Saturday, June 28, 2008

A pleasant suprise

So my resolution is to do AOS DVD's 3 days a week. It was originally going to be Newport, 3 days a week.

Now I LOVE AOS products- not one has ever let me down. BUT- I need variety. The idea of doing Newport today made me want to hide. Working out should never make me want to hide. So I was thinking, "damnnit, what do i do?"

THEN, i remembered I had Firepower and had never really done it. I grabbed the other 20KG off the porch, popped that bad boy in and started to get down. Some thoughts-

1. I really really enjoyed the mobility warm-up round and the double KB drills were a lot of fun. 2 Kb's at once really really loads your core up.

2. Alarm 1 with "long rests" is some false advertisement- those were not long rests. HA!

3. The alternating double clean is the hardest exercise I have ever done. Period. Anthony D calls it a smoker during the round on the DVD and he isnt kidding. I did 30seconds of the 1 min round and almost died. I took 10 seconds off and when I tried to get back on it, it wasnt really happening.

4. Firepower worked my muscles more than my lunges. I had to stop but not b/c I couldnt breathe but b/c whatever was working was cramping so bad and burning. I even did (parts of) the 5 min snatch test at the end. I NEVER have anything left after round 8 in Newport. Firepower felt like more of a muscle building workout than an endurance work out (I'm sure its both- thats just what it felt like).

It was a breath of really fresh air and exactly what I needed to mix it up. 2 days a week Newport , 1 day a week Firepower or vice versa. I'm really looking forward to doing Firepower again and I am pleased that I could succceed on the double KB drills.

3 comments:

Ryan W said...

What size kettlebell do you recommend for each different workout? Since firepower is more strength oriented, I was thinking the 24kg. What are your thoughts having gone through it all the way?

Anthony C said...

depends on how strong you are. i could not do firepower w/ 24KG's b/c of the pressing exercises. i could not do the see-saw press w/ 2 24KGs and i could not do the double static rows. aside from those 2 exercises I could do it- but those 2 keep me from doing it.

oh yea, also i could not do the double alternating cleans, i cannot do those for 1 min straight w/ the 20KGs.

so it depends on how strong you are really. if you can do a 5x5 pressing ladder w/ the 24KG then i would say use the 24KG. if you can't- use the 20KG.

good luck.

Fitgirl-ATX said...

Those double alternating cleans are a BEAST!!! I fail miserably at them every time :-) I'm pretty strong, but my endurance is in dire need of improvement. The last time I did Firepower, I think I dropped down to double 12kgs for that round. I alternate between my 16kg and 12kg for Firepower. Newport, though, is the mother of all endurance workouts IMO. I still only do that puppy with the 9kg, which is what is recommended by Anthony D. It still kicks my butt every time; I can't get through it without pausing. The first round with the burpees kills me right away :-) My favorite is the sots press (sorry, Anthony C)
Good luck, Ryan! Let us know how you make out. Both Anthony C. and I also post on the Punch forums.
all the best,
fitgirl-atx! :-)