Formosa Fitness

workout1

EDT 15:00 2x24kg KB press/row 5L/5R: 7 sets

I crapped out at the 10:00 mark. Just didn't have it in me after being sick for two days. Dropped down to:

Kb clean and press 1x24kg 3L/3R: 6 sets

So this is something that doing kettlebells can teach you: change something other than the weight. When i did weightlifting, I'd just drop down in weight if I couldn't perform the exercise. With kettlebells, you can change the exercise or another parameter. Of course you could do that with regular weights too, but most people IME simply drop the weight. Instead, I just switched immediately into single 24 clean and press and kept rolling.

EDT 15:00 pullups/pushups 5/5: 9 sets 4/5: 9 sets total: 81 pullups,  90 pushups

Pullups felt great today! Waaay stronger than every before. I think the EDT is paying off! I did drop down to sets of 4 instead of 5 but I was mostly able to maintain form throughout. I think this might be working. Stay tuned.

Workout 2

20:00 jump rope, 10:00 bike

Been very busy lately. And sick. Uck. But we are now selling the kettlebells comercially in Taiwan. Take a look:

http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/qa?11090803917572

Which workout program to choose? Which path to follow? We can talk about science this and that or quote famous authors on what we are supposed to do. But when it comes right down to it, I pick a path because I like how it makes me feel.

How you feel after a workout or how you feel the next day is an often over-looked and certainly under-rated measure of a workout. Now I'm not talking training athletes here nor am I myself an athlete. And yes, we need to train things that make us uncomfortable and work on our weaknesses. All of that is granted.

But even taking those into consideration, there tends to be multiple paths up the mountain and I pick the one that makes me feel a certain way.

Once basic health and fitness are acquired (in what ever definition you personally use) then why do you keep training?

Because it hopefully makes you feel good.

Talking about ecalating density training and what not might seem confusing. So what the heck am I trying to do lately?

My goals are the following:

1. hypertrophy. I want to get a bit bigger myself and I want to be able to program hypertrophy gains for clients as well. So right now I'm experimenting to see how I can make that happen in a functional fitness paradigm. Do the two mix? That's what I'm trying to find out. I had no problem gaining muscle using bodybuilding protocols in the past, but training movements instead of muscles, as we do in the functional fitness paradigm, changes things quite a bit. We don't isolate muscles the way bodybuilders do, so can it be done? Stay tuned.

2. heavy kettlebells. I want to be able to handle the heavy kettlebells both in singles and doubles with skill. Doesn't mean I have to master them right now but I want to be familiar with their use and that means training with them for a while. So time to up the poundage.

Before I started training EDT, I had doubts that hypertrophy with ketlebells could be done. Or maybe i was doubting I could figure it out. Doing something like a 5x5 program with the kettlebells just didn't feel like enough for me. The problem was likely the fewer number of upper body movements available with kettlebells, leading to a lower training volume if you try to use them for hypertrophy. But EDT takes care of that volume problem like a charm. So far, I get a much better training response from EDT than a KB 5x5 workout.

More to come.

Wow. This was tough:

EDT 2x24kg KB squats and swings 20:00

I got 16 sets and this taxed my cardio a bit. I had to really catch my breath between sets.

The swings were interesting since I've never swung that much weight before and I'm a short guy. I had to make the swings short so the combined weight of the bells (48kg) didn't swing me off my little lepruchan feet.

Afterward:

superset leg thrusts and reverse crunches 10/5 x3

0:05 break between thrusts and crunches, 0:10 between sets. Come down as slow as possible on the crunches.

This has become my abs workout lately and I'm loving it. Just takes a few minutes and works like crazy. Try it out.

Workout 2

30:00 on bike program 3 level 10=400cal burned

EDT is escalating density training. Pick one or two exericeses that you can do for about 4-5 reps each and then do as many short sets of them as you can in 20 minutes. The goal is to increase the volume you do in those 20 minutes. For a good longer article on it, go here.

Charles Staley came up with this and he has a whole bunch of stuff on the program but it's pretty simple to figure out.

I did a superset of double KB presses and double KB rows with the 24kg KBs and had a blast. Great program. I made 15 sets but I rested way too long at the beginning. I was holding back thinking it would be tougher so I didn't put the right effort into it the first few minutes. Next time I'll try to make 20 sets. Think I can do it.

It's a great way to spend 20 minutes. :)

I've been thinking a lot about this lately: working out with kettlebells is different from other workouts -- they take courage.

Look at the sad state of corporate fitness with its treadmills and machines that hold the weights for you. When you workout like that, you're always sitting down or "working" out in some protected environment. You don't have to face any of your body's structural problems since the machines provide all the structure. You don't have to worry about dropping the weight because it will just fall back on to the stack.

Kettlebells aren't like that at all.

It's just you and the bell and all your weaknesses get exposed right from the start. Nearly everyone has tight, underworked posterior muscles and kettlebells hit those first thing with the deadlift and swing. Want to run from your weaknesses and move on to some other vanity exercise? You can't with kettlebells. Don't get the swing down and there's no where else to go. Either face your fears and weaknesses, or put it down and walk away.

Because of this aspect, I don't think that kettlebells will be for everyone. Not every one likes having to deal with their weaknesses first.

But that's what makes kettlebells such an amazing tool -- they start fixing your body on day one.

It's a transformative experience.

This was my workout this morning. It's a kettlebell circuit from Kettlebell Athletics that was posted at IronGarm:

50L/50R snatches

50L/50R squats

50L/50R cleans

50L/50R swings

50L/50R push press

50L/50R jerks

I did it with the 16kg kettlebell and you do it for time. I got 43:30 so I'm definitely a keyboard ninja warrior for this one. :)

It's a hell of a circuit. Things started falling apart for me on the push press. I expected them to be easy but those and the jerks took me the last 20:00 of the circuit.

I plan on doing this circuit or something like it periodically to test myself. If you try it out, let us know how you did.

They're here! I'm offering them to you guys that read the blog first. Below are CASH ONLY prices. Come pick them up at my studio. Get them while you can!

基本壺鈴

4kg 4公斤 NT$600 or 2 for NT$1000

8kg 8公斤 NT$1500

12kg 12公斤 NT$2500

16kg 16公斤 NT$3000

20kg 20公斤 NT$3500

24kg 24公斤 NT$4000

28kg 28公斤 NT$4500

32kg 32公斤 NT$5000

Competition models 專業壺鈴

16kg 16公斤 NT$4000

24kg 24公斤 NT$5000

On one of the fitness boards I post on, a person asked a question about a trainer. They said they wanted to train with this person because he got good results. But the trainer was well-known for making everyone go through a period of stabilization training. But the person asking for some reason didn't want to do that type of training because she thought it was worthless (based on her one year of experience working out at a gym, no less).

To my surprise, many people got on there and gave her advice on how to argue against the training, even trainers gave her tips against it.

It pissed me off.

When someone goes to a trainer, they should be looking for results, not method. The trainer is the subject matter expert, not the client. Take your goals to the trainer and let them devise the program. If you're going to dictate method, then why hire a trainer in the first place?

So I got on there and asked if this trainer was getting good results, making her want to hire him, then why was she second-guessing his methods. She said she didn't want to do this kind of training. I then told her that if it was me, I would refuse to train her because she was being arrogant. Naturally that killed the thread.

I was listening to a stengthcoach.com podcast yesterday by Gray Cook and he covered this well. He called it coddled conditioning where the client gets babied and none of their issues are addressed. Instead the trainer allows the client to dictate an endless variety of methods, none of which make any difference because the client isn't sticking with one long enough to make it work. Nor are they addressing what they NEED instead of what they WANT.

I saw this alot when I taught English and my private students brought in a new book each week. It was frustrating.

As trainers, it's irresponsible of us to not address the client's needs as well as the wants. If people are so spoiled that they leave when we do that, then that's fine too. Not everyone deserves our time.

Gray Cook in the podcast made an excellent point that some training needs to be EARNED. In other words, people that can't do basic exercises don't get to try new things until basics are mastered.

As trainers, we have to mix the hard stuff with the candy. We have to give people what they need along with what they want. It's a delicate balance.