A Million and Two snatches, give or take nearly a million

Wanted to do something with a light weight today, and also to prepare for the June RKC, so I just decided to do a bunch of snatches with the 16kg and see what happened.

Here's what happened, and it was harder than I'd expected:

15:15 (15 seconds snatching, 15 resting) with 6 snatches per round for 35 rounds. Total of 210. Then my form and breathing got ugly. This was a really interesting practice--not a brutal workout, but hard. Almost more of a mental hard than physical. I'll definitely be coming back to this at least once a week until June's RKC.

In other news, I just finished reading a horrific teen book called Living Dead Girl. I can't remember who it's by and don't want to look it up. If any librarians happen to be reading this, this is the book to force on all those morbid teens who are always asking for A Child Called It and The Burn Journals. HP Lovecraft was no laugh riot, but tentacles and gibbering fishmen are nowhere near as depressing as abuse.

Last couple of days

Wednesday:

1 arm beast swings
5/armx3 = 30 total

Friday: Grip

COC#1
R:6,4
L: 6,2

Pinching 2 25s for reps
R: 6,6
L:2,2

Lots of bar twirls with 4 foot thin bar (each hand)

Some 8lb levers from front

Towel roll ups= 10/arm

Explosive hand opens/closes in 90 seconds
Right: 186 (20 fewer than last time)
Left: 195 (20 better than last time)

A few Snatches

Just did 5/5 on the minute with the 24kg

5 sets for 25/arm. Shoulder felt okay. I'm going to start working in at least one snatch workout a week for RKC prep.

Tried a homemade thick bar, The Suicide Collectors

Saturday I bought some pipe insulation and snapped it over the bar this morning for deadlift. It increases the diameter of the bar by a little more than an inch. It made the exercise much harder and my focus completely shifted from lifting it with my legs to holding onto it with my hands. I also switched to a double-overhand grip.

Sumo DL: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 245x5x2

Lots of arm bars and half get ups with 16 kg.

In other news, I'm about halfway through The Suicide Collectors, a new book that is surprisingly good and pretty creepy. If you're looking for something to read, you could do worse.

TGUs and hands

16kg TGUs= 5/side

towel rolls: 10/hand
plate levers with all five fingers, wrist on table: 30/arm
Same lift but with extensors: 12/arm
lots of weaver stick holds for 10 seconds, forward and reverse
extensor opens with opposite hand resistance: 30/hand

explosive hand opens/closes in 90 seconds
right: 206
Left: 175

Ouch!

Great night

225 Beast swings, holy crap that is hard

Not sure what got into me, but tonight I did a ladder with the 48kg, two hand swings from 1-15 and back down again for a total of 225. Must have been more annoyed at work than I realized, but I think I got it all out of my system. Took enough rest to get every rep perfect. I feel good, but also feel like if I lie down to go to sleep I may never wake up.

Then I did a ton of back bends and hamstring stretches to loosen up. If you're got a heavy bell and aren't swinging it, do it.

PInch day

thumbless ez bar reverse curls: 45x3x8
plate curls: Left--20x5
Right--20x5
Left--25x4
Right--25x6

Two-hand wrist curls: 50x2x6

two-hand pinch for time: 90x3x10 seconds

sledge rotations

high pull crimp grip with a board and bands: 2x10
for time: 20 seconds

wrecked diet in NBA box seats, TGUs

My brother got box seats to a Jazz game tonight, so I pigged out on ice cream and tacos and Cokes in the suite. The game was a blowout, the TGUs didn't go that much better. I started with the 24kg and that was too much for my healing shoulder and 9:30 PM, so I switched to the 16kg.

Swings, grip, American vs. foreign films

Arm Bars

16kg swings, alternating left, right, two hand whenever needed:
150x1, 50x1 in 8 minutes. 200 total. Stopped when my back tightened up slightly.

COC#1: 4 closes left, held last rep for 17 seconds.
8 closes right, held for 14 seconds

Lots of sledge levers from every angle
I took two leaves out of our kitchen table and did some isometric pinches, holding them together.
3x10 seconds.

This weekend, I watched a Swedish movie, Let The Right One In. It's not a lot of fun, but it was very affecting.

I've gotten pretty tired of Hollywood--even many of the best American films are still predictable because they're all made by the same machine. Too many remakes, too much lowest common denominator plots, too many special effects masquerading as plots.

A mediocre foreign film can still surprise me by being better than some great American films, simply because they're made by a different engine that isn't tied to our expectations or dollars. Unnerving but beautiful--can't recommend highly enough if you're looking for something different that will stick with you for a while.

grip night

joint mobility, shoulder work with bands

lots of pinch block curls, sledge levers, and beast holds for time.

I get distracted easily during March--I love the NCAA tournament. I did most of the workout tonight staring at the TV with my mouth open.

Just a few swings

Didn't sleep well last night. This evening I just did some two hand 24kg swings at an easy pace, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off for a total of 108.

First full deck of cards torn, some phone books

Today at lunch I tore a full deck of cards in half. They were cheap cards and it took about 20 seconds. Ugly as hell, but I did it. Time to start working on the much harder bicycle decks.

Tore five 2 inch phone books. They won't stop showing up at work, so rather than stick them in the recycling bin, I tear them and then put them in the recycling bin.

C&P ladders and beast swings

24kg C&P ladders (left hand): 5x(1,2,3)
16kg C&P ladders (right, rehab shoulder): 3x(1,2,3)
No pain in weak shoulder.

Two hand swings with The Beast in 5 minutes: 63

stretching and contrast bath

Great night.

COC#1

Got 12 gripper closes per hand tonight.

Card practice at lunch

I tried a new method of card tearing today and had better luck. Here's how it went:

1x20 (cards) heels of palms facing each other
1x25
1x20 overhand
1x30 heels of palms facing each other
1x35 heels of palms facing each other (PR)

Presses and swings and very tired...

My right shoulder felt great all day. Never started aching, never needed to be stretched, although I stretched it anyways. I tested two presses tonight with a 16kg and didn't have any pain, but laid off quick. I'm still not going to do even a light press workout with that arm until the 15th.

here was tonight, made a little more difficult by a one year old who's increasingly interested in kbs.

24kg C&P ladders Left arm: 5x(1,2,3,4)
24kg left-hand swings: 1x30,1x15, 1x11, 1x10 for a total of 81.
Took 15 seconds rest in between sets.

i can't believe how much harder these are than two-hand swings. Was going to do some gripper work tonight, but after fumbling and failing to open the peanut butter jar with my left hand, I am done. It was a good night.

Grip work , Contrast bath experiment

Tonight I just did a bunch of curls with the pinch lever block and 10 lbs. Then some sledge levering from every angle with an 8lb hammer.

Earlier, someone suggested that contrast baths might help my shoulder. The idea is basically you jump from a cold shower into a hot tub if you've got one, alternating between cold and hot for a few minutes. It's supposed to reduce inflammation. There are plenty of theories out there about why it works, and why it's a stupid idea. I think it's worth a try, as I'll do anything to speed up the healing.

I did this in the shower every 30 seconds, going from freezing to as hot as I could take. It wasn't fun, but wasn't as bad as I'd feared. It woke me up, that's for sure.

And I had my right arm in a sling for most of the day--lots of ice, rest, and trigger point work.

rehab, joint mobility, evening workout

Joint mobility and bandwork for right shoulder in the morning.

Stretching shoulder at lunch.

Tonight: 24kg C&P ladders with left hand: 5x(1,2,3,4)
24kg left-hand swings: 54 in 3 minutes

felt great. should sleep well. Haven't touched the bad arm in three days now.

KB circuit, more rehab

I'm going to put my right arm in a sling for the next two weeks and let it be. If anyone reads that I've done anything with my right arm, other than some grip stuff, call me on it. It's just not getting better because I'm not leaving it completely alone.

Here's tonight--

Joint mobility:

One circuit, all exercises with left arm only:

24kg C&P: 6
half get up: 24kgx2, 16kgx4
24kg C&P: 5
24kg C& Front Squat: 5
24kg One-hand swing: 15
16kg C&P: 5
24kg snatch: 14
16kg C&P: 5

Evening practice, RKC prep

Tried the farmer's walk with 106 lbs in each hand, wearing oven mitts. 2 53s in my right and the 106 beast in my right. Only made it 190 feet. I'm going to try this again on Tuesday.

Then did 5 push presses, left hand only, with the 88lb kb.

The April RKC is right around the corner. I'm going to start performing circuits on the weekends according to Brett Jones' template. Here's what tonight looked like:

All swings are with a 24kg:
swings: 11
24kg C&P: 5/arm
swings: 10
C& Front Squat with double 16kgs: 5
swings: 10
16kg TGU: 3 left, 2 right
swings: 10
snatch with 16kg: 18

felt great. My shoulder didn't bug me. Probably because I warmed up so well.