Monday Afternoon Strength Practice 3/9/10

Box Squat Pistols and Bottoms Up Presses...

...Was on the menu for Monday afternoon's strength training.  I have a 5 Tier High Step that I use for the Box Pistols.  The plan is straight out of Pavel's Naked Warrior.  I'm practicing singles down to the box, and then coming back up.  When I can get 10 really clean singles, I'm pulling off a tier and starting over.  So far I've removed 2 tiers.

Alternating in with the Box Pistols is the Bottoms Up Press using a 24 kg Kettlebell.  Also the goal is 10 really clean singles.

Warmed up with Super Joints and 16kg Arm Bar/TGU combo.  3 per side.

I set the stopwatch to count down 20 minutes and got to work.  In that 20 minutes, I made 8 attempts (16 total when you count left and right).  My left side seems weaker than my right so I'm starting with the left.  Box Pistol Left, Box Pistol Right.  BUP Left, BUP Right.  Resting as long as I need.  So, yeah, 8 attempts.  I say attempts because that's really what happened there.

I've just recently gone down a tier on the box I'm using and this is my second real practice session with BUP's for the 24.  Leaning more forward in the Pistol is helping.  Warming up and stretching the hamstrings before training helped.  And of course more tension.  Getting down is OK.  The real struggle is getting back up.

For the BUP, it's a clean followed by, am I rooted enough to press?  If yes, please continue, if no, re-clean and try again.  Needless to say, being well rooted suddenly has more significance to the performance.  Both for the Pistol and the Press.

So after 20 minutes of making 2 real nice heal impressions in the grass and leaving part of the park looking like a unwrapped golf ball, I reset for another 15 minutes of practice.

I added a tier to the box for Negative Free Pistols and got a 16kg for BUPs.  Negative Free Pistols means that you do your Pistols with a really positive attitude...  And you go down on two legs, then back up on one.  The order of business was 20 minutes of ladders up to 3.

Did 3 Ladders of 1,2,3 in 15 minutes.  Stretched and hung on a high bar, did some hip and ham stretching and called it a day.

What did I take home from this session?  Rooting became the theme.  It became evident after the first 20 minute session when I started pushing the ground away from me.  Not in the Pistol however, in the Press.  As I became and felt more connected with the ground, I suddenly felt more sturdy and stable.  Go figure.  So, plug that into the Neg. Free Pistol as well and instant strength.  Amazing.  What's interesting is when things you do in other lifts (Front Squat, Deadlift, etc.) start worming their way organically into other skills.  So next time around, I will incorporate that more into the heavier session and see how it goes.