Sunday… Jump Rope

So last week first week went well. A few little bumps in the road, but all in all I felt strong on the grinds as long as I stayed fresh, thus I took quite a bit of time off between sets. I was certainly happy to lift on my light days, because I really felt strong doing my ladders to 3 reps. I still feel good when I go to 5 reps, but I struggle on that last rung.

I noticed something while training this week however; it was that my right leg although strong while in a single leg stance isn’t wedging to connect power through my core to my right arm on my presses. So today I got outside to work the top part of my Turkish get up. Nothing like kneeling and standing with a multi segmental rotation to really get my linking from ground to hand practiced. I need even more transitional work before the two weeks are up, and I’ll probably have to continue this type of movement practice through the two weeks that follow the grind weeks- even though they’re ballistic.

Furthermore I’ve started jumping rope so that I might get a little bit more jarring through my C7 in a rhythmic undulating pattern. I of course do this on grass and barefoot to really connect myself to the relaxed bounding nature of the movement. I haven’t jumped rope since an old high school basketball coach told me to do so- he said it would be the thing that made me the whole package in baseball. I remember back before I started I was a 5 sec sprint to 1st base, and 1 year later I was a 4.1 to first base. I have neglected it wrongly for too many years, and since being told by Dr. Sahara that I was an anaerobic beast, I’ve thought about what aerobic event I could do to balance my training character.

If you know me well, I hate running. Not because I don’t like to run, but because I would rather lift weights, lol. I like yoga, but it still runs me anaerobic for some reason. So up until now I’ve really just been baffled about what to add- and I’M NOT GOING TO BE DISGRACED BY SPENDING TIME ON A MINDLESS CARDIO MACHINE, HAHA. So finally today I looked into an old baseball bag of mine; I was merely moving it to another place in the garage. And I found it… my old jump rope. I knew then and there what my new activity to get me more aerobic was going to be.

Today was a 30min variety day and I love jumping rope.

Aug 9th first day of grinds

Alright guys and gals, after 2 weeks of double kb ballistic complex ladders(… man that’s a lot to say) I’m 100% back to where I was before the neck injury in those lifts. The next two weeks is grind block complexes, and because I’m not doing a whole lot of “wind” work (aka Cardio/ Vo2 Max Workout), I will add in a couple more serious variety days. Hopefully I will be fully back to my rite of passage by the 2 weeks end.

The rite of passage is 5 sets of military presses, in a 1-5 rep ladder with one 24 kg bell. I only need to get 1 more rung in my ladder- the last one of 5 reps. In essence I can do 1-2-3-4- but not 5 strict reps with my 24 kg. Before my injury I could do a 10 rung ladder (1-10 reps), but since the neck my strength endurance has been lacking. My 1 rep max has not suffered so much. So I believe it’s just a matter of work.

So the week should look like this:

Mon: kb grind complex/ turk day

- turk Get up work! 5 min

-double bell front squat (DBFSQ)

-double bell military press (DBMP)

Tues:

Variety day- push ups, back bends, pistols

Wed REST/RECOVERY!

Thurs:

Repeat Mon light

Friday: Rest Recovery

Sat: Repeat Mon light weight plus add hanging leg raises, rolling, and handstand holds to play with Christian and Eden my son and daughter.

So Heavy Monday looked like this:

Get up 5 reps each side with some grooving work (whatever needed to be unlocked. 16 kg for 3 reps and 24 kg for 2 reps.

DBMP- 1 rep- DBFSQ 1 rep,

rest repeat for 2 reps, rest and repeat for 3 reps, rest and repeat for 4 reps. The weight I used was a 24kg, and two stacked 12 kgs.

I did 5 sets of this ladder complex! With as much rest and recovery in between as I wanted to feel strong the next rung, and the next set. Usually I take about 2 minutes timed rest. Tomorrow I look forward to a day of Variety

Monday’s workout on Sunday….

I knew I wouldn’t have time Mon to workout, so I took my shirt off and got some sun in the back yard with my little girl watching on Sun. I made a video of it and wanted to post it here, but it’s 26min long so they wouldn’t let me (and I only recorded the working sets, not the warm up). All in all my total workout took about 2 hours. And my little Eden sat through the whole thing- my boy Christian doesn’t sit through anything, lol.

Here is what I did:

Swings 24 kg 20 reps each min partner swings with my wife. So basically I did 20 and then she did 20. See kettlebells can be a weird Masochistic date, lol. I think we both did about 100 reps, and then she cut out to make dinner, lol. She’s like a gremlin if she eats too late she turns into a monster, lol.

Then I did about 10 sets of 10 swings and 5 jerks of various forms. I used the 24kg for a few sets, and then the 24 and the 8 kg stacked for a few sets, and once my form wasn’t what I wanted I went back to the 24kg. I think I did 10 sets, could have been more; who knows I feel my training more than get to a destination in my practice.

BTW This is what I recorded but can’t show you. And I want you to know that Eden was not bored she jumped around after every set ended- (maybe she thought I was done and could pick her up and swing her… I internalized it as she likes kettlebells, lol. Do you think maybe she’ll do swings with me in a couple years???)