101 Kettlebell Workouts: 10 Away and 2 Left

...is call this "Why I love living in Los Angeles, California." Today I did my warm up, Super Joints and Qi Gong at the Malibu/Santa Monica border. By 9 am it was 72 degrees and pretty much stayed like that until I left. Following my warm up I drove a little down the coast to the old "Muscle Beach." If you can find a better place to train with Kettlebells, let me know. OK... if you can ignore a couple homeless folks who are probably in dire need of medication, an obnoxious film crew every now and again, and the occasional contact high from Snoop Junior, then it's an alright place. Frankly, I love it. It's a great vibe down there. Again, why wouldn't you train there under the sun and blue sky next to the beautiful Pacific Ocean?

Ok, nuff about that, we're talking Kettlebells here and if you're just tuning in, I am going through all one hundred and one workouts from David Whitley's book, 101 Kettlebell Workouts, which you can get over at irontamer.com. Today was number 10 in a series of 12 workouts for General Conditioning. Today's workout was nothing short of a smoker. It has been the highest volume so far and so in an attempt to keep the heart rate going, I tried to limit the rest down to a minute between sets.

So what got done? Well, I got done for sure. 30 Turkish Get Ups broken down into 3 sets of 5, alternating between left and right. In the past I'd done it using a 24kg Bell, but considering that I hap presses, squats, rows and swings and I wasn't looking to spend 45 minutes JUST on get ups, I decided to use a 16kg bell for the Get Ups. The advantage for me was really paying attention to the details of my form and I think the next time I'm doing these with a heavier bell I will all the more better for it. See, when you can relieve your mind of the "heavy" factor, you free up mental space to focus even more on the technique. Then when the technique is second nature, the extra weight is easier. Today I focused on the "press to elbow" and the "knee to half kneeling" part of the get up. If that looked like Greek to you, please visit DragonDoor.com and get yourself a copy of, ironically, Kalos Sthenos, Kettlebells From the Ground Up. You won't regret that purchase once you see what this book and DVD can and will do for you.

So after completing the Get Ups, I move on to the Clean and Press. Great drill. Really felt good after the TGUs (Turkish Get Ups). A Clean before each press has two main benefits. One, it allows you to reset yourself and your tension prior to each press and two, the Clean allows you to turn the bells inward on the downswing thus targeting and strengthening the rotator cuff. A nice little side benefit from the clean. TGU's and Cleans are great for should stability and strength in the press.

Coming up next was the Clean and Squat. This one, if you read my last blog, you'll recall was the hurt-so-good drill of the day. Happily, we enjoyed the pain once more. In fact, several hours post workout, we are still enjoying the pain. The thing that I wrestled with last time was I would clean with a wider stance to make room for the bells, then adjust my stance inward to squat. After completing the squat, I'd open up the stance to re-clean the bells, adjust the stance, squat, adjust, re-clean and so on and so forth. The slightly longer time under tension was a killer. Today I tried to clean and squat from one stance, which is the closer stance. There is no one perfect place for your feet when you squat. There is YOUR perfect place. Meaning, everyone needs to find their own sweet spot for squatting. So I did one clean, held the bells and looked for a spot where I could functionally and with good form, perform a clean and squat without having to adjust my feet. Once I got that spot and banished the visions of taking off a knee cap, I got to work. As I had mentioned a moment ago, I am still enjoying the pain. Keep in mind it is a good pain. Something akin to a Mellencamp song. Clean, brace yourself, pull yourself back into the squat, open the hips, elongate the spine, bottom out, no bouncing, drive with the heals, leave the neck out of the lift, squeeze the glutes at the top. Breathe. Repeat. Enjoy.

Double Rows again and that was a struggle. The struggle was to stick with the program and row instead of answering the call of the pull up bar 25 yards away. I like pull ups and miss doing them.

We finished off with Double Swings... or should I say Double Swings finished me off! Either way, a good time was had by all and I did get worked!

Today's lessons... whenever possible, train at or near the Ocean and stay in the moment. If the TGU has 7 steps or there's 8 things I need to do when I'm doing a Clean and Squat or what ever the drill, stay in the moment you're in. Zero in on what you are doing in that precise moment, pursue perfect technique and nothing else and you will soon find, all the other reasons you got into this in the first place coming to fruition.

Thanks for following along!

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