[quote]theBird wrote:
Nice list.
I’ll add do it.
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Take your fish oil daily.
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Don’t sit too much
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Good points! I’m pretty good for not spending much time sitting, but I definitely need to consistently take my fish oil :).
Rite of Passage Week 4 Day 3
Warm-Up
Goblet squats and light presses
Clean and Press
28kg: (1)x5
Nice easy rep scheme this time :).
One-Arm Swing
40kg: 1x10
Felt pretty good.
Crunches (max in 2min)
BW: 40
I didn’t realise that these were going badly until the timer went off lol.
Today’s article on the TGU was interesting, maybe I should add them back in at some point.
I just read an article on dragondoor that seems to take a direct swipe at Pavel’s Simple and Sinister. The premise is that doing nothing but swings and get-ups is too minimalistic and doesn’t cover the basic movement patterns. The alternative it suggested was: kettlebell swing (lower pull), reverse lunge (lower push), kettlebell row (upper pull) and Turkish get-up (upper push). Spookily close to home, and offered the TGU as an upper push option (which is what I was considering earlier when I said a back-up would be isometric holds). I’ll finish this block of RoP and then maybe switch to that. We’ll see.
Rest Days
I’ve got a fair bit of quad DOMS today, so I think I’ll take today as a rest day and start week 5 early on Friday :).
Happy thanksgiving to all involved!
I ended up doing some mobility work and got a sudden urge to try a 40kg TGU (definitely inspired by the recent articles). I did one on each arm and it felt great. I actually felt like my quad was firing better in the lunge, if that makes sense. My lunge technique just felt so much more solid. Obviously it is far too soon for the lunging to have lead to genuine strength gains but I think that practicing them has reinforced a correct movement pattern. It does seem a shame to completely drop this exercise when I have had such success with it.
I also did a bunch of light rows because my left wrist was a little sore and I wanted to pump blood into it. I gripped the KB as hard as I could and I feel a lot better now.
I’ve been thinking more about the Dragon Door article I mentioned above. I think it would be pretty great to split my days into push (lunge, TGU) and pull (swing, row). I would ramp the lower body exercise then probably do straight sets with the upper body exercise.
I know it’s not conventional strength, but I think you’d be pretty strong if you could do that comfortably with a 48kg KB.
Rite of Passage Week 5 Day 1
Warm-Up
Goblet squats and light presses
Clean and Press
28kg: (1,2,3,4)x5
The presses didn’t feel much harder than they did last week, which is good. I had a bit of nagging shoulder pain but I think it is more pec tightness than actual joint pain.
One-Arm Swings
40kg: 1x10
Felt fine.
Crunches (max in 2min)
BW: 55
I’m pretty much 100% certain I’m going to switch to the push/pull split I mentioned above, but I feel that there is benefit in finishing off this 6-week cycle of RoP. At the very least I’ll learn something from it, even if I don’t see much carry-over.
To put it clearly my new routine will look like this:
[b] Push Day
- Warm-Up [/b] Goblet squats and light presses
- Reverse Lunges - ramp up to top weight x10-20
- Turkish Get-Up - 5x1 (straight sets)
- Band Pull-Aparts
[b] Pull Day
- Warm-Up [/b] Goblet squats and light rows
- One-Arm Swings - ramp up to top weight x10
- Kettlebell Row - 5x5 (straight sets)
- Band Pull-Aparts
My goal is to be able to comfortably do the above sessions with 40kg (which I think I’m close to currently) and then gradually progress to using the 48kg. I think that this will be an excellent time to put strength training on the backburner and really focus on fat loss and cardio. For the first time since switching to kettlebell training I finally feel like this routine involves enough heavy weight for me to commit to fat loss without risking muscle catabolism. It seems to cover all movements, and, importantly, it seems to do so with a heavy weight.
Variety Day
Warm-Up
Goblet Squats
Reverse Lunges
10kg: 10
28kg: 10
40kg: 3x10
Pretty happy with how I’ve progressed from 5x5 to 3x10, but I’ll deliberately stick with 3x10 for a while to really solidify it as technique and balance isn’t perfect.
Kettlebell Row
40kg: 5x5
These felt harder than usual, but I got them done.
Band Pull-Aparts
Blue Bands: 4x25
Overall a pretty good session :).
Active Recovery/Pump Day
Warm-Up
Goblet squats and light presses
Clean and Press
28kg: 1,2,3
Hit a wall pretty quickly. My body feels really tight so I’ve switched to a pump day.
Kettlebell Row
10kg: 4x25
Kettlebell Curl
10kg: 4x25
Front Raise
10kg: 4x25
Kettlebell Chest Press
10kg: 1x100
Box Squat
BW: 15-15
Bodyweight Reverse Hypers
BW: 4x25
This was a fun session, and I feel a lot better now. I think a good idea for my future routine might be to do a 3 day split - push/pull/upper. I like the idea of adding in a fun upper body gym day, probably involving lots of pump work :).
Cutting Block
Ok so it’s time for a big overhaul in my training and diet. Not that big…it’s not like I’m going to start training with barbells lol…just time for a change of focus. Over the next several months my primary goal is going to be fat-loss. My training is going to broadly consist of the push-pull split I’ve outlined above and my diet is going to be 2,300kcal split 40-40-20 over three even meals (75p-75c-16f). In addition to this I will start doing some morning cardio but this will be less strict - the main focus is nutrition and maintaining strength with the 40kg kettlebell.
I’ll post up my session from tonight shortly (push) and then post up my “before” progress pictures and a little more detail on the diet and routine. Rattlehead has kindly helped me set this all up and I’m excited to see where it will take me!
Cutting Week 1 - Push Day
Warm-Up
Goblet squats
Reverse Lunge
10kg: 2x10
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 3x10
Turkish Get-Up
40kg: 3x1
Push-Up/Mountain-Climber/Crunch Circuit
BW: 5x10/10/10
This felt fine, although my damn knees and hips are giving me problems already. I didn’t do the lunge portion of the get-ups as it felt pretty redundant and I feel like starting from the concentric is less kind on joints. I’m always going to base each session on two “strength” lifts, but I’m undecided on how I’ll structure my accessories. This time I decided to try out doing them as a circuit.
[quote]furo wrote:
Kettlebell Curl
10kg: 4x25
Front Raise
10kg: 4x25
Kettlebell Chest Press
10kg: 1x100
[/quote]
"Bro"ing out the Kettlebell!! Nice! I’ve sort of been in limbo lately with my kettlebell work. Will be interested in seeing what you come up with.
[quote]furo wrote:
Cutting Block
Ok so it’s time for a big overhaul in my training and diet. Not that big…it’s not like I’m going to start training with barbells lol…just time for a change of focus. Over the next several months my primary goal is going to be fat-loss.[/quote]
I remember you saying something similar to this before. Do you have a handle on why your previous efforts fizzled out? I really just mean that as “why didn’t things work before, and what are you doing differently this time”.
How is he doing? It’s good to hear you’ll be working together, and I have a lot of confidence that you’ll be successful.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
I remember you saying something similar to this before. Do you have a handle on why your previous efforts fizzled out? I really just mean that as “why didn’t things work before, and what are you doing differently this time”.[/quote]
I’ve mentioned it many times and haven’t followed through because of a combination of laziness and thinking I’d lose muscle mass without using heavy weights. This time I feel like I’ve fixed the heavy weights issue, so it’s just the laziness to conquer. I think the added accountability of announcing it in my log and working with Rattlehead will also help me stay on track.
I have successfully cut before - I dropped from 100kg to 94kg just before starting this log and I’ve kept the majority of that fat off (hanging around 96kg). So it’s not like I’m all talk and no action (although more action is definitely needed!).
[quote]LoRez wrote:
How is he doing? It’s good to hear you’ll be working together, and I have a lot of confidence that you’ll be successful.[/quote]
He’s doing very well. Thanks a lot bud :).
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
"Bro"ing out the Kettlebell!! Nice! I’ve sort of been in limbo lately with my kettlebell work. Will be interested in seeing what you come up with.
[/quote]
Lol I love breaking up the monotony by doing sessions like this 
Starting Point
Arms: 15.2"
Thighs: 25.5"
Bodyweight: approx 96.5kg (212lbs)
These are three pictures of me from Sunday - all cold and completely unflexed. Pretty unflattering.
Routine isn’t fully finalised, and is subject to change. The basic idea is 3 basic days per week (push/pull/upper OR push/pull/whole body OR push/pull/power) with additional days depending on energy/free time.
Diet is as outlined above: 2,300kcal split between 3 meals. I will continue to do intermittent fasting.
[quote]furo wrote:
Diet is as outlined above: 2,300kcal split between 3 meals. I will continue to do intermittent fasting.
[/quote]
2,300 kcal is low IMO.
Do you feel hungry?
What time is you eating window?
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[quote]theBird wrote:
2,300 kcal is low IMO.
Do you feel hungry?
What time is you eating window?
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I’m pretty confident it’ll be fine - we got it from a Romaniello formula. And it’s not like I’m hugely active.
I don’t feel hungry, I feel good so far.
My window is pretty much midday - 9pm.
Cutting Week 1 Pull Day
Wam-Up
Goblet squats
One-Arm Swings
40kg: 3x10
Kettlebell Rows
40kg: 5x5
Band Pull-Aparts
Blue Band: 4x25
Kettlebell SLDLs
40kg: 2x30
[i] I’ve never tried these before but they felt awesome, I can definitely see them becoming a staple. They hit all of the same muscles as the swings but in a completely different way. I’d like to build up to sets of 50. As well as hypertrophy benefits I think they’d also help condition against the shearing forces in deadlifts (because swings really don’t hit the lower back in the exact same way).
Concentration Curls
10kg: 3x10
The swings and rows felt a little off initially but improved after the first set, once I found my rhythm. Overall this was a good session. Yesterday I stuck to the diet. Today I’m going out for dinner but I cut all of my carbs out of my second meal and some fats so I have 75g protein, 150g carbs and 24g fat to play with. I’m confident I can stick to that.
I think the real turning point for me was when I realized I could actually get stronger while losing weight.
Even though I knew it could be done, it wasn’t until I actually did it that I understood it.
I don’t know where these thoughts came from, but I really thought I’d lose strength, or at best, maintain it. I also had this idea that you had to do a lot of metabolically challenging work (intense cardio, circuits, complexes) in order to lose fat.
But in the end, it pretty much just came down to diet and strength training. I did do my 20m of incline walking every day or so too, which may have helped. With diet, it was just “maintain a calorie deficit”, “get enough protein” and “drink a lot of water”. I didn’t do anything as far as meal timing or fasting.
The details of it were actually pretty simple.
How often are you planning on measuring your weight? I think if you’re measuring your calories every day, it’s useful to measure your weight every day. There’s going to be daily fluctuations, but I found a 5 day window worked pretty well. A trendline plotted over my weight for the last 5 days should be downward, with a slope of around .2 lbs a day. With that information, I could say “if I average 2300 calories a day, I lose at a rate of 1.5 lbs a week” or “if I average 2000 calories, I lose at a rate of 2.2 lbs a week” or whatever.
I don’t know how quantitative you want to be, but you may be interested in getting an idea of exactly how many calories it takes to produce a certain result in your bodyweight.
It’s certainly encouraging that you gained strength while cutting, thanks! I followed your cut closely. How many calories were you on again? Losing strength is definitely playing on my mind. I plan on weighing myself every day and making a chart - the only reason I’m not at the moment is because my scale battery has died. The more data the better :). My plan is just to do this as gradually as possible and see it is a general change in my nutrition rather than a 6 week intense cut or whatever. I’ll stick with the current plan as long as possible and then cut back some more carbs, but I’m more than willing to give it as long as it takes. I’m definitely thinking in terms of months rather than weeks.