ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 6

Saturday:

I'm feeling jacked up!

Today is exactly what I needed from RoP to show me how tough it really can be. In the schedule today was meant to be a heavy day and I took that to heart finishing all 3 ladders with my 24kg. That's the kind of work that I like to put in. I'm not sure if I will carry this over to light and medium days as those days are pretty much self explanatory.

I bought some plain Creatine Monohydrate yesterday evening to add in to my supplement routine, just to see if anything has changed in the product since the last time I used it about 7 years ago. Odds are it has probably remained unchanged, but it will be an interesting experiement and I am only planning on using the amount that I got (2.5lbs) with 1 70cc scoop post workout. I just want to see how this will effect my RoP workouts, if at all. Normally there is a loading phase, but this is something I've never done before based on my own personal experience. I'd found the last time I used Creatine that I got the same results not loading that I would have gotten loading - so I will be following that same principle this time.

I haven't been able to weigh myself yet but I'm going to do as soon as I find a scale that is good enough. I know a 9$ scale will not give me the most accurate reading, so I'm looking into some glass digital scales but notice some are from weight watchers and some are 'biggest loser' branded. Is there any reputable brand out there that makes a half decent scale? I can tell I've really increased my mass from 5 weeks ago so am really interested to see how much lean mass I've put on since then. I know my bodyfat is at 9% now instead of where it was 5 weeks ago, when it was hovering between 7 to 8. I figure this is not that bad as I do see muscle gains.

I'll be starting my ISSA course on Monday - they say it generally takes about 12 weeks to finish if you put in at 15 hours of study per week. I'm aiming to do it in at least 6 or 7 weeks. I have really big plans, and this is going to put me on the right path. I'm looking forward to absorbing as much as I can from this course. Luckily I still have my textbooks from this past college year so I can reference my Exercise Physiology book, Anatomy book and my Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Book along the way since they are all great references. I will say this about ISSA so far and that is the customer service has been excellent - they returned emails almost immediately and answered all the questions I had. As far as shipping to Canada it cost 40$ flat through Fed Ex and that takes care of all the customs stuff. It's fast too since I put the order in yesterday and it's already across the border about an hour away from where I live. I'd expect to have it tomorrow if Fed Ex does weekend delieveries, if not then Monday for sure. Fast!

Today is my Tacfit low intensity workout which basically consists of the full set of cool down moves - about 21 minutes in total. They are all focused on joint mobility so this is going to be a nice addition to what I just did with RoP today. This is my second micro cycle on the 4x7 schedule and it there has been some adjustment time when you are so used to making your plans around a 7 day schedule. I've found this to be a lot more efficient but of course it is too soon to say if there have been any gains or not. I think after a couple more micro cycles I'll be able to say for sure.

I'd be off to enjoy the day but we're in for a lot of rain, so get at it people and have a good one!

 

ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 5

Friday:

Well I got over excited this morning about doing my heavy day with my 24kg and then went took at my worksheets and realized it isn't for tomorrow. Today is supposed to be a rest day so I will do precisely that as much as it will drive me bonkers. I wrapped up a 20 minute Yoga session just to stretch out, and I will be doing my No Intensity Tacfit workout sometime later today as I didn't feel like stacking it.

I did do Super Joints last night as it had been a little while since I'd done that. I initially started to ease off of it because it was making my hips feel a little tight, so I started to alternate doing it every couple of days, but this past week I had not done it once and got back to it last night. I'm inching closer and closer to being able to do horizontal splits so I can tell that all the flexibility training I am getting from Pavel and Scott are working, it just takes time.

I have been putting some thought into it and am going to try the SSST next week just to give myself a little benchmark of where my strength and conditioning is at. I figure giving it a shot every 4 weeks is a good way to put the numbers to the test and to really make a good judge of what your training is doing for you.

One big thing I have noticed is that my posture has improved dramatically over the past 5 weeks. I think for anyone who sits in front of computer (and that's a bulk of the population) starts to get a little chair shaped - shoulders pulling you forward instead of sitting back like how they normally should. I had never had any pain from this, but it is an unattractive look when your posture is off and for me it throws your centre off. I attribute the straightening out to the work with the kettlebells, the work I've done with the TRX and now the work I'm doing with Tacfit. There is still definite room to grow and by no means can you correct years of bad posture in a month, but you will notice changes if you give it a shot.

Pretty excited that I can finally order my ISSA package today and it's not something I regret at all. I think any of the available home study certs (ACSM, ACE) including ISSA are going to a huge step up on what Can Fit Pro offers you. Every person I have talked to about that particular cert has said it's nothing but a money grab and essentially you can go from uncertified to certified in 5 weeks - which explains why there is such a horrible quality of trainer in the clubs today. If you already have the practical knowledge then an in depth course on theory is going to make you that much better.

Looking forward to Feijao vs Hendo tomorrow on Showtime - Really warming up to Strikeforce and the fights they put on. I like their cards better overall compared to what the UFC puts on - just personal preference at this point and it's pretty awesome that they give women the opportunity to go in and showcase their skills too. Cris Cyborg might be headed to WWE too since she hasn't had a fight since last summer. Apparently no one wants to fight her, and if you've seen her who can blame them - she is a mutant and no man at 145lbs would even get in the cage with her.

Now off to enjoy the day - have a good one!

ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 4

Thursday:

So instead of doing Relax into Stretch this morning as part of my variety day, I am going to make this a part of my evening routine today so I'm ready for my heavy kettlebell day tomorrow. This benefits me a lot more since if I do my Tacfit high intensity workout in the evening that will just keep me hopped up till I go to bed - so it's a bit backwards today.

Body is feeling very good today so I've made the decision to try and get through my ladders tomorrow with the 24kg to see how that works out - it's meant to be a heavy day so we will see how that goes! That way the ladders are broken up has me very confident that I'll be able to do it, just not easily.

I wrapped up my Tacfit Commando workout about 15 minutes ago and that's probably the one time that I remember that I actually felt nauseous from a workout - this was a high intensity day so it was balls to the wall max effort on everything. For anyone who is not aware Tacfit uses the Tabata protocol so you're doing 20 seconds of work with a 10 second rest, 8 sets per move, 6 moves. Once I hit the end of the Standard Pushups I was just smoked, but sucked it up and finished the rest of the workout strongly - I know I'll be feeling this tomorrow, so good thing it's a no intensity day as far as Tacfit goes.

I haven't used my TRX a whole lot lately as I haven't really found a way to work it in with RoP / Tacfit CMDO and the last thing I want to do is overtrain. There is Tacfit R.O.P.E , which I've tried and liked, but I think I'll have to do a cycle of Commando first and then go into R.O.P.E to make it doable. This really is a special time to be involved in the fitness industry as there is always something new to try.

Trying to find a school around here that teaches Krav Maga or Systema is difficult as most schools seem to be an hour or two away, and I by no means live in a small city. I guess there is just no demand for these specific arts compared to things like Muay Thai or BJJ, which is a shame. Staying optomisitc that I will find something though!

I should be sending off payment for my ISSA materials tomorrow so once I get that I'll do a little unboxing for anyone who wants to get into it but is curious about what the package includes.

Have a good one folks!

 

 

ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 3

Wednesday:

Today was a medium intensity today but I'm finding the ladders to not be that challenging with the 16kg so I think starting friday I will start to use my 24kg and see what happens from there. I'm definitely to the point where I think I need to round out the kettlebells I've got and just go ahead and get the 20kg - it's definitely almost time to move up in size. I do realize that it could potentially get harder when the ladders and rungs increase as the weeks go on, but my strength is going to keep increasing as well, so the 20kg is looking like a better fit for me moving forward, depending how hard I find the 24.

The Rite of Passage to me means that you are challenged physically and mentally and I haven't felt that yet - in fact I felt more challenged during the one month conditioning stint in the work up to RoP. Again this is more or less due to me needing to use a heavier weight to challenge myself, but so far I'm not really happy with how easy this has been.

Once I wrap up RoP I am definitely leaning toward getting into some Clubbell training - there is a pretty nice following there as well and it's always good to pick up new tools that will help with your growth. Scott Sonnon has said you can approach it as a cycle, so do a cycle of RoP and then a cycle of Tacfit, and then go back to what you were doing prior to see if there were any gains. It's not a bad idea, but I think anyone would get bored doing just one type of exercise all the time, and I think that's why so many P90X people hit the wall.

Today is also Day 3 of Tacfit: Commando - which I have really enjoyed thus far. The way the whole program is laid out is really impressive in that you have those two days of joint mobility that really prepare for the moves you're actually going to do on your high intensity days. I've been doing these in the evening before I eat dinner and have liked doing it that way - i always feel so much better when I get my blood pumping and I honestly can't stand being sedentary. The way it's packaged also really wants to make you do it - yeah the whole "mission" thing is gimmicky, but so is the whole 'comrade' thing from Pavel's work - but it's fun and motivating.

Everything went well with my meeting and I will be starting my ISSA Certification probably within the next week or two, it will depend on when the materials get here. I had originally planned on doing the NASM/ACSM but this is just a good starting point to get my foot in the door - we all have to start somewhere and honestly I would rather have a solid theory background than doing some like Canfit which has been called a joke in the fitness industry - I do realize that if I want to work at a Good Life Fitness I would need to have it though (Good Life owns Canfit). I think more than anything I'd like to go after the NASM/ACSM from here as to me it's a more complete and respected certification - and I don't exactly plan to stay in Canada to train for the rest of my life.

That's really all I have today, but big things are happening that I'm very excited about! Stay fit, stay positive, and have a great day!

ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 2

Tuesday:

Great start to the day so far!

I didn't sleep much last night - room mate doesn't know how to sleep and is always up to the wee hours of the morning talking to people via skype. Seriously obnoxious behaviour. There are other people on this planet, like yours truly, that happen to like to sleep at a normal time. I think I managed to doze off around 1245 and was up at 8 so not a total loss, but I'm definitely feeling it today being knocked out of my normal sleep pattern.

I did cave and got Art of Strength Providence to follow along with in the ETK Workbook - today was rounds 2-6 repeated twice. A lot of new moves except for the clean. Each move was 2 minutes in length, so it worked out to a 20 minute base workout, 25 minutes with warmup. This was my first time doing the wind mill and it was quite challenging, however to top it off, it was a windmill + overhead squat in on fluid move. Really interesting stuff and nice to be challenged like that. This was a variety so I had the option of doing this or something else and I just felt like doing more KB work.

It's really funny how you think you may be outgrowing a particular bell and then you introduce some moves that really challenge the heck out of you - a new lease on life for my 16kg. This is exactly what I was looking for when I hit Rite of Passage. Variety is the spice of life.

I did start Tacfit Commando day, basically it was a No Intensity day - this was comprised of about 20 minutes of joint mobility and stretches, all warm up moves, just to keep the body in prime condition and in good working order. Today will be a Low Intensity day and this will be comprised of all the cool down moves, so another 20 minutes there that I'll do later this afternoon after my meeting. Tomorrow will be the real challenge as that's a Moderate Intensity day and I will actually be performing the exercises with a warm up and cool down. Should be fun!

I did get around to trying the Janda Sit Up with the TRX and found it to be quite functional and targeted my core the way I thought it would. There was no emphasis on my hips at all so I was able to just concentrate on that area. This was especially pleasing because the Ab Pavelizer is grossly overpriced for what it is and this just adds another element to the TRX. It really boils down to how you use it to get the most out of it.

Hopefully I'm able to secure the funding I need to take my certification today so that will be a pretty big hurdle to jump through. I don't want to get into it to much, but it does feel that I am being pushed into doing something other than what I want to do just to get rid of my file. They (Employment Counselling Agency) may be over budget, but don't force people to do something that is just going to set them up for failure down the road anyway - it's always about the status quo it seems. Once I find out what's going on I'll share that with everyone else.

Have a good one folks!

ETK Week 5 - ROP Day 1

Monday:

You can definitely understand why you go through what you go through for the first month of prep before entering Rite of Passage - you need all the conditioning with the Kettlebell you can get before you move on to this. Like I've said before - it's a totally different beast than what you think it is.

The ladders were the easy part - I really only started to feel that by the third and final set, so I know my conditioning is in pretty good form judging by that. It is a light day though. After that was all said and done I had to roll my dice and landed with an 8 - I don't want to follow that aspect to the book because this is a bit more unpredictable and fun for me. The goal during this was to go at a moderate pace at about 60-65% of my MHR. I made it to the 6 minute mark and was just dog tired. I kept my heart at 65% of my MHR but I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish the last 2 rounds. I'm okay with this since it's the first time I've had to do that many snatches, 60 per side, 120 total. Well on my way though!

I've decided I'm going to run through Tacfit Commando side by side Rite of Passage. The 4x7 protocol is very interesting and is not something I've ever done before so I think it will compliment the work load that I'm getting with ROP. Scott Sonnon is a really interesting guy and you can tell by listening to him that he knows what he is talking about and is very passionate about it. This is the type of training that I could see not just benefitting first response people, but people who train for a martial art as well.

I'm looking in to taking a Russian Systema class and I think I've found one in my town - just working out the time and cost right now. It's really between this and a Krav Maga class. If anyone out there has taken these types of classes give me a shout, I'd really be interested to hear your feedback.

I'm still sticking with Super Joints / Relax Into Stretch and am reincoporating 25-40 minutes of Yoga at least once per week, preferably on the weekends. There is just a benefit that you get from Yoga that you can't get from other Joint Mobility work. It's not for everyone but it does certainly help.

I'm going to spend a little time reading 'The Nine Principles of Japans Greatest Swordman: Musashi Miyamoto' later this afternoon. It's from the Tacfit Warrior package and it's meant to be about facilitating growth and development in any aspect of your life. It's only 42 pages and has some exercises in it as well, so should be a pretty interesting read.

Have a good one!

ETK End of Week 4 - Day 7

Sunday:

So I officially made it to the end of month one - a real good primer that teaches you the essentials of what you'll need for the following 8 weeks. Great month, had a lot of fun, but now I'm really ready to get into the meat and potatoes of what Kettlebell training has to offer.

I'm still figuring out how I can integrate all these different components together without detracting from my Kettlebell training. There is such a smorgasboard of techniques out there and I am anxious to try as much as possible. Tacfit is seriously intriguing so I might run Tacfit Commando/R.O.P.E side by side with Rite of Passage. I know there are people who do 5-6 sessions of Tacfit programs a day and get great results without overtraining, so this is definitely something to think about further.

I'm looking at making a Cellmass clone from TrueProtein since the prices there are just too good to be true and you can actually control what you are putting in your supplement. Why Cellmass? Say what you want about BSN, but they do have some great supplements albeit all of them are overpriced. I don't want to risk over-supplementing so I'll stick with that and a good protein powder and I think that's all you really could want to be successful with your goals of gaining size and strength.

I never did get around to trying the 4 Hour Body Mass Gaining Diet. Honestly, I like to keep it simple. I know that if I eat a lot of healthy fats, complex carbs and lean proteins that I'm going to keep gaining weight and it will be lean muscle. Sure, gaining a fraction of 63lbs in 28 days would be nice, but I don't want to be walking around like some blowfish. I'm content with 10-15 more pounds of muscle and then entering a maintenance cycle. There comes a point when you sacrifice fluid mobility for size and that's not what I'm looking for.

This past weekend has been really re-energizing for my body. I had gone really hard this month in terms of work rate, doing 6-7 days a week, 4 with the kettlebell and 3 with the TRX - this left my body pretty tired by the end of a full month and really needed time for some recuperation. Some people like taking a week off, I'm fine with taking a weekend off. I did Yoga yesterday and some Joint Mobility work today. I've also slept a lot more this weekend (longer than my standard 8 hours a night) and I attribute that to my body taking the time to heal and prepare itself for what it knows is coming. I already feel refreshed, full of energy, and am ready to go!

It's also tax season so I think with my return I'll be getting myself another Kettlebell and one Clubbell to add to my collection so far. I've never been a fan of machines, I always trained myself with free weights because that's what worked for me, for my friends, and for anyone else that I trained. Yes program planning had something to do with it, as well as diet, but I believe the way you lift can produce dramatic results, good or bad. This older school way of training really takes me back and really makes the body and mind feel complete. 

See you guys tomorrow for Day 1, Rite of Passage.