Finished the rite of passage program

Achieved my 5x5 ladders with the 24kg. Thats something like 70 clean and presses with each arm. Did this in exactly 40mins.
Was supposed to do swings afterwards but decided I would rather do some car pushing. Never done it before, but I will be doing it again. You get a serious burn in the quads and go all jelly afterwards; feels like it burns an immense amount of energy, still burning now.

My ball handling skills have increased immensely due to kettlebelling. I hypothesise that this is due to the cleans and snatches where the bell is literally dropped and recaught. Juggling and 1-hand swings with a hand switch also. It teaches hand-eye coordination. After kettlebelling last summer the most noticeable thing was my lack of any dropped balls (haha), this leads to massively increased confidence which has a direct impact on the game. IMO this is the most useful attribute of kettlebells for rugby players.

Brutal boxing day

I wrote a list last night of all the bits of equipment and things I have immediate access too:
- a few kettlebells
- 55kg barbell
- rope
- bike
- countryside and hills
- rugby ball

Off the top of my head I scribbled something down on the same piece of paper the following workout:

8 x3 burpees
10 front squats with 55kg
run around cherkley court ~2.5km up and down hills
then 2 rounds of:
farmers walk down end of drive and back with 24kg and 32kg bells
8 zercher squats with 55kg
8 front squats with 55kg
8 back squats with 55kg

When one is strapped for ideas, write everything down. Make a plan without too much thought then do it! Doing it is the most important part of this lesson.

light and medium days done, a few swings and snatches here and there

A quick note, expanding on the previous post.

Power Clean to Front Squat
Power Clean to Press
Power Snatch to Overhead Squat

Done in a M-W-F heavy-heavy-heavy format this could make an excellent cycle (ladders perhaps). Would leave plenty of room for additonal running, or whatever.

Penultimate heavy day

The clean, crisp like a punch.

5 ladders 4 rungs of clean and press
mashed this all together in under 20mins

finished with one hand swings
10L 10R x 3

all done with the 24kg bell

Resistance exercises that develop optimum human function:

The must do's:
A deep knee bend (squat variants: zercher, front, overhead, back, goblet... lets choose front)
Press
Clean

The deep knee bend of squat builds lower body strength, the press likewise for upper body.
The clean developes power in the entire body. Bill Starr wrote that athletes need only use the 'big three' exercises: back squat, power clean and bench press.

Condensing this:
Clean & Press
Front Squat
Get good at these and everything in life will be easier. These two exercises seem to have carry-over into everything.

Bryce at www.ironsports.tv advocates what's been branded the 50/20 method. Train 4 days a week (eg mon, tu, th,fr). Select a lift or two (clean and press, front squat). Put some weight on the bar and set a timer for 20mins. Do 50 reps or more. If you manage 50, put more weight on next time. If you get less, keep the same weight and try again next time. Alternate the exercises so you end up clean and pressing twice a week and front squatting twice a week.

Let us expand on this list:
Swing
Deadlift

The swing done properly provides all the work the hamstrings ever need, do 10 heavy swings then see how springy you feel.

The deadlift is in my opinion a safety exercise, it builds the back musculature like nothing else. Heavy deadlift loading strengthens the entire skeletal system. Being killed is much more difficult if you deadlift. A strong lower back is useful in rugby, many people ruck with rounded backs which is weak. This does not happen if you have a strong back.

Pullups and Farmers Walks
Deserve a mention as completeness exercises. Do them whenever. Farmers are best done with a friend.

55.5kg barbell back squat 30 reps, got 40+ in me.
(clean and press to get it there, and reverse movement at the end)

Variety day

24kg + 32kg

row
3 sets of 5

clean
3 sets of 5

romanian deadlift
3 sets of 5

It's weird all the things I naturally want to do, as in when I run out of ideas... are predominantly back movements... or pulls. I love pulling.

Now that tiger woods has been dethroned, I believe he needs a successor.

Practicing my drive in the snow, on snowballs. It's getting more fluid already and the finishing turn is smooth-as.

Rite of Passage medium day today
24kg
C+P 5 ladders 2 rungs each ladder, blitzed through.
swings: powerful with overspeed excentrics 15 on the min for 6 mins, meant to do 7 but tore a hole in the side of my finger on the 6th min.

Yeah that was hard. Will drop the weight to 24kg and hopefully speed up the sprint a little. A hill sprint instead would be a good thing to try next week.
Sprinted down the drive today, flat and about 100 yards.

Tomorrows workout

Task: Litvinovs
Condition: 30 swings with the 32kg then sprint!
do this 3 times - recover inbetween

Snowy snatches

Everything is heightened in the cold...

The heavens opened today and god poured some white crap over everyone.

Today is the light day of the RoP. So I did the following in the snow with the 24kg:
Clean and press: 5 ladders 1 rung per ladder = 20 total = 480kg
Snatches: 5 each hand on the minute for 10mins = 100 snatches = 2400kg

I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who gets snow to go outside and put some work in, and to have fun while doing it.

I'm eating less during the day and eating more at night, absolutly loving it.

Rite of Passage Week 1 heavy day

A handshake to be remembered...

24kg clean and press (clean before each press)
5 ladders - 3 rungs per ladder (worth noting the rest period between each ladder was no more than a couple of mins, no rest between rungs)
30 reps each arm
60 total
60*24=1440kg

32kg swings
20 on the minute for 5mins (really challenging on the grip)
100 total
32kg*100=3200kg

Bull... shit!

Got chased by a herd of about 20 young bulls while crossing a big field. I managed to outpace them in a 70m dash to the exit. This was on a random run I went on, lasted about 50mins to an hour and I was running for at least 90% of it.

Also yesterday I broke my own rule and went to the gym, although twas with my mum. Here is what I did:
Front squats supersetted with pullups (bare minimum rest).
5 40kg front squats
3 pullups
5 50kg front squats
3 pullups
3 60kg front squats
3 pullups
3 70kg front squats (my FS form has become much better - even though I havn't done these for about 5 weeks - it's a flexibility thing)

2 sets of 42kg goblet squats 8 reps each set

clean and press with a 20kg dumbell: 3 sets of 5 (a clean before each press, minimum rest)

1000m row on level 7 in something like 4:30

I'm quite good at improvising!

Today did 10mins of the 15/15 vo2max thing with the 16kg @ 8 reps cadence.
Yesterday played rugby won 21-0.
Monday went for a great old school run in the evening rain.

Party Manifesto

So I've slightly changed my apoproach to this programming over xmas. Swallowing my pride and listening to the words of the text is going to trump here. Pavel states that to use this program select a bell size that can be clean and pressed 5-8 times. 24kg: So with my left hand I (with a clean before each press) did this for 8 reps, with maybe one or two left if the tank.
Now, I can only manage 1 rep with the 32kg and a couple with my right hand.
Therefore it would benefit me to just use the 24kg for ladders. Dunno why this wasn't obvious to me in the first place.. pride perhaps.
I will start and end with 5 ladders, 3 rungs in the first week, 4 in the second, and the full 5x5 in the 3rd. Hopefully by the 4th week the 32kg will be owned. I believe that this is possible. If not then I'll just program minimum it.
Some intelligent use of the variety days will be useful. In the meantime I will use the 32kg for swings and getups.

shit that i've got up to

just wrote out a nice long post then lost it all so can't be assed now

deadlift friday 1s
125kg x 5
140kg x 3
155kg x 3
hanging leg raise 10 x3

32kg kettlebell arrived
managed a single on the left and a double on the right in C+P

saturday
20 swings on the min for 5mins

sunday
12 min manmaker
10 swings on min with pump stretrch for 'recovery' - q.intense

good stretch for hips i've been doing:
deep squat holding ontop something heavy for balance like a sofa. start with close stance and slowly edge feet out into a wider stance, should feel a stretch build (keep knees out). go wider until into discomfort zone, squeeze knees out with elbows - massive stretch in hips. hold this for 20 deep breaths (extreme discomfort), then collapse. voila looser hips. top this of with hip flexor stretch.

Good workout: bench 3s and more

Power clean
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
55kg x 5
60kg x 4
then i found a pair of straps and tried cleans with them
60 flew up
so did 70
straps make a big difference.. but i'll be okay without them.

I'd love to clean more weight, maybe focus on it more after xmas.

Bench
50kg x 3
55kg x 3
62.5kg x 11 (maybe 12 lost count)

Rugby boys came in, taught 3 of them how to power clean.
Ended up doing:
power clean and press
40kg x 10 (x2)
40kg x 15 followed by 10 push presses with no rest (SMOKER)

2mins run incline 8 speed 8 nothing fancy just a small finished. the room was full of girls it's always a little embarrasing coming off the treadmill after 2mins and looking wiped out.