Pondering what's next

Since my tendinitis returned about a month ago I stopped lifting kettlebells to let my elbows heal (the tendinitis is in both of them; it's one of the few areas in my life that I can claim to be ambidextrous).
A few weeks before that I had stopped working on Long Cycle to prepare for an online snatch competition with the 24kg bell. My goal was to get WKC Rank I numbers in the comp (75 reps or more in each hand, minimum 150 snatches total with the 24kg bell). I hadn't worked snatches for about two and a half years, and my previous personal record was less than 50 reps per hand. But it only took a couple weeks to get 75/75 in training. I used a Fedorenko-inspired template that I took from this blog. Years after it was written, I still find it to be one of the most practical training guides I have ever read on GS, and, along with Rudnev and Lopatin's article I cited earlier, it has influenced my training more than any other piece I've read.
I had hoped to use this method to try Biathlon training for a while, and then return to Long Cycle. Obviously that's not in the cards for now.
One unfortunate result of my hiatus from kettlebells is the loss of strength. Although they aren't the ideal tool for maximal strength, the practical, walking around strength kettlebells gave my hands, arms and lower back was a useful asset. As my elbows heal, I'm considering a low volume, three-day-a-week barbell routine of clean and jerks and similar lifts to build strength without leading to overuse injuries. Hopefully, I could gain back some of the strength I lost in the last two bouts of tendinitis, without suffering any overuse injuries. On the other days I could run to work on general endurance for my return to kettlebell sport.
For now I may have to limit the strength work to squats (back, front, and jumping). At this point I'm even afraid to try deadlifts. Hopefully it won't be long before I'm lifting weights overhead.
For now, I'd packing my bags for Orlando. Tomorrow I drive our church van full of children (my son included among them) to Sea World. Wish me luck.
Until next time...

Goodbye 2011

2011 was not what I expected.
What I expected was to reach WKC CMS numbers in Long Cycle in the first couple months, then officially achieve that rank at the GA State Championships later in the summer.
Instead I got tendinitis in my elbows, and that sidelined me for most of the year.
I spent that "off" time running, usually three days a week. The other days I walked. The walks (and the runs) were pretty challenging, because my neighborhood and the surrounding areas are extremely hilly. A few of the hills take several minutes to climb.
But it was ok. I enjoyed it, and I worked on my general endurance 6 or 7 days a week.
Also, I confirmed what I had posted earlier in the year:
Kettlebell Sport is an endurance sport.
The proof was in how quickly my numbers rebounded after my doctor cleared me to train with kettlebells again. I am not a naturally strong or muscular person, and my upper body turned skinny and flabby while I limited my workouts to running, walking and squats.
But even with skinny, flabby arms I started setting new personal records just weeks after my return to kettlebell training in August, after months of endurance work. Those records include a 77 rep 7 minute 2x24kg set, and several 40 plus rep sets in 3 minutes. I wrote my last blog post about my 97 rep 2x24kg 10 minute set in October. That was significant to me because I felt awful that day, and I suspect on an average day, or even on a bad day when I paced myself with a timer, I would have smashed the 100 rep barrier easily.
With those results I was hoping to be the first American to crack 100 reps in competition. But the November comp I was planning to attend was cancelled. I can't blame the event planners, as several significant competitions were held within weeks (some just days) of the comp, so I did not expect attendance to be high. This was just the only comp within driving distance for the foreseeable future, and my travel budget didn't allow for farther trips this year.
After the comp was cancelled, two American lifters broke the 100 rep barrier in competition on the same day at another competition. Lee Quattrone (101 reps) and Jeff Martone (104 reps) both achieved CMS rank in Long Cycle with their 2x24kg performances at the IKFF National Championships on November 19. I would have liked to have beaten them to it, but I was happy for them both. I hope to meet them on the platform one day soon.
Later in the year my elbow tendinitis flared up again, and I was forced to turn to running and walking as my primary training exercises.
Once my elbows heal again I plan to lift again, although I may be limited to 24kg kettlebells. I'd like to best the 104 rep record that Jeff set, as the mountain climbers say, just because it is there. We'll see.
For now, I wish you all a happy and blessed 2012.
-David

97

Today I set a new personal record of 97 reps in the 2x24kg long cycle clean and jerk.

I didn't feel like working out tonight, and I sat on my garage steps looking at the bells for about 5 minutes before I picked them up. I finally cursed and picked them up, figuring I might as well try for a pr since any workout tonight would feel like suffering anyway.
The set was un-paced; I just set the timer for 10:00 and started a mental countdown from 95 (the rep total I estimated I'd get). I did the 95 and two more reps before the timer went off.
After putting down the bells, I walked around my driveway for 5 minutes catching my breath before my wife asked me to go to the grocery store. I'll probably stretch and take a walk after the kids are in bed.
For now I'm finishing off the homemade lasagna my wife made and a nice glass of red Spanish wine a friend brought me yesterday. This was a good pr.
Until next time...

Balancing Act

A few weeks ago my doctor cleared me to resume kettlebell training. That was the best news I'd gotten in a while.
I had missed lifting the bells. I missed the rhythm and cadence of the lifts. I missed coordinating my breath with the movements, and all the technical aspects of long cycle.
I missed being strong, and the utility and fun things that go with it. This year at the church pool party many of the kids were disappointed I couldn't throw them into the deep end of the pool while we played in the water. Usually I'll stand in the pool and the kids would take turns being thrown for an hour or so. I missed that.
I did enjoy running, and improving at a useful activity. I ran progressively longer and faster, and I enjoyed setting and exceeding new goals.
Now I've resumed lifting. Running was obviously a good choice for conditioning. Even though my muscles had withered without weight training, it was easy to resume kettlebell lifting. I credit the common but underrated general endurance that running provides. I am blessed (cursed?) to live in a neighborhood filled with daunting hills. Many of them are so long they take several minutes to climb. Since kettlebell lifting, particular long cycle, is as taxing as running up a steep hill, it was a great substitute for lifting.
Despite the loss in upper body strength, it only took a month to return to my former level of kettlbell sport conditioning. Last week I did 90 reps of 2x24kg Long Cycle in 10 minutes, and the day after I set a personal best of 41 reps in a three minute sprint.
Despite these results, I still have to keep close tabs on my tendinitis. Sometimes I need an extra day off from lifting when my elbows are tender, and have a running workout instead. When my elbows were sore last night I decided to go for a 5:00 record with the lighter 20kg bells. Even though I had to use the lighter bells, I was happy to get 71 reps in five minutes.
Dealing with my tendinitis is truly a balancing act. Every day there is a question of not just what my lifting volume and intensity will be, but whether I will lift at all. Right now I am hoping to enter the South East championships if my health holds up. Afterward, I will probably take a break of some kind, and focus on GPP outside of kettlebell sport. I want to make sure my elbows completely heal before the year is up.
Until next time...

Kettlebell Domination

So I follow other Kettlebell Sport athlete's blogs. One I like in particular is John Wild Buckley's blog. John is an entertaining writer, and I've enjoyed reading about his progress in the sport and discipline of kettlebell lifting. I was positively enthralled by his accounts of visiting Siberia, and learning under the great coach Sergey Rudnev.
In a May 21 blog post, John recounted an informal demonstration and contest between two famous kettlebell sport champions, Sergey Rachinsky and Sergei Merkulin.
In a recent IKSFA sport camp in St Petersburg, Rachinsky and Merkulin demonstrated Long Cycle technique by engaging in a 5:00 2x32kg contest. Their first five minutes ended in a tie of 44 reps each, for an average of 8.8 reps per minute (rpm).
Not satisfied with a tie, the two decided to compete again to determine a winner. They decided a a 2:00 sprint set would be the tie breaker. Both lifters went all out, at a much faster pace than either would use for a 5:00 training set.
Merkulin finished with with 24 reps (12 rpm). Rachinsky finished with 26 (13 rpm). At the end of his effort, Rachinsky fell to his knees. It was an exciting contest, to be sure.
After reading the blog post, I checked my email and looked over my YouTube subscriptions. One of them is the channel of Ivan Denisov. Denisov is the absolute world champion and record holder in Kettlebell sport, and is a coach and adviser for the World Kettlebell Club (WKC). Ivan often posts competition videos of the athletes he coaches, as well as videos of his regular workouts and competitions.
One new video in particular caught my attention. An ordinary, 6 minute set of 2x32kg Long cycle during a recent workout. Denisov uploaded the video on May 13.

He did 72 reps in 6:00. That's 12 rpm for the entire six minutes. He made it look easy. Here is the video:




Looking over Denisov's competition records, it appears that 12 rpm is not a sprint pace for Denisov the way it is for other world class athletes. As a matter of fact, he has completed 116 reps in 10:00 (11.6 rpm)....the world record.
I do not mean to take anything away from Rachinsky or Merkulin. They are two of the greatest kettlebell sport athletes to ever set foot on the platform. And like most of the top performers in GS, they are reputed to be good people as well as great athletes.
But Denisov dominates this sport like no one else. He is truly in a class by himself.

I'll close with the video of his world record performance. Until next time, take care and God bless.

Running

So my tendinitis has been really slow to heal. I considered a number of ways to stay in shape while I wait to get better. I thought about buying a Concept 2 rowing machine. I know many kettlebell sport athletes use the Concept 2 for general physical preparedness training (GPP), and there has been some success by competitive rowers when they try kettlebell sport. Then a few weeks ago I stumbled across this running program. Known as "The couch to 5k running program", it's a common sense program designed to ease adults who aren't exercising into running a 5k race in 8 weeks.
Running is a cross-training mainstay for GS athletes. There are a lot of pluses to running. It's low cost, and can be done almost anywhere. It's such a popular sport that there are countless online resources available on training, mapping and measuring running routes, and convenient race calendars to plan your events. Most people in North America live within a short drive of several 5K races every weekend.
I started the program on April 24, following it pretty closely. I didn't over-do it, because for the first month my nine-year-old son ran with me. We had fun spending that time together, although after a month he was ready to play and be a nine-year-old boy again. On the days I didn't run, I continued to jump rope and do one armed swings with a kettlebell.
Once my son stopped running with me, I cranked up the intensity and went beyond the couch program. Lately I've been running for about 25 minutes (about 2.5 to 3 miles) or so, with a short warm up and cool down. I run in my neighborhood, which is very, very hilly, so the workout is pretty intense (A neighbor of mine grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, and he says its harder to run in our neighborhood than anywhere he ran growing up).
Competition motivates better than anything, so I plan to run my first race on July 4th, if not sooner.
In the meantime, I'll share a photo of my running partner for the first month of the program. In it I am holding a picture I drew of a quetzalcoatlus (his favorite prehistoric creature) for his birthday. I drew the picture right after breakfast. Both of us still had bed-head. :)

Working on recovery

So I've been dealing with triceps/elbow issues, first reported here, which turned out to be tendinitis.
In the meantime, I've been working on a three-pronged recovery approach. Here are the components:

1. Rest. Not doing movements which aggravate this injury. In this case, no presses or jerks. Obviously that means no long cycle work either. Surprisingly, because the injury is essentially inflammation of the tendon tissue in the elbow, any movement that involves bending the elbow can also aggravate the tendons. That means I have to limit cleans and pull-ups as well.

2. Instituting an injury prevention program. Right now, that means a focus on range of motion (ROM) work, as well as stretching and other flexibility work. I am doing ROM work throughout the day at my desk, and as a warmup and cool down. You can find the foundation of the ROM and flexibility work I practice in Beyond Stretching: Russian Flexibility Breakthroughs by Pavel Tsatsouline. The material in this book was later divided into two of Pavel's later books, but I prefer this one. Pavel does not break down the concepts as simply or as user friendly as he does in his strength training primer Power to the People, but even though it is imperfect, it is the best book I have found on overall flexibility and range of motion.
The ROM work is very similar to traditional Tai Chi warm ups, and the ROM exercises commonly practiced throughout Russia. As for "stretching", it's important to note that the best flexibility work incorporates a type of isometric strength training. This type of flexibility work not only strengthens muscles; it also causes a relaxation response that rapidly increases flexibility. Known as PNF stretching it was developed decades ago by Herman Kabat.
In addition to ROM and PNF work, I've resumed a more expansive yoga practice. I've been a student of yoga since 1994, and was interviewed about my yoga practice for the 2003 book Real Men Do Yoga. Author John Capouya also interviewed a number of pro athletes for the book (Eddie George is on the cover), and he wrote what I think is the most accessible introduction to yoga I've ever read, especially for men more accustomed to weight training and watching ESPN than new age type stuff. I think I was featured as the token "regular guy" among the famous types, and to show how yoga can reduce stress if you have a demanding job (I was in charge of prosecuting most of the child murders in Atlanta at the time). Like the PNF stretching, I rely on yoga for strengthening as much as I do flexibility.

3. The last prong of my rehab is maintaining conditioning. Like most injured athletes, I have been overly concerned about maintaining my sports conditioning while I allow my injuries to heal. This anxiety motivates many athletes to resume sports training before their bodies are ready, and results in re-injuries that are often worse than their initial problem. So part of this is simply giving the athlete a challenging workout to do so he won't hurt himself with a premature resumption of training. Another part of it is selecting an appropriate exercise plan to keep the person in good physical condition for health, irrespective of his athletic goals.
American Kettlebell Sport trainer and coach Cate Imes suggested I try a circuit that included kettlebell swings and jumping rope. Kettlebell Sport athlete (and physician) Matt Schinabeck also recommended swings as a way to maintain the special endurance for kettlebell sport, and, reading the training diary on his blog, I see that he practices what he preaches. Based on their advice, I've combined kettlebell swings with jumping rope to make a challenging circuit. Basically I jump rope for one minute, do a one minute set of left handed swings, jump rope another minute, then complete a set of right handed swings without stopping. I complete this circuit 5 times for a total of 20 minutes. It sounds easy but its a good workout.
If you are looking for a good jump rope, I highly recommend this one. It's the most durable jump rope I've found, and it swings better than any of the ones I used when I was boxing. It comes in two lengths, including one specifically made for tall guys like me. I've had mine for close to 10 years now.

So that's it for now. I'm hoping that within a few weeks I can resume sport training again. If so, I merely want to rehab well enough to make Rank I numbers again in the GA State Championships. In the meantime, I'm working on another piece about injury prevention by practicing sound technique. Until then, I'll leave you with the front cover of Mr. Capouya's book. Take Care and God bless,

David