Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Seeing Sleep: towards the perfect sleep rep.
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It's not new to say EVERYONE needs a coach - whether for fitness, business, academics - anything where skills are involved, a coach is a plus. The coach is there to give us cues on our technique and provide feedback on our progress. We spend a THIRD of our lives asleep It's critical for our health and wellbeing. People are at greater risk of death from poor sleep; we go funny without REM sleep; kids/teens have been shown to be more depressed and tend towards obesity from lack of REM.
More of us than not, however, know that either (a) our sleeps are crap or (b) we're not getting enough or (c) even though we're getting the hours in we still do not feel refreshed. That's unreservedly unhealthy. And if there are skills involved in getting better sleep, where's the coach for sleep? Where's the tips, the progress logs and the feedback? A small company outside Boston, MA has been developing an answer to that question. It's called Zeo, and it may help change the quality of our lives.
The following is the first part of an interview with Zeo sleep researcher, Stephan Fabregas, about sleep, what it is, why it's important and how zeo might fit in.
Background: Sleep Quality and Quantity. Ask bodybuilders about sleep and they'll tell you - perhaps more than any other athlete - how important sleep is for their prime directive: build muscle. Sleep is where that process happens. So they know the value of good sleep.
Most of us, when we think about sleep at all think about the importance of getting 7-8hrs of sleep. But it turns out, for great sleep, we need to think about not just hours of eyes shut, head down, but about quality of sleep. For nations where people chronically walk around sleep deprived, asking folks to think about quantity AND quality may be going too far. But as in strength practice itself, it's not how many reps we do, but how many quality reps we do that really count.
When i first met Stephan he asked me draw what i thought the perfect sleep is supposed to look like. What i drew looked like a single half of a single sign wave: a curve dipping down into deep sleep, than gently coming back up out towards wake. EEEEHHH. Wrong. Typical idea, but way wrong.
Quality of sleep means sleep cycles. Plural. Time in a cycle is spent in four pretty discrete sleep phases - deep, REM, light and wake. Wake is part of a sleep cylce? In fact it is. It's actually natural to wake up for short spurts at night - and not even remember that we did. A good night's sleep has at least four of these cylces where they get progressively more shallow - that means less deep sleep cycles as the night turns to morning.
Why are these sleep phases important to know about? because if we get them wrong - and get hauled awake out of a deep sleep for instance, it can wrech the rest we need and make it hard to go back for more. It's also very unpleasant to our systems.
It's this respect the cycle knowledge that also means that naps should either be only 15 mins - a light sleep phase - or 90 - time to go through a complete cycle. Trying to sleep for shorter or longer can again disrupt sleep patterns making it harder for us to recover those precious zzz's at night, or get the refreshing benefit a nap's supposed to give for the day.
So how do we know how well or not we're sleeping? WHile our loved ones might be able to tell us we're behaving like bears, we're getting up on the wrong side of the bed or we're walking around like zombies, there's a more precise way to do this, which is to measure the brainwave patterns of the frontol lobe while a person's asleep. Oh sure - i'll just check into a sleep lab you say. Well, there's actually a new device on the market called a Zeo which does this measuring for the home user. Less expensive than a high end heart rate monitor, the zeo gives its user direct, measured, quantitative data about qualitative sleep. And it provided an online coaching program to help make sense of that data for enhancing sleep quality.
Part of my research happens to be about how awareness of personal state may enable enhanced quality of life, and foster innovation and creativity, so i was very happy recently to be able to sit down with two of Zeo's main geeks Ben and Stephan about the Zeo to get them set up in our lab. Stephan and i have also been chatting about sleep, its role in evolution, and how the zeo came to be.
Stephan, let's start with something basic. What is a good night's sleep?
Ok we'll come back to that one.
You do something rather rare: you put time into sleep - and figuring out how to make it better. How did you become a sleep guy?
I've shared with you my fave curiousity about getting deeper sleeps: eat high GI carbs 4 hours before going to bed. What else is coming out of research that may have practical value for sleepfulness?
Ok that's definitely intriguing. Especially with other suggestions like having a warm bath to help relax before sleep. Agreed totally on the windows and on reducing the audibility of noises in the night.
So where in this scene does seeing sleep with a zeo make sense? how or why does zeo make sense?
Cool, we shall talk more about the Zeo, the long-lasting effect of caffeine on sleep and how or whether to try to manipulate sleep states in our next instalment. Folks who'd like to get a better sense of sleep - there's a garden of information on the Zeo site in the Sleep Information center.
In the meantime, Stephan, when you're not thinking about sleep, what are you up to? What does a Sleep Guy eat?
Thanks Stephan. More soon.
More of us than not, however, know that either (a) our sleeps are crap or (b) we're not getting enough or (c) even though we're getting the hours in we still do not feel refreshed. That's unreservedly unhealthy. And if there are skills involved in getting better sleep, where's the coach for sleep? Where's the tips, the progress logs and the feedback? A small company outside Boston, MA has been developing an answer to that question. It's called Zeo, and it may help change the quality of our lives.
The following is the first part of an interview with Zeo sleep researcher, Stephan Fabregas, about sleep, what it is, why it's important and how zeo might fit in.
Background: Sleep Quality and Quantity. Ask bodybuilders about sleep and they'll tell you - perhaps more than any other athlete - how important sleep is for their prime directive: build muscle. Sleep is where that process happens. So they know the value of good sleep.
Most of us, when we think about sleep at all think about the importance of getting 7-8hrs of sleep. But it turns out, for great sleep, we need to think about not just hours of eyes shut, head down, but about quality of sleep. For nations where people chronically walk around sleep deprived, asking folks to think about quantity AND quality may be going too far. But as in strength practice itself, it's not how many reps we do, but how many quality reps we do that really count.
When i first met Stephan he asked me draw what i thought the perfect sleep is supposed to look like. What i drew looked like a single half of a single sign wave: a curve dipping down into deep sleep, than gently coming back up out towards wake. EEEEHHH. Wrong. Typical idea, but way wrong.
Quality of sleep means sleep cycles. Plural. Time in a cycle is spent in four pretty discrete sleep phases - deep, REM, light and wake. Wake is part of a sleep cylce? In fact it is. It's actually natural to wake up for short spurts at night - and not even remember that we did. A good night's sleep has at least four of these cylces where they get progressively more shallow - that means less deep sleep cycles as the night turns to morning.
Why are these sleep phases important to know about? because if we get them wrong - and get hauled awake out of a deep sleep for instance, it can wrech the rest we need and make it hard to go back for more. It's also very unpleasant to our systems.
It's this respect the cycle knowledge that also means that naps should either be only 15 mins - a light sleep phase - or 90 - time to go through a complete cycle. Trying to sleep for shorter or longer can again disrupt sleep patterns making it harder for us to recover those precious zzz's at night, or get the refreshing benefit a nap's supposed to give for the day.
So how do we know how well or not we're sleeping? WHile our loved ones might be able to tell us we're behaving like bears, we're getting up on the wrong side of the bed or we're walking around like zombies, there's a more precise way to do this, which is to measure the brainwave patterns of the frontol lobe while a person's asleep. Oh sure - i'll just check into a sleep lab you say. Well, there's actually a new device on the market called a Zeo which does this measuring for the home user. Less expensive than a high end heart rate monitor, the zeo gives its user direct, measured, quantitative data about qualitative sleep. And it provided an online coaching program to help make sense of that data for enhancing sleep quality.
Stephan, let's start with something basic. What is a good night's sleep?
A good night's sleep is the one that leaves you feeling and performing your best when you're awake. That's it. An eminent sleep scientist once told me, "It's all about the wake, dummy". And I believe that. Now getting the sleep that gets you feeling and performing that way is another story...
Ok we'll come back to that one.
You do something rather rare: you put time into sleep - and figuring out how to make it better. How did you become a sleep guy?
Crap sleep isn't unique to student life, is it? It's one of a triad of things that seems to let go when we belive it seems the Life of the Head as i call it is under pressure: food goes, moving goes, sleep goes. But sleep still seems to have the worst end of the stick - we know about eating right and exercise. what's with sleep?
My entry into the world of sleep: As a college kid, sleep was a complete mystery. It was just a time when I conked out. But I did enjoy a good night of solid sleep, so thought it would be fun to take a class where I could really study in my sleep, as it were. It was just curiosity.
SO i became a "Sleepy Guy" serendipitously. I took an intro to sleep class during my freshman year at Brown, taught by eminent sleep scientist Mary A Carskadon. I then ended up a biology major, then worked in a sleep lab (Monique LeBourgeois, also at Brown) after graduating. We did work with healthy young kids (2-3 years old). I learned a lot and had a blast. Then this opportunity at Zeo came up and I've been here since (3 years +).
At the time though - [being an undergrad] - , I could sleep like a champ, but I remember just being exhausted. 5 hours of sleep at night was clearly not enough, but it just wasn't on the radar... Freshman year that was the last thing on anyone's mind, so nobody got enough sleep. I can say that since then, and I'm not alone regarding this at Zeo, I've definitely made sleep much more of a priority. If I get less than 7 hours now, I just know it's going to be a miserable day.
Sleep in culture: Getting by on as little sleep as possible seems to have become a badge of courage (or efficiency, rather) in our culture. I think that's only recently changing. Bill Clinton was notorious for only getting 4 hours of sleep at night and everyone was so impressed at how efficient he must have been. Then you realize that he was falling asleep at very inconvenient times, and then all his heart problems. Just recently he's decided to change his ways and get much more sleep. This is the kind of recognition I mean. Very similar to my experience since college. You can survive on little sleep, but once you start getting enough, it's like night and day, so to speak. Other examples: think of how many people don't get the sleep they want... then think about how much sleep impacts so many vital health issues... then consider that when people bring up some of the most important health issues of our age (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity...) sleep is generally not on the list, even though it's becoming more and more clear how important good sleep really is. Diet and exercise are things that people take for granted as having an effect on these issues... sleep just usually isn't considered in that way by most people.You've suggested that sleep research is still grasping with the role of sleep in evolution. It is kind of weird: we spend a third of our lives in an incredibly vulneralbe state....
When we first spoke, you said that you didn't like the term "sleep hygene" - a really popular way that many sites describe setting up an environment to improve one's sleepWe have some ideas about why sleep is good for us... but nothing that suggests that it's just supremely essential (which you might expect if you're going to be unconscious to a dangerous world for a third of your life). There are some good arguments for why theories that are out there aren't sufficient to explain the cost/benefit ratio of the evolution of sleep. And most of the ideas that we do have are incredibly new. Like last decade or two new. I think we have some ideas now, but when I took that class my freshman year in college... sleep science didn't have any good idea, or at least that was the way it was taught to me. For we don't know why or how sleep is important... we have some clues, but nothing terribly solid. It's complex, but I think that's my point. There's no single, magic answer to the question of why we sleep. Why we breath: easy answer. Why we eat: easy answer. Why we should exercise: easy answer. Why we sleep: um, it may be a time of rest and recuperation... But why couldn't you just rest and recuperate while conscious? Wouldn't that be much better from an evolutionary standpoint? Like I said, it's complex. Would be easier to talk about this one than write it all out here.
I'm not a big fan of the term "hygiene", in general. It's very sterile. And I think it tends to make people roll their eyes. "Sleep hygiene" sounds intimidating, and rigid. When really, it means using common sense about sleep. Keep control of light, noise, comfort, and temperature, and that puts most people in a better position for a good night's sleep. Then there are things like relaxation and exercise and nutrition that go beyond "sleep hygiene" that are also important.So what's exciting right now in sleep research?
Anything coming out of sleep research right now is very exciting... the field is still "young" when you compare it to other major health areas like heart health or nutrition. That is, it's only now receiving proper recognition for its role in overall health. However, to be more specific, any research that explores solutions to people's sleep issues or builds the case for the importance of sleep is of interest right now - it's just fun and games unless it provides utility to people. Then, on a personal level, I'm interested in the evolutionary role of sleep. It's so counter-intuitive from an evolutionary standpoint, that it must be incredibly vital for survival... And we're still not sure how or why. That's quite a challenge.
I've shared with you my fave curiousity about getting deeper sleeps: eat high GI carbs 4 hours before going to bed. What else is coming out of research that may have practical value for sleepfulness?
Sleep tips from research: Your finding of carbs as a snack before bed can be pretty functional. I know that little things for me have worked. Dark shades over my windows have worked wonders. I don't work in my bedroom, and that's certainly created a great stress separator that works. These are all examples of strategies that come from the literature. One of my favorites, because it's just not intuitive, is that drinking a small glass of ice cold water may help induce sleep (cool the core, heat the extremities).
Ok that's definitely intriguing. Especially with other suggestions like having a warm bath to help relax before sleep. Agreed totally on the windows and on reducing the audibility of noises in the night.
So where in this scene does seeing sleep with a zeo make sense? how or why does zeo make sense?
Zeo makes sense because it's the first tool people have available to look into a third of their lives that has been a mystery. Think of that sleep graph I had you draw (u-shaped), and then the one I drew (like waves)... Knowledge is the first step to gaining control. And then Zeo provides information and tools to help you take that control and understand that sleep is an active process that is quite malleable.
Cool, we shall talk more about the Zeo, the long-lasting effect of caffeine on sleep and how or whether to try to manipulate sleep states in our next instalment. Folks who'd like to get a better sense of sleep - there's a garden of information on the Zeo site in the Sleep Information center.
In the meantime, Stephan, when you're not thinking about sleep, what are you up to? What does a Sleep Guy eat?
A history of god
by Karen Armstrong,and I think my next book will be The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
about Paul Erdos.
Cooking/eating - I make a mean Mac & Cheese and love lasagna like nobody's business. And I try to make it to the cheese shop about once a week. It's the best part of the week. (But don't worry, I try to balance out this vice with plenty of regular, vigorous, exercise.) Music-ing - live music is unbeatable. I subscribe to the Boston Symphony Orchestra every year, and love seeing the best in blues - BB King, Buddy Guy, etc. Although, it seems to be a hip-hop morning with the Pharcyde playing in my iTunes right now.
Thanks Stephan. More soon.
Part II of the begin2dig interview with Zeo Sleep Guy Stephan Fabregas follows soon.
This will be followed with a review of my own experience with the Zeo
once i've gone through a full coaching cylce with it.
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This will be followed with a review of my own experience with the Zeo
once i've gone through a full coaching cylce with it.
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Monday, April 5, 2010
The One Arm Push Up Quest - Longitudinal Trial (aka if we can do it, anyone can)
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We often see evidence of success - the end of a journey - either celebrated in books that recount the experience, or increasingly on youtube videos that show that brief "ta da" That's certainly safe. But what if more of us were to lay out a mission and put our progress out there? We see this model with weight loss a lot: or at least we often think we do. I've posted before images of what real weight loss by real people looks like. As opposed to potentially questionable progress (modelled here too).
But what if we had this kind of progress - the real kind - modelled in strength work?
Recently the Monk of the North and i were talking about our various efforts at various things that we practice, and have only come to be able to do by practicing one step at a time. We were talking about how it might be an interesting experiment to chart the progress of a move from start to finish over real time. The expression "watch me fall flat on my ass -again" was repeated more than once.
And why would either of us be interesting? Well neither of us may be, ain't that the truth? But we might be because we're not (we own this to each other) what anyone might look at and say "s/he's buff" - and yet we practice strength daily, and seem to achieve some of the ends by which we care to measure our progress. In other words, if we can do it, anyone can. Really.
Recent Surprise from Practice Practice Practice and Volume. My other motivation is to put recent lessons about the role of volume for strength to work. This past week for me for instance, i achieved a weighted pistol and i can only put that down to the amount of volume work with tons of assisted pistols i'd been doing.
Candidates for Practice. So i'm going to continue with this pistoling work to get to my 24kg pistol, but i'm already into that. As well, my current waterloo is the the 24kg kettlebell press, and again, i'm well into what is supposed to lead to crossing that particular divide (ha! i hear an inner voice saying. right. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain)
So there's a couple other things out there that would be pretty durn remarkable to me and would be just delightful to achieve, and would allow me to start from scratch, in a state that is not jaded as i am with that dam press.
One is a good one arm push up. The other is climbing a rope. Since i do not have a rope to climb at the present moment (and isn't that just a sad sad statement on our environments. If i tried to hang a rope between our floors in our lovely open area at work...well the words "health and safety aanalysts" (emphasis on first syllable) come to mind) and since i also do not know how to do assisted rope climbing work to develop a progression, i shall choose the one arm push up. Free of the travails of equipment rigging.
My plan: to test the Volume as Path to develop technique for strength approach.
To begin i shall start as Pavel Tsatsouline suggests in the Naked Warrior treatise by one arm pushing what one can. For me right now, my form is good leaning against a wall and pushing away from it for volume. To check this out i did ten sets of five both sides the other day as recovery between assisted rock bottom pistol volume. I shall endeavor to get video of my boring-to-look-at but instructive-to-do volume work, and capture the non-state of my current one-arm push up attempt.
Let's see how long it takes a Gal with a Russian Man's Plan, Stan to get to a full one arm push up.
This is not a race; this is just a GTG thing i'm going to keep in my daily GTG world and see where it gets me, over what period of time. If no camera is to hand, i'll keep a record of attempts, too, and post "progress" such as it may be, from time to time.
What are We Testing:
The weighted pistol came on me rather by surprise: i did not expect so soon after doing a week or so of mixed high volume to get a weighted pistol. This time, my main curiousity is to more deliberately test if working high volume with emphasis on technique will lead to load. So i'm not going to be doing much "heavy" day work beyond once a week to try a few lower box or surface reps. Focus is on form. Perfecting the tension/strength skill points to see if i can translate that to load later.
If any of you wish to join me in this particular challenge, let me know. We'll progress together.
The outline would be something like:
mc Tweet Follow @begin2dig
But what if we had this kind of progress - the real kind - modelled in strength work?
Recently the Monk of the North and i were talking about our various efforts at various things that we practice, and have only come to be able to do by practicing one step at a time. We were talking about how it might be an interesting experiment to chart the progress of a move from start to finish over real time. The expression "watch me fall flat on my ass -again" was repeated more than once.
And why would either of us be interesting? Well neither of us may be, ain't that the truth? But we might be because we're not (we own this to each other) what anyone might look at and say "s/he's buff" - and yet we practice strength daily, and seem to achieve some of the ends by which we care to measure our progress. In other words, if we can do it, anyone can. Really.
Recent Surprise from Practice Practice Practice and Volume. My other motivation is to put recent lessons about the role of volume for strength to work. This past week for me for instance, i achieved a weighted pistol and i can only put that down to the amount of volume work with tons of assisted pistols i'd been doing. Candidates for Practice. So i'm going to continue with this pistoling work to get to my 24kg pistol, but i'm already into that. As well, my current waterloo is the the 24kg kettlebell press, and again, i'm well into what is supposed to lead to crossing that particular divide (ha! i hear an inner voice saying. right. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain)
So there's a couple other things out there that would be pretty durn remarkable to me and would be just delightful to achieve, and would allow me to start from scratch, in a state that is not jaded as i am with that dam press.
One is a good one arm push up. The other is climbing a rope. Since i do not have a rope to climb at the present moment (and isn't that just a sad sad statement on our environments. If i tried to hang a rope between our floors in our lovely open area at work...well the words "health and safety aanalysts" (emphasis on first syllable) come to mind) and since i also do not know how to do assisted rope climbing work to develop a progression, i shall choose the one arm push up. Free of the travails of equipment rigging.
My plan: to test the Volume as Path to develop technique for strength approach.
To begin i shall start as Pavel Tsatsouline suggests in the Naked Warrior treatise by one arm pushing what one can. For me right now, my form is good leaning against a wall and pushing away from it for volume. To check this out i did ten sets of five both sides the other day as recovery between assisted rock bottom pistol volume. I shall endeavor to get video of my boring-to-look-at but instructive-to-do volume work, and capture the non-state of my current one-arm push up attempt.
Let's see how long it takes a Gal with a Russian Man's Plan, Stan to get to a full one arm push up.
This is not a race; this is just a GTG thing i'm going to keep in my daily GTG world and see where it gets me, over what period of time. If no camera is to hand, i'll keep a record of attempts, too, and post "progress" such as it may be, from time to time.
What are We Testing:
The weighted pistol came on me rather by surprise: i did not expect so soon after doing a week or so of mixed high volume to get a weighted pistol. This time, my main curiousity is to more deliberately test if working high volume with emphasis on technique will lead to load. So i'm not going to be doing much "heavy" day work beyond once a week to try a few lower box or surface reps. Focus is on form. Perfecting the tension/strength skill points to see if i can translate that to load later.
If any of you wish to join me in this particular challenge, let me know. We'll progress together.
The outline would be something like:
- find a new(ish) move
- agree to do daily types of different kinds of volume work with
- one session a week of what would be near current max loads where the move can still be done for singles
- the reps in high volume are to be carried out mindFULly - attention to the form/technique in each in order to build up skill sets - this takes thousands of reps to become reflexive; at least hundreds just to get to self-corrective using a motor learning approach.
- track no. of reps per day/week
- see where progress occurs
- only test the goal load once every couple weeks - promise.
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Thursday, April 1, 2010
Going Light - a lot - to get Heavy - a few thoughts on why focused higher volume works
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Why does doing lots of volume at lighter loads translate into big strength gains? What's going on? This post explores a possible model for why based on motor learning, the nervous system and threat reduction. The bottom line? Load of reps getting technique means how to lift heavy is the only thing the nervous system has to worry about when actually going heavy. I'll be keen to hear what you think.
One of the constantly surprising ways to lift heavier is to lift lighter - a lot. And of course with perfect form. This is not new knowledge. Pavel Tsatsouline is famous for espousing this technique as "greasing the groove" in his book Naked Warrior. Kenneth Jay's program for succeeding in the beast challenge (pistol, pull up, press with 48kg bell) is to mix high volume days with heavy load days. Dan John in talking with me about pressing has been preaching volume and regular pressing.
And yet, it's still kind of hard to believe, isn't it? Pick a load where one can do 100 or more reps of whatever, and do it. However one paces that over a period, keep getting in those reps. But today, i got my first weighted pistol ever (something previously that felt impossible), and all i've been doing is PARTIAL body weight pistols, but lots of 'em. That got me thinking, how can lifting frequently for many reps at a load light enough to support that volume translate into big lift gains?
Practice does make Perfect(er) Part of the answer is about motor learning and the nervous system; part of the answer is about technique, and practicing technique. They're both rather related concepts.
Motor Learning. Back in the late 60's Fitts and Posner first posed the concept of motor learning and thinking about learning a physical skill. They proposed going through three stages of learning, and that rep ranges have become associated with those ranges. For instance, the first few hundred reps of something is conscious effort. We need to think about what we're doing. The next phase into thousands of reps can be about still focusing on the move, but having the knowledge to self-correct the move. The last phase, thousands of reps is when the action can be carried out reflexively.We are no longer havng to bring attention to it; we can rely on those neurological patterns to carry out the action.
Muscle Firing Pattern Refinement. It seems that when we learn something new with our bodies, our brains and nervous systems don't have the maps to carry out those moves with any kind of grace. They send lots of muscle action to the load as with each rep, a process of elimination and refinement goes on to figure out just how much muscle fiber is needed, when and where. This is where reeasrch shows for instance that a newbie doing a marial arts kick is firing muscles throughout the whole kick, whereas an experienced practitioner has some firing at initiation, relaxation through the kick and then more firing at the end. Extremely economical, refined and focused.
Technique as threat reduction. Combining skill development with muscle firing refinement, it seems that we have sufficient experience with a movement such that when we add load, that is the only new parameter our bodies need to address. That's way easier than trying to figure out everything from scratch.
In a model that considers our nervous system as fundamentally determining whether we are under threat or not, and making adjustments to the whole system based on that assessment, this "only one new thing" idea makes sense, too. If the nervous system is coping with putting the body into a new position for a less familiar move that doesn't feel that stable and then load is added on top of it, all that may add up to some kind of threat perception. As i've written about many times before in this sensory-motor model, perceived threat has the immediate effect of shutting down performance.
So perhaps what we can see from the value of repping loads of volume and doable (not sissy) loads for that volume is that we are teaching our nervous systems to see these moves as well under our control. From that the system is willing to let us turn on those additional parameters like balance, extra muscle fiber etc, because everything else is well known to be well in hand.
SAID and the importance of the Perfect Rep. The SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demand) is another reason for attention for form for everyone of those higher volume reps. Each rep teaches the nervous system how to map performance to handle this movement. Each rep teaches us how to prepare well for greater load.
This practicing volume with lighter loads but treating the performance like their heavy loads is another process for the nervous system's sense of security. If we practice appropriate bracing and breathing every rep if our mind is on going for bigger loads then again, once we hit the heavy load, we will have that breathing pattern primed, the hips ready, because we will have mapped it, practiced it, adapted to it.
A story of Practice to Strength: Getting my first weighted pistol.
For some time i have struggled with weighted pistols. It seemed impossible to me. That's not an ideal place to be for someone who wants to do the gal's version of the Beast Challenge: pistol, press and pull up a 24kg KB. So for the past couple weeks i've thought, well, let's go back to scratch and start ramping up volume. Dan John's been telling me to press heavy gals have to get volume up on the press; maybe that applies to the pistol. Ok. Let's amp it up.
So i've been practicing the perfect rep in my pistol a bunch of ways: one day i'll do 10 sets of 5 a side going to a hassock and back up - just touch not sit. Another day it's to a lower thing. Another day it's using bands in front of me to get to rock bottom and back up. Another day it's with the 12 to the hassock, then more bodyweight ones. And really, every rep is focused: how's my form?
So today, after my 5*5*10's a side to the hassock, i thought. "hmm" (yes i did really think "hmm") and i went to grab a 12. Why? because this is the size that gal's Beast Tamer Asha Wagner said she used for her grease the groove work to get to do the 24 on the day of the challenge, never having done a 24 ever - the heaviest weight she'd pistoled was a 16. So that's why i grabbed a 12.
And i did it. Rock bottom. It looked ugly. But i did it. First time ever. But there it was. And boy was i pouring on everything i'd learned about tension and squeezing the handles to get up, et voila. And it was not with a 12 held out as a counter weight. it was up close and personal, the way i want to do this. It worked. It actually worked. Once. But it's a start.
Give the nervous system a break. Practice more with less weight?
So, for me, this is once again the lesson of volume. I thought because i could do a couple bodyweight pistols that since folks said i was strong enough, i should be able to do a weighted pistol. What today demonstrated - just on how i felt stuff turn on in my body to make the attempt work - is that my body really did not know how to pistol - confidently, comfortably, reflexively. It still doesn't. I'm only just getting to that partially with the touch butt to hassock pistols. Each couple times as one thing gets stronger, something else comes in for focus. First it's smooth getting down and up. Recently it's knee position.
All of this equates to practice. I guess because actually so MUCH is going on in a move. That practice is important to build up a reflexive response around all the stuff we CAN get hundreds of reps in when we back off the load, like form and technique and related muscle patterns. What my own experience is drilling into me is that it seems we need this kind of practice to make it possible to do load.
Getting strong through technique focused volume sounds pretty cool, eh? almost like it's cheating: why will doing all this light stuff let me do the big heavy stuff?
Probably it won't if the volume is sloppy - but that's just a guess - but i guess that because the technique for load isn't being practiced so that prep would be missing and so when load is added one more thing has to be balanced at a higher level by the nervous system. But in just walking through all that's involved in picking up something heavy on demand, all the awareness and skill, this volume practice doesn't seem like getting away with something. It seems essential.
I guess i've been thinking about heavy stuff lifting as too much about the muscles. And yes that's pretty important. Duh. But i didn't get stronger overnight that i can suddenly lift 12kg more with one leg today that i couldn't lift yesterday. I'm going with what's changed is that my nervous system is feeling better about managing the load challenge cuz the pattern challenge feels better.
That's cool. That's two new technique wins this week: ugly hanging leg raises and now an ugly weighted pistol. Two things that have felt entirely beyond me have gone bang bang down down. All with focus on technique and practicing that focus a lot. Not enough, but it's a start. That ugliness in form will also get worked out with practice as my bod learns more about handling these loads, and gets to rep in a few more new patterns.
I hope that maybe if you've been shying away from volume practice focusing on perfect reps this may give you a bit of a boost to give focused volume a try. You'll be glad you did.
Next challenge - seeing how long focused volume takes to get from pressing the 20 to the 24. That's where my oh ye of little faith boundry is right now.
Your mileage may vary, so please let me know what you find.
mc
ps that's RKC II Instructor KC Reiter at the beast challenge, pistoling a 48.
Related Posts
One of the constantly surprising ways to lift heavier is to lift lighter - a lot. And of course with perfect form. This is not new knowledge. Pavel Tsatsouline is famous for espousing this technique as "greasing the groove" in his book Naked Warrior. Kenneth Jay's program for succeeding in the beast challenge (pistol, pull up, press with 48kg bell) is to mix high volume days with heavy load days. Dan John in talking with me about pressing has been preaching volume and regular pressing. And yet, it's still kind of hard to believe, isn't it? Pick a load where one can do 100 or more reps of whatever, and do it. However one paces that over a period, keep getting in those reps. But today, i got my first weighted pistol ever (something previously that felt impossible), and all i've been doing is PARTIAL body weight pistols, but lots of 'em. That got me thinking, how can lifting frequently for many reps at a load light enough to support that volume translate into big lift gains?
Fawn Friday, a keen practitioner of sheiko high vol/lower load and Matt Gary's
training with Prilipen high volume, demo'ing a smooth 24kg press
training with Prilipen high volume, demo'ing a smooth 24kg press
Practice does make Perfect(er) Part of the answer is about motor learning and the nervous system; part of the answer is about technique, and practicing technique. They're both rather related concepts.
Motor Learning. Back in the late 60's Fitts and Posner first posed the concept of motor learning and thinking about learning a physical skill. They proposed going through three stages of learning, and that rep ranges have become associated with those ranges. For instance, the first few hundred reps of something is conscious effort. We need to think about what we're doing. The next phase into thousands of reps can be about still focusing on the move, but having the knowledge to self-correct the move. The last phase, thousands of reps is when the action can be carried out reflexively.We are no longer havng to bring attention to it; we can rely on those neurological patterns to carry out the action.
Muscle Firing Pattern Refinement. It seems that when we learn something new with our bodies, our brains and nervous systems don't have the maps to carry out those moves with any kind of grace. They send lots of muscle action to the load as with each rep, a process of elimination and refinement goes on to figure out just how much muscle fiber is needed, when and where. This is where reeasrch shows for instance that a newbie doing a marial arts kick is firing muscles throughout the whole kick, whereas an experienced practitioner has some firing at initiation, relaxation through the kick and then more firing at the end. Extremely economical, refined and focused.
Technique as threat reduction. Combining skill development with muscle firing refinement, it seems that we have sufficient experience with a movement such that when we add load, that is the only new parameter our bodies need to address. That's way easier than trying to figure out everything from scratch.
In a model that considers our nervous system as fundamentally determining whether we are under threat or not, and making adjustments to the whole system based on that assessment, this "only one new thing" idea makes sense, too. If the nervous system is coping with putting the body into a new position for a less familiar move that doesn't feel that stable and then load is added on top of it, all that may add up to some kind of threat perception. As i've written about many times before in this sensory-motor model, perceived threat has the immediate effect of shutting down performance.
So perhaps what we can see from the value of repping loads of volume and doable (not sissy) loads for that volume is that we are teaching our nervous systems to see these moves as well under our control. From that the system is willing to let us turn on those additional parameters like balance, extra muscle fiber etc, because everything else is well known to be well in hand.
SAID and the importance of the Perfect Rep. The SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demand) is another reason for attention for form for everyone of those higher volume reps. Each rep teaches the nervous system how to map performance to handle this movement. Each rep teaches us how to prepare well for greater load.
This practicing volume with lighter loads but treating the performance like their heavy loads is another process for the nervous system's sense of security. If we practice appropriate bracing and breathing every rep if our mind is on going for bigger loads then again, once we hit the heavy load, we will have that breathing pattern primed, the hips ready, because we will have mapped it, practiced it, adapted to it.
A story of Practice to Strength: Getting my first weighted pistol.
So i've been practicing the perfect rep in my pistol a bunch of ways: one day i'll do 10 sets of 5 a side going to a hassock and back up - just touch not sit. Another day it's to a lower thing. Another day it's using bands in front of me to get to rock bottom and back up. Another day it's with the 12 to the hassock, then more bodyweight ones. And really, every rep is focused: how's my form?
So today, after my 5*5*10's a side to the hassock, i thought. "hmm" (yes i did really think "hmm") and i went to grab a 12. Why? because this is the size that gal's Beast Tamer Asha Wagner said she used for her grease the groove work to get to do the 24 on the day of the challenge, never having done a 24 ever - the heaviest weight she'd pistoled was a 16. So that's why i grabbed a 12.
And i did it. Rock bottom. It looked ugly. But i did it. First time ever. But there it was. And boy was i pouring on everything i'd learned about tension and squeezing the handles to get up, et voila. And it was not with a 12 held out as a counter weight. it was up close and personal, the way i want to do this. It worked. It actually worked. Once. But it's a start.
Give the nervous system a break. Practice more with less weight?
So, for me, this is once again the lesson of volume. I thought because i could do a couple bodyweight pistols that since folks said i was strong enough, i should be able to do a weighted pistol. What today demonstrated - just on how i felt stuff turn on in my body to make the attempt work - is that my body really did not know how to pistol - confidently, comfortably, reflexively. It still doesn't. I'm only just getting to that partially with the touch butt to hassock pistols. Each couple times as one thing gets stronger, something else comes in for focus. First it's smooth getting down and up. Recently it's knee position.
All of this equates to practice. I guess because actually so MUCH is going on in a move. That practice is important to build up a reflexive response around all the stuff we CAN get hundreds of reps in when we back off the load, like form and technique and related muscle patterns. What my own experience is drilling into me is that it seems we need this kind of practice to make it possible to do load.
Getting strong through technique focused volume sounds pretty cool, eh? almost like it's cheating: why will doing all this light stuff let me do the big heavy stuff?
Probably it won't if the volume is sloppy - but that's just a guess - but i guess that because the technique for load isn't being practiced so that prep would be missing and so when load is added one more thing has to be balanced at a higher level by the nervous system. But in just walking through all that's involved in picking up something heavy on demand, all the awareness and skill, this volume practice doesn't seem like getting away with something. It seems essential.
I guess i've been thinking about heavy stuff lifting as too much about the muscles. And yes that's pretty important. Duh. But i didn't get stronger overnight that i can suddenly lift 12kg more with one leg today that i couldn't lift yesterday. I'm going with what's changed is that my nervous system is feeling better about managing the load challenge cuz the pattern challenge feels better.
That's cool. That's two new technique wins this week: ugly hanging leg raises and now an ugly weighted pistol. Two things that have felt entirely beyond me have gone bang bang down down. All with focus on technique and practicing that focus a lot. Not enough, but it's a start. That ugliness in form will also get worked out with practice as my bod learns more about handling these loads, and gets to rep in a few more new patterns.
I hope that maybe if you've been shying away from volume practice focusing on perfect reps this may give you a bit of a boost to give focused volume a try. You'll be glad you did.
Next challenge - seeing how long focused volume takes to get from pressing the 20 to the 24. That's where my oh ye of little faith boundry is right now.
Your mileage may vary, so please let me know what you find.
mc
ps that's RKC II Instructor KC Reiter at the beast challenge, pistoling a 48.
Related Posts
- Perfect Rep Quest Index
- How many reps of that drill?
- Hanging Leg Raise: Strength is a skill
- Asha Wagner, women's beast tamer and awesome athlete
- Sensory Motor Training: the other side of strength
Monday, March 29, 2010
Hanging Leg Raise: With Technique Anything is Possible?
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Have you ever suddenly done something that seemed impossible, even just moments before, and then, seemingly, it just happened? You wonder if you really actually did it? This morning i did something that yesterday felt a million miles away and fettle or another incarnation. I speak of the Hanging Leg Raise.
In this move, one hangs (tho that's deceptive) from a pull up bar (or door jam in my case), and then raises one's outstretched legs all the way straight out and arc'ing up until they touch the bar with their toes.
The Hanging Leg Raise Proper: One hangs in an inverted U - the image of Will Williams (of the Master Class on Breathing in the Front Squat) on the right is going above and beyond that toes-to-bar edge as he pushes his legs further up past his hands. Pavel Tsatsouline has a number of innovations on this theme as well, modelled in his freebie Hanging Leg Raise book (comes with a subscription to the power to the people mailing list - nice bonus (you can sign up here)). But while these gents get on with the business of Going Beyond, let's just chat for a moment about the humble to Boldly Go in the First Place.
Here's the deal: for me, i was introduced to this move/challenge about a month ago at the RKC II - we spent time going over drills to prep for doing an HLR and that focused on what one might only term "getting short" by compressing in the middle, sucking in the gut, sucking in the shoulders.
Let me say right now, that these instructions while percolating in my head did not connect the bits with me on the day. I am not generally a fast learner. On the other hand, when i get it, i get it. This was not going to be a Get It day.
Here's what i felt: struggle struggle struggle struggle - just to get my outstretched legs to parallel - barely. Struggle struggle struggle struggle. Puff puff puff puff.
I would try to do the HLR each day since my return that i've had access to a place from which i can hang. Struggle struggle struggle.
Rannoch of Simple Strength suggested that i try doing the knee tuck (shown left, modelled by Pavel- knees to chest first, and then straighten legs. I have to say that that one just about made me cry: knees to chest, ok, but straighten the legs from there? oh ya. not happening. Thank you though, Rannoch, for trying to help.
And then a funny thing happened yesterday.
Floor Work. One of the challenges i'd been trying has been with lying on the floor pulling against jump stretch bands while doing the leg raise part (we learned this at the cert). Yesterday, this went from my previous experience of "i am ripping my arms out of my sockets and getting nowhere" to "my legs are going over awfully easily; i must be doing something wrong." I did try the HLR after that and got to a cleaner parallel, but not up all the way. So again i thought, hmm. must have done something wrong.
THis morning, without really thinking about it, i thought i'll give it a go, and kinda started doing a pull up, and found my legs going up. I did this a few times. Singles. I posted to the RKC forum to check with colleagues if this was indeed an HLR or if the starting pull up was not right. I didn't think it was; it's not: arms must be straight.
The gang there - Al (who's been featured on b2d), Jordan Vezina, Jon Engum and Max Shank, all gave me some terrific tips, to try. but the main point was arms have to be straight. So i tried everything again i'd done this morning except the elbows bent (arms straight did not work this morning), and it worked. repeatedly. Now why arms straight worked this afternoon and not this morning, i don't know. But it did. And here's the thing: it was pretty easy. The hard part is hanging on.
Technique Rules. We talk about technique all the time being so important. And i've definitely had technique tweaks improve something i've done, but i've never before had it help me go from barley there to prepped, cooked and served. But if anything is an example of a proof of the "strength is a skill" concept that Pavel Tsatsouline has engendered in the RKC, i can't think of a better personal demonstration.
Much and all as i would like to believe i am suddenly that much stronger today than i was yesterday, the evidence is everywhere before me that i am not (though i did just go try to press the 24 just in case). So the only difference is technique - getting the compression of the gut, the shoulder inhalation, the lat activation, et voila.
How to *get* the technique? Right now i don't know how to translate what i've learned about HLR technique into how to accelerate teaching "getting" the technique for someone in a similar position, but here are a few thoughts.
The above is still rather fuzzy. Perhaps folks who coach (including myself) are just saying "duh" because of course one teaches technique and focuses on that before adding load or at least concurrent to loaded work (as per the volume of the perfect rep quest). So why was this move different? I'm not entirely sure. But there are lessons to be learned from this about connecting with technique, patience with the technique, finding methods that make the technique accessible and achievable in another context if the actual context (like hanging from a bar) is a step too far. Whoever developed the floor work drills for teaching the feel of the leg raise - genius.
Related Story. All this must sound so basic as opposed to any new insight, so before i dig a further hole in trying to convey this, let me close with a related "ah ha".
A bit ago Asha Wagner, in an interview here about pistoling the 24 for the women's beast challenge, said that she had only used the 12 regularly, never a 24 before that on-the-day test. She'd done lots of volume, greasing the groove with the 12, but the most she'd ever pistoled prior to that test was the 16.
I own i was pretty amazed that technique/form work with a 12 would deliver such a result with the 24, but after today's experience, i'm more a believer in technique-as-strength, strength-as-a-skill than yesterday.
So, best takeaway perhaps? find whatever assisted variant will enable an athlete to experience the complete movement - and focus on the use of TECHNIQUE rather than strength to achieve that movement first and foremost - where there's just enough strength challenge to feel the technque - and then strength will come.
Again, that's plainly not a unique insight - but the clarity of just how critical that focus is has really come shining through - one might say finally. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
In this move, one hangs (tho that's deceptive) from a pull up bar (or door jam in my case), and then raises one's outstretched legs all the way straight out and arc'ing up until they touch the bar with their toes.
The Hanging Leg Raise Proper: One hangs in an inverted U - the image of Will Williams (of the Master Class on Breathing in the Front Squat) on the right is going above and beyond that toes-to-bar edge as he pushes his legs further up past his hands. Pavel Tsatsouline has a number of innovations on this theme as well, modelled in his freebie Hanging Leg Raise book (comes with a subscription to the power to the people mailing list - nice bonus (you can sign up here)). But while these gents get on with the business of Going Beyond, let's just chat for a moment about the humble to Boldly Go in the First Place.
Here's the deal: for me, i was introduced to this move/challenge about a month ago at the RKC II - we spent time going over drills to prep for doing an HLR and that focused on what one might only term "getting short" by compressing in the middle, sucking in the gut, sucking in the shoulders.
Let me say right now, that these instructions while percolating in my head did not connect the bits with me on the day. I am not generally a fast learner. On the other hand, when i get it, i get it. This was not going to be a Get It day.
Here's what i felt: struggle struggle struggle struggle - just to get my outstretched legs to parallel - barely. Struggle struggle struggle struggle. Puff puff puff puff.
I would try to do the HLR each day since my return that i've had access to a place from which i can hang. Struggle struggle struggle.
Rannoch of Simple Strength suggested that i try doing the knee tuck (shown left, modelled by Pavel- knees to chest first, and then straighten legs. I have to say that that one just about made me cry: knees to chest, ok, but straighten the legs from there? oh ya. not happening. Thank you though, Rannoch, for trying to help.And then a funny thing happened yesterday.
Floor Work. One of the challenges i'd been trying has been with lying on the floor pulling against jump stretch bands while doing the leg raise part (we learned this at the cert). Yesterday, this went from my previous experience of "i am ripping my arms out of my sockets and getting nowhere" to "my legs are going over awfully easily; i must be doing something wrong." I did try the HLR after that and got to a cleaner parallel, but not up all the way. So again i thought, hmm. must have done something wrong.
THis morning, without really thinking about it, i thought i'll give it a go, and kinda started doing a pull up, and found my legs going up. I did this a few times. Singles. I posted to the RKC forum to check with colleagues if this was indeed an HLR or if the starting pull up was not right. I didn't think it was; it's not: arms must be straight.
The gang there - Al (who's been featured on b2d), Jordan Vezina, Jon Engum and Max Shank, all gave me some terrific tips, to try. but the main point was arms have to be straight. So i tried everything again i'd done this morning except the elbows bent (arms straight did not work this morning), and it worked. repeatedly. Now why arms straight worked this afternoon and not this morning, i don't know. But it did. And here's the thing: it was pretty easy. The hard part is hanging on.
Technique Rules. We talk about technique all the time being so important. And i've definitely had technique tweaks improve something i've done, but i've never before had it help me go from barley there to prepped, cooked and served. But if anything is an example of a proof of the "strength is a skill" concept that Pavel Tsatsouline has engendered in the RKC, i can't think of a better personal demonstration.
Much and all as i would like to believe i am suddenly that much stronger today than i was yesterday, the evidence is everywhere before me that i am not (though i did just go try to press the 24 just in case). So the only difference is technique - getting the compression of the gut, the shoulder inhalation, the lat activation, et voila.
How to *get* the technique? Right now i don't know how to translate what i've learned about HLR technique into how to accelerate teaching "getting" the technique for someone in a similar position, but here are a few thoughts.
- i thought i needed to work on ab strength to do this move - develop more strength rather than skill. How can i spot the difference in someone else to see that it's not about more muscle fiber firing but about technique?
- I have been consciously thinking about applying the technique lessons - and trying to practice these - rather than thinking so much about brute strength - so maybe that's what sifted through and finally connected?
- and maybe that's the best way to coach someone: help them focus on the technique, chew on the technique, and feel the technique applied - this was for me why the floor work with the bands was such a biggie - i think - it's where at the cert i could feel like different parts were connecting.
The above is still rather fuzzy. Perhaps folks who coach (including myself) are just saying "duh" because of course one teaches technique and focuses on that before adding load or at least concurrent to loaded work (as per the volume of the perfect rep quest). So why was this move different? I'm not entirely sure. But there are lessons to be learned from this about connecting with technique, patience with the technique, finding methods that make the technique accessible and achievable in another context if the actual context (like hanging from a bar) is a step too far. Whoever developed the floor work drills for teaching the feel of the leg raise - genius.
Related Story. All this must sound so basic as opposed to any new insight, so before i dig a further hole in trying to convey this, let me close with a related "ah ha".
A bit ago Asha Wagner, in an interview here about pistoling the 24 for the women's beast challenge, said that she had only used the 12 regularly, never a 24 before that on-the-day test. She'd done lots of volume, greasing the groove with the 12, but the most she'd ever pistoled prior to that test was the 16.
I own i was pretty amazed that technique/form work with a 12 would deliver such a result with the 24, but after today's experience, i'm more a believer in technique-as-strength, strength-as-a-skill than yesterday.
So, best takeaway perhaps? find whatever assisted variant will enable an athlete to experience the complete movement - and focus on the use of TECHNIQUE rather than strength to achieve that movement first and foremost - where there's just enough strength challenge to feel the technque - and then strength will come.
Again, that's plainly not a unique insight - but the clarity of just how critical that focus is has really come shining through - one might say finally. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Friday, March 26, 2010
Windmill/Press 100's - volume that works ya.
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Ever have what you think will be a wee workout take you by surprise? That's what happened to me with a humble combo of see saw presses and windmills. 10 walking see saw presses with my light kb's, followed by 10 windmills each side, without letting go of the bells, or pausing but to swap sides on the windmills. To be clear:
Windmill Fever. I have not done this many consecutive windmills before, and i don't think i've done this many sea-saws before (i'm not sure there were this many in the 2008 grad workout). And i felt this - a sense of having really worked my shoulders, moved my hips and adductors, and, why is this a surprise but it is, my obliques.
And i feel a wee bit cooked. Neural motor adaptations is a wonderful thing.
You may wonder why this particular combination?
One of the cool things about going to various events in one's space is meeting folks. At the RKC II i was surprised to see Dan John whom i'd not met before. We got talking about my quest to press the beast
, and his advice was to press. A lot. Indeed, his view is that gals need to press more to press big. One of his suggestions was mixing up windmills with sea-saws for one of the press days. I'm not sure if the above is what he had in mind, but it feels pretty good.
Light Bells Rejuvenated. So if anyone thinks their light bells have run out of gas, i'd suggest giving a highish volume workout like this a go. Especially the windmills in volume - who'd have thought?
And as part of that beast challenge quest, i've been mixing in pistols and pull ups - lots of each, even if high volume means box pistols (barely touch down) and band assisted pull ups to get my 50-100 in.
Reminder, too, RKC Master Trainer Andrea du Cane (shown left with model form) of the Kettlebell Goddess workout & ruler of the Windmill, will be in Southampton, UK June 6 to lead the first UK HKC kettlebell certification (more info here)
Hope to see ya there. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
- 1 set of ten, walking see-saw presses
- 1 set of ten, windmills with both bells one side
- 1 set of ten, windmills, with both bells, other side
- put the bells down
- shake it off
- breath
- repeat 10 times
- from the see-saw, both bells, back to the rack
- one arm avec one bell is extended down
- the other presses up
- align feet for windmill in opposite direction of up arm as per usual
- kick out hip in the up arm direction
- descend until bottom of bell of lowered arm makes contact with
ground - c'mon back up to standing
- go on back down.
- for me ten times was my happy place.
- after ten, bring bells to the rack,
- swap sides for windmilling to the opposite side
- do the ten for that side
- after ten come back to the rack
- from rack, park the bells
- shake it out, recovery, rinse, repeat
the photo on the right is for illustration purposes only:
get that hip back, mike, lock out that pressing elbow
get that hip back, mike, lock out that pressing elbow
Windmill Fever. I have not done this many consecutive windmills before, and i don't think i've done this many sea-saws before (i'm not sure there were this many in the 2008 grad workout). And i felt this - a sense of having really worked my shoulders, moved my hips and adductors, and, why is this a surprise but it is, my obliques.
And i feel a wee bit cooked. Neural motor adaptations is a wonderful thing.
You may wonder why this particular combination?
One of the cool things about going to various events in one's space is meeting folks. At the RKC II i was surprised to see Dan John whom i'd not met before. We got talking about my quest to press the beast
, and his advice was to press. A lot. Indeed, his view is that gals need to press more to press big. One of his suggestions was mixing up windmills with sea-saws for one of the press days. I'm not sure if the above is what he had in mind, but it feels pretty good.Light Bells Rejuvenated. So if anyone thinks their light bells have run out of gas, i'd suggest giving a highish volume workout like this a go. Especially the windmills in volume - who'd have thought?
And as part of that beast challenge quest, i've been mixing in pistols and pull ups - lots of each, even if high volume means box pistols (barely touch down) and band assisted pull ups to get my 50-100 in.
Reminder, too, RKC Master Trainer Andrea du Cane (shown left with model form) of the Kettlebell Goddess workout & ruler of the Windmill, will be in Southampton, UK June 6 to lead the first UK HKC kettlebell certification (more info here)
Hope to see ya there. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
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