Friday's Workout: The Big Boy

"Kettlebells," I thought to myself this morning as I changed out of my pajamas. "We haven't done anything with kettlebells in a while."

When I first began CrossFitting, we played with kettlebells all the time; I still fondly(?) remember swinging kettlebells with XFitMama, the Marine and the Terminator out on the sidewalk in front of the old flower shop in the morning darkness. I quickly got hooked. After reading Pavel Tsatsouline's "Enter the Kettlebell," I bought a 35-pound (16 kg) kettlebell from Dragon Door and practiced heaving the thing around in my garage. I later moved up to a 53-pound (24 kg) kettlebell, and recently, I've been using the 62-pound (28 kg) in metcons at the gym.

But in the past couple of months, kettlebells have largely been absent from our M/W/F programming at CrossFit Palo Alto -- so I was certain they would make a return appearance soon.

(This is called foreshadowing, kids.)

Strength Skill:

• Handstand Push-Ups (5 sets of 5)

As usual, I had fun practicing HSPUs -- and this time, I have the burst blood vessels to prove it.

But let's get to the good stuff.

Pavel Would Not Approve

I secretly fear that this is what I look like when I attempt kettlebell ground-to-overheads (like this past Friday).



Incidentally: What kind of performance is this supposed to be?

[Source]

It's Hot. It's Manly.

Wednesday's Workout

It's kind of sick how easy Pavel Tsatsouline makes pistols look:



Steve Cotter, too.



Needless to say, I don't look anything like this when I'm attempting pistols...

Want the full skinny on today's workout? It's over at The Five Tribe.

Check It Out: Power to the People

Pavel Tsatsouline is nothing if not prolific. Over the past few months, I've already read a couple of his books (Enter the Kettlebell and The Naked Warrior), but a quick glance at his online store makes clear that there's no end in sight to his "Evil Russian"-style brand of training advice. 

I'm now making my way through Tsatsouline's "Power to the People," a book focused on building raw strength through daily practice of just two exercises: deadlifts and presses.

The "Russian strength secret" that Tsatsouline teaches in "Power to the People" can be summarized in one sentence: "Train heavy, but keep the volume, or the total number of reps per workout, low." Why? So we can "minimize the amount of 'torn down' muscle -- and the reconstruction that follows." 

This approach won't turn anyone into a bodybuilder because the point isn't to grow big-ass muscles. Rather, the focus is on gaining "wiry strength" such that "[m]ost likely your measurements will not increase, while your weight will go up a few pounds. the packing density of your muscles' contractile proteins has increased, the first thing to happen when 'real' muscle growth takes place." By periodizing and increasing the amount of weight that's being lifted but without going to exhaustion, Tsatsouline says, you can steadily enhance your full-body strength without constantly destroying and rebuilding the muscles in your body

Sounds good to me. My health and fitness goals don't include bulking up or becoming a bodybuilder. I do, however, want to get stronger, and I definitely want to improve my deadlift. So this program sounds like it's worth a shot.

Whole9 modified/customized Tsatsouline's "Power to the People" program by adding some warm-ups and metcons to the deadlifts and presses. It's simple and easy to follow, which is a big part of why I've decided to try it starting today. On the days I don't head to my CrossFit class, I'm going to follow the Whole9 program and see where it can take me in 2-3 months' time.

Hence, my workout today was cribbed directly from Whole9:

DAY ONE

Buy-in: 3 rounds of 0:20 handstand hold + 15 KB swings (Russian) + 10 plyo box jumps

Deadlift: Warm up with some DLs at lighter weight

• Set 1: 60% of 1RM, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1, 3-5 reps

Press: Warm up with some presses at lighter weight

• Set 1: 60% of 1RM, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1, 3-5 reps

Cash out: 3 rounds for time of 30 Double-Unders + 15 Hanging Knees-to-Elbows

I followed Whole9's directions carefully and used weights that felt too light for me. I'm sure it'll get harder as the program progresses, but right now, I can't see how this is going to get me that much stronger.

Still, the full workout wiped me out completely. I'm nodding off while typing this. Time for bed.

Check It Out: Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, author of the bestselling self-help book, The 4-Hour Workweek, is full of himself -- a trait I don't appreciate in most people (besides myself), but for some reason, it totally works for Ferriss. Yes, he brags a lot (check out his book for self-glorifying anecdotes about his phenomenal successes in business, martial arts, ballroom dancing, learning Japanese, etc.), but unlike some people, he's not all talk -- he's the real deal. Here are some snippets from his Wikipedia entry:

Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN, a San Jose-based online company that sells sports nutrition supplements. He sold the company in January 2009 to an unnamed private equity firm. He is now a full-time angel investor and has invested in the following companies: Twitter, Posterous, DailyBurn (formerly Gyminee), Reputation Defender, Foodzie, Badongo, Rescue Time, and SimpleGeo. He also acts as an advisor to StumbleUpon and Shopify, which he has alluded to in interviews with Kevin Rose are in exchange for equity.

He holds the Guinness Book of World Records' record for the most consecutive tango-spins in one minute. Ferriss and his dance partner Alicia Monti set the record live on the show Live with Regis and Kelly. Prior to his writing career, Ferriss served as an advisor to professional athletes and Olympians and was a National Chinese Kickboxing Champion, a title he won through a process of shoving opponents out of the ring for which he was nicknamed "sumo." In 2008, he won Wired Magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" prize and was named one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Business People of 2007." Ferriss has also spoken at the EG Conference.

His show "Trial By Fire" aired on the History Channel in December 2008. In the show, Ferriss had one week to attempt to learn a skill normally learned over the course of many years and in the pilot episode he practiced the Japanese art of horseback archery, Yabusame. 

And the guy's only 33. God, I'm a slacker.

I picked up Ferriss' book some time ago and have been slowly adopting some of his productivity tips (using Evernote to organize my cluttered life, for example). But I only recently started checking out his blog, which contains some useful information about personal fitness and nutrition. For example:

• Preeminent kettlement guru Pavel Tsatsouline posted a guest article on Ferriss' blog about maximizing gains and efficiency in powerlifting:

• Ferriss has also invited Dr. Michael Eades to discuss why calorie-counting is a pseudo-science, and how counting carbs is the key. (One of the reasons I'm a fan of Ferriss is that he's solidly in the Gary Taubes low-carb camp.)

• I'm a terrible swimmer, so it was eye-opening to read about how Ferriss quickly (in ten days!) became a strong swimmer after a lifetime of being afraid of the water.

• Ferriss shares how he gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks using something he calls "Four-Hour Fitness."

• He writes about how to figure out what the labeling on meat products really mean.

• Ferriss is into Vibram FiveFingers.

• And most importantly, he describes how to properly "peel" a hard-boiled egg:

Turkish Get-Ups

The description of the Turkish Get-Up in Pavel Tsatsouline's "Enter the Kettlebell!" is quite simple:

Lie on your back, pick up the kettlebell with both hands, and press it with one. Slowly stand up while keeping your working arm straight and vertical. Assist yourself by pushing into the ground with the free arm. Slowly reverse the movement.

And visually, it doesn't look too difficult:



But I tried to do a few Get-Ups the other evening with a standard 16 kilogram (35-pound) kettlebell, and discovered just how weak and sucktastic I truly am.

As part of my next workout, I'm supposed to do five uninterrupted minutes of Get-Ups. It doesn't sound like much, but something tells me when I'm trying like hell to get myself off the floor tomorrow morning, it'll feel like an eternity.

Post-Round 2 Recovery Week: RKC Man Maker + P90X Ab Ripper X

More test-driving today. On this morning's agenda: kettlebell training -- more specifically, Pavel Tsatsouline's "New RKC Program Minimum" from "Enter the Kettlebell!" As Tsatsouline puts it:

The New RKC Program Minimum will deliver

• The conditioning of a world-class fighter;
• Rapid fat loss without the dishonor of aerobics;
• A back of steel;
• Muscular, flexible, and resilient shoulders;
• A skill base for the rest of the RKC drills.

Regardless of your goals, a simple routine of swings and get-ups makes a powerful introduction to RKC training ... these two moves will give you the biggest bang for your kettlebell buck.

The New RKC Program Minimum consists of two simple but ass-kicking workouts:

1.  Twice a week, do 12 continuous minutes of "Man Maker" training. What's a Man Maker, you ask? "Its template is simple: alternate sets of high-rep kettlebell drills -- swings in our case -- with a few hundred yards of jogging. Do your swings 'to a comfortable stop' most of the time and all-out occasionally." Sounds easy, but it's hard as hell.

[UPDATED: Just to clarify, the Man Maker video clip below shows snatches, not swings. I'm not yet proficient enough to do rep after rep of snatches without something going horribly, horribly wrong.]



2.  Twice a week, do 5 continuous minutes of Turkish Get-Ups, switching hands with every rep. Get-Ups sound easy, but aren't: You start by lying on your back holding a kettlebell up in the air with a straight arm, and "without jerking or unlocking the elbow, stand up and then slowly lie back down."



I did the Man Maker today, but instead of running, I did jumping jacks. And even after adding Ab Ripper X at the end, my total workout time today totaled less than half an hour. But it was brutal nonetheless. Ab Ripper X wasn't any more challenging than usual, but the kettlebell swings were exhausting. This is classic HIIT combined with resistance training for the legs. By the end, my glutes and hamstrings were on fire.

Quite frankly, I was worried I wouldn't be made into a man.

What Happens Next?

Now that I'm just about done with Round 2, I'm starting to plan for Round 3, though I'm not yet sure what that's going to look like. Pavel Tsatsouline's RKC Kettlebell training, P90X+, One-on-One with Tony Horton, Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training -- all are presently under consideration. But ideally, I'd like to cobble together a Frankenstein-monster of a hybid routine, picking and choosing from exercises and workouts in P90X, Insanity, and some (but probably not all) of the programs above.

For Round 3, to stave off boredom, I'm determined to add more variety. So while I'm not sure I can mash up a bunch of different workout programs into a cohesive whole (especially without the risk of overtraining), I might try to do it anyway.

More to come...

I'm Greasing My Groove

As I mentioned last week, I'm reading Pavel Tsatsouline's "Enter the Kettlebell!" to get myself psyched up for swinging a big-ass cast iron ball around. But Pavel's no one-trick pony: He's written a few other fitness manuals, including "The Naked Warrior," a book that promises to teach readers "exactly what it takes to be super-strong in minimum time" using nothing but gravity and body weight. I'm reading this one, too.

What's fascinating about "The Naked Warrior" is what it doesn't do: It doesn't provide instruction on how to do dozens of different body weight exercises, nor does it ask that readers crank out rep after rep until exhaustion. Instead, Pavel commands: "DO FEWER EXERCISES BETTER."

In fact, "The Naked Warrior" routine consists of just two exercises: Pistol Squats and One-Arm/One-Leg Push-Ups. The rest of the book focuses on techniques for tensing your body and "power breathing" to enhance your strength. Pavel also spends some time discussing a training method called "Grease the Groove" -- a low rep, high-intensity, high-frequency approach to achieving personal bests.

Fitness Ninja's greasing the groove (with a newborn, no less!), and just yesterday, he linked to Pavel's description of this strength-building method here. As Pavel puts it:

Specificity + frequent practice = success. It is so obvious, most people don’t get it. Once I came across a question posted on a popular powerlifting website by a young Marine: how should he train to be able to do more chin-ups? I was amused when I read the arcane and non-specific advice the trooper had received: straight-arm pull-downs, reverse curls, avoiding the negative part of the chin-up every third workout… I had a radical thought: if you want to get good at chin-ups, why not try to do… a lot of chin-ups?

Just a couple of months earlier I had put my father-in-law Roger Antonson, incidentally an ex-Marine, on a program which required him to do an easy five chins every time he went down to his basement. Each day he would total between twenty-five and a hundred chin-ups hardly breaking a sweat. Every month or so Roger would take a few days off and then test himself. Before you knew it, the old leatherneck could knock off twenty consecutive chins, more than he could do forty years ago during his service with the few good men!

Sounds good to me. As an experiment, I've started doing five weighted pull-ups (using a weight chained to a weightlifting belt) ever time I step into my garage. After P90X, my personal best was 18  pull-ups in a row -- and I'm not sure I can match that now -- but let's see if "greasing the groove" can push me over 20. (Or if it's going to make me want to avoid stepping foot in my garage.)

Check It Out: Enter the Kettlebell

"The kettlebell delivers extreme all-around fitness. All-purpose strength. Staying power. Flexibility. Fat loss without the dishonor of aerobics. All accomplished in one to two hours of weekly training. All done with one compact and virtually indestructible tool that can be used anywhere." - Pavel Tsatsouline

I've been thinking about starting a kettlebell routine ever since I read this extensive blog post by my favorite P90X critic, and now that I'm more than halfway through my 90-day P90X/Insanity hybrid, I've decided to kick the tires some more. I picked up Pavel Tsatsouline's "Enter the Kettlebell!" and am slowly making my way through it. Tsatsouline's idiosyncratic grammar and machismo-drenched writing style makes for a fun read -- you can almost hear his Russian-inflected voice booming from the pages.

Here's what he sounds like (while delivering advice on hand care and mocking metrosexuals):



Although Tsatsouline's "I'm a man's man, and people who go to gyms are pussies" shtick gets a little old after awhile, I like what I'm reading so far. I don't know how (or even if) I'll end up incorporating Tsatsouline's moves into my workout routine, but I'm curious enough to want to get my hands on a kettlebell and give it a swing or two.

[UPDATE: More about Tsatsouline's kettlebell program here.]