Simple and Sinister Day 4 - 20151206

It was a beautiful, cool Sunday morning. I got outside around 0930, sat in the sun and read the first 50 pages of Death by Food Pyramid while drinking my last cup of coffee. What a book. It is non-fiction, heavily researched and footnoted but reads like a who-done-it page turner. While I was outside some geese came in for a landing in the pond behind my house.

Eventually I got around to exercising out in the sun beginning with an Original Strength reset.

Pressed Reset

• Cross Crawl 20 reps
• Diaphragmatic Breathing 2 minutes
• Head Nods 20 reps
• Segmented rolls 3 reps each direction led by each limb
• Rocking 20 reps
• Baby Crawl 2 minutes

Then I proceeded to the Simple and Sinister warm up and working sets.

 

Warm Up 3 circuits 5 reps each exercise

• Deep, assisted, prying squats
• Hip Bridges
• Light Kettlebell Halo
• Bird dogs

The Practice

• Kettlebell Swings 5 x 10 x 35#, 35#, 53#, 53#, 35#
• Turkish Get Ups 5 x 1 x 35# (per side)

I actually did the OS reset outside for the first time. Nice to have enough room to do three rolls in a row. It was also fun to crawl in the grass.  It is quite interesting how good these simple movements make me feel.

The prying squats are kinda' tough on my left hip. I can only hope the hip will get better as I continue to train and lose weight. The bird dogs are my addition to the warm up. I got the idea of using the bird dogs as part of a warm for a kettlebell swing routine from The Four Hour Body.

I stuck with the same weight pattern as yesterday on the swings. After the 53# swings the 35# in the last set felt like a feather! I think I'll step up to 53# on the last set tomorrow. I was much more focused for all 5 sets of swings. No loss of balance, no loose core. I easily finished 50 swings in 5 minutes. After a one minute break I moved on to the get ups.

Yesterday I watched The Hip Hinge Position in the Get-Up on the Strong First youtube channel. I incorporated the correction the instructor detailed in the video. It is definitely better than "flopping" onto my hand when returning to the ground. I just barely finished the get ups in the prescribed ten minutes.

It was so nice and I felt so good that I couldn't resist doing a little more work. I did Dan John's Waiter Walk-Front Rack Walk-Suitcase Walk up and down my driveway (waiter down, front rack up, suitcase down and up) first with my right hand then my left hand. I only used a 25# kettlebell. I followed it up with a farmers carry walk with 44# kettlebells in each hand down and back.