Barbell complexes. Ouch.

Today was my day off, so after a lovely lie in OH and I went up to the gym.  I make that sound easy.  What really happened is that we spend 10 minutes scraping about 6 inches of snow off the car, and then we tried to move it.  Oh dear.  It took another 10 minutes of revving, rocking back and forward in the same 2 feet, and finally OH pushing for all he was worth.  He fell over when the car finally found grip and shot forward but it was totally worth it, if only for comedy value.

We had a good session at the gym, when we finally got there and defrosted.

• Timed kettlbell snatches.  OH is training for kettlebell sport, so he did 3 minutes each side without stopping.  I used 12kg and swapped arms every minute; I’m not hardcore enough for KB sport yet!  We had a gymboss sounding every minute.
• Barbell complex; deadlift/clean/front squat/push press.  I did 5 rounds with 30kg, 2 rounds with 20kg and 1 at 25kg for a total of 8 sets of 3 reps.  Exhausting, but satisfying.
• Russian twists.  5kg on the end of an olympic bar, 4 sets of 10 total twists (5 each side).

We weren’t strict with rests, worrying more about using challenging weight and good form.  I haven’t done much powerlifting so getting the movements correct and tidy was a struggle, especially when I started to fatigue – hence the drop in weight towards the end.

Tomorrow’s workout will mostly be centred around getting to work.  An hour’s walk in foot deep snow sounds like a reasonable challenge!

This blog isn’t dead, honest

Oops, it appears to be some time since I posted.  I’m not dead, and neither is the blog, I promise!

I’ve been working crazy shifts at work, where my colleagues and I have all been drafted to help at the front end – in other words answering the phone and assessing people’s symptoms.  This is not my job and I find it incredibly stressful and exhausting…but hopefully with the holiday period over there will be less of that.

And through all of this, training has been understandably sporadic!  I do my best though, and when I do get to the gym I make the best use I can of my time.  For instance, today’s workout:

• 5mins of 12kg kettlebell snatches, split into 2/2/1 minute sets.  I wanted to do a solid 5 minutes, but the metal was so cold it hurt, and I had to rest my poor hands (and warm them up).
• 5 sets of 5 deadlifts, 60/65/65/65/60kg.  I lost count so it may actually have been 6 sets, but that’s not a bad thing
• 3 sets of 5 Russian twists.  These should have been at the end of the workout, but I knew if I left the free weights area I’d not get back in.  Also should have been 5 sets but I need to be happy with my technique before I push that hard.
• 5 sets of 5 assisted pull-ups, 35kg on the stack.  Need to move to 30kg next time.  Don’t want to, but all in the name of strength!

I’ve also improved my deadlift 1 rep max over the last couple of months; 18 months or so ago I struggled to acheive 70kg.  Lately I haven’t deadlifted much but have worked on total body strength, mainly with kettlebells.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to test my max, and was able to do:

• 70kg – 5 reps
• 75kg – 3 reps
• 80kg – 3 reps
• 82.5kg – 2 reps.
• 85kg – 1 rep

I stopped there, and it felt pretty good.  I’ve been challenged to go for 1.5 times bodyweight, which means adding another 20kg to that bar….a lofty goal, but I’ll damn well get there

Anyone still watching?

Just the quickest of quick notes to say; I have not forgotten you blog land.  Life is hectic, and I barely have the energy to work my 40 hours, train, do my share of domestic trivialities, and spend any kind of quality time with my other half.  There are lots of exciting things to share though, like the fact that my OH is looking at premises of his own, to run jointly with 1 or 2 of his other trainer friends.

Work is going well (though my training schedule is suffering hugely because of it) and is proving both challenging and fun (with emphasis on the challenging!)

And since I don’t get to train much just now, when I do I make it count.  I’m doing lots of short, intense workouts with things like 16kg swings for 30:/30: and 10-15 rounds as well as a lot of 1RM exercises, and I’m pleased to report that I can snatch-windmill 24kg on both arms.  You’ve no idea how cool it feels to be able to say that

First weeks are exhausting

This was primarily intended as a fitness blog, but I knew I’d want to step out of that every now and then – hence the name.  This has been my first week at my new job, and you know what?  Thursday hasn’t even started yet and I am utterly pooped.  Utterly.

I’m working as a Health Information Adviser for NHS Direct.  That is, if you ring up without any symptoms that need to be assessed and just need some information, it’ll be someone like me who rings you back, having done some research first.  Trouble is, before we get trained to do that, we have to learn how to answer the phones. OMG.

There’s SO MUCH to take in.  Yes it’s “just” a script, but it’s really not.  A good Health Adviser (phone-answering person) has to be pretty skilled at figuring out the correct questions to ask to get the caller to actually say what’s wrong, because a surprising number seem to ring in and say they’re a bit breathless when what they mean is they’ve got stabbing chest pains.  (Disclaimer: totally fictional scenario!!) A script can’t help you deal with that!  The HAs have to think sideways a lot of the time, and do it quickly too.

I get to spend a day answering the phones from a week on Friday.  Wish me luck, and if you need medical advice that day, do me a HUGE favour and ring your GP instead?! 

Comp-grade kettlebells

After stupidly long and drawn-out saga, the OH and I have finally taken delivery of two pairs of competition-grade kettlebells, aka professional grade bells.  That is, the type what are cast steel rather than iron, and every bell no matter the weight has exactly the same shape and size.

They’re so pretty!

OH has gotten straight into doing double jerks with his pair of 24kg bells.  I’ve been doing double swings with my 16kgs, and it is a whole other world!  The size of the bells means I have to radically alter my stance, i.e. stand about 2 feet wider than usual, and consequently lose a lot of power.  But it’s a great challenge,  and very satisfying to do something so different.

I’ve also been doing a few renegade rows, since I’ve never had a pair of bells stable enough before.  Wow.  And ouch.  No more needs to be said!

Rest is good for you

I’ve had a few weeks that were remarkably training-free.  It drove me nuts at the time, but the first session back was amazing.  I guess it’s true what I’ve always known but taken a bit of a “la-la-la, I’m not listening” approach towards; rest is good for you.

A couple of weeks ago I did something to my back.  To this day I’ve no idea what, as back injuries have a nasty habit of not making themselves known til a day or two afterwards, but it caused intense muscle pain in my lower back, just left of the spine.  Then, before it had even begun to heal I went off for a long weekend at my mum’s.  Note to self: 10 hours on a train with a bad back – bad idea.

But the end result was 10 days of total rest (not counting a couple of gentle walks on the beaches of the bonny Isle of Skye) and it did me the world of good.  My first session back I felt strong, loose, and energised.  Moral of the story – I must remember not to be afraid of rest, especially if it involves being well-fed by my mother, and long walks in the country

Ouchies

I’m in the middle of my first real injury, and it sucks.  I was teaching a friend to swing kettlebells last week; did a warmup with him, showed him a few example swings, then sat back and coached.  After we finished and cooled down there was a slight twinge in my left spinal erector; by the time I got home it was a big twinge.  The next day it had totally seized up.

To be honest I don’t know what it is – a pull, a strain, a sprain, a spasm? – but it hurts a lot.  Sudden movements literally take my breath away, and even sitting still there’s a constant throbbing.  When it’s really bad there’s a mild burning sensation around the base of my spine, and stabbing sensations into my left hip.

So, I’m being sensible – no exercise at all, plenty of heat treatments (there’s no inflammation as far as I can tell, so no point in icing it), and trying to stay mobile.  The worst thing I did was get all the kettlebells out of their storage cupboard for class on Saturday, which made things approximately 17 times more painful, so until I’m better I’m trying to not even lift a shopping basket.  I’m going to visit my mum on Thursday, which will involve a 10 hour train journey.  Need to pack extra pain pills…

But just to end on a positive note, the guy I was teaching when my back went took very little coaching – as a former group fitness instructor he had an inate understanding of how to move, and even started correcting his own technique within a few minutes.  “Used my back that time…too much knees…not enough hips.”  When I showed him the clean he immediately saw that he had to “control the swing”, which is really just another way of saying “tame the arc”.  It was a real pleasure to coach someone who engages their brain and really gets functional movement

Core strength (or lack of)

I really, really hate planks.  They show up what I consider to be my biggest weakness – my static core strength.  I see all these women come into the gym who don’t train much (or at all, really) and they can hold a plank for what feels like hours, whereas I’m beginning to struggle at 30 seconds and by 40 seconds I’m swearing and shaking.

It’s frustrating, because I think my dynamic core strength is pretty good, or at least satisfactory; I can windmill a 20kg kettlbell fairly comfortably, and find it’s shoulder stability that begins to fade well before core strength.  I can also snatch a 24kg kettlebell, and that is definitely a core-intensive movement!  And just to top it off, I really enjoy exercises like Russian twists and wood chops, especially dynamic chops with a lunge added.

On the bright side, matters are improving – just a little too slowly for my taste!  When I started Phase 2 of the New Rules I could only manage around 20 seconds, now at the start of Phase 3 that’s more than doubled to 45 seconds…but that’s still only half of the 90 seconds required by the programme.  I’ve been meaning for months and months now to try and get to some pilates classes, and I should really do that because I think it’d do my core a world of good.

Just need more hours in the day now!

The free weight spectrum

We’ve all seen some weird stuff in the free weights area, from the slightly odd and the wildly hilarious, to the downright dangerous.  Sometimes there’s just so much (and I hesitate to use this word, because I hate it) ignorance on display.  Sometimes you’ll see something really interesting that looks effective and fun.  My workout the other day looked like someone had set up a little panorama to illustrate the spectrum of duh.

At one end of the free weights area is the Smith press machine.  Not my favourite bit of kit, but one of our PTs (speciality: biomechanics.  The guy’s a genius)  was using it and getting what looked like an awesome workout.  He had the bar set only a couple of feet above the ground which confused me at first.  But as I watched, he did a set of pushups, then flipped over to use the bar to do a set of pulls in a kind of reverse pushup position.  Finally, he stood up and did a set of burpees.  Quick, efficient, whole-body workout.  Awesome.

Then there was me.  I was plugging away at my New Rules of Lifting for Women workout; not exactly original, but a well-designed, effective workout.

Next up was a guy doing set after set after set of dumbbell chest press.  It’s obviously an effective exercise, but do you really need to do 20 sets of 20?

Next to him was a group of kids doing basically the same thing.  We’ve all seen ‘em; they hang out in packs, doing more posing and showing off than actual training, and the amount of noise they make is apparently the best indicator of an effective workout.  They had a bench and a pair of dumbbells that was obviously too heavy for any of them, but macho pride meant none of ‘em was giving up.  Macho pride also meant that the grunting, swearing, cheering, clapping and general egging on was deafening.  Joy!

And finally, at the “duh” end of the spectrum.  The squat rack is tucked into the very end of our free weights.  There was one guy using it, who looked like he knew what he was doing…until he set up an empty Olympic bar in the rack, and started to do bicep curls with it.  Sigh.  I have no words…

Fit vs. Fat

I am in a pondering kind of mood, and I blame it firmly on my twitter buddy Fluffiebunnie.  She blogged today about her progress with Enter the Kettlebell, and also mentioned that though she’s made less progress than she’d like towards her body fat/lean mass goals, she’s actually not too bothered because right now, she has other priorities.

This is something rather close to home for me, as I’ve tended to be overweight my entire life.  I have also been fat, but not necessarily at the same time.

I suppose this post is really just a rant against what society expects, and also against the now discredited, yet still accepted standard that is the body mass index.  According to my BMI, at 5′7” and 75kg (165lb) I am overweight; I should be trying to lose at least 5kg.  As we all know, BMI allows absolutely no room for body composition, meaning that 2 people with vastly differing body fat percentages could theoretically be given exactly the same advice from a doctor.  Madness, no?

As for that 5kg (minimum) that I should be losing, well I’ve worked HARD for that weight, I’ve paid for it with blood, sweat, tears and ripped up calluses.  Last time my lean mass was checked it was in the region of 60kg and there’s no way I’m giving up a single gram of that.  Add to which, the last time my body fat was checked, it was in the healthy range (I can’t remember precisely what it was – 20-something).  I suspect in the intervening time that it’s crept upwards, but you know what?  I’m not really bothered.  I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, and fitter too.  My body fat doesn’t need to be my enemy; as a woman it gives me shape – boobs and a butt and hips – and it has an important role in several aspects of my health (hormonal health, fertility).

So I refuse to jump on the bandwagon.  I’m not going to join the angst-ridden ranks of the size zero chasers.  I don’t care if my thighs are bigger than that other girl, or my weight/body fat/hair colour/shoe size is not “right”.  Because I’m fit, I’m healthy, and I’m getting stronger every day.

So there