And I’m on it

The kettlebell (KB) is the primary fitness training implement in my Pierini Fitness toolbox.  I recently shared what’s in my fitness training toolbox.  If you missed that read, here it again:

Tools in my Pierini Fitness toolbox

In my KB training journey, the work I do is single KB complexes, primarily because of my limited KB inventory and, more importantly, they’re easier than double KB complexes.  There comes a time, however, when one must take their training to the next level and include double KB complexes in the training mix.  Recently, I’ve decided to do this, and it’s been a humbling experience.

Last Saturday, while at work, I decided to take a double KB complex for a test drive.  What I chose to do was a double KB complex consisting of a round of clean, rack squat and overhead press for five reps, for five rounds.  For some reason, I’m an “5x5 KB dude”, meaning I like to put together KB complex workouts consisting of five rep rounds for five rounds.  Sometimes, the complexes include five different KB movements so it’s a 5x5x5 KB complex.  This one, however, was a 3x5x5 workout, meaning there were three KB movements, done together, making up one rep, done for five rep rounds, for five rounds.

It was tough! 

Isn’t this the case when adding a new workout to our training?  There’s lack of familiarity with the new workout, not to mention the double load.  A pair of 20kg KB’s weigh 88 lbs.  That’s double the load of a single 20kg KB weighting 44 lbs.  Toss in the coordination element handling a pair, versus one, KB and I had a challenging introductory double KB complex workout.

Here’s the fifth and final round of my workout:

I like to periodically video record my workouts because it allows me to evaluate my form.  I did this when training in karate and the Olympic lifts about ten years ago.  The feedback gives me what I need to focus on to improve my form and workout performance.

This video showed that my double KB cleans are rough and not smooth as they should be.  The KB’s should gently arrive in the rack position without banging on my shoulders.  I also learned that the lack of heavier load squatting is showing up at how I had to work coming out of the bottom position of the rack squat.  Finally, the overhead push jerk work I’ve been doing has come at a price of not doing enough overhead press work.  You’ll notice that I struggled with completing the overhead press reps during the fifth and final round of this workout.

Overall, my introduction to KB complex work was a humbling experience.  I’ve got some work to do and I’m on it.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum