“Acid Sam” Run No. 7

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Welcome to Episode 7, as I continue trying to get a really good “Acid Sam” time 1, An “Acid Sam” 2 is 100 Kettle bell Snatches followed immediately by a standard “Acid Bath” fitness test.

The details and timings are:

100 Kettle Bell snatches

Sam is prepping me so I can match the “Russian Kettlebell challenge certification Requirements” , so I use a session kettlebell of 24kg which is a basic standard for someone of my size 3

Time: between 5 – 10 mins, with under 5 mins without the Kettle bell touching the floor as the strict challenge (see details).

Details: The proper details of the challenge ( taken from) + the no set down rule:

Begin by getting into position, Hike-pass the kettlebell back and snatch it overhead in one movement, ending with a straight-arm lockout.
    • You may swing and change hands as much as needed
    • You may set the kettlebell down and rest as needed
Acceptable hand-coverings for the test include: tape, socks, Dragon Skins™, and minimalist gloves (i.e. cotton gardening gloves). You may use chalk and reapply it during the test, if needed. You may not use belts, thick or padded-gloves, wrist wraps or any other equipment designed to support your body.
No Count Criteria
    • Not locking out the elbows.
    • Rebending the knees on the way up.
    • Failure to stop all movement at the lockout.
    • Pressing out the kettlebell to finish your lockout.
    • Touching the chest with the working arm or passing through the rack position on the way down.
    • Placing a hand on the knee or thigh.
Failure (strict challenge)
Failure on the strict challenge will occur if:
    • You Touch the kettlebell with the non-working arm, unless you are switching hands.
    • You drop the kettlebell rather than setting it down with control (at the end).
    • You run out of time before completing the required number of reps.
    • You set down the kettlebell on the floor before the end.
Snatch Test Requirements:
For the snatch test, the sum of both arms is scored. There are different requirements based on gender and age group (Only the Open ones are listed here). They are as follows:

Men’s Open Class:

  • Up to 135 pounds     18kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-150 pounds       20kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 151-165 pounds       22kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 166-250 pounds       24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds     24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds (mad option) 28kg 100reps / 5 min

Women’s Open Class:

  • Up to 100 pounds     10kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 101-120 pounds       12kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 121-135 pounds       14kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-200 pounds       16kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds      16g 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds  (mad option) 18kg 100reps / 5 min

Acid bath

Details: The “Acid bath” is a standard fitness set which consists of the following:

For standards these all have to be done on the concept2 range of equipment.

Time: Men are supposed to do this under 6 minutes and Ladies under 7.

I monitor all of this with “Seconds Pro” as the best app to time it and here is the current set for you to use.

Progress and attempt times

This week was 12:28, the 100 kb snatches are still proving to be an issue to do solidly and correctly, there was a lot of puffing and panting and I have ripped my palm, I have moved to dry chalk over liquid chalk to save a bit of time, but its just going to be down to practice,

On the Acid Part of the test, I wasted about 10 seconds as I had not set up the machines properly (also I had put the bike out of camera shot), but the pace is settled, the SkiErg pace should be about 1:47/500 split, then the row should be 1:50 (so I can catch my breath), then go hell for leather on the bike.

The allocated times seem to be good, its just a case of actually hitting them.

  1. 20 Snatches Off hand (0:58)
  2. 20 Snatches On hand (0:58)
  3. 15 Snatches Off hand (0:43)
  4. 15 Snatches On hand (0:43)
  5. 10 Snatches Off hand (0:29)
  6. 10 Snatches On hand (0:29)
  7. 5 Snatches Off hand (0:15)
  8. 5 Snatches On hand (0:15)
  9. Transfer Over to Acid Test (10 seconds using the Kettle Bell time, 10 seconds using the Acid bath time) (0:20)
  10. 500m Ski Erg (1:55)
  11. 500m Row (1:55)
  12. 1km Bike Erg (2:00)

  1. , A Base goal of 11 minutes and a perfect goal of 10:30 seconds.[↩]
  2. Named after my fab PT Sam Bradley. [↩]
  3. The weight you would take into a class.[↩]

Corporate phrase: “To Align”

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Definition:

A recent euphemism used by project managers for “Have a meeting where I will try and organise any deliverables you might have, so that I get mine first”

Explanation:

Used in the context of a meeting or call: “Do you have 10 minutes so we can just align”.

This has replaced the more honest “To Prioritise”, and the more informal “To Catch-up” .

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

A Guide to Contractors 2022

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Now that I am doing far more permanent work but still working with contractors about 70% of my time. I feel I can write a decent guide on the different types of contractor you will come across. Its semi humorous, but the content is real and it affects how you have to manage and work with such people.

 

Serious consultant.

To me a Consultant is a definite term. They are somebody who you know by reputation or by experience, they are not hired in the boring sense, they are consulted and they are retained and often you have to tempt them away from what they are already doing. Obviously, from a HR and legal point of view, you treat them just like any other contractor. But they tend to arrive on your doorstep, up to speed and with a solid understanding of everything that’s going on, they may have even already worked in the company you are in, or at the very least had years and years of experience in the issues you are trying to solve.

They tend to be people with 15+ years of experience, or have even built the product you are working with. They seldom play corporate politics because it holds no interest and they are in it for the long term so don’t want any ill feelings to effect peoples opinion of their professionalism. After your job, there will be another job and reputation precedes them.

Their only downsides are the fact they tend to cost a lot (you get what you pay for), and seldom bend on this point if you are getting pressured from internal corporate sources i.e. “XX is too expensive, get them to cut their rate”, also they are often impersonated by people without the real skill sets.

Consultancy consultant

So this is a consultant you receive as part of a team provided by a larger consultancy (KPMG would be the example that leaps to mind) They tend to be really good and solid, however they often do not to have a consultant mindset. Yes, their company has a contract with you, but they see the work in a slightly different fashion, far more like a permanent member of staff. They will have greater loyalty to their own internal managers than you,  they get bored much easier, and they tend to think of things in terms of their own long term growth within their own company. So whereas with a professional consultant, if you hired them and paid them, they will do the same boring job for ages because they know that is the role they are paid for. consultancy consultants do not do this. They have to be treated to a certain extent, like a permanent staff member.

There is in addition one known issue with consultancy consultants, and that is training, Yes they will initially send you their best to get the business, but as soon as they can, they will swap out their top people to stock staff members, in addition any training they receive from your selves will become an asset they will sell on to the next suitable market and while this is the case with all contractors, its more noticeable with larger consultancies as they often have a more comprehensive appreciation of the market place and your competitors. I should point out here that there is nothing wrong with this practice, in fact it would be strange if they did not do both of these things as it would be detrimental to their business but it is something you should be aware of.

Agency contractors.

This is what I would class as a normal and standard contractor,  you send out a request to the agencies or even another sub consultancy to go fetch a certain skill set, you receive a short list, you review their CV, Then you pick the one(s) you want. There are good and bad ones. But they tend to be on the whole good because they’ve been in this job for years. I have been one of them and I’ve known good and bad, however they tend to be solid and dependable because they want to do the job for as long as they can. They’re in this for the money mainly. They tend to be a little bit on the cynical side as they have been kicked solidly by various governments for the last 20 or 30 years. And they do not trust a single person within your agency or company.

High Turnover Contractors

These tend to be contractors that you see for the lower end of the skill tree. But even that is being unfair because they come in various individual skill levels. You often see them in helpdesk support or fixed price development, Used by outsourcers from various countries. Their main characteristic is that they tend not to think of your work as a long term speciality skill. They are just good at something and you get them to do something similar, they will not stay in their current position for a career. One of the easiest way to identify them is when you have video calls, they will not turn on the video. They often don’t even log in under their own name. They often use accounts from previous users. They move in and out so fast that the normal setup and retention process simply does not apply to them. The best way of helping them is to make sure you have decent documentation. They are always very good at coming up to speed fast but if they are “put upon” they will retreat behind the letter of any statement of work or documentation. So make sure it’s clear and concise, However if I was honest I would say the best way to work together is to NOT treat them as disposable and not to just demand a never ending string of high priority things from them.

Conclusion

While I have categorised people into groups here, I did not do it as a way to discriminate between the types, but as a way to give you as a client the opportunity to find the best from each person you contract with, and to realise they all have ways in which they are the best solution to meet your needs.

Stress Tip No. 7 : Identifying and dealing with a fake holiday

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Dealing with “fake holidays”, From a stress point of view, fake holidays are an unusual occurrence and tend to happen only in multinational corporations, where you can have multiple regional or religious holidays that only affect one area or country. This means that while you’re away, the work just piles up at exactly the same rate as if you were there. Thus when you come back. you end up with exactly the same amount of work as if you had not taken the time off. But you have to do it in a shorter period of time, meaning that essentially the holiday is pointless because you’re even more frazzled than you were originally. It turns out that the solution to this is quite simple. You treat the holiday as if it’s a formal personal holiday. You prep people for it. You inform them and you behave as if it’s a hard paid time off, rather than merely an assumed holiday because the rest of your country/religion/group is taking it. The perfect example of this being implemented is in a lot of continental Europe. They have a lot of their public holidays on a Tuesday or a Thursday, and they tend to bridge them, so if they have them on a Tuesday, they take a Monday as paid time off. and then they inform everybody that they are taking both days off, this seems to work. People think of it in terms of a group of people taking paid time off, rather than a sudden surprise holiday that they haven’t catered for. That’s it. Treat them as if they are paid time off and not a generalised holiday, such as New Year or the Christian Christmas, and you will find less work piles up. Evil footnote: A useful side note to this situation is that this also helps you identify those who are not thinking in broader terms than just their part of the world. A good example is the recent Diwali holiday. This is as serious as Christmas or Ramadan. But you meet people who think of it in terms of only: “I wont get what I want from India today”, Such people are to be watched and encouraged to get up to speed.

Stress Tip No. 6 : When to mention the ‘B’ word

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The ‘B’ word in this case is Burnt-Out. now I am not an expert in this field in any way, Just experienced in seeing it in real life. I have seen genuine Burnout, I’ve seen fake Burnout, I’ve seen people well on the path to it, I’ve seen people recover from it if caught in time. But if you genuinely burn out, you are gone from that job or role. You just walk out the building, or you sit at your desk with tears rolling down your face while trying to take part in a meeting and not understanding why your shirt is wet, or worst of all you are completely zombified so you aren’t able to do anything but don’t even realise it.

Its not a mild thing. It’s serious. So if you are feeling under stress and under pressure, do not start by claiming you are Burnt-Out immediately. its not very likely, If you genuinely feel you are Burnt-Out then I would get professional help Immediately!. 

However, Burnout takes many many forms, and again, I’m not an expert. I’ve seen people Burn-Out fully in six months under very, very high pressure. I’ve seen people slowly Burn-Out after two decades and then decide to quit. quit the corporate world, move somewhere different and take up painting or Sheep herding 1.

But please don’t overuse the word, it makes it harder to find friends and colleagues that are in genuine danger, and means that Bosses/Clients/Employers become numb to it. If you feel yourself going past normal levels of exhaustion or stress 2, and you can feel the first inklings of what you think is Burn-Out. Then you might be starting to Burn, but you’re not actually Burnt-Out.

I feel that you get far more positive feedback from Managers/Employers/Clients if you say you are exhausted and need a break, and then explain that they will get you back at 100% if they work with you on this, also if you approach it this way they can stop it spreading in the team, as its rarely just one team member that is suffering, and someone might be far closer to full Burn-Out than you, but is suffering in silence, its in their interest to address it.

As the great Gimli son of Gloin once said.

“I must rest a little to run the better”

  1. Which is a hideously stressful Job in its self[↩]
  2. and Yes, I am aware that “normal levels of exhaustion or stress” is a terrible phrase, but this is the world we live in[↩]