Purposeful Primitive Online

We are quickly winding down to the Tactical Strength Challenge. I am excited to participate and anticipate a better showing than the last time.

Sunday: I dead lifted today and warmed up with 135, 185, 225 and 275. Did a work set of 305 with 3 reps and felt great. 3rd rep was the best rep.

Monday: Weigh in of 184.2. Did Pull ups of 9,6,6,5 and 5. Did Pavel‘s bench press workout and struggled a bit on the first set of 5 at 195. Did another set of 3 reps and finished with 2. Finally I did 3 sets of 5 at 155. Also did Front squats and managed 5 sets of 3 at 155.

Tuesday: I set out to do 120 snatches with the 32 kg kettlebell. I did 106 and aborted the mission as I had started to rip a callous off my hand and wanted to make sure that I did lose it completely.  Was able to do my Pavel kb presses to finish with a set of 5 and then one double and one single.

Wednesday: Dead lifted again and did a my typical warm up. Started with 135, 185,225 and 275. Did a double at 315. Felt excellent.

Thursday: Since I struggled with 195 on my bp the other day I still added the 10 lbs to it and brought it up to 205 but just did a triple and a double. Then 3 sets of 5 at 165.

Friday: Moved up in my pull ups today to a set of 10,7,6,6 and 5. Did 5 x5 on front squat at 145 and held off on the snatch to protect my hand. Did a set of 5 kettlebell presses, then a set of doubles and finally a single. Felt great.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

This has been quite a week. I found out my current one rep max for the dead lift as well as the barbell front squat. When I saw Marty on Saturday he used the information to help me program for the stretch run until the Tactical Strength Challenge.

A few of you have contacted me about how I eat. I follow the Primal Blueprint and I will post my fueling for the week later toward the end of the week.

Monday: weighed in at 184.6

5 sets of 3 reps of 145 lb front squats. Deep and with a nice pause. Felt excellent.

Followed that up with Recon Ron Pull ups. Sets were 8,7,5,5 and 5. Only one more session of this scheme to go.

Finally, I did Pavel’s CGBP workout today. 5,3 and 2 rep sets at 155. 3 sets of 5 at 125 to close it out. Very good work on that and felt easy.

Tuesday:

2 24 kg kettlebell sprints for 2 ½ minutes each. Six minutes of rest between sets. Did 62 in the first set and 61 in the second. Really pleased with the pace so far and I am on track. 24.6 reps per minute. This felt very very good. I am making the progress I am looking for to get to my goal at the TSC.

Wednesday:

Warm up for the dead lift with 135,185, 225 and went from there into one set of triple at 275. Felt great and had a great finish on each rep. Looking forward to more.

Recon Ron Pull ups went well too. Rep scheme was 8,7,5,5 and 5. Last session of these and I moved up on Friday.

Front Squats warmup with goblet kettlebell squat. Then 5 work sets of 5 reps at 145.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

Here is the rest of the story for the week:

Wednesday: 3 sets of 235 for 5 reps. Dead lifts felt very good. Loved them actually. Working on getting my hips down and rocked back. A work in progress and will be taping my session on Sunday.

8,6,5,5,4 reps on Pull ups Presses 5 sets of 3 at 60. Really tried my best to keep the “hollow” position.

Thursday: Front squat 3 sets of 5 at 145. My front squat feels so much more solid than when we started this process. I’m using a clean grip and really driving through my heels. Everything is moving simultaneously and in rhythm.

Friday: Today was a new pull up rep scheme. I will do it 5 times and change it up again. Went to 8,7,5, 5 and 5. These felt exceptional today. Felt the “hollow” position nicely and disengaged my last and re-set them on each rep. What I learned from Phil Scarito and Will Williams is paying nice dividends.

Also added 15 seconds to my kettlebell snatch sprint and kept my cadence close to goal. Hit 47 reps in 1:45 on the first round. 40 on the next and 43 to close it out. 130 snatches in 5:15. Rested 6 minutes between each sprint. Grip is the limiting factor and something I will continue to work on.

Train with Purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. Same thing with getting ready for the RKC Snatch Test. And the Tactical Strength Challenge snatch event is the same. As many snatches with the 24 kg kettlebell as you can manage in five minutes.

So what have I been doing to get ready for the April TSC? Well for the snatch component of it I’ve been working on maintaining intensity over short bursts of time. Additionally, I work one day a week with a heavier bell to focus on technique. It is quite difficult to snatch a big kettlebell without good technique.

On Wednesday, I do 60-80 repetitions with the 32 kg kettlebell in sets of 5 per side. In this case, 5 + 5 on the minute for 6-8 minutes. Doing heavy snatches has helped me on a number of fronts. First, taming the arc and keeping the bell moving vertically as much as possible is vital. Try to cast a heavy bell out on your snatch descent and you will likely follow. The drop is so important to keeping on point.

Driving the kettlebell up vertically, rather than horizontally as in the swing is imperative as well. I keep the kettlebell as close to my body as I can. Far too taxing if the arc widens. The better I work with the 32 kg kettlebell, then the better my 24 kg bell work is. And doing the weekly workout with the 32 makes the 24 seems featherweight in comparison.

Friday is my snatch sprint workout. I have 10 weeks from today for the TSC. Here is my plan. I will add 15 seconds to each week’s speed snatch session. I do 3 sets of all out effort. Between each set, full recovery is a requirement. I rest for a full 6 minutes between the sets. My plan is to peak at 5 minutes on April 10, 2010. I will continue to try to keep my cadence as long as I can on the strong side and then switch to the less dominant side. If I lose speed on that side I will switch again. Right now, I can maintain my competition speed for around 15 reps. My grip starts to feel a bit taxed at that point. I think that doing the work with the 32 will continue to help my grip get stronger too.

Goal is 125 snatches in 5 minutes. PR is 115.

Did my warm up with 100 24 kg kettlebell swings and some joint mobility work. Also did some Pavelizer sets of 5 for 5 sets.

Warm up set of 8 reps at 45 lbs, 5 reps of 65 and 3 reps at 85.

4 work sets of 120 lbs for 3 reps. Reps felt good and form was strong.

Sandy Sommer RKC