This past Thursday the class focused on strikes. Now, it may come as a surprise to some of you, but I am not in the habit of going around and hitting people. It was an interesting psychological block to work though, which I am now thinking is very important. If I need to hit someone, I have a lot less qualms now. Granted, I have made it 40 years without having to hit anyone, and here’s hoping that continues. All the straight-wrist kettlebell training definitely kept in handy, but making the mental connection (intellectually of course it was already there) was a fun challenge. Needless to say I decided to do more bottom-up get-ups the next day.
Since I wanted to take my time with the reps, I chose a modest weight, the 10kg kettlebell. The handle is thicker than the 8kg, so there’s more to grasp, but the lighter weight allowed me to go super slow. I also wanted to get my heart rate up, so I added in some swings. Here’s the simple workout I did, which could be easily scaled up or down, or done for a longer time as well.
For the hand to hand (H2H) swings, I chose a fairly moderate weight – 16kg. Hand to hand swings are just what they sound like – they’re one hand swings, and the hands are switched at the top. I like to keep my mind engaged by sometimes spinning the kettlebell at the top of the swing, and sometimes not. If you’re just starting out, keep it simple, and do it outside where you can’t break stuff if the kettlebell goes flying.
The other thing with H2H swings is to make sure that you are fighting the temptation to twist at the waist. Keep the shoulders square and fight that rotation… at the rep ranges I have below, you may feel like you did some work with your obliques the next day. Woohoo! 🙂
I started out with joint mobility and a few crawling, cross-core coordination drills-and a get-up on each side without weight. Then it was time to get down to business:
I did 4 rounds of the following (go for 6 if you’ve got the time/energy/inclination!)
- One bottom-up 10kg kettlebell getup each side
- 50 16kg kettlebell H2H swings
- Short crow or straight arm plank (this is just to relax that grip!)
Four rounds add up quickly to 200 swings, which is a pretty decent number in a short period of time. Later that night I did many short sets of pull-ups since that’s the one movement pattern we don’t seem to hit and hit and hit and hit in class. And obviously, pull-ups are just way too fun. I continued with a cooldown composed of a few exercises, drills and mobility moves that will be featured in an upcoming blog elsewhere… stay tuned.
As soon as it stops raining in a few days, I want to make a bottom-up kettlebell get-up video for you!
In completely unrelated news, I finally managed to get myself a soldering station that I’ve wanted for a very long time, and then proceeded to livestream assembling a Velleman Minikit (hilarious little light seeking electronic "bug") while babbling on a number of topics. Skip ahead for the moment of truth… it’s always a little nervewracking assembling and soldering a kit together while livestreaming… then hoping it works once the batteries are installed!!
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