[The Most Loathed] from amateur to pro

[The Most Loathed]

Game day at FFG and game night with Nerd Fitness folks was great. I enjoyed a lot of different games with good company.

 

03/01/2015

long cycle 28kg 3:00, 6 rpm - 19 reps

rest 2:00

long cycle 28kg 2:00, 7 rpm - 15 reps

rest 2:00

long cycle 28kg 1:00 - 9 reps

rest 2:00

long cycle 28kg 1:00 - 8 reps, rest 2:00, 4 rounds

 

jump squat 32 kg kb x 100

 

notes

• Tonu came over to train which is always a nice reminder for me that there are other people doing this. I scaled his workout to suit me. I probably should have considered jumping up to the 32 kg bells for the short sets but I decided to push the pace which is something I haven't been doing of late. I don't regret my choice.
• Killing time today playing solo boardgame. I'm a super boring person when left to my own devices and I suck at just filling time, may switching things up with a nap and a movie later.

[turboseize]

I finally got around to reading this article on fatigue. It's a decent read but basically boils down to, we don't know what fatigue is but we're pretty sure it's a blend physiological and psychological factors. We can't actually pin either of those down either. The physiological factors appear to have to do with the charge of interstitial fluids, which I've heard in other settings boils down to the ability to move ions into the cell to cause muscular contraction. Humans, however, almost never hit this state because something in the brain stops us first. The brain portion is also largely unknown, pain is clearly a factor but there are other, more subtle players.

 

This is especially of interest to me because unlike one rep max strength exercises, kettlebell lifting forces the lifter to face these forces head on, often for minutes at a time. Endurance athletes face the same forces but I'm inclined to believe that the approach and intensity aren't on the same level. I could be mistaken, I've never been an endurance athlete but if it weren't at a lower level then any decent runner with a little lifting background would just walk onto the platform and blow us all away and that hasn't happened yet so far as I know.

 

 

I still look at sports that fall somewhere between one rep strength and endurance and see what I can find, longer swims, shorter runs even some kinds of combat sports operate in the five to fifteen minute range. It's from these that I hope to learn more about how the athletes manage fatigue and carry on.

 

I'd say it depends. As a kid, I was rather sporty, first, i played handball, then I tried my luck at rowing. When training for rowing, we'd also supplement our training with extensive bike rides (up to 130km), and, of course, running.

Handball, being much shorter (2x 30 minutes), is much more intense than for example soccer or most other team games, but it is not continuous effort, more like interval training. There are bursts of intensity, absurd sprints, followed by sequences of slowed down pace ad "bringing order" into the game and preparing the next move.

Fatigue there means you become slower, both pyhsically end mentally, and performance and your usefulness to the team decrease, but you do not have to worry about perseverance. Adrenaline does a fine job there.

Rowing is a different animal. There are sprint races (500 to 1000m) as well as long distance races (6km, 10km, up to marathon distances, even 24h races and for the completeley insane there is an annual race across the Atlantic ocean, too).

The most common and most important distance, however, is the olympic 2000m. Depending on your boat (womens single sculls are obviously slower than mens eight), skill, physical capabilities and most important the wheather these 2000m take somewhere between 5:30 minutes and 8 point something minutes. (I think there once was a race on lake Zurich in most extreme headwinds, when the male single sculls finished just short of 12 minutes, but things like these are once-in-a-century exceptions.)

So here we are in a comparable timeframe to the one you are facing in a kettlebell challenge. This is, compared to primarily aerobic  activities  like cycling or long distance running, very short. (Even with these, you need to have anaerobic capabilities for those race winning instances when you try to ecape the peloton on a mountain road or the final sprint for the finish line etc, but the majority of the race, your body will operate under aerobic conditions.) On the other hand, it is much to long for anaerobic energy supply.

So what happens?

At start, you go full intensity, deplete glycogen storages within the first strokes, get the boat moving and then continue to go full power for the next 20 to 25 strokes, trying to get ahead of the field (if you see your competition behind you, you can control them - you see when they change tactics, launch a sprint etc and can react... ) Here we are in clearly anaerobic territory, and after these initial ca 30 strokes you feel like you are dying. Muscles will still be ok, but yor lungs will burn and yor brain clearly tells you you can not get enough air. You are taking on a huge oxygen debt, as we would call it. This intensity is unsustainable over the entire distance, so after the initial sprint, you slow down to a steady state - just enough to balance oxygen supply and demand. You are not paying back the debt, just keeping the number stable. The pain does not go away, it just does not get worse. Then, about mid-race, some team will launch an attack, or you yourself will. So again you go full power, getting deeper into oxygen debt. More pain, more lungs burning, more brain screaming "I cannot get enough air!". And, as this is madness, after 15 to 20 strokes everyody will settle again to steady state. Somewhere around  here you will notice lactic acid buildup in your muscles,  alittle bit in your armes, but mostly the legs will start burning. Your mouth will taste of blood and salt. Then come the last 250 meters, the spectator stands, and in the final sprint, you mobilise anything you got, your vision has become narrow, and sometimes it switches to black and white, lungs burn, your entire body is in pain the last strokes, the last strokes - you cross the finish line- and literally collapse.

During the entire race, your heart rate is near or beyond 200 stroke sper minute, you are always in an oxygen debt, and your brain screams "I'm dying". How do you motivate yourself?

Mostly, you count strokes. Make the brain do something, so it can devote less ressources to the pain. Counting strokes is easy, can be done under stress, and every stroke pushes you forward. 20 strokes is - depending on conditions - roughly 200 meters. So you move along, twenty strokes at a time ... and longing for the finish line. The faster you go, the earlier you may stop...

But sometimes, something else happens. You are in agonizing pain for nearly the entire duration of the race. But on some days, perhaps one in ten, during the final sprint magic happens. Pain becomes good. I do not know how to describe it, it is still pain, you still do not get enough air, you still think you die, but somehow, this is different. Suddenly, the pain is good. And your lungs burn and your thighs burn and the world goes black and white and silent, but it just feels alright and you want to push farther and harder.

This happens very, very rarely. But it is such a powerful experience that you are addicted. Forever. (Typing this, I suddenly feel the urge to race. Funny.)

So, how do you cope with fatigue during the race? In a boat race, the limiting factor will probably be your cardiovascular system. (You do a lot of strenght endurance workouts and both strenght and strenght endurance is needed, but you also adjust the rigging of the boat and the sculls/oars, that is the leverage ratio of the sculls/oars to your strength. So, with a good preparation, your muscles will not be the limiting factor. That is, they limit how fast you can go, but they will likely not be the factor that makes you say, "Fuck, why am I doing this? I'll just back of a little...") In my experience, it boils down to pain management.

You go full power and then scale back to an intensity that you, depending on your prior experience, deem sustainable for the duration of the race. This requires that you know your body very well, and that you can gauge intensities by their feel.

I have found this skill of "pain management" to be extremely helpful in any kind of endurance-related physical activity. Even after getting a desk job and doing much less sport than necessary, I always managed to pass the army phsysical test, even in very suboptimal shape. ;-)

One winter, I even managed to run my 3000 meters below 13:00 minutes in winter weather, sub-zero temperatures, being back in service just three weeks - after being bedridden for more than two months with a pneumonia.

Pain management means I can gauge how far I can push - be it 400m running, 3000 or 5000, or a rowing race or a snatch test - I just "know", deep inside, how hard it should feel, for that given duration and then I adjust my effort to match "ideal" and current pain.

Am in a bad shape now, overweight (nah, weight is ok, but bodyfat percentage is way to heigh), resting heart rate of paltry 68 (used to be 45, when I was 18 years old!); in short, I'm a lazy, big, fat, middle-aged-bloke, but If I were to run 3000m or 400m or row 2000 or 6000m, I'm pretty shure I might well be rather slow, but I would finish pretty close to what I could do. I would not start to fast and collapse half way, nor would I finish and then be upset because I could have gone faster... I'm pretty confident I'd reach the finish with the desired degree of exhaustion.

How do you achieve this skill? Like any skill, practise. Let me recall what we did then...

A typical training year would start in early autumn, with rowing workouts of slightly over one hour. On some autumn weekends, there would be sprint races. twice a week strength training with focus on endurance, 30 to 60 reps. And as the days get shorter, workouts would increase in volume, with water time of 90 minutes up to two hours. In winter, we would row as long as the river/lake remained open, when we could not row, we'd substitute rowing for running and ergometers/rowing machines (everybody used used concept two). In january or february, there would be a ergometer competition, so that time until the next race would not be too long. In midwinter, strenght training would also change: instead of strenght endurance, we would go after hypertrophy and maximum strenght, usually doing pyramids. Then, in spring, when we could go out on the water again, workouts would change again. Strenght training would shift to strenght endurance again and rowing workouts would get shorter.  Instead of being only steady state we would incorporate Fahrtspiele (german) or fartlek (swedish), that is speed plays, playing with intensity. And as competition season came nearer, more and more steady state endurance workouts would get substituted for interval trainings.

We would drive anything from 200 meters to 2500meters on any given intensity between "slightly elevated" and "full power", but mostly work between 80 and 95% percent perceived intensity.

And then, of course, there would be races.

So what would I do, if I were to compete in kettlebell sports? I'd work my cardiovascular system in some different ways, too. I may not have the latest knowlegde, but back in the day, we believed long steady state cardio to increase heart volume, and high intensity intervals to increase your tolerance to high heart rates. So the endless hours on the water would equal "increasing the bore diameter" and thus displacement on an engine, the intervals equal stiffer valve springs, so that you can rev higher. :-)

So I'd definitely integrate some cardio in my training schemes, as your cardiovascular capabilities could be a limiting factor.

Then, of course, strenght endurance. I'd train both with higher weights than used in the competition and lower rep counts (but still, above 20 per set) as well as with lower weights and insane reps. Of course, the best heart and lungs will get you nowwhere, if your muscles can't keep up...

And, finally, I'd test and get used to my sense of pain. So I'd take competition weights and set times both 20-30% shorter as well as longer as the competition times and learn how to regulate my effort so that I could sustain the effort for the required time.

And of course, some "tests" under complete competition conditions, both competition weight and time.

So prepared, i'd be confident to enter in a competition knowing exactly what pace to go.

Sorry for the long text, and please excuse me indulging in reminiscences, but I hope perhaps there might be some bits of useful information hidden there. Keep in mind I do not know anything about kettlebells, i never coached kettlebells, and both my rowing coach and army coach licences and certifications have long expired.

Besides, it was a loing day of studying, so please excuse me if my writing sees a little bit chaotic...

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

That was a good read, it made me want to row.

[KB Girl]

Turbo, that was a brilliant read. Thanks for taking the time to type it out

It's a funny coincidence, but just last weekend me and another kb coach were talking about programming and discussing the usefullness of other sports to mimick. We came to rowing because as you said it's the most similar in time frame. The problem with rowing is ofcourse that you want to keep your eye on the competition. Nobody knows wether going full out at the start is also the best way to get the best time or in fact if rowers would get a better time without this competition element. 

Another big difference between the two is probably what happens when your form starts to slack. In rowing if your strokes get less efficient then you end up slower.. but in KB's if you lose some crucial efficiency you might just not get it over your head or drop the damn thing and be out of the race. Therefore I think kbsport athletes need to be a bit more careful with riding that fatigue line.

 

Other than that though, what you described about what you would do if you were to compete is pretty much spot on. That is exactly what top kb athletes do! 

- long steady state cardio (most often running) to increase heart volume

- longer sets, often with higher pace but lighter kettlebells

- medium sets with competition weights but a higher pace to get used to this feeling of fatigue

- short sets with higher weights

- and then a lot of brain training. 

 

It's also pretty much what TML has been doing.. you were doing extra cardio when it wasn't winter, weren't you?

The thing is, I get the search for more and better programming, but right now 2 things matter most; 

 

1. Just show up and do training, doesn't much matter how perfect the programming is, especially if point 2 isnt perfect yet.

2. The biggest limiting factor for TML and most other KB athletes is technique. Working on that has BIGGEST priority because it will give the biggest gains.

 

But by all means, keep nerding out about this stuff. It's usefull, brilliant and motivating isn't it? Motivation counts a lot too.

 

So what would I do, if I were to compete in kettlebell sports? I'd work my cardiovascular system in some different ways, too. I may not have the latest knowlegde, but back in the day, we believed long steady state cardio to increase heart volume, and high intensity intervals to increase your tolerance to high heart rates. So the endless hours on the water would equal "increasing the bore diameter" and thus displacement on an engine, the intervals equal stiffer valve springs, so that you can rev higher. :-)
So I'd definitely integrate some cardio in my training schemes, as your cardiovascular capabilities could be a limiting factor.
Then, of course, strenght endurance. I'd train both with higher weights than used in the competition and lower rep counts (but still, above 20 per set) as well as with lower weights and insane reps. Of course, the best heart and lungs will get you nowwhere, if your muscles can't keep up...
And, finally, I'd test and get used to my sense of pain. So I'd take competition weights and set times both 20-30% shorter as well as longer as the competition times and learn how to regulate my effort so that I could sustain the effort for the required time.
And of course, some "tests" under complete competition conditions, both competition weight and time.
So prepared, i'd be confident to enter in a competition knowing exactly what pace to go.

[The Most Loathed]

Sorry for the long text, and please excuse me indulging in reminiscences, but I hope perhaps there might be some bits of useful information hidden there. Keep in mind I do not know anything about kettlebells, i never coached kettlebells, and both my rowing coach and army coach licences and certifications have long expired.

Besides, it was a loing day of studying, so please excuse me if my writing sees a little bit chaotic...

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write out that full response. Most of what I would have said said was covered very well by KB Girl. As she said, broadly, I'd agree with you and attempt to integrate much of that thinking into my programming. I try to do sets longer than ten minutes with my 20kg bells, I attempt to lift my competition weight for close to ten minutes total across multiple sets and I attempt to lift heavier but shorter sets. There are other axes on which I try to tweak my work sets but that covers the basics. My winter cardio is pretty crap because running and biking are pretty much out of the question. I do have a rower but anything over 20 minutes seems to cause very uncomfortable chaffing. That said, I could probably do a bit more of this. Once the weather breaks, I may scale back my sport workouts a bit and spend a little more time running.

 

That was a good read, it made me want to row.

Book some time, come on over.

 

1. Just show up and do training, doesn't much matter how perfect the programming is, especially if point 2 isnt perfect yet.

2. The biggest limiting factor for TML and most other KB athletes is technique. Working on that has BIGGEST priority because it will give the biggest gains.

 

But by all means, keep nerding out about this stuff. It's usefull, brilliant and motivating isn't it? Motivation counts a lot too.

As always, your better at covering these points than I am. Thank you.

I try to live point one in your list but you're absolutely right about point 2. This year I'm looking at two different training courses. I'm looking to take the AKA course after the regional and then in September I'm trying to get a two-day course set up here in Minneapolis.Hopefully this year will see big improvements in technique.

[turboseize]

 

I do have a rower but anything over 20 minutes seems to cause very uncomfortable chaffing.

Excuse me again, my english is to bad... to you mean blisters on your hand? Well, that's the next thing rowing and kettlebells do have in common... :-)

There is no remedy: just keep going. It will hurt, blisters will come, pop open, bleed, but after some time your skin on the inside of your hands will be bulletproof.

However, a "wrong" grip can make matters worse. The back of the hand and the forearm should form a straight line. You hol dthe oar with your fingers only, the inside of the hand should have little to no contact with the oar. The thumb encloses the grip, but only very, very lightly. In a boat, it is just there, you nearly never apply any force. (I a boat, wou woul extract the oar/sculls from te water at the end of the stroke, then turn the blades by angling your wrist and immediately opening it, meaning the oars/sculls will roll forward and lie beneath the inner part of the fingers. The back of the hand and the forearm form a straight line again. To erect the blades prior to catching water, you just roll the sculls back again...

But on an indoor rower, you do not have to worry about this. Even the indoor rower, however, profits from a "loose" grip. Grip as tight as necessary, but as loose as possible.

Another possible cause for blisters on an indoor rower might be a rotation of the hands during the last phas eof the stroke. Many people, will pull the elbows to the side instead of back during the last stage of the stroke, thus either bending the wrists sideways or causing the hand to turn inwards (elbows turn outwards). This obviously introduces additional and unnenecessary shearing for the skin on the inside of the hands.

Oh, and it's inefficient and making you slow, so stop doing that.

I found some pictures:

Hand during draw:

Hand during recovery:

Source: http://www.rudertechnik.de/artikel/handfuehrung-beim-skullen/

Note how the sculls are controlled and held by mostly the fingers, not the hand.

[KB Girl]

I try to live point one in your list but you're absolutely right about point 2. This year I'm looking at two different training courses. I'm looking to take the AKA course after the regional and then in September I'm trying to get a two-day course set up here in Minneapolis.Hopefully this year will see big improvements in technique.

You're great at point 1! Wish I had more people like you at my gym to play with. 

What kind of two day course are you setting up? Do you expect people from your are to come? If you could get people to pay my flight i'd come and teach you all everything I know

[The Most Loathed]

Excuse me again, my english is to bad... to you mean blisters on your hand? 

Your English isn't bad, I was attempting to be delicate but instead was merely confusing. When I row for more than 20 minutes the area where my thigh connects to my buttock gets rubbed raw by the seat. I don't notice is in the first ten minutes, as I get closer to 20 I will start to feel my skin getting grabbed by the seat or the cloth of my shorts. Sometime between 20 and 30 minutes it will go from annoying to uncomfortable. That spot will be irritated for days, when I shower or change clothes it will be uncomfortable and if I try to row again soon it will be uncomfortable almost right away.

 

You're great at point 1! Wish I had more people like you at my gym to play with. 

What kind of two day course are you setting up? Do you expect people from your are to come? If you could get people to pay my flight i'd come and teach you all everything I know

The group coming in September (hopefully) is the IKFF. They're not a part of IUKL (which I know will be disappointing for you) but they were the ones I could get to make the trip and charge a reasonable price. The good news is that it's my chance to get some people in my area more interested in sport, the bad news is that it while they are a sport organization they will lean a little hard style. The course I'm taking in June will be AKA (IUKL) so I should learn some good things there. 

[The Most Loathed]

Week 8 wrap up 

Subpar week for me, I only did three workouts and none of them were awesome. I'm not going to beat myself up but this week represents a very low bar.

Tonu came over on Sunday and we lifted. He recorded one set and my fixation was awful. Several were definite no-counts.

 

Week 9 kick off

This week I'm asking myself to get back on track. I'm going to go for five workouts but I'm going to scale them back a little from the last few weeks.

 

• Monday - off
• Tuesday - Long Cycle 28 kg x 2, 3:00/3:00, 4 rounds, trying for 6RPM
• Wednesday - Long Cycle 20 kg x 2, try for 100 consecutive reps 7-8RPM
• Thursday - Long Cycle 24 kg x 2, 6:00/6:00, 3 rounds 7-8 RPM
• Friday - off
• Saturday - Long Cycle 28 kg x 2, 20 reps x 4
• Sunday - Long Cycle 20 kg x 2, 15:00

[turboseize]

Ah, now I understand.

Your trousers must not, under no circumstances, have wrinkles when you sit down. Any wrinkle between the seat and your bottom will become very, very annoying.
There are some people, like  my father, who just don't mind and row in anything, I on the other hand, find unfitting rowing trausers really annoying.
The perfect rowing trousers are very tight-fitting and elastic - think of cycling trousers. But the seat padding of cycling trousers is in the wrong place (between your legs). There are sportswear companies that sell dedicated rowing clothing, rowing trousers will have a very thin padding (mostly just a double layer of cloth) just in the right place.

One company that I cannot recommend to highly is new wave: http://www.newwave.de/index.php?language=en
Their stuff is very functional and of great quality. Besides, the company founder is a former team mate of my father. 
No, I don't get any commissions or special prices. :-)




(Oh, and there might be a techniqe side to this problem, too. Do you slide acrosse the seat, or do you stay firmly planted? If the first is true, you might be a bit to rough. Rowing should be smooth. When you kick yourself of the seat, your rowing roughly. Falling of the seat will obviously be a race-loosing event, and sliding in your seat surface will be very uncomfortable for your bottom, but also rough rowing or jerking at the oar/sculls makes you slow. You induce force spikes in the chain of transmission, which will bend the oars/sculls and which also will also greatly increase slippage of the blade.
You want to row with great power, but deliver that power smoothly.)

[The Most Loathed]

I've tried both a compression short (like a cycling short) and a synthetic gym short (looser) and had pretty much the same result. I don't think I slide around on the seat. I'll try to play with my stroke a bit and see if I can do anything to change it. I've read up on it a bit on the Concept II website and they also recommend making sure my shirt is not tucked into my shorts (it probably was but I can't say for sure), wearing a synthetic shirt (something I have done in the past but don't do a lot) and an additional seat pad (which I probably won't do for now).

[The Most Loathed]

03/03/2015

 

long cycle 28 kg x 2, 3:00 on/3:00 off

 - completed three but form broke down incredibly in set 4 and ended with a minute to go

mobility

snatch 20kg 20/20 x 6 

row 5km, nose breathing only

 

notes

• I was pretty disappointed that even with backing off I didn't complete the set but as the final minute started by form was really coming apart and I felt like I was making the decision to dance with the possibility of injury or call it early. Still, 5 reps away, gah!
• My new fitbit heart rate monitor arrived yesterday. With the computer I'm on there is no good way to make an image and place it here but can you see some heart rate graphs if you follow this link? Whether you can or not it boils down to 90 minutes where I'm credited with an average HR of 114 which seems low but perhaps I am over estimating my exertion. I can see where my work sets are, I can see where I did mobility and then it gets a bit messy as I go into snatches and rowing. Tomorrow, when I have a different computer handy I'll share some images if it's reported that the link doesn't work.
•  

[cn3wton]

Mind if I ask why you do nose breathing only on the rower?

[KB Girl]

The group coming in September (hopefully) is the IKFF. They're not a part of IUKL (which I know will be disappointing for you) but they were the ones I could get to make the trip and charge a reasonable price. The good news is that it's my chance to get some people in my area more interested in sport, the bad news is that it while they are a sport organization they will lean a little hard style. The course I'm taking in June will be AKA (IUKL) so I should learn some good things there. 

Actually i'm not that big of a fan of the IUKL really... it's just that at the moment it is the only really legit organization when it comes to international competitions. For all I know the AKA/IUKL course could be a big load of crap, no idea xD Not to discourage you, it might also be extremely brilliant. Find out who the teacher is and I can tell you more about it.

IKFF is not so bad, though it's more suited to beginners.. in some ways you still are one, but in many ways you certainly aren't. But it's definitely a good choice to ease people into the sport side of things They are good teachers at least, plenty of experience and good systems in place.

[KB Girl]

Also, how is 4 sets of 3 minutes with 28kg taking a step back?

[The Most Loathed]

Mind if I ask why you do nose breathing only on the rower?

It was an experiment that I need to try and still do some reading on. Less oxygen in the blood theoretically would mean the cells are starved a bit, requiring that they adapt. The question is, how often do they need that experience in order to adapt?

Also, I was curious to see what it would do to my work capacity. It added about 5 seconds to my 500m time but I was reaching some kind of threshold there towards the end, it was getting really hard to hold my pace under 2:00/500.

 

 Find out who the teacher is and I can tell you more about it.

AKA is Sergey Rudiev and possibly Marty Farrell and Lorna Kleidmann

IKFF is either Rock Cox or Ken Blackburn

 

Also, how is 4 sets of 3 minutes with 28kg taking a step back?

because I was completing those sets back in January, I stepped forward to 3:30/2:30, had a couple successes and now can't finish those nor the sets I previously completed.

[The Most Loathed]

I wanted to upload a couple screenshots of the fitbit dashboard from y first full day with the device

First, the main dashboard. There are a bunch of tiles to select from and I'm not showing all of them just some of my favorites. It's all pretty well labeled but at the top left is my heart rate as measured by my device. The slow climb you see in the AM is me getting up, lounging for a bit then heading to the grocery store for breakfast and shopping. The dip is the down time between shopping and lunch. You can see a short spike where I make lunch then do some chores and lounge a bit before my workout. You can see the workout and then a gradual decline as I do evening chores and get ready for bed.

The top right is my bodyweight. I've owned a fitbit branded scale for years so this just uploads for me when I use it.

The bottom left if my caloric balance. I overeat the day before and ate lighter than usual as a result for this day. Thus is shows me as having some calories to spare.

The middle bottom is how many minutes my heart rate is "active" which I think is 90+. 

The bottom right is another take on calories in v calories out. I'll likely drop this since I already have the other view.

 

 

There is also a "workout" feature that I activated during my workout yesterday and this is what it recorded. I don't have anything to compare to for accuracy but I felt like the heart rate was lower than I expected. It's completely possible that this is exactly right and I need to add more metcon work into my workouts to get my conditioning up. What I believe you are seeing is that the first 12 minutes are my warm up. 12 - 30ish are my sport work sets. 30 -45 minutes are my mobility work. 45 - 55 are my snatch sets during which I felt pretty in control. 55 - 85 is my rowing set.

 

 

[KB Girl]

 

AKA is Sergey Rudiev and possibly Marty Farrell and Lorna Kleidmann

IKFF is either Rock Cox or Ken Blackburn

 

because I was completing those sets back in January, I stepped forward to 3:30/2:30, had a couple successes and now can't finish those nor the sets I previously completed.

Don't actually know all of those, but i've heard good things about Marty Farrell.

 

And yea, that is a bit of a dissapointment. Do you have video from back in january to compare? Any thoughts on what is going on?

[The Most Loathed]

I haven't watched these yet to compare but end of December

 

a few days ago

[cn3wton]

Oh I see, did you do the 5k all at once?

Its an interesting theory, but I feel like it would need numerous times for extended periods. Like those high altitude masks. Which I think are a waste.

The real benefit from high altitude work is the prolonged exposure even when not working out imo. I back that up with 0 actual facts or data though lol.

[The Most Loathed]

Don't actually know all of those, but i've heard good things about Marty Farrell.

 

And yea, that is a bit of a dissapointment. Do you have video from back in january to compare? Any thoughts on what is going on?

i watched the two videos I just posted above simultaneously. I notice a few small differences, I've moved my hands wider in the rack, my reps come faster in the older video, I'm bending over farther in the newer video and dropping my head. I don't know that any of those are an obvious issue or solution.

 

I've thought about quite a few different solutions like: cold temperatures, nutrition, lack of mobility, over training, under sleeping. Nothing really seems to be a consistent answer as I've tinkered with each my performance seems to remain flat to even decreasing a bit. The last couple years I've struggled a bit like this towards the end of summer and the end of winter, when I'm getting ready to change my workout up.This year feels far more acute than past rounds of the same.

[The Most Loathed]

03/04/2015

 

long cycle 20 kg x 2 75, 50

 

snatch 24 kg, 10/10 x 5

 

circuit

-row 1km

-burpee 25

-swing 28 kg 25/25

4 rounds

 

notes

kettlebell trots what felt like would be a great long cycle set, maybe not 100 but at least 80

 

recorded first long cycle set. during the second set I caught myself pushing off into the jerk with my chest. If I'm doing that on heavy sets, it could be the issue I've been struggling with. the other thing that came to mind is that when I was completing those longer sets, I was sitting in the rack as much as possible and it's likely that in 3 minutes I was lucky to hit 15 reps, more likely it was closer to 12. By stepping up the pace, I changed the set pretty dramatically.

[The Most Loathed]

Yesterday's fitbit log (I won't keep doing this forever, just enjoying it for a bit)

Yesterday's workout

 

just watched my kettlebell set from last night, thoughts I had while watching

• shoulder issues are still very obvious
• I could really stand to hinge a little more
• my elbows bounce around a lot as I get ready to jerk, I think this is indicative of the push out I found myself doing during the second set.
• It was interesting to see me bring my breathing back under control. During the middle third you can hear non-stop breathing. I slowed it down just a little bit and in the last third I've got control again

[BeWip]

humm, shinny gadget ! Those dashboards looks really cool. 

 

I have absolutely no experience with long cycle so I cannot notice a lot of things except for your rack position that goes from really narrow to wide. Don't know it it means anything though. Regarding performance, have you tried taking a break from this program and doing something different for a few weeks ? Not sure it will work for you but for me it's usually how I break through a plateau in other areas than fitness. 

[KB Girl]

Reckon it's definitely good for you to do things at a faster pace. 

Might I suggest changing your longer 28kg sets to short sets with shorter rest? Like 1min on, 1min off. And then with a minimum pace of 7rpm. Just for a little while, change it up a bit. You start by doing as many sets as possible (looking for 8 or so) and then when you hit over 12 consistently you can progress by shortening the rest period.

 

When I saw that video from the side I didn't notice anything wrong with your jerk.. When I compare those two videos you posted I don't see a lot of difference either, I saw some difference but can't tell if it's from the video angle or not.

 

BeWip makes a good point and your rack does get wider as you go on, but that is really the consequence of your clean issues.. and those are not because you don't hinge enough, it's because your hips aren't doing what they should. Are you aware of what your hips should be doing?