Today's workout:

Warm up: Jump roping and goblet squats @ 10 minutes

Kettlebell front squats w/ 2 53 lb. kb's
2,3,5,7,2,3,5,2,3,5,2,3,5 with minimum rest.  Very challenging!

Hanging leg raises, 3 sets of 6

Transition

I love this time of year. During the holidays we get to have fun and be with family. Around new years we get to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the coming year. And pretty much the whole month of December is dedicated to great (but not healthy) food! I definitely love this time of year.

Unfortunately most of us start to accumulate a little extra pudge around this time as well.  All the extra calories are great for strength gains, but if you want to look good and be healthy you have to tighten up the diet before things get out of hand.  For me the week between Christmas and New years is a time of transition.  This is where I start to ween off the junk food and increase the veggies. The style of workouts also starts to change. For the last couple months the workouts have had a strength emphasis, and now its time to transition into more work capacity based training.  One of the nice things about strength is that it is easy to maintain, so I do not anticipate much loss even though the workout style will change.

Today's workout:
Warm up: Turkish get ups alternating with jump roping, about 10 minutes.

Double Kettlebell clean and presses w/ 53 lb. kb's
x 2,3,5,8,2,3,5,7,2,3,5,6,2,3,5,6  with very little rest between sets. My shoulders and arms felt like they were on fire! My heart and lungs were struggling to keep up. My form held up very good though.

Sprinting

 
I came across this interesting blog about sprinting. I have always tried to do sprint or interval work once or twice a week and I have seen some very positive carry over to other things like long distance endurance.  Just be careful not to do too much too soon, it is very easy to get injured if you over do it.

Today's workout:
10 kettlebell snatches w/ 44 lb. on the left side, run 1 minute, 10 snatches on the right side, run one minute. Repeated 10 times for a total of 200 snatches.

I like this format because I can get in a lot of snatches and still keep my power and explosiveness very high. The one minute jog in between sets actually helps my muscles to relax enough that I can exert a very high amount of power for the next set. The jog in between also keeps the heart rate a little higher so there is a huge cardio effect.  I first read about this style of training in "Enter The Kettlebell" and have found it to be awesome for developing work capacity and burning fat.