Last Night's Smoker

Well somehow I got roped into participating in wifey's Thai Pad class at her Krav Maga studio in Sherman Oaks. 

The class consisted of Thai Pads (of course) plus bodyweight exercises, stretching and some Kettlebells thrown in at the end for good measure.

We started with jumping rope.  I haven't jumped rope since Rocky III!  Needles to say I tried in vein to look cool but spent more time getting my feet tied up then actually jumping rope.

From there we moved into shadow boxing which did nothing but leave me in a complete state of self consciousness considering I've never shadow boxed (in public) in my life.  There was one cool move we did though here which was: shadow box, shadow box, shadow box, drop and sprawl, hop back up with a right knee.  That one was fun.  Like a martial burpee!

Then we did some bodyweight exercises and stretching.  Push Ups, Squats, Sit Ups, Downward Dogs, etc.  The pace was fairly high and the sweat really started in.

When the Thai Pads came out there was a lot of punching and kicking.  Not a martial artist, I did my best to kick high and punch well.  Mrs Bradley coached me and encouraged me to keep going and the Instructor was patient with my first timer ass.  Multiple combinations of punching and kicking, push ups and sit ups.  Trading off with my partner (in more ways than one) I had a blast training with Mrs Bradley.

The main part of the workout and what I think is the main reason for the cesspool of lactic acid in my calves and hams was this combination of punches and kicks that worked like Ladders almost.

1 right jab, 1 left side kick
2 right jabs, 1 left side kick
3 right jabs, 1 left side kick
4 right jabs, 1 left side kick...  all the way up to 10 and then switch sides!

Then Push Ups on your knuckles with the gloves on and then this flipped over to:

1 right kick, 1 left jab
2 right kicks, 1 left jab
3 right kicks, 1 left jab
4 right kicks, 1 left jab...  back to 10 again, switch sides and try not to fall over.

After a quick breather and swig of water the Kettlebells came out.  We did about 1 minute of each of the following:

-Still Legged Dead Lifts
-Sumo Squats
-Right Arm Cleans
-Right Arm Clean and Press
-Right Arm Press
-Left Arm Cleans
-Left Arm Clean and Press
-Left Arm Press
-Crush Curl
-Crush Curl+Press+French Press

Cooled down with more stretching and Yoga-esc poses and wrapped it up.  All in all the class was about an hour and 10 minutes, thoroughly invigorating and a nice change up for this Hard Style Kettlebell fanatic.  All in all a good time was had by all.  I enjoyed the challange and was happy to have kept up and not completely embarrased my dear wife!

101 Kettlebell Workouts Goes Stacking

101 Kettlebell Workouts goes Stacking

Working through David Whitley's ebook 101 Kettlebell Workouts and journaling the experience on HubPages.

This morning I posted the Stacking workout.  The Article is up on Hub Pages now if you'd like to read it and you can see the video of the workout right here!

No Equipment Required

This is a little article I wrote for HubPages. No need to let time, money or equipment get in the way of a good workout!


Let me know what you think!

No Equipment Required

There's an accompanying video too...

Top 10 Reasons Why Swinging Like This Is A Good Idea

10.  You lost your P90X DVDs.

9.  You just received a years worth of free Chiropractic adjustments.

8.  You've used up all your vacation time at work and need a week off.

7.  You think wearing a back brace to the gym like those guys at Home Depot looks cool.

6.  You 're one of those people who likes to say one thing and do another, just for effect.

5.  You need to drop 5 pounds in a week.

4.  You've always wanted the L.A. Times to slam you.

3.  You've always wanted the L.A. Times to get your name wrong.

2.  You promised your spouse you'd spend the weekend in bed and are looking to get out of it on a technicality...

1.  Number one is up to you!  Put you're number one reason in the comment section here and the winner will get a free set of Kettlebell Stickers.  I'll pick and announce a winner on Monday night (the 18th).

The Rest of the Story...

Russian Fatigue Cycling from Beyond Bodybuilding by Pavel Tsatsouline is a training program designed to keep things simple while creating enough variety for you and your body to not get bored and stagnant. 

In Power to the People, Pavel taught us about the traditional, simple and highly effective power lifting cycle.  Train often, add a little weight each time, when you reach your max, take a couple days off, reduce the weight and start climbing again.  Kind of like a self-imposed Sisyphus style of training.

What Russian Fatigue Cycling basically looks like is this.  You take a group of exercises with the same sets and reps and then arrange them in a comfortable line up that targets the whole body.  That will be Workout A.  Workout B will be exactly the same as Workout A except you will change the order of the exercises.

This style of training will have you training a lift once early in Workout A, but then training the same lift later in Workout B.  Essentially cycling your fatigue.  For example if your Workout A starts with pull ups and you can bang out 4 sets of 8 pull ups when your fresh, can you still knock out 4 sets of 8 after doing 5 other taxing lifts?

Training and planning your training can be confusing.  When you change things up, you're sore as hell the next day because your body has been introduced to a new stimulus.  But does that mean new gains?  Not necessarily.  Programs sold on T.V. endorse "muscle confusion" as the end all be all of training.  When you look at Wikipedia's description of P90X, it has this to say:

"P90X's advertising emphasizes "muscle confusion", a method of cross-training and periodization achieved through switching the order of exercises and incorporating new and varied movements. Muscle confusion prevents the body from adapting to exercises over time, resulting in continual improvement without plateaus."

Is the last sentence as confusing to you as it is to me?  If the body can't adapt, how can it improve?  Beyond Bodybuilding puts it like this:

"Scientists who study complex systems - the human body is one of them - know that in order to thrive, these systems must teeter 'on the edge of chaos'...  If the training schedule is totally erratic...  you get very sore but you are not building much muscle and even less strength."

Think about it, the last time you helped someone move, did you get ripped or just sore?  A buncg of lactic acid  pooling in your arms and legs does not necessarily mean you're getting buff, ripped or stronger.

Fatigue cycling will give you the best of both worlds.  Structure that allows the body to actually adapt to the stimulus you're giving it and enough variety to keep it guessing.

So what happens when you plug Kettlebells into the mix?  That's exactly what we're going to find out...

I have an affinity for the past.  I have always been drawn to the Old Timey Physical Culture type stuff.  So why wouldn't I exercise in a similar fashion? 

The warm up I use is either Qi Gong Recharge or Super Joints.  From there we get into training.

Workout A

• Pull Ups 4 x RM
• Renegade Rows with 24kg 4 x 5
• 1 Arm Clean & Press with 32kg 4 x 5/5
• 1 Arm Clean & Squat with 24 kg 4 x 5/5
• Push Ups between 24's 4 x 10
• Iron Cross with 16kgs 4 x 5
• Chest Expander 4 x 10
• Hanging Leg Raises 4 x 12

Workout B

• Push Ups 4 x 10
• Iron Cross with 16kgs 4 x 5
• Chest Expander 4 x 10
• 1 Arm Clean & Squat with 24kg 4 x 5/5
• Pull Ups 4 x RM
• Renegade Rows with 24kg 4 x 5
• 1 Arm Clean & Press with 32kg 4 x 5/5
• Hanging Leg Raises 4 x 12

I've also thrown in a conditioning/active recovery session to be done in between workouts A and B.

Workout A1

• Goblet Squats and Pumps 3 x 5 in a circuit
• Club Swinging Practice Movements 1 - 5 alternating each movement with 1/1 TGU's with a 24kg
• Snatches 12 minutes EDT style
• Stretch out

Workout B1

• Same as Workout A1 only I'm doing Swings with George the Bulldog instead of snatches

I'll do Workout A, take a day off, then A1.  Workout B, rest a day, B1.  Then repeat.  This is how I've been spending the last part of September and how October looks.

As I am still working on writing one Hub (on Hub pages) for all if David Whitley's 101 KB Workouts, I will be plugging Stacking and Tabata into the conditioning parts and some of this will pop up on YouTube shortly as well.

I'll keep y'all posted!

So what's been going on lately...

Well there was periodontal surgery in July.  That was fun.  August was recovery.  September found my immune system still trying to reset.  I started back to training, even slowly at first.

1 Workout would look like this:

• 1 Arm Bulldog Swings  1 x 3/3
• 1 Arm Clean & Press @ 32kg 1 x 3/3
• 1 Arm Bottoms Up Press @ 24kg 1 3/3
• Pull Ups & Dips Superset 1 x 5
• 1 Arm Front Squats @ 24kg 1 x 3/3
• Finish with 12 minutes of Snatches sets of 5/5

Workout 2 would repeat the above except sub in 12 minutes of Bulldog Swings instead of Snatches.  I worked up to sets of 5, then 2 sets of 5 with a goal of 5 x 5.  On each Swing/Snatch workout, I'd try to add a rep or set just; improve slightly each time.

All the while my immune system was/is trying to reset after the surgery.  Amazing how the oral surgery wreaked havoc on my body systemically.  I started getting canker sores, sore throats, nasal drip, allergy attacks that seemed stronger than just the normal hey fever that would pop up this time of year.  My system was rocked.  Even on such a light (for me) routine, I quickly became over trained.  I felt sluggish, depressed and like I was coming down with something.  Just blah!

So...  I backed off.  Way off.  AGAIN!  Not happy about it, but not interested in getting hurt or sick either, I down shifted to Qi Gong Recharge, Super Joints, and Club Practice when I felt like it.  Once or twice a week, tops!

On 9/26, I thought, OK.  What have you wanted to do KB but haven't tried yet, workout wise?  I need to regain my strength and strength endurance while not slipping back into an over trained condition. 

Beyond Bodybuilding Has a section Pavel titled Russian Fatigue Cycling and I've wanted to plug KB's into that for a long time. 

In my next blog here, I'll tell you how I did it, where I'm at now and what my next move will be...  so stay tuned, kiddies!

Top 5 Sales Books

Over on HubPaegs is a Hub I wrote about good reading for sales and sales professionals.  If you're a trainer, believe you me, you're selling something.  Are you selling skills as good as your swing and get up?

These 5 books will help with that: http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Top-5-Sales-Books

Let me know what you think!