Enjoying the summer

Hi everyone

Just a few words, while you’re hopefully out enjoying the summer, moving your body under the open sky.

Here at Raakraft things are moving along nicely. I’m doing a lot of FMS screens and constantly improving on my approach, catching the finer points during each tests.

With the screen I’m also getting pretty good with my shoulder mobility and led raise, but both still take some movement preparation to get where they need to be. It feels awesome, though, to be able to move freely in the shoulder and hip joints.

I’m working my way into the Viking Warrior Conditioning Regime and I love it, despite/because it challenges me real nice. I try to get 4 VWC sessions in every week and wave cycle the number of sets in order to make it bearable. It is really tempting to rush to the 80 sets and move on to 36/36, but I keep reminding me that I’m in it for the benefits of the protocol, not just to rush through it and say I did it.

On the strength side I’m working on getting my pullups, TGU and squats tighter. I’m still training very much by feeling and enjoy throwing some running and climbing/crawling into the mix as well. It feels great and even though I don’t feel quite as strong as I did 6 months ago, I love being pain free and the feeling of athletic natural movement.

I hope this message finds you all well!

All the best

Dennis

TOTD and Evolutionrace

Training of the day, Wednesday 1/7 2009

Did some “train by feel” in the morning:

ASLR and shoulder mobility progressions

Brettzel progressions – starting to feel solid

TGU progressions (Jeff O’Connor showed us some really nice variations for hip/shoulder mobility)

Clean n’ jerks: 2x28kg x 5-6 reps – Felt easy and comfortably in the lockout

Bent press: 40kg – very smooth and seamless

Swing progressions: 28kg and 48kg – starting to feel very rooted and able to work in some foot work – Feels awesome.

In the afternoon I took my advanced class through 45 sets of berserker conditioning protocol. It felt a lot better than this weekend so I guess Kenneth is right about the enzymatic benefits kicking in really fast. Still a heck of a long way to 80 sets.

My beginner class had the pleasure of being introduced to David Whitley’s furnace workout. The BJJ class on the mat beside us started complaining that we emitted too much heat LOL

EvolutionRace

One of my current goals is competing in the combined “strongman”/endurance event “EvolutionRace”. The concept is 10 km cross country running with 10 challenges interspersed during the race. Challenges include rope climbs, climbing along ropes and horizontal posts, stone lifting, farmer walks, tire dragging, precision stone throw, cold water swimming etc. The route is really hilly throw a beautiful wooden area with plenty of steep ascents and slopes. This year I plan on doing the run in Vibram Fivefingers, of course.