Quest for RKC-Week 3 and 4 of 16

This past week has been a tough one to stay on track with the Memorial Holiday and all. Overall we are staying on track but hitting some mild speed bumps along the way.

Nikki is killing the snatch numbers but is still tearing up her hands a bit come the 8 minute mark of a 10 minute snatch test. I am still having trouble snatching cleanly on my left side. We both are continually trying to improve our clean and press. Dave Whitley was so gracious as to help us to work on our clean and press this past Memorial Day. Emphasis for us: keep the elbow tight to the body and remember, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE HIPS!

We made it to 3 bootcamps this past week which we were introduced to the rope mixed in with some kettlebell swings. We were able to work up to 3 ladders of 4 rungs each side with the clean and press as well.

All in all a good week, but we have some cleaning up to do. For me, I am going to concentrate on improving my grip strength and hip and shoulder mobility on the L side to help with my snatches.

All and all a good week 3.

Now here's week 4:

Nikki here. We did the 10 min snatch on Monday. I got to 208 with a 16kg which I was pretty excited about. We had bootcamp on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday we worked on the rope again, did some split squats, pushups, things of that nature. Wednesday nights class was pretty fun. We have a new guy in class and Dave was nice enough to let me try to teach him the TGU to gain some experience. I think I did okay and Dave and Mark helped me out and gave me some good feedback. After the TGU's, we did a 5 min snatch test. I had my hands taped up from Mondays snatch test and I kept the tape on...bad idea. I TORE up the side of my hand because it kept rubbing. You live and learn, right?! Haha...I know that I won't be able to tape for RKC but I think I'll be alright. I got to 129 and Mark got 119, so we are feeling pretty good about our snatch numbers. We are taking the weekend off since we've been going hard for quite some time and to give ourselves a little time to recover (and for my hand to heal up!). We'll get back on track come Monday. We did some FMS screening Saturday on ourselves, another RKC hopeful and her husband, a RKC. Next weekend we are doing a core presentation for some high school athletes, so that will be another good teaching experience for us.

We are experimenting with some new recipes from the Precision Nutrition cookbook and we'll get some of those posted up here pretty soon. Off to go eat some right now....

Quest for RKC - Week 2 of 16

Hello everyone out there, hope that the week is treating you well. Nikki and I had a very productive week 2 on our 16 week quest for RKC San Diego. We made it to 3 kettlebell classes this past week. During class we worked on viking push presses, goblet squats, TGU's (Nik did a few rounds with a 20kg and Mark did the majority of his with a 12kg and 24kg at the same time), elevated split squats and some pushups, and of course TONS of swings!

With our at home workouts, we started our Rite of Passage Clean and Press ladders- 3 ladders of 3 rungs with for the heavy day and adjusted for the light and moderate days. Saturday we did a 5min snatch test--both of us hit our numbers. We also did 10 min of double swings (Nik with a 16kg, Mark with a 24kg), 20 sec work, 40 sec rest. We squeezed in a few more similar workouts during the week.

Below is Sunday's workout. We took the Tracy Reifkind , RKC workout and adjusted it some to use 2 kb's to get us prepared for RKC:)

The Double Kettlebell Circuit
(Nik did 2x12kg, Mark did 2x16kg)

Set one:

20 double swings

20 transfers w/1 kettlebell (DARCs)

Set two:

20 double swings
1 transfer 40 times

Set three:

15 double swings
15 transfers

Set Four:

One double swing, 1 double Clean, Press: 10 reps

then 10 transfers

Set Five:

One double swing, 1 double Clean, Press: 10 reps

then transfer10 times

Set Six:

One double swing, one double snatch, 10 reps
then 10 Transfers (DARCs)

Set Seven:

One double swing, one double snatch: 10 reps

Then 10 transfers (DARCs)

Below is Tracy's original workout:

Tracy’s 100-Pound
weight loss
workout routine

The Kettlebell Circuit
(all done with 26# kb)

Set one:
20 swings left, Transfer 20 swings right
20 transfers (DARCs)

Set two:

10 swings left, Transfer
10 swings right
1 swing, one transfer, 40 times

Set three:

One swing, one transfer 30 times

Set Four:

One swing, Clean, Press: 10 reps per
arm then transfer to opposite arm

Set Five:

One swing, Clean, Press: one rep per
arm then transfer10 times
then 10 Transfers (DARCs)

Set Six:

One swing, one snatch, 10 reps per
arm then transfer to opposite arm
then 10 Transfers (DARCs)

Set Seven:

One swing, one snatch per arm then
transfer ten times
Then 10 transfers (DARCs)

My Proud Little Soldier Alex

Alex came to VOI in September of 2008 referred by her MD for physical therapy for tendonitis on both Achilles tendons. She is a Level 7 gymnast and had not participated in gymnastics since July of 2008. Before she stopped due to pain, Alex was practicing an average of 4 hours per day 5-6 days per week.

She was seen by Shane, a licensed physical therapist in VOI and she spent the next 7 weeks working with Shane on getting her inflammation eliminated and was then passed onto myself for a Functional Movement Screen to determine her readiness to return to gymnastics.

I met with Alex and her mother and took her through the functional movement screen. Here were her results: (0=pain, 1=unable to perform, 2=movement performed but with asymmetry, 3=movement performed with required technique)

Test
-Overhead Squat=2

Total Score=0

Pain in R hip

-Hurdle Step L leg over=2
-Hurdle Step R leg over=2

Total score=2

-Inline Lunge L foot forward=0

-Inline Lunge R foot forward=0

Total Score=0

Pain in both knees with movement

-Shoulder mobility, L arm behind
head, R arm behind back=2
-Shoulder mobility R arm up, L
arm behind=3

Total Score=0

due to L Sh pain with clearing test

-Active Straight Leg Raise L=3
-Active Straight Leg Raise R=3

Total Score=3

-Trunk Stability Push Up=3

-Rotary Stability Test L=2
-Rotary Stability Test R=2

Total Score=2

Total Overall Score 7/21

Alex had pain with the squat, lunge, and shoulder mobility. The funny thing was that she had no present pain in either of her Achilles but had hip, knee and shoulder pain during the screen. What was found during the screen was Alex demonstrated that she needed to improve on her thoracic spine mobility as well as her dynamic stability of all her joints.

In plain English, Alex just lost the ability to fire her stabilizing muscles at the correct times when she performed dynamic movements. Thus the load was taken in other areas including her joints and tendons. A rule with the functional movement screen is to work on mobility before stability. So the scores were reviewed with her mother and they both decided to meet with me one time per week for 4-5 weeks and then rescreen. She was asked not to return to gymnastics until she can perform the screen pain free and with no scores of 0 or 1.

Then we performed 4 total 60 minute workout sessions with exercises designed for her to improve on thoracic mobility and then practice using the stabilizers of her hips, trunk and shoulders to work in unison to perform the movement properly and pain free. Every week she was given new “homework” which meant stretches and exercises that would help her to progress to the next level.

Every session came with a quick assessment of her mobility followed by a chat on how her exercises were going and if she had any questions. Her first “aha!” moment came in the second session when she tried to perform a lunge and felt pain in her knees. Then we practiced with a band that required core activation which was pain free. After that set, I asked her to perform the lunge again but to pretend that she was still pulling on the band. Guess what! She had no pain with the movement and her lunge looked much better.

He continued with this aspect over the next few weeks and then had her come in for her follow up FMS in January after the holidays were all done and finished. This is how she scored.

Test

-Overhead Squat=2

Total Score=2 (pain free)

-Hurdle Step L leg over =2
-Hurdle Step R leg over =2

Total Score=2

-Inline Lunge L foot forward =2

-Inline Lunge R foot forward =2

Total score=2 (pain free)

-Shoulder mobility, L arm behind
head, R arm behind back =3
-Shoulder mobility R arm up, L
arm behind =3

Total Score=3

-Active Straight Leg Raise L 3
-Active Straight Leg Raise R 3

Total Score=3

-Trunk Stability Push Up=3

-Rotary Stability Test L =2
-Rotary Stability Test R =2

Total score=2
Total Score 17/21
Not only was she able to move pain free with all tests, but she moved so much better than she did 6 weeks prior. She was now allowed to work back into gymnastics as tolerated and given a final worksheet of things to continually work on to keep her healthy.

I was just recently informed by Alex’s mother that she performed her first meet on 2/28 after 6 months of no gymnastics and finished 4th in the all around, the next two meets in March she finished first in the all around. And finally, at the state meet she won 1st place on floor and vault, third place on bar, ninth place on bean and fifth all around for level 7 in the state of Tennessee! Way to go Alex!

Quest for RKC-Week 1 of 16

Just wanted to let everyone know that it is official. Nikki and I have signed up for the Level 1 Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor Certification on August 28-30th in San Diego, CA. If you are not familiar with Kettlebells or the RKC, click on the links to find out more information.

We decided that we would take the time to shoot some video and pictures of our training every week as we build up for San Diego. Feel welcome to comment on our status and ask questions or if you are training for the RKC yourself, let us know what you are doing. Would love to share training ideas with all of you out there. Here are the Instructor Certification Requirements for RKC Level I.

We are very fortunate enough to have Dave Whitley, Senior RKC instructor working with us 3 times a week at our bootcamp we attend to make sure our technique improves and that we are on the right track for San Diego.

This past week at bootcamp we concentrated on swings (of course) but David threw in some special twists for Nikki, Jay and myself. We worked a lot of double swings this week which gave the swing a interesting twist and really pushed us harder than we expected. Dave also had us perform a 10 minute snatch test this week. Nikki did a wonderful job and got to 200 with a 16kg. I made it to 163. Good start but needs improvement, and I was pretty much smoked by minute 8.

Our training on our own we decided to work towards improving our strength in the press and the turkish get up. We always perform TGU's on Mondays and have decided to perform press ladders 3 rounds of 3 rungs each side with a light weight to see where we are at. We felt very good this past week so we are going to move up in weight and perform the 3 rounds of 3/3 again.

Sports Performance Bootcamp Begins June 1st

Just an FYI for all of you readers in the Nashville area who have teenagers that need to get ready for the upcoming sports seasons. My Senior RKC instructor (Russian Kettlebell Challenge), Dave Whitley, is hosting a Sports Performance Bootcamp this summer.

• 6 week program
• 2 workouts per week
• option of morning (tues & thurs 7am) or afternoon (mon & thurs 4:30pm) workouts (or mix and match)
• program designed to increase strength, power, explosiveness and durability
• includes functional movement screen before and after bootcamp to measure improvement on movement deficiencies

For more information you can check the link I have on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=83196437792 . If you are not a facebook subscriber just email me at sghumanperformance@gmail.com and I can send you a flyer.

To sign up please contact Dave Whitley, Senior RKC at irontamerdave@hotmail.com

Top 10 Marathon/1/2 Marathon Training Mistakes by Core Performance

Great post by the people over at Core Performance about mistakes people make when training for a 1/2 or full marathon. Click the link above or below.

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/play-better/top-10-marathon-training-mistakes.html

Friday morning bootcamp with Dave Whitley.

Warmup always

Circuit for 2 rounds of:
Goblet squat to overhead press
1 arm rows
Rear foot elevated split squat on picnic bench
Burpees!

30 on, 15 off-switch sides if on a single limb exercise.

Next abdominal circuit of: hot potato, thoracic rotation, cherry pickers & prone plank 30on/10off

Last and never least, kettlebell swings: 25on/15off. 6 rounds.

Everyone have a terrific weekend!