Just swinging seems to be working because I am the only barrier to swinging my kettlebells
In yesterday's post, I bragged about something that wasn't a big win or a big deal to anyone but me; however, it was a very big deal for me.
Put succinctly, my kettlebells live right by my bed and right by my bedroom TV. They live on a step box and are covered with chalk and they're just there. They couldn't be more convenient. Yes, I didn't really use them, religiously, every single day, the way I had and have and do promise myself that I will do every single day.
What was the problem? It was too easy to make excuses to myself that were viable enough that I fell for them every single time.
- "I can't do them now, I need to have a pad and a pencil ready so that I can track the number of swings and the weight!"
- "I can't do them now, I need to have my Atlas Wristband 2 on my wrist, charged up, and ready to record all my swings!"
- "I haven't found the perfect Android or iOS app for my Note or Touch where I can log all my swings and sets."
- "I'm not ready, I haven't set up my Gymboss or BTBSIGN Interval timer, how will I know when, for how long, and how often to swing?"
- "Dammit, I ran out of time before I need to jump into the shower and head out for the day, I guess I'll have to do it tonight."
- "Drats, I can't do all those swings so close to bed or I'll be so jacked from all the adrenaline that I won't get to sleep!"
- "I can't do the swings now because I just had breakfast (lunch, dinner, a snack, etc)"
The good news is that all of that ended yesterday. From yesterday on, all of my daily kettlebell swings will be ephemeral. I won't track any of them.
My Two-Handed Kettlebell Swing Daily Morning Workout Routine
- Eat some eggs, have some coffee and take my morning meds while watching Seth James DeMoor's daily vlog that publishes at 7am my time every day.
- Pick up my 12kg competition kettlebell and swing until I stop, giving me some time with light weights to do a personal diagnosis of my body and work out the kinks, put the bell down.
- Chill out for between 10-seconds and maybe 5 minutes, depending on how many squirrels my ADHD brain notices, "hey, look, squirrel!"
- Pick up my 16kg iron bell and swing until I stop, giving my body some more time to work on the hip hinge and diagnose any funny knee pain or impending sciatica or any strange heart rate suggestions that I should take it easy today. Put down the bell.
- Chill out again, for as short a time as feels either necessary or convenient or until I decide, "okay, I'm ready!"
- Pick up the 20kg cast iron bell and swing it until I stop, then put it down.
- Chill out some more, trying to keep the rest to 20 or 30 seconds but sometimes closer to a couple-few minutes, maybe a little longer.
- Pick up the 24kg kettlebell and swing it until I really don't feel like I have it in me to want to do any more, always keeping gas in the tank, which, according to Pavel Tsatsouline, is essential if you want to have a rest of the day that doesn't suck. Put the bell down.
- Rest and recover, but by this time, I feel like I am away and feeling stronger, so the rests are actually closer to 30-90-seconds between sets.
- Pick up the 24kg and swing until I am done, put the bell down.
- Repeat with the 24kg kettlebell again and again until I either 1) run out of time and the work day guilts me into doing only a few 24kg sets of swings or 2) I feel like I am going to ruin the rest of my day and tomorrow if I keep on going with too many sets. I need to work every day so I need to make sure I never put myself into lactic acid traction for the rest of the day (already bad) or the next day (generally, even worse).
For now, I am not going to touch any kettlebells for the rest of each day until the morning of the next day. What do you think? Maybe I can do a monthly fitness test that I can come up with in order to log my progress. Maybe even do a weekly fitness test so log and track my progress. Ignore the days but, maybe, on Sundays, I can really put myself to the test and see how my body is adapting to the stress I put on my posterior chain day-after-day, week-after-week.
If you have any ideas as to how best to do this, please let me know in the comments.