Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

This goes out to all those who read this blog...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!! If you are traveling, I hope you are blessed with a safe trip.

I'm taking a bit of a break from the internet, so I should be back posting after the new year.

With that said, to all my RKC brethren and sistren, have a blessed holiday and new year! 2009 will promise to be full of awesome opportunities and experiences, goals to set and achieve, and PR's bested and broken. I very much look forward to it and can't wait until the next time we all meet up again!

I'll leave you all with a very good story of a high school football team that has no reason to hope, no reason to believe. They were blessed with something we all possess, but rarely give....human kindness. Enjoy!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

~ Jason

Killed The Force Recon Workout Last Week!

Great week of training! Strong, Light and Powerful! That's how I felt all week. I sat around 182 all week and cheated one day on Warrior Diet with a lunch on Wednesday due to a board meeting at work. This was my worst day of training. I felt nauseous after eating and felt lethargic and withdraw all during training. My body is definitely adapting to the daily fasting.

Monday - 12/15/08

Strength Circuit w/ Class:
5x3 of the following:

Front Squat - Double 40kg
Weighted Pull Up - 20kg
Dead Lift - 385lbs
Weighted Elevated Push Up - 115lbs on back

Tuesday - 12/16/08

Force Recon - Day 3

Superset:
Weighted Pull Up - 5x5 - 16kg on Foot
Clean & Press - 5x5 - Double 28kg

Front Squat - 5x5 - Double 32kg
(Rock Bottom w/ 1 second pause)

Superset:
Snatch - 5x5 - 32kg
Strict Hanging Leg Raise - 5x5

Wednesday - 12/17/08

Active Recovery:
Kettlebell Progressive Complex
Done w/ 16kg

3xL/R w/ 25 Push Ups Between Rounds
Swing, Clean, Squat, Snatch, Press, 1/2 Kneeling Press, Arm Bar Press x3, TGU

Thursday - 12/18/08

Force Recon - Day 4

Clean and Jerk - 10 Minutes
1 - Arm - 32kg for 1st 5 min., 28kg for last 5 min. (only put bell down to switch sizes.)

Fighter Sit Ups - 5x5

Superset:
100 Tactical Pull Ups (Used a Monster Mini Jump Stretch band after I hit 60)
Front Squats - Double 24kg - 10x each time I let go of the bar (took 8 sets of pull ups to complete)

Superset:
Snatch - 24kg - 5x10/10
100m Jog - 5x

The Force Recon workout Pavel wrote is the bomb! This ends week two of the brutality, but I was able to dramatically increase the weight I used from last week and decrease the amount of time the workouts took to complete.

Not sure what's going on physiologically, but I've maintained my weight all week and increased my strength and stamina without eating ANYTHING during the day (with the exception of Wed. and I felt like crap for it). No matter what, I'm digging the results!

Kevin got a new stock pile of 60 Penny Nails for some bending fun. One day I plan on trying to bend (X) number of nails for time. I've never tried it before like that, but Adam Glass is definitely inspiring enough to try it. I just need to pick a fresh day when wrists and hands aren't so sore.

Last Week In Review:

Training was a little different as compared to last week. I started a Force Recon workout that was written by Pavel. This will be a staple Tuesday/Thursday workout for the fighters. The Force Recon workout looked like this.

Tuesday:
Superset:
Weighted Pull Ups - 12kg - 5x5
Clean and Press - Double 24kg - 5x5

Rock Bottom Front Squat w/ 1 second Pause - Double 24kg - 5x5

Superset:
Snatch - 32kg - 5/5x5
Strict Hanging Leg Raise - 5x5

Thursday:
Single Arm Clean and Jerk - 24kg - 10 minutes (never put the bell down)
Heavy Abs - Fighter Sit Ups - 5x5

Superset:
Pull Ups - 100 Total
Front Squats - Double 24kg - 10 Reps Every Time You Let Go Of The Bar
(This sucked! I managed the whole thing in 8 Sets - 100 Pull Ups, 80 Front Squats)

Superset:
Snatch - 24kg - 10/10x5 (100 total)
100 Yard Jog - x5

I was very fortunate to get an opportunity to meet up with a group of high school athletes and their coaches from Monterey High School here in Lubbock. There was about 60 kids, Freshman thru Juniors. They all plan on playing varsity football as Linemen or Linebackers next year. We worked on the Swing and Turkish Get Up. They did great and I think they'll really get a ton out of implementing the techniques I showed them in their program.

Afterward, I showed them a little steel bending with some 60 Penny Nails I brought. This was a lot of fun and they all wanted to take a crack at it and keep the nails I bent. Then they wanted to see me jump because I was talking to them about the benefits the Double KB Swing can have as an awesome hip developer for explosiveness. So, Coach brought out their Vertical Jump Kit and tested my hops for the first time since high school. My standing reach was 89" (7 feet, 5 inches). After a few attempts, my best jump was 123" (10 feet, 3 inches) for a standing vertical jump of 34". Not bad for a 31-year old that's 50 pounds heavier than his high school version.

Another notable PR happened Monday while doing Bottom's Up Presses. I hit the 36kg for 2 reps on the right and 1 on the left. I'm getting closer to that 40kg! Then I repped out the 32kg for 5 consecutive reps! I wish I had my video camera!...Next time!

I also hit a bending PR with a 5" piece of 1/4" Cold Rolled Steel. The equivalent of a Blue Nail, but an inch shorter. After about 6 hits, double overhand style, I got it to 90 degrees and finished it off to 1.5". This was by far my toughest bend!

Warrior Diet has been going pretty well. Adherence is about 95% during the week and about 80% on the weekends. I've trimmed down to about 182 pounds, give or take 3 pounds, from a steady 195. I definitely look more defined, mainly in the mid-section, so the abdominal fat loss has been a nice side effect. I think I'm going to keep it up until the end of the year. (I don't want to get so light I'll fly away, you know)

Look Who's Kettlebellin'

I've talked to several endurance athletes since I've become a Kettlebell Instructor through RKC and they have relatively the same thing to say about kettlebells. Too much strength training. How do you get cardio out of that? I don't want to bulk up...etc. Well, here's a pic of arguably the best endurance athlete of all time with this magical ball of iron....so you tell me, is it for endurance athletes?

Training Week - 12/01/08 - 12/04/08

12/1/08 - Monday

Bottom's Up Press - 24kg

3x1,2,3,4,5

Superset w/ Barbell Bent Rows 225 - 3x1,2135 - 3x3,4,5

3x3 of the following:

Front Squat - Double 40kg

Pull Up - 20kg

Dead Lift - 275

Push Up - Elevated w/ 2-45lb Plates and 30lb Chain on neck

12/2/08 - Tuesday

Vo2 Max - 16kg - 40 sets of 8 - :15/:15

12/3/08 - Wednesday

Active Recovery

Progressive Complex - 12kg

3 Rounds both Left and Right

Swing

Swing, Snatch

Swing, Snatch, Press

Swing, Snatch, Press, Windmill

Swing, Snatch, Press, Windmill, Overhead Squat

Swing, Snatch, Press, Windmill, Overhead Squat, Half Kneeling Press

Swing, Snatch, Press, Windmill, Overhead Squat, Half Kneeling Press, Arm Bar Press x 3, TGU

25 Push Ups between each round

12/4/08 - Thursday

Barbell Front Squat

135 x 10

225 x 5

275 x 2

315 x 1

Tried box jumps again. Hit 61 inches 3 times, which is 3 of my tires stacked on each other. Mixed in Barbell Back Squats ~ 3x5 225

Worked the circuits with the late class.

No short bending this week. I still need to go to the store. I did buy some cards at the dollar store and started on card tearing 'cause I've ripped everything I had in the house with exception of 2 decks. Tearing cards is extremely tough for me. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong, but when I watch vids of other guys do it, I can't seem to mimic it with the same grips. Plus it's pretty painful. I did get a full Lubbock Yellow pages phonebook yesterday the "right" way. It's about 1.5 inches thick. I was showing the guys how to do both techniques (parlor trick and strongman) and when showing the strength version the pages just popped apart...it looked as if I'd chopped the top of the book with a machete. Pretty cool! So I finished it off, which took me a little bit. I'll keep grinding at the card tearing. I'm at 30 or so cards now and the tears are ugly....very curvy and the cards are a mess when I'm done. What's crazy is my grip is stronger than it's ever been right now and this seems to be impossible to me right now. The tortoise wins the race with this I guess.