Month: October 2012

New Strength Program: Kettlebells & Barbells

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Out of necessity, I greatly reduced my strength training as I was preparing for the marathon. As the stress of running went up, the stress of lifting had to go down. It was a bit tough to give up the weights, but it had to be done. Now I’m back to lifting and I’m loving it. It’s definitely refreshing to let the pendulum swing from the endurance end of the spectrum back to the strength & power end.  My main goals are to see my numbers go up in the clean, press, deadlift, and squat.

I’m a big fan of both kettlebells and barbells. They’re quite different implements but both are very enjoyable to use. Used correctly, both tools can make you big, strong, and powerful. My current workout comes from RKC Mike Mahler and it’s called the Kettlebell and Barbell Solution for Size and Strength Part II. (Part I can be found here.  I had to choose one.  I picked Part II.) It’s a 4x/week workout with two days on/one day off/two days on/two days off.  I like the workout 1) because I get to lift most days of the week and 2) because I get to use kettlebells and barbells in all workouts.

Each workout has one or two of the big lifts (squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift) as the focus with other supplemental lifts included such as pull-ups, renegade rows, bent barbell rows, kettlebell swings and snatches, and core exercises such as the Turkish get-up, hanging leg raises, and windmills. I’ve modified the workout slightly to include barbell cleans, barbell presses, a one-arm dumbbell press, and pistol squats. Ballistic exercises like the kettlebell snatch and swings come at the front of the workout. The ballistic exercises help fire up the nervous system. The big-bang exercises come next, followed by pulling exercises, core exercises, and a finishing metabolic exercises that gets the heart rate up. I plan to cycle various exercises in and out over the course of several four-week blocks.

The scheme

The volume/intensity scheme is a version of Wendler’s 5-3-1 program. In essence, it looks like this: Each workout is centered around one core lift: squat, bench press, deadlift, and standing shoulder press. Each training cycle lasts four weeks, with these set-rep goals for each major lift:

Week 1: 3 x 5
Week2: 3×3
Week 3: 1×5, 1×3, 1×1
Week 4: deload

Then you start the next cycle, using heavier weights on the core lifts. Again, the Mahler program is a variation of this, and I’ve modified it further. Here’s my version:

Monday:

  • Double kettlebell swing: 5×5
  • Barbell deadlift: 2×5, 3×3, 6×1
  • Barbell overhead press: 3×5, 3×3, 5-3-1
  • Kettlebell Renegade Row: 3×6+ I’ll add weight once I get 10 reps on each side.
  • Kettlebell swings: 3×15, one- and/or two-arm swings. I’ve also used the rower.

Tuesday:

  • One-arm kettlebell snatch: 2-3×5-10 each side
  • Barbell cleans: 3×3, 5×2, 6×1
  • Pull-ups: 3×5. I’ll add weight once I get eight reps on the final set. (I’m bad at pull-ups. The cost of being tall….)
  • Bench Press: as per the 5-3-1 program
  • Kettlebell windmill: 3×5
  • Kettlebell front squat: 3×8+ I’m keeping this somewhat light.
  • Kettlebell swings 3×15 or farmer’s walks.

Wednesday: Off

Thursday:

  • Double kettlebell snatch: 3-5×5
  • Barbell hang clean: 3×3, 5×2
  • Back squat: as per the 5-3-1 program
  • One-arm dumbbell press: as per the 5-3-1 program. I clean the dumbbell from the ground and then press all my reps.
  • Barbell bent-over row: as per the 5-3-1 program, except I don’t do a 1-rep max in the 3rd week.
  • Hanging leg raise: 3×5. Mahler’s workout calls for 3×10 but I’m not up to 10 reps yet.
  • One-arm kettlebell swings, rower or farmer’s walks

Friday:

  • Double kettlebell swings: 5×5
  • Barbell cleans: lighter than Thursday
  • Barbell floor press: as per the 5-3-1 program
  • Weighted pull-ups: 3×3
  • Kettlebell Turkish get-up: 3×3. These are really tough at this point in the workout.
  • Pistol squats: 3×3, 2 or 1 depending how I’m feeling.
  • Kettlebell swings: I’m often smoked by this point so I may only do 1×10 or I may go as high as 3×15-20

Saturday/Sunday: Off

Observations

I’m on my third week of the program. I’ve made good progress. I think that since I was away from lifting for several weeks I have a lot of room to move forward. Plus, I’m eating more and I’ve recently started taking creatine which I haven’t used in a while. All of this should contribute to some decent increases in size and strength.

During the workouts I keep a mind to staying within my limitations.  I don’t need to push to the red line during these workouts.  I’ve written here and here about the risks of going too hard too often.  I intend to work hard but I’ll stop well before the failure point.

I intend to cycle exercises in and out as this program moves along.  I’m not sure when I’ll change them out though. Since I’m hitting most of these exercises only once per week that should mean I’ll be able to stick with them for a while.  I know I need to change exercises when I start to plateau on a particular exercise.  Likely substitutions are as follows:

  • Barbell snatch for barbell clean
  • Front squat for back squat
  • Good morning for deadlift
  • Weighted dips for bench press and floor press
  • Push press for barbell press

Depending on how things go and how I’m feeling, I may focus more closely on the deadlift.  I still want to pull 500 lbs. some day.  Maybe that day is sooner than I know.

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Kettlebell & Barbell Workout

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My Current Workout Scheme

Out of necessity, I greatly reduced my strength training as I was preparing for the marathon. As the stress of running went up, the stress of lifting had to go down. It was a bit tough to give up the weights, but it had to be done. Now I’m back to lifting and I’m loving it. It’s definitely refreshing to let the pendulum swing from the endurance end of the spectrum back to the strength & power end.

I’m a big fan of both kettlebells and barbells. They’re quite different implements but both are very enjoyable to use. Used correctly, both tools can make you big, strong, and powerful. My current workout comes from RKC Mike Mahler and it’s called the Kettlebell and Barbell Solution for Size and Strength Part II. (Part I can be found here. I had to choose one. I picked Part II.) It’s a 4x/week workout with two days on/one day off/two days on/two days off. I like the workout 1) because I get to lift most days of the week and 2) because I get to use kettlebells and barbells in all workouts.

Each workout has one or two of the big lifts (squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift) as the focus with other supplemental lifts included such as pull-ups, renegade rows, bent barbell rows, kettlebell swings and snatches, and core exercises such as the Turkish get-up, hanging leg raises, and windmills. I’ve modified the workout slightly to include barbell cleans, barbell presses, a one-arm dumbbell press, and pistol squats. Ballistic exercises like the kettlebell snatch and swings come at the front of the workout. The ballistic exercises help fire up the nervous system. The big-bang exercises come next, followed by pulling exercises, core exercises, and a finishing metabolic exercises that gets the heart rate up. I plan to cycle various exercises in and out over the course of several four-week blocks.

The scheme

The volume/intensity scheme is a version of Wendler’s 5-3-1 program. In essence, it looks like this: Each workout is centered around one core lift: squat, bench press, deadlift, and standing shoulder press. Each training cycle lasts four weeks, with these set-rep goals for each major lift:

Week 1: 3 x 5

Week 2: 3 x 3

Week 3: 3 x 5, 3, 1

Week 4: deloading

Then you start the next cycle, using heavier weights on the core lifts. Again, the Mahler program is a variation of this, and I’ve modified it further. Here’s my version:

Monday:

Double kettlebell swing: 5×5

Barbell deadlift: 2×5, 3×3, 6×1

Barbell overhead press: 3×5, 3×3, 5-3-1

Kettlebell Renegade Row: 3×6+ I’ll add weight once I get 10 reps on each side

Kettlebell swings: 3×15, one- and/or two-arm swings. I’ve also used the rower.

Tuesday:

One-arm kettlebell snatch: 2-3×5-10 each side

Barbell cleans: 3×3, 5×2, 6×1

Pull-ups: 3×5. I’ll add weight once I get eight reps on the final set. (I’m bad at pull-ups. The cost of being tall….)

Bench Press: as per the 5-3-1 program

Kettlebell windmill: 3×5

Kettlebell front squat: 3×8+ I’m keeping this somewhat light.

Kettlebell swings 3×15 or farmer’s walks.

Wednesday: Off

Thursday:

Double kettlebell snatch: 3-5×5

Barbell hang clean: 3×3, 5×2

Back squat: as per the 5-3-1 program

One-arm dumbbell press: as per the 5-3-1 program. I clean the dumbbell from the ground and then press all my reps.

Barbell bent-over row: as per the 5-3-1 program, except I don’t do a 1-rep max in the 3rd week.

Hanging leg raise: 3×5. Mahler’s workout calls for 3×10 but I’m not up to 10 reps yet.

One-arm kettlebell swings, rower or farmer’s walks

Friday:

Double kettlebell swings: 5×5

Barbell cleans: lighter than Thursday

Barbell floor press: as per the 5-3-1 program

Weighted pull-ups: 3×3

Kettlebell Turkish get-up: 3×3. These are really tough at this point in the workout.

Pistol squats: 3×3, 2 or 1 depending how I’m feeling.

Kettlebell swings: I’m often smoked by this point so I may only do 1×10 or I may go as high as 3×15-20

Saturday/Sunday: Off

Observations

I’m on my third week of the program. I’ve made good progress. I think that since I was away from lifting for several weeks I have a lot of room to move forward. Plus, I’m eating more and I’ve recently started taking creatine which I haven’t used in a while. All of this should contribute to some decent increases in size and strength.


 

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Sitting is Hazardous to Your Health

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The research showed that those who sat for long periods of time have a higher chance in their risk of diabetes, heart-disease and death.
–Diabetes Research Group, University of Leicester

It’s been suggested that you sit too much. New research from the University of Leicester backs up this claim. (By the way, there are several other studies showing the same thing.  Look here, here, here.) The study combines the results of 18 different studies and includes nearly 800,000 participants. Here are the important details.  Emphasis is mine:

“The research showed that those who sat for long periods of time have a higher chance in their risk of diabetes, heart-disease and death.  Interestingly, the results were independent of any individual physical exercise undertaken, suggesting that even if an individual meets the physical activity guidelines, their health may still be at risk if they sit for long periods of time during the day.”

I find this fascinating. You’re putting yourself at risk of death if you sit too much–even if you’re highly physically active. So in this way, sitting is like smoking. We can’t seem to out-exercise our sitting habit. So what do we do?  We need to move a little.  Researchers suggest we take frequent breaks from sitting and go move around.

It’s often easy to sit at your desk for hours on end and not even know it.  We need to be reminded to move. So here’s an idea: Set a recurring meeting on your computer’s calendar.  Make it every half-hour or hour. Label it “Get up and move around.”  Otherwise, try this series of spine mobility drills. (Because it’s not just sitting per se that’s so bad, but lack of movement that’s the problem.  You can still move while sitting at your desk.)

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Good Reads: Rethinking Sleep, A Look At “Hardcore” Workouts

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Two recent articles have caught my attention.  One comes from the New York Times; the other is a two-part piece from a blog called Fit For Real Life.  The Times article presents some new concepts on our sleep patterns.  The blog post gives a good insight on workout intensity and why more doesn’t always equal better.

Sleep

“It seemed that, given a chance to be free of modern life, the body would naturally settle into a split sleep schedule. “

I’m a big fan of sleep.  I’ve mentioned here and here that lack of sleep is tied to various ailments such as obesity and obesity-related issues like diabetes.  As I’ve always understood it, most adults need 8-9 hours of sleep a night.  (I also understand it that a small part of the adult population actually thrives on five or fewer hours of sleep per night.  I wish that were me.)  The NY Times article Rethinking Sleep has me… rethinking sleep.

The article describes the American view of bedtime and sleep and contrasts that with other cultures’ take on the same thing::

“Typically, mention of our ever increasing sleeplessness is followed by calls for earlier bedtimes and a longer night’s sleep. But this directive may be part of the problem. Rather than helping us to get more rest, the tyranny of the eight-hour block reinforces a narrow conception of sleep and how we should approach it. Some of the time we spend tossing and turning may even result from misconceptions about sleep and our bodily needs: in fact neither our bodies nor our brains are built for the roughly one-third of our lives that we spend in bed.

The idea that we should sleep in eight-hour chunks is relatively recent. The world’s population sleeps in various and surprising ways. Millions of Chinese workers continue to put their heads on their desks for a nap of an hour or so after lunch, for example, and daytime napping is common from India to Spain.”

The article goes on to cite historical variations on sleep including a mention in the Canterbury Tales of going back to sleep after her “firste sleepe.”  Further, physicians from the 16th century mention “first sleep” and “second sleep.”  Research from the NIH supports the concept that divided sleep patterns may naturally occur during the night.

Deep sleep or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is discussed.  This is the most valuable sleep time during which our brains are highly active.  REM sleep aids cognitive function, helping us solve problems and perform at a mentally high level.  The benefits of REM sleep can be derived from any type of sleeping pattern, not just from eight straight hours of sleep.  Research suggests that brief naps can be quite useful.

The article concludes with a discussion of workplace napping.  Though napping at work isn’t allowed for most of us, the concept may be gaining traction at some places such as Google. The Army is also experimenting with the concept for soldiers who need to be ready to fight around the clocks.  Strategic naps may be essential to keep them ready for war.  The Texas Rangers baseball team has also prioritized sleep and napping for its players.

I can say from my own experience that napping during the day is way more than a luxury.  Since I’m a personal trainer I tend to be able to nap on most days of the week.  I believe it’s absolutely essential for my mental state and my overall health.  I couldn’t imagine taking another job that didn’t allow for it.  The pay would have to be MUCH higher, and I imagine I’d hate life a little for it.

“Hardcore” Workouts

“There is a finite amount of quality movement before the movement pattern breaks down, eventually degrading enough that your body is at risk for a variety of issues, including injury, if it continues.”

I found this two-parter on Twitter and I really like what the writer has to say. Her words echo my observations of many a gym member’s exercise routines and many a personal trainer’s training strategies–namely “more/harder is better.” Any idiot can exercise–or push someone else to exercise–until he or she vomits, passes out, or collapses. Easy! Swing a 24 kg kettlebell 800 times in an hour then do 100 pushups.  Run 20 x 400 m all-out sprints with one minute rest between sprints. Add more weight. Go faster. There is a better way to work out.

The articles do a very good job of explaining what happens as we fatigue, namely we don’t move as well.  We collapse at the feet, knees, hips, spine…  We set ourselves up for needless wear, tear, and injury. It’s a very good read and here are the links:

“It’s a dangerous thing to think that harder/more is better. It’s not. In fact, it’s likely what limits the long-term fitness success of many. And, when used incorrectly (as I see far too often)- it’s the fast-track to injury.”  The Poison Is In the Dose: A Look At “Hard-core” Workouts”

“So what if your movement patterns are dysfunctional? Fix them. Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. If something isn’t working don’t continue doing it: that only teaches dysfunction & permanent faulty movement patterns.”  Where There’s Smoke, Don’t Fan the Fire: Continuing Our Look at “Hard-Core Workouts”

 


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