Gym Climbing

Met Tom and Cheryl at Vertical Endeavors. Had a good night of climbing. Cheryl took her sport lead class so we now can all sport lead. Started the night on sport lead, kept it easier to start off with Cheryl. Went to top rope and I climbed consistently iin the 5.10's up to 5.10C. I climbed the 5.11A but it's easier then the 5.10's. So even though I can claim a 5.11A, I seriously doubt it's that. Climbed for 2 hours and just had great fun with my friends.

In Strength

Work-Out

50 Burpees timed for speed 2 Minutes 36 sec.
50 Slow Twister Sit-Ups with 10 lb plate

Strength Work-Out

50 twisting bent knee slow motion sit-ups

16kg (35lbs) Kettlebell bottoms up floor press 10+8+6+4+2+1 Left & Right

Nail Bending
1 White, all the way !
1 Green, next level up all the way !
3 1/4" x 6 hot rolled steel rods, bent to 3/4" peak

32kg (70lbs) Kettlebell floor press 1+1+1 Left & Right

Short powerful work-out before bed.

In Strength

"Nailed 5.11A On Sight"

On 3-21-09 I set my goal for achieving climbing 5.11 by October 31, 2009. I nailed this goal ! I climbed a 5.11A on sight with no takes tonight and Cheryl and Tom are my witnesses. I know my strength and yoga flexibility training is really paying off. Today I am resetting my goal to consistently climbing in the 5.11 grade range by June 28th of this year. Although this was the highlight of my night, I consistently climbed 5.10 grade range all night. What a great night and great feeling, accomplishing this difficult goal.

In Strength

Bikram Yoga Poses

I went to yoga again this week. I really focused on my form and stretching a little farther. I was more flexible and my balance on one foot poses was much better. I really enjoy yoga and I'm starting to feel that time is just a state of mind as the 90 minutes seems to go by so fast. When I first started Bikram the 90 minute session felt like forever. I'm getting use to the 105 degree heat and I am learning how to breathe and totally relax during rests in between poses. As I was leaving I ran into my daughters, Jenny and Nicole just arriving for the 4:00 PM session. It feels so good to know that I am a good example to my off spring (:

In Strength

"Chris' Day"

Chris had a great day! Really wakeful ! We went to Perkins, he had Strawberry Pancakes and whipped cream. It was so good to be able to take him out. Then he went for an hour long massage. What a wonderful day !

Exercise:
45 Minute Slow Burn Yoga
1 Hour 10 Minute Brisk walk.

What a great day !

In Strength

Vertical Endeavors

It's been kind of slow at work so I had the guys make a pull-up bar between Bay 102 & 103. It's about 10 feet long so you can do a lot more than pull-ups. I'm working on greasing the groove on pull-ups as I only have 2 weeks until the Tactical Challenge. Every time I go between the bays at work I have to do a pull-up.

Went climbing at VE last night. Met up with Tom, Cheryl and Jim had a really good night climbing. I was climbing 5.10's up to 5.10c consistantly, definite improvement. I feel pretty strong and I also feel more flexible, carry over from my Bikram Yoga. It's nice when Goals start complimenting each other.

I am going to set a new goal of climbing 5.11 by Oct 31, 2009. There is a pretty big jump between 5.10's and 5.11. I have to continue my grip training, flexibility training and improving my climbing technique to acheive this goal.

I'm really excited about the outdoor climbing season !

In Strength

Snatch Challenge

This week I am up to 4 minutes on my snatches
Snatches x 4 Minutes x 6 Rounds with 16 kg Kettlebell
85+90+95+91+90+50=501 snatches = Swinging 17,535 lbs. of metal above my head in 22 minutes.

I am suprised how good the 4 Minute rounds have gone. Next week will be 5 minute rounds then a good rest period before my Tactical challenge.

As of today I have recorded 4226 Snatches on the Snatch Challenge site.
This equals to swing 147,910 lbs total, thats a lot of work.

I am setting up a pull-up bar at work to start preparing for the pull-up portion of the Tactical Challenge. I will be Greasing the Groove on pull-ups for the next couple of weeks.

Bikram Yoga

I went to Bikram Yoga today ! It was my 6th class. I feel more comfortable doing the poses but I have a very long way to go. But that's what self improvement is all about. I went with my daughter Jenny again. I really enjoy going with her, who would ever have thought we would be yoga partners. It seems to be catching on as Jenny has invited Erin and Nicole to also join her. I'm so glad she enjoys it and she is going to meet her goals way before me, her stiff old man. I'm very happy to be a postive example and role model for my children. Just remember it's never to late to start something new.

Today I joined the "Million Inch Challenge" group formed by my strength coach Brad of Kinetic Edge Performance. He will be posting weekly challenges and I will be posting as I complete them.

On my nail bending endeavor I had my engineer calculate the forces required to bend 3/16", 1/4" by 6" long steel rounds in both cold rolled steel and hot rolled steel. The numbers are interesting from a scientific perspective and I think it will help me on my quest to work up to bending the Yellow Nail by my May goal. One thing my engineer told me is when bending the steel rod the instant you let up tension the steel rod will work harden and become even more difficult to bend. So your best effort has to be on your first try. I had the guys in the shop cut me a bunch of 1/4" x 6" Hot Rolled steel rounds as this is theoretically about half way between the 3/16" and 1/4" x 6" Cold Rolled Steel in difficulty. But I will see when I try to bend it.

In Strength

"Bent My First Nail"

Received my "Bag of Nails" and bent my first nail !! It's the white nail and it's a beginner, but it still was hard. I bent 3 nails, eventually the white nail will be like butter. I made the goal on the beginning nail so I will reset the goal for the intermediate nail. Bending nails is a cool ,eclectic, off the wall excercise that involves lots of muscles, hands, wrists forearms, shoulders, lats, pecs, abs, obliques and everything in between. Fun Stuff !

Work-Out
1. Bent 3 White Nails

2. 16kg Kettlebell one arm swings with eagle loops x 1 minute L / R w/15 second rest.
Left 5 one minute reps x 2 rounds
Right 5 one minute reps x 2 rounds
This excercise with the eagle loop attached to the kettlebell handle, adds a new evil twist to the kettlebell swing as the eagle loops are held by four finger tips only. Really blasts your fingers and forearms. The centrifugal force varies throughout the swing. Great new excercise for grip. Total excercise time was 20 minutes. I bet I'm the first one to use eagle loops on kettlebells.
Can you imagine Farmer Walks with Eagle Loops....Wooooo! I feel the burn just thinking about it.

3. 16kg Windmill Bottoms Left 5 x 1 Right 5 x 1
One round as my back was stressed, work up slowly on this excercise as I have a weakness in my lower back to overcome.

4. 12kg Top Windmill 16 kg Bottom Left 1 x 1 Right 1 x 1
This was a test for form. Good form but I feel stress in my lower back during the windmill movement. I need to work up slowly.

Work-Out:
Snatches x 16kg Kettlebell x 3 minutes x 5 rounds
66+69+70+67+71=343 snatches

Windmills bottom weight 16kg Kettlebell
Left 5 x 2 Right 5 x 2
Windmills top weight 16 kg Kettlebell
Left 2 Right 2
I'm working on the easier variation of the Windmill as my lower back has a strange creaking as I do this movement. I will continue with the bottom weight to improve my lower back strength and form, then advance to the upper weight version, then finally the upper and lowerer weighted version. This excercise is a progression toward my Side Press goal.

"My Goals for 2009"

"Pistol" Photo courtesy of Jim @ Beast Skills

1. Do the Tactical Challenge @ Kinetic Edge Fitness on April 4th 2009.... I'm signed up !
The tactical challenge is about acheiving your best personal record in the 5 minute Kettlebell
Snatch, Deadlift and Pull-Ups. This is my first challenge so I have decided to use the 16kg
(35lb) Kettlebell vs. the 24kg Kettlebell. I will record my Tactical Challenge Results. To
prepare for the Tactical Challenge, I signed up for the Snatch Challenge on line and record my
progress on this site. As of today I am on 3 minute snatch cycles, next week 4 minutes the
following week 5 minutes, then the Tactical Challenge.
2. My Pull-Ups Goal is 15 Pull-Ups, to date my personal record is 10
3. Side Press the 24kg Kettlebell by 5-24-09. The side press is an old strongman excercise, that
is very challenging and isn't seen very often as it is to hard for most modern gym rats. I will
post a video when I achieve this cool excercise.
4. "Pistols" One-Leg Squat. Again I set my sights high as this is the meca of acheivement in
squating. Extremely difficult, requiring strength balance and flexibility. I will proudly post a
video when this one goes down on my birthday 7-15-09.
5. "Bend a 6 Penny Nail", I have very weird goals, but this is a tough one to demonstrate great
grip and upper body strength. To help me acheive this goal I ordered a "Bag of Nails"
including the nail wraps and increasingly difficult nails to bend. I plan on bending my first nail
by 5-24-09 and I will post my success.
6. Join "Bikram Yoga" to agument my strength and core training with flexibility. Joined on my
6th week! Of course Bikram is not your run of the mill yoga's, this class is 90 minutes in a 105
degree F room. It's hot as hell and you sweat buckets, but I feel sooooo good afterwards.

Today, Tom and I went to Fairy Falls to see if it was climbable. The beautiful ice curtain was in but the water was flowing over it, so no climbing in the cards. We decided to check out the "Brick Yards", the ice was in and pretty fat, we set 3 climbs. We salvaged the day and though the climbs were short, we managed to work out hard for about 6 hours. This was Tom's first day back climbing since he broke his collar bone skiing. Tom managed quite well and it looks like my climbing partner's back ! To bad its almost the end of the season, but we have rock climbing to look forward to. Tom and I are very serious about our climbing and we always manage to climb ourselves to the max. Both of us felt every muscle in our bodies, which is a good thing. Play hard turn hard.

2-28-09

Went ice climbing at Sandstone with Mitch, Mark and Me (Joe alias Ramblin' Man). We met Masuo, Angie and Chris for a full day of ice climbing. The weather was around 10 degrees and the climbing was great ! My favorite climb of the day was a mixed route called "Turf Wars". The ice pillar at the start of the climb was really short but engaging. The rest of the climb really engaged my core and was challenging but intensely exciting. The climb is about 60 feet long and predominantly dry tooling. We had a great day of climbing and companionship, I met two new friends to contact for future ice and rock climbing. I love ice climbing ! I train to climb and climb to train, what a wonderful time. Crisp clean winter air, beautiful scenery and intense excitement with friends that are kindred spirits.