Four Nine Six

Today's Training:
31  Turkish Get-Ups
600 Swings

Today's Blog Title:
The number of TGUs we've done this month
496!
BOO-YA!

On the calendar, today is New Years Eve.
Break it down.
And smell the coffee.
It's Friday.
Tomorrow's Saturday.
The date is irrelevant.

If you don't like who or what you are, don't use a date or day as an excuse to change.
Just change.
Be yourself.
Only better.
Whenever and wherever you can.

"Become the change you want to see in the world"

And become it now.

Happy Saturday.
Happy new you.

General Out

Attack at Dawn

D30.
An unscheduled lie in following an unexpectedly late night at the Sparta Kettlebells Christmas/End of Year party meant my morning workout didn't happen.

Clients fill my day until the evening, then it's TGUs and a mere 200 swings, and I'm heading home.

Tired now, every inch of me, but so close to the finish I can taste it.
We can taste it.
People I don't know have shared this journey with me.
The ones I do know, I salute you:

Mitch Seagondollar
Jim Beaumont
Tom Richardson

Proud to have shared your company on this journey.
This battle.
And now, the final push.
Gather your strength.
Like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae...
Comb your hair.
Polish your armour.
Tomorrow is the final day.

We attack at dawn.

General Out

Change

It's almost over now.

D29 dawns misty and damp.

A slow morning of trying to get all my joints to work through a full range of motion whilst attempting to train my clients.

My clients who want to train between Christmas and New Year, when most of the world is happy to over eat, over drink, and wait for the fictional tomorrow to get their shit back together.

My clients still train.

My friends still train.

I'm proud of you guys.

You're the real deal, every one of you. And you know who you are.

The War Memorial Park  is cloaked in mist as we arrive to train.

Dropping our Kettlebells onto the soft ground, we look around.

And see nothing.

As we start to train, the mist rolls in thicker, turns to fog, and soon it feels like we're the only people in the world.

Just us.

And the iron.

Always constant.

Today's Training:

a1) 30 x Swings x 32kg

a2) 10 x Double Swings (2 x 24kg) + 6 x See-saw Press (2 x 24kg)

a3) 30 x Swings x 32kg

a4) 10 x Double Swings (2 x 24kg) + 6 x Goblet Squat (24kg)

a5) 30 x Swings x 32kg

a6) 10 x Double Swings (2 x 24kg) + 6 x Halo (24kg)

Repeat 3 times. Minimal Rest.

Later...29 TGUs.

Of course.

And despite the pain, everything has become easier.

I've done nothing but TGUs for a month...

Yesterday and today my presses felt smooth and strong.

Today my squats felt smooth, easy, almost.

Everything has changed.

And is changing.

And ultimately, that's why we all came here.

General Out.

Adapt

The achiness and pain seems to seep further into me everyday now, like water soaking into a sponge.

I'm dealing with this because I know that every rep, every movement, makes me...

Stronger.

Tougher.

Fitter.

More Fluid.

Today's Training:

a1) Double Kettlebell Swings (2 x 28kg) x 20 Reps

a2) Renegade Row (2 x 24kg) x 8 Reps

a3) Double Clean & Press (2 x 20kg) x 8 Reps

a4) Indian Club Half Crucifix (1okg alternate arm) x 6 Reps

Repeat 5 times. No rest.

b) Double Clean & Press (2 x 28kg) x 3 x 3

Later...28 TGUs. Of course

And as my three fellow warriors and I stood in line at the park today, paired iron in front of us, the pain melted away in the fluidity and joy of the movements.

This is what we're designed to do.

We're animals.

We move.

We fight.

We adapt.

We evolve.

General Out.

We Are One

Somedays, being me isn't great.

Somedays, being me is just plain unpleasant.

And that's being generous to 'unpleasant'.

But today?

Today was a good day to be Craigy.

I sat in my jeep for ten minutes this morning waiting for the ice to melt from the inside of the windscreen, wondering how my unrested body was going to deal with the day.

I needn't have wondered.

Deal?

It just dealt.

We stand in a rough circle in the snow of the War Memorial Park, my three fellow warriors and I.

The sky is clear, and too blue, too endless.

The air is cold, and too clean, too pure.

The midwinter sun reflects from the white wastes around us, dazzling, bright.

An the iron?

The iron is the iron.

Ask my friend, Mitch.

Ask Rollins.

It is what it is.

Today's Training:

a1) 10 snatches LH - 30 secs break

a2) 20 Swings - 30 secs break

a3) 10 snatches RH - 30 secs break

a4) 20 swings - 30 secs break
Repeat 5 times with no rest.

b) 10 halos followed immediately by 20 swings

Repeat 5 times with 30 secs rest between sets

Later...26 TGUs...Of Course.


And I realise that we, my body and I, we no longer think of ourselves as permanently tired.
We no longer think of ourselves as unrested, aching.
Now...
Now I, my body and I, now we are one.

And that one is permanently ready.

Strong.

Indestructible.

General Out

Saturday

Today's Training:
25 TGUs
Later...
a1) Olympic Bar One Arm Press - Left x 5 reps
a2) 20 Swings
a3) Olympic Bar One Arm Press - Left x 5 reps
a4) 20 Swings
Repeat above 5 times.
Get back inside for Coffee and Christmas Pudding!

And speaking of Christmas Pudding:
I could post some sentimental Christmas stuff here.
But, for me:
Today is Saturday
Today is D25
Today is another day stronger, fitter, tougher.
For tougher, read 'more stubborn' - functionally, it's the same thing.
Because, also:
Today is another day alone

But, to maintain yesterday's Rocky theme, and to quote the immortal words of Clubber Lang:

"Train alone.

  Win alone."

Sure, most of us you have friends, family, a coach maybe, a support system of some kind.

But, ultimately, there's just you.

You and the iron.

You and the enemy

You and the fear

And ultimately, only one of you will survive.

Make sure it's you.

There are 6 days left of the year, 6 days left of the challenge.

To quote clubber again:

"Prediction? Pain"

Bring it...

General Out.

Momentum

Christmas Eve, and I realise that, barring injury, I'm not actually capable of stopping.

I didn't feel like moving today, at all. But I had a bodyweight training session scheduled with my friend Bobby.

So I drag myself to the gym.

I represent.

And my body comes to life.

I honestly think I could do a TGU in my sleep right now, my body is so programmed in to it's movement pattern.

Today's training:

Medicine Ball Push Ups - 3 sets of 15 L/R

Commando Roll with Incremental Push-Ups - 3 sets of 1-5

Monkey Bar Swings - 3 Sets with Plank during 'rest'

Incremental Pause Pull-Ups - 5 sets of 1-5 second pause at top

One arm chin-ups - 1 set of 3 L/R

TGUs x 24 with 20kg (24kg yesterday, so this was a bit of a back off)

And now, I feel great.

My shoulders, my core, my lats, my traps, my glutes, quads and hammies, everything feels worked, and worked again...but I know they'll work tomorrow when I ask them to.

I realise that if Jim Beaumont says 'lets keep going into January' I'm there.

I realise, that, in any endeavour, momentum has a life of it's own...as Rocky Balboa says:

"But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

And I realise that this challenge is me.

My personality.

My lifestyle.

Obsessive.

Addictive.

A break test mentality applied to everything:

How much weight do I have to load onto this bar before I can't deadlift it.

How many pull-ups can I do before my grip, or my lats, give in and I drop off the bar.

How high do I have to make that box before I can't jump on to it or over it.

How long does that race have to be before I can't finish it.

Is this always a good thing?

No.

But it is how I roll.

Totally.

Merry Christmas, my brothers and sisters.

General Out.

California Dreaming

I've spent most of the day driving through snow.
Or walking through snow.
And finally, training in snow:

22 Turkish Get Ups
800 Swings (yes 800)
Some (er, not sure exactly) beam pull-ups

Yet strangely, today I found myself in California.
At San Jose bus station, to be precise.
Physically, I was standing in the snow queueing at a cashpoint outside a supermarket.
Bored and cold, I looked up to the sky...which was unexpectedly powder blue, with fluffy white clouds hanging peacefully. And I don; know why, but I remembered a moment 9 months earlier, sitting on a bench waiting for the bus to Santa Cruz, when I looked up and saw the very same sky.

I don't know what made me think this.
But as I did, the Coventry cold left me, and I was sitting on that bench in California.
And I realised then that California will always be with me.

If you're English, you may subscribe to the media popular view of our American cousins:
they are rude, ignorant, arrogant.
Here's the truth:
from the armed security at JFK airport to the Hispanic hotel maids, every American I met was polite, courteous, intelligent and articulate.

I pondered this as I walked round a crowded supermarket where strangers bumped into me, cut in front of me, and barged past me, without a please, thank you or excuse me.

And I was grateful then that California will always be with me.
I will see you again, California, but not yet...not yet.

General Out

The Opposite Of Learning

A couple of things have happened today that made me think about myself, and my inability to correct consistent shortcomings.

Sometimes it feels like I'm destined to forever be the naughty kid who touches the wet paint sign..

Yeah, I know it's wet.

Yeah, I know I'll get paint on my hand

Yeah, I know I'll get into trouble

But, evermore, I touch the wet-paint sign.

Sometimes you need a smack round the head to realise that there are things in your life that you need to change...because there are people in your life who are worth changing for.

Does doing the same thing over and over again mean you can't change?

I taught myself how to do the Turkish Get-Up.

I taught myself by watching DVDs and You-Tube of RKCs, by reading Pavel's books.

I travelled to Denmark in the spring of 2008 for RKCI thinking I had a pretty good TGU.

I spent 3 days under beautiful blue Danish skies having my TGU ripped apart and put back together again by some of the greatest Kettlebell athletes on the planet.

Pavel, Kenneth Jay, Mark Reifkind, Mark Cheng, Will Williams.

Now my TGU is  almost perfect, right?

I perform my perfect TGU for 2 years.

Over and over.

Repetition after repetition.

I travelled to San Jose in the spring of 2010 for RKCII knowing I had a pretty good TGU.

And I wasn't far off right.

This time, the greatest Kettlebell athletes in the world fine tuned my technique, minor corrections here and there.

Now my TGU is  almost perfect, right?

Fast forward.

To now.

December 2010.

A TGU everyday for the day of the month.

I perform my perfect TGU everyday..

Over and over.

Repetition after repetition.

And what happens?

My TGU changes.

In the words of Gunny Tom Highway, the kick-ass Clint Eastwood character from the great film 'Heartbreak Ridge':

"it adapts, it improvises, it overcomes"

It becomes smoother, more fluid.

More efficient.

This is the opposite of learning.

It's practice makes perfect in a completely unexpected way.

Forced into constant, recovery-free repetition, my body found the perfect TGU.

Not text book perfect, but perfect for me.

After all of that tweaking and correction, my TGU can still change.

And if I my TGU can change.

I can change.

And, to those of you who patiently wait for me to change,

I promise:

I will change.

You know who you are.

General Out.

Snow

Yesterday's plans for some heavy TGUs today didn't materialise.

Time constraints meant I had to settle for squeezing some very rapidly executed Get-Ups in at the end of the day with a 16, and no swings at all - so it's overtime on the swings tomorrow!





The snow is still thick on the ground here, everywhere looks really 'seasonal', and I continually have the urge to go out knock out set after set of swings in the snow...which is handy, cos I'm thinking that's exactly what tomorrow will need to bring.

"It's been more than thirty years since the wolf and the winter cold. And now, as then, it is not fear that grips him, only restlessness. A heightened sense of things."

General Out.

D18 Part II

Training:
18 TGUs with 16kg
200 Swings 16kg (Total 1000 for WK3)

No idea why, but as I sit here right now watching the snow fall, I feel a heavy TGU session on tomorrow's horizon... :o)

General Out

Day 18

Day 18.
My TGUs and Swings have not happened yet, the snow is inches deep, and everything hurts.
Later, however, I will do this:
18 TGUs
200 Swings
I think just with the 16 today to give me a bit of back-off. That will give me 1000 swings for the week, and I'm planning a big day tomorrow.

Am I swinging differently now?
I think I am.
I also think my traps, hamstrings, glutes, forearms, front delts/upper pecs...this is not an exhaustive list...look and feel different.
From doing just 2 exercises.

As my friend Mitch recently said on Facebook, I think that from D19 onwards i may have to split the workload, or accept that the TGU/Swing session will be the only training every day now until the end of the month.

The end of the month...it calls to me, I see if in my dreams, I try to capture that feeling of the final day.
If you are still on the same path, I hope you will be there with me.
I wonder if a synchronised transatlantic time for completion of the final TGU would be possible to organise...

General Out.

Love me, love my dogma

Day 15:

What lesson does today bring?

The sudden and startling realisation that my body, without orders from me, has deviated from Party protocol during it's TGU performance!

I don't know what made me think about it, but at round about rep 6 tonight, I tried to remember the last time I'd done a proper 'high bridge' before sweeping my leg through...and I couldn't. What happens now is a non-existent bridge: seamlessly, my hips move, my leg sweeps, my knee plants.

Then I observe other things...the angles of my arms and legs are...not wrong, but different.

My eyes are no longer fixed on the 'bell, but soft-focused in it's general area, a Zen like non-focus on the 'bell. In short, my body has adapted to the constant repetition, it's found it's own, more efficient, and I believe more fluid and graceful way, of holding a ball of Iron at arms length and standing up.

Am I doing a TGU?

Without doubt.

Am I doing a party approved TGU?

No way.

But it works...it works better than what I was doing before.

Even if I do have to hand my cards back to my glorious leader, and hang my head in shame.

I tell my clients all the time:

I don't teach you, the Kettlebell teaches you.

And now, as always, it's taught me.

Evolution, not Revolution, but still I learn...

General out.

How soon is now?

Day 14, and I wake up looking forward to today's TGUs.
What is wrong with me?
From a calendar point of view, it's almost halftime.
Mathematically, TGU and swing total...I don't wanna do the math, let's just say it's waaay less than halfway.

For different reasons, 2 of my clients made me think about the same thing today:
Repetition.
Practice makes perfect
Grease the groove.
Call it what you will, but it's something too many people just don't get.

I love pull-ups. I do them lots. Hi volume, low volume, weighted, unweighted, standard, offset...any variations.
The result?
Strangely, I got freaky good at pull-ups.
Two of the guys I trained today are at different stages of their physical journey. One of them has bought into the practice makes perfect thinking, the other hasn't.
"I wanna be good at pull-ups. But I don't do them. Because I'm not very good"
It's not even a brain teaser is it?
Someone once said to me - and I swear this is true - "you're always doing pull-ups, how did you get so good at them?"
Really, this is true.
I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure studies have proven that the way to get good at something is to do it correctly, repetitively, regularly...again, not a brain teaser.

So is today's blog simply me boasting about pull-ups?
Of course.
And of course not.
It's me saying this:
We'd all like to be better at something, whether that thing is being a better athlete, friend, partner, parent, pet owner, it really doesn't matter.
What matters is that mostly, the thing we really want to be better at is also the thing we shy away from taking steps to improve. Because we're not very good at it.

Me?
I'd like to be a better version of me.
Evolution or Revolution.
Whatever it takes.
When?
Now.
Because...
There is only now, yet the clock is always ticking.
Left foot. Right foot.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Wax on. Wax off.
Keep on moving forward.
And be all that you can be.

General out.

Sniff the air...

A long lie in didn't help the achiness, and I'm starting to realise that, for the month of December at least, this is how I'm gonna feel.
This is how we're gonna feel.
I love you, Jim Beaumont.

Sometimes you can get obsessed with things, they become unhealthy.
The thing you are obsessed with becomes bigger than it really is, exaggerated, much more than the reality. And then something happens that makes you strip back that exaggeration, and view your obsession as others view it.
You see the truth, and it sets you free.
To those of you who tried to make me see the truth:
I thank you.
And I apologise.

Today's Training:
Monkey Bar Swings/Sprawl Push-ups - 3 sets
12 TGUs with the 24
500 Swings with the 24 (2 sets of 100, 6 sets 50: this felt so good today, focused, painless smooth)
10 minute hill sprint intervals (30s on/30s off)

And now, I realise, or maybe I relearn, that the only thing worth being obsessed with is becoming all you can be...the ultimate you. And this isn't really obsession, it's just following our path, evolving in to the animal we were meant to be.
The animal we are, deep inside, when everything else is stripped away.

 

And also, I realise this:

Being a sheepdog is about more than looking after that one special sheep.

Because at the end of the day, all sheep are special.

General out.

It's what we do.

You wake up tired.
Your joints are stiff.
Every injury you ever had is, at the very least, whispering in your ear. Some of them are shouting.


You do what you have to do, what you had planned to do:


45 minute outdoor Kettlebell class.
2 hour strength-endurance training.
30 minute pad session.


You get home and you want to sleep, or at least to lie down.
But instead you have to do something...


For reasons that only a few of us understand, you have to do 11 Turkish Get-Ups, and 300 swings.


And you do this anyway, regardless of how tired you are.
And you know, as you do it, that you are not alone...

"These are the precincts of pain.
 A Goddess lives here.
 Her name is Victory"




General Out

Tread Softly...

Some days you sit down to type, and you know what you want to say, and the words flow from your fingertips, and it's all good.
Today is not one of those days.
It's a day full of ups and downs, although that doesn't mark today down as particularly unusual lately.

One of my favourite films is a sci-fi action movie called Equilibrium, starring Christian Bale. Set in a future post-war 1984 Orwellian society, the population are fed regular mood limiting drugs to eliminate the highs and lows of emotions. Art, music, entertainment, feelings themselves, are prohibited.

Some days, I wonder if this is how large parts of our society live anyway...how many people wander through life with no goals, no ambitions, no basic desire to improve themselves.

This simple drive for self improvement and betterment is the basis of the evolutionary process.
It's also fundamental to us, as humans, becoming something more than we currently are.
The drive to improve our last lift, our last time, our last movement.
The drive to stand up again everytime we fall.
3-2-1...

Would I like to live in the Equilibrium society?

Would I fore go the pain of failure, of rejection, of loss?
Of course.

However, would I miss the joy of the perfect set of swings, the exhausted elation at the end of a 100 rep deadlift set, the indescribable high of fighting warriors equally as good as you where one slip means defeat or pain?
Even more so.

I'll take the downs, because every single high is worth a thousand lows.

Today's Training:
5 x Tactical Pullups followed immediately by 10 x chest to floor push ups every minute on the minute for 20 minutes (100 pull-ups/200 push ups)
10 TGUs & 200 Swings with the 24 (today's JB Challenge)
10 minutes of 30s on/30s off hill sprints, increasing incline every minute.

And the feeling after this workout more than made up for any downside of today.
It always does.
It always will.

General Out

Gym Rat, Gym Rant

Please tell me why gyms are full of scrawny and fat boys and men whose entire workouts consist of benchpress, bicep curls and tricep kickbacks?
What do these people think they're doing?
Why do I train a 59 year old woman who can overhead press more than most of them?
Why do I train with a 55kg 5ft3in girl who can do more pull-ups and dips than most of them?
Why can't anyone smell the coffee?
Why is winter cold?

Likr it or not, we're animals...we're designed to move, to fight, to climb.
So...
Does it really matter how much you can benchpress?

Yesterday's Training:
5 sets of 5 Tactical Pull-Ups with incremental hold at the top
3 sets of 3 reps Deadlift @ 140kg - felt ridiculously heavy, I really need to start hitting some proper deads again - I feel a PTTP strength cycle approaching over Christmas :)
13 Left & Right TGUs with the 24 (days 6 & 7 of the TGU/Swing Challenge - I'd fallen behind!)
200 swings with the 24 (2 sets of 50 and one set of 100)

Today's Training So Far:
Pistols - 3 sets of 8 each leg
Incremental Pull-Up/Push-Up superset (1-8)
Weighted split jumps followed by card running (16 jumps, 10 cards)
Incremental bottom hold dips  - 3 sets of 1-8 followed immediately by decline push-ups
Bungee OHS drill - 3 sets of 10

Just got to fit in 8 TGUs later, and get Week 2 Swings off to a good start, and the job's a good un!

I moan, I'm irritated and irritating, my life is complex and frustrating...
but yesterday evening, during a set of 100 swings with the 24, perfect cadence and form from rep 1 to rep 100, everything was perfect....

General Out.

Make a difference

I could talk about today's training.

I could type train of thought about my ongoing situation and issues.

Or I could ask you read this:

http://authenticstrengthtrainer.blogspot.com/2010/12/24-hours-of-unremitting-rants-facebook.html

Really, really, read it...and think about it.

And maybe...

Make a difference.

And for reference, and obvious to anyone who truly knows me and their comic book characters, I'm the Surfer.

General out.

Complexity and Simplicity

In most stories you'll find a hero, and a girl, and usually a villain.
In the more complicated ones there may be two girls.
In the most complex ones there will be a hero who is sometimes the villain, three girls, and at least two villains, excluding the anti-hero, who may or may not know they are.
There may also be alcohol and hair dye.
How does this situation help me down the path towards my ultimately unattainable destination?
Answers on a postcard please...

Training, however, is blissfully simple.

Yesterday:
Deadlift x 90kg x 1 Rep/15 seconds for 25 minutes (Total: 100 reps/9000 tonnes)
Tactical Pull-ups x 80kg (me) x 1 Rep/15 seconds for 25 minutes (Total: 100 reps/8000 tonnes)
Wide Bar Dips x 80kg (me) x 3 Rep/15 seconds for 25 minutes (Total: 300 reps/24000 tonnes)
Hang Clean & Press x 40kg x 1 Rep/15 seconds for 25 minutes (Total: 100 reps/4000 tonnes)

Today:
Days 4 and 5 of the JB TGU/Swing Challenge
Bungee Shoulder Dislocations
Bungee OHS drill: 3 sets of 10

Happy Sunday.
General Out.

Who

Who am I?

I'm the man who won't bother to reach out and grasp his goal when it's within reach.
I'm the man who will push himself beyond pain and endurance to reach his goal.

I'm the man who will walk past you when you need a hand.
I'm the man who will go to any lengths to help you.

I'm the man who will walk away from confrontation because he's frightened.
I'm the man who will stand and fight against overwhelming odds because he knows no fear.

I'm the man who will promise you everything, and deliver nothing.
I'm the man who will come through against all the odds, when everyone else has given up hope.

I'm the man who's afraid to try.
I'm the man who will never give up

I contradict myself.
I am large.
I contain multitudes.

I am The General.

Who are you?

General Out

Swing & TGU Challenge

My good friend and training brother Mitch has posted me this from the states:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174774719200636

Is it gonna be as hard as it looks?
No.
It'll be harder - step up and do it, warriors only.

General Out