Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
I have been training for my SFG certification for quite some time. Four years to be exact. For those of you that have accomplished this goal you know, it’s no laughing matter. When I first started training with kettlebells, I could hardly do a Turkish Get Up with a 12kg kettlebell and now I can do it with a 36kg bell. For those of you that don’t know a Turkish Get Up here is what the exercise looks like.
It’s a great exercise it uses your whole body. Now the ultimate test for the SFG weekend is you have to perform 100 snatches with a 24 kg bell in under 5 minutes. I am struggling with this big time. A year ago I knew I couldn’t do the 100 snatches, but I signed up for the course anyways. Disappointingly I did 32 snatches with the kettlebell. I knew I would perform badly going into it, so it wasn’t a complete shock to me. I think some of my comrades were more disappointed than I was that I didn’t pass it. I was just hoping there would be some magic stuff going on where I would be able to do the 100 snatches no questions asked. (I know wishful thinking)
Right now I’m at the point where I’m wondering where I go from here. I’ve been at this stage for a few months now. I don’t give up easily. For those of you that don’t know my story read this (http://bisbeefitness.com/my-life-the-no-bs-approach/)
This is where I was after the SFG cert with the snatches where I performed 56 after I took some of the lessons that I learned from the weekend and applied it.
I received some help with a few good friends of mine in the industry especially Molly Scott out of FuelHOUSE and here after her programming, I performed 65.
When I finished her programming, I still performed the same amount of reps.
After I had completed that last mock up test, I thought I should give the snatch test a rest for a while and see what happens.
After nine months I decide to do it again. I’m still at that 60 rep mark but instead of gassing out after a few sets. I’m now doing more reps in a set (most of the people who I talk to your goal should be 10 reps per arm) I can do at least 3 sets of that rep scheme and when I started this I could hardly do one. So I take that as a huge improvement.
My form is getting better too. I had a habit keeping my arm straight while snatching the kettlebell. As you see in my last video, it’s better, but it’s still not perfect.
Now here is where it gets interesting. I have been training with kettlebells for quite some time. Too much of a good thing can lead to a bad thing. I had a back flare up a few weeks ago (my back is 100% better now) and I believe partly it has to do with the same old movement which is hinging from the hips. Over training can easily be applied to a movement as well. But on the other side of the token I do not forget about squats, get ups and presses into my programming as well.
What do you think I should do? When does a goal become unhealthy? To me, I don’t believe that there are any such thing as a goal becoming unhealthy unless you are a Kurt Angle, and you get a shot of steroids in your broken neck during the 1996 Olympic Games.
Should I keep doing what I’m doing? Obviously there is a bit of improvement or should I start training with barbells again (haven’t touched them in years!) and just work on my form for my snatches?
What can you learn from this you may ask? Never give up on a goal. Pursue it with ruthless aggression, but there comes the point where you have to sit back and evaluate where you came from and where you want to go. If something’s not working, look at it from a different angle.