Tai Chi and Kettlebells

Yesterday was an active recovery day. Before work I did an Original Strength reset and a Founder. I felt good, but on my way to the office started feeling light headed and a bad headache. Think my BP was up. Went home and slept. Woke up feeling better and went to a 1.5 hour evening Yang style Tai Chi class.

Today feeling pretty good. Got up and did my normal kettlebell routine.

Warm Up Original Strength Reset

• Cross Crawl - 20 per side
• Crocodile Breathing - 2 minutes
• Head Nods - 20 reps
• Rolling - 4 reps left and right first leading w/ arms then legs
• Rocking - 20 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Wide Leg Founder 1

Simple and Sinister 

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 1 x 10 x 44 lbs.
• One Hand Kettlebells Swings 4 x 5L, 5R x 44lbs
• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 1 x 10 x 53 lbs.
• One Hand Kettlebells Swings 4 x 5L, 5R x 53lbs
• Turkish Get Ups 1 x 1 x 35 lbs. per side
• Turkish Get Ups 4 x 1 x 44 lbs. per side

Warm up 17:05. Kettlebells 20:09. It was warm this morning. I was slow on my get ups after the quicker sets of swings. I'm getting stronger though.

This evening another Tai Chi class, this time Chen style only an hour.

Unlocking Hip Flexors and Hamstrings

I've been dealing with a hip issue for a couple of years. My left hip is often painful, sometimes locks up and sometimes gives out. I got an email from Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat fame about the Unlock Your Hip Flexors program from the guys at Critical Bench. It was cheap, seemed targeted at my problem so I jumped on it. It included a bonus of Unlock Your Tight Hamstrings.

I worked through these two programs today. Some of the exercises and stretches were familiar but many were new to me. My hips, quads and hamstrings feel nice and loose. I can only hope that by making these two short routines, fifteen minutes total, part of my daily activity I'll improved the mobility and flexibility in these areas. BTW, exercises for abdominal region were included which proved to be the hardest for me as usual.

Also, now that I'm pretty much over a pretty bad cold or the flu I'm going to embark again on my quest to complete 300 kettlebell swings per day for 30 days.