First off, if you haven’t already checked it out, Explosive Calisthenics (sometimes referred to by enthusiasts and superfans as Convict Conditioning Vol 3) is now out in both paperback and eBook form! While the eBook might be convenient in some ways, like the fact that you wouldn’t need to wait on or pay for shipping, the paperback is just really a while lot of fun. It’s a full color large format book just like the original Convict Conditioning, and Vol 2 and chock full of inspiring photos of the progressions to some of the most impressive bodyweight skills on the planet… including several that scare the heck out of me (back flip, front flip!). No disrespect to anyone, but the back flip and front flip guys probably impress me the most out of anyone pictured in the book. You’ll even find a couple of photos of some people in there you may recognize as well! But as we all know, while the photos may be cool, the info is what we’re after and that is in this book by the TRUCKLOAD!
The other fun item to share today is an article and bodyweight workout featured in Experience Life Magazine – Jen Sinkler wrote the article and she quotes the Kavadlo bros and myself in it – AND there’s a bodyweight workout with little pictures that you can do this weekend. (Let me know how it goes).
In othr news, some of you may have already seen this on Instagram, but I’m reviewing the new SKULPT Aim and will be detailing my findings for you. Had no idea how many people were curious about this curious device, but I will have tons of answers to your tons of questions very soon. Explained how it functions to fellow kettlebell instructor and unofficial big brother, Tim Shuman at lunch today (I delivered his bike rack to him and he bought me lunch. Fair deal!) The Winter Park Spring Art Festival is going on this weekend, and all is chaos. On his side of town the Arnold Palmer is happening and all is chaos. The plan for the weekend is to park the car, leave the car parked and just go places with my shiny new Trideck because the traffic is insane and so is everyone it seems.
Getting antsy? I picked out three of the heaviest kettlebells I own along with three moderate ones and met up with a friend yesterday for a weird little circuit you might want to try. Depending on where you’re at on your journey, these weights can of course all be adjusted as in how you define “heavy” and how you define “moderate”
Here’s what we did:
A pretty serious joint mobility warm up because…
(all kettlebell swings today were regular but intense 2 hand variety!)
- 20 swings with 18kg kettlebell
- 10 swings with 32kg kettlebell
- 20 swings with 20kg kettlebell
- 10 swings with 40kg kettlebell
- 20 swings with 24kg kettlebell
- 20 swings with 48kg kettlebell
Q: But Adrienne, you’re kinda small to be swinging something that heavy without leaning back to counterbalance it, what’s the deal?
A: It’s super important to use the BEST of form when swinging heavy kettlebells, so what I do is to just not worry about how high the kettlebell goes. It may eventually get higher and higher up, but I don’t try to get it there from the start. Because a 130lb person like myself can be pulled into the orbit of a 106lb kettlebell if I’m not careful.
After that we decided to do some pressing….
Max (sane reps) military press with the 24kg (for me on a “meh” day like yesterday that meant one on each side… but thats ok I made up for it later), 20kg, then 18kg. We of course took decent rests between each set. After some water we finished up with a total of 10 presses on each side with the 18kg with the strictest of form.
THEN some “ab” work. On the paralettes or on the ground we held an L-sit until it was no longer an L-sit then did 3 pump stretches and then 10 swings (with any kettlebell we chose… and we chose the lighter 20kg and 24kg ones, I am not ashamed to admit!)
We both finished up with some extra joint mobility moves for a cool down with our minds on dinner!
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