I’ve been enjoying Scott Sonnon’s TACFIT Kettlebell course, a course that fits into his TACFIT training spectrum. Aside from all the macho hype that his page descriptions run, I like the thinking that goes into what he’s doing.
He says there is no such thing as “General Physical Preparedness;” the body can only be prepared in specific ways.
In his own words (from the about page of http://www.tacfit.tv):
In short, he attempts to go beyond “functional fitness,” into what he calls, “tactical fitness.” Hence, “TACFIT.” Several of his ideas I rather like. He uses a wave periodization format, similar to the Big Beyond Belief system I found out about in the 1990s, where you start off with a “no” intensity day, then go to a “low” intensity day, followed by the “moderate” intensity day, finishing with the “high” intensity day. I like that kind of cycling.
He also incorporates specific routines, pulled from yoga asanas, as recovery, or “compensation” for the heavy work. This is somewhat unique, though I believe the P90X program does something similar.
So Day One, the “no intensity day,” incorporates Yoga Routine 1. On Day Two, the “low intensity day,” you will go through Yoga Routine 2. Day Three, “moderate intensity day,” will have you sandwich the “meat” of the workout program between Yoga Routine 1 and Yoga Routine 2 at a moderate pace or intensity, and on Day Four, you bracket the workout the same way, but specifically trying to up your pace or intensity from the last time, so that you have continual advance. Next day, you drop back down to just Yoga Routine 1 and “no” intensity.
So far, so good. However, kettlebells are pretty much my favorite training tool right now. I tried doing the bodyweight one (TACFIT Commando), but lost interest almost immediately. Fortunately he recently came out with a course to integrate the TACFIT protocols into kettlebell training.
And I actually really like it. I like using that wave structure with the peak and recover days, having the yoga compensation (even though I hate some of the moves–shoulder stretch, ouch!), and having the meat of the workout being kettlebells. Pretty simple but challenging stuff.
He also uses the burst energy type of training for the kettlebell portion of training, where you circuit through six kbell exercises that last 30 seconds each, take a minute off, the cycle through them again for several rounds.
Unfortunately, I picked up a sore throat somewhere, and not feeling as well as I should. Yesterday was the low intensity day, so I went ahead and did the yoga routine for that day. It is actually quite a short and simple program, when you get down to it, and I felt great afterward. But today is moderate intensity, and I don’t want to compromise my immune system and slow down my getting well (there is the MD Ren Faire tomorrow, and I’d like to go; several friends are going as well).
I’d hate to interrupt my program. I usually feel better later in the day when I have this (seems like it hits me once every year or so). So, if nothing else, I’ll probably do the yoga programs, and see how I feel about the kettlebell portion.
So–I guess we’ll see…
