Heavy training day... and an article on Dragondoor.com

24 kg Windmill x 5+5

24 kg Goblet Squat x 5

40 kg Military Press x 2 right and 1 left x 5 sets

Pistol Practice (10# counterweight) 3 reps per leg (various styles) x 4 sets

40 kg Bent Press x 3 + 3

40 kg One Arm Swing x 5+5 x 5 sets

1# Club Swinging

Instead of fighting the left arm I just went with it and did a set of 10 with the 24kg to add a little volume to the left side.

Pistol practice felt good - i am going to be working both ends (bodyweight and weighted).

Clubs felt great - lots of reps.

Article on Dragondoor.com about Refining Hardstyle...

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/572/?c=pbp-203&utm_nooverride=1

Pavel's newsletter had some other great articles about this subject.

A little test today...

My workouts have been a bit inconsistent lately so decided I should throw a little test in there to get me going:

24 kg Windmill x 5+5

24 kg One arm swing x 5+5

24 kg RKC 5 min Snatch test - goal 100 reps

My result = 100 reps in 5:25

24 kg Windmill x 5+5

My strategy on the Snatch test was to go with 5+5 x 10 sets so that means 5+5 twice per minute for 5 minutes. I had a few seconds at the end of each "set" for the first 3 minutes then I started needing a bit more rest ending with my last set of 5+5 at 5:25.

Not bad for being that i haven't hit a good "cardio" session in months and I am wheezing like an allergy riddled asthmatic this morning.

Oh yeah and no hand damage at all - one of the benefits of switching hands frequently.

Tomorrow I think I will hit some presses.

Great stuff from Dr. Mark Cheng...

http://kettlebellslosangeles.blogspot.com/2010/04/optimization-ancient-chinese-secret.html

It is the common threads that we should grab hold of - Breath, Posture, Position, Skill.

Move Well then Move Often

Move Well then Move Fast

The Martial, Restorative and the Pedagogical all still have a place.

Progression, Variety and Precision used to direct someone's training program.

These concepts and others are in the manual I wrote to accompany Club Swinging Essentials.

More on this as the weeks go by but a question if I may:

Is the KB swing about Maximum Effort or is it about Maximum/Optimal Force Production?

Keep getting reminders...

As I move more, travel, cough, and train different patterns the attachment points for my mesh in my abdominal wall speak to me.

They speak to me in either dull crampy spasms or sharp spasms to let me know that they are still there. Fun stuff...

I'm training and moving and swinging Clubs etc... but buried under a bit of work so will post training when I can and other observations of course.

The first CICS Club Swinging certification was a success. I'll post when complete feedback is available.

Off to MSP for the First CICS workshop...

That is the Certified Indian Club Specialist workshop taught by Dr. Ed Thomas and myself.

Also look for the Club Swinging Essentials product to be available very soon on Dragondoor.com and Perform Better.

Article on Dragondoor.com

As some know I have been an FMS presenter for a few years now and I have also been though Z-Health R, I and S phase...this article attempts to lay out the issues I see between the FMS and Z systems:

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/571/?c=pbp-202&utm_nooverride=1

Up front I have to say that Z contains great information - neurology, visual, and vestibular information. There are issues though - in my mind.

Early in the article is a bit about the SAID principle - any comments?

Food stuff...

Picked up a copy of In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and am finding it an interesting read so far...more on this as I go through it.
But in conversation with a friend of mine (his blog is - http://prickymart.blogspot.com/ ) he pointed me to a blog post he made regarding an MSN article...

Low-Cal Diets May Make You Gain Weight - MSN
..."For the first time in humans, we are finding out that cutting your calories increases cortisol," said lead researcher A. Janet Tomiyama, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of California, San Francisco....
"The term 'dieting' brings to mind deprivation, starvation, being miserable and uncomfortable and ultimately failing in weight-loss efforts," said Samantha Heller, a dietitian, nutritionist and exercise physiologist who is familiar with the study....Burning more calories than you consume is how your body loses weight, she said. "However, severe calorie restriction, diet fads, pills and potions, detox cleanses and other quacky approaches to weight loss only contribute to people's diet failures and, in fact, may increase the likelihood of regaining even more weight than what was lost—if any," Heller added....
"By eating foods of higher overall nutritional quality, fullness can generally be achieved on fewer calories, eliminating the need for deprivation," Katz said. "In addition, physical activity can accelerate weight loss, promote health and alleviate stress in the bargain."

Pollan's seven word summary of his philosophy is "Eat food. Not as much. Mostly Plants"
Plants, fruits, beans etc... are "nutrient" dense and make you feel full so this might just line up in the right direction.
Exercise and eat well - now theres an idea ;-)

This is the fireplace area of the main room on the first floor of Fallingwater.

The rock you see extending from the fireplace hearth is the actual rock that Fallingwater is "built into". Amazing the blend of nature and design that Frank Lloyd Wright acheived.

Smooth and Easy...

Over the past couple of days it has just been smooth and easy Yoga, Clubs and a bit of KBs and I am feeling quite good.

Now off to Southern California to teach a KB workshop at the Menifee Valley Athletic Club

www.mvacelite.com

Will be back posting on Monday

Much better...

The past couple of days have progressed nicely with the back.
95% + today

What have I been doing for it?
Foam Roller
Yoga
ASLR and Brettzle (both 1.0 adn 2.0)
Club Swinging
and today 16 kg Get-ups and alternating Swings

I had taken a bit of yoga while living in San Diego and even attended a yoga "certification" here in the Pittsburgh area back in 2006 or so but I let myself quit for various reasons.
Well if you focus on Breath, Posture and Position you have a multiple thousands year old system based on aligning, strengthening and opening the body. Sounds like a pretty good thing.
So Yoga is back to stay in some form.
Foam Roller is with "light" pressure hitting a few key triggerpoint areas opening an opportunity to repattern them during the other work.
Embarking on this journey to open the fascia in my lower back might be a two steps forward - one step back at times thing but well worth it in my mind.

"Know thy Self"

As true now as it was at the temple at Delphi and I keep learning more about "me" all the time...

Z Health is one of the methods that advocates regaining full range of motion and control at all your joints. (for info on the neurological, visual and vestibular aspects of your body Z Health has amazing information - but it is another tool and another source of information - my preferred model is the FMS and implement pieces of the other within that framework.)
Why bring this up?
My body lacks motion at a joint or two...
I lack a fairly significant amount of supination (turning my palm up) on my Left arm.
This means that all the years of all the reps of all the weight during my deadlifting with my left arm palm up (supinated) and right arm palm down (alternating grip) was HUGELY compensated and might be the reason my right lower back ended up being an injury area.
Soft tissue work, joint mobility drills, and when i return to deadlifting I will be using a double overhand grip or hook grip to remove the compensation.

In recent weeks I have had 4 different clinicians (Chiros, massage therapists) point out that I have the tightest skin/fascia over my lower back that they have ever felt.
Meaning that while in most areas of the body you can pick up and "roll" the skin my lower back skin is adhered to my fascia and my fascia has adhered to everything else...not good.
Reading Anatomy Trains by Myers will be a focus as will a variety of stretches, postures and postions to open this skin and fascial area.
This means that all of the work I have done to open my hips will hopefully allow me to more effectively open the lower back. And that now that my abs are "working" (post hernia surgery) I should be able to balance the abs with the thorocolumbar area as the fascia opens.

The Chicken or the Egg...???
Did my left arm lose supination as a result of my lower back or was it my grip work or some other posture, position or activity or was it always like that?
Was my lower back fascia always this restricted or was it deadlifting or some other posture, position or activity?
Which came first...chicken or egg...and does it matter?

I am where I am and having learned more about myself I will address these areas and move along the path...

Fallingwater

Simply amazing

More tomorrow on the trip and on my back (which is improving steadily)

Better but not 100%...

The back continues to unwind slowly but surely.

Clubs and half kneeling work will continue.

Headed off for some R&R over the weekend - stay at a B&B, in depth tour of Falling Water, hiking (which hopefully will help the back) etc... Temps in the 80's and beautiful weather expected.

pics coming next week of Falling Water - second time there and can't wait.