesterday's workout! The goal is to work up to a high volume of work for a three day stretch like I will be during the RKC cert. It got me thinking about something: How much is too much? Just how quickly do you actually overtrain? And is there a risk of injury involved?

My (unscientific) opinion is that a couple days in a row of hitting the same body part every once in a while isn't going to kill you. It might even be a good change. But on an ongoing basis, it's obviously a bad idea. And generally, if your body is telling you 'no' - don't work out! What do you think? http://thefitnessmonster.com

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The WTF Effect

One thing I think that is very unique to kettlebell training is the 'WTF' effect - training with KB's on a consistent basis has a lot of transfer over to improving other activities.

Case in point: today's workout. I decided to give the CrossFit WOD from 090521 a go - it looked like this:

750 m Row
20 Handstand Push-Ups (I did a modified version)

2 Rounds for Time

Then:

20 115 Pound Thrusters
20 L-Pull-Ups (I did regular pull-ups)

2 Rounds for Time

First off, it was a monster of a workout! But the interesting thing was that I did the CrossFit WOD pretty consistently for about a year until about a month ago. I felt just as good doing this workout - if not better - as I did when I was CrossFitting regularly, even though I've been training almost exclusively with kettlebells for the last month.

So I think this would likely translate into other activities - running, cycling, weightlifting, etc. Good to know, and a pretty cool 'side effect' of kettlebell training!

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Double Kettlebell Day!

Two hard circuit of double kettlebell drills today after some foam roll and jump rope to warm up. Circuit consisted of:

swings
clean+press
swings
clean+front squats
swings
get ups
swings
snatches
swings

Done non-stop twice; first round with 12k's for eight reps of each exercise, second round with 16k's for six reps per exercise.

Tough workout! One down, three to go for the weekend ...

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Maintaining Your Fitness on The Road: How to Stay on Track While Away From Home

So you've made some great progress in the last couple of months - you've lost some body fat, gained some muscle, and are just about bikini ready!  And now it's time for a vacation!  Unfortunately, you can undo a lot of progress in a short amount of time.  With a fair and realistic 'minimize the damage' sort of mindset, here are a few tips for maintaining your fitness on the road:

-Have a plan

When it comes to going on a trip and staying on track, failing to plan is planning to fail.  You need to know what you're going to do for your workouts, whether it's working out at the hotel, driving to a nearby gym, or even just running outside.  Having some healthy snacks in the hotel fridge can go a long way as well.

-Make good choices

When it comes to eating out, you can always make better choices.  Are you going for the pasta and cream sauce or the chicken breast and veggies?  You get the drift ;)

-Use Your Own Body weight

There are a ton of exercises you can do with your own body weight.  Check out this article on Prison Workouts for some great ideas.

-Pick up a TRX trainer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsSpWCTEgNU

One of the coolest and most versatile pieces of exercise equipment you can own.  They enable you to work every major muscle group and get a killer workout - and they fit nicely in your suitcase!  Check out the YouTube video I posted above or click the link below to order one:

TRX System

Hope you all find these tips helpful for staying on track with your fitness programs while on the road - please let us know if you have any suggestions of your own!

30 Days to Make a Change

30 day challenges, programs, etc. seem to be all the rage lately in the blogosphere. Heck, you can even get an iphone app that does it for you. But I think there are good reasons for their popularity ... here's a couple of reasons why I think it's a great way to make a change:

1. 30 days of intense focus on one thing allow you to make a great amount of progress in a short amount of time. Staying strict on your diet and working out consistantly and intensely for the same period can yield tremendous results. Check out this article in the CrossFit journal: The Hard Routine It inspired me to give it a try about a month before my wedding and I made some great progress.

2. 30 days is a solid amount of time to build a habit. And the results you get in this time frame are often good enough to make you want to keep doing whatever you're doing!

So whether you're trying to build the habit of daily exercise, trying to save money, or get your own blog going, intense focus and energy on a given endevor is a great way to jump start your progress. Also, check out my own 30 Day Fitness Challenge on forestvancetraning.com.

Simple Fat Burning Workout

The ultimate goal I have for all of my clients is to be independent with their workout programs and to adopt the 'fitness lifestyle'. As much as this includes knowing how to do various exercises with proper form, it also includes the basic nuts and bolts of program design - of how to put a solid workout together. To give you an example of what I'm talking about, here's a basic template for a beginner/intermediate fat-burning workout:

-Pick a multi-joint upper body exercise (ex: push-up, pull-up, shoulder press - multi-joint means moving at more than one joint during the exercise - no curls or lateral raises in this program)

-Pick a multi-joint lower body exercise (squat, lunge, step-up)

-Do a high-rep set of the upper body exercise (12-20 reps), and with minimal rest, do a high rep set of the lower body exercise

-Repeat three times

-Do three or four 'rotations' of different exercises to complete the workout

Here's an example of what a workout might look like:

Squats - 20 reps
Push-ups - 15 reps
Repeat for three sets each

Pull-ups or Rows - 12 reps
Step-ups or lunges - 12 reps each leg
Repeat three times

Sit-ups or crunches - 15 reps
Shoulder press - 12 reps
Repeat three times

There you have it - a simple (but far from easy) fat burning workout. Give it a go and let me know what you think - please post any feedback/questions to comments!