Recovery is Key

Just looking over the last post about getting older and it's kinda funny. I'm on Day 2 of a lay-around-on-my-butt "recovery" after six days straight of PT this week.

Decided to hit the Art of Strength Kettlebell DVD in it's entirety on Sunday since Monday would "just" be a trail run. Well, I barely made it through that video. It's 14 different Kb exercises done for two minutes so I wasn't using heavy weight (12kg) but it was a smoker. Had to take a little longer than the one-minute rest in the video a few times. But I got through it and felt really great.

Monday was staff PT with everyone at work so we went to a local park for some off-road trail running. 45 minutes later, I had taken as easy a pace as I could and still felt pretty good. Butt after sitting at my desk all day, I started to feel the Kb workout in my glutes and the hilly long run smoked my legs with all the downhills. Tuesday was my day to torture everyone and I was going to use the Australian 20-meter "beep test" to do it. Luckily, my mp3 wasn't working so I pulled the frisbee out of the trunk and we played a pretty long game of ultimate. Lots of sprinting later, I was pretty much spent. Wednesday was a refresher day of Combatives so it was pretty low intensity.

Wow, make that Day 3 of recovery after 5 days working out because Thursday was Friday. (4-day Memorial Day weekend thank goodness). So for Thursday's workout, we hit some more ultimate since it's my favorite sport-like activity. Unfortunately, as I was setting up a smaller workout on a local soccer field, a group of regulars showed up for their weekly ultimate game and challenged us to a contest. After Tuesdays ugliness, we should have inter-mixed with them but we didn't. Big mistake. Even though we had three subs and they all played the whole game, they beat our butts. But we got in another smoker running workout. Luckily, the boss decided that was enough organized PT and we get to PT on our own the next two weeks (except for Fridays rematches of ultimate frisbee).

The only problem with all that running last week, it makes me uncommonly hungry and any gains I would have made we squashed by my over-indulgence. Burgers, fries, tater tots, biscuits and gravy, and anything else I could stuff my face have left me feeling doubly-worse for my efforts.

I am going to start researching what vegetarians eat. My body could definately use a break from all the garbage...

I did start using a "Strossburg" sock to see if that will help my planter fascitis. I'll keep ya posted to see how that goes. Nothing like rehabing an injury while continuing to run. Dumb, I know. HOOAH as we say in the Army. Means, "damn, that was dumb".

Sorry for the rant, but I felt bad for not writing consistently or with anything useable, but it was a long week at work and we did more fun working out that really killer PT.

I think I will use that theme when I retire and start this fitness thing up for real. "Fun Fitness", taking the "work" out of workout and making your fitness experience FUN. Something like that to attract and retain clients. Very similar to the CrossFit philosophy of a different workout every day, ultimate variety so no one gets bored and their workouts don't get stale.
More on this later...

Gettin Old Sucks...

No, it's not that bad, but everytime I get back into some everyday fitness, I'm always spent after about Day 4. That's why I like the CrossFit Gym system of three workouts (with only one maximum-type effort) and a rest every four days. I know that we all underestimate how much rest we need to recover from all of our different workouts. Especially as we get older.

So this week we were back to another 5-day week with PT everyday in the morning. Monday, I have a group of runners and I usually take them to our Hill Sprints workout. They all have to conduct the Army Physical Fitness Test on Friday so I decided to be a little easy on them. We had been doing 8-10 hill sprints every Monday and Friday to get me ready for my APFT. That worked pretty well, I ran better than I expected but now I'm nursing a nagging planter fascitis injury on my left foot. Gonna have a hard time shaking that because we have a lot of PT at work in the next few weeks and everyone will want to run.

Everyone still thinks that running (even though they are jogging at best) is the end-all-be-all for weight loss.

"If I would only run more I could get these last 10 pounds off..."

WRONG.

Given the choice, the only running I will do is hill sprints OR if there is a 400m track around, some track work. What I learned from my group is that I probably only need one hard day a week and one easier day of running (half as hard) per week. That will allow me to recover better. Twice a week hard was too much for me.

I also started working with the wife on learning those pesky kettlebells. They are a butt kicker. Plan and simple. We love them. She, REALLY loves them which is good because she was having a hard time finding motivation seven months after our beautiful boy was born. Anyway, Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to get after them a little bit. They are awesome. Ordered 20 more kettlebells for our class and I can't wait to break it off in their behinds. Should be fun.

Tuesday I also took my first crack at the Pavel "Power to the People" workout. My first weight lifting in many, many years. I know that sounds weird if you've read my website at all you know I'm anti-weights and gyms but Pavel breaks it down in such a way that makes more sense than anything I've read in any muscle magazine. It's only two exercises anyway and it's only two sets of 5 each and you just keep building up to lift as heavy as you can with some calculated periodization to keep gaining and gaining. The two exercises are the deadlift and the side press. Two absolute smokers so it should be interesting to see how I can incorporate this into my routine. Stay tuned...

Gym of the Future

Why the question marks? Because this is how the old time gyms were when man was interested in physical culture, getting functional fitness by using only those exercises that WORK. Today, gyms almost guarantee that you won't see results. It's like they want you to FAIL. There are more mirrors and crap machines in today's "Fat-ness Centers" than anything else. If you go to those places for any length of time, and I don't recommend that, you will see the same people, doing the same workout, for months on end, with the same results. NADA. Nothing. ZILCH.

Check out this video of a sweet gym in Toronto, Canada that looks very much like a gym I'd workout in (if there were any around like this) and the gym that I will open and run one day that caters to people who want to be lean and mean, not checking themselves and their "fake" muscles out in the mirror...

www.artofstrength.com

WOW!!!

That's all I can say after viewing the "Art of Strength" Kettlebell Training DVD. It has 14 2-minutes Kb workouts with a one minute break in between to explain the next 2-min workout/exercise. Each one by itself would be a smoker. All 14 in a row would be madness. I plan on tackling the entire video on the 4th of July. 28 minutes of butt-kicking workout with only 14 minutes of rest. It should be a blast. It's the same guy in the Kettlebell Video on the left side of this blog.

Did a nice Kb workout this morning with the other half of Crazy Wife Productions and she tried to kill me. 20 reps of every exercise or 10 on each side is not a great idea I found out this morning. Newbies like us need to take it a little slower. Me thinks they do sets of 10 or 5 on the videos for a reason... My hamstrings and glutemus are hurtin to the maximus. Actually they aren't that bad, just enough to let me know they got worked out today.

That's the cool thing about kettlebells. They are so fun to "throw" around that you don't realize they are exercise. Don't get me wrong, one minute straight of any of the exercises we've been trying out, is enough to leave me breathing heavy and sweaty. That, and they seem to whisper in your ear what all of your shortcomings are. Which shoulder is weaker than the other. Which ankle has the most trouble supporting your weight all on one leg. And they tell you that it's going to be okay because that little miraculous cannon ball on steroids is going to make it all better...

The Crazy Wife also got some books by Pavel (www.dragondoor.com) in the mail with the DVD, "Power to the People" and "Relax into Stretch". Both are skinny soft cover books that are just PACKED with some amazing information. And that's just from glancing at them. I can't wait to dig into them and start trying them out. More on those later.

We'll, that's enough for now, 04:30 comes early for us "old guys". LOL.

Rest Day

Nursing a cold from my baby boy (don't share your ice cream with your kids!!!) so decided to take it easy this morning. Slept in a little bit extra and skipped PT today. Plan to get after some kettlebells tomorrow and finish up with some hill sprints on Friday. I guess I'll do a big set of pushups before bed since I have been slacking on those...

Hot Chicks Dig Kettlebells

More "proof is in the puddin" that kettlebell goddesses will be ruling the world if I have my way...



ENJOY!!!

Russian Kettlebells are the Future

Just so you hear it here first...

Russian Kettlebells are going to be the future of fitness.

Lifting weights until your back, knees and shoulders give out....is out.

Doing long, slow cardio to burn fat...is a fat BUST.

For the past three years I have been trying to find the very best bodyweight exercises that quickly and easily build FUNCTIONAL strength, muscular endurance, flexibility AND help prevent injury all in a nice 15-20 minute workout that can be done everyday. No more need for MWF lifting and TThSa running. No more chest & tri's, back & bi's, etc... No more supersets, no more wasting all your time watching other people spend hours looking at themselves in those wonderful full length mirrors while they hog the only scapula-raising-decline-lat pulldown-B.S. machine in the gym.

But now, I think I may be on to something even more radical than that, even further out of the mainstream fat, gym-rat scene that I am doing "cheetah-flips" with excitement.

As soon as you pick up a "Kettlebell", you think, "this is going to be too easy--how stupid--what a waste of time!".

Nothing could be further from the truth. These little cannon balls with handles will get you moving in ways you haven't moved in probably your entire lives. You will work muscles you haven't visited since the invention of the TV remote. They will have you huffing and puffing and beggin for mercy in the first 5 minutes. You will be embarrassed at how fast they fatigue you.

And then something wonderful happens. As soon as you put them down and walk away, you will feel energized and refreshed beyond any workout you have every done. You will want to get back to another KB workout and you will be embarrassed at how badly you want to workout again. You will wonder what was wrong with you all this time.

The Future of Fitness is the Russian Kettlebell.



Remember you heard it here first.

Yours in strength,
Comrade Mad Mike ;-)