Tuesday is the first day of the Training Week with no cleans and presses, based on the format I’m following for Enter the Kettlebell.  It’s the first of two variety days in the week, meaning just about any exercise is acceptable, as is even a rest day.  Last week I worked hard on Tuesday and it was really great.  It made Wednesday tough but that’s ok.  So I decided to repeat the Tuesday torture fun.

The program last week was 50 swings followed by 1 minute of jogging for 12 minutes then 5 minutes of TGUs.  I changed it up only slightly this week by substituting jumping rope for the jogging.  I prefer the rope jumping.  I’m not that great at it, but I’m not bad either. It’s enjoyable.   It reminds me of being a little girl. 

I also decided to vary the kettlebell swings a bit.  Initially I had planned to stick with 2 hand swings throughout but decided on my second round of swings to switch things up.   I did just a simple circuit of 10 2 hand, 10 right, 10 left, 10 2 hand, 5 right , 5 left.  I like that pattern.  It made the rest of the practice go much easier.  When the timer went off at the end of the 12 minutes, I was only part way through a round of swings but had plenty of steam left.  I completed that round and contemplated another but eventually decided to stop.

A few minutes later I practiced several rounds of alternating Turkish Get Up singles done with no weight.  I should have thought to use the shoe to balance on my hand.  Oh well.  It was great to focus on each movement carefully.  I stopped the practice at the end of 5 minutes.   

Next Tuesday I’m going to make the swing portion harder.  Not sure what I’m going to change. Maybe I’ll use the bigger kettlebell. Or add minutes.  Or shorten the rest.  At least I have a week to decide. 

 This week I have been  following Week 6 of Enter the Kettlebell.   The clean and press ladders are going fine and I’m looking forward to adding another ladder to the practice next week.  I’m improving with my chinups, although not nearly fast enough to suit myself.  I need to get some better bands so that when I have to switch to assisted chinups I actually get some assistance.  (The band arrangement I have right now just is not cutting it.)  Until then, when I run out of steam with chinups, I move to bent rows.

The kettlebell swing and snatch training is going well, although some of the  swing practices are pretty crazy. Five seconds’  rest between sets of 25 swings?  That’s not a rest, it’s death avoidance!    Oh my.  But I’m getting through them.

Monday was “light” with 4 ladders, 3 rungs each of cleans and presses, plus the “pulls” as required in the ETK workbook.    Monday also included snatches.  They went well but I felt pain in my hands way too early in that practice, in my opinion.  This will definitely be something to discuss with Elise when I train with her again.

Tuesday was a variety day, and my practice looked something like a double workout from the Program Minimum part of Enter the Kettlebell.  The first part was kettlebell swings – 50 of them followed by a 1 minute jog.  No rest, just repeat until 12 minutes are up.  After a brief recovery I then did part two, 5 minutes of continuous Turkish Get Ups, alternating sides.  I used one of the baby kettlebells.  This was a killer day.  But I felt great the rest of the day.  Funny how that works. 

Wednesday was “medium day” from ETK.  It looked much like Monday, except there was swing practice in lieu of snatch practice at the end.  After burning it up on Tuesday, this was pretty tough, but I followed the protocol as required.  I also practiced  pushups and planks at the end, two exercises I’d really like to be better at.

Thursday was another variety day, and I used my heaviest kettlebell and did swing intervals at :30 on/:30 off for 12 minutes.  For active rest during the :30 off I did prisoner squats or alternating lunges.  Then I did 7 minutes of Turkish Get Ups, “naked” (no weight.) Doing them this way makes it much easier to focus on form and I’ve decided that I’ll do  them this way for a while.  Form matters so much more than how much weight you can hoist without killing yourself.

Friday was a rest day for me. Yay!! I needed it!

 
Saturday was a “heavy” day.  The clean and press ladders and pulls were the same but the swing practice was the heavy part.  This was the one with 25 swings and 5 seconds of rest.  Thankfully it only lasted 6 minutes.  Some really ugly thoughts came to mind when I was in the latter part of this practice.  But again, I made it through.  I have definitely developed some new respect for those who have completed the ETK program!

Sunday is a rest day. Looking forward to the rest and a little extra sleep.

I’m basically happy with the way my training went this week.  I noticed that I had to work hard on staying focused mentally as well as physically.  I didn’t really get this when people mentioned it before, but it’s clear now. 

No more fasting for me for the time being.  I need a steady supply of energy, and personally I find that my energy is significantly affected by fasting.  As long as I’m doing ETK, there won’t be room for it.

Moving on to week 7 of ETK (round 1) on Monday. 

Fasting is an interesting idea.  The way Brad Pilon explains it in his Eat Stop Eat program, you should be able to eat at maintenance most days of the week, fast for 1 or 2 days, and be able to lose weight.  The theory mostly makes sense to me.  I still have some questions about how many calories your body really uses when you fast or what effect this may  have on your metabolism.  But when you think about the number of calories you generally eat in a day, not eating for 1 or 2 days per week should equate to at least a pound of weight loss.

I have only tried fasting twice, so I am far from an expert on the subject.  All I have is my own experience on which to comment.  But so far, I’m really not impressed with my own weight loss (which I’d really prefer to think of as fat loss) experience with fasting.   The data:

Fast #1 

• Length: 24 hours
• Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
• Time of day started/ended:  9:00 am
• Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: maintenance
• Weight loss at end of fast: 1.5 lb.
• Weight loss as of 3 days later: 0.

Fast #2

• #Days since prior fast: 6
• Length of fast: 24 hours
• Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
• Time of day started/ended:  9:00 am
• Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: slight deficit
• Weight loss at end of fast:  3.5 lb.
• Weight loss after 3 days:  0

The bottom line on my two fasts:  no effect at all.  Again, this only represents two fasts, and things may change as you fast more.   However, given that fasting is something of an extreme experience, it is not something I want to jump into regularly without due analysis.  It is strange to me that there would be no net loss after two fasts within a week.  (The weight lost right at the end of the fast could be attributed to there being no food in the digestive system at that point and although attempts were made to avoid it, slight dehydration.)

To verify that there were no changes that the scale alone couldn’t detect, I also measured body fat using digital calipers and took measurements.  The measurements were exactly the same, taken 3 days after each fast, and body fat was up by around 1% after the second fast.  That of course, is well within the margin for error for the device.

There are some other benefits to fasting which cannot be overlooked.  During both of my fasts, I enjoyed a terrific night’s sleep.  In addition, I was generally free from the hassle of cooking for about a day each time.  Some people report being more creative or more alert, although I never experienced that.  I did feel refreshed and somewhat “cleansed” after each fast, as if I had reset my system.  That part was great.

 I’m not sure why I didn’t have success with my two attempts.    My instinct is that I burned so many fewer calories because of the lack of the thermic effect of food (the calories expended by consuming and processing food)  that a large enough deficit was never created by the fasts.

 Maybe the next fast would be different.  I am not convinced that fasting won’t work for me.  I will probably try again at some point.  Some people do seem to have success with intermittent fasting for weight loss or management, so there must be a way to make it work.  

For the meantime, I am putting intermittent fasting on hold, except to the extent that I may try eliminating an occasional evening meal.  My strength and endurance goals take priority over fat loss at the moment, and my weekly workout schedule doesn’t leave room for being low on energy.  However, the subject is intriguing, and I would like to collect more information about others’ experiences with fasting.  Please comment and let me know how it has worked for you.

Remember:  Consult your doctor before starting a new exercise or nutrition plan, including a fast.  My experiences should not be considered recommendations for anyone else.

I’m shifting gears with my training.  I have followed the Beginner Kettlebell program that Elise designed for about the last 2 and 1/2 months.  It’s what she gives all of her new kettlebell students.  I think doing them helped me in many ways, and I feel that the time doing those workouts was well spent.

However, I’ve decided to follow the program designed by Pavel in  Enter the Kettlebell.  It seems to be the most trusted method for developing the kind of pressing ability and conditioning that is necessary for the Russian Kettlebell Challenge.   Given that I’m jumping into this game a little bit later in life than most, I want to follow the program that I feel will give me the greatest chance of success at RKC, in the shortest period of time.

That is not to say I’m in a hurry to get to RKC.  In fact, having started Enter the Kettlebell this week, I see now that it is probably going to take me even longer to get ready than I thought before.  That’s okay.  As long as I’m moving forward at a steady pace and seeing regular gains, I know I’ll make it when the time is right. 

I am cheating a little and I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me.  I am skipping the Program Minimum section of ETK.  I feel that my workouts from Elise have earned me the right to start at the beginning of the second part of the training, the ”Rite of Passage.”   If I can’t handle it after I’ve tried it for a few weeks, I will reevaluate. 

For anyone unfamiliar with Enter the Kettlebell, the idea is that you begin the program with the kettlebell that you can press 5-8 times.  You follow the program, repeating it as many times as necessary, until you are doing  presses, swings and snatches with the size kettlebell that is appropriate for your tests at RKC.  Or until you can one-arm press half your bodyweight and snatch a 53 pound kettlebell 200 times in 10 minutes (men.)  The similar goal for women is to be able to perform the 10 minute snatch test of 200 reps with a 12kg kettlebell and clean and press the kettlebell closest to  a quarter of their bodyweight once with each arm.  I will be following this program a long time.

 My ETK training actually started several days ago.  I’ll finish Week 5  on Saturday.  (It’s week number 5 because I skipped  those 4 weeks called “Program Minimum” this time and went straight to “Rite of Passage.”)  So far it is going well, and I’m finding I have a bit of DOMS from the pressing, a very good sign in my opinion.

“Rite of Passage” in Enter the Kettlebell calls for 3 structured practice days, 2 variety days in which you pretty much do whatever exercise you want,  and 2  days off.  One of my variety days will be spent doing sprint intervals.  I’m doing this for extra HIIT benefits and for the extra lower body work.  You may know that lower body is the part of me that I love to hate.  My other variety day will probably be spent doing Turkish Get Ups and/or trying out the workouts I’ll be using in my coming-soon fitness classes for women. 

I’m also hoping to continue Eat Stop Eat,  the intermittent fasting that I’ve tried recently.  I completed a second fast this week. It was more difficult this time, quite different from the first.  But I’m starting to see some results.  (I’m after a bit of body fat loss.)  I’ll be closely monitoring my strength as I go along, as I know it is difficult to see fat loss and strength gain at once.  Since strength is primary for me, I’ll stop the fasting if things don’t go well.

Probably I won’t post my ETK workouts.  They are quite repetitive.  I’ll likely only write about whatever is new or what my variety days are like.  Or maybe I’ll find other things to drone on blog about. 

That’s my plan.  Unless I change it. 

Here’s the kettlebell workout that Elise showed me last week. 

Using two kettlebells, perform the following exercises once each, rapidly but maintaining good form:

1. Push Up (shoulders directly over kettlebells)
2. Up and into position–>Double Kettlebell Bent Row
3. Stand Up–> Double Clean (Dead Clean)
4. Double Kettlebell Squat

Go through this circuit 6 times then immediately run 1/4 mile.  Repeat x 4. 

Don’t have two kettlebells the same size?  No problem.  Select two that are near in size.   Alternate which side holds the heavier bell.

I also ended up throwing in double presses.  It seemed the right thing to do.

This will get your heart rate up there!

If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!

Thursday I broke my fast at 9:00am, twenty-four hours after I had started it.  I think I chose a good time of day (for me)  to start and end the fast because I only ever felt hungry for a few hours.  I’m sure there is a best starting/ending time for everyone.  Yesterday when I was about to eat, though, I wasn’t all that excited about it.  I was ready to have more energy but I wasn’t particularly hungry.

I had a difficult time eating much all day and I definitely never had the urge to eat more than usual.  Rather, I found myself unable to eat normal sized portions.  After my first meal, in fact, my stomach felt a bit uncomfortable.  It was reluctant to get back into action.

Later in the day, after spending some time at the pool with the kids and coming home to shower, I experienced a slight episode of hypoglycemia.  It was really strange, because I normally would not expect it at that time of day, and I’d had a reasonable amount of protein and carbs at the prior meal.  A little more food took care of the problem easily.  However, I suspect the underlying cause was the fast from the day before. 

As the day went on, I began to have a more normal appetite.  Today (Friday) I’m certain that  everything is back to normal.  I had a pretty hard workout of primarily swinging and snatching the kettlebell this morning and I felt good before, during and after it. 

 
So in my experience, the effects of the fast didn’t end when the fast did.  I continued to experience a reduced appetite and a more volatile blood sugar  for about 12 hours after breaking the fast.  These effects weren’t unmanageable, by any means, but definitely are something to keep in mind for the next fast.

Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat program for weight loss or maintenance is very simple: don’t consume calories for about a day at a time, 1-2 times per week, in order to lose one or two pounds per week.   For weight maintenance, fast every 6-8 days.  He contends that as long as you are engaged in a strength training program at least 3 days per week, you will not lose muscle from fasting in this way.  If you are interested in more details or the science behind his program, please refer to his Eat Stop Eat manual.  Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

I became interested in this type of weight management after following Julie’s fast recently on twitter. Julie seemed to manage well, without being particularly uncomfortable.  After we discussed it a bit more,  I decided to give it a try.   In fact, I decided just a day or so before I started the fast.  That’s just one thing this program has going for it.  It is so simple that very little  pre-planning is necessary.

Since my teenage years, I have struggled with a moderate case of hypoglycemia.  Because of it, I have a difficult time eating at a deficit on a day to day basis.  Higher protein and lower carb food combinations are what I typically rely on to keep my blood sugar in balance, but sometimes it  is unpredictable. 

I was a bit concerned about how my blood sugar would react during the fast.  Typically, if I do have an episode of low blood sugar, it occurs in the morning.  So I chose to start my fast after breakfast.  That way I would still be full during the time of day that I’d be most at risk for a low blood sugar attack.  Also I’d be able to break the fast during the same hour the next day.

My fast began on Wednesday at 9:00 am.  At first, of course, it feels no different from any other day.  I happened to be out running errands that morning, and stopped to buy a large bottle of water to drink around 11:00 am.  I think that helped me forget that my usual lunch time was about to be overlooked.

I arrived back home at around 1pm, and at that point it was later than I usually would eat lunch, so I didn’t feel the need to go to the kitchen out of habit.  But I was pretty hungry, and had a headache by then.  This was probably the worst point in the day for hunger for me.  However, hot tea and the distraction of chores in the house and friends to complain to on twitter kept me from focusing on the hunger too much.

Over the next several hours my energy level really dropped.  I wanted to sit still and do as little as possible.  I tried to avoid being too much of a couch potato, but it is what felt right, and my main goal was to get through the 24 hours without breaking the fast.

I relied on more hot tea, which by the way was decaf, with Splenda added.  I normally use a bit of half & half in my tea but did not include it in the tea yesterday.  Brad Pilon suggests that artificial sweeteners can be used at your discretion, and that any cream or sugar are to be avoided.  Caffeine would have been OK by the book, but I elected to go for decaf because 1) I didn’t want the dehydrating effects of caffeine and 2)caffeine can trigger an episode of hypoglycemia for me.  Unfortunately, I think I suffered a bit of caffeine withdrawal, which contributed to the headache, but it wasn’t intolerable.

By dinner time I was finding that I felt completely unmotivated to do anything besides sit.  Making dinner for the family was completely out, on several levels!  So my husband offered to take the kids out to eat.  I considered staying home, but decided to go with them.  I could just as easily sit with them, as sit at home.  Since they went to a fast food place (boo, I know!)  I wasn’t enticed by the food at all.  I sat with them and chewed gum while they ate. 

I drank a glass of water when we got home but it was cold and I got chilled from it.  So I went back to the hot tea.  I’m a tea lover anyway (coffee gives me heartburn!) The tea gave me the usual “comfort” feeling and helped me feel full.  I think hot tea was important to my success in getting through the day.

By early evening I knew I’d be able to reach my goal.  I wasn’t hungry and I’d made it through all the main meals that I’d have to avoid.  I was feeling tired and very out of it, like my brain was foggy.  But at that time of day I normally feel pretty tired and somewhat out of it anyway!  I had worried that I wouldn’t sleep well from my stomach growling but friends on twitter suggested that they had slept well during a fast.  That turned out to be my experience too.

I woke up today excited that I’d nearly made it, and feeling rested and generally very good.  Some people claim they experience a higher level of alertness or greater creativity during a fast,  and although I didn’t get that benefit, I also never felt bad either. 

I broke the fast at 9:00am, 24 hours after starting it, with celery stuffed with peanut butter.  It tasted good, but not out-of-this-world good.  I was glad to eat and  felt I had more energy almost immediately.  But I had never felt crazy hungry, and at that point I didn’t feel that relieved either.  Thankfully, I never had any problems with my blood sugar during the fast.  I chose not to work out during the 24 hours, because I suspected that doing so would trigger an attack.  Next time I might try it and see, though.

I would definitely do this again.  For me, it could be a great answer to weight management and/or weight loss.  However, I would do a few things differently next time.

• I’d more carefully plan what I would eat to break the fast, although the celery and peanut butter worked out well.
• I’d have a bit more caffeine with my last meal if  it were breakfast, as I think caffeine withdrawal may have triggered a headache.
• I’d carry a bottle of water with me wherever I went and consciously drink as much as possible early in the fast.  I felt cold and unwilling to drink plain water toward the middle and end of the fast.
• I’d plan to have fewer things that needed to be done during the middle of the fast, in case I felt out of it again.
• I’d prepare my family’s food ahead, so they wouldn’t have to eat out and I wouldn’t have to cook when hungry.

All in all the fast was a positive experience.  I felt like I accomplished a lot in a day.  I still need to do more evaluation with respect the effects this may have on my strength gains.  But I feel pretty certain that  intermittent fasting will be  an element I incorporate into my lifestyle.

Please note that these comments are all based on my personal experiences and should not be considered recommendations for anyone else.

The day after the fast has been almost as interesting for me, as the experience of beginning to eat again hasn’t been exactly as I expected.  Tomorrow’s post will cover that! 

Recently Roy at Kettlebell Wall asked the question, what music do you like to listen to while using your kettlebells?  I think he got some good, and somewhat varied responses. 

I remember that Laura Pasik (and maybe others) responded that she didn’t listen to music at all while using kettlebells because she likes to keep focused.  I understood that and considered it briefly, but decided it wasn’t for me, as music has been a vital component to help me keep moving at high intensity in my workouts.  

Somehow my ipod battery had gotten dangerously low over the last couple of days.  I am new to this toy, and I’m still learning what to expect from the battery and how to know when it really needs to be charged.  I thought it had plenty of juice, but apparently my son had used my ipod yesterday and the battery was lower that I knew.

So about two minutes into my kettlebell practice today, the music died.  At first I thought maybe I’d forgotten to put the lock on, and had stopped the music by accident.  At my next rest period, I examined the gadget and learned the bad news:  battery gone.  So I quickly went in search of my back-up, a Sansa clip mp3 player which also runs off a rechargeable battery.  Part of the reason I replaced it though, was because it doesn’t hold a charge very long.  I had charged it once last week, but I soon found that it also was juice-less this morning.

No time to think about it further, it was time to begin my next round.  Ugh.  Suddenly the kettlebell felt heavier and the movements were more difficult.   Ideas of stopping the workout and resuming later with a recharged ipod passed through my mind.  With a full day ahead I decided to proceed.  I wasn’t a happy camper.

But then I realized that while doing the movements, I could hear in my head reminders – keep your wrist and elbow locked, abs tight, shoulder in the socket, focus on the bell, etc.  Although annoyed with the lack of a good beat to push me along, I understood why Laura does it this way.   Those cues are always running through my head when I’m doing my kettlebell practice –  even when I have the music, but they fade to the background. Perhaps they get quieted too much, or too often.

No question, my session seemed to last forever today.  I was sick of my “inner coach”  by the end and really tired of hearing my joints crack and pop!  But I probably used a little bit better form today.  

 For a second I considered making this my new routine.  No, for me the music is part of what makes the movements fun.  So I’m charging that ipod now.  But occasionally doing my practice ”quiet” would probably serve me well.  

How do your workouts go when you don’t have music?

The family went to the pool and part of me wanted to go with them.  But there’s all summer for that, and I was ready for my scheduled appointment with Elise Matthews, RKC II.  My goal of becoming prepared for RKC was my priority. So I trained with Elise for an hour and change on Sunday. 

Whenever I leave her studio, I always feel great about what’s ahead and what I’ve learned.  And it was no different this time.  It is always a pleasure to work with her.

As usual, she started by asking me how the last few weeks had gone.  I told her how I’d had fun figuring out the kettlebell snatch, and how I had torn up my hands in the process (although thankfully, they’re better now.)  I told her that the workouts had gone well, that I’d made progress building endurance and strength, but that a brief bout with a cold had erased some of that, at least temporarily.

Then she began to evaluate three main movements for me:  the swing, the clean and the snatch.  We focused on each one individually.  With the swing we discussed my range of motion, and whether or not it was large enough.  I made a mental note to work on enlarging the range, even though she said it would be fine as is.  My kettlebell clean needed another dose of  “arc taming,”  something I never seem to hear enough about.  Apparently the arc was especially wild on the left, which accounts for the bruises on my left forearm only. 

At our last session I was introduced to doing kettlebell snatches.  At that point, mine looked more like one of the pictures of Pavel demonstrating the WRONG way to do them in Enter The Kettlebell.  So I was psyched to show Elise my progress.  I knew my technique would still require much refinement, but I also knew I had come a long way.  I was both surprised and relieved when she didn’t find too much wrong with the snatches.  When I told her that I was having some low back pain when I used a  (for me) medium sized kettlebell to do snatches, she immediately diagnosed and showed me how to  fix the problem.  This is one reason why it is important to work with a certified kettlebell trainer.

We spent a good deal of the time talking business.  She gave me some great ideas to use when coaching other women and shared some of her experiences in the fitness business.   We talked about how kettlebells are basically unheard of in our area, and what the best way to change that would be.  We discussed RKC:  the organization, and the certification weekend.  I think I may have enjoyed our conversation more than the training. 

Then she walked me through a workout she had her kettlebell group perform the day before.  I’ll be doing this workout as part of my weekly line up over the next several weeks.  I only did one round, and I can say with certainty that this will be a good one, for those of us who love to train hard.   Details to follow. 

Once again, I’m ready to charge forward and see how much I can accomplish before our next meeting.  We made plans to have that next session in several weeks. 

Today’s workout:  none.  Too much DOMS.  Love it! 

How about you?