Since I have attended the Grizzly Training winter camp at Dominik’s place, there have been lots of thoughts about the mental component of training. As I have noted in the most recent CrassFit coverage, it was Harald who enabled me to sustain performance even when my body screamed at me to stop.

In order to advance, you have to go beyond your limits. If you duck back into your comfort zone every single time, you will never enjoy the experience of stepping out of it – this applies to the world of training as well as to each and every everyday situation. Popular books about personal development write about the fact that you have to do something you have never done before to achieve something you have never achieved before. This continues to proves true to all of us.

In relation to my high repetition training goal (front squatting 2 x 20 kg kettlebells for 20 repetitions), I planned on achieving this goal by means of mental power – to force myself through the barrier of not wanting to do anymore due to fatigue.

Several days ago, I did a set of 15 repetitions, which was far from the maximum performance that could have been achieved. I simply stopped due to fatigue: My mind built up a glass wall which I was not to pass. But since I wanted to achieve the goal, I tried once more – this time with the hint of Harald in mind: Think of the next repetition only. There is nothing but the next repetition. One more perfect repetition, that is all.

This is the result:

I have not been at my limit and probably could have done up to 25 repetitions with the weight. It was all a matter of mental focus – and nothing else. The less factors of disturbance hinder you, the higher the power output you can yield.

Yesterday, I experienced something similar when trying out deadlifts. I have not lifted heavy for months so I feared that I would have lost a lot of power. I experienced before that the deadlift was the one exercise where I lost performance when I changed the exercise regime towards bodyweight exercises and kettlebells – while other exercises increased in performance (front squat and military press for instance).

With a personal best of 142.5 kg for a single rep, I did the following (weight/repetitions):

60/15 90/5 100/3/20 110/3 120/1/3 130/1/3 140/0/1

This sure is a unusual workout layout. I initially planned to go all-out on a 20 repetition set, following the principles of PITT-Force, but 100 kg was too light of a weight to force my power reserves to activate. I prolonged my workout with heavier triples. From 120 kg on, I did one test repetition in sumo stance, while I used a shoulder-width stance for the main sets.

I was amazed how easy it was to climb up the weight ladder, until I reached 130 kg. It was a struggle to lift them in sumo stance, so I used a little mind-trick for the triple: Music! Using the fanfare of VNV Nation’s “Pro Victoria”, I triumphed over the weight – and what an uplifting feeling it was!

Going up to 140 kg, I missed the lift in sumo stance. Reason enough to have a mental blockade doing it in narrow stance. I tried to empty my mind, put tension in every body fiber and lifted. I felt like failing but this time I saw it through – either the barbell would have dragged me to the ground or I lifted it up – letting go of the barbell was just no option. The weight had finally been lifted and I was relieved – SUCCESS!

With all the struggle, the feeling afterward has been great. If you work hard to achieve something, the feeling thereafter is always proportional to the amount of work you invested. This is the reason, why hard-working people often are happier than those who do not have to struggle to achieve or receive things – they often lack a sense of reason. You have to be able to invest something in order to get something back.

In training, the return on investment usually is of great ratio, if you work out intense, brief and infrequent.

Train on and stay strong
Simon

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Breathe in - work out.

Whenever either time is scarce or your hunger for a extremely intense workout is impossible to satisfy, training with complexes is the right thing to do. We did lots of complexes with kettlebells during the last few workouts – but this workout surpassed the experiences we gathered up to now.

For this workout session, our CrassFit crew has gathered in complete – with the exception of Harald, who is working out with Till Sukopp this weekend. I, Dominik, Rainer, Peter and his sister Jozy – we did our best.

First off the facts:

Warm-up

Carrying the equipment to the place of the workout Farmer’s walk for half a kilometer with lots of weight is fine for a workout

Pre-Fatigue

4 rounds of

• 8 repetitions handstand push-up (assisted)
• 8 repetitions towel pull-up

If the prescribed repetitions could not be achieved, the maximum in repetitions was the goal. For those who had a hard time doing (assisted) handstand push-ups, they were substituted with push-ups with elevated legs.

Metabolic Conditioning

3 rounds of the following barbell complex

• Bent over row
• Clean
• Military Press
• Front Squat
• Back Squat
• Good Morning

8 repetitions per exercise

The experience of such a workout is bar description. At each and every point you either approach muscular or grip failure – although normally the grip is the element that fatigues earlier. It was a real relief that we could ‘rest’ the barbell from the back squats on – otherwise, the load would have been too much of a challenge.

We adapted the load to the strength and endurance level we could sustain. Rainer and me, we used 20 kg of weight, Peter 40 kg and Dominik stunning 50 kg, which were operated in a machine-like accuracy and speed. Impressive! Jozy started with 20 kg and did a reduced workout – which is perfectly alright. It’s important that you sustain a distinct workload that fits to your abilities in order to progress.

Post-Fatigue

Kettlebell complex work

• 10 one-handed swings (each side)
• 10 snatches (each side)
• 10 cleans (each side)
• 10 overhead presses (each side)
• 10 forward lunges
• 10 both-handed swings
• 5 snatches (each side)

Focus was on work for time with a specific load – a skill that we already trained with the barbell complexes. Jozy used a small dumbbell, Peter, me and Rainer used the 16 kg kettlebell and Dominik challenged himself with my green monster (24 kg).

Here, the grip also is the limiting factor – next to the fatigue that limits what is possible over time.

Finisher

As we were not destroyed yet ( ), Dominik decided on a finisher exercise: Farmer’s walk! We did circles around a sandbox – for those challenging themselves with 2 x 24 kg (kettlebells), 2 rounds were assigned (Jozy did 2 rounds with 2 x 16 kg), those who went for 2 x 40 kg (16 + 24 kg kettlebell per hand), one round was sufficient. I personally did one round for two times (sets) with 80 kg of load – a new personal best

Now we were really done – and had our problems carrying the weights back to our cars. No wonder I felt extremely tired this evening and went to bed relatively early.

Conclusio

What a great workout! All of us enjoyed it and we learned a lot from it – and hopefully progress in power and endurance by doing workouts like this one



Dancers in the dark



Dancers in the dark




























Breathe in – work out.



Our dancer in the dark :)










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