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!