R8D18/19 – Doing The Basics Right And Bootcamp 3

Day 18 was an RKC workout. I was speaking with a coworker (and in fact some of my fitness class peeps) about the benefits of kettlebell work and it’s really weird. When you try to describe it, it doesn’t sound hard or even interesting but when you actually do the workout it is such a great whole body workout that it keeps you hooked. It’s a very basic motion, a very basic set of movements but as any great athlete knows, the best and most skilled athletes are the ones that have mastered the basics.

My kettlebell workouts now are exclusively with the 55lb bell and I got through the following:

34543 ladders of Clean and Press with pullups and 20 swings between each set
2x 3 rungs of snatches without pullups

I have to admit the snatches with the 55 were a bit daunting, and even though I was outside and able to just let go of the thing if it got out of control it was still pretty scary the first couple of times. I got through it though so I was pretty happy with myself. Next time will be 55555 ladders, that’s a long workout!

Wednesday was no name bootcamp day. We still haven’t really come up with a good name for it, and I have writers block…

The workout (now is the morning after) wasn’t that tough, even though it seemed difficult. I am not the least bit sore today which is a bit of a worry that we didn’t do enough to really work our legs. It’s odd, because it is mainly a leg workout so I thought I would be really feeling it this morning. That said, I find that lately I don’t get sore until right around 24 hours afterwards rather than the next morning so tonight I may be crying into my homemade sausages.

Yes, I made more sausages. This time with 60% pork, 40% beef and lots of spices including cumin and chili flakes with a little dijon mustard for juiciness. They are yummy, and I am so happy I can now eat guilt free sausages knowing exactly what’s in there!

Back to the workout:
Week 3
Short Tony Warmup and Stretch

x2
Squat with knee lift cross touch x8
Squat with 4 hamstring curls x8
Point work front side back x8
hip flexor burners up ext hold pulse 8’s

x2
In and out x25
full bicycle x20
full sit up x10
Laying pulse up to weak vsnap – 4 full 8 pulse x 4

x20 x2
step ups (arms on head)
step switch (arms on head)
box jumps ( arms on head)
Squat to box jump

Agility x2
two foot hops sideways over line length
over and tap length
hop full line each foot
over line with jump half turn x8

x2
Run stance squats 16x each side
Single leg squat to hop x8 each side
Lunge walk arms up 8 per side
Frog jumps x8

The following we skipped due to lack of time… Maybe that’s why I am not so tired.

x10x2
Squat hold arms out, reach touch knees with elbows
Squat hold arms out, reach touch opposite toe with hand
squat hold arms out, reach touch opposite knee with elbow
box floor to shelf 8x 2 each side

Level 1 Drills Expanded edition
x3
Burpee x4
Burpee 4 pushup x4
Burpee 4 pushup 8 run x4
Burpee 4 pushup 8 run 4 squat thrust x4

R4 D71 – Nice Turkish Get Up

For my North American pals, a get up is an outfit in English

I was planning to take today off, since the last 2 days of kettlebell exploration have left me sore in some curious places. I thought it would be a good idea to try the Turkish Get Up skill that so many people exalt as a wonderful full body exercise. I had toyed with the idea once before but shyed away from it due to the fact that I believed it would be an exercise in futility. After all, if I have trouble getting up after a burpee, why would this be any easier. Well, I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. The skill, although difficult given my large frame and small flexibility was eminently possible. In fact, I shocked and delighted

turkish_delight

(you knew that was coming) myself by being able to do both sides the first time I tried. It really is not that hard of a skill however, the work required to complete the skill is mind blowing. I had started out thinking that I was just going to see if I could do it and try to perfect my form however I ended up doing 3 sets of declining numbers:
2 sets of 3
2 sets of 2
2 sets of 1

This was done on each side giving a total rep count of 24 reps. Before I am accused of lying by omission I did not use my new 45lb KB for this, that would have been impossible and reckless, instead I used a 25lb DB from the basement and did the skill on the hardwood floor in front of the computer watching the demo. That is not something I would recommend, by the way. By the time I was finished, my body was well worked, I could tell that the core requirements for this skill are intense and that curiously the hardest part for me was not getting to my knees but standing from the kneeling position. I guess doing lunges with a weight overhead is not something I have done before. Also, I suppose if I had done overhead squats before now I would have had less of a challenge balancing a weight overhead as I try to move about. I added 5 sets of 5 pull ups just for fun since it feels like forever since I did pull ups and they felt great! The workout in all took about 25 minutes with rest and almost falling down. Long enough to cook sausages… 5 minutes Turkish, 5 minutes. By the way this short clip contains several of my favourite quotes from Snatch, most notably “Protection from what? Ze Germans?” but it is probably nsfw…