Closing In On Girevoy Sport Goals
Levels 18 and 19 of the World Kettlebell Club‘s Long Islander workout fell by the wayside this week, with level 18 on Monday and level 19 on Thursday.
Monday’s workout was a bit of a bear. Even though we’re working with 1’30″ rest periods we’re also working each side for 3’00″ with no break between right and left sides.
Monday afternoon was hot (upper 90s) and I was exercising solo. I completed level 20 with a 12 kg kettlebell last week, in order to give my broken blister and ripped callus a break. Now with everything mostly healed, I decided to move forward and stay on schedule with level 18 and my 16 kg.
I marched through 3 sets of cleans and 3 sets of half snatches, but by the time I reached my second set of longcycle push press, I was feeling the heat and lack of proper sleep (about 5 hours) from the night before. While my right side felt strong, my left side was getting fatigued, and by the 25th rep of my second set, I was having trouble getting my thumb and index finger to properly lock.
On set 3, my right side went fine, but I lost my grip completely on rep 25 on my left side and had to put the bell down. I rested for about 5 seconds while shaking my arm out, before grabbing the bell and finishing the last 5 reps.
Incorporating Running With Girevoy Sport
On Tuesday, I decided to begin incorporating running with my Girevoy Sport practice. I went to MapMyRun.com and set up a 1.5 mile run with my house as the starting point. I actually ended up running about 1.7 miles over 15 minutes, which was probably too fast considering I haven’t run consistently in about 10 years.
After poking around the mighty inter-web, I found a neat post on the New Balance site, which recommended combining walking with running when you’re first starting out or resuming running. By combining periods of running with walking, you prevent injuries which kill your training. Sort of like doing too much too soon with kettlebells.
I’m looking at another running program that incorporates elements I think will provide direct benefits to my Girevoy Sport practice, but I’ll save that for another post while I do some more investigating.
Kettlebell Success: Everything Comes Together
Thursday morning I made up my mind to complete level 19. The weather was about ten degrees cooler, and I had a decent night’s rest as well. I’d spent most of the day thinking about my longcycle form, and how I needed to focus on popping my elbow off my hip during the push upwards in order to minimize the work my arm and grip would be doing. I had completed 30 reps on level 17 and I was pretty sure the shorter rest period shouldn’t have made that much of a difference. At least not enough to rob me of those last five reps.
I was solo again for this workout, and could really think of nothing else besides completing all my longcycle push press. The shorter rest periods of level 19 are still significant, however, because I’d spent most of the day mentally rehearsing those reps, I didn’t find them taxing my grip like I did on Monday. As a result, I finished all three sets and my grip was fine from start to finish.
On to level 20 on Monday.
Three Tips To Beat A Sticking Point
- Mentally rehearse your reps for success. I spent most of the day practicing kettlebell longcycle push presses in my head. I even went so far as to practice them for the same 30 reps I was doing in my “real” workout.
- Take care of your hands. I can’t emphasize this enough. You can really focus on form when you’re not disturbed by torn calluses or tender healing skin.
- Pay attention to everything. The weather, proper sleep, outside influences. They will all affect your workout. Think about how these might be affecting you and adjust accordingly. Soem days will be better than others and some worse. Accept that this is true and don’t defeat yourself mentally because you didn’t hit your goal that day. Make adjustments at your next workout and succeed!
Popularity: 2% [?]