'tis the Season to be Jolly....

The week just gone has been quite a festive one indeed.

Last Monday commenced the week with a Duffy concert at the Brixton Academy. Not something that I would normally attend but tickets were free and I don't often get out on a school night, so Jos and myself decided to live a little! The girl Duffy can certainly belt out a note or two, wasn't too bad maybe I should get out more often.

Thursday we had our Christmas Party at the One PT. Alot of our clients managed to pop in however it was probably the busiest night of the year for work Christmas Party's so people dropped by for one or two and then were on their way. Thanks to those who popped by. The night also marked the studio's 2nd birthday- 2 years 302 grey hairs later.

Friday saw Jos and myself visit a clients Christmas Party on the Terrace at Shoreditch House. A couple of glasses of Krug and two apple and elderflower martini's and it was time to go home. Great venue, great party thanks to the Vantage boys for the invite.

Saturday evening I went to a friends house to have dinner, but only after watching Marcus play guitar on the X Factor while the eventual winner Alex sang Silent Night. Nice head wobbles buddy! More wine and champagne- had a great time. I'm glad Christmas is only once a year.

Sunday I helped friends move and then went to dinner with them, more champagne - more wine. Overall extremely festive and social.

Despite the festivities and alcohol consumption training went well, I managed 3 sessions which included squats, KBjerks and snatches, front squats, overhead squats and drop snatches.

I also finally took a game off Justin in squash woo-hoo!

The Skolars went well. This was their second last week before they break for Christmas. Finishing off their homework now!!

Hills, track, squats and bells!

The first week of my new programme didn't go too badly. I managed to get most of the sessions planned in, plus I got a couple of sprints in too!

Monday I got my squats, KB jerks and KB snatches in.

Tuesday some hang snatches and more timed sets with the KB's.

Thursday I had to take some clips of Snatches and Cleans, this is all I had time for.

Friday I managed Front Squats and a couple of sets of Jerks with the 32s- they smashed me!

Sat I did a few 300ms at Gospel Oak track at 8:30, it was freezing cold but the sun was out- great day- good work Bruce and Josef!
Gospel Oak/ Parliament Hill Track
I then got my arse handed to me as I do most Saturday's playing squash with Justin and Frosty- I'll get them eventually.

Sunday I managed to get Hill sprints in over the back of Finsbury park track. Feargal and myself walked up Green Lanes to the track and ran up the path behind which is quite a decent distance and incline, we managed 8 in total.

So overall week 1 of my December plan wasn't too bad at all.

My Programme for December.

At Optimal Life Fitness we are having a launch on January 22nd, as well as demo's and presentations there will also be a kettlebell competition.

The Kettlebell comp will include a 10min jerk set and a 10min snatch set. Both sets will be using 24kg bells. 2*24kgs in the jerk and 1*24kg in the snatch. Anyway as a result I'm incorporating bells back into my lifting.

A rough overview of my training programme for December is as follows:
Mon-
Back Squats: 5/3/1 (week 1, 5s at 85%, week 2, 3s at 90%, week 3, 1s at 95%)
KBJerks: timed set
KBSnatches: timed set

Tues-
Hang Snatches
OH Squats
1 Arm Jerks
KB Snatches:

Thurs-
Front Squats
Hang Cleans
KB Jerks
KB Swings

Fri-
Strongman or other... possibly similar to Tuesday

It's not set in stone as yet. I need to keep my squats in and reintroduce KB sport specific lifts. I would like to get 400s and hills in somewhere too, however the priority are the squats and the KB Lifts.

I received my adidas Ironwork 3 weightlifting shoes today.


Trained in them as well- interesting.... They'll take a bit of getting used to. I did feel incredibly solid and stable pushing into the floor. I guess that's what they're for!

The week that was!

After my last blog last week, quite a bit has happened.

I had a client fly to India and luckily was nowhere near the terrorist attacks. A mate of mine is also over there doing strength and conditioning with cricket teams in the IPL or something similar, he's safe too!

The Skolars' training is going well. We got our first 'strongman' session in on Friday night. I had the boys flipping the big tyre, working defensive drills on the smaller ones and keg clean and pressing 1minute on/ 1minute off, all in 10 minute blocks. all of this was followed up by 3*400ms on 3:30. Overall it was a tough, but good session. I've been really happy with the boys' enthusiasm and attitude. I was told that if they are strong and fit enough they'll make the semi's. I've taken it as my personal responsibility to make sure they do! I'll get some footage taken to stick up on the blog later in the week!

I've commenced writing the Advanced Performance Boxing Course with Stevie Smith, I'll keep you posted- it's going to be tops!

My training has to up a notch this month. It's all squats, kb jerks and kb snatches.

What is happening?

This is my first post on my personal blog. Umming and ahhhing about what to write over the last couple of weeks has left me with writing nothing at all. I've been trying to decide what to comment on, what to discuss and on what topics I should offer my opinions.

I still haven't made up my mind...

I'll take the path most traveled in the world of blogging and I'll discuss me and my going's on.

The weekend just gone was a good one. Optimal Life Fitness just had it's first Performance Boxing Course. We had Stevie Smith on board. Stevie is a former (he doesn't like ex!) welterweight world champion (Stevie has fought Ricky Hatton). It was fantastic working with Stevie and I am very much looking forward to working with him in the future- so much to learn!

Australia lost the Rugby League World Cup. We beat France in the Rugby Union however and England lost terribly to SA.

Monday night saw me start my second week of Strength and Conditioning with the London Skolars RLFC. The lights at Finsbury Park track were out again so after the strength work the boys were smashed with body weight circuits, not as good as 400's but will have to do the job 'til the lights come on!

I got a session in today Squats, Kettlebell Jerks and Kettlebell Snatches. Still have plenty of work to do!

That's it. Until I find something else to talk about it will have to be me. Let's face it with all the doom and gloom about at the moment I might as well talk about myself!