Training....Various days

Monday Strength Day

Wanted to keep the volume really low today, epsecially after my temp runs at the track on Saturday. Very sore!

A-1 Double KB Front Lunges
2 x 20kg in rack position 4 sets x 5/5

B-1 Clean and Press
28kg 3 x 3/3

B-2 Chin Ups
24kg 3 x 3

I love these short workouts as they don't waste me at all. Very focused and very productive for me. As Mel Siff says, find a way to train that makes you a better athlete but keep you orthopedically healthy and sane :)

Saturday December 2 / TEMPO RUNS

10 x 100 yards (bodyweight GPP exercises in between)
Push Ups
Fisted Push Ups
Jumping Jacks
Shuffles
Mountain Climbers
Jumping Lunges

Been a while since I've done Tempo runs. These felt great as I feel my CORE work so much when I do them. I might have run them a little too fast as I was over zelous to get back on the track. My glutes and hamstrings were very sore. These tempo runs should have been done at 60% intensity, but I ran them at 70 to 75% intensity, too much! Either way I was so happy that my body tolerated it and my lumbar spine felt good.

Last Friday

Bottoms up clean
16kg 5/5
24kg 3/3
32kg 2/2

High Pulls
20kg 8 sets x 10/10 = 160 reps

The high pulls felt high. Nothing felt right that day. Just couldn't get into a groove at all. At least I trained, that is the positive I can take out of that session.

Wednesday Training

I am finally starting to feel like I'm recovering from the move. Slowly but surely my energy is coming back. A very brief but effective workout today. Energy was much better and I definitely work out better in the mid-day than at night. Night workouts are not for me.

A-1 Chin Ups
20kg 5 x 5 reps

A-2 Clean and Press
24kg 5 x 5/5

B-1 Single Leg Deadlifts
24kg 3 x 5/5

These shorter workout leave me feeling strong. Because I over train rather easy I need to constantly remind myself that my volume to be held at bay, especially considering my demanding work schedule.

All moved in....Time to start training again

We got the keys to our new home (our 1st home ever) on Wednesday. Thanksgiving day we rented a u-haul and along with Yoana and a strong friend of mine moved all our belonings out of our one bedroom apartment in downtown La Jolla to a spacious brand new 2 story home in Carmel Valley. To say that Yoana and I are excited is a gross understatement. We are thrilled and feel blessed to be able to get this house. Having more space to live in feels weird right now, although I really like it. Last week I managed to get in 1 and 1/2 workouts as the move really wiped me out. As many of you know, moving into your first home is rather stressful on the body I feel as weak as a new born kitten. Oddly enough lifting TV's, sofas, beds, and tons of boxes over the weekend didn't bother my back. My lumbar spine has managed to be pain free throughout the move, although I cannot say the same about both of my biceps and elbow joints. I have never had more bicep cramps in my life than last thursday and friday.



Needless to say, I have very little energy right now for training but mentally I need it. I decided to train with my class last night and I got my butt kicked. The kettelbell I picked was light but is still kicked my ass. What's funny is that I almost puked from what would normally be a light workout for me. Mel Siff was so correct in recommending people use a RPE (rate of perceived exertion) every workout. Because of many life factors, you always need to be able to listen to your body and make appropriate changes from there. This week is going to be a very light training week although I need to get back into it.

A-1 Clean + Squat + Press
20kg 5 x 5/5

A-2 KB Push Ups
Hand on top of two 20kg 4 x 8

A-3 Alternating Swings
20kg 4 x 10/10

That was just the first half of the class. I couldn't even make the second half due to my pukey state and breathing difficulties. Wow, haven't felt this out of shape in a while. Thank God I know why.

Monday Training

This week we are moving into our first home, very exciting! I am cutting my training volume down accordingly due to the move tomorrow! Moves are always stressful but this one is more exciting because we are moving into our first home!

Monday

A-1 Chin ups
20kg 5 x 4 reps

A-2 Single Arm Push Ups (assisted)
BW 5 x 3/3

A-3 Double KB Back Lunge
2 x 16kg 5 x 5/5

More Base Conditioning!

With my recent disc herniation as well as re-reading alot of spinal rehab books and posts from Mark Reifkind Senion RKC, I have come to the conclusion that lumbar spine stability and lumbar musculature endurance are the keys for me in having a healthy pain free back. Since adding more stability work and KB endurance exercises like light weight swings and snatches, my back is certainly on the mend. The concept of building a base as wide as possible is the essential goal for now. It doesn't mean I won't toy around with occasional heavy weights, it just means I will be focused on getting more endurance in those spinal/CORE musculature.

Saturday Training

Clean + Squat + Press
20kg 5 x 5/5

Snatches
20kg 5 x 10/10 = 100 reps

Single Arm Bent Over Row
24kg 3 x 8/8

Short and sweet. Back felt strong!

Monday and Wednesday Training

Get wisdom! Get understanding!
Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;
Love her, and she will keep you.
Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom.

Proverbs 4:5-7

That says it all. Get WISDOM. This portion of scripture is really speaking to me righ tnow. This is the scripture verse of the week for me. A life without wisdom is a scary thing. Good to know that God commands us to get SMARTER because he knows it will help keep up us away from things that can hurt us and lead toward things that will bless us! Something to meditate on for sure ;)

This week has been very busy so my training volume is reduced. We have alot of cool things going on right now, but with those cool things comes less sleep and more stress. Need to be really careful these next couple of weeks.

Wednesday

A-1 Clean and Press
24kg 5 x 5/5

B-1 Single Arm Swings
20kg 6 x 10/10 = 120 total reps (200 is my goal!)

C-1 Single KB Clean and Squat
20kg 3 x 3/3

Monday

A-1 Snatches

24kg 4 x 5/5

A-2 Chin ups
20kg 4 x 4

A-3 Double KB Back Lunge
2 x 16kg 4 x 5/5

Short and Sweet. These shorter workouts are life savers. They allow me to train without wasting myself.

Tempo Training.....first time since July

This was the first time I had performed TEMPO running since late July. It felt very challenging even though I did not run them too hard. My technique felt fairly good but my conditioning obviously is not there. Felt good to be out there doing it.

TEMPO TRAINING on Friday

10 x 100 yards + various bodyweight exercises for GPP between intervals.

The entire workout took about 30 minutes. Challenging to say the least. I need to be carefull with how much volume I do from week to week. I'm thinking of altnernating my track workouts each week:

Week 1 Speed Day
Week 2 Tempo Day
Week 3 Speed Day
Week 4 Tempo Day

Because of my work schedule I honestly think my body can handle only one sprinting workout per week. So that means that every other week I will run fast. and every other week run for conditioning. This seems to be the most logical method considering my back injury this year. Less is more!

Thursday Training.......lighter but good

Keeping true to objective of lifting semi-heavy only once per week, today I did not venture higher than the 20kg kettlebell. I added in some one arm swings for spinal endurance as per recommendations from Rif. The swings were very challenging, not on my strength levels, but on my conditioning levels. When I finished with the swings I could not believe how pumped with blood my glutes and adductors were, WOW! It was challenging to walk. I t feels so good to train without pain and to know that you are not damaging anything in your body. These lighter days are great in the middle of the week because as I start getting fatigued from a very hectic work schedule, the ligher day seems to be just what the Doctor ordered.

A-1 Clean and Press
20kg 5 x 5/5

B-1 Clean and Squat
16kg 5 x 3/3

C-1 Single Arm Swings
20kg 5 x 10/10 = 100 reps (I want to build up to 200 reps and then switch to the 24kg)

D-1 Single Arm Bent Over Rows
20kg 3 x 8/8

The workout took 26 minutes and 46 seconds. The blood flow from the swings felt great. It almost as if I am learning how to do the swing from scratch. Rather than being so worried about how explosive I am perfroming each swing, I am starting to feel how to get into a rhythm and be efficient. It has taken me 4 years of kettlebell training to arrive at the fact that I didn't really understand the swing to well.

"Most of us must learn a great deal every day in order to keep ahead of what we forget."

- Frank A. Clark

Tuesday Training....and a recap of Naked Warrior Seminar

Yoana, Ken Black and I had the privelage of assisting at the Naked Warrior seminar in LA over the weekend. The seminar absolutely rocked! Pavel and Steve Maxwell pulled things out their bags of tricks that I had never seen. And the push variations that Steve showed were jaw-dropping. Here are a few of the main points I took home from the workshop:

1) Your body alone is the ultimate gym. There are an infinite amount of ways to make your bodyweight more challenging and thus improve conditioning with only your body weight.

2) Proper biomechanics are very important. You will find a transference of movement principles across all sports. In other words, God created your body to move and funtion in specific ways. Adopt and apply those principles and your performance will improve.

3) Linkage versus Leakage: Connect the shoulders to the body and you will be stronger. Pushing and pulling come from the LATS, period!!!!! When you perform push ups, push from the lats. When you row or perform pull ups/chin ups, use the lats. Initiate pushing and pulling by "packing the Shoulders." Similar to what most people have learned at the RKC, suck the shoulder into the socket.

4) Use the CORKSCREW technique when doing push ups. This keeps the shoulders packed, takes stress off the elbow and place it into the lats. When done properly, your shoulders should lower, never raise, when pushing or pulling.

5) On pistols you must find the power leak and attack it. Maybe it's your ankles that are unstable, maybe your knee, or possibly you lack mobility and strength in your hip. Perform all the troubleshooting assistance exercise and re-test the pistol. The patella must track straight.

6) On Pull Ups and Chin ups you must TRIANGULATE the shoulders, basically, suck the arms into the body from the hang position. Initiate the pull up by tucking the pelvis (engaging the abs) and bringing the legs in front of the body (note: this is not kipping). A wider grip takes stress off of the elbow due to decreased elbow flexion. Most guys might be stronger with a more narrow grip. The key to injury free pull ups is to vary the grips, the width and type of implement you grab (towel, bar, thick bar, rings, ropes).

All in all it was great to learn from the masters and it was fun assisting with Ken Black. Fun times and I look forward to seeing this seminar again!

Tuesday Training

A-1 Snatches
28kg 5 x 5/5

A-2 Chin Ups
20kg 5 x 3

A-3 Double KB Back Lunge
2 x 16kg 5 x 5/5

The training session took my just under 20 minutes. My lungs were BURNING, wow! Felt great!

Life is precious......& Wednesday and Thursday Training

Thank you GOD!
I just want to say Yoana and I are greatful that our fellow brother Pete Diaz was okay after rolling his car in a near fatal accident. Life is so precious and we must thank God for protecting Pete. Let us all count are blessings and remember to live each day like it is our last, because one...............it will be our last. I am not afraid to share my faith here on this blog but I also do not intend to throw it down anyone's throat, but in the grander scheme of things, we are in less control of the bigger picture than we think. Life can be going along so smooth and then something traumatic happens. I know I'll be a little more greatful in my prayers in the weeks and months to come (and hopefully for as long as I am alive.)

Training
Adding back in the stability exercises instantly made my back feel better and more stable. I had stopped doing them for about two weeks and discovered that my lumbar spine was starting to get sore and ache. The solution: Contine to perform the stability exercises I was doing for a long time. They definitely work!

Thursday Training:
32 minutes of Precor Intervals (2 minutes easy, 30 seconds sprint on level 9, and repeat)

Wednesday Training:

A-1 KB Clean and Press
16kg 1 x 3/3 24kg 1 x 3/3
32kg 2 x 1/1

B-1 Single Clean + Squat + Press
20kg 5 x 5/5

C-1 Pull Ups (BW)
5,6,7
4,5,6

D-1 Single arm Snatches
16kg 2 x 10/10

Back off Week! and a little Self Growth talk...

Because I have lifted relatively heavy the last two weeks I decided to lighten the snatch load and give the back a little active recovery. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still training, just going to lighten down to a 24kg for my heavy day.

The Power Circuit

A-1 Gorsky Lunge 20kg 5 x 6/6

A-2 Chin Ups 16kg 5 x 5

A-3 Snatches 24kg 5 x 5/5

20 min Zone

I really enjoy these shorter workouts. It also suits my Lumbar spine recovery well because it limits the total time of each training session and keeps me from overtraining or doing more than I should.

On another note, I recently started re-reading a great book which many of you have probably read, Stephen Covey's classic "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." It's amazing how many different aspects and details of the book I am learning now that I didn't learn or wasn't ready to learn a couple of years ago. Thank God for maturity and the self growth process.

A quick recap of the book. The first three principles are called private victories. The are:

Principle # 1 Be Proactive
Principle # 2 Begin with the end in mind
Principle # 3 Put things first.

Principles 4 through 7 are called public victories and are more related to an indivduals relationship with others and to society. The later principles must be preceded by the private victories and for obvious reasons. Princples 1 through 3 are the internal principles that govern a persons view on life and how they respond to what happens to them. It essentially means you accept the fact that you are responsible for your actions and the outcomes that result from those actions. It is telling yourself, "I am not a victim in life. I do have choices and I can choose how I want to respond to any given situation." What that means is that between STIMULUS...............and......................RESPONSE, there is a space. That space is where your freedom lies. People who successfully live the first three principles are essentially saying that they are responsible for their feelings and ultimately their behavior. The opposite would be like saying, "I couldn't help getting mad and throwing my starbucks coffee in his face, he made me mad." It is allowing external circumstances to govern and control internal conditions.

By truly wrestling and struggling with these principles, you can come to the realization the self growth takes work and is truly HOLY GROUND. But it is the only solution to becomming an effective person and member of society. Until you stop blaming others for your problems and lack of success, you will be like a computer or worse yet, a robot. Someone pushes a button and there is a knee jerk reaction to your behavior. Living the first three principles means:

a) You become a person of character who lives his life according to worthy God honoring principles

b) You do not make decisions based on what others may think of you and on your "feelings."

c) you do not live your life for the approval of others

d) You are Proactive rather than reactive

e) Writing and living your personal mission statement

f) Prioritizing the most important things in your life (family, faith, health, friends, etc..)

I will update more of this book as I begin to disect and devour the content. My challenge to anyone reading this is ask yourself the following Questions:

Question 1: What one thing could you do (you aren't doing now) that if you did on regular basis, would make a tremendous difference in your personal life?

Question 2: What one thing in your business or professional life would bring similar results?

My answer to both questions is very similar. I would spend time daily reviewing and reflecting on my purpose in life (my mission statement) and reviewing my calendar to make sure my daily activities reflect my mission and purpose. I can honestly say that if I did that every single day, I would be a much more effective person. That is my goal, to live my life more ON PURPOSE. I would also say that I need to watch less TV at night and stimulate my mind more...

Anyone else????????????

If you would like to share, please do respond to this post!

Much more to come......

Last Week's Schedule

Saturday - First day on the track!

Today was my first day since the end of July / early August since I have sprinted. My back has been feeling much better so I decided I would do a couple of acceleration sprints at a very low intensity. It's two days later and my back feels fine. Hopefully I will be able to perform one day per week of light sprinting as my goal is to compete next spring in about 6 to 8 track meets in southern california. Of course all depends on how my back responds. If the sprinting starts to hurt back, it may mean that it's to premature for me to start sprinting and that my disc needs more time to heal.

Breif Warm up:
Various Track Drills

4 x 30 meteres acceleration sprints

2 x 40 meters acceleration sprints

That was it, short and sweet. Felt great to be out there, WOW!

Friday

A-1 Snatches

16kg 1 x 5/5
20kg 3 x 10/10

B-1 Bottoms Up Press

16kg 2 x 3/3

C-1 Lunges

16kg 2 x 8/8

D-1 Pull Ups 1 x 10

Thursday

Precor Sprints for 32 minutes (30 sec sprint / 2 min easy)

Great Article by Brett Jones!

Occam's Razor in Program Design

Brett really explains how simple program design should be and even brings in some great minds and philosophers from the past. YOU MUST READ THIS!!!!!!

My Heavier Day!

From the success of last weeks "heavy" day, I am keeping this workout in my training. My goal is to gradually increase the volume, let me emphasize "Gradually." I am the athlete who is so quick to lift as heavy as possible as soon as possible. It has only left me constantly injured and overtrained. I recently had an epiphany that in the past I was literally training all day long. While training clients I would "sneak" in those extra sets of heavy snatches or presses, hoping to get my strength levels up. My infatuation with constant progress actually led to regression (injured disc). I was also always stretching my hips and back constantly which I now see was making my hypermobile left SI joint more unstable. In fact, two months of little to no stretching has made my SI joint feel better than I can ever remember. In retrsospect I see my foolishness and realize that progressing slowly is better, especially if you are in a profession that challenges you physically every day. Now when I train clients instead of moving around and stretching non stop I save my stretching for my stretching session.

ESSENTIAL LESSON LEARNED: In my case it is better for me to segregate and compartmentalize my training and stretching. When I train, train. When I stretch, stretch. After that, leave them alone!

Thus the GTG method for me is super dangerous. The princple is awesome. In the hands of a neurotic training junkee is can lead to overtraining and injury. Let me re-state the word "CAN"! I'm not saying it will for everyone, but in my case it did. I see the wisdom in training during my training session, and not during any other time. In other words, save my best for when it really counts and is needed, during my training session. As Paul Chek once said "TRAIN, DON'"T DRAIN."

No more draining, only training!

A-1 KB Snatches 28kg 6 x 3/3
A-2 KB Clean + Squat + press 24kg 6 x 3/3
A-3 Chin Ups 12kg 6 x 3

Felt great. Kept it under 20 minutes. That's my heavy workout for the week. Next two workouts are with the 20kg and 16kg.

Too much Bread and Cereal in your diet?

High bread consumption tied to kidney cancer

As most people are learning, too much refined bread and cereals can increase RCC (renal cell carcinoma. Something to think about.

Saturday - light day!

As per several posts from Rif, I am adding in some single arm swings to heal up the back.
Back is feeing better and as ever month passes by it seems to get stronger and more resilient.

A-1 Single Leg Deadlift w/20kg 5 x 5/5

B-1 Bottoms Up Presses w/ 20kg 1 x 5/5 1 x 3/3

C-1 DARC Swings w/12kg 1 x 20, w/16kg 5 x 20

D-1 Pull Ups 1 x 12

short and sweet. Feels good!

Great Article!

Check out this article on T-Nation by my brother Keats Snideman and Charles Staley.

Article

For those of you who like EDT, you'll enjoy this.

Thursday workout!

My back felt fine from the heavier loading on Monday. Will continue to keep monday as my heavier day. Everything else from there will be lighter loads for a while.

A-1 Snatches w/20kg 2 x 10/10

B-1 Clean and Press w/20kg 3 x 5/5

C-1 Dynamic Alt. Front Lunges w 16kg 3 x 6/6

D-1 Pull Ups 1 x 10

These easier workouts still feel real good and I know they are doing me alot of good. If I had just listened to Rif from the beginning maybe this would not have happened. Time to build a base (although I don't enjoy doing volume too much as you can tell).

Monday Workout..........not too bad

I have been getting in 3 workout per week, mainly working on the following movements:


Static Lunges
Bottoms Up Presses
Pull up and Chin Ups
Snatches
Bent Over Rows
Clean and Press

Have been using mainly the 16kg , 20kg and occasional 24kg. Back has responded favorably.
On Monday I upped the weight to test my body. Felt pretty good.

A-1 KB Snatch 28kg 5 x 3/3
A-2 Clean + Squat + Press 5 x 3/3
A-3 Chin Ups 5 x 3 (12kg)

Took me 20 minutes. My first real TEST on my body. So far so good. That is as heavy as I will go for a while. Once a week I'll toy around with teh 24kg and maybe the 28kg. The 16kg and 20kg will be the bells of choice for my Wed and Thursday workouts.

More to come!

More rehab....

Jack Lalanne's advice:

"If they're overweight, normalize that weight. Quit exceeding the feed limit. And exercise is number one! I don't care what you have wrong with you, you can do something - right? Maybe there are ten exercises you can't do, but there are a hundred you can do."

This Quote has really made sense to me this last week. I have been so doom and gloom with my back injury and so AFRAID to do anything, I have sometimes felt paralyzed. But what the hell, Jack is right, there are tons of movements I can do.

Back is feeling better although I can still feel the wound in the lumbar area. I was looking at the MRI today and it really bummed me out to see how little disc space is left betweem L-4 and L-5. I've been in a funk mentally the last week or two feeling a little disouraged about the future of my back. I need to pull out of this funk and realize that this is a good thing. It was a great wake up call to take care of my body instead of abusing my body. With my career as a trainer, working and lifting things all day, plus the training I was doing, it caught up with me. I am anxious to get out on the track and sprint, even more so than lift weight ( although I miss lifting the heavier bells).

I am still doing the same rehab drills from before and have added the following exercises:

Static Lunges
Pull Ups
Incline DB Bench Press
KB Clean and Press
Single Leg Deadlifts
Single Arm Bent Over Rows

The weights are light but I feel they are at least exposing my body to some real life movements. Just doing my job is also rehabing my back. I seem to be tolerating quite well my daily work load. Come friday my back is fatigued but I cannot say I am in any pain which is great. One of the biggest BLESSINGS to come out of this is that I am much more connected to my back in the sense that I have think about what postures I am in all day. I am AWARE of my habits and alignment more than ever. That awareness has almost been curative in itself. I'm convinced that changing you daily movement habits is the true secret to having a pain free body. It takes alot of work and patience but it is very effective.

more to come.....