This Weekend...

Or I guess since it is technically over, it would be last weekend.

Either way: Made the workout short and sweet on Saturday because we had my son's second birthday party on Sunday and there was a decent amount of prep still to do.

Deads: 5 X 5, incresing weight with each set followed by three heavy singles.

Kettlebells: Straight hand to hand tosses X 100 - these are just like ketlebell swings, but where the bell is released at the top and caught with the opposite hand on the decent, good for the lower back, legs and grip.

Grip: nothing to write home about, just a few max attempts on the Vulcan and 2 "work sets" of three reps.

Got everything done in time and the party was a blast!

Tonight's Workout

Had a great workout today - Swings, snatches and jerks with the 24k kettlebell followed by about ten to twelve minutes of juggling with the 16k bell.

I haven't really juggled in what seems like ages, I've done hand to hand tosses and a few flips here and there but it felt like a long time since I actually focused on juggling with any fluidity. It was just as awesome as I remembered and I managed to pull off most of the moves that I tried without missing a beat. If the weather holds up on my training days I plan on trying to get out for at least fifteen minutes to juggle on one day a week.

I've also upped my grip training another day per week in an effort to push the limits just a little bit more toward certing on the number three before the year is out - it feels like one of those "so close, yet so far away" type of things and I'm hoping that the extra day will give me the kick in the a$$ I need to continually close in on that goal.

New Article up on TSB

New piece on TSB discussing developing massive amounts of power through practicing old school feats of strength - this is the first in a series of (hopefully) many

Building Power with Feats of Strength part I

At the end, you'll notice a recommendation for Jedd (Diesel Crew)'s Card Tearing E-book, if you're just beginning your road to the goal in the piece, buy Jedd's book - buy Diesel and you get nothing but the best.

If you enjoy this piece, keep coming back because I'll be doing more on old school feats and perhaps even be getting some guest commentary from Jedd here and there.

Saturday's Workout

Juggled things around this weekend a bit - workout moved to Saturday, with the way things are going this may be a permanent switch - either way is fine with me...

I foolishly attempted some one-legged deadlifts after seeing Gripster Ben Edwards doing them in one of his videos. I did find out the my balance is pretty much terrible: - )

On the upside, my frustration from absolute failure on the one-legged variety spurned me on for one hell of a session of 5 X 5 deads!

Worked just a little bit of 1" V-bar and some one finger lifting (this went much better that the previously attempted one leg lifting) and finished up with some work on the Vulcan - still confident that without any injuries that I'll be capable of Captains of Crush certification before 2009 is through.

Yesterday's Workout

My wife has been picking up extra days at work for the last couple weeks, filling in for people who are on vacation. For the most part, these days have been Thursdays, which is normally one of my heavy days in the dungeon - since I'm alone with the kids while she's at work, the last couple Thursdays have been k-bell days.

I basically fix their dinner and while they're eating I pound away at the kettlebells for 25-30 minutes.

Last night included 200 swings (switching hands as necessary), 50 BUP's (switching hands as necessary) and one long set of front squats. I finished up with around 100 reps on the Vulcan at varying levels of resistance.

You don't need a membership to Gold's gym to get a good workout, I did this in an area of my dining room not much bigger than a closet.

Training Video for WSL Card Tearing Contest

Actually did this video a couple days ago but hadn't had the chance to post it yet. The contest is winding closer to the end and I'm trying to come up with something cool for the submission video - this is just me hammering into a deck at the end of a gripper workout...

New Article - Working out with your Four-Legged Friend

I've got a new piece up over at TSB. It covers some of the things that a good training partner can provide you with along with were you might have to go to find the right one...

Not All Training Partners Suck

Thanks for stopping in, hope you enjoy!

Busy Sunday

My brother is flying in for the day and we have a mess of stuff lined up for the very short time that he'll be in town, so I had to keep this morning's training brief to be able to get ready for the day ahead.

During times like this is refreshing to know that you don't have to spend hour after hour in the gym in order for your workout to be effective. Today only took a little over twenty minutes, but still managed to kick my butt. On the schedule was:

5 X 5 deads - as heavy as I could handle after two sets of warm-up.

One Max attempt

3 X 3 Finger lifts

3 X 25 weighted sit ups

Everything was done with minimal rest - post workout included a 12 oz glass of milk, a PB sandwich and a quick shower - no it's time to hit the road

Today's Workout

Tuesday night I did a ten minute set of snatches at 12.5 reps per minute - it's been a little while since I've done timed sets - I almost forgot how fun they were. So tonight I devoted 45 minutes to timed sets of kettlebell movements.

10 minutes of swings*

10 minutes of snatches*

10 minutes of cleans/jerks*

10 minutes of TGU's*

* I don't have a timer, so times were all estimated/calculated along with music.

This workout was no joke - I'm burnt!

More Swingage

Yesterday's workout was pretty much one long kettlebell swing session interspersed with a lot of (mostly hip) mobility work.

I completed a total of 245 swings, switching hands and taking short breathers when necessary. Before and after the swing session (as well as during some of the short breathers) I worked on loosening up my hip ankle and shoulder joints with some circular movements.

I'm not sure what kind of effect the swings/snatches that I've been (and will continue to be) performing will have on my deadlifts numbers, I've heard the translation between the two is great - I guess only time will tell. I've been using deadlifts as my main strength movement for years and have been implementing kettlebells of late for conditioning/explosiveness, I guess it's time that I try and marry the two forms of training to try and yield the best possible results.

I also worked some grippers (Vulcan for warm up and work sets followed by some spirited attempts on the # 3.

Deads, C & J & MORE GRIPPERS

I had a bit of a cold early on in the weak, which kept me from doing a whole heck of a lot of accessory work on Tuesday but I felt good yesterday. I decided to put pretty much all of my energy into deads and to work some technique on the barbell C & J.

I've worked some Oly lifting before, but mainly just with kettlebells and I think that focusing on some barbell cleans and clean and jerks will help me build more explosive strength (one thing I think that I'm currently lacking).

I jumped right back to where I left off before vacation on the 20 rep deads, though the last few were grinders. Thought I was going to be a little sore today, but I actually feel fine. In favor of my normal accessory work on dead day I worked a few sets of C & J, it took me a few reps to really start to feel the groove but once I got it, it felt surprisingly natural.

I didn't do any gripper work, as the title implies, but I think that I forgot to mention that I had spoken with John over at FBBC before I left for vacation and that I have two of his grippers on the way. For those of you who don't have any experience with John or his products, he is a class act and produces nothing but top quality strength/grip gear, so I'm looking very forward to their arrival.

New (first) Article at Brotherspeak

Brotherspeak is the latest home for my writings. It's a sight dedicated to improvement and empowerment and this week I put together a piece on matching your outside with your inside - being healthy and looking good.

Looks can be Deceiving

While you're over there, take a look around - the site is new but already is amassing some good quality content.

New Article over at TSB

This week at TSB, I did some talking about protein. The subject of proper dietary supplementation can get pretty confusing - if you are new to working out there is a lot of information and even more mis-information that can have you stumbling Most of the information you can find easily comes from someone trying to sell you something, someone who doesn't have your best interest in mind, so I constructed a bit of a guide for you to determine what sources of protein may be right for you and about how much you should be getting on a daily basis.

Protein - It does a Body Good

Enjoy!

Vacation's over - Time to get back to Work!

My family and I just got back from a beautiful week down in Tennessee. We had a lot of fun with my brother and his family - we hit the Zoo, toured downtown, went swimming, spent some time by the fire pit and did some much needed relaxing. As far as working out, there wasn't much - I played a little basketball and bent a few 60d's for show, that was about it.

We got home last night and today it was back down into the dungeon.

V-bar

96 X 6 right X 6 left
141 X 4 right X 4 left
176 X 2 right X 1 left
196 X 2 right X fail left

1 Finger Lift

76 each side X 5
96 each side X 3
126 X 1 each side with hold
146 X 1 each side with hold
166 X 1 each side with hold

TGU's w/ 24K bell

2 X 5 each side

finished up with some light grippers

Nothing to max, but it felt great just to get the blood flowing again!