Continued - Leg Work
I just did a Meadows style leg session with Rattlehead. We started with hamstring curls, then did front squats, then trap bar deadlifts and finished with lunges. My top set on front squats was 80kg for three and my top set on trap bar deadlift was 140kg for one (I failed twice on 180kg). The front squats were as I expected - decent form and felt clean, but weak. I was more disappointed with the trap bar deadlift - I always secretly hoped I’d be good at these (having never done them before) but that initial pull from the ground was too much for me. The good thing from this session was that I felt robust and injury free - I think S&S has helped me get healthy and move well (if not with much strength lol).
EDIT: I also discussed chalk with Rattlehead to help with my swings and he suggested liquid chalk, so I’ve gone ahead and ordered a couple of bottles. Hopefully that will make a big difference without making too much of a mess in my living room.
I see you mentioned Ido Portal in another thread. I have had a brief look at some of his videos at his style of training (or should I say “moving”). I like his philosophy and his results. Have you looked at his methods in training any detail? I would like to incorporate some of his style into my training although I have no idea where I would start.
Yeah I’m not too disappointed, it’s just I feel like I’ve been getting stronger and seeing as the deadlift is a relatively non-technical lift I was hoping to see some carryover. No matter.
I’m really interested in Ido Portal’s philosophies and methods, but like you I really don’t know where to begin! His videos just seem to show glimpses: I can never find his clear basic principles. Did you see his interview that I posted on here? It was long but worth a watch.
I’ve just taken today as rest day - my legs are fried from yesterday and I still don’t feel 100% anyway.
[quote]furo wrote:
I’m really interested in Ido Portal’s philosophies and methods, but like you I really don’t know where to begin! His videos just seem to show glimpses: I can never find his clear basic principles. Did you see his interview that I posted on here? It was long but worth a watch.
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Im watching that video now.
I suppose learning the basic gymnastic like moves such as handstands etc would be a good place to start.
[quote]furo wrote:
I’m really interested in Ido Portal’s philosophies and methods, but like you I really don’t know where to begin! His videos just seem to show glimpses: I can never find his clear basic principles. Did you see his interview that I posted on here? It was long but worth a watch.
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Im watching that video now.
I suppose learning the basic gymnastic like moves such as handstands etc would be a good place to start.
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Yeah it definitely seems like the majority of his work is based in gymnastics. I’d love it if he came out with an ebook where he detailed his entire philosophy but from the interview video that doesn’t seem likely.
I was meant to do Turkish get-ups today but my quads are still destroyed from the session on Sunday, so I decided to do some get-up sit-ups and 5x10 swings (my liquid chalk arrived so I was keen to try it out). The get-ups were ok, but on the first set of swings I really tweaked something in my upper back. It’s my left lat, at it’s insertion to the humerus, it doesn’t feel good at all. I definitely need to warm up in the future. The good news is that the chalk seemed to make a big difference.
EDIT: I’ve just done a quick pump session. I’m not sure it’s founded in any scientific basis but I feel like it aids recovery. At the very least it allows me to do something without impeding recovery.
Kettlebell Rows (One-Arm)
20kg: 3x10
Bodyweight Squats
BW: 3x20
Kettlebell Rows (Both Arms)
20kg: 3x10
All with only a couple of seconds of rest. Hopefully I’ll feel good to hit 5x1 on get-ups tomorrow.
I’m really happy with how today went, except I ignored my own advice from yesterday and didn’t warm up and slightly tweaked my right knee. I don’t know why I’ve become so lazy with warming up, I think all I really need to do is some goblet squats on TGU day and some light swings on swing day. My lat feels quite a bit better, I think the pump work helped.
[quote]csulli wrote:
40kg is actually a pretty darn heavy TGU isn’t it? Seems like it to me at least lol[/quote]
It is. I’m pretty impressed. And a 24kg TGU isn’t exactly easy.
Thank you very much Chris and LoRez. I’m not really sure what is a good standard for TGUs, not many people seem to do them. I’m sure if they were more common the vast majority of guys on here would outdo me. I’ve got my sights set on 48kg for the moment, as that will be near enough half bodyweight, but I’d like to see how far I can go.
Swing Day
One-Arm Swings
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 5x10 The chalk works wonders on these.
Kettlebell Rows
40kg: 3x5
My left lat and right knee are still a little bit off, but overall I feel good :).
EDIT: I also did 10min of stretching including a 5min squat hold. I’ve worked up to a 10min squat hold in the past, but I’m not sure of the benefit of doing it for so long. I can’t see why 5min wouldn’t be just as effective.
Also I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy light pump training and how much better it makes me feel. I wonder if it would be a good idea to incorporate it into every training session for warming up/hypertrophy. E.g. push-ups and goblets squats (high reps, low rest) before my get-ups and rows and goblet squats before my swings. I don’t know if it would detract from the strength component or not. I’m thinking of it kind of like a Meadows-type session. Prefatiguing with light weights and safe(r) exercises before the main lift. I dunno.
[quote]furo wrote:
Also I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy light pump training and how much better it makes me feel. I wonder if it would be a good idea to incorporate it into every training session for warming up/hypertrophy. E.g. push-ups and goblets squats (high reps, low rest) before my get-ups and rows and goblet squats before my swings. I don’t know if it would detract from the strength component or not. I’m thinking of it kind of like a Meadows-type session. Prefatiguing with light weights and safe(r) exercises before the main lift. I dunno. [/quote]
To be honest, I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to come up with this, lol. I can’t imagine just picking up a 40 kg bell and swinging it without a few warmups of some kind.
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
To be honest, I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to come up with this, lol. I can’t imagine just picking up a 40 kg bell and swinging it without a few warmups of some kind.
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Lol! Yeah I used to consistently do the prescribed S&S warm-up (just 3 sets of 5 goblet squats, haloes and hip thrusts) and that worked fine but then I stopped doing it lol.
I think instead doing actual pump work (5x10-20) will make it seem more productive and I’ll stick with it, and it should also warm me up more thoroughly. The only downside I can see is it not allowing me to go as hard on the “main” lift, especially with the swings as they are explosive.
I’d have thought 10-15min of pump work, 10min rest, then 20-30min of main lift work would be a decent way to structure it. Any ideas?
[quote]furo wrote:
I’d have thought 10-15min of pump work, 10min rest, then 20-30min of main lift work would be a decent way to structure it. Any ideas?
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That seems like a long time to rest between the warmup and heavy strength work (almost to the point that it defeats the purpose of “warming up” with pump work). If you’re worried about the pump work wearing you out, another option would be just a few sets of easy pump work before the lift, then a few sets after where you push the reps a bit more. You have a 20kg bell, 24kg, 28kg, and 40kg, right?
What if you did…
5 goblet squats with the 20kg
5 goblet squats with the 24kg
5 goblet squats with the 28kg
5x10 heavy swings
5x1 heavy TGU’s
and then a couple sets of 10-15 goblet squats with whatever bell you feel like (28/24/20) afterwards. Likewise, the upper body day could be something like this…
10 pushups
5 rows per hand with the 20kg
10 pushups
5 rows per hand with the 24kg
10 pushups
5 rows per hand with the 28kg
5x5 heavy rows with your 40kg
and then a few sets of 10-15 rows with the lighter bells and some higher-rep sets of pushups.
Yeah that looks good ActivitiesGuy, but that’s not quite the pre-main lift volume I was thinking of - that’s more like a straight warm-up rather than a pump session. What you’ve written looks like a really solid plan but I’m not sure it would really pre-fatigue me.
I know prefatiguing before a kettlebell workout is pretty unheard of, but I think it would be good for a couple of reasons: it would allow me to warm-up thoroughly (and in a way I’d enjoy), it will make the 40kg main lift harder (so it will be longer before I have to fork out for a 48kg) and it will add in a nice amount of volume (for hypertrophy/size maintenance). The only thing I really have to be careful of is not pre-fatiguing the lower back which I imagine could increase the risk of injury.
I think the only real way to do this will be to try a few different options and see which feels best. I think I’ll try my idea first (but not rest for a full ten minutes - good point). I guess it will just be a matter of balancing the volume - enough to get a bit pre-fatigued in the right places but not so much that it really detracts from the main lift.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Just wondering how long do your workouts take to complete?
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They take a decent amount of time. 5-10min warm-up (if I do it) 25-30min on main lift (need to take long rests and both main exercises are unilateral, so take longer). Then 10min on rows if I’m doing them and 15min stretching. So anywhere from 30-60min usually. I can’t really handle doing longer than that, I lose focus quickly.
Rest day again today. This workload is a joke. Meant to be in 9am-7:30pm but didn’t get away until after 11pm, and didn’t eat dinner until I got home. Same again tomorrow.
[quote]furo wrote:
Rest day again today. This workload is a joke. Meant to be in 9am-7:30pm but didn’t get away until after 11pm, and didn’t eat dinner until I got home. Same again tomorrow. [/quote]
Is it possible to take some protein powder to work?
[quote]furo wrote:
Rest day again today. This workload is a joke. Meant to be in 9am-7:30pm but didn’t get away until after 11pm, and didn’t eat dinner until I got home. Same again tomorrow. [/quote]
Is it possible to take some protein powder to work?
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I probably could. It’s not so much the food that bothers me - it’s just being too wiped to train. Yesterday was even worse - I didn’t leave until gone midnight. Today I’m off though.