Go north middle-age man, your journey continues

There’s an old saying that “whatever goes up must come down.” And this is true for doing overhead press barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell exercises.  I’m a fan of overhead press work and have put it, again, on my short list of go to exercises.

This isn’t the first time in my middle-age man fitness training journey that I’ve had a focus and fascination with overhead training.  In my former training life, I did a couple semesters of Olympic weightlifting training, the snatch and clean and jerk lifts. 

While doing so, I understood that there undoubtedly were lightweight members of the Chinese women’s Olympic weightlifting team hoisting considerably more overhead than I was doing on my best training days.  Nonetheless, I was able to increase my lifts, peaking with best effort lifts of 160 lbs. for the snatch and 185 lbs. for the clean and jerk.

Later, I moved on the other things including a semester of the StrongLifts barbell training program.  There, my best overhead effort was a barbell press of 175 lbs.  I wish I had a video of that lift, but I don’t.

These days, almost a decade later, I’m at it again with overhead work, doing single and double kettlebells snatch and overhead presses, either standalone efforts or as part of a kettlebell complex or chain.  

I like and thrive doing the overhead stuff. Someone once told me that when I exercise, don’t lay when I can sit, don’t sit when I can stand, and lift something heavy overhead.  Single and double kettlebell snatch and overhead press work are perfect for doing just that. 

I’m using the two pair sets of kettlebells I own for my overhead work, a pair of 20kg kettlebells and a pair of 24kg kettlebells.  Rather than go out and add to my collection at this point, I’ll focus on progressive resistance improvements by increasing the rep volume I do, either as a single set maximum reps effort or total reps completed within a given time.

 

Go north middle-age man, your journey continues.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

 

Testing a pair of 24kg KB

My fitness minimalist toolbox has a new addition because I recently purchased a second 24kg kettlebell (KB) and it arrived earlier this week.  

I now have a pair of 24kg KB that allows me to ratchet up my training to the next level and that’s what I did on Monday.

Here was my Monday workout:

Superset

Alternating pull-ups and chin-ups (pull-ups on odd-numbered rounds and chin-ups on even-numbered rounds) for 5 reps, followed by double 24kg KB farmers carry for 45 seconds equals one round.  I started a new round every 2 minutes and completed 10 rounds in 19:32.

Double overhead press (OHP)

With an acknowledged weaker left side, I didn’t know how this was going to go but my plan was a double KB overhead press using a pair of 24kg KB for 10 rounds, starting a new round every 2 minutes.  I completed 2 reps per round except for rounds 3, 7 and 10 for which I did 3 reps.

Running

Not related to testing a pair of 24kg KB but part of my Monday workout, I wrapped things up by running a slow 4 miles in 44:13 and then ran 8 rounds of 30 seconds fast with 90 seconds of slow running recovery for a total of 1.46 miles in 16 minutes.  The rounds of 30 seconds fast running was to cultivate a faster running pace for my upcoming 6-mile fun run later this month.

Here’s a short video of my round 7 effort:

A pair of 24kg KB for overhead press work is HEAVY for me so I’ve got some work to do.

Last week, in doing remedial work for my weaker left side, I did left-arm overhead press work using a 24kg KB for multiple rounds of single reps after I had already done many rounds of alternating single-arm OHP for multiple reps.  I’ll solve this weakness riddle in a matter of time.

After my upcoming 6-mile fun run is over later this month, I look forward to using the pair of 24kg KB to do some double rack squat work.  This should be interesting and heart-thumping.

It was a very good workout testing a pair of 24kg KB.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum