[The Most Loathed] from amateur to pro

[Sloth the Enduring]

Man, I love that heart rate data.  If it's reasonably accurate, it could be extremely useful.

 

As far as your plateau, might it be related to having to train alone so much?  It is mentally hard to keep pushing yourself day after day on your own.  I always get better when I am able to spend time riding with people better/faster than me, I always stagnate when I have long periods of training by myself.  Granted your inner drive is a lot higher than mine.

[The Most Loathed]

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?

yeah, I'll definitely change it up with some shorter sets. In what increments do you recommend dropping the rest periods? 5 seconds maybe?

 

I want to say that I am aware but the simple fact that you have to ask tells me I'm not. I'll do some youtubing and watch Jaap's slow mo again.

 

Man, I love that heart rate data.  If it's reasonably accurate, it could be extremely useful.

 

As far as your plateau, might it be related to having to train alone so much?  It is mentally hard to keep pushing yourself day after day on your own.  I always get better when I am able to spend time riding with people better/faster than me, I always stagnate when I have long periods of training by myself.  Granted your inner drive is a lot higher than mine.

I don't know how accurate it is. I think mine is registering much slower than it is. If you watch the last ten seconds of my video and hear my breathing and realize that it's clocking me in the very low 120's at that time, I'm dubious. It's obviously reacting to me because I can trace my workout through its peaks and valleys but accuracy I'm not so sure on. In fact, Laura and I were just discussing it because we think hers is running fast as it sometimes shows her HR at or near 90 when she's just sitting down. Somewhere around here I have a polar with a chest strap, I'll do a comparison at some point. I don't think I have any way to graph that though so it will have to just be spot checks.

 

It's possible that the training alone thing is getting me down. I've been training mostly alone for 10 years so I'm inclined to think it's other things but change is often a nice thing. It's hard to find folks to train with given the niche nature of what I'm doing.

[The Most Loathed]

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. 

yeah, as it warms up outside I'll start squatting and running again. It will be a nice change.

[RisenPhoenix]

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

yeah, as it warms up outside I'll start squatting and running again. It will be a nice change.

 

Hm.  That is kind of nifty.  I know it's new and everything, but are you finding the data useful so far?  My last roommate had a fitbit, but he really didn't do much of anything....  His major "amazement" with it was the food-logging app.  But after a week I know he stopped really using it beyond having it wrapped around his wrist as an alarm clock and watch.

 

I'd be interested in trying one out, but mainly to see how my aikido workouts go for that data.... except I can't wear it while training, so it's a moot point.  But I wonder what interesting data it would lob at me while lifting and running about. (And partially during the workday, since I bounce up and down a lot between my desk and my workspace.)

[KB Girl]

yeah, I'll definitely change it up with some shorter sets. In what increments do you recommend dropping the rest periods? 5 seconds maybe?

 

I want to say that I am aware but the simple fact that you have to ask tells me I'm not. I'll do some youtubing and watch Jaap's slow mo again.

Nah, drop rest periods by 10 seconds. But focus first on getting enough sets. 8 is a bit of a minimum, an easy 12 or better yet 16 in a row would be good before you start tweaking the rest.

 

I made you a video, it turned out the camera wasn't focused and the sound isn't very great.... but you can still see the important parts. Hopefully you can also understand my accented english through the echo :/ If not just let me know and i'll redo it sometime next week. 

Anyway, hope it's useful. Don't share it too much please, it's like my biggest special training secrets

 

[The Most Loathed]

I could hear you pretty well. I attempted to incorporate your advice into tonight's work, I don't know if you will be able to see a difference. I'm attempting to drop the bells more straight down from the rack, let them hit a natural point of swing, let the swing extend my legs, let the swing back rebend my legs then do a leg driven clean out of the that. I don't know if I have anything to let me do slow mo and I haven't spent much time looking at the video, only verified that it loaded.

 

03/06/2015

long cycle 1:00 on/1:00 off 28 kg, 20 rounds

 

that's it.

 

It was doable but tough. I'm not sure if I would have made it to 25. I could finish each set I started but it became more difficult to convince myself to start each set.

[KB Girl]

No worries, I don't need slomo to see it. You're still mostly going straight to a squat after you drop and also driving back up from a squat, but i did see a couple much better reps. The best way down is at 4:05 where you drop it exactly the way you should. This often happens, once people don't think "clean" anymore but start thinking "put them down" then they DO catch it right

5:40 is also correct going down (nice!) but not good yet on the way up. 

 

As a helpful exercise; just jump up and down a bit. See what your knees are doing. Now try jumping from a squat; it's friggin weird. When holding kettlebells it's awkward to get into the right position to do a jump, especially if the drop didn't go well. So I'd suggest doing a couple sets with an extra swing in between to give you some time to figure that out.

 

I'm very impressed with your 20 rounds! I'm assuming you meant 20 sets which took you 40 minutes? Even if it was 20 minutes still very nice, you had an excellent pace. Assuming it's the first option, then if you repeat this workout I think you should increase the time of the set to 90 seconds instead of dropping rest period. And yes if it gets more difficult to convince yourself to pick them up again you're doing it exactly right

[The Most Loathed]

correct, it was 40 minutes, 20  on and 20 off.

I'll try 90 seconds next time, that sounds super tough both from recovery and from the standpoint that it will add up 30 total minutes of long cycle.

Now to go back and look at those specific reps.

[The Most Loathed]

Hm.  That is kind of nifty.  I know it's new and everything, but are you finding the data useful so far?  My last roommate had a fitbit, but he really didn't do much of anything....  His major "amazement" with it was the food-logging app.  But after a week I know he stopped really using it beyond having it wrapped around his wrist as an alarm clock and watch.

 

I'd be interested in trying one out, but mainly to see how my aikido workouts go for that data.... except I can't wear it while training, so it's a moot point.  But I wonder what interesting data it would lob at me while lifting and running about. (And partially during the workday, since I bounce up and down a lot between my desk and my workspace.)

I'd agree that the right general question is - now what? I've used Fitbit's website for food tracking in the past and it's my favorite. I can never sustain more than a few months because it's just plain annoying to track all my food. More than anything it helps me to hold myself more accountable to not eat extra little odds and ends that are often the biggest challenge to my diet. 

 

I like feeling like I have both halves of the balance of calories in and out. When I've tracked calories in the past I've always felt like I was shorting myself by not knowing what I was burning each day. That said, now that I know that I'm not sure that I need to know it every single day. Also, it's pretty clear that the workouts themselves aren't being tracked correctly from a heart rate standpoint which is frustrating.

[The Most Loathed]

narrative catch up:

I had planned to lift Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and take Friday off. Thursday Laura asked if I would be willing to take the night off. I said that if I could train Friday, Saturday and Sunday that would be fine with me. I didn't have grand plans for Thursday anyway, I was going to keep it light and just do more mobility work. So I took Thursday off, we just went to the store for a few things but we got to hang around each other which was nice. 

 

I don't yet have a grand plan for today and tomorrow. Today I'll likely do a long set with 20 kg and some accessory work. Tomorrow I'll attempt KB Girls 90 seconds on, 60 seconds off and see how far I survive. I'll then either do some cardio or I'll celebrate the nice weather and go out and do back squats. 

 

Yesterday I took the day off from work and met with my lunchtime gaming group all day. We played six games and overall had a great time. Some of them are starting to sweat because my company has announced a bunch of lay-offs but they won't tell who until next week. I don't think I'm really at risk but I get annoyed with the fact that they announced that there would b lay-offs then waited a week to tell everyone because now I get to spend a week listening to people wind themselves up over whether they will be fired or not. I'm guessing that hardly anyone I know gets directly impacted by this.

[RisenPhoenix]

Pretty sure there is no good way to go about layoffs.  Either people get warning, and complain about being worried about being laid off, or you get to walk in and get let go, in a potentially shocking situation.  Having been in the latter, I think I'd rather get a week's notice to throw some ropes out to be safe...

 

That being said, hope that you and everyone you work with isn't effected too much by the layoffs. :/

[Spark]

Found. Subb'd. Marveled at.

[The Most Loathed]

Pretty sure there is no good way to go about layoffs.  Either people get warning, and complain about being worried about being laid off, or you get to walk in and get let go, in a potentially shocking situation.  Having been in the latter, I think I'd rather get a week's notice to throw some ropes out to be safe...

 

That being said, hope that you and everyone you work with isn't effected too much by the layoffs. :/

Fair enough. I think I still prefer no notice but you're right. There's no good way.

Thank you. I'm sure you'll hear more here if it goes other than expected.

 

Found. Subb'd. Marveled at.

Marvel not but welcome.

 

03/07/2015

bailed on this one. I went down and warmed up, even started my workset but it was not to be. I tore a callus on the second knuckle of my left ring finger during a snatch set earlier this week and last night I got it oozing blood pretty good. Today it felt like it was freshly ripping on every single reps. There was no way I was going to make it a good set. I guess I could/should have done some TRX or something but I didn't. Tomorrow is very likely to be an outside day so I can let my hand get about it's healing.

 

picture of my hand, because why not:

[Mrcipher]

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.

 

 

I was reading about a fitness oriented PhD student who decided to up the 10k swing challenge by doing it in 10 days and monitoring the results, testing among other things overtraining (which I read as a potential interest in your post about fatigue). For what it's worth, he used laddered breathing cycles through the nose, e.g. breath, swing for a couple reps, swing, swing for a couple reps but longer than the first, and found improvements as a method for regulated high rep high intensity workouts.

 

https://www.t-nation.com/training/ten-thousand-swings-to-fat-loss

 

Also, thanks for the post on my thread. I've been catching up on yours. Really well done. I have no doubt you'll get your CMS: you have a plan, it's achievable, and you're sticking at it. Inspirational for me and others.

[The Most Loathed]

greetings Mr. Cipher! Thanks for the link, 10,000 swings n 10 days is pretty impressive. I'm still working my way through the rest of the article but it's a good read so far.

[The Most Loathed]

03/08/2015

 

jog (nose breathing) roughly 5 km

 

back squat up to 100 kg x 5

overhead press up to 60 kg

deadlift 100 kg 

 

mobility work

 

notes

• warmed up but once I started warm up long cycles it was clear that the torn callus was going to be an issue. I was mentally prepared for this so wasted no time hitting a jog
• Jog was nose breathing for purely practical reasons, I have found that when it's below 50 outside, if I mouth breath I end up coughing the rest of the day. Experimentation has taught me that nose breathing solves this
• I ran 5-6 km in about 30 minutes. No land speed records were broken but this was more about breaking in my legs for future runs
• squats went pretty well. I was really focused on feeling my hips shift at the bottom and not pushing that far enough to hurt myself. I look forward to starting barbell work again really soon.I wish I could have done more pulls but the same callus issue, unsurprisingly, was not going to allow it without payment in the form of discomfort and possibly additional tears. 
• While not my most awesome workout from a pounds moved and calories burned standpoint, I'm extremely happy with it as a first step in moving back to jogging and back out to the garage soon. Although my kettlebells may live in the basement for just a little bit longer.

[The Most Loathed]

week 9 wrap up

This week I attempted to back down the working sets to get some sets completed and found myself unable to finish. That was frustrating but it led to some good discussion and help from you all. KB Girl proposed the minute on, minute off at a faster pace that I'll keep working with. I managed to tear the callus on my left ring finger, something I don't often do and can usually train through. That made my Saturday plan unworkable. Sunday wasn't kettlebells but I got a good foundation workout in for the transition to spring.

 

week 10 kick off

This week I'm going to focus on continuing the transition to spring and working on the faster, shorter sets. Also, I've quietly been having success with weight loss, I'm looking to keep that up. I'm finally finding momentum and with just over ten pounds to go before I make my weight class, I should be able to wrap up weight loss in May.

 

The plan

• Monday - Off
• Tuesday - if my hand allows it, long cycle 28 kg 90 on/60 off, 8RPM, AMRAP (hoping to hit greater than 10)
• Wednesday - depending on hand, long cycle 20 kg fast, max reps, jog, maybe back squat a little and press a little
• Thursday - deadlift, box jump, kettlebell swing for conditioning
• Friday - off
• Saturday - Long Cycle 28 kg 90 on/60 off, 8 RPM AMRAP
• Sunday - Long Cycle 20 kg, 10 RPM, 5:00, 3 rounds, jog, back squat, standing press

 

music

 

[KB Girl]

Way to just go with the ripped hand. Welcome back to spring land Maybe I should take your example and do some running myself.

Look forward to seeing the results from your next go at the shorter sets. I'd suggest not doing it twice in one week though... How about the following; 

1min with 32kg (5rpm or more) 

2min rest

2min with 28kg (6rpm or more)

2min rest

3min with 24kg (7rpm or more)

5min rest

repeat the cycle once more.

[The Most Loathed]

you bet. I'll swap that in for Saturday's workout.

 

My legs are a little sore today from the run but that was expected. I must have gone about the right distance because I'm sore but not crippled. 

[RisenPhoenix]

Damn, dude.  I wish my squats looked that nice at 100kgs.  Looked awesome.  And nice OHP and DL, too!  Very nice work!

[Rooks]

Dem quads!  Jealous of that definition.   

[The Most Loathed]

Damn, dude.  I wish my squats looked that nice at 100kgs.  Looked awesome.  And nice OHP and DL, too!  Very nice work!

Thank you. They get better as I get back to them

 

Dem quads!  Jealous of that definition. 

My legs are kind of ridiculous. It's genetic as far as I can tell, I don't do anything in particular. It's really hard to find pants that fit my legs though. As I've gotten leaner it's gotten harder. That said, I do think they look good.

[The Most Loathed]

#personalBS

My manager and my same pay grade peer were just fired. I survived the cut. Gonna have to play dad to the team. People are getting emotional all around. Just needed to put this info somewhere.

 

I may opt to skip workout tonight depending on how I feel later.

[RisenPhoenix]

Well shit.

 

That sucks, I'm sorry to hear that.  Hope you playing Dad either nets you some good graces or the shoes are filled quickly enough that you don't have to stress about it too much.  Skipping workouts because of mentally exhausting crap is a totally reasonable thing to do.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Surviving layoffs is tough too. I hope everything works out for you.