Kettlebell-TRX Six

Today's workout was a lot like last week's, except that it was twenty minutes straight of one armed kettlebell exercises followed by a much shorter set of TRX exercises. Kettlebell moves were one-armed swings, halos, clean to shoulder press, Turkish getups, high pulls, squats, reverse lunges, a second set of high pulls, and . . . something else, not necessarily in that order. On my second set of high pulls, Ari had me experiment with snatches, which are not easy, but preferable to the high pulls.

TRX circuit was more forgiving, all one-handle stuff: lawnmower, stir the pot, inverted pushups, and one or two more moves. The whole thing was another memory eraser. Warmup was five minutes of alternating 30' of heavy swings with 30' of a TRX move.

Thinking of kettlebell swings as a hip-dominant exercise, and really shooting my hips back while putting the load on my hamstrings, did wonders for my form. At least insofar as Ari wasn't berating me constantly like he usually does. Also, I felt stronger today. This is the six-week mark, so I'd say my body must be responding to the training. (More on that to come in Wednesday's power-training post.)

Week Four, Day One

Hang Jump Shrug: 4 x 50/3
Back Squat: 4 x 115/6
Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift, 4 x 20/6
Bench Press 4 x 95/6
Bent-Over Dumbbell Alternating Row: 4 x 30/6
Push Press: 4 x 55/6
Single-Arm Pulldown: 4 x 35/6
Russian Twist: 4 x 20/8
Plank Walkup: 4 x 45sec.

First day of increased weight with less reps. Actually, I tried 55lbs. on the last set of hang jump shrugs, and 12kg on the first set of deadlifts, and both were too high. Also, I forgot I was doing six reps and not eight on the first couple sets of squats and deadlifts, but it seems to have been fine.

Super-setted everything. Standard warmup including five-minute run at 7'30" pace. Everything still took longer to finish than I would have liked.

Kettlebell-TRX Five

Today's workout was a memory eraser. Quick warmup moving the kettlebell around the body, followed by a twelve-minute set of kettlebell exercises, done twice, and a twelve-minute set of TRX exercises, done once. We moved through so quickly I can't even tell you what we did.

After class, Ari pointed us to Rifs Blog, and we took a minute to talk about form on the kettlebell swings. Looking at the photo at the link above, an hearing what Ari had to say, I don't think I'm putting enough load on my hamstrings during my swings. It's tempting to start practicing these on other days.