Kettlebell Core and Conditioning
3 rounds:
1 arm 70lb kb swing x 15-20 . . . 40 yard Waiter Walk down and back with 70lb kb
1 round:
double 70lb kb clean x 10 . . . 100 yard Farmer Walk down and back with 70/70lb kb
Pump Work
Pushups: BWx40
Poundstone Curls: 45x43 (+3)
Back Extensions: BWx40
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown: 100x30
Klokov Press: 45x30; 45x20
Seated Calves: 45x30
Notes
I'm in the best condition that I can remember. I know its probably hard to have any perspective on some of these workouts if you don't do them, but I'm moving through everything fast, crisp and with purpose.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I do all of my conditioning work at a 7-8. Just because you aren't pushing yourself to the extreme doesn't mean you aren't working hard. My shirt is usually soaked after these workouts. The warm-up alone gets me sweating a little bit. The benefit to doing conditioning work in a normal fashion is I can tell when I am improving. All of these faggots perpetually doing metabolic threshold work have no idea if they are really getting better. Of course they will improve over time, but you want to know why that happens? They are essentially doing aerobics. Everyone likes to call anything crossfit does "anaerobic" interval training just because they are using weights. How in the fuck is it anaerobic if you are gasping for breath and near death after every workout? 1-15 seconds = creatine/phosphate. 15-120 seconds = glycolytic. Anything above 120 second is fucking aerobics. I don't care if you are in "oxygen debt." Running really fast will put you in oxygen debt too.
I'm doing really high rep stuff for restorative and conditioning purposes. My joints and surrounding ligaments feel great after ultra high rep stuff. Further, the muscle is engorged with blood so I get an awesome pump. Alot of the time I almost think of the high rep stuff as active stretching. Kettlebells are especially awesome at opening your joints up in a healthy way. Windmills are by far one of my favorite movements. I mean that hands down, not just in regards to kettlebells. They are fucking great and I'm always going to do them.
I'm completely done lifting for sets of 5 for 52 weeks out of the year. I don't know when I became so tunnel-visioned, but there are a ton of benefits to the high reps. And I'm not just talking about 8-12 reps. Thats not high reps. High reps is 20+. In the long run it will help me become stronger because it actually builds muscle. Do sets of 5 build muscle? Sure. Is it slow as fuck after a while? Yep.
Somewhere along the line the internet decided bodbuilding is gay. And it is, but not because they perform high rep pump work. Think of ANY brutally strong dude you know. What does this dude have in common with other brutally strong dudes? They are all big as fuck. I've never seen a small person move ridiculous weights. It just doesn't happen. I'll be the first to admit I often had the mentality of "gotta move heavy weights all the time to get strong." This is wrong, borderline retarded, and completely ego-driven. High rep work is important. It builds muscle.
Case in point. Everyone thinks Westside consists of 1 rep max effort work and 3 rep speed work. No one ever really talks about "repetition effort." Here is an example the assistance work as prescribed by Dave Tate in the Periodization Bible Part I:
- Shoulders or Chest 5 Sets of 10-20 Reps (DB Bench, DB Incline, DB Military, Incline Press, Dips, Pushups)
- Lats or Upper Back Work - 5 sets of 10-20 reps (DB Rows, Bent Rows, Chins, T-Bar Rows, Lat-Pulldowns, Facepulls, Shrugs)
- Triceps - 5 sets of 10-20 reps (Pushdowns or extensions)
That is 150 reps minimum, or 300 reps maximum. How often does anyone perform 150 reps of anything anymore? What about 300? Non-existant in the quagmire of medocrity that one finds the average strength trainer nowadays. You know who does 300 reps in a workout? Jim Wendler: http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/07/training-update-press-video-beginner-dl-video/
I can almost guarantee, and I'm guilty of this myself, that 99% of people looked at what he did for the big lifts, watched the video, and completely glossed over the fact that he did 300 repetitions of rep work.
Strength trainers nowadays are fucking lazy. I got fucking lazy. Thats not to say I haven't been working out hard. But, the majority of my training was 3-5 reps, and 8-10 if I was lucky on assistance work. That is bullshit. Guess what. High reps are hard. Take ANY exercise. Really, any exercise. I don't care if its side laterals or fucking deadlifts. Now do 30 reps. Do 30 reps and tell me that didn't take a lot of effort. Bodybuilders might be gay, but they work out harder than powerlifters. Straight up.
I work out at a strength training gym in the middle of a big city. It is an awesome gym, and nice to see most of the people there working out "right." Everyone is doing the big compounds, and its pretty clear a lot of the younger dudes all read the internet. You would think there are a bunch of diesel dudes walking around. After all, they are squatting, cleaning, and doing all the right stuff. Nope. No strong people. I'm simply fucking amazed at how many weak and soft people I see doing technical barbell lifts on a daily basis. Are they wrong for doing barbell lifts? No, but they are fucking wrong for doing triples constantly. There is nothing wrong with going heavy once in a while, but for fucks sake, singles and triples don't make you fucking grow. And in my opinion, I really don't think they make you strong.
A triple does a great job of demonstrating strength. It also is a great tool to develop your neural system when you want to peak and display maximal strength for a while. But they sure as hell don't develop your body in any appreciable way if you are doing them perpetually. Pavel can lick my fucking ball sack. The only person I've ever seen get absolutely diesel from performing singles is Jaime Lewis. And he performs 20+ singles a session and lifts 10+ times a week. No wonder he gets big from fucking singles.
People make the mistake of looking at really strong dudes doing low rep work and think "that must be key." But, most people don't stop to think about how at a certain point it is exceedingly hard to add muscle over time. For a guy that is already huge, it makes sense to be committed to doing 3-5's because they have a huge ceiling. Most people however, are nowhere near their genetic potential.
With all of that said, in general, talk about sets and reps is fucking boring. Its boring. Like all things fitness, there are no absolutes. Absolutes in both strength training and nutrition piss me off. That is why I hate crossfit pansies, paleo trolls, and Rippetoe whores. There is no "best way." The human body is way too complex for all of that. I will say, and somewhere along the line I lost site of this, but if there is one near truth in strength training, it is that if you get bigger, there is a pretty good chance you got fucking stronger.
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