There was a LOT of interest—we were babbling about it excitedly on Facebook, twitter, the Dragon Door forums, possibly even Pinterest?!—the ebook edition of The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning came out yesterday. Judging from my own reaction and the reactions of others about this “can’t put it down, ooo look what’s on the next page” book, it’s already an “instant classic.” It’s a great resource not only for instructors, but for the dedicated enthusiast working on their own. Because of all the workouts which I have shared on this website, people ask me how I come up with them, or how to start working on creating their own workouts or programs.
My answer is to study and dissect the logic and reasoning behind the proven workouts of others – and I usually point them towards Geoff Neupert (kettlebell complexes), David Whitley (Furnace), Jon Engum(Deep6), and many many others. David Whitley’s pdf 101 kettlebell workouts (I need to look up the link, but am pretty sure that it’s still available from his site at IronTamer.com) is a great basic tool as well. With the introduction of this new book, we see a LOT of variety in terms of goals/outcomes/approaches. All are well within the scope and knowledge of the RKC as well.
I can’t overstate the importance of this new book (I saw mention on the forum that it will be available in paperback in a couple months?) if you are looking to hone your workout/program creation abilities. Or honestly, how to get out of a rut, it’s great to switch things up if you’ve been stuck doing the same variants over a long period of time. Something really exciting is the inclusion of Karen Smith’s program—it shows exactly how she went from recovering from injury all the way to conquering the Iron Maiden Challenge (you bet I paid CLOSE attention to THAT!) Check out that book, you won’t be sorry.
And while you’re pondering that, here’s the Small Group’s workout from yesterday, keen observers of this site may recognize that it’s a modified hybrid of 2 previous workouts, and adjusted for inclimate weather – thankfully our “indoor” workout area is temporarily larger this week, so we were still able to use the battling rope for a little fun.
We warmed up with joint mobility and some moderate kettlebell swings then….
Three rounds of:
- 10 one leg deadlifts, right leg planted, kettlebell in left hand
- 10 one leg deadlifts, left leg planted, kettlebell in right hand
- 10 tactical lunges, stepping back with the right leg
- 10 tactical lunges, stepping back with the left leg
- 20 two hand kettlebell swings
- 10 suitcase deadlifts, right side
- 10 suitcase deadlifts, left side
- 10 push ups
- rest/water/etc. (short break we hope)
Then we set up 3 stations, 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest/transition and did 3 rounds:
- Heavy or heavy-ish kettlebell swings or deadlifts (choice of 20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg, and 48kg)
- Battling Rope (choice of alternating up-downs, regular up-downs, walking up-downs, OR seated Battling Rope Russian Twists!)
- Burpee/Sprawl station (yoga mat)
We finished up with joint mobility and putting all this awesome stuff away. Concerned that I had someone mistakenly grabbed the wrong kettlebell on Monday and hadn’t actually done 32kg 1 arm swings, I had to try it again – and found out that I can actually do them for very low reps. It’s a great way for me to make sure I am still applying all the intricacies of the 1 arm swing form, it also shows me exactly how much weaker my left hand is in terms of basic grip strength. Good to know…. now its time to fix it.
Considering the high humidity, we practically had to mop the area afterwards…
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