Best Workout in Ages!!!

I find that you can never really predict how a workout is going to go until you get into the thick of it. Sometimes I will start a workout with nothing but the best of intentions, with plans to swing the world on its axis and blast out a gahjillion calories, but end up struggling after ten minutes and finishing early. Other times I might start off tired and weary, thinking that there’s not much chance of pushing the envelope on that particular day, but then it all comes together when the iron starts moving around and I end up with a really satisfying workout. Today was definitely one of the latter workouts, and by some margin!

I took at trip to the gym this (Sunday) morning for my workout. As I arrived at the reception I cast my eye over to the open area near the free weights/kettlebells where I like to work out and saw that it was pleasingly devoid of gym-users – I like a quiet gym. When I emerged from the locker-room, however, people must have been teleported in because there was just no room left for me! Argh! maybe I was going to be stuck on some boring CV machine for a while until some space cleared. But no! I’d forgotten about the studio! A quick check with the guys behind the reception to confirm there were no classes planned for a few hours and I’d grabbed myself a huge workout area, all to myself! I grabbed a few kettlebells, a BOSU, a Fitball, a 20kg powerbag, a Reebok step/bench and a mat and I was “good to go!”.

Working on the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid!) I thought I’d go with squats and swings.

• 20x20kg alternating one-hand kettlebell swings
• 20x20kg powerbag squats
• 20x20kg two-hand kettlebell swings
• 20x20kg powerbag wide-stance squats
• 20x20kg one-hand kettlebell swings (10L10R)
• 20x20kg powerbag narrow-stance squats
• 20x20kg two-hand kettlebell swings
• 20x20kg powerbag squats
• 20x20kg one-hand kettlebell swings (10L10R)20x20kg powerbag wide-stance squats

All of the above with 20s rest between exercises.

The other great advantage of working in a studio that is really intended for group fitness classes is the preponderance of mirrors, which are great for checking form and technique; I worked hard on my squats to ensure that my knees remained behind my toes at all times and that  my thighs got to at least parallel  with the floor for each and every rep.

I then went for a some old-school plyometric stuff on the Reebok step, doing a couple of minutes each of running steps and then some astride centre jumps on and off. Jeez, that nearly killed me! I used to do that stuff every Friday at our martial arts fitness session with Mike from http://www.logicfitness.com, but that was a few years ago and it was a real eyeopener to me to see just how hard it was to get back into that type of “intense-burst” exercise. Felt good though. Hard. But good.

After that I was back to kettlebells for some GS-style snatches, with particular emphasis on trying to get a comfortable, relaxed position at lockout and slowing down the reps from the RKC-style pace of perhaps 20 per minute, to maybe even less than half of that. The mirrors on two walls allowed me to see my form from both front and side and whilst I was not overly unhappy with how the lockout *looked*, even from the side, I didn’t honestly feel that I was gaining much back from relaxed position, and really does feel like it is my lack of mobility/ROM in my shoulders which prevents it. Perhaps I should be a little more rigouous in my use of TheRotater, perhaps I should have a month of shoulder stretching exercises and see whether that produces any kind of improvement? Worth considering, I suppose.

So, then in the spirit of resurrecting exercises that I haven’t done in some time, I laid myself out on the floor for some … Turkish Get-Ups!!! It’s been tricky to do this exercise with my hand/wrist problems, but today I actually found that if I took my thumb out of use and just relied on my fingers and hand to push myself off the floor, it was more do-able. I confined myself to only using the 12kg kettlebell. That’s a “light” weight for someone of my size and overall strength for this exercise, but it’s definitley a weak-spot for me, so I figured there’s no point in being stupid and macho about it and just used the 12kg. I alternated between left and right sides, no appreciable resting, just enough time between get-ups to “reset” myself and kept it going for 10 minutes. Really enjoyed them, which is a first 🙂 Also managed to actually do a single 12kg bottom up TGU on each side as well, which was very pleasing – I am actually looking forward to trying to extend that. A great video of that particular exercise, albeit with the 16kg is from Mark Cheng.

I’m pretty sure I could get to 16kg, but I’m not sure I’ll make it look as good and tight as Mark does!

Anyway, on to the next set of exercises. I figured that I should really take advantage of having the whole of the studio to myself, especially since it gave me a chance to throw some powerbags around … so that’s what I did! Down the length of the studio is about, I dunno 30m or so, so I started at one end and launched the 20kg powerbag with my right arm, three throws to get from one end to the other, then left arm back again. My only restriction was that the bag had to be launched from above shoulder height. After doing that for half-adozen up-and-downs I was loving it! Totally weird kind of exercise, strong and explosive and exhausting, but not like anything else. I thne mixed it up with a few rounds of two handed throws from above my head, those really killed, and then some throws/swings from waist height, working on getting some rotation into the torso to send the bag flying. All great stuff!

Back to the kettlebells again. Grabbed a pair of 16kg bells. Racked them and walked around the room, dropped them into a suitcase position and walked around the room again. Rack. Walk. Suitcase. Walk. Rack. Walk. Suitcase. You get the idea … then I mixed it up some more. Single 16kg kettlebell, rack it into a bottom up clean and rack, and walk around the room with it. Switch arms and repeat. A few more reps of that and I was really starting to fade. Then I got out some more benches and set up a little two-step pyramid enabling me to walk up steps and over the other side, kind of like this:  _¬T¬_ I then cleaned the two 16kg kettlebells to a bottom up rack position and then rolled over the steps, back and forth a few times, concentratinmg on maintaining that bottom up rack position stable. Quite a stiff trial in actual fact. I then finished off the bottom up work with a 20-rep see-saw press cycle.

To finish off the whole session, I then simply used the BOSU, Fitball and mat to enjoy a good stretch and completely finished off with a sauna. Absolutely Pooped!

I really feel like I will pay dearly for this workout tomorrow, or the day after, with some major-league DOMS, but it’s gotta be worth it after an epic workout like that! 🙂

Physiotherapy Updates and More …

Hazel Dorman, Physiotherapist

Two days ago I had an appointment with a new physiotherapist, one professing to be an expert in hand/wrist/elbow issues – this lady here in fact. She works at the Walnut Tree physiotherapy Clinic in Southampton.

Obviously the proof is in the pudding, that is, success will be judged by the rehabilitation of my wrist, but I have to admit I was both pleased and impressed by her. She took plenty of time to listen to the history of my wrist problem and it soon became apparent that she had also taken the time to speak with the consultant surgeon prior to the appointment as well.

She examined my hand/wrist and listened to all of my concerns and I tried my best to explain when and where the various pains appear. She then asked me to do a couple of grip strength tests. The first was using a dynamometer -you can read more about this test here. You would expect an average reading of perhaps 45-50, with the favoured hand being perhaps 10% higher than the other (e.g. 45 on the left  and 50 on the right for a right-handed person).  I recorded a 50 with my dodgy right hand, but I also recorded a 65 with my left and, prior to my surgery, I’ve always been stronger on my right side. Till now at least. However, that’s useful information and, importantly, quantifiable. Realistically, with a 65 on my left hand, I should have been squeezing at least that, probably 70, on my right hand.

I then undertook a pinch test which basically means squeezing a narrow dynamometer between thumb and forefinger while keeping the wrist neutral and isolated from anything like a table, i.e. free-floating in front of you. I don’t know if they use the same scales as the grip dynamometer, but I was told to expect a 5-6 as being a normal, or average result. On that basis I scored a stonking 11 using my left hand, but a completely miserly 3-4 on my right hand. Not so good. At all. But my physio seemed heartened by this, but I think that was more because it was confirming here ascertainment of what was actually going on in my hand and wrist.

She then measured the range of movement in my wrists, basically by using a fancy protractor and asked me about the exercises that I had been instructed to do by the in-house physiotherapist at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton … and then told me that I shouldn’t be doing them! Not because they would be doing me any harm, but because they were pretty much pointless for my condition, which she then went on to explain to me. Essentially, she thinks the majority of my problem is simply down to muscle wastage, mostly in the area between mythumb and forefinger, along with a fair amount of scar tissue on the back on my hand. Fortunately this scar tissue is quite mobile, as is the actual main scar on the back of my hand, but it has been interfering with the main tendon that works my index finger which has resulted in a significant amount of pain. She has given me a reduced set of exercises to do, two to try and increase the flexibility and range of movement of the wrist itself and another, involving this stuff –

Not only does it look custard, but like custard it is a non-newtonian liquid which changes its viscosity under stress. That is, the harder you squeeze it, the stiffer it becomes, so it becomes a useful aid for building hand strength. I have to make a golfball sized ball of the putty and then squeeze it between thumb and forefinger until teh digits meet through the putty, then just using the same hand, remake the ball and repeat for two minutes each hour. Obviously the 2 minutes per hour is a tricky thing logistically, but I’m trying hard to keep at it regularly:

I have a repeat appointment in two weeks time to re-assess my wrist and hopefully get better and more balanced results on the dynamometers.

The down side to all of this however is that I do seem to have other problems with my wrist with some arthritis creeping into the joints and what seems to be some wear on the top of the ulnar bone which now clicks audibly when I rotate my hand/wrist  in an anti-clockwise direction. You can actually hear it, and feel it too if you grip my elbow. Yech!

Best news of all though is that the physio was perfectly happy for me to continue with the kettlebells. More to the point, she actually knew what they were and picked my brains a bit as she wanted to get one for her husband as a present! Obviously I discussed this with her at some length and we agreed that things like snatches were probably best avoided at the moment still and heavy presses, where the weight of the kettlebell would be targetted right into the joint between thumb and fore-finger, should also be avoided, but medium-weighted swings, with a neutral wrist position and no undue risk of wrist extension, were good to go 🙂

So, all good? Well, no, but definitely much  much better place than I was in last week 🙂

I had some of this to celebrate:

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and I thought I’d also celebrate by getting a new kettlebell as a present to myself. Here it is:

I couldn’t actually beleive it when I saw this listed on Ebay!!! What on earth can you use a 3lb kettlebell for??? I bought it as a novelty, but I’m now thinking of mounting it on a chain and wearing it as a necklace LOL!!!

On a more sensible, note I took my 20kg to the gym today and had what was undoubtedly my best workout in absolutely AGES! Felt really goo. Actually, still feels really good 10 hours later! Main play of the workout was  just getting some volume out on the swings. I did 25 minutes on a a35s on/25s off cycle giving me about 20 swings per minute and a total of 500 swings. Felt great to get some numbers done. Did probably two-thirds as 2-handed swings and the rest as hand to hand swings. I did loads more in the workout, including some 20kg one-legged deadlifts, on the BOSU. Those really focus the mind. Anyway, felt really good to kick my own arse again 🙂

Ah! Endorphins – I remember you!

Having a strange old time of it just now, with physios telling me to rein in the exercise I’ve been doing on my wrist (which doesn’t make my wrist hurt) and giving me exercises to do that stretch the wrist awkwardly (for me) and make it hurt. Seeing a hand/wrist specialist physio on Monday, so will give her a right grilling.

Meanwhile, this evening …

• 50x16kg kettlebell swings
• 50x16kg kettlebell cleans
• 50 squats
• 50x16kg kettlebell swings
• 50 split BOSU lunges
• 50x16kg kettlebell swings
• 5 mins 2x16kg racked kettlebell farmer’s walk
• 2x2mins BOSU 1-leg stands, dangling a 10kg kettlebell off the free leg (for the hell of it!)

… and done!

Wot? No blog updates?

OK, so I have been busy and distracted and haven’t updated my blog. Been some personal stuff going on, those of you who know me properly will know what that’s about, those that don’t, don’t need to. Move along now, nothing to see here … 🙂

Actually, that’s not true – last week I  climbed an indoor 6a wall for the first time!

This week has been a mixed bag. Monday was an easy 3-4 mile run with Eddie the dog. Tuesday was a 10km lunchtime run followed by a trip to the gym for 30mins of warm-up cardio, some weights on the BOSU and a sauna. Wednesday was burpees & kettlebell swings followed by one-legged squats & renegade rows.

Thursday (today) I thought about restarting Enter the Kettlebell program with the 24kg, but I am just not sure it is right for me just now. For a start, there is the question of what weight to use. I have gone through ETK previously using the 20kg kettlebell, but today I did 3 ladders of 5 rungs for 24kg presses and pull-ups and I could have done more. With that in mind, and considering I have not been doing many presses of late, 24kg is perhaps too easy for me now? Here is a short vid of me doing 5x24kg kettlebell presses on each side – not really pushing me, is it?

I have a 32kg kettlebell, but there’s absolutely no way I could use that, leaving me with the option of buying a 28kg bell, which from a purely financial point of view I would very much rather not do. Also, looking at myself in the videos I recorded today, perhaps I would be better served applying my energies to losing weight rather than gaining yet more muscle at this point in time. Yes, muscle is good, no arguments, but my joints also have to carry around every pound I weigh, whether it’s muscle or fat, and they could probably benefit from a reduction in payload!

Anyway, after the press/pullup ladders I rattled out some swings followed by some stability/balance work on my BOSU:

1) Some simple one-legged “aeroplane” stance with kicks on transition.

2) Some bent-over 16kg kettlebell rows – but done one-legged while balancing on the BOSU. Switching from same-leg/same-arm to opposite leg/arm makes a sizable difference with this.

3) Some dog-assisted BOSU two-legged squats, trying hard to keep my knees from “frogging” outwards.

4) Some one-legged BOSU squats – my fave!

EDIT: Update. A 28kg cast bell is £50, a comp bell is £67.50. Both from Wolversons, both plus delivery costs.