Monday (4/16)
Kettlebell Snatches: 7 minutes, 10 per side (53# kettlebell)
Killed it! I hand’t done snatches of any kind for 12 days (since April 6), and I hardly did any metabolic conditioning or cardio work last week, so I had debated whether it would be better to ease into it or hit it hard, thinking I may be fresh after the time off. I decided to hit it hard, and about minute three, I was thinking I had made a mistake. Fortunately, it didn’t really get worse than that, and at about minute 5 I was feeling relatively great. My thinking shifted from thinking that I may have made a mistake to a belief that I could get a PR. At the end I had 17 seconds to spare and felt great. But like usual, my biceps, glutes and hamstrings were tightening up like crazy.
Tuesday (4/17)
Rest day (of course, I did some stretching and practiced pistols, pull-ups and one-arm pushups).
Wednesday (4/18)
- Turkish Get-ups: 5-4-3-3/Pullups: 5-4-3-3
- KB Swings (53#) AMRAP in roll of the dice, 80% effort
The get-ups were a bit easier than the last time I did this sequence, which was encouraging. But they still weren’t easy. I made things considerably harder on myself – and more dangerous – by listening to Brian Regan in the background while doing the get-ups. I do not recommend trying to hold a 53# kettlebell over your head with good form and a solid core while laughing hard, but that’s what I did. It was a bad idea, and I don’t plan to repeat it.
I focused on max tension on the pull-ups so I didn’t have to do very many. I was keeping everything tight: core, quads, glutes, etc. It makes a significant difference.
As for the swings, I used a Tabata timer and went 20 seconds on/10 seconds off for five minutes. That was a great breakdown that I’ll probably employ again soon with my 70# bell. I did a minimum of 10 reps per round, or 20 per minute. That meant I did just over 100 swings in five minutes.
Thursday (4/19)
Stretching. Wonderful for a rest day.
Friday (4/20)
Kettlebell snatches: 12 minutes, 7 per side, per minute using a Tabata timer.
That means, I used a Tabata timer to help me start a set of KB snatches every 30 seconds. So, rather than doing seven with the left side and then move immediately to the right side, I did 24 rounds that were 30 seconds apiece, and did alternating sets of seven each round. It was a challenge and my heart was racing pretty well, but I think my heart is getting stronger if I’m able to do that many snatches in 12 minutes. I still have a long way to go before I’m at 200 snatches in 10 minutes, but I’m getting there…little by little.
