Greetings and last week's practice

[myles kenihan]

Hello all!

Getting back into kbs after a couple of months off - sick / busy / #add p*ssweak excuse of your choice#

Monday ( Adelaide parklands )
- two sets of five good mornings ( 1.5 pood )
- 60 two-hand swings in three sets of 20 ( 1.5 )

Tuesday ( Adelaide parklands )
- three sets of three mil press per arm ( 1.5 )
- two sets of five windmills per arm( 1.5 )
- two sets of 20 around-the-body- pass ( 1.5 )
- one set of 20 figure-eight pass

Thurs ( Gym )
- four sets of 10 two-hand swings ( 25 lb dumbell )
- two sets of five barbell snatch ( 40 and 50 kg respectively )
- three sets of five barbell clean ( 40, 50 and 60 kg )
- three sets of five barbell jerk ( 40, 50 and 60 kg )

Friday ( Adelaide parklands )
- two sets of five two-hand swings ( 2 pood )
- seven sets of one bent press on the left ( 2 )
- six sets of one bent press on the right ( 2 )

Saturday ( Adelaide parklands )
- two sets of ten two-hand swings alternated with two sets of three good-mornings ( 1.5 pood )
- three iterations of three, two, one pyramid one hand clean and press sets ( 1.5 )
- two sets of 20 around-the-body pass
- two sets of 20 figure-eight pass

Never done Olympic barbell work before. I found cleans and snatches to be really quite different to kettlebell counter parts. Only went to the gym because of the heavy rain, but a worthwhile experience all the same.

[imported_Rick]

Myles
good to see your posting big guy!
Looks like your getting back into some solid training.
What are your current goals?
Are you able to consistently bent press that 2.5 pood?

BTW
give us a call when your in town-we'll hook up!
Rick.

[myles kenihan]

Thanks Rick,

My goals are to loose the mushe and get some muscle.

No career or sports specific objectives, just strength and health.

I'm going to bent press the 2.5 today. First time in a while.

As I posted before, I've been off training for a bit, but am better now and have a lot of ground to regain! My work will be based around repetition ballistic lifts, as I've gotta drop some kilos. But as I have to re-learn maximal tension generation, I'll be pressing as well.

Trained the other day with my friend who's into Olympic barbell lifting. He military pressed the 2.5 for 10 sets of 3 each arm, back to back. Can't compete with a machine, I guess... :?

I'll be in Melbourne this evening ( Thursday. ) Will message you when I get in.

'Later

Myles

[myles kenihan]

20 / 9 / 04

Last Week's Practice:-

Monday ( Adelaide southern parklands: )

2-H Swings ( 2 pood ) 10, 10 alternated with G'mornings 3, 3
Mil press ( 1.5 ) 3/3, 3/3, 3/3
Windmills (1.5 + 2 ) 3/3, 3/3
1-H Snatches (1.5) 10/10, 10/10

Tuesday ( Adelaide southern parklands: )

G'mornings ( 1.5 ) 5, 5
2-H Swings ( 1.5 ) 10, 10
Threw the 1.5 around in desultory fashion for a bit

Wednesday ( Belair National Park: )

2-H Swings ( 2 pood ) 10, 10 alternated with G'mornings 3, 3
Mil press ( 1.5 ) 3/3, 3/3, 3/3, 3/3
Windmills ( 1.5 ) 5/5, 5/5
1-H Snatches (1.5) 10/10, 10/10

Thursday ( Adelaide southern parklands: )

G'mornings ( 2.5 pood ) 3, 3
Bent Press ( 2.5 ) 1/1, 1/1, 1/1 - with a total of three failed lifts on the left.

Noticed again with the 2.5 pood, I need to have form very tight for the bent press or there's no lift. Very shaky on the left. But still a good weight to train the bent press, I feel, as it's heavy enough to force me to use good form while still requiring a lot of tension to complete the movement.

[imported_Rick]

Myles
Good to see your getting some consistency with your training.
I had noticed when we caught up on Sunday that you'd trimmed up a little.

Re your training:
I'd even up the volume of the ballistics even more- if your body is ready for it.
Aim for 10 sets 10 L & R snatches with the 1.5pood.
:x

[myles kenihan]

Yep that was pretty much the plan. Thought I'd take it further and integrate "active rest" breaks between sets. Found yesterday that because I haven't gone jogging in ages, the "rest" took more out of me than the ballistics. Have decided to give one day a week to jogging - for a bit.

Only trained two days last week as I was jumping around from Melbourne to Adelaide to Perth and back again:

Tuesday ( Hotel gym, Perth )

Barbell Swing ( 20 kg ) 10, 10
Barbell Deadlift ( 65 kg, 85, 105 ) 5, 5, 5 respectively
ab work on swiss ball.

Thursday ( Uni gym, Adelaide )

Barbell Swing ( 20 kg ) 10
Barbell Snatch ( 40 kg, 50, 55 ) 5, 5, 3 respectively
Barbell Hang Clean ( 60 kg, 70 ) 5, 5 respectively
Barbell Jerk ( 60 kg, 70 ) 5, 2 respectively
ab work on swiss ball.

Hotel gyms normally suck so usually I travel with a kettlebell to train wherever I go - but this time weight and other restrictions prevented this. The Hotel in Perth had one of the best equipped gyms I had ever seen in any hotel. Usually all you get are nautilus machines and the like, but this one actually had bars and plates.

[myles kenihan]

Last week -

Monday morning choke...

400 m jog
2H swing ( 2 pood ) 10, 10
bent press ( 2 ) 3/-, 2/-, 1/-, -/3, -/2, -/1

attempted circuit of the following

1 arm snatch 10/10
400 m jog

only managed one iteration plus another 400 m jog and then a 400 m walk.

Rather poor.

Tuesday -

Medicine ball work with training partner( a heavy (?) red ball for about 10 minutes )

bent press ( 2 pood ) 3/-, 2/-, 1/-, -/3, -/2, -/1

circuit

clean ( 2 pood ) 8 / 8
200 m jog
around the body pass ( 1.5 ) 20
200 m run
400 m walk / jog

managed two iterations - medicine ball work went a bit beyond a simple warmup I'm afraid..

Thursday -

bent press ( 2.5 pood ) 1/-, 1/-, 1/-, 1/-, -/1, -/1, -/1, -/1 ( two failed lifts on the right and eight ( :( ) on the left )

2H swing ( 2.5 ) 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Friday -

Military press ( 1.5 ) 2/-, 3/-, 2/-, 3/-, 2/-, 3/-, 1/-, -/5, -/5, -/5
Windmills ( 1.5 ) 3/-, 3/-, 3/-, -/3, -/3, -/3
1.6 km walk/jog

Saturday

2.4 km walk / jog.

Oh and I bought a handtrolley for the kettlebells :oops: Any sort of a man carries his kettlebells to the place of training, I know, but I'm sick to death of carrying them for 250 m - 300m from my car to the running track.

[imported_Rick]

A cart!!!!!
You have got to be kidding:!:
Have you gone soft on us :?:
Drop and give me pushups.

Seriously re your w/o's:
Looks like your getting fitter big guy. With that sort of training you'll be some weapon in a few months! :twisted:
Keep it going!

[myles kenihan]

Double trouble...

KB set arrived. Thanks a bunch Rick! :D

Now we're gonna really churn up some turf! :x

[imported_Rick]

Not a problem Myles. Your help has been invaluable.
Which designed handles do you prefer?
Is it ok to use two together when the handles are slightly different?

[myles kenihan]

I think the newer design is slightly easier on the hand. Definitely better for hand to hand drills - don't drop the bell as much when juggling the 1 pood. I've been doing a lot of clean and jerk over the last few days with the 1.5s and I've not encountered any problems with the disparate handle types if doing the technique correctly.

I would also add that the bilateral clean ( 2 bells ) seems to me to be a completely different exercise from the one-arm drill - I was indifferent to cleans before and now I love them.

I'll be basing my training over the next few weeks on one arm snatch and two-bell jerks, super-setting them into ladders with controlled rest periods.

Tried this yesterday, starting easy at three reps for the first set - i.e. 3/3 for the one arm snatch and then about 45 seconds break and then 3 jerks, a minute and a half rest and then the same drills with four reps and then five and then six and so on, with the aim of getting to 10. About 20 seconds after the one arm snatch in set number seven ( 9/9, 9), I puked in spectacular fashion in the Adelaide parklands to the perturbment of the onlooking groundkeepers and passing pedestrians and motorists - I would add that I'm still not quite over a lingering chest infection and that this probably had something to do with it - completed my nine jerks, and then decided I'd had enough and left without doing the last set of 10.

Dimitri Sataev talks about this method of training in his article "Why Russians train with kettlebells" on the Dragon Door website.

Carrying two 2.5s around is quite the farmers walk.

[imported_Rick]

you should find the new designed handle centres the hand better, especially with the snatches.
Congrats on the spit......means you must be training close to the limit!

[myles kenihan]

Last Week...

Monday at Unley Oval Adelaide:

medicine ball work with Adam
cleans ( 1.5 x 2 ) 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
jerks ( 1.5 x 2 ) 10, 10
H2H - basic ( 1 )
swiss ball ab work.

Tuesday in Adelaide South Parkland:

ladder - super set of 1 arm snatch ( 1.5 ) and jerk ( 1.5 x 2 ) for reps of 3..9
swiss ball ab work.
2H military press ( 1.5 x 2 ) 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Wednesday in Adelaide South Parkland:

H2H basic ( 1 )

Thursday at Unique Gym, Adelaide:

BB Deadlift lockouts ( bar at just below knee level )
( 140 kg ) 5, ( 130 kg ) 5, ( 120 kg ) 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3
swiss ball ab work.

Saturday in Adelaide South Parkland - Pultney running track:

H2H basic ( 1 )
I then did a sort of farmers walk around the body pass combination - walked around the 400m track swinging the 1 pood alternating directions every 10 reps or so. One lap was enough.
swiss ball ab work.

Over my illness, pretty much, so will try to train harder this week.

[myles kenihan]

Actually, I might have the days mixed up there, but the overall work for the week correct.

[myles kenihan]

Last Week...

Monday at Adelaide parklands:

swings ( 1.5 ) 16, 16
ladder - super set of 1 arm snatch ( 1.5 ) and jerk ( 1.5 x 2 ) for reps of 3..8
swiss ball ab work.

Wednesday at Unique Gym, Adelaide:

BB Deadlift lockouts ( bar at just below knee )
( 150 kg ) 3, ( 145 kg ) 2, ( 140 ) 3, ( 135 ) 5, ( 130 ) 5, ( 125 ) 5, ( 120 ) 5, 5, 5, 5.
swiss ball ab work.

Tried alternating my grip on the deads. Found my reverse grip to be very weak. Actually my grip, generally is my biggest limitation with this exercise as I tried to raise the weight to 160 kg after the first set and found that I couldn't hold on to it. Mucking around with the dumbells while waiting for an olympic bar, I discovered that I could clean and bent press the 100 lb db, but not do much else with it.

Friday in Adelaide South Parkland

good mornings ( 1.5 ) 5, 5
swings ( 1.5 ) 16, 16
cleans ( 1.5 x 2 ) 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
swiss ball abs

Saturday at Unley Oval.

swings ( 1.5 ) 16
ladder - super set of 1 arm snatch ( 1.5 ) and jerk ( 1.5 x 2 ) for reps of 3..10
swiss ball abs.

This ladder amounted to 104 snatch and 52 jerks and I did feel it on Sunday. Think I'm beginning to get the reps in.

[myles kenihan]

Haven't trained since last tuesday week due to recurring lung infection. Finished course of antibiotics that seems to have knocked the thing on the head.

Got a new barbell set ( :D ) Started power cycle yesterday with deads at 100 kg ( easy ). I have replaced side press with kettlebell two-hands-anyhow. As I've never done this exercise for reps before ( my best single was with a 2 pood and a 1.5 both sides, ) I've started at the bottom with a pair of 1 poods. Even so, a couple of sets of five reps left and right got my heart and lungs working. Amounted to about 25 minutes work including a set of swings for warmup and a couple of sets of swiss ball crunches after with a stretch or two.

My plan is this...

Cycle breakdown:

3 weeks P2P - 15 sessions -
2 sets of 5 deadlifts, 2 sets of 5 two hands anyhow - left and right. With staggered increments in weight.

2 weeks GS - 10 sessions -
snatch and jerk ladder superset starting at ( 1.5 pood ) 3..10, Mon, Wed, Fridays and going to 4..10 + 10 in the second week.
cleans in sets of ten, starting at 5 sets Tue, Thur and going to six sets in the second week

1 week backoff - little if any training.

The next cycle will start at a slightly higher increment than the first one started in a three steps forward, two steps back fashion for the P2P work and starting where I finished off for the GS component.

Haven't thought of any reasons why I've decided to structure my training a bit more methodically. I'm sure there's at least a few good ones.

[myles kenihan]

First week of P2P cycle-

Mon: Deadlift ( 100 kg ) 5, ( 90 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5, 5/5
Wed: Deadlift ( 102.5 kg ) 5, ( 92.5 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5, 5/5
Thur: Deadlift ( 102.5 kg ) 5, ( 92.5 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5, 5/5
Fri: Deadlift ( 105 kg ) 5, ( 95 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5, 5/5

With a set of warmup swings and a couple of sets of crunches on swiss ball at the end plus stretching - and setup / packup of weights - each session was around 30 minutes.

[imported_Rick]

Very structured Myles. Those weights must be fairly comfortable for you.
Are you doing a cycle of PTTP as a mix up to your strength endurance you've been doing of late?
I'll get those tshirts to you soon. May be a week and a half.
Rick.

[myles kenihan]

Yes the work at this stage is not particularly challenging. I'm capable of lifting more at the moment, but I've thought this out and at the start of this 'plan' I'm more concerned with consistency than poundages. But the workload will grow over time. I've actually worked out a 10 cycle plan ( sixty weeks ) so that by the end of next year I'll be working pretty hard - most of the tonnage shifted, by then, will be with the kettlebells, but I want to maintain a constant balance between foundational strength and strength endurance / power.

After that I'll reverse the ratios and subsequent cycles will be dominated by GS athletics over P2P.

Look forward to receiving the Tshirts.

[myles kenihan]

Second week of P2P cycle-

Mon: Deadlift ( 105 kg ) 5, ( 95 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1.5 + 1 pood ) 5/5, ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5
Tue: Deadlift ( 107.5 kg ) 5, ( 97.5 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1.5 + 1 pood ) 5/5, ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5
Thur: Deadlift ( 110 kg ) 5, ( 100 ) 5; 2H-Anyhow ( 1.5 + 1 pood ) 5/5, ( 1 pood x 2 ) 5/5
Fri: 2H-Anyhow ( 1.5 + 1 pood ) 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1
Sat: Deadlift ( 112.5 kg ) 5, ( 102.5 ) 5, ( 92.5 ) 5, 5, 5; db bent press ( 32.5 kg ) 3/3, ( 35 ) 3/3, ( 37.5 ) 3/3

I like to use dumbells for overhead work occaisionally. Holding the heavier ones up in the low position of the bent press is a bit of a balancing act which you don't have to worry about with kettlebells. This - the third week - will be last of P2P for a few weeks as I go over to GS for two and then have a week off before the next cycle. Thinking of cutting back the number of kb cleans I do initially and adding a few front and hack squats.

[myles kenihan]

Hey all. A while since last post. Yuletide greetings to all. Suffice to say, my first cycle got rather stuffed by Christmas and New Year's celebrations and general Yuletime partying. I did get a week and a half into my kettlebell bit and rediscovered that laddering snatch and jerks several times a week, with a couple of days of cleans thrown in, knocks the sh*t out of you, so I was happy for the excuse.

Other lessons learned:

Two-hands-anyhow - even with light weights - is not a great exercise to do for reps. On the plus side, if you do train this way, you hardly need to do any other exercise. I found that on my last P2P week, I had to order the 2Ha'w first, because I was getting dangerously fatigued by the second set because of doing deadlifts before.

One-arm snatch - you've really, really gotta remember to crush the glutes at the end of every rep. Fatigue and being out of puff on the last set can make you slack - and that's when you crunch up your lower back.

Jerks - lots of fun. I think I'm going to make them my main exercise.

Highly structured training - doing the same routine, day after day, gets pretty boring.

So, I've scrapped the 2Ha'h and gone back to the trusty side/bent press. I'm giving one arm snatch away for a while and have replaced it with a combination of one-arm swings and one-arm jerks - which I've found to be extremely safe.

As for the routines, I've lowered the workload a fair bit from what I anticpated doing and mixed it up a lot more with a greater variety of exercises - including some more barbell work, turkish getups, long cycles and so on.

Rick ~ nice work with the bulldog. Still haven't mil pressed mine yet.

[Don-Stevenson]

Hey Myles,

It's good to see people thinking about their training and posting their thoughts!

Let us know how you go with the jerks and swings

[imported_Rick]

Happy new year dude!
I'm not one for highly structured training either.Consistentcy is the key, combining hard, easy and medium intensity workouts.
re the snatch:
make sure you catch it with your hammies and adductors by aiming to land the bell towards your heels- this will save your back.

Btw
Are you coming to Melb soon?

[Bon]

One-arm snatch - you've really, really gotta remember to crush the glutes at the end of every rep. Fatigue and being out of puff on the last set can make you slack - and that's when you crunch up your lower back.


Nice tip, will try it out, thanks!!