New Fitness Goals - 11/15/16

When I talked about my fitness goals back in May, I mentioned that I wanted to achieve the Simple standard of Simple and Sinister by my birthday.  Well, my birthday has come and gone and I have yet to achieve this goal.  The standard is to do 100 swings, Ten sets of 10 one-handed, in 5 minutes with a 32 kg kettlebell, rest for one minute, then do ten sets of Turkish Get Ups (5 from each side) in 10 minutes with that same 32 kg 'bell.  I am swinging 32 kg, just not yet in that short of a time frame.  I also took a long time off of TGU's and am currently rebuilding that movement.

Another goal that I had set for myself is to participate in the StrongFirst Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) next April.  The TSC consists of three movements.  Strict hollow-body pull ups to the neck, kettlebell snatches for max reps in 5 minutes, and a max barbell deadlift (3 attempts).

Want to know a secret? If I want to be at all competitive at my first TSC, I need to get started with some serious training.  Right now I can't do a set of strict, unassisted, pull ups, and until today I've never done a kb snatch, and... haven't done a barbell deadlift in decades.  Talk about starting near zero.

My birthday present this year was a session with my kettlebell coach, Kris Moulton of the Moulton Kettlebell Club. Most of my kettlebell instruction has been via book and video, but there are times when a person really needs some hands on coaching. Kris has been really awesome at those times.  He's helped me progress significantly with my swings and get ups.  His instruction has gone a long way towards my success, and my lack of injury.

My goal with today's session was to clean up my Clean, learn to Snatch, and determine my current maximum deadlift.

We found that my Clean is good to go, just need to get more comfortable with it. I learned that my deadlift is not nearly as strong as I had hoped.  My max, good form, deadlift is 135 lbs. Without going to see Kris today, I would have started my deadlift progression at 135 lbs, 30 lbs too heavy.  We spent most of the session learning the kb snatch.  Lots of swings, high pull swings, presses, and snatches.  I can now snatch :)  Not super pretty, or without thinking, but I can do it safely.  That's pretty cool.

We then worked out my training plan, basically the novice version of this program, then worked on goals.

Now, when I set goals like this, I set them at a level where they can be accomplished at the upper edge of possibilities.  Take my S&S goal for example. I didn't reach my goal, and compressing my time to do the swings down to 5 minutes may be a stretch with my new lungs, but if I didn't have this goal I wouldn't be swinging 32 kg.  I'm happy with my progress.

So here we go for goals come the TSC in April 2017.

Pull ups - 10

KB Snatches in 5 minutes (20 kg) - 100

Max Deadlift - 300 lbs.

If I can achieve these goals, I should finish in the top 50% of the Masters Class.  Masters is age 50 +.

The first two weeks, each week a 6 day rotation:

TSC Plan – Week 1

Day 1 –

• ·         Deadlift – 3, 3, 2, 2 @ 105 lbs
• ·         Pull ups superset w/deadlift – 3,2,1,1 w/orange band
• ·         1-hand swings - 10 x 10 @ 32 kg
• ·         TGU’s - 5 x 1 @ 20 kg

Day 2 –

• ·         Goblet Squats – 5 x 5 @ 24 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/GS – 3,2,1,1 w/orange band
• ·         Snatches – 6R 6L OTM for 7 minutes 16 kg

Day 3 –

• ·         Prying Goblet Squats – 1 x 5 @ 16 kg
• ·         Halo – 1 x 5 @ 20 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/above 3,2,2,1 w/orange band

Day 4 –

• ·         Deadlift – 5 x 2 @ 115 lbs
• ·         Pull ups superset w/deadlift – 3.3.2.1 w/orange band
• ·         1-hand swings - 10 x 10 @ 32 kg
• ·         TGU’s – 5 x 1 @ 20 kg

Day 5 –

• ·         Goblet Squats – 5 x 5 @ 24 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/GS – 4, 3, 2, 1 w/orange band
• ·         Snatches – 5R 5L TOM for 7 minutes 16 kg

Day 6 –

• ·         Rest and evaluate.

TSC Plan – Week 2

Day 1 –

• ·         Deadlift – 3, 3, 2, 2 @ 115 lbs
• ·         Pull ups superset w/deadlift – 4,3,2,1,1 w/orange band
• ·         1-hand swings - 10 x 10 @ 32 kg
• ·         TGU’s - 5 x 1 @ 20 kg

Day 2 –

• ·         Goblet Squats – 5 x 5 @ 24 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/GS – 4,3,2,2,1 w/orange band
• ·         Snatches – 7R 7L OTM for 7 minutes 16 kg

Day 3 –

• ·         Prying Goblet Squats – 1 x 5 @ 16 kg
• ·         Halo – 1 x 5 @ 20 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/above 4,3,3,2,1 w/orange band

Day 4 –

• ·         Deadlift – 5 x 2 @ 125 lbs
• ·         Pull ups superset w/deadlift – 4.4.3.2.1 w/orange band
• ·         1-hand swings - 10 x 10 @ 32 kg
• ·         TGU’s – 5 x 1 @ 20 kg

Day 5 –

• ·         Goblet Squats – 5 x 5 @ 24 kg
• ·         Pull ups superset w/GS – 5,4, 3, 2, 1 w/orange band
• ·         Snatches – 6R 6L TOM for 7 minutes 16 kg

Day 6 –

• Rest and evaluate.

During Week 3 I'll likely start progressing my TGU's to 24 kg, and will decide if I want to progress my swing to 40 kg.  I may wait until after the TSC to progress my swing.  We'll see.

I use a 6 day cycle so that if something comes up in the middle of the week, the extra rest day won't have an effect on the weekly goals.  A six day cycle is working out very well for me now.  I'll reevaluate this after a couple weeks in and see how I feel after my body gets used to the additional movements.

Right now my body is saying "What the heck..." Flexed my chest in lots of strange ways while learning the snatch, used different muscles all session, and I can feel it.  Tomorrow is a rest day.

And we are off. New goals and a new fitness focus. I'm ready to get after it!