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.

RKC II – Mission Accomplished

Finally I am home again after a long trip across the Atlantic Ocean. It feels wonderfull to be back with my fast growing little son and my beautiful wife.

I have passed the tests of the RKC II, and have gained new insights into the Hardstyle method. The ranking of RKC II is hard earned and among the people who have obtained it are highly skilled individuals;

- Adam Glass; Truly world class strongman, coach and friend

- Jason Marshall; US state and national record holder in powerlifting

- Dustin Miller; US national record holder in powerlifting

- Dustin Rippetore; CEO Way of Strength

By the way, Dustin is hosting a 2 day seminar with two of the giants in the RKC community; Senior Instructors Jeff O’Connor and David Whitley. Both did phenominal presentations at the RKC II and had I the option I would gladly cross the Atlantic the third time this year in order to attend. Check it out at www.wayofstrength.com.

All these guys, along with many unmentioned, are incredible athletes, coaches and human beings, and that being exactly what we strive for here at RaaKraft it is very exciting to train and hang out with them. Your standards are the average of the expectations of your peers, which in this case means your standards will be raised. As they say the bar will be raised and that fact alone will improve standards you set for yourself.

The RKC is divided into “levels” of sofistication. With the new introduction, Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification, there will be HKC (goblet squat, swings, get ups), RKC (clean, press, snatch, front squat, double kettlebell exercises), RKC II (jerk, viking push press, wind mill, snatch, tactical pullup, pistol and limited corrective exercise) and CK-FMS (the gold standard in corrective exercise). This division provides a clear progression and allows for a path of movement mastery. At the same time every single exercise is tied together with all the others in a way that builds toward very efficient power production, pain free mobility and strong flexibility. By allowing time between going from simple (not easy) exercises to more complex the instructors can obtain understanding of each and every exercise before progressing. Way too often we jump the gun a want to do all the sexy stuff right a way. By doing this we will miss out on the amazing benefits there are to be found in the simplest of exercises. After Sr. RKC Jeff O’Connorhave shown me a number of ways to delve deeper into the movement in the swing I’ve found myself reaping incredible benefits carrying over to a wide spectrum of activities.

Another amazing aspect of the RKC community is the fantastic feeling of coherence. We all know what it takes to go through the RKC and even more important upholding the Code of Conduct. We are truly a warrior tribe and the quality of warriors is truly something special in this age of McDojos and 4 minutes a day fitness programs.

Training of the Day

Did some work on the brettzel and some yoga-stuff after coming home from the airport. Later I’ve worked very lightly on some athletic swigs with the beast. They felt awesomely and with a little practice that bell will float effortlessly overhead.

Tomorrow will be the Berserker Conditioning Regime after a lot of skill work. I can’t wait!

Press, pullups and pistols

The past two day, and today, I’ve been hosting exams for aspiring personal trainers at the Danish personal trainer school, Instruktørskolen. It requires long attentive days. The passion of the more dedicated students reminds me of the mindset I believe you ought to have as a trainer, teacher or coach. Humility, dedication and respect (tough love ..).

Trainingwise I’ve done some Naked Warrior exercises, mainly pistols, one arm/one leg pushups, handstand pushups and yesterday I had a really nice session with a lot of “Fast n Loose” drills plus weighted joint mobility followed by unilateral clean n’ presses, pullups and pistols.

Here is a little something from the RKC I attended i 2006:

Morning Workout

Greetings All

Z-health: 35 minutes

FMS corrections: T-spine mobility and active strait leg raise w/ core engagement, 15 minutes

Kettlebell technique training: clean n’ press, goblet squat, pistols, clean n’ jerk, viking push press, 30 minutes

Barefoot running drills: 20 minutes

Yoga Sun Salutations: 10 minutes

A nice and easy day to recharge the body. I’ve had quite a few nagging injuries for a good while now, so I’m seriously working on balancing out assymmetries and getting mobility and stability solid before venturing into strength and conditioning.

Have an amazing day, and please check up on my next post, which will be a good deal longer!

Dennis

Rest Day

Today I rested and filled my energy depots. After reading Mark Riefkind’s blog I’ve become increasingly aware of the need of prehabilitation or injury preventation. So today I backed of from training after 6 days of intense training and did Z-health and some low volume pistols using my 2-pood kettlebell as weight. Right now I feed completely energized and can’t wait to get going tomorrow.

Z-health is a great way of increasing body awareness and joint health. After having done the R-phase for a few weeks and feel better than I ‘ve done in a long time. Joint health seems to me like a very overlooked aspect of training, and I wonder if many athletes wouldn’t be able to stay healthy and strong for longer using techniques like it. Z-health is very simple (not easy ), and I like it for that very reason. I use it in all my classes as part of the warm up and usually start the day with some Z as well.

Dark Side Training

Hi everybory

This week has been great trainingwise. I’ve had plenty of time on my hands and have spend the majority of it trying out new and old stuff. My training have been a blend of ropeclimbing, ring gymnastics, barbell stuff (zercher squats, deads etc.), circuits and kettlebell training. I’m really improving a lot on the rings these days, and will start working on some new skills soon.

I’ve also done some martial arts for the first time in a while. I’ve started taking wing tsun classes on a regular basis and will add some brazillian jujutsu to the mix as well.

Flow and mobility

Today was my rest day with only a short run in the woods with the solitary purpose to enjoy the feeling of fast movement between the trees. I didn’t worry about speed or distance, just having fun with running and trying to maxermise my feeling of flow. I kept on for approx. 30 minutes.

 Afterwards I did a Be Breathed workout (Scott Sonnon), which focuses on integrating breath and movement along with mobility of the spine. Very challenging and energizing at the same time. I also did some practice on the muscle up, which is a great exercise for intergrating a pullup and a press into a single exercise.

 The greatest part of the day was a 90 minute session with a brilliant bodyworker, who not only did wonders on the soreness in my lower back and forearms, but also showed me some simple but really nice exercises for posture correction. Definitely not the last time I’ve treated myself to something like that.

Volume training

I’ve been told that the secret behind great strength is to practice a lot of perfect lifts. The way to do so is to do low-repetitions, low intensity lifts for a great amount of sets. Having just entered this fascinating world of training I haven’t really been doing much of this kind of training before.

 Today’s example:

Military press: 5 reps x 8 sets @ 16kg kettlebell

Pullups: 5 reps x 8 sets @ 16kg kettlebell

 And this a not even close to the kind of volume the really strong guys are doing.

Now go to work!

Secret Service Snatch Test

Today was my first PPP-workout with a little something ekstra at the end. PPP stands for press, pistol and pullup and is a strength triathlon including these three lifts. I did weight ladders covering 28 – 36kg in all three lifts and stuck to singles during the workout. Pistols and pullups are coming along nicely considering the their long absence from my training.

 To round up I did the equally dreaded and legendary Secret Service Snatch Test with a personal best of 222 reps in ten minutes. The SSST is a kettlebell strength endurance test with a 24kg kettlebell.

 With today’s test I’m going to back of from the personal bests for a while, and try to get more volume and work capacity into my training, with a combined CNS, high volume training and high intensity aerob training. It’s going to be interesting to see the results in a few months.

 That’s it for now!