Wednesday, 8 April 2009
THE END - Tommy's 40 Lifts for Lent Round Up
Tommy's 40 Lifts for Lent - The End!
Tommy has never been that traditional, so when it comes to Lent this year was no exception!
Tommy's 40 days of Lifts for Lent with a 40kg Kettlebells This great idea came to me in a random conversation I was having with BJ about Lent and the detox he was going on for Lent. So after taking the piss out of him for a short while I decided to come up with my own little challenge for Lent and that's where the 40 lifts for Lent came in!
Now that I have completed the challenge I've put the 40 days down in a quick summary so you can see what I got up to. I've also summarised the highs and lows of this type of challenge at the bottom of the program.
DAY 1
10 x 2 arm swings10/10 1 arm jerks5/5 1 arm cleans
DAY 2
10 x cleans (2x40kg) 10/10 x Front squats (1x40kg in single arm rack position)5/5 Windlmill
DAY 3
Day 3 on the 40 lifts for Lent and I'm feeling good after 2 days, but have just realised he's got 37 to go!5/5 Snatches10/10 1 Arm Swings5/5 Snatches
DAY 4
Day 4 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I'm starting to feel the affects of a few days using the 40kg, but today is going to be tough. I've got a training day with the others for kettlebell sport and then I've still got to do forty lifts!
Kettlebell Sport Session:
5 minute 2 arm jerk set 2 x 24kg
5 x 1 minute 2 arm jerk sets 2 x 24kg
2/2 minute snatch set 1 x 24kg
40 Lifts:
5/5 1 arm jerks 40kg
5/5 1 arm jerks 40kg
10/10 1 arm cleans 40kg
Knackered!!
DAY 5
Day 5 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I woke up feeling very stiff! Triceps killing after so many 2 arm jerks on day 4. So today is going to be a recovery day, just an easy few swings to keep up the challenge.
40 x 2 arm swings 40kg
recovery is important every so often!!
DAY 6
Day 6 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I'm feeling better than I did on Sunday!
With all the jerks I did on Saturday, day 6 is a pulling day.
5/5 Renegade rows with 40kgs (2 sets in total)
5/5 Turkish Get Ups (1st Phase only)
5/5 Bent over rows (single arm) 1 x 40kg
DAY 7
Fancied trying some juggling today, so warmed up with:
2 arm swing with 1 flip x 20
10 Alternating Swings
5/5 Clean and Push Press
DAY 8
Day 8 in my 40 lifts for Lent and it's the first time I've decided to bring in the military press! Stepping it up a notch with few snatches in there as well, I'm putting in a bit of effort before the Advanced kettlebell course this weekend.
Day 8
10/10 1 arm snatches
5/5 1 arm military presses (missed the last 2 on left hand on first attempt, but got them second time)
5/5 Windmills
DAY 9
Day 9 in my 40 lifts for Lent and it's 'Beach Muscles Day', good times! I got carried away and did a few more than 40 reps, probably something to do with the beach muscles theme! Still, I'm looking for ways to make everyday a bit different, to challenge my body in another way and to keep the next 30 days exciting.
8/8 1 arm chest press on swiss ball 40kg
8/8 1 arm bent over row 40kg
Did 2 sets of the above as supersets.
4 x Arm curls with 40kg (holding by the horns)
Day 10
Was a bit of a rest day to prepare for the Advanced EKI course on Saturday. So I just did 40 alternating swings to keep up the challenge.
DAY 11
Day 11 was the day of the Advanced EKI course, which was an opportunity to perform some good odd lifts, so I made my 40 Lifts up from a variety of different lifts. It turned out to be a great day for everyone on the course, the Advanced EKI is all about KB sport and odd lifts, so my challenge was right at home! So what lifts did I attempt/do:
Achieved:-
1 arm jerks
windmills
bent press
the ultimate:- 2 handed anyhow with 2 x 40Kg, that was a PB!!
Check out the video on our Facebook
Attempted:
bottoms up press, which I almost got, just couldn't push past the sticking point. Did it with a 36kg, but I know I'll get the 40kg up by the end of the challenge.
DAY 12
I was absolutely shattered today after the advanced course! So just kept it nice and simple and did:
2 sets of 10/10 1 arm bent over rows. Will step it up again on Monday!
DAY 13
Day 13 in my 40 lifts for Lent. I was still a bit knackered after the weekend, it's funny that although not doing much this 40kg challenge is hard work. Especially when I'm trying to do things like 2 handed anyhow's!! We've just got about 300kg's of plates in the office and I'm desperate to start dead lifting again, but still got 27 days to go!
5/5 Clean & Jerks
10 Alternating Swings
5/5 Clean & Jerks
10 Alternating Swings
DAY 14
I started to feel a little fresher today, so thought it was about time to step it up and go for a challenge!
So... I thought I would try a split jerk with 1 x 40 kg, I started with more of a drop lunge as stability was an issue to start with. But got the hang of it and then the spilt jerk became pretty easy and turned out to be a great exercise. I will definitely be doing more of those!
3 sets of 1 arm split jerks - 5 on each arm with 40kg kettlebell
1 set of windmills to finish, 5 on each arm.
DAY 15
Today I wanted to look for something different, but struggled!
So I went for:
6/6 front squats with 40kg kb in a 1 arm rack position, I'm liking these ones, the work you get through the trunk is awesome!
I then tried some back squats, I held the bell by the horns behind my head, so it was resting on my thoracic. I then went into the squat, this turned out to be a nice exercise, it's a good way of keeping the thoracic up and stretching out the lats at the same time. I did 10 of thoseI finished off with 9/9 1 arm cleans to make the 40 reps.
DAY 16
I am starting to feel generally knackered now, the culmination of courses and then doing these lifts every day is hard work. My body feels like it needs a rest for 2 weeks. I am hoping that when I do get to day 40 my body might suddenly start growing rapidly as I aim to rest for at least a week before my next challenge.The major tiredness is in the legs, I guess because no matter what exercise I do with this 40kg kettlebell I'm always using my legs. So today's was an easy day, just did 4 x 10 2 arm swings to try and get the posterior chain working a bit more. I can't wait to see what my max deadlift will be after all of this, it used to be 195kg, I reckon with all of this work I'll be hitting 200 +, will let you know!
DAY 17
20/20 1 arm bent over rows
DAY 18
Was the Extreme Kettlebell Instructor course so was a good chance to have a play with the 40's!!
2 x 6 double cleans with 2 x 40kg's
1 x 8kg front squat with 2 x 40kg's
1 x 4/4 1 arm clean and press 40kg
1 x 3 military press with 2 x 40kg
5/5 windmills with 40kg
1/1 turkish get up with 40kg
It turned out to be a pretty tough day with more than 40 lifts, but when in the mood you might as well take advantage of it.
Day 19
The second day of the EKI course and we had another good day of training, doing a few demos and just trying different things. Got roped into doing one of the dynamic circuits with the 40's which was fun! Thanks for that guy's!
3 x front squat with 2 x 40kg
6 x stiff leg deadlift with 2 x 40kg
6 x bent over row with 2 x 40kg
3 x military press with 2 x 40 kg
Circuit with 1 40kg:
5/5 clean and jerk
5/5 snatches
10 alternating swings
I also tried the 2 hand any how again, but didn't have the success of last weekend, I could only manage the 40kg and the 36kg on that one. Also gave the bottoms up press a go and the good news is I was almost locked out at the top, so I think it's only a matter of time before that goes up.
DAY 20
Day 20 in my 40 lifts for Lent and I was absolutely shattered! The EKI course has taken its toll on us and the chances of me doing anything challenging today was out of the question. I feel like I need a week of recovery. Still, I'm half way through now, only 19 days to go! woo hoo!
So day 20 was a bit boring I'm afraid, just 2 x 20 2 arm swings.
DAY 21
Day 21 and I'm still feeling a bit tired from the weekend, but I had a challenge today to complete thanks to Matt Shore, although I'd done a few of these on the weekend I had to get them in today to keep Matt happy.
1/1 Turkish Get up 40kg (Matt - please see video!)
6/6 Bottoms up Cleans (2 sets)
tried 1 arm chair press, got 2 on my right arm, 0 on left :-(
12 x 2 arm swings with 1 x flip
DAY 22
Today was a sad day! I have started to feel some pain build up in my brachialis area, stemming from all of those odd lifts that I did on the weekend and attempting the 2 x 40 2 hand any how, along with all the other crazy lifts. Clearly I can only do the 2 x 40's when I'm fresh and not after 2 days of training! As I've not really been able to rest it, it's just started to get a bit worse and become quite tender. So not wanting to do any serious damage I'm going to have to take a step back from some of the big lifts for a few days. Gutted about that as it was going well, but just did too much on the weekend and then bottoms up cleans the next day didn't help!! So today was a quite one and think I'll have a couple more easy days and then come back strong for the last 2 weeks of the challenge.
6/6 Windmills
7/7 x 2 1 Arm chest press on swiss ball.
DAY 23
Day 23 was a recovery day, so I looked for an exercise that wasn't going to stress the elbow too much, which is slowly getting better. So, I did some Jefferson Lifts....5/5 and 4 sets of that. Not actually done these before and although a true jefferson lift is with a bar, but 2 x 40kg kettlebells worked pretty well and you get a better range on the lift as well as there's not a bar between your crotch!!If you've not done a jefferson lift before, it's a form of dead lift where you straddle the bar and pick it up with one hand in front of the body and one behind. It's an old traditional lift which has disappeared!
DAY 24
10 x 2 arm swings
6/6 1 arm cleans
6/6 1 arm jerks
5/5 1 arm split jerks
3/3 windmills
5/5 1 arm chest press
6/6 1 arm bent over rows
As I didn't make the kettlebell sport lifting club on day 24 I had to do a little bit more with the 40kg, the arm is still giving me a few problems but hoping I will be back to normal this week for lifting club on Thursday night. I think once I've finished Lent I will do some research on recovery and the need for it!!
DAY 25
Sunday was a rest day for me so just did 40 swings.
DAY 26
Day 26 in the 40 Lifts for Lent and I've only got 14 to go, good times! I'll be stepping things up massively for the last week and going for a few challenges, like the bottoms up press. Today I mixed things up a bit...
2/2 one arm military presses, 2 sets in total
6/6 one arm snatch
1/1 Turkish get up
12 one arm cleans with 1 rep change each hand
10/10 Lateral side bends (got stuck for something different to do! but with 40kg this works!)
DAY 27
Day 27 was a bit of a mix of everything, I'm starting to do more than just my 40 lifts at the minute as I'm finding the 40 is becoming more manageable. I've upped the amount of calories I'm having as well, which I think is helping with the recovery and energy levels.
Day 27 looked like this:
10 x 2 arm swings
10/10 1 arm swings
5/5 1 arm jerks
1 arm chair press, I got 2 on my left and only one on my right. This was a bit different to the last time I tried when the right was easy and the left wasn't going anywhere!
I then tried jerks with 2 x 40's, which was tough. it ended up more of an un-balanced push press, but I think with a bit of getting used to the fact that there's 80kgs to jerk they will go up! Only managed 3 reps of it, but it's a start!
finished off with 4 front squats with 2x40kgs
12 Days to go!
DAY 28
Day 28 was a quiet day, taking it easy before lifting club on Thursday evening. So just did 4 sets of Jefferson lifts with the 2 x 40's.
DAY 29
Now back to the 40 Lifts! Well after all that I was feeling pretty knackered, so I did a quick circuit of:
5/5 windmills
5/5 Cleans
5/5 1 arm swings
10 2 arm swings with no rest and that finished me off!!
DAY 30
Day 30 in my 40 Lifts for Lent I did another circuit similar to day 29
10 x 2 arm swings
5/5 1 arm cleans
5/5 1 arm push press
5/5 snatches
DAY 31
Day 31 in my 40 lifts for Lent and I'm enjoying the circuits so I did another one!
5/5 snatches
5/5 1 arm clean and jerks
20 2 arm swings
Arm is back to normal so it's time to step it up again for the final 8 Days!
DAY 32
Day 32 and I'm cranking it up for the final flurry!
2 x 40kg 2 arm military press, I went for 5 but got a 3 and then 2
10/10 Spilt Jerks, these are getting a lot easier, can't wait to give the Olympic bar clean and jerk a go next week!
5/5 Windmills
5 x 2 arm swings with 1 flip
Time for a 48kg I think! we've got one on the way in our next order of KBs so looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Day 33
2 x 40kg front squat - 5 reps
5/5 renegade rows
2 x 40kg bent over rowsreps: 10, 6, 4
With only 6 days to go there are a few things I'm looking forwards to:
A pint of Guinness!
A rest
to test my Olympic bar clean and jerk and dead lift
to see how many kilos I've put on.
Will let you know next week
DAY 34
Day 34 in my lifts was a day for Jerks! I wanted to give the 2 arm jerks another go, so I tried some traditional KB jerks and some split jerks. I actually found the split jerks easier. Getting under 80kgs of kettlebells was tough using a normal stance. I'll definitely need to work on getting under the bell more, perhaps some drop snatches with the 1 x 10kg to start with. So day 34 looked like this:
10 x 2 arm swings
5/5 1 arm jerks 1 x 40kg
2 Arm Jerks with 2 x 40's, 3 reps
2 Arm Split Jerks with 2 x 40's reps - 2 and then 3
1 arm cleans 6/6
tried some bottoms up presses but wasn't going anywhere!
DAY 35
Day 35 and I wanted to try some of those chest presses on the ball again to see if they had got easier, which they had. Managed 10 on each arm with the 40 on the swiss ball.
Then stuck for what to do next I decided to see if I could do some seated Russian twists with the 40, which I could! So I did...3 sets of 8 / 8 / 4
Day 36
Day 36 in my 40 Lifts for Lent
2 sets of 10/10 windmills
Enough said!
Also had Trojans lifting club to do today so pretty knackered by the end of it all.
Day 37
2 sets of 10/10 Snatches
I'm now desperate to finish this thing. I've started to become a little sick of this 40kg!
Day 38
20/20 Jefferson Lifts
Day 39
20/20 1 arm cleans
Day 40
10/10 1 arm jerks - 2 sets
Thank god it's over!
Well, I'm done! So what can I say about lifting a 40 kilo kettlebell everyday for 40 days? At the moment not a lot really! Sorry if you were hoping for some huge long conclusion with all the positives and negatives, that's coming in the book!!
The main reason I don't have much to say just yet is because I've only just finished. I need a bit of time to recover before I can start testing anything and coming up with a firm conclusion about the benefits of the last 40 days.
What I can say in summary is this. When I first picked up that 40kg on day 1 and blasted out a few lifts I thought to myself, piece of cake, this is going to be too easy! I kept thinking this for about the first 12 days and then I think my body hit a bit of a wall where it needed recovery and I wasn't giving it any. The lack of energy and the need for my tissues to regenerate were not a very motivating factor to keep lifting that thing everyday. I think this is where the major issue came in, maybe if I had only been doing 40 lifts a day and nothing else I might have managed. But a lot of the time I was lifting 80kgs, going to lifting club and just generally legging it around the country as I do on a weekly basis!
Now I know the benefits and the need for recovery, I've researched it in great detail and from about day 15 in this challenge I was completely aware of the fact that I was not doing what I should be doing. But that's not fun and that's not part of the challenge so recovery was thrown out the window and instead I looked for ways to make this manageable. My calorie intake went up massively. I started creatine loading and taking on 3 protein shakes a day on top of my usual high calorie diet. Thankfully all this extra effort did help and I did feel a lot better for it.
I was able to carry on through to the end with only one major problem which came from my own stupidity more than anything else. That problem was the injury, although not serious in anyway and only really a little strain. It was the constant use day after day that made it an issue. As you will see from the program, I did have to calm it down for a few days to let my arm recover a bit. I spent a lot of time icing it and trying not to do anything that aggravated it, luckily this cautious approach worked and I was back on form soon after.
Looking at this more closely it's important to realise that although one may feel ok and ready to lift. The tissues, tendons and ligaments may need a little longer to develop and become accustomed to such heavy weights. This became apparent when I felt a few aches in my joints when performing jerks. This is something that I would never normally feel, but the constant repetition and stress on the joints with no time to recover was just too much. My muscles had adapted to the weight, but my ligaments and tendons needed longer.
I will be doing some more research on this as I know from what I've read so far that lifting heavy weights is highly beneficial for the connective tissue but there is also a need for recovery and repair. 40 days of lifting just didn't quite give it the opportunity!
In my full round up I will have the results from my testing, I'll be looking at my max deadlift, clean and jerk and weight gain.
I will also have thoughts on ways you can apply this type of lifting to your programs; program design options; benefits and things to look out for.
The E-book will be a compilation of the research behind this type of lifting and the best ways to apply it to your training. There will be a full guided program with exercise descriptions along with tips and tricks to get the best out of these lifts. After doing 40 days of them I've picked up a few tricks, I can tell you that!
Thanks to all that have been following the challenge and thank you for your support.
Tommy 'the 40 kg' Matthews!!
To keep up to date with Tommy's training go to the forum www.optimallifefitness.com/forum
To keep see clips of the 40 lifts go to www.youtube.com/extremekettlebells.com
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Tommy has never been that traditional, so when it comes to Lent this year was no exception!
Tommy's 40 days of Lifts for Lent with a 40kg Kettlebells This great idea came to me in a random conversation I was having with BJ about Lent and the detox he was going on for Lent. So after taking the piss out of him for a short while I decided to come up with my own little challenge for Lent and that's where the 40 lifts for Lent came in!
Now that I have completed the challenge I've put the 40 days down in a quick summary so you can see what I got up to. I've also summarised the highs and lows of this type of challenge at the bottom of the program.
DAY 1
10 x 2 arm swings10/10 1 arm jerks5/5 1 arm cleans
DAY 2
10 x cleans (2x40kg) 10/10 x Front squats (1x40kg in single arm rack position)5/5 Windlmill
DAY 3
Day 3 on the 40 lifts for Lent and I'm feeling good after 2 days, but have just realised he's got 37 to go!5/5 Snatches10/10 1 Arm Swings5/5 Snatches
DAY 4
Day 4 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I'm starting to feel the affects of a few days using the 40kg, but today is going to be tough. I've got a training day with the others for kettlebell sport and then I've still got to do forty lifts!
Kettlebell Sport Session:
5 minute 2 arm jerk set 2 x 24kg
5 x 1 minute 2 arm jerk sets 2 x 24kg
2/2 minute snatch set 1 x 24kg
40 Lifts:
5/5 1 arm jerks 40kg
5/5 1 arm jerks 40kg
10/10 1 arm cleans 40kg
Knackered!!
DAY 5
Day 5 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I woke up feeling very stiff! Triceps killing after so many 2 arm jerks on day 4. So today is going to be a recovery day, just an easy few swings to keep up the challenge.
40 x 2 arm swings 40kg
recovery is important every so often!!
DAY 6
Day 6 on the 40 Lifts for Lent and I'm feeling better than I did on Sunday!
With all the jerks I did on Saturday, day 6 is a pulling day.
5/5 Renegade rows with 40kgs (2 sets in total)
5/5 Turkish Get Ups (1st Phase only)
5/5 Bent over rows (single arm) 1 x 40kg
DAY 7
Fancied trying some juggling today, so warmed up with:
2 arm swing with 1 flip x 20
10 Alternating Swings
5/5 Clean and Push Press
DAY 8
Day 8 in my 40 lifts for Lent and it's the first time I've decided to bring in the military press! Stepping it up a notch with few snatches in there as well, I'm putting in a bit of effort before the Advanced kettlebell course this weekend.
Day 8
10/10 1 arm snatches
5/5 1 arm military presses (missed the last 2 on left hand on first attempt, but got them second time)
5/5 Windmills
DAY 9
Day 9 in my 40 lifts for Lent and it's 'Beach Muscles Day', good times! I got carried away and did a few more than 40 reps, probably something to do with the beach muscles theme! Still, I'm looking for ways to make everyday a bit different, to challenge my body in another way and to keep the next 30 days exciting.
8/8 1 arm chest press on swiss ball 40kg
8/8 1 arm bent over row 40kg
Did 2 sets of the above as supersets.
4 x Arm curls with 40kg (holding by the horns)
Day 10
Was a bit of a rest day to prepare for the Advanced EKI course on Saturday. So I just did 40 alternating swings to keep up the challenge.
DAY 11
Day 11 was the day of the Advanced EKI course, which was an opportunity to perform some good odd lifts, so I made my 40 Lifts up from a variety of different lifts. It turned out to be a great day for everyone on the course, the Advanced EKI is all about KB sport and odd lifts, so my challenge was right at home! So what lifts did I attempt/do:
Achieved:-
1 arm jerks
windmills
bent press
the ultimate:- 2 handed anyhow with 2 x 40Kg, that was a PB!!
Check out the video on our Facebook
Attempted:
bottoms up press, which I almost got, just couldn't push past the sticking point. Did it with a 36kg, but I know I'll get the 40kg up by the end of the challenge.
DAY 12
I was absolutely shattered today after the advanced course! So just kept it nice and simple and did:
2 sets of 10/10 1 arm bent over rows. Will step it up again on Monday!
DAY 13
Day 13 in my 40 lifts for Lent. I was still a bit knackered after the weekend, it's funny that although not doing much this 40kg challenge is hard work. Especially when I'm trying to do things like 2 handed anyhow's!! We've just got about 300kg's of plates in the office and I'm desperate to start dead lifting again, but still got 27 days to go!
5/5 Clean & Jerks
10 Alternating Swings
5/5 Clean & Jerks
10 Alternating Swings
DAY 14
I started to feel a little fresher today, so thought it was about time to step it up and go for a challenge!
So... I thought I would try a split jerk with 1 x 40 kg, I started with more of a drop lunge as stability was an issue to start with. But got the hang of it and then the spilt jerk became pretty easy and turned out to be a great exercise. I will definitely be doing more of those!
3 sets of 1 arm split jerks - 5 on each arm with 40kg kettlebell
1 set of windmills to finish, 5 on each arm.
DAY 15
Today I wanted to look for something different, but struggled!
So I went for:
6/6 front squats with 40kg kb in a 1 arm rack position, I'm liking these ones, the work you get through the trunk is awesome!
I then tried some back squats, I held the bell by the horns behind my head, so it was resting on my thoracic. I then went into the squat, this turned out to be a nice exercise, it's a good way of keeping the thoracic up and stretching out the lats at the same time. I did 10 of thoseI finished off with 9/9 1 arm cleans to make the 40 reps.
DAY 16
I am starting to feel generally knackered now, the culmination of courses and then doing these lifts every day is hard work. My body feels like it needs a rest for 2 weeks. I am hoping that when I do get to day 40 my body might suddenly start growing rapidly as I aim to rest for at least a week before my next challenge.The major tiredness is in the legs, I guess because no matter what exercise I do with this 40kg kettlebell I'm always using my legs. So today's was an easy day, just did 4 x 10 2 arm swings to try and get the posterior chain working a bit more. I can't wait to see what my max deadlift will be after all of this, it used to be 195kg, I reckon with all of this work I'll be hitting 200 +, will let you know!
DAY 17
20/20 1 arm bent over rows
DAY 18
Was the Extreme Kettlebell Instructor course so was a good chance to have a play with the 40's!!
2 x 6 double cleans with 2 x 40kg's
1 x 8kg front squat with 2 x 40kg's
1 x 4/4 1 arm clean and press 40kg
1 x 3 military press with 2 x 40kg
5/5 windmills with 40kg
1/1 turkish get up with 40kg
It turned out to be a pretty tough day with more than 40 lifts, but when in the mood you might as well take advantage of it.
Day 19
The second day of the EKI course and we had another good day of training, doing a few demos and just trying different things. Got roped into doing one of the dynamic circuits with the 40's which was fun! Thanks for that guy's!
3 x front squat with 2 x 40kg
6 x stiff leg deadlift with 2 x 40kg
6 x bent over row with 2 x 40kg
3 x military press with 2 x 40 kg
Circuit with 1 40kg:
5/5 clean and jerk
5/5 snatches
10 alternating swings
I also tried the 2 hand any how again, but didn't have the success of last weekend, I could only manage the 40kg and the 36kg on that one. Also gave the bottoms up press a go and the good news is I was almost locked out at the top, so I think it's only a matter of time before that goes up.
DAY 20
Day 20 in my 40 lifts for Lent and I was absolutely shattered! The EKI course has taken its toll on us and the chances of me doing anything challenging today was out of the question. I feel like I need a week of recovery. Still, I'm half way through now, only 19 days to go! woo hoo!
So day 20 was a bit boring I'm afraid, just 2 x 20 2 arm swings.
DAY 21
Day 21 and I'm still feeling a bit tired from the weekend, but I had a challenge today to complete thanks to Matt Shore, although I'd done a few of these on the weekend I had to get them in today to keep Matt happy.
1/1 Turkish Get up 40kg (Matt - please see video!)
6/6 Bottoms up Cleans (2 sets)
tried 1 arm chair press, got 2 on my right arm, 0 on left :-(
12 x 2 arm swings with 1 x flip
DAY 22
Today was a sad day! I have started to feel some pain build up in my brachialis area, stemming from all of those odd lifts that I did on the weekend and attempting the 2 x 40 2 hand any how, along with all the other crazy lifts. Clearly I can only do the 2 x 40's when I'm fresh and not after 2 days of training! As I've not really been able to rest it, it's just started to get a bit worse and become quite tender. So not wanting to do any serious damage I'm going to have to take a step back from some of the big lifts for a few days. Gutted about that as it was going well, but just did too much on the weekend and then bottoms up cleans the next day didn't help!! So today was a quite one and think I'll have a couple more easy days and then come back strong for the last 2 weeks of the challenge.
6/6 Windmills
7/7 x 2 1 Arm chest press on swiss ball.
DAY 23
Day 23 was a recovery day, so I looked for an exercise that wasn't going to stress the elbow too much, which is slowly getting better. So, I did some Jefferson Lifts....5/5 and 4 sets of that. Not actually done these before and although a true jefferson lift is with a bar, but 2 x 40kg kettlebells worked pretty well and you get a better range on the lift as well as there's not a bar between your crotch!!If you've not done a jefferson lift before, it's a form of dead lift where you straddle the bar and pick it up with one hand in front of the body and one behind. It's an old traditional lift which has disappeared!
DAY 24
10 x 2 arm swings
6/6 1 arm cleans
6/6 1 arm jerks
5/5 1 arm split jerks
3/3 windmills
5/5 1 arm chest press
6/6 1 arm bent over rows
As I didn't make the kettlebell sport lifting club on day 24 I had to do a little bit more with the 40kg, the arm is still giving me a few problems but hoping I will be back to normal this week for lifting club on Thursday night. I think once I've finished Lent I will do some research on recovery and the need for it!!
DAY 25
Sunday was a rest day for me so just did 40 swings.
DAY 26
Day 26 in the 40 Lifts for Lent and I've only got 14 to go, good times! I'll be stepping things up massively for the last week and going for a few challenges, like the bottoms up press. Today I mixed things up a bit...
2/2 one arm military presses, 2 sets in total
6/6 one arm snatch
1/1 Turkish get up
12 one arm cleans with 1 rep change each hand
10/10 Lateral side bends (got stuck for something different to do! but with 40kg this works!)
DAY 27
Day 27 was a bit of a mix of everything, I'm starting to do more than just my 40 lifts at the minute as I'm finding the 40 is becoming more manageable. I've upped the amount of calories I'm having as well, which I think is helping with the recovery and energy levels.
Day 27 looked like this:
10 x 2 arm swings
10/10 1 arm swings
5/5 1 arm jerks
1 arm chair press, I got 2 on my left and only one on my right. This was a bit different to the last time I tried when the right was easy and the left wasn't going anywhere!
I then tried jerks with 2 x 40's, which was tough. it ended up more of an un-balanced push press, but I think with a bit of getting used to the fact that there's 80kgs to jerk they will go up! Only managed 3 reps of it, but it's a start!
finished off with 4 front squats with 2x40kgs
12 Days to go!
DAY 28
Day 28 was a quiet day, taking it easy before lifting club on Thursday evening. So just did 4 sets of Jefferson lifts with the 2 x 40's.
DAY 29
Now back to the 40 Lifts! Well after all that I was feeling pretty knackered, so I did a quick circuit of:
5/5 windmills
5/5 Cleans
5/5 1 arm swings
10 2 arm swings with no rest and that finished me off!!
DAY 30
Day 30 in my 40 Lifts for Lent I did another circuit similar to day 29
10 x 2 arm swings
5/5 1 arm cleans
5/5 1 arm push press
5/5 snatches
DAY 31
Day 31 in my 40 lifts for Lent and I'm enjoying the circuits so I did another one!
5/5 snatches
5/5 1 arm clean and jerks
20 2 arm swings
Arm is back to normal so it's time to step it up again for the final 8 Days!
DAY 32
Day 32 and I'm cranking it up for the final flurry!
2 x 40kg 2 arm military press, I went for 5 but got a 3 and then 2
10/10 Spilt Jerks, these are getting a lot easier, can't wait to give the Olympic bar clean and jerk a go next week!
5/5 Windmills
5 x 2 arm swings with 1 flip
Time for a 48kg I think! we've got one on the way in our next order of KBs so looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Day 33
2 x 40kg front squat - 5 reps
5/5 renegade rows
2 x 40kg bent over rowsreps: 10, 6, 4
With only 6 days to go there are a few things I'm looking forwards to:
A pint of Guinness!
A rest
to test my Olympic bar clean and jerk and dead lift
to see how many kilos I've put on.
Will let you know next week
DAY 34
Day 34 in my lifts was a day for Jerks! I wanted to give the 2 arm jerks another go, so I tried some traditional KB jerks and some split jerks. I actually found the split jerks easier. Getting under 80kgs of kettlebells was tough using a normal stance. I'll definitely need to work on getting under the bell more, perhaps some drop snatches with the 1 x 10kg to start with. So day 34 looked like this:
10 x 2 arm swings
5/5 1 arm jerks 1 x 40kg
2 Arm Jerks with 2 x 40's, 3 reps
2 Arm Split Jerks with 2 x 40's reps - 2 and then 3
1 arm cleans 6/6
tried some bottoms up presses but wasn't going anywhere!
DAY 35
Day 35 and I wanted to try some of those chest presses on the ball again to see if they had got easier, which they had. Managed 10 on each arm with the 40 on the swiss ball.
Then stuck for what to do next I decided to see if I could do some seated Russian twists with the 40, which I could! So I did...3 sets of 8 / 8 / 4
Day 36
Day 36 in my 40 Lifts for Lent
2 sets of 10/10 windmills
Enough said!
Also had Trojans lifting club to do today so pretty knackered by the end of it all.
Day 37
2 sets of 10/10 Snatches
I'm now desperate to finish this thing. I've started to become a little sick of this 40kg!
Day 38
20/20 Jefferson Lifts
Day 39
20/20 1 arm cleans
Day 40
10/10 1 arm jerks - 2 sets
Thank god it's over!
Well, I'm done! So what can I say about lifting a 40 kilo kettlebell everyday for 40 days? At the moment not a lot really! Sorry if you were hoping for some huge long conclusion with all the positives and negatives, that's coming in the book!!
The main reason I don't have much to say just yet is because I've only just finished. I need a bit of time to recover before I can start testing anything and coming up with a firm conclusion about the benefits of the last 40 days.
What I can say in summary is this. When I first picked up that 40kg on day 1 and blasted out a few lifts I thought to myself, piece of cake, this is going to be too easy! I kept thinking this for about the first 12 days and then I think my body hit a bit of a wall where it needed recovery and I wasn't giving it any. The lack of energy and the need for my tissues to regenerate were not a very motivating factor to keep lifting that thing everyday. I think this is where the major issue came in, maybe if I had only been doing 40 lifts a day and nothing else I might have managed. But a lot of the time I was lifting 80kgs, going to lifting club and just generally legging it around the country as I do on a weekly basis!
Now I know the benefits and the need for recovery, I've researched it in great detail and from about day 15 in this challenge I was completely aware of the fact that I was not doing what I should be doing. But that's not fun and that's not part of the challenge so recovery was thrown out the window and instead I looked for ways to make this manageable. My calorie intake went up massively. I started creatine loading and taking on 3 protein shakes a day on top of my usual high calorie diet. Thankfully all this extra effort did help and I did feel a lot better for it.
I was able to carry on through to the end with only one major problem which came from my own stupidity more than anything else. That problem was the injury, although not serious in anyway and only really a little strain. It was the constant use day after day that made it an issue. As you will see from the program, I did have to calm it down for a few days to let my arm recover a bit. I spent a lot of time icing it and trying not to do anything that aggravated it, luckily this cautious approach worked and I was back on form soon after.
Looking at this more closely it's important to realise that although one may feel ok and ready to lift. The tissues, tendons and ligaments may need a little longer to develop and become accustomed to such heavy weights. This became apparent when I felt a few aches in my joints when performing jerks. This is something that I would never normally feel, but the constant repetition and stress on the joints with no time to recover was just too much. My muscles had adapted to the weight, but my ligaments and tendons needed longer.
I will be doing some more research on this as I know from what I've read so far that lifting heavy weights is highly beneficial for the connective tissue but there is also a need for recovery and repair. 40 days of lifting just didn't quite give it the opportunity!
In my full round up I will have the results from my testing, I'll be looking at my max deadlift, clean and jerk and weight gain.
I will also have thoughts on ways you can apply this type of lifting to your programs; program design options; benefits and things to look out for.
The E-book will be a compilation of the research behind this type of lifting and the best ways to apply it to your training. There will be a full guided program with exercise descriptions along with tips and tricks to get the best out of these lifts. After doing 40 days of them I've picked up a few tricks, I can tell you that!
Thanks to all that have been following the challenge and thank you for your support.
Tommy 'the 40 kg' Matthews!!
To keep up to date with Tommy's training go to the forum www.optimallifefitness.com/forum
To keep see clips of the 40 lifts go to www.youtube.com/extremekettlebells.com
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posted by Tommy Matthews @ 10:43
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hey bro!
Nice going! Truly inspirational!
Out of interest, what was your diet and supplementation schedule during the 40 days?
Christian Vila
BRIGHTON KETTLEBELLS
Hi Christian,
It was a lot of protein, creatine and meal replacments on top of my normal food. it seemed to make a difference!
The Manual is out now, so check it out, it's got all the info in about the nutrition and program design
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