Couple things – I hope you all had a great weekend, and if or of you do or do not observe Super Bowl Sunday, that large “holiday” we have here in the states, I hope you made your weekend a healthy and happy one. I posted a link to a very simple bunless cheeseburger sliders recipe in hopes that I could help out.
Last night brought meatloaf inspiration in the form of a favorite basic cook book – Dr. Oetker’s German Cooking Today: The Original. Something I was tipped off to on a trip to a friend’s house in Wittenberg in 1997. Her Mom made the most incredible food, and kept marvelling at my ability to make it disappear. “Your friend is such a good eater!” she kept saying, and I was admittedly a little embarrassed, but I didn’t let that stop me. I made sure to help out with the dishes and other household chores during the visit. But her Mom’s standby was Dr. Oetker – many of the recipes were super basic, but emphasized food quality and freshness. This was also when tried kholrabi for the first time (look it up). Their house was set up in an amazing way – large hilly lawn out back, giant wine cellar underneath, huge open kitchen… and best of all – plenty of leftovers. In one short weekend I may have sampled most of what is considered traditional German Home Cooking. Anyway – this incredibly savory food isn’t that hard to make – you don’t have to make it complicated either. Some of it may have an “ick factor” to you if you’re unaccustomed to aspic and/or organ meats, but there’s no reason not to just skip to what you like. I also take it easy on the potatoes – if things get too starchy, I don’t handle it too well. Since I ate all the meatloaf as of lunch today, another one will be made within the next day or two – because you HAVE to try this recipe.
The meatloaf was made with Beyond Organic green fed ground beef of course – which reminds me I need to thaw more – AND I need to give you an important quick tip about this ground beef. When you thaw it in the fridge, be sure to place the package on a plate, or better yet – put it into a zip top bag. Sometimes the square corner of the packaging gets smacked in the freezer and a teeny tiny crack results – you can’t even see it and as the thawing process continues – you can side step any potential mess by thawing the package in a bag.
Yesterday, I really wanted the small group to work on their swings again – because well – we should ALWAYS be working to improve our kettlebell swings – and because start-stop aka “dead swings” are a great way to do this – they teach the importance of the often overlooked hike and deceleration at the end. Here’s what we did – which admittedly is the amagamation of 2 previous workouts – but another example of how you can adapt past programs to a new focus. They warmed up with joint mobility of course, got a mini talk about the importance of good form over number of reps (stop and take a break or “reset” if necessary.) We also had a variety of “moderate” kettlebells available so they could swap them to their best advantage – if I see you working with something too heavy or too light – you know how that goes – “HEYYYY I brought you a PRESENT!!”
3 Rounds of the following circuit:
- 1 minute 2 hand kettlebell swings
- 15-30sec rest/switch
- side plank right, 30 sec, side plank left 30sec
- 15 seconds switch
- Kettlebell rows right 30 seconds, left 30 seconds (advanced option: 1 minute renegade (aka plank) rows without pushup)
- 30-60 sec rest
grab water, take a short stroll but then it’s time for…
3 rounds of the next circuit:
- 30 sec kettlebell snatches right, 30 seconds kettlebell snatches left
- 30 seconds rest
- 30 seconds push ups
- 30 seconds rest/switch
- 30 seconds goblet squats
- 30 seconds rest
- Russian twist 30 seconds
- 30 seconds RKC style plank
- rest
Get more water, and don’t stroll too far – pick up a moderate to heavy kettlebell and grab a partner! It’s time for start stop swings, aka dead swings – discussed in more detail in my recap and adaptation of the Chicago RKC Grad Workout article.
Partner A does 1 dead swing, then partner B does one, Partner A does 2, partner B does 2, Partner A does 3, Partner B does 3. Then back to 1. We went for 4 rounds total. So everyone got plenty of practice and a balanced session.
We ended with joint mobility as always.
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