Pressing Matters

This morning I had some pressing matters to attend to - Clean & Pressing matters, that is.

It's been a while since I've done any regular Pressing, but now that the pain in my forearms is dissipating, I need to get strong on these again. So today, I decided to work on some ladders with the 24kg. And to keep it interesting, I interspersed it with some 1-Handed Swings. You'll see that I mixed things up without any real thought behind them, all driven by how I felt after each working set. So try to keep up...

Clean & Press: 16kg - 5/5
1-Hand Swing: 16kg - 25/25

Clean & Press: 24kg - 1/1, 2/2
1-Hand Swing: 24kg - 10/10
Clean & Press: 24kg - 3/3, 1/1, 2/2
1-Hand Swing: 24kg - 10/10
Clean & Press: 24kg - 3/3
1-Hand Swing: 24kg - 10/10
Clean & Press: 24kg - 1/1, 2/2
1-Hand Swing: 24kg - 10/10
Clean & Press: 24kg - 3/3
1-Hand Swing: 24kg - 10/10

Completed 3 Ladders, 3 Rungs each with the 24kg, with 100 Swings mixed in, not counting the warmup sets. Not too bad. Funny when I started off, my right shoulder felt out of groove. Then somewhere around my second set or so, I held the kb up top and gave the shoulder a good stretch and things all of a sudden felt greased, excellent!

Today is also the last day of April, so I took a pic of my Workout Calendar. Looks like I hit 21 sessions within the 30 days of April. 2 out of every 3 days had some kind of workout session, excellent ratio!! And it also amazing how differently I feel, how my outlook has improved now that I have FINALLY figured out the source of my forearm pain. And with that pain getting less and less as the days go by, my spirits are raised tremendously. I feel like I can fly again!!!

OK, time to hit the shower! Swing 'em high y'all!

32kg Turkish Getups

I will NOT be beaten!!

Just performed 1 Getup on each side with the 32kg.

The 32kg definitely feels lighter in the afternoon than it does at 5:30am!! That's some weird physics if you ask me.

I couldn't let the bell beat me. Now I am motivated to grease the groove with these. My goal is to be able to do this in my sleep!

Playing with Kettlebells

Today turned out to be not too hardcore of a workout, but more of a play-workout. I was in the mood to try out some new things, so the session won't appear to be too intense, although at times it did feel that way. So I re-used my tape from Sunday and got going...

Getup: 24kg - 1/1; 32kg - didn't want to budge
I think attempting these with the 32kg first thing in the morning ain't happening right now

1-Arm Jerk - 1st Half of Movement: 24kg - 5/5
Practiced the beginning motion as per Steve Cotter's Encyclopedia of Kettlebell Lifting DVD, this is where you perform the Jerk to where the bell only raises to about eye level

1-Arm Clean & Jerk: 24kg - 5/5

Bottom-Up Clean: 12kg - 1L/2R
Playing with these, but the tape on my hands made it tough to get a good grip

2-Hand Swing: 32kg - 30

Clean & Press: 24kg - 4L/2R
Weird, shoulders had no strength, then again, it's been a while since I've performed these in any regular fashion

Lastly, cooled down with some Shoulder Rotator with the 12kg. And that was it!

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On another note, a very good friend who was kind enough to design some logos for me (for Kettlebells NY) dropped them off last night for me to review. He gave me a selection of about 9 to look at. They are ALL AWESOME!! It's going to be hard to pick one. I might have to pick a few!! I'll post them once I get electronic copies and of course I'll have to use at least one on my www.KettlebellsNY.com website. So cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a Little Z

Not Zzzzzz's.... Z-Health.

Ran through the R-Phase movements this morning. Probably too fast, but I figure it's better than none at all. Lots of crackling in the upper back and shoulder blades. I will eventually get over to meet with the (somewhat) local certified instructor.

Hands are OK. The skin is starting to dry now so it's doing a lot of cracking on me, no matter how much or often I rub in the Corn Husker's Lotion. Oh well, I'll survive.

That's it. Easy morning. Time to get moving and head into the office.

Taped Hands

Not wanting to miss a weekend workout, I taped my hands up using Rif's suggested method.

And it worked like a charm!! Although my first attempt today at this sort of taping didn't look nearly as neat as on Rif's post, it worked extremely well and I was very happy with the outcome. I will now be keeping a roll of sport tape close by at all times.

I chose not to Snatch today, but gave myself a close-to-Brett Jones workout otherwise. This is what today looked like...

Double Clean: 2x 20kg - 10
2-Hand Swing: 32kg - 20
Double Clean: 2x 20kg - 10
Windmill: 24kg - 5/5
Double Clean & Squat: 2x 20kg - 10
Clean & Press: 24kg - 5/5

Double Overhead Holds for 30sec: 2x20kg - did this 2 times through with 30sec break in between

That's it for today. Not sure if tomorrow will be a workout morning or a rest morning. Rest might be a better option to give my hands a day of recovery, so as to hit the Snatches again on Tuesday. We'll see. =)

I Found Chalk!

But I lost some skin...


Howie finally got himself some chalk,
And took his bells out for a walk.
His hands would finally stay dry,
As he hoisted those bells to the sky.
One rep, two rep, this ain't no joke
Until his hands started to smoke.
Maybe I should stop? Finish your set!
And that's when handle and raw skin met.

I hope you liked my poem. But that's how it really happened.

Session overall looked like this...

Snatch:
20kg - 5/5
24kg - 10/10, 10/10, 10/10, 10/10

It was during the 4th set of 24kg Snatches that I lost skin on both hands. Just under the callouses at the base of my ring fingers. On both hands, in the same spots. At least I'm symmetrical. Since this is my first time with the chalk, maybe I used to much? Maybe this is common? Or maybe the chalk I'm using is too 'sticky'?

I called a few Fitness Equipment places nearby and no one carried chalk. But one recommended I go to Eastern Mountain Sports and pick up climber's chalk, which I did. Maybe this is a different consistency from lifting chalk? I don't know.

So after my Snatches were prematurely cut off (I had planned to do at least one more set to reach 100), I performed the following to finish off the session...

Overhead Hold: 32kg - L/R
Farmer Walk: 24kg - L/R
Rack Walk: 32kg - L/R
Overhead Hold: 32kg - L/R

Performed these in small circles around the yard. Time to go pick up some band aids...

Semi-new Blogger

Hey everyone, just wanted to point out we have another Party Member to our north (for those of us in the U.S.).

Paula, has been logging in some decent sessions and is moving some good weight for a lady. Just another one of those strong women who makes us men feel inferior. =)

Check out her space.