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Kettlebell Alactic + Aerobic

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Harald Motz said:
another variation on the A+A theme with set-repeats of 10 with explosive jumps and push ups, and "just sitting". Meditating A+A:
View attachment 6911 131max hr - 91avg hr - 57min hr

This was A+A without equipment but still displaying power. One of the main aspects I am interested in and motivates immensely is improved recovery, and to develop the ability to do so. As an A+A session can have many repeats there are as many opportunities to be getting a good set up, mastery of execution and additionally many occasions to rest.

A+A is a great playing field like no other (maybe) to learn or use some relaxation strategies, to bring down hr and breathing effectively. It can be fast and loose, always good. I used for some time a bit of light club swinging between heavy snatch repeats which works quite well. Just a bit of waking around works. When I do some rowing repeats the just obvious active rest is just pulling very easily. A great thing to explore is Pavel's breath control as described in Kettlebell Simple and Sinister. That is real double focus: on the work and the rest. It can make rest quite hard, as it is not easy to control the breath with a harder beating heart. It is really humbling to see or better to feel that you are not as self-controlled as you pretend to be.

In the session above I used the following strategy: after the jumps, I shook my limbs a bit then I got down on the ground as I have to anyway, if doing push ups next. Then I sat on my zafu and just practiced some breath control while keeping upright sitting posture. Then came push up repeats, then I immediately sat on the cushion again. Then I literally jumped of my zafu for the next jumps. After the first two jump repeats my hr got below 60bpm. Then as to be expected with further repeats hr increased slightly all over, as I did the repeats emom.

Although the hr in general was quite low breath control was not easy on every breath. It was a very good experimentation field as the overall exercise stress was relatively low. I can hear my heart beating in my ears and I can nicely watch, how my breathing pattern affects hr in real time on my phone. Even if the hr is slightly over resting hr, it still beats harder then as in a state of full rest that can be felt as a mild discomfort.


later, to I balanced the ups and downs of alactics out, as I went for an hour steady state, or just hr shenanigans:
View attachment 6913

As I like to say A+A is work, but not "hard" work. So I just keep working it.
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The 'not so mad scientist' working in his laboratory!

Great stuff Harald, your ingenuity and creativity on the A+A playground is very cool to see. I'm happily playing and learning doing Plan 111.
It's strange to feel so motivated by the simplest of training, add in the walking, rowing and it just treats the body to the best mother nature can offer.
 
Harald Motz said:
A great thing to explore is Pavel's breath control as described in Kettlebell Simple and Sinister. That is real double focus: on the work and the rest. It can make rest quite hard, as it is not easy to control the breath with a harder beating heart. It is really humbling to see or better to feel that you are not as self-controlled as you pretend to be.
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Something I used to do during rest periods was buteyko walking breath holds. I think it worked well both for the strength training and for buteyko practice. Pretty hard, but not as hard as the breathing practice suggested in S&S
 
in a quest to find the Ant (anaerobic threshold) as a small margin where things overturn. As breathing gets heavier, Lactat levels begin to rise exponentially with added effort then. Prolonged power output can be sustained with the same hr below the threshold.

For this the rower is a cool tool as there are many cool things about it. A reasonably good set up is to start slowly for steps of a few minutes and watch the hr to stabilize. When in later stages the hr climbs without stabilisation there is a good probability to be just above the Ant.

I did the following: I started to row right away at a speed of 2:05min/500m for a complete 10km. This may be not ideal, as there is no built in warm up, and anaerobic clycolysis is more engaged right at the beginning as it would be as I would have started slowly. But nevertheless I think I have a good guestimation where my Ant is effort and hr wise on the rower. In addition I was not completely fresh for this "test", as it was the fourth training session.

I managed to breathe through my nose throughout, but breathing pattern was adapted to the effort. Passing the talk test would have been hard or not possible, depending on the length of a sentence. And there was no one to talk to, I was happy to be able to think in a sentence without interruption. I felt no muscle burn or constriction, but was overall engaged fully to the activity. after this I rowed for fifteen minutes at 120bpm and feeling overall fine afterwards.


10km anaerobic threshold row.png 10km row - 41:39min - 141avg/147max
heart rate was relatively stable with just a hint of increase


10k row anaerobic threshold.jpg the 500m splits were in a margin of 1second, so relatively stable.

Really content with it, and slowly coming closer to a sub 40min 10k staying in the green zone. The nice thing about MAF concept is, that it does not get easier or harder, you just can go faster. Patience.
 
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today's 10km rowing:
10k row 11-28-18.png 10km - 41:37min - 138avg/144max

As opposed to Sunday's rowing I could really stabilize my hr @142/143bpm around the 20min mark till the end of the row a second faster and average hr was 3bpm lower. Towards the end I could row slightly faster. I recognize all the time with aerobic rowing, that around 20-30min the aerobic system really comes around, as at the same hr I can row a bit faster, or the other way at the same speed hr lowers a bit. This rowing I would categorize as below my anaerobic threshold. An effort I could go for an hour. Breathing was more relaxed than on Sunday's rowing. Also interesting is that I am with my hr right in the MAF formula: 139bpm +5 (as I am rowing over two years now at lower base work).

Using the anaerobic threshold as a tool seems to be interesting. Going at this silver line not so often could be appropriate in accordance to easier work, and a good fit after lots of base work. When I look back the last three years I did just that.

20181128_191323.jpg
 
Harald Motz said:
I recognize all the time with aerobic rowing, that around 20-30min the aerobic system really comes around, as at the same hr I can row a bit faster, or the other way at the same speed hr lowers a bit.
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I can feel it in my chest when the aerobic kicks in, hard to explain but it's euphoric to cruise in that mode.

Harald Motz said:
Using the anaerobic threshold as a tool seems to be interesting. Going at this silver line not so often could be appropriate in accordance to easier work, and a good fit after lots of base work. When I look back the last three years I did just that.
Click to expand...
I'm going to play with this a bit, just have to figure out a comparable metric with my rower to use as a baseline. Great stuff Harald!
 
Hello,
I just wanted to clarify I understand the Maffetone formula and A+A training. Using the Maffetone formula, my target is 144, but the Maffetone app indicates if you're stressed and/or sleep deprived, etc, to subtract from that. So should I shoot for 130s?
 
Bret S. said:
I'm going to play with this a bit, just have to figure out a comparable metric with my rower to use as a baseline. Great stuff Harald!
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I can't repeat myself often enough how great the rower is as a tool. And it is interesting and fun to learn about effort/hr continuum and that the literature on that well researched stuff seems to be true more than less...

Rob_TheLesser said:
Hello,
I just wanted to clarify I understand the Maffetone formula and A+A training. Using the Maffetone formula, my target is 144, but the Maffetone app indicates if you're stressed and/or sleep deprived, etc, to subtract from that. So should I shoot for 130s?
Click to expand...
Hi Rob, first welcome to the forum.
- don't use MAF with kettlebell ballistics, just rest as much as needed that your breathing has normalized. MAF is designed to use with the classic endurance activities.
- to give further suggestions, a bit more information about you and your training history, age, injuries (current or recovered from) is needed
 
Harald Motz said:
I can't repeat myself often enough how great the rower is as a tool. And it is interesting and fun to learn about effort/hr continuum and that the literature on that well researched stuff seems to be true more than less...


Hi Rob, first welcome to the forum.
- don't use MAF with kettlebell ballistics, just rest as much as needed that your breathing has normalized. MAF is designed to use with the classic endurance activities.
- to give further suggestions, a bit more information about you and your training history, age, injuries (current or recovered from) is needed
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I'd love to see a video of you rowing Harald. That is an incredibly high stroke rate in my experience, yet your overall pace is reasonable and you can maintain it perfectly.
 
krg said:
I'd love to see a video of you rowing Harald.
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Karl, you don't want to see how to row like a rabbit...I will see if I video myself. I know that this is a really high cadence. On the pull I have almost no back leaning and i n the front position I push my hips forward rather then reaching with my upper body. My back stays neutral all the time I would guess. As I am not competitive with the rowing I don't spin my mind about the perfect pulling mechanics. I see it kind of an alactic-aerobic-anaerobic-power-endurance piano and enjoy the monitoring of both, the display of the C2 and the display of the Polar monotony of pulling and breathing synchronization. It could be an airdyne, or a stairmaster it would not matter much.
 
Harald Motz said:
the display of the C2 and the display of the Polar monotony of pulling and breathing synchronization.
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. Interesting. You use the Polar display instead of showing your HR and trend on the C2 monitor? I was playing with the display and found that I could show my HR trend on the C2 screen. Of course it does not show zones like the polar.
 
Harald Motz said:
On the pull I have almost no back leaning and i n the front position I push my hips forward rather then reaching with my upper body. My back stays neutral all the time I would guess.
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That's what I do to take load off the lower back in the initial pull when I feel LB fatigue coming on, or should I say initial leg push..
 
DrFierce said:
. Interesting. You use the Polar display instead of showing your HR and trend on the C2 monitor? I was playing with the display and found that I could show my HR trend on the C2 screen. Of course it does not show zones like the polar.
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I don't use a C2 but do depend on the Polar, it's a great tool to track heart rate, time and distance while doing LED work. It gives you a nice little data set to save and compare later on (months and years), using it as a visual log is very good as it gives you a peek into the play by play action of the session vs a written log only.

Snipping data points and storing them in Dropbox is an easy way for me to track sessions and progress, the day to day data set is fairly meaningless, the real power of this neat little system is the ability to track things over longer periods of time. I'm really enjoying the process, which is the best thing you can you can do with training IMHO.
 
This thread is a great read! It’s like fitness science geek’s wet dream!

Although I am far from a fitness science geek so I’m struggling to follow the benefits and the heart rate stuff.

I am coming back from a period of inactivity and my strength levels are down at very average. I could also do with losing about 20lbs which I’ll need to think about my diet. My job also requires me to be in decent shape so I’m keen to increase strength and endurance.

Would anti-glycotic training benefit me? If so, how do I go about it to see best benefit from it?

Do I do barbell strength training with KB ballistic anti-glycotic style after or should I be doing Harald Motz style one ballistic move for repeats with some easy cardio for a while? I feel that might not be enough to see results with fat loss etc. Thoughts?
 
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