So, I came up with a core workout for the ages last night. I went to the gym around 8:30pm and executed this pattern 2.5 times before my back began to ache, and I was forced to retreat for the evening.
My form was good to excellent on everything except the pike. The pike still gives me problems. My weight on the Turkish Get Up increased to 12 KG (about 26 pounds) and I really could have done 30. There was a time when I couldn't even perform the Turkish Get Up. The first time I tried it, I looked pretty damn stupid. The reason was/is core strength. The TGU is a misunderstood exercise. It is thought to be a shoulder exercise. It is much more a core exercise.
I woke up with mildly sore (but very hard) abs & obliques. This is a sure sign of a good core workout the night before. I was so impressed with the results I decided to share it with you here. I am on my way to a 6-pack.
It was one hell of a night at the gym. I re-jiggered my workout circuit this evening and focused on speed. I moved rapidly from exercise to exercise not allowing any rest-time between exercises in the circuit. I chained together a sequence of eight (8) exercises in this circuit.
It went like this:
Kettlebell halo
Kettlebell clean and press
Kettlebell swings
Kettlebell sumo chins
Bar-dips
Knees to chest
Pull-ups
Inclined perfect push-ups
I repeated the circuit with 12kg, 16kg, 20kg, 24kg kettlebells. I intended to continue with the 60 pounder, but I was just flat-busted after the fourth rep of this circuit. I mean I was totally busted. The best I could do was just one more set of 60 pound swings. I also did one set of 10 reverse ab-crawls with The Rack.
The total workout from entry to exit was less than 40 minutes. That includes setup and breakdown. I was really fast tonight. It paid dividends. I can feel the effects of the overload. This was the best workout in sometime.
The one bad thing about this workout lay in recovery: I forgot to bring a protein drink with me. I raced home to make sure I didn't miss my window. I was fairly blurry-eyed and delirious as I mixed my drink. I could feel myself gradually coming back to life over the 10 or 12 minutes after downing that mixture.
I look forward to many more of these kinds of workouts. Rapid circuit training is much better at producing massive system-overload and triggering an adaptive response. This particular combination of Kettlebells and body-weight exercises seems fantastic for building a functional body, not mirror-muscles.
With that said, the muscles are looking pretty good in the mirror.
Pardon me whilst I gloat for a few moments. I am having a very good day. My team has unloaded Billy Devaney and we have the opportunity to replace him with Bill Polian. That will terminate a whole bunch of dysfunction in our organization, if we can pull it off.
I am rising a loaf of pumpernickel bread in the kitchen, and...
Better still, I purchased a 70 pound Cap Kettlebell and proceeded to worked out like a vicious beast at my gym this evening. This was my drill list
Dumbell bench press
Halo
Swing
Turkish Get Up
Sumo Chin (facing the wall)
Clean and press
I benched with a pair of 70 pound dumbells. The Gireviks are quite correct. The 70 pound dumbell is a lot lighter than 70 pound kettlebell. I would invite you to lift and see. I used my 60 pounder in the Halo, Swing, and Sumo Chin. I used the 70 pounder in the Swing and the Sumo Chin. I can't halo with the 70 pounder just yet. Soon! Very soon!
More important than any of this was my success with the Turkish Get Up. I was able to perform 5 good reps with each arm using the 20lb kettlebell for the first time. For the very first time, I felt as if I was performing this exercise with good control and decent form. I did not bang-up my knee caps, which is an important thing to a surgically repaired dude like me.
Best of all, my hands feel pretty decent. My left feels normal, and my right is just a little numb. I am pretty happy about that.
Furthermore, an unidentified female entered the crossfit gym, and just felt an overwhelming compulsion to man-handle one of my balls. She grabbed the 60 and asked how much it weighed. I told her 60. She felt compelled to try swinging it, and she did a pretty good job for 6 or 7 reps. I was impressed.
You know that is an extremely flirtatious thing to do. She was trying to send the message that she was a good strength match for me. We'll see. I didn't feel a particular synastry reaction with this woman.
Happy New Years to y'all out there. Just a couple of quick notes before I get out there to see what's going on in Woodland Hills tonight.
I'm holding pretty steady at 183-184 pounds. I was one of the few people in America who weighed in 2 pounds lower on December 26. I was 185.4 on Dec 23 and 183 on Dec 26. I took no Sauna during that time. Further, I took my Kettlebells with me to Fresno, and I used them plenty in my Dad's living room. This all bodes extremely well for the New Year's Bod Pod.
There will be a New Year's Bod Pod event on Jan 6th. It's been quite awhile since the last Bod Pod, and it is time for me to see where I stand. I think it is going to be quite positive.
The Kettlebell training is going extremely well, and I am improving greatly. I just had to purchase a 60 pound Kettlebell today because the 24 KG (53 pound) bell at my gym (Woodland Hills Athletic Club) is just too easy. After swinging that bitch 25 time and Sumo-Chinning it another 21, I realized I was going to need a heavier bell.
I was able to do the Halo with the 60 pound ball 5 times in one direction and 5 times in the reverse. That is pretty good for day 1. Not a lot of Gireviks are willing to Halo a 60 pound kettlebell. This is hot. It's manly.
I was able to swing that 60 pounder for 3 sets of 15 reps.
I also did Sumo Chins with the 60 pounder, nailing sets of 15, 12 and 10 reps.
I am sure I can Swing and Sumo Chin a 70 pounder already. I did it over at Busy Body's home fitness. Next week, I will buy the 70 pounder. Not many Gireviks are willing to work with the 70 pound cannon ball. I'm hot. I'm manly.
I discovered the glories of the Hexagonal Deadlift bar this week. I read a piece in Fitness-RX [that quoted results from a UCLA Medical research study on the subject of the Hexagonal Deadlift bar] which turned me on to this subject. The study reported that the Hexagonal Bar immediately improves form, reduces unhealthy stress on the spin, increases lift leverage of the athlete, increases training weights, and generates both more rapid and consistent gains in strength and mass.
Using the Hex bar, I deadlifted 270 pounds for 5 reps last Thursday. I will do more Monday.
I now routinely work with 6 x 45 pound plates on the decline press.
I am now doing the clean and press exercise with the 40 pound Kettlebell. I go all the way from the floor to the sky in two steps: Clean then press.
And now for the dark side of the force. I don't think my Carpal Tunnel is getting better. It is getting worse. Numbness is waking me up early in the morning, but it feels more like pain than numbness. I wake up with pain in my hands despite the fact that I am wearing the cock-splints. The inflammation is so bad it is visible. I am forced to dunk my hands in a mixing bowl full of ice water to bring the inflammation under control.
I'm not to worried about the surgery, because I always believed a surgery was going to be necessary anyhow. This kind of thing doesn't get better without surgery. Once the doc fixes me, I'll shut it down for a bit. Right now, I am concentrating on increasing my raw brute strength just as much as possible.
This is the price we pay. Being this sexy is hard work.
The score a few moments ago was 182.4 on the Tanita bathroom scale. Of course, this means my actual weight would be lower, according to the Bod Pod. Probably somewhere in the 181.6 zone...
...and I am not even trying! Holy crap!
I must have shook something loose. I was not expecting anymore periods of significant weight loss after a brick solid month of stability. However, something began to shift a few days ago. I am not sure how or why. Here are few ideas:
Beans: I've already explained how I've added beans to my diet, but I sure didn't eat any yesterday.
Prolonged cortisol secretion: There is a stress hormone called cortisol produced by the adrenal glands. It has many functions related to restoring homeostasis when your body is under high metabolic stress. High metabolic stress includes surgery, trauma, and nutritional stress. If this goes on too long, the body can cling tenaciously to it's fat reserves. You weight loss will stop. Cortisol levels must be reduced for fat loss to resume. I may have broken through this barrier.
Kettlebells and 5/3/1 barbells: I've already described how I have modified my workout to focus on strength training over aerobics. This may be having some interesting and unexpected effects.
In any case, I think it is time to schedule a new appointment for the Bod Pod. I should have a look at my body composition.
So, after 4 days of doing little or nothing, I was going nuts with excess energy today. I had to do something. I was losing my mind and becoming depressed.
I got on my Elliptical Cross Trainer and busted 21 minutes for 324 kcal. Numb hands and fingers did not stop me. Before 5 minutes of rest elapsed, I got back on and busted another 15 minutes for 231 kcal. This was was a nice round 555 kcal in 36 minutes of elliptical.
I didn't feel finished. I jumped on the bike with intention of performing 10 minutes of cool-down cycling. I did 18 minutes of meltdown cycling for another 184 kcal. All-tolled, this was 54 minutes of exercises for 739. This is an okay-level of production, but you know I did much more than that each day during the summer season.
After the Cowboy game, I was at loose ends again. Way too much energy. I decided to break medical orders and head to 24 Hour Fitness for a 5/3/1 workout. I made one concession to medical expediency: Rather than doing a barbell press, I used the Hammer Strength Decline Press machine.
I went big. I went heavy. I went hard.
5 reps with 115 pounds on each side (45 + 45 +25)
3 reps with 125 pounds on each side (45 + 45 + 35)
2 reps with 135 pounds on each side (45 x 3)
According to the 5/3/1 pattern, I should have only done the final weight for 1 rep. I went for two and got it. I cycled through it all a second time, but I failed at stage 2, only getting 2 reps. Incidentally, that final weight was at least 270 pounds, even if you give me no credit for the machine overhead. This quantity would be 305 pounds in barbell terms.
It felt great to put three big wagon wheels on (each arm of) that machine and press it. No NFLer would be impressed by that performance, but the dudes in the gym were. I looked like a beast to these cats. I guess I am a medium-size fish in a small pond.
It looks like the rest did me some good. My strength seems to be increasing by leaps and bounds. This is, in no small measure, the result of Kettlebell training. For the moment, my fear of lost muscle mass is diminishing. I am certainly not losing strength. It's hard to loose muscle mass and not loose strength. Conversely, it is difficult to gain strength without gaining new muscle mass.
The problem came after the pull-downs. I finished my pull-down pyramid at 205 pounds. I almost pulled that down twice. Unfortunately, my right wrist feels a bit sprained and strained. I think I done sprung it. It was fine until I did the pull-downs.
Oh well, we'll see if I manage to sleep through the night, or if I have some problems with numbness. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. That's what I always say.
So, the score this morning was 186.4. My weight has been bouncing in a tight range between 184,4 and 186.4 for some two weeks now. Ad meanwhile, my strength has been increasing considerably.
I can now do the Kettlebell Halo with a 45 pound canon ball. A couple of days ago, I dead-lifted 215 for two reps. I also pulled down 190 for a single rep, and military pressed 110 for 2 reps. I really should have gone for three. I'm doing 225 today. The last time I bench pressed, I got 215 for a single rep. I should have attempted a second, but I did not have a spotter, and I didn't want to wind up like Stafon Johnson.
Regarding squats, I am being careful.
I have only been squatting with the Kettlebells, as a part of the face the wall squad. This is a technique where you take 1 large kettlebell, or a pair of smaller ones, position the tips of your toes no more than 5 inches from the wall, and proceed to squat. This forces you to bend your knees and lower your butt, rather than lean forward. Leaning is cheating. If you bend your back while facing the wall, you will smash your nose. You just can't do it. This is the way to develop ideal form in the squat.
Incidently, I am using a Rubbermade storage box (slightly shorter than my knees) to measure the depth of my squat. This is what some people call box-squats. The objective is to chose a box slightly shorter than your knees, place it immediately behind you during the squat, and make sure your butt makes contact when you squat. In this way, you will hit the ideal 90 degree angle; no more, and no less.
Last time around, I grabbed a pair of 20kg kettlebells, cleaned them, held them in the front-squat position, and squatted 12 reps. It was good. The next day, I was mildly sore in all the right spots. Tonight, I am doing a pair of 24kg kettlebells. This will be very good.
Remember what the comrades say: A 45 pound Kettlebell is a lot heavier than a 45 pound dumbbell. That's because the little bastard is alive and squirming in your hand. It will bite your wrists also. Lifting that Kettlebell requires much greater concentration and stabilizer activities. It's very dynamic.
With all that said, I am facing a fourth potential surgery event. My injured shoulder is not recovering properly. I still feel winces of sharp pain in the right shoulder. My right hand is numb all the time. It is as if someone shot Procaine into the first three fingers of my right hand. Numbness comes and goes intermittently in my left hand.
This develops to a critical level when I lay down and sleep at night. I frequently wake up in the middle of the night, and early in the morning with numb tingling sensations killing my arms. It begins to go away when I get up and work the Kettlebells. As I mentioned before, it never goes away completely.
This does not seem to be circulation related. My skin stays pink. The flesh is usually warm. It might be cold in exceptionally cold surroundings, but that doesn't make my hands any different than those belonging to anyone else. This has something to do with the nervous system. I believe it is a pinched nerve in my right shoulder.
There does seem to be some evidence of inflammation. I received a size 10.5 Saffire blue ring as a birthday gift this past September. It was away too big for my ring finger. It sloshed around on my hand quite a bit. Now it fits perfectly. It's a little hard to take off. I did not have it re-sized. How in the world has my finger grown so much? Maybe its just inflammation?
My Chiropractor has done a series of 6 adjustments to my back and neck. So far, no dice. He believes that a protruding disk somewhere between my 3rd and 5th cervical vertebrae is the culprit. If true, I may be going in for a neck surgery like Peyton Manning.
One way or another, it looks like I am going in for surgery. I have decided I cannot live like this. It is becoming debilitating. I am fatigued and exhausted through the day due to a lack of good sleep. I have to fix this.
We'll see what Dr. Bachner has to say about it. An MRI on my wrists, shoulder and neck are in order.
The term Girevik is Russian for "Kettlebell-man" or a guy who trains with Kettlebells. As I have so often mentioned in recent days, I am totally in love with Kettlebell training right now. My hand is so numb I can hardly feel it, but I am getting used to it.
When we say strength, we mean Kettlebell. When we say Kettlebell, we mean strength... comrade.
Nothing will get you heart rate higher than a good CrossFit kettlebell race for the most reps in a timed interval. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this scheme. It doesn't seem to me that this scheme will do much to drastically improve your raw strength. As usual, this is not a one-stop solution. It is a big part of the solution, but not the whole solution.
Enter Jim Wendler and the 5/3/1 training system. Wendler's 5/3/1 system is the greatest system yet devised for increasing raw strength. I know. I've not yet finished two weeks of it, and my raw strength is returning by leaps and bounds. Nothing else I've tried has had this effect.
What is the Wendler 5/3/1 training system? What is this system all about? In the simplest form, the system consists of the following edicts:
Do only the large compound body movements: Bench, Deadlift, Squat, Clean & Jerk, Snatch.
Do an exploratory operation to discover you maximum one-rep weight in each lift. Prepare to be embarrassed.
You perform 5 reps with 70% of your max weight
You then perform 3 reps with 80% of your max weight
You then perform 1 rep with 90% of your max weight
There is much more too it than that. I won't spoil his book by representing his 4 week scaling system. This is the easiest and simplest teaser I can give you. Buy the book.
How well is the teaser working for me? Well, let me tell you about it.
Despite my recent shoulder injury, I cleaned and jerked a 100 pound barbell this evening for a single rep. That was after doing one jerk and 5 presses with 80, and another jerk and 3 presses with 90. This effort wasn't particularly hard either. Next time, 110 is the single-rep target.
I was surprised. Two weeks ago, I couldn't raise my right hand above my shoulder... at all... with an empty hand. One week ago, I couldn't put 40 over my head.
This isn't just recovery from injury either. The same effect is being documented in my dead-lift. Two weeks ago, 135 pounds put a little too much strain on my lower back and midsection for a single rep. Today, I pulled 185 for a single rep. I should have pulled it three times. It was too easy. Next time, 215 is my single-rep target. I can tell that the bar is going to get real heavy real quick.
My strength is returning. Right now I am pretty excited. This is far and away the most exciting development since my weight loss terminated some 6 or 7 weeks ago.
Incidentally, my weight seems to be holding steady at 185.6 right now. Ergo, a heavy-cream Mac-N-Cheese isn't hurting me much. If anything I look a little too tallow and frail right now. None of my new acquaintances can believe I was ever a fat guy. They just don't see me that way. They think I am kinda skinny.
I need to transition completely to a strength/muscle building program, complete with higher caloric intake. You must eat, or you will become skinny and have no respect.
So the results of Bod Pod XIV are in and they are dreadful. Why are they dreadful? Because I lost more lean weight than fat weight over the past three weeks, that's why. I can't view that as anything other than a terrible results. Without further ado, here is the summary grid showing my key changes over the past 21 days.
10/28/2011
11/18/2011
Diff
BFP
22.8
21.5
-1.3
Fat Weight
44.56
40.18
-4.38
Lean Weight
151.14
146.718
-4.422
Total Weight
195.7
186.898
-8.802
Volume
84.781
80.731
-4.05
Just to summarize that in English, here are the bullet points.
My body fat percentage decreased 1.3%, which is good, but my BFP remains at 21.5% which is not healthy. I am still more than 1.5% away from moving the check-box, and I remain 4.5% away from the ultimate goal.
My fat weight reduced 4.38 pounds, which is a paltry average of 0.2 pounds per day.
My lean weight diminished 4.422 pounds, which constitutes a larger average of 0.211 pounds per day.
My total weight decreased 8.802 pounds, but most of it was bad loss.
My body volume decreased 4.05 liters from 84.781 liters to 80.731 liters.
Naturally, anytime you are losing lean faster than fat, you are clearly doing something wrong. Now, I have been dealing with a shoulder injury that has kept me out of the CrossFit gym for the past 7 days. This does not mean I have ceased my workouts. I have continued with the ROM and the Kettlebells, and a few aerobic workouts.
I am hard-pressed to explain how my lean weight could have diminished this way at time when Kettlebell & ROM overload should be providing the stimulus necessary to make Trifecta do it's thing. Understand I am also under the influence of a pro-hormone stack. I should be building lean right now.
Perhaps, I am just not eating enough. Perhaps the solution is more food, not less.
The only really positive note in this report is that my total body volume has reduced to 80.731 liters. When I began testing in May, my body volume was 117.111 liters. This means my volume has decreased some 36.38 liters. That is equal to 9.61 gallons of loss. Think of nine and a half big milk bottles coming out from under my skin and vanishing. That's pretty impressive.
Just 2 x 20 pound kettlebells and 5 minutes of effort. I guarantee this will just about kill yer arse if you put your heart & soul into it. Believe me, it's a lot harder than it looks.
We have just 5 exercises here, each performed for just 60 seconds. The clock gone bad beeps indicating when you are to switch exercises. As always, you don't count reps, you go for time. It's about time, not reps.
Double kettlebell swings
Double front squats
Double presses
Alternate front-leaning rows {I bet you can't do this}
Just a few moments ago, the score was 187.0 English pounds on the Tanita scale. The scary thing is that it flickered back and forth between 186.8 and 187.0 half a dozen times before rounding up, as it always does. Never have I seen the Tanita round down; it's always up. My scale will only display read-outs in increments of 0.2 pounds, which is sufficient accuracy for a simple bathroom scale. Presume I am stuck in the middle at 186.9.
Naturally, this means my weight would be lower on the Bod Pod scale; perhaps even lower than 186.0.
I must say, comrade Kettlebellers, that this is pretty scary stuff. I have never been this low in my entire adult life. I am looking downright skinny now. Were it not for the presence of an abundance of lose skin, I would be skinny-skinny.
This continued precipitous drop is puzzling in the face of some basic input/output analysis.
Do you know that I had not one but two Macho Bacon and Egg Burritos yesterday? According to some rumors that would 2,060 kcal right there.
Further I had two chocolate milk protein drinks, fortified with whey & mega-3 fatty acids.
Further, I enjoyed the hell out of a sizable helping of nachos, with all the fixings: steak, chicken, black beans, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese.
At approximately 151.14 pounds of lean weight, my RMR/BMR is probably right around 1,860.
Aaron and I did a back & biceps workout at approximately 10:00am yesterday morning. I returned to the apartment afterward and crashed (I slept) on the couch until 2:00pm.
I vegged out on the couch, watching college football, until the end of the Oregon vs. Stanford game. [What an upset!]
At that time, I proceeded back out to 24 Hour Fitness where I performed a pretty damn decent aerobics work out: 12 minutes of elliptical (232 kcal), 12 minutes of Olympic rower (152 kcal), 12 minutes of treadmill (142 kcal), and 12 minutes of bike (161 kcal). In total, this was 48 minutes of work for 687 kcal of energy.
We have only a rough approximation of my BMR/RMR. We have only a rough approximation of my food-intake. We have only a loose idea how much energy I expended in exercise. Still, you would be hard-pressed to argue that those figures balance. You would suppose I ate more than I burned. The scale says figures don't balance. Obviously, I lost weight. I was in negative figures yesterday
Why such remarkable weight loss? I have an idea about that. Yesterday, it occurred to me that the recent cold-snap here in Los Angeles may be factoring into the equation. In the past two weeks, the Winter has come, to the extent that winter ever arrives in Los Angeles. We have seen dark overcast skies, lots of rain, some wind, and plenty of 50 degree weather. That's about as cold as it gets here in la-la land. The RKC comrades would not be impressed by these temperatures, though.
During this time, I haven't changed my wardrobe that much at all. I have taken to wearing an Under Armour shirt under my football jerseys, but I am still wearing shorts and a jersey these days. Yeah, it's a little chilly without my fat-layer to protect me, but I have not caved in. After the U.S. Army performed unethical human medical experiments on me Germany back in 1990, I swore I would never say it was cold in California again. Quite frankly, it isn't.
The kiss of this chilly weather may be the explanation for my recent weight loss. Thermo-energetics are terribly important in biology. They are more important in weight loss than most people would ever admit. The kcal is just a measure of heat energy, by the way.
Ordinarily, I do lose weight in Winter time. I know many people are the opposite: they put on weight during winter. Not me, I usually lose a few pounds. Prior to gastric bypass, I was like a bear. I would fatten up in summer, and lose fat during the winter.
I think half of this long-term pattern continues right up until this moment. If so, I am pretty excited. The cold weather--such as it is--should help me to make my ultimate body fat goals a reality.
The score a few moments ago was 187.2 English pounds on the Tanita scale. The digital read-out wavered between 187.0 and 187.2 several times before rounding up, as it always does. Let's presume that I am 187.1, and the 2/10ths digital display simply cannot indicate that fact.
The Bod Pod would place me somewhere 186.2-186.25 this morning. That is without any special prep. I did not do an extensive areobic workout last night. I did not do 30 minutes in the saunas at 24 Hour Fitness. I did not purge my intestines with Magnesium Citrate. An official prep for the Bod Pod would put me lower this morning.
I mention all this, because this is the end of another two week Bod Pod cycle, and I have officially missed the test. It was a tough week of finishing Jury Duty and trying to catch up at work after 8 days out of the office. I never found a spare moment between 9:00am and 5:00pm to call the California Health and Longevity Institute to make an appointment.
I mention all of this because two weeks ago, my body weight was 195.7 pounds on the Bod Pod scale. The indication is that I have lost some 9.45 pounds in the past two weeks. This is shocking. When last I blogged on this subject, we were speaking of the point of inflection. We were speaking of that moment when my body weight would cease decreasing, and begin increasing... hopefully with lean-mass only. Low-and-behold: we have a massive 9.45 pound decrease in gross body weight at the end of this cycle.
God only knows what this did to my Body Fat Percentage (BFP). I wish I knew. I bitterly regret not having a test this week. It might have been a dandy. Presuming that this was all fat weight, my body fat would have dropped from 44.56 pounds to 35.11 pounds. 35.11 / 186.25 = 18.85%. This is astounding. I might actually have moved the check-box to Healthy territory, and I might be just 1.85% away from my final and ultimate medical goal.
This is all the more shocking because I have largely abandoned the aerobics machines that have brought be most of the distance. I only walked on the tread mill once last week. I only got on the bike twice last week. I only got on the Elliptical Cross-Trainer once last week. I only did the Olympic Rowing Machine twice last week.
To make matters more interesting, I did ZERO CrossFit workouts last week. Now why the limited amount of work? Because I encountered a substantial training injury to my right shoulder doing head-stand push-ups last Saturday at the CrossFit gym.
I did train last week. I did a dumbbell workout with Aaron on Thursday, and I did a killer WOD routine here at the apartment with my ROM machine and some Kettlebells that I have recently purchased. Those were brutal workouts. My heart rate went over 170 during the Kettlebell swing, I am sure.
I am going to add one more piece of complexity to the picture for you: I have fallen in love with the Del Taco Macho Bacon and Egg Burrito all over again. According to one source, this burrito contains approximately 1,030 kcal per shot. That's a load of kcal energy, buddy.
Yet at the same time all of this has been going on, I know my strength has been increasing. I am officially swinging, cleaning, and rowing the 20 KG kettlebell, doing orbits with 16 kg, and doing the Turkish Get Up with the 8 KG bell.
The Kettlebell has become my new obsession, and a powerful one at that. If you were to read Enter the Kettlebell! by Pavel Tsatsouline (an August 23, 1969 Virgo guy from Russia) you will find that a simple regime consisting of 5 minutes of Kettlebell Swings and 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups done once every other day is all he recommends for a beginner. Don't count reps, go for 5 solid minutes with good form. He claims that is enough to get your strength moving northward and your body fat moving southward.
Evidently, the Kettlebell Swing and the TGU are the two master exercises in the Kettlebell regime. They are just as important in Kettlebell training as the Deadlift and Squat are in the Powerlifter's regime. These are the two exercises a Kettlebell student must master and perform all the time.
Further, this two exercise regime will trigger plenty of fat loss without "the dishonor" of aerobic exercise. Pavel is very derisive of those metro-sexual machines. Men should be playing with cannonballs, not girly bikes and treadmills. The comrade-ladies should also be using Kettlebells to meet their fitness needs.
It sounds preposterous, I know. That just can't be enough work to get the job done. However, in this week of recovery from injury, I seem to have inadvertently proven his point. Now, I did more than that. There were other Kettlebell exercises. Further, there was the good 'ole ROM machine. However, the Kettlebells in my living room were the big, big, big change item.
I am in love with Kettlebells!
