Back to the heavy kettlebells

Last night, Melody thought I was ready to go back onto the 35lb kettlebell. That thing is heavy, especially when you have to swing it around and stabilize yourself against the weight of it. Apparently in the Russian kettlebell weight system, the 35lb kettlebell is 1 "pood". It's nice to know that I can use a kettle bell in its most basic unit of measurement

As the workouts get tougher, I increasingly find that my breathing technique is very vital to how much I can do. Not only do I need to breath out with the exertion portion of an exercise, I need to pull in air deeply (the belly swelling thing) and force it out with the exhale.

After 30 2-handed swings with the kettlebell, I had to do 1-handed swings with each arm. I got to do a kettlebell snatch. Before the snatch I had to practice a hi-pull, which is where you swing it up and then when it is at shoulder level, jerk it towards your body then push back out, as if you were punching with the kettlebell. For the snatch, the kettle bell starts between your feet on the ground. You swing it up, and as it moves up to shoulder level, you do a short jerk so it flips over and onto the back of your hand/forearm while simultaneously punching upwards so it ends with your arm vertically straight up in the air. You have to do this quickly in one smooth motion so that your are not caught with your arm horizontal when the kettlebell flips over. These were actually pretty fun. I did not do this with the 35 lb kettlebell but Melody did. :)

I had to do a spiderman pushup where you start off in normal pushup position, then left one leg bent with foot off the ground so your knee is reaching for your armpit. Do a pushup with your knee up like that, then put that foot down, and crawl forward with your hands until you're in pushup position again. Lift your other leg the same way and do a pushup. Do this a few times, then do this backwards.

I also did a modified pistol while holding a kettlebell. While holding the kettlebell to my chest with both hands, you lifted one leg and sit down on a bench. Keeping that leg lefted, you stand back up. Leg still lifted, you repeat 20 times.

I used the Smith machine for pull-up exercises. I did assisted pull-ups where my legs were crossed and feet could touch the ground. I did another exercise where I had to hold onto the bar and with my feet extended out in front of me so my body was straight at an angle to the ground and I had to lift my body in a cirular motion - circular pull-ups I suppose.

Lastly was an ab exercise. Using the sit-up bench (the one with the padded bars for your feet & knees), I had to lean back and keep my arms extended in front of me. I had to then move each arm up, back down, to the side, and then back to the middle. This was tough because my abs were still sore from Monday. I did not lean as far back as I probably should have so most of the burning was in my legs as I tried to keep my torso upright.