Cool Shirtless and Barefoot Kettlebell Practice

Working from home again today which let me get my kettlebell practice in around midday. It is unseasonably cool but sunny with a breeze. I almost always train barefoot or in one of my several pairs of Vibram FiveFingers. Today was barefoot. I also found a sunny spot and got shirtless to get a little extra vitamin D.

I was scheduled to do this training session yesterday, but was feeling unusually sluggish and sore still. Mostly my hip from the walk on Sunday. It pays to listen to my body, especially as I get older.

Movement Prep Giant Sets

1. Assisted Squats 3x5
2. Hip Bridge(Raise) 3x5 
3. Kettlebell Halo 3x5 per direction 35lbs.

Plank 30 secs, 15 secs, 15 secs

8/10 Simple and Sinister

• One Hand Swings 8x10x16kg
• Get Ups 8x1x16kg

Cool Down Stretching Super Sets

• 90/90 Stretch 3x30 seconds per side
• QL Straddle Stretch 3x30 seconds per side

I keep forgetting to do my planks after the kettlebell practice so I moved them to the end of movement prep. I was nice and warm after giant sets of movement prep. What was sore felt better. I was nice and loose. Ready to go. It took 11:48 including planks.

As noted I built more time into the sets of swings and get ups to make this more a practice than test. It was still enough work quickly enough to get my heart rate elevated and a good sweat. Swings felt good and powerful. Get ups were solid. Less pain in my hip. Kettlebell practice took 26:16.

Then the cooldown of S&S recommended stretches. These are the most difficult and obviously most needed part of the routine for me, these and squats. I'll start doing goblet squats soon. Need to work on ankle and hip mobility. Cool down took 8:00. Tomorrow I will do a longish walk.

Armor Building Grease the Groove

After I finished 21 days of get ups, I took a couple of days off which turned into a week. As I've been watching the Crossfit Games Regional competitions this weekend I figured I should get back to my own fitness and not just watch other people displaying their fitness. So, yesterday, as I was grilling I decided to do a version of Dan John's Armor Building kettlebell complex. Basically every time I walked out to the grill to check on the meat I was smoking I did one or two rounds of the following with a pair of 35 pound kettlebells.

• 2 reps Clean
• 1 rep Press
• 3 reps Front Squat

By the time I finished grilling I had accumulated 20 rounds! That's a total of 40 cleans, 20 presses and 60 squats. Pretty good considering I had never done this complex before. I figured I would be extremely sore today since I haven't done those movements in forever. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I was hardly sore at all. I attribute the lack of soreness to those 21 days of get ups.

The Grease the Groove part is that I did all this work in little segments spread over many hours. I got this concept from Pavel Tsatsouline. The next time I do Armor Building I think I'll do it Every Minute On the Minute (EMOM) for 15 or 20 minutes. If I can do 20 minutes with good form, I think I'll then try to see how many rounds I can do without putting the kettlebell down at all.