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Day 4 | 12 week Kettlebell RKC Minimum Challenge

Casey — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:26:34 +0000

Today was my 4th day on Pavel’s RKC Minimum Kettlebell Challenge. It’s a 4-week minimum program, and if I finish, I move up to the real RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) that lasts another 8 weeks.

Let me tell you … IT’S HARD!

After I finished my first workout on Monday, I felt fine. No big deal.

… the next day, my entire body was sore! It felt like conditioning week before football in high school. I ached when I stood up, when I walked, when I sat down. When I sneezed, it hurt. The second day on the RKC minimum, you do get-ups. Essentially, you lay on the ground and hold the ‘bell up in the air. Then, using your balance and entire body’s strength, you slowly stand-up, with your arm still straight up in the air. Once you’re fully standing, you slowly go back down. Then repeat on the other side. This goes on for 5 minutes.

I was only able to do 2 get-ups on each side before I was stuck with halfzies. I just didn’t have the strength!

Today, however, I felt much better. I got 15 more swings in, and even went over the 12-min mark to 12:30. It’s not much, but I really pushed myself.

Check out my heart rate from the program. Notice that I did a 10-min warmup, 1-min break (where I moved the bell, got my notebook ready, etc) [this number should shrink to 20-30 seconds next time], then 12 minutes of swings. 20 swings, then 1 min jogging in place. You’ll notice that my heart rate increased over time, and finally reached the max of the day. I hit 92% of my maximum heart rate, calculated by 220-age (220-24=196). 180 [my max HR today] divided by 196 is .918 or 91.8%.

This is a good number to hit. I’ve been higher, into the 97 percentile, but it really winds you!

Tomorrow, more get-ups. I’ll try to get 4 on each side.

Russian Kettlebell power to YOU!

Raw Food Post-Workout Recovery Drink

Casey — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:10:06 +0000

Here’s the recipe for my Raw Food Recovery Drink. I like do make one of these up after an intense workout, yoga session, or bike ride. It’s 100% natural and raw. Substitute this for a vegan alternative to the over-processed Muscle Milk and other protein drinks.

Day 1 | 12 Week Kettlebell Challenge

Casey — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:43:42 +0000

Today is a beautiful day! It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, and I’ve already got my first kettlebell workout under my belt.

The workout was 23 minutes long, and it really kicked my butt. After I finished, my legs and arms were shaking. I must be doing something right!

I weighed myself this morning: 181 lbs, 22.1% bodyfat. These numbers are a bit high — I think it’s water weight right now. I believe I’m closer to 177, 20% bodyfat. Regardless, I’ll be graphing my weight for the next 12 weeks.

Tomorrow, I look forward to the other workout in the program, the kettlebell get-ups. Once my form is solid, I’ll be putting up a video.

Here’s today’s morning workout. I’m taking an Ashtanga yoga class at 4:30. Gotta hydrate between!

Raw Food, Traveling in Europe and Cycling

Casey — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:15:35 +0000

In August of 2009, I quit my job as a bartender at a wonderful bar in Northern Michigan. I had great weekend shifts, made amazing money, met influential CEO’s & CFO’s, became friends with the founders of Hands On Disaster Response, and chatted with a few billionaires.

Why would I want to leave such a great job?

The drive to leave the life of a bartender and move on to something else took a full year to surface. One year after working as a bartender, I gave my 2-week notice — much to everyone’s surprise!

Spending 40 hours a week with a group of people starts to feel more like an extended family than co-workers. But, I knew in my heart I needed to leave.

When I left the bar on my last shift, it was bitter sweet. A few farewells, and that was it — I was driving home to plan the next phase in my life. My girlfriend, Kristen, and I talked on end about wanting to travel Europe and we decided that now was the time. Kristen had just finished her undergrad studies and was looking for work. I suggested we take our bikes over to Europe and bike around for awhile. As the conversation evolved, we ended up planning to leave Michigan in mid-September and fly into Madrid. Our return flight was from Rome to Los Angeles, 4 months later.

We were given the opportunity to do whatever we wanted for 4 full months. With the help of HelpX.net, a low-priced website that matches you up with homes/farms that need workers, Kristen and I roughly mapped out a few of the places we wanted to stop. Valencia, Barcelona, Avignon, Rome, Florence. We brought our bicycles along and took a chance. We had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I’m so happy to say that it was the best experience of my life.

Traveling abroad does more for you than just show you different sights. By traveling by bicycle, we were able to meet with locals, talk to complete strangers every single day, disappear into hideaways to camp for the night … we were really alive!

The two of us blogged the majority of the trip over at http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour Due to my computer breaking in France, we don’t have much after that. We do, however, have a TON of great memories!

In regards to eating raw while traveling … it’s difficult. It’s hard to haul around all the raw foods you need. It’s even more difficult to find organic produce. But – it’s possible. We maintained a high-raw vegetarian diet. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what we could do. Please read about our travels, and comment on the posts here:

http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour

Here’s a video of where we stayed one night, while stuck in France:

Watch Sleeping in a Train Station

Exercising & Hitting the Wall

Casey — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:12:38 +0000

The bike I was riding

Somewhere along the way to becoming healthy, I got addicted to biking. I LOVE the idea of getting on my bike and going for a 50 mile ride just for the fun of it. I assume it’s the same way runners feel when they are out on a long morning run.

I bike often, and it’s my preferred method of working out – partly for the fun of going so far, but also because it’s great exercise.

Now, when I first started biking, I wasn’t eating too healthy. I would still pig out on pizza and beer at night then throw on my spandex and go for a morning ride. It wasn’t until a very scary morning did that all start to change rapidly…

It was just like every other morning… 7am I was suiting up for my ride. I grabbed 2 bottles of water and set out to see where I could go. I was planning about 40 miles that morning, but wasn’t sure if it’d be longer. The morning was beautiful, and I was in a great mood. I set out on my own and found some very cool things on the ride. I usually stop and chat with people, or watch the sun rise if it’s early enough.

This day was similar to all the rest… until I reached the half-way point. I changed the plans to go somewhere I’d never been before, and ended up in the middle of no-where. As I was approaching my mile-mark, I started getting a headache. The next 2 miles, I felt like I was drunk. My body wasn’t responding to me, and I was about to fall off my bike.

So, I sloppily popped my shoes out of the pedals and jumped off. The second I got on the ground, I fell over. I closed my eyes, wondering what had happened. The spins kicked in and I was sick to my stomach. It was the worst feeling I had ever felt!

Fast-forward 10 minutes and I was in front of a gas station. I had walked my bike to the town I was near and popped in. I felt like I was out of energy and by brain was screaming for calories. The only thing I could do was to purchase a few conventional oranges and green bananas and chow down. I was hoping that the sugar would give me the spike to beat my headache and help me feel normal again.

After about 20 minutes of fighting this feeling, I started to feel better. I regained control of my body and decided to take the ride home easy.

Once I got home, I looked into what happened. Essentially, I had burned all of my calories available in my body and it was starving for more. Cyclists call this “hitting the wall” or “bonking”. Either way, it was a terrible thing to have happen!

The reason I’m telling you this is because I lacked one important and critical skill when going for those long bike rides. I hadn’t practiced listening to my body and trying to understand what it really needs. I could have been on a dirt road on the out-skirts of town and bonked… then what? I would have been in big trouble!

Now, when I’m out on rides, I stay in tune with how I’m feeling. If I feel poor before I head out, I pinpoint the reason and I deal with it then. This has given me a huge edge in every aspect of my life, and I am a much stronger person for it.

I challenge you to start listening to your body NOW, before it starts SCREAMING at you when something terrible happens.

I wonder if this same idea would have saved my parents from getting cancer in the first place …

Yoga Strength versus Yoga Flexibility

Casey — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:49:44 +0000

Dear Yoga Student,

Is it possible to be strong AND flexible?

Yes, but it takes effort. You see, strength and flexibility
are the yang and the yin of yoga. If you’re an avid
runner, for example, chances are good that your
hamstrings and calves are really tight and probably
your hips too.

Doesn’t HAVE to be this way, but generally it is.

Here’s why: we tend to over-emphasize yang exercises
(running, strength training, cycling) or perhaps the
opposite with too many yin exercises (deep stretching,
meditation).

Balance is impossible, but it should be the aim.

Here’s why I bring this up: Yoga students often
ask if they should QUIT running or lifting or playing
sports to improve their yoga practice.

Personally, I think that’s crazy.

If you love yang sports, don’t ever give them up.
Physical activity is so powerful for your physical
AND mental health, I’d never restrict yourself (unless
you were getting injuries, of course) just because it
might make your yoga classes easier.

But yeah, it’s true. If you’re a body builder, you’re
really going to struggle with flexibility. No way around
that.

Lifting weights is the ultimate yang practice and
you’d need to at least have a 2-to-1 match with
lifting-to-stretching to balance that out.

So… balance is the aim, you like yang activities,
so what do you do?

HERE YOU GO:

1. For every 60 minutes spent with yang practices,
spend 15 minutes doing deep stretches ideally
when your body is ultra warmed up.

2. Try to determine which area of your body is
getting stiffer from the yang practice (shoulders in
tennis, hamstrings from running, etc) and always
consciously over-emphasize stretching those
areas.

3. Make absolutely sure that you don’t lose flexibility.
Remember, unlike strength, flexibility doesn’t just
disappear on its own. Repetitive yang activities or
lack of activities are what reverse your flexibility so
you want to always keep it in check so you maintain
(or improve) your flexibility continuously.

Hope that’s helpful!

Stay bendy,

Lucas
YOGABODY Naturals LLC
Check out my friend Lucas Rockwood’s great website HERE

Kettlebells for Raw Strength

Casey — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:54:34 +0000

Yesterday, I ordered a 1 pood (16kg, 35 pound) kettlebell from eBay. And I’M EXCITED!

I picked up a copy of Pavel’s “Enter the Kettlebell” in digital form. I’ve been reading it and watching the accompanying DVD. If I were to buy it again, I’d skip the ebook and just get the DVD. He is reading most of what is in the book, verbatim. You can find the products here: http://www.dragondoor.com/b33.html

I’m excited to add some strength training into my life. I signed up for 2 months of yoga, unlimited classes, last week. That’s been a good way to keep me active when Michigan’s spring brings cold weather. Otherwise, I try to bike 4-5 days a week.

I will post videos of the kettlebell exercises when I get the basics down. My plan is to start slow and build some muscle.

Stay tuned…

Rachel Chrissluis Fitness Activities

Casey — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:09:56 +0000

My current work-out schedule (has been about the same for the past few months except for the Bikram yoga which I just added in 2 weeks ago, switching it for more frequent Kickboxing classe. This regimin will change in 4 weeks when I go travel in Europe and then again mid-June when I settle in the Baltimore area)

Sunday: 8:30 am Spinning, 9:30 am Spinning, 10:30 am Kickboxing
Monday: 9:30 am Spinning, afternoon Bikram yoga, 7:30 pm Spinning
Tuesday: 8:30 am Spinning, evening: none or Bikram yoga or Spinning
Wednesday: 9:30 am Spinning, 6:30 pm Kickboxing, 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm Spinning
Thursday: 8:30 am Spinning, afternoon: Bikram yoga
Friday: 9:30 am Spinning, afternoon Bikram yoga OR evening 6:30 pm Spinning (or both)
Saturday: 10:15 am Spinning, 11:00 am walk/jog, 11:30 am Kickboxing

Most off-Bikram days I go in the sauna for 30 minutes. If I feel like mixing things up a bit I’ll take a Boxing, Kickboxing, and/or Urban Rebounding class in the city just for fun.

If I have plans that interfere with this work-out schedule I either miss a work-out (there are enough that I can miss a few a week no problem) or add in a walk/jog session on the treadmill or outside.

Weights: I don’t schedule in resistance training time but instead I do weights sporadically between classes. During Spinning classes, almost all of the hills are really resistance training disguised as cardio, so I am able to avoid spending too much time doing lower body weight training in the weight room. However, I always do 3 sets of 12-reps of dead-lifts with a 65-pound barbell at least twice per week- it makes me feel powerful! As for my upper body, my favorite parts to train are my deltoids and biceps, but we must remember the wee-lonely triceps and back. Luckily again for me, kickboxing and Bikram yoga certainly give these parts a real run for their money!!

A word on having a day ‘off’: I am 100% in favor of a ‘rest day’ each week, and always force myself to take one. As a rule, that ‘rest day’ will incorporate some form of light activity- anything from a walk outdoors to a recovery bike ride. Instead of scheduling in this day each week I find it much more convenient to listen to my body or work the ‘rest day’ around my schedule. If I know I will be out of town all day on a certain day of the week then that day will be the ‘rest day’. If Bikram and 3 spin classes really kick my butt then the next day might be my ‘rest day’.

A word on over-training: In my experience, over-training happens when you do not give yourself a ‘rest day’ and when you are sleep deprived. How do you know you are over-training? Typically you will feel sluggish, fatigued, and not energized during a work-out. With proper nutrition and hydration, adequate sleep and naps, a ‘rest day’ each week, and a brief stretching routine after each work-out, you should not encounter problems with over-training and should in fact be able to push yourself to the limit!!

Have fun, work hard, and play harder!!!!!

Sample Fitness Post

Casey — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:01:41 +0000

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