Category Archives: Workout

Apparently… I Mean Obviously I Lack Grip Strength

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The title says it all.

As mentioned in the last post, the 32 kg kettlebell sent me back to square one and then a bit further down.

I tried the Easy 30 Kettlebell workout from liftkettlebells.com and failed miserably. 🙁

I haven’t been doing ballistic moves for more then 2 months, just the TGUs with some bodyweight thrown in. I am out of proper form and more importantly my support grip strength is not up to the task of holding or moving the 32 kg kettlebell.

With the TGU you can have some of the weight rest on your forearm and you hold it still. Whereas with almost all the moves in the Easy 30 the kettlebell moves as well.

I decided that I go all the way back to the very basics as I barely manage 30 seconds of swings single handed  don’t even ask me about snatches 🙁

I am also in the search for supportive moves to improve my grip strength as without that nothing goes and using things like wrist supports feels like cheating to me.

But I do have decided to cheat on another area until I get the strength up: Supplements

Yes I will resume using L-Carnitine right before training, whey protein right after and Multivitamins daily for a short period of time until I’m comfortable again. I know its cheating your energy levels up and I still stand my ground that in the long run supplements are the wolf in sheep skin but this helped to get started with the 16 kg so it might very well help me with the huge leap to 32 kg this time around. May be not, but I intent to try.

I’ll keep you guys posted about the progress.

Back to Square One

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Going straight to 32 kg today after 20 months with 16 kg (last 2 months doing TGUs with 24kg) got my arse kicked properly.

I feel like I’m starting anew. I originally planned on doing the GtG routine I do lately then throw in a 10 minute 40-20 swing session to kill me off for good.

Well, I only managed 10 TGUs (5L-5R), 10 Pistol Squats (5L-5R), barely did the 40-20 for two minutes and I was done. Sitting on the floor… barely, because I had to work my thighs like I haven’t in a looong time. After doing 5 inclined pushups I called it a day.

I might consider going back to the Easy 20 Kettlebell Workout to get things rolling again with the 32 kg.

Never look back, never back down, stay alert and act sensibly.

Working Back

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Pull-ups chin-ups… Still working on proper full range but decided to take a stepped approach. At the office I pull myself up quickly do slow declines from the top chin-up position. No hurry, feeling all the pain slow. At home I use the edge of the dinner table, body firm and aligned, only the heels touching the ground but without giving any support to the movement.

I try to do at least one of these or, if I can manage my time, both the noon and the evening exercises.

The routine is still pretty much the same: 10 TGUs (5L-5R) 10 Pistol Squats (5L-5R) 10 Chin-ups 10 One legged push-ups (5L-5R)

32 kg Turkish Getups!

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Well after three weeks of GtG TGUs with 24 kg today was the day where I was finally able to do 10 repetitions of 32 kg TGUs back to back (3L-3R-2L-2R) 🙂

I am a bit sore as this a whole new dimension for my body but I am happy I made the step up there. I’ll keep working on this.

Today’s noon time workout:

10 32 kg TGUs

10 One legged squats (pistols) (5L-5R)

15 Slow pushups

5 Half pullups (I am miserable at these and need to focus more)

2 Laps of Farmer Walk with 18 kilo weights (one lap on each side around a basketball field)

 

Then I did barbell snatches and cleans just for the fun of it. 2x 40 kg sntaches where relatively easy (even after all the stuff done above), and 2x 60 kg cleans where also quite solid. I know thats not much but its not something I am for anyway.

What I am up to lately? Turkish Getups :)

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Two months have passed since my last post.

I have slowed things down a bit since then, exercise-wise.

With more focus on the Turkish Getup and complementary body weight movements doing them SLOW!

Yes, you heard me, slow. I realized I was rushing the moves lately, resulting in sloppy style not utilizing the core muscles properly. For some moves slower is better if you are not opting for cardio and/or endurance. Well you kinda get the endurance bit with slow.

Last time around I mentioned doing TGUs with the 36-36 HIIT protocol and I did. I was able to squeeze (literally) 4 TGUs inside 36 seconds. I thought I was super, I thought “Well this has gotten easy with the 16 kg kettlebell, I definitely need to move up to 24 kg”.

While I still should get the 24 kg for the ballistic moves (swings snatches etc.) I couldn’t be more wrong about my mastery of the TGU using the 16 kg bell.

I took it the other way around, stretching a single full TGU cycle over 40-50 seconds, doing proper footwork, stance and the bridge.

Turned out that 5 reps on each side at this pace was a complete workout on its own. Really working all the muscles that should get involved… properly! 🙂

Now I am taking the slow path for non-ballistic kettlebell moves to improve form, stability and balance. I also slowed down the cardio moves like for example the squat thrust.

This way I revisited the 300 Meltdown Kettlebel workout. Taking it slower to improve and emphasize proper form instead of rushing the moves trying to beat the time made a world of difference as how my muscles feel and look 😉

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRpbM9nzDcM

Turkish Get Up Combo Workout

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After a short holiday down south for 5 days I am back with another Turkish Get Up workout in form of a combo set:

Starting out with 5 Snatches (preferably on your weaker side) then switch to 1 TGU while the kettlebell is over your head, get down then up, rack it on your chest and do 5 squats then 5 presses then 5 cleans and finally 5 1 handed swings where after you switch hands (or if you need to rest, do rest) and do the same super set with your other hand. Repeat this cycle 5 times with appropriate rests in between. I took 1-2 minute rests in 2-1-2 fashion.

This workout was taken from the fine site http://trainersteve.tumblr.com/post/9584433175

36-36 20 Sets of Kettlebell Turkish Getups & Windmills!

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So on Monday i managed to form some nasty calluses on both of my hands doing the 15-15 50 Set Kettlebell Snatches workout. Still I liked this cardio-strength-endurance combo style and wondered if I could be doing Turkish Getups this way and to take it easier combine them with Windmills.

The 15-15 would be to short (so I thought) as the full TGU takes more time then a Snatch. I decided to do the following:

36 seconds doing 2 TGU’s and 2 Windmills with a 16 kg Kettlebell

36 seconds of rest

20 sets like this.

Turned out I was actually able to do 4 TGU’s and 2 Windmills in each set. So after the first 5-6 sets that’s what I did. I did my share of sweating, I was not fatigue at the end so this was a nice workout, given the fact that the TGU is pretty much a whole body workout.

In the end I did 71 TGUs and 40 Windmills in 26 minutes 🙂

15-15 Kettlebell Snatch Interval Training 50 Sets!

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I came across this article while searching for some links to use in my previous post:

Kettlebell Snatching on a Warrior Diet!

I lately tried to use more weight with less repetitions to improve my strength and this article is a bit on the other side of the spectrum. It makes you do Kettlebell Snatches in 15 second work 15 second rest fashion for 25 minutes! Thats 50 sets but hey 15 seconds doesn’t sound like much work right?

Wrong! After a couple of sets the forced rest makes each consecutive set a tiny bit more challenging and depending on your current form you start sweating like a pig half way through.

I paced myself at 6 snatches per set and kept this rhythm throughout the workout. Thats 300 snatches in total, not bad. I could go faster but with the cheap*ss vinyl kettlebell of mine, I would have ripped away everything inside my hands. Even at this pace I managed to get calluses immediately, one even filled with blood then popped open and I had to use my training towel to clean the handle.

I kind of liked this 15-15 HIIT thing and I started to wonder how it would be to use this 15-15 50 sets thing and to Turkish Getups?

I used the Tabata Clock from Hans-Christian Sperker (its Beerware so if you like the tool buy him a beer 🙂 ) and recorded that with Audacity as a MP3 file. Audacity can use several files and mix them together so you can put some music behind the metallic voice of the Tabata Clock but I didn’t have time for that and also, since its a 15-15 interval, that metallic voice was almost always there 🙂

Kettlebell Workouts combined with Warrior Diet

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This week I started yet again another serious session of Intermittent Fasting as described in the Warrior Diet.

I discovered and started doing it Mid-January last year and was able to drop from 89kg (196lb) to about 76kg (168lb) in about 4 months prior to really getting into gear with Kettlebells.

I continued with the way of the Warrior feeding 🙂 after I started doing Kettlebell workouts on a regular 3 times a week basis. I gained weight as I was building muscles. After a while I loosened up on the way of the Warrior and along with muscles came back some bodyfat.

On an important side note, I have the Auto-immune disorder Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I read one article and a couple of comments in forums that Intermittent Fasting actually has a positive effect on Auto-immune disorders. On my annual full body check-up it looked good. All values within the healthy range. And the ever so annoying tiredness in the afternoons gone.

Anyway, this year went less effective regarding my Warrior Diet style eating and although I didn’t put back on much of a belly but I was on the fattening road. Hashimoto’s has one interesting side-effect (at least in my case), changes occur slowly, no matter whether good or bad.

And this year I also decided to completely cut off supplements as well and did go that way. But now that I will do a low carb calorie deficit diet and shed some stubborn fat, I went out to get myself some liquid L-Carnitine for before the workouts, some Whey protein for right after the workouts and some vitamins for those days where I can not eat sufficiently.

With the decreased calorie intake the 16kg Kettlebell wasn’t that easy anymore but I still intend to move up to 24kg and 32kg soon. Less reps with more benefits.

Here is this weeks workouts I did on Monday, Wednesday and Friday:

Monday: 50 Snatches (25L 25R) 50 Plank to Pushup 75 2 Handed Kettlebell Swings 25 Burpees 5-10-5-10-5-10-5 (TGU & Windmills alternating hands, see former workouts) 50 Mountain Climbers

Wednesday: 50 Snatches (25L 25R) 25 Pushups 100 Two Handed Kettlebell Swings 25 Burpees 5-10-5-10-5-10-5 (TGU & Windmills) 50 Mountain Climbers

Friday: 50 Squats 50 Jumping Jacks 50 Snatches 25 Pushups 100 Kettlebell Swings (25L 25R 50 Two Handed) 6 TGUs with 24Kg dumbbell (3L 3R) <— sufficient to kill me off

I started with a 16 kg Kettlebell one year ago still use it and …

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Well I finally realized that despite my intention to stay with it and increase the difficulty of the moves that I have reached a plato in my progress.

Ballistic moves, most notably the swing, are not effective anymore and what is even more important, since I am not challenged by the weight, my technique has suffered severely. I have lost my form.

After doing 150 2H swings, 150 mountain climbers and 20 clean presses (10 on each side), I decided to tried the Turkish Get Up with 24 kg dumbbells and 2H swings with both 24 kg and 32 kg. Tough job, especially the TGU.

Hence I decided to get myself both the 24 kg and the 32 kg, for strength moves and ballistic moves in that order 🙂