Guarden’s Focused Strength

Sunday

 Kettlebells

• Cleans
  • 2 x 32 kg x 3 x 3 sets

Besides that it was time for 1 hour of Salsa, damn talking about motor-challenge. LOL.  :-D  

Monday & Thursday

 Climbing The last month some of my regular exercise has been indoor-climbing (2-3 times pr. week). This is just a cool way to use your body. Everything besides the legs just gets one heck of a workout. The grip, forearms, the upper back abs, shoulders… Every muscle in your upper body will be challenged while being in an odd position. Some people compare climbing with chess. Climbing is playing chess with your body. You often end up in a challenging position where it feels like you have no chance of getting further. Then you just move one of your feet an inch, and you are ready to continue :-)Besides being physically challenging, it places big demands on your mental skills for several reasons. First and foremost, the fear of falling down. We climb without safety lines, but there are big pillows to land on - you wont get hurt. The walls are up to 8 meters tall and the degrees of incline can be adjusted with a motor system. Next time I climb (monday) I will do some filming so you can check it out. Another mental skill you need to master, well it will help you while climbing is to plan your route before you start. You can make a good comparison to your life about climbing. If you have a plan before you start climbing, the chances are that you will end the right place (the top) You may not make it in the first, second or third try, but sooner or later you make it, just like any challenge in life. But if you don’t have a plan for your life, you are at a great risk of ending up on the wrong top, if you even reach the top. Yesterday I finally made this tough route we made, with the wall hanging parallel to the floor. Nasty for the grip and lats. Think my crushing strength is down to 50 % MVC this morning. Adapt, adapt, adapt :-) Updates with some kettlebell-stuff coming up. Tried the C & J short cycle yesterday, and definitely need some advice, LOL.       

Have been a while ago since I have been doing updates in the BLOG. Thanks Rif for the push A lot of stuff has been happening, and I will sum up the most important ones. First and foremost, of course I have been training a lot, actually a lot more structured than I usually do.   

Weightlifting

 I have teamed up with a friend who is a lot into weightlifting. His background is national level competition, and he coaches young and upcoming talents. We have made a deal, that I teach him about fighting, and he gives me skills in weightlifting. I have always admired weightlifters due to their explosiveness and strength, and I find it necessary for a Strength & Conditioning Coach to have the awareness and knowledge about this kind of training. My philosophy in training is that I will never make my athletes do things I haven’t tried on myself first. I want to know how it feels when you do the squat, the kettlebell highpull, the ring-dip, interval work, 2-hands-anyhow and the list continues. Besides that I also have the philosophy, that if you want to learn new skills you need to go full immersion. The last 3 weeks I have had 3 sessions of 90 minutes pr. week with one-on-one teaching. This is the way to learn it from the ground up. It has been totally deconstruction of my techniques in the snatch, clean & jerk, back- and frontsquat :-D A session looks something like this: Warmup 

• My own combo of Z-health and M2
• Overhead squats
• Bottom position press behind the neck

Workout 

• Snatch from the hips 
• Hang Cleans
• Pushpress
• Split-press
• Front squats
• Back squats

In combination with this there are a lot of assistance exercise, for which I don’t know the english term. My progress is quite well thanks to the extensive coaching and the training background I have. Kettlebelltraining, bodyweight exercises (one-arm pushups, pistols), ropes, rings etc. is just a fantastic way to give the kind of physique and flexibility i.e. in the hips you need. I have found out that my legs is the weakest part in my body compared to the rest of it. My torsional strength is as good as it gets, but the quads need some more danish dynamite. Great to find something to work on to take the physical skills to another level.  The loading is quite low all the time, mostly only the weight of the barbell + 10 kg, all technique.The squatting is a bit heavier and ass to the grass all the time. Last squat session was like this

•   70 kg x 8 rep x 2-3
• 100 kg x 5 rep x 2
• 110 kg x 3 rep x 3
• 120 kg x 2 rep x 2
• 125 kg x 1 rep x 1 (PR)

I don’t think it will take long before this goes through the roof. I have never been spending that much time on the squat, rather the deadlift and other pulling motions. Great to open up a new book of skills :-)   

Rings  Muscle-Up The rings have been irritating me for a long time, because I haven’t been able to do the muscle-up. I can do them in a pullup bar, but the rings have just seamed to resist. Finally a week ago one of my friends made one, and then I just had to do one as well. Yeeeeeiihaaaaaaa, finally I got it. Now I can do 3 in row, and did 22 within 20 minutes in friday.This is the coolest upper-body exercise ever - Choice of Tarzan. It creates a great deal of stress in the muscles around the elbow-joints, so you need to be aware not to overdo it. After performing the muscle-up I have been wondering why I haven’t been able to do it before. I think that I have had the strength the last 3 years to do it, the thing I have done wrong was that I tried to dip it before I rolled the shoulders into it. That made the entire difference.   More updates will follow containing Track Running & Climbing (bouldering)