Saturday Morning Kettlebells

Went to bed late. Slept in. Got started training late after a couple of cups of coffee, morning mobility and a little reading. Of course that means it was hotter than when I usually train by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

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 - 50 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings  6 x 10 x 53 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 53 lbs

Loaded Carries

• Waiter-Rack-Suitcase Carry with 44 lb Kettlebell (left then right)
• 2 x Farmer's Walk with 2 44 lb Kettlebells

As usual did an Original strength reset to warm up. I did more rocking than normal, with some extra stuff for both shoulders and hip flexors. Felt really good. Crawled farther than usual in the same three minutes. I should try some 4 point (hands and feet) crawling soon instead of the 6 point (hands, knees, & feet) crawling I've been doing. Total time 16:22.

Planned kettlebell practice today called for six sets each of swings and get ups. Stuck with that plan but decided to tack on some loaded carries at the end. I haven't done any of those since July 27th. Swings were easy. Get ups were going well. As I was completing my fourth rep my wife came out to take her car to the store so I had to move out of her way and pause for about 1.5 minutes. Then I got right back to it and finished strong. So, what was planned to take 13 minutes took about 14.5.

On to the carries after a two minute break. I started with my left hand. Went down the driveway in waiter's position, back up in rack position, then down and back in suitcase position. Repeated with my right hand. Then two rounds of farmer's walks with two 44s. I took one minute rest between each round of carries. So the total kettlebell time was 25:28. Met my step goal yesterday for the first time since the 27th.

Cloudy Cool Summer Morning Simple and Sinister

I ate three good meals and a snack yesterday. I went to bed early again, like 2115 or so. I did not get
in all my steps yesterday but more than I have for the last several days.

I got up this morning around 0630 but didn't get started training until just after 0800. This morning was partly cloudy and cool but with high humidity.











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 - 30 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings  10 x 10 x 53 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L x 1 x 53 lbs

Good warm up session. Consistent original strength resets seem to be helping my hip. It hurts some but not nearly as much as it was a couple of weeks ago. Warm up time was 14:37.

Kettlebell swings were crisp and strong. Felt really good today. I need to do a little more practice with one hand swings. Maybe the next 3 day cycle I'll drop back down to 44lbs and do all one hand swings for that 3 day cycle. Get ups were strong and solid w/ a couple of wobbles here and there but nothing major. I tell you what though, holding the 53 in full straight arm extension really works the triceps! My triceps were on fire by the 3rd or 4th pair of reps. Total kettlebell time 21:19. 

Morning Kettlebell Practice

I didn't train yesterday. I only got 5.5 hours of sleep so I wasn't ready to train. I also had decided to
fast yesterday, and I made it about 18 or 19 hours. Nice intermittent fast. Last night I got over 8 hours of sleep after a good dinner. I woke up ready to go today. It was cool this morning but decidedly higher humidity.













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 - 40 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings  8 x 10 x 53 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 53 lbs

Did the normal warm up. Felt good. Only took 13:38. Nice sweat going. Moved on to the kettlebell practice. Only did 8 sets today. Stayed with the 24kg (53 lb) kettlebell. Didn't do anything extra. Needed to get cleaned up and into work for a 1000 meeting. Kettlebell practice took 17 minutes per plan. I forgot to take off my shirt but I did train barefoot. I still have not gotten my goal number of steps since Thursday July 27th. Hopefully I'll get them in today.

Quick Kettlebell Practice

I didn't train yesterday. I only got six hours of sleep the night before. I trained hard the day before yesterday and didn't really feel up to it yesterday. I listened to my body. I ate two good meals, lunch and dinner. I was good to go this morning.

I didn't wear my Fitbit Blaze to bed last night, it needed a charge. So, I don't have an exact measurement of my sleep last night. I estimate I got between 7 and 8 hours of sleep. Like I said, I felt very good when I got up this morning. The weather is awesome...and strange. The low last night was 66°F and the humidity this morning was only 39%. This made for super comfortable training conditions. I trained barefoot and shirtless as normal.

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

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings  6 x 10 x 53 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups R, L, R, L, R, L x 1 x 53 lbs

I'm still going to cycle my training for now as follows 10 sets day one, 6 sets day two, 8 sets day three, then repeat. Taking rest days as appropriate of course. Today was a 6 set day. That came in handy as I had an 0900 meeting today for work.

Warm up was as usual, nothing extra. Just enough to get a light sweat going, muscles & joints warm and flexible. Total time 13:49. Kettlebell practice was short and sweet. Nothing much to say, felt good. Total time 13:54. I've not been getting my steps in everyday since I went on vacation. I'll make a more concerted effort to do so from today on.

Six Days of Simple and Sinister

Was feeling slugging this morning. Did my morning mobility routine. Slowly made my way down to the beach after breakfast and eventually got started on my training.

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 - 40 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings  8 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Warm up was normal felt less sluggish afterward. Good enough to do my kettlebell practice. Warm up time was 13:25. And boy was it hot as I didn't get started training until 1135.

Today I did 80% S&S, 8 sets of 10 swings and 8 get ups. Didn't feel to bad. I thought I would be a lot more sore after the kayaking yesterday, but I guess my off again on again kettlebell practice has built some resiliency in my muscles. Felt good. Total kettlebell time was 17:00.

I didn't do any extra cool down. No loaded carries other than carrying my kettlebell to the beach and back. I did of course jump in the ocean and cool down. Good day.

Kayaking and Kettlebells

Got up a little later this morning. Did my morning mobility routine. Then after breakfast we went kayaking on Shem Creek. When we started out I quickly realized just how pre-exhausted my hands, forearms and shoulders were from my daily kettlebell routine. But once I got going, got warmed up everything felt okay. We spent about two hours on the water. It was fun. We saw lots of water birds and a dolphin. Unfortunately we didn't see any manatees this time. I drank about 1.2 liters of water while we were out.

After we got back to the beach house I drank a couple of small Gatorades and more water and headed to the beach carrying my kettlebell, a chair, towel and my string bag w/ a book and my electronics.

It was early afternoon and getting hotter but there was still some good cloud cover. After sitting and watching the waves for a while I got started with my Original Strength warm up and kettlebell practice.

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 - 40 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• One Hand Kettlebell Swings  L, R, L, R, L, R x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Finisher

• Waiter Walk - Rack Carry - Suitcase Carry 30 secs, 30 secs, 1 minute, rest 30 secs, repeat series w/ other hand

I did my warm up. Felt good. Of course I was covered in sand by the time I was done rolling and crawling. Nobody came up and asked me what I was doing like they did on Tuesday, though of course I drew funny looks. Total warm up time was 12:46.

Today was a 60% Simple and Sinister day. I decided to do all my swings today one handed. It worked well even though my arms, shoulders and lats had been worked thoroughly by the kayaking. In fact the swings felt really good. Screwed my feet into the sand and no hip or knee pain. The getups we solid. No wobbling, no stumbling, no slipping even though I was in the sand. After I completed the getups, I was so hot and sand covered that I stopped my timer and went into the ocean for a few minutes. Total time was 12:41.

After I got out of the water, I dried off and sat and watched people and waves for a few minutes. Then I did my loaded carries. I started with my left hand and walked away from my chair for 30 seconds in the waiter position, dropped down to front rack for 30 seconds, then suitcase carry for 60 seconds. I rested for 30 seconds, picked up the bell with my right hand then walked back to my chair using the same sequence of positions. I sat and rested for about 2 minutes or so, then did another series left hand then right hand. I didn't make it quite as far down the beach the second time, but I was close. Total time for the carrying was about 11 minutes.

Then I jumped back into the water! The water was nice. The tide was way out, the waves were gentle. I just floated and swam and floated and swam. Wonderful way to end my training.

Raining 60 Percent Simple and Sinister

Got up reasonably early today. It was cloudy. Had a couple or three cups of coffee, did my 5 minutes of morning mobility. Gathered my stuff to walk over to the beach, including my kettlebell, and it started raining. Boo! But I needed to get in my training, so I just went under the house and worked out there.

Brian Friedman's: Kettlebell Technique Yoga Flow

• Mountain
• Extended Arms Mountain
• Half Forward Bend
• High Push Up Position
• Locust
• Downward Dog
• Half Forward Bend
• Mountain

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 6 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, x 1 x 44 lbs

The floor underneath the house is concrete of course. I didn't want to crawl around on the concrete, so I did a yoga flow to warm up instead of an Original Strength Reset. It is good to mix up my warm up from time to time to make sure I'm hitting all my bodyparts slightly differently while making sure to address the specific areas I'll be training. I did three rounds of the flow, total time 09:52.

In the interest of not flaring up my hip too much and generally staying healthy I back off my sets from 10 to 6, thus the 60%. Felt pretty good. Didn't bring my yoga mat and didn't bother looking for anyone else's mat, just put a towel down to cushion my knees for the getups. I was sweating pretty heavily at the end, even with the reduced sets, due to the work and the heavy humidity. Total kettlebell time 13:47.

Got in a little more than 8K steps yesterday. Did some rolling on my big pvc pipe and extra stretching as well.

Simple and Sinister at the Beach

It's been a few days since my last kettlbell session. My darn hip flared up again. Plus I was on call this week and didn't get adequate sleep. Yesterday I got in over 13K steps. A chunk of that was moving my younger son out of the South Carolina Governor's School of Arts and Humanities. Another big chunk of that was cutting the front yard before we left to drive from Greenville to Isle of Palms.

But today, we're on vacation! We're at the beach! Got up early and hit the beach with my kettlebell. Felt good to be out in the ocean breeze, bright sunshine and sand getting my kettlebell practice on.

Warmed up with an 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 - 40 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 10 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

I did extra rocking for my shoulders and hips during the Original Strength reset. I also paid more attention to stretching my hips while rolling. Overall it was a good warm up. I had done my normal morning joint mobility while the coffee was brewing before I went down to the beach. Warm up time 14:05.

I did my normal kettlebell routine. My hip twinged a little bit during swings but not bad. Like I've said before, it will hurt whether I train or not, so I might as well train. Get ups felt pretty solid, but I was pretty close to being smoked at the 7th rep. I made it through though. Total kettlebell time 21:12.

And once I was done with my kettlebell practice I walked into the ocean and cooled off with a little swimming. It felt magnificent! I'm going to figure out a way to start every day like this. Oh, and of course I trained barefoot and shirtless. And yes people were looking at me like I was off my rocker, but I didn't care. I just happily did my thing!

More and Less Kettlebells

Probably like most modern folk I occasionally get caught up in the "more is better" trap. Such has been the case with my addition of loaded carries at the end of my Simple and Sinister practice. I was trying to do them every day or nearly every day even as I was building up my sets to get to all 10 sets of swings and all 10 turkish get ups as prescribed. Not a good idea.

Case in point my training on Saturday, I did 80% Simple and Sinister in 17 minutes then did carries for another 23 minutes! Of course there were some breaks between "sets" of carrying the kettlebells down the and back my driveway. That is a lot of extra work and I paid for it with a very painful hip on Sunday which led me to skip kettlebells as I could hardly walk. I did some active recovery by swimming instead which helped a great deal.

Today I only did simple and sinister, the entire 10 sets of swings and 10 get ups.


Warmed up with an 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 - 30 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 10 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

So, did my normal OS Reset. No added anything. I was sweating hard when I finished crawling out in the grass under the sun. Which made me nice and warm and ready for the work to come. Total time 13:39. Oh, and I actually got started before 0800 at 0751! Maybe tomorrow I can move that start time 10 minutes earlier.

As noted above I stepped up to 10 sets of swings and 10 sets of get ups. I'm still doing the swings 2 handed for now. My hip twinged a little but it's gonna hurt whether I train or not so I might as well train as long as it's not super painful. I also felt a little twinge in the outside of my left knee on the first get up. I think it was because I didn't have my foot placed properly. Paid more attention in subsequent reps and it was okay thereafter. No extra carrying today! Total time 20:44.

Red Tailed Hawks and Kettlebells

So another perk of training outside is to either be lying on your back preparing to do a get up or doing  some weighted carries and see a red tailed circling overhead. That's freaking cool. Not something that you'll experience when you're training inside a big box gym or even inside your own in house gym. This has happened to me a couple of times. Today as I was doing finishing get ups I noticed the shadow of a hawk in my driveway. As I started my carries it circled over again and I watched it as much as I could. Of course since I was training so I couldn't take a picture. So, the included picture is from the US Forest Service. 

Warmed up with an 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 - 30 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Hip Bridges 5 reps

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 8 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Finisher

• 2 x Waiter-Rack-Suitcase Carry with 25-25-44 lb Kettlebell
• 2 x Farmer's Walk with 2 44 lb Kettlebells

The warm up was fine. I did a little extra rocking coming up to a tall kneeling position and full hip extension and opening up my hip flexors. I also did some extra hip bridges, I just felt like I needed it. Total warm up time 16:18.

Kettlebell practice was as normal. Swings were EMOM. I was a little wobbly on the first rep of getups but then I got solid thereafter. I finished my 80% S&S in 17 minutes as planned.

I rested a bit and then started doing some loaded carries. I had listened to an episode of the Everyday Athlete Podcast in which I was reminded that the waiter walk carry is really supposed to be with the bell held bottoms up. Therefore I had to sacrifice weight and do the waiter's walks and rack walks w/ a 25lb. Then I picked up a 44 for the suitcase carries. Waiter down, rack back, suitcase down and back left handed, switch hands and repeat. Rest a bit, repeat both hands. Rest a bit then farmer's walks w/ 44's down and back. Rest a bit. Repeat. Total kettlebell time 40:45.

I think I did a little bit too much on the carries. It was hot. When I was done and cooled off all I wanted to do was shower, eat and take a nap. I did the first two and was revived enough to skip the nap as I'm finally going to go see Wonder Woman! 

I did not get my steps in yesterday. I was just under 7K and my current goal is 8k. And I didn't do any kettlebell practice yesterday either, I let it be a recovery day after three straight days of training. I know S&S is supposed to be daily practice but I'm 51 years old and need to work back up to that, also my left hip seems to need a break every few days.

Summer Sweat Angels

Third day in a row of training. I've got to go to bed earlier and get up earlier so I can train and get to
work earlier. I did get up at 0627 and did my normal 5 minutes of mobility and an additional 5 minutes of walking. However, I didn't get outside to start training until 0827. I should have gotten out there at 0727.

Warmed up with an 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 - 40 reps
• Crawling - 3 minutes

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 8 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Warm up was pretty much as normal except I did some extra rocking targeting shoulder health. I didn't do any extra calisthenics. Warm up took 13:36.

Did normal S&S. Swings were fine. I got wobbly on the last get up with my left hand. I had to reposition myself twice to make it through the rep. I don't recall being unstable with my right hand. I also manage to get through the get ups in 8 minutes, which is the prescribed 1 minute per rep. 

I chose not to do any loaded carries because I swam last night and my core was pretty twitchy last night. Also, I had to get myself ready for a meeting at 1000. Total kettlebell time 17 minutes. Also, I got in over 10K steps yesterday.

Daily Muscle Top Off

One of the principle of Simple and Sinister is to do a "daily top off" of the muscles. The daily training builds resilience in the muscles. Adhering to the daily, or near daily, training schedule makes your muscles almost soreness proof. The program doesn't require max efforts but you'll also get stronger.

Warmed up with an 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

Supersets of Australian Pull Ups and Push Ups 2 x 6, 5

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 8 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Finisher

• Farmer's Walk with 2 44 lb Kettlebells

The warm up was good. Took my time with all the resets. Tried to really stretch my hips when rolling. Once I was done with the original strength part I did two supersets of Aussie pull ups and push ups. I increased the reps in the 2nd set from 4 to 5 as compared to last time I did these. Total time 17:25.

Once again I did 80% of the sets for S&S. My left hip was a little sore this morning when I started the swings. But by about the 4th set or so I was fine. I was a little wobbly on the 2nd left handed get up. But the rest seemed solid. The swings were EMOM. I took a little longer than the allotted 10 minutes to do the get ups. Finished S&S in 17:30. 

Having learned my lesson on trying to do the Waiter-Front Rack-Suitcase walks after the extra shoulder work of the Aussie pull ups and push ups, I skipped that series of carries today. After about a 2.5 minute rest from S&S, I just did down and back of the farmer walk, rested a minute and repeated. Kettlebell work done in 23:32.

I actually got in over 10K steps yesterday! I also completed a 24 hour fast.

Do I Own the 44 Pound Kettlebell Getup

Do I own the 44 pound (20 kilogram) kettlebell get up? Meaning have I completely mastered it so I can move up to the 53 pound (24 kilogram) kettlebell? Not yet. I'll explain more toward the end of this post.

Warmed up with an Original Strength Reset

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

Supersets of Australian Pull Ups and Push Ups 2 x 6, 4

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 6 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Finisher

• Waiter Carry with 44 lb Kettlebell
• Farmer's Walk with 2 44 lb Kettlebells

So, after the warm up of an OS Reset I decided to throw in a couple of supersets of Australian Pull Ups and Push Ups. Kept the reps low since I haven't done either move in quite some time. Felt good though. Total warm up time including the supersets was 18:00 minutes.

On to the kettlebell practice. Swings were fine. Did six sets of 10 reps EMOM. On the getups I decided to see if I "owned" the 44 lb kettlebell. One method of doing this is to see if you can do press the kettlebell at each of the intermediate positions of get up. I could not keep my balance and press the kettlebell when posted to my hand while half kneeling. Every other position was fine, so I'm close as far as that test goes.

However, those extra presses plus the APU/PU supersets fried my shoulders. I could only make it halfway down the driveway during my waiter walk before I had to put the bell down. I tried ot rack carry back up after finishing the waiter walk but my shoulder was just gone. I switched form my left hand to my right and waiter walked back to my starting point. Since my shoulders were done, and since I was running out of time I didn't try any more single arm carries, I just did one down and back of farmer's carries and called it a day. Total kettlebell time 15:46. 

Outdoor Training Is Fun(ctional)

Felt a little stiff and sore this morning, particularly the left hip as usual but put my workout clothes on as soon as I got out of bed. Did my five minutes of joint mobility and five minutes of walking while the coffee was brewing and that made me feel better. After some coffee, etc. got outside to start training around 0830.

Warmed up with an Original Strength Reset

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

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 5 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

Finisher

• Waiter-Rack-Suitcase Carry with 44 lb Kettlebell
• Farmer's Walk with 2 44 lb Kettlebells

The OS reset felt good. When I was rolling I could feel the tightness and some pain in my left hip. The rocking and crawling helped more. Took 11:52 for the warm up.

Swings were easy. Get ups felt good. Took a little longer on the get ups. Planned to take 13 minutes for S&S, took about 14. Then took about another 9 minutes to do my carries. I decided to not do the waiter walk with the kettlebell in the bottoms up position but rather to use a heavier weight. Total kettlebell time 22.56. Got my steps in yesterday, too.

So the fun(ctional) part of outdoor training. You get fresh air. You get sunshine. You train on possible uneven surfaces. It's not climate controlled so you have to adapt to heat & humidity or cold. Once upon a time, homo sapiens spent their entire lives outside. Now we spend the majority of our lives inside with little exposure to the elements.

Barefoot Shirtless 1/2 Simple & Sinister

My hip was pretty sore yesterday. I didn't get up early enough to train before work and thought it was better once I got home with my sore hip to just wait until this morning. So that's what I did.

Warmed up with an Original Strength Reset

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

Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 5 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

As usual I worked out outside and barefoot. I got started just before 0800 and it was already hot. Once I finished my warm up I took off my shirt and did my kettlebell routine out in the driveway in the sun instead of in the shady carport. I realized I've hardly been shirtless out in the sun at all this summer and it's already July!

Anyway, the session was good. Really sweaty. Felt like I could do the whole 10 sets of swings when I finished the 5 but made myself stick with the plan. I don't want to over do it and set myself back another month. Warm up time 12:38, kettlebell time 12:50. Got all my steps in the last two days.

I forgot to add that after I stopped timing my kettlebell work I did a few carries. I took the 20 kilo bells down to the end of the driveway and back in a farmer's carry. Then I took a 12 kilo bell and did waiter walk - rack walk - suitcase carry combo with each arm. Nice little finisher. I was going to try that last bit with the 16 kilo bell but I didn't think I could stabilize the it in the bottoms up position for waiter walks. I'll have to work on that.

Armor Building EMOM

Got up this morning at about 0645 and immediately put on my workout gear. Went up to the kitchen and put on the coffee. While the coffee was brewing I did five minutes of mobility work based on Scott Sonnon's Intu-Flow. Then I walked around the driveway for about five minutes, came inside and drank a big glass of water then got my coffee.

As I was drinking my coffee I did some reading and put a load of laundry in the washing machine. I also played a bunch of games of Ruzzle and Words w/ Friends on my phone. I eventually got outside for some kettlebell practice at 0830! Got to move faster in the morning, stop playing those games!

Warmed up with an Original Strength Reset

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

Kettlebell Practice EMOM 12 with a pair of 35 pound kettlebells

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

Warm up was good. I haven't done a full Original Strength reset in a couple of weeks. Felt even better because of the earlier mobility work I had done. Crawling got me sweating and ready for the work to come. Warm up time was 10:17.

I intended to do EMOM 20 but I got confused and thought I had an 0900 meeting this morning for work. So, set my EMOM for 12 minutes so considering my late start I could finish in time to dial into the meeting.

Man! Doing this Armor Building EMOM fashion was tough! I don't think I could have made a whole 20 minutes! At most I would have made 15 minutes. I had to lay out on the ground for a minute to catch my breath. I was really still breathing hard when I was done but I forced myself up to make my phantom meeting, LOL! So, obviously, total kettlebell time was 12 minutes.

Also, I was getting sore last night so I did some rolling on my large PVC pipe (my cheap foam rollers tend to smash down under my 240+ pound weight), stretching and mobility to alleviate the soreness. Worked like a charm. And I exceeded my current 7K step goal w/ 7915 steps.

Yoga and Kettlebells

Since I wasn't too sore today, I decided to restart my Simple and Sinister training today. I messed around and didn't train until early evening. I warmed up with Brian Friedman's yoga flow for kettlebells. Then got right into the kettlebell training.


Simple and Sinister

• Two Hand Kettlebell Swings 10 x 10 x 44 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R x 1 x 44 lbs

I did the swings EMOM fashion. After not doing swings for a month or better, doing 10 swings in 15

seconds and taking 45 seconds rest got me me breathing hard and got a good sweat going. Felt good overall. Then on to the get ups after a full minute of rest.

I had to remind myself that I don't need to make the time requirements for Simple and Sinister every workout. For swings that is 100 swings in five minutes. I clearly didn't do that since I did 10 swings every minute. But I usually push myself to complete the 10 total get ups in 10 minutes as required. Today I let myself breathe more between reps so it took me 11:23 to complete the get ups. Warm up time was 10:49 to go through the yoga flow three times. Total kettlebell time 22:23.

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. 

Day 7 of Rdella Training 21 Day Turkish Getup Challenge

I missed some time due to hip pain again! Spent a week just getting up and doing five minutes of mobility everyday and just trying to walk a decent amount. This past seven days I've been doing that five minutes of mobility and then doing Scott Iardella's 21 Day Turkish Getup Challenge.

Yesterday and today I did an Original Strength reset and then on to the get ups. Today, in between the reset and the get ups I did an armbar per side and the McGill Big three.

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

1 Arm Bar per side, 1 minute each w/ 25 lbs.

McGill Big Three

• Curl Up 6x10 secs each, 4x10 secs each, 2x10 secs each
• Side Plank 6x10 secs each per side, 4x10 secs each per side, 2x10 secs each per side
• Bird Dog 6x10 secs each per side, 4x10 secs each per side, 2x10 secs each per side

Turkish Get Up R, L, R, L x 25 lbs. 

Total time was 41:34. That seems like a really long time for the amount of work I did but maybe it's right.

Cool Spring Evening Sweat Angels

I took a couple of days off because of work and family responsibilites plus my hip was hurting. I think I should probably only do two days of S&S in a row, at least for now.

Today, I didn't get up early enough to train before work. Was too hungry to train at lunch time. Decided to
train while Miles was at lacrosse practice but went down a "rabbit hole" for work and ran out of time. Once I returned from picking him up I got to it.

It was kinda' cool after all the rain of the last couple of days. Guess a cold front came through. It was still pleasant but I managed to leave a little sweat angel when I finished working out.

Performance Preparation

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

1 Arm Bar per side, 1 minute each w/ 25 lbs.

McGill Big Three

• Bird Dog
• Rolling Plank
• Curl Up

Simple and Sinister

• One Hand Kettlebell Swings R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L x 10 x 35 lbs
• Turkish Get Ups R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L x 1 x 25 lbs

Warm up was good. Nothing much changed since last time though I did do the arm bar before core work. Felt good and ready to go on to kettlebell practice. Total warm up time  21:06.

Swings were pretty good. Hip hust a little bit but not too bad. Good form. My get ups were mostly garbage. Wobbling here and there. Moving too fast at times. Not keeping my elbow locked out on the arm holding the kettlebell. Just garbage. I think I got it back together for the last two maybe. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Total kettlebell time 16:46.