The people who train with me tend to be extremely motivated. This is good, I am encouraging of course, but I’m not a cheerleader. We don’t hand out trophies here all willy-nilly. Once in a while I’ll have a local client who will either show up with a high level of athleticism and/or really take to the training in a big way–then we keep training, but I offer a free “work out with me” session each week. This also helps keep me honest! HAHA!
It wasn’t 900 degrees out at 200 percent humidity, so I figured we’d get into some challenging territory this time. Both of us are about the same size and outside of pressing and pullups we’re pretty close in the strength department. Her endurance is much better than mine, but I can do more more pull-ups and heavier kettlebell presses. The goal is for both of us to continue improving, though I think her goal may be to do more pullups than me in a single set. Game on, my friend. Game on. I love having a workout partner again!
I brought out a large assortment of kettlebells and my 50′ Battling Rope! Generally for the swings and goblet squats we took turns using the 20kg, 22kg, and 24kg mainly because it’s fun to mix it up. For the snatches we chose RKC snatch test weight kettlebells.
Something NOT mentioned in the graphic above is the Battling Rope burnout at the end. We took turns egging each other on with different battling rope moves 8 times each for 20 seconds at FULL EFFORT level while the other held the anchor steady. We use a large, heavy tire (normally the one that gets flipped) to use as a moveable anchor. This is kinder to the backyard and allows one person to use the rope and the other to steady the upright tire…. and sometimes roll the tire towards them for extra difficulty. So if you’re up for extra credit, try that battling ropes burnout at the end – or go for a quick spin on the old fan bike 🙂
Here’s what we did:
Joint Mobility and Convict Conditioning Trifecta (bridge, l-sit, twist)
Then 4 rounds of:
- 25 medium heavy kettlebell swings (20kg, 22kg, or 24kg)
- 20 full range, standard push-ups (while egging each other on to do unbroken sets)
- 10 kettlebell goblet squats (trading the 20kg and 22kg kettlebells every other round)
- 15 tuck-ups (see end for video)
- Kettlebell snatches: 10/10 first and second rounds, then 8/8, 8/8, 6/6
After that was the battling rope fun time. There’s this one move I call the “thrash” which I’m sure has other names, but it kind of goes up then over to the other side back and forth. It’s a difficult one to keep doing for 20 seconds, but it’s fun to do when it takes your partner who’s holding the tire by surprise. Totally worth the effort!!!
We ended the session with joint mobility and plenty of water!!!
*Tuck-ups. I think these might be borrowed and/or mutated from Pilates? Anyway it’s bringing the upper body and the legs up from the mat at the same time. Side-note: sometimes I’ve seen guys that are a little top heavy have a hard time with these until given the cue “lift the chest first”. Opposite side-note: big booty folks may struggle to balance at the top of the move for a while, this is normal!
Let me know if you try this! 🙂
Leave a Reply